2023 | FMG Young Farmer of the Year | Nick O'Connor

2023 | FMG Young Farmer of the Year | 5 minutes with the finalists

Welcome to Take 5 with Farmers Weekly, where we spend five minutes catching up with hardworking Kiwi farmers to get to know them and their take on the current climate of the food and fibre sector. In the latest series of episodes, Farmers Weekly cadet Emma Blom catches up with the seven FMG Young Farmer of the Year Competition grand finalists, to get to know who they are before they battle it out for the title in July. This series is made possible thanks to the support of FMG. Here, for the good of the country.

2023 | FMG Young Farmer of the Year | Pat Crawshaw

Emma chats to East Coast representative Pat Crawshaw, who at the age of 28 owns and operates a prime beef and lamb finishing business with his wife Issabelle in Pātoka, Hawke’s Bay, where they finish around 2500 lambs and 400 head of cattle.

2023 | FMG Young Farmer of the Year | Nick O'Connor

Hailing from the West Coast, Nick O’Connor is representing the Tasman region as he battles it out with his brother Peter. Nick is currently in his third year studying agriculture at Lincoln University, and hopes the spare time aspect of being a student along with his competitive nature will give him an edge in the grand finals.

2023 | FMG Young Farmer of the Year | Lisa Kendal

Lisa Kendall, representing the Northland region, is a master of juggling – along with raising two young kids she’s regional coordinator for the farm environment awards, runs a small farm and a business doing odd jobs like shearing, vaccinating, repairs and maintenance for lifestyle block owners.

2023 | FMG Young Farmer of the Year | Peter O'Connor

Growing up on his family’s west coast dairy farm, Aorangi representative Peter O’Connor always knew he wanted to be a dairy farmer. Now, only a few years out of university, he has risen up to a management position on a 400-cow dairy farm near Lauriston.