Jordan Biddle: entering the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Awards a must

“For me it was awesome. It was benchmarking myself and my work against all the other candidates around New Zealand who were doing it as well.”

Jordan, Ngāti Pāhauwera, encourages other young Māori to enter and says putting in an entry is the easy part.

“The hardest part was getting past the fear of actually believing I could do it because all the way along I thought I didn’t have a show. I’d finished school at 15 and started work but a lot of the guys were still studying.

“But the biggest thing for me was I wanted it on my CV. Once I got it on there nobody can take it off.”

Jordan is still with the Ngāti Pāhauwera Development Trust and is a stock manager on a 400 ha finishing block on its Rawhiti Station. “All the way up I’ve been doing the breeding side so it makes sense to balance myself out and do some finishing.

“The farm that I’m running now will be going for the Ahuwhenua Trophy, so that will be huge.”

He says he’s currently running 29 stock units to the hectare and has a number of staff on the block during the year.

Jordan became a father at age 17 to Kyla and now, aged 23, he has Matene as well. In 2018 he started the Level 4 NZ Apprenticeship in Agriculture (Sheep Breeding) through Primary ITO. He sees the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer competition as an essential part of building a career.

“As a young candidate coming through, you have to do these awards if you want to go somewhere in the farming sector. You have to take all the challenges that are given.”

Click here to enter the 2019 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award (sheep and beef). Entries close 15 February 2019.

For more information on the sheep and beef qualifications available to ‘learn while you earn’, click here – or you can contact one of your local and experienced Primary ITO Training Advisers on 0800 20 80 20.