File pic Photo: 123RF
Millions of dollars are going into a new farm-based cadet training facility in Hawke's Bay.
Moeangiangi is a 3600 hectare sheep and beef farm 40 minutes north of Napier. It will take over from the Waipaoa Farm Cadet scheme which operated for 17 years in the Gisborne district, but shut down earlier this year following the sale of the station.
Moeangiangi is one of three farms run by the Joan Fernie Charitable Trust (JFCT) which was started in 1977 by Joan Fernie, who owned Chesterhope Station between Napier and Hastings, until her death at 91 in 2007.
Trust chair Mike Barnham said all farming started with well trained young people, of whom there was a shortage, so getting involved was an easy decision for the trust.
"I have a passion for training young guys. Our whole industry is so short of young farmers so I took no talking into to have a look at the option.
"The Waipaoa board came down to Moeangiangi and fell in love with it as an ideal place for the cadet training farm. We now have a draft trust deed in front of us which is going to be signed off shortly," he said.
The easy part for Barnham was saying 'yes let's do it', the hard work started now and will take a lot of time, he said.
The work will include setting up infrastructure around a training facility.
"We're going to spend about $3,000,000 ... to have lovely new accommodation, a cook house, lecture theatre, all this sort of thing."
The cadetship will be a two-year programme and the first intake of five will be from 2027, Barnham said.
It will be a similar format to the former Waipaoa scheme, and there would be no shortage of applicants with bigger farm training schemes like Smedley always being over-subscribed, he said.
"This operation will be different (from Smedley). This is smaller and more intimate, we'll have a point of difference on the training of these young people based on a lower number."
Information about the farm cadet course will be coming out soon to encourage young people to think about Moeangiangi as a training option and also to get potential funders or people in agriculture to hear more about the plan, Barnham said.
"You can't sell a secret so we need to start telling people more about it from now," he said.