On Saturday, 22 March, 12 boys from our Teen Ag club competed in teams of two against 23 other teams from across the upper South Island, in the Tasman region Junior Young Farmer Competition at the Sheffield A&P show.

The boys had to complete seven tasks that were run by agricultural business and industry organisations.

• FMG  - Looking at risks on farms and how you might manage and prevent these risks

• Lincoln University – Building a stoat trap

• Ospri – Identifying common carriers of tuberculosis and how they are controlled and answering questions on TB and NAIT tags in livestock.

• Primary ITO – putting up an electric fence.

• MPI – Foot and Mouth disease, control at the NZ border and the impact it could have on New Zealand

• CRV – Understanding how breeding worth is calculated in dairy cattle.

• Fencing – Assessing the skills involved in tying different fencing knots.  

After the seven modules were completed, the top five teams were named and two of these teams were from St Bede's.

These teams then competed in a buzzer-style quiz and these points were added to their module scores.

Jack Higinbottom and Henry Hanrahan ended up in the second spot and have secured a place at the Grand Final in July. The other St Bede's team in the top five was Thomas Borcoskie and Dan Scott, who finished fifth.

We look forward to the challenge of preparing for the Grand Final.