Agriculture Minister David Carter will visit South Otago twice in the space of just over a week early next month.
Mr Carter is already confirmed to meet staff and students at the Telford Rural Polytechnic on May 1 and this week organisers of the New Zealand Century Farm and Station Awards confirmed he will be the guest of honour at that gathering in Lawrence on May 9.
The Lawrence awards are into their fifth year and, in that time, stories and photographs of 149 New Zealand families who have retained ownership of their farms and stations for more than 100 years have been collected.
The 2009 awards will feature 32 families and their properties from around the country, with two stations and four farms receiving sesquicentennial awards for retainingtheir family ownership for 150 years.
