For his effort he won a prize pack worth more than $10,000 including cash, scholarships and products and services from ANZ, FMG, Lincoln University, Ravensdown, AGMARDT, Silver Fern Farms, Honda, Husqvarna and Vodafone.

This will be Dwayne’s second attempt at the grand final level after competing in the 2014 event. It will also be his last attempt at the national title as contestants are only allowed to compete at grand final level twice.

This year’s grand final is in Taupo from July 2 to 4 where seven regional winners will battle it out for the champion’s title and more than $270,000 in prizes.

Dwayne will be balancing training for the big event with his work at Lochinver Station. For what spare time he does have, Dwayne enjoys fishing and water-skiing on Lake Taupo in the summer and hunting during the winter months.

He is not the only one to make a second attempt at grand final level. Matthew Bell the Tasman representative and Sully Alsop from the Taranaki/Maanwatu region are both previous grand finalists who will be gunning to take out the title.

Dwayne won his place in the national event at the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Regional final practical day held at the Paeroa Race Course the where a knowledgeable crowd watched the strong group of eight contestants display the best of their farming knowledge and skill.

The contestants were put through their paces in a variety of challenging modules, from stock judging to engineering, touching on all aspects of farming from practical, hands-on tasks to theory and business components.

Second place went to 29 year old Ravensdown Agronomy Technical Manager, James Bryan, of the Cambridge Young Farmers Club. He took home $2,900 worth of prizes and also won the top prize in the AGMARDT Agri-Business Challenge.

Third place went to dairy farm owner Brady Mitchell (30) of the Reporoa Young Farmers Club and fourth place went to 23 year old share milker, Josh MacDonald, of the North Waikato Young Farmers Club.

The Lincoln University Agri-Growth Challenge held the same day, was won by Brady Mitchell and the crowd-pleasing Silver Fern Farms Agri-Sports Challenge was won by 23 year old, Thomas Harliwich from the Te Kawa West Young Farmers Club.

Alongside the ANZ Young Farmer contest practical day events on Saturday, New Zealand’s future farmers were in competition too in TeenAg and AgriKids competitions. The TeenAg competition was taken out by Shanae Hoffman and Graham Johnson from Te Awamutu College and the AgriKids competition by Ethan Morris, Anna Morris and Ben Pettigrew from Elstow Waihou Combined School.