The 29-year-old Nightcaps Young Farmers Club member will compete in a grand final for the first time and continue a strong family legacy, as the son of 1999 winner Richard Slee and nephew of 2004 champion Simon Hopcroft.
His father had been sharing tips on the practical side of the competition, his uncle on the technical side and his mother Trudy Genevieve had been helping him study.
"They’ve been pretty helpful but it brings a bit more pressure."
The competition in New Plymouth includes an opening ceremony tomorrow, a practical day and speeches on Friday and a buzzer quiz on Saturday.
He was born and raised on a sheep and beef farm, which his parents continue to run near Tuatapere.
The family dairy farm he works on is about a 20-minute drive from the home farm.
He milks about 1000 cows in a 70-bale rotary milking shed on 420ha.
"It’s tricky balancing the study and running the farm."
After leaving Southland Boys’ High School, he worked as a shepherd at Walter Peak Station, completed a Bachelor of Commerce in agriculture at Lincoln University and then worked for BNZ.
He had been working on the dairy farm for more than two years.
"I was pretty keen on the banking, and it was a good job. I did that for a few years and decided it was time to go back to the farm and get on the tools."
One of seven grand finalists, he had been studying across a broad range of topics relating to the primary industries to prepare.
"As much as I can about anything."
He felt confident about the practical side of the competition.
Contestants were given 10 topics they could talk about in their speech. Although he did not enjoy public speaking, he was "not too bad" at it.
He enjoyed adventure racing and competed in multi-day events including Godzone and the Magnificent and felt lucky to have Fiordland on his "back doorstep" for training.
"It’s good to get outside and see different parts of the hills. The training is the fun part of it."
• The two southern teams to compete for the 2026 FMG Junior Young Farmers of the Year title are:
— Lara Heiss and Emily Reid from Blue Mountain College
— Jack Horrell and Hunter Norman from Southland Boys’ High School
• The three southern teams to battle it out for the AgriKidsNZ 2026 title are:
— The Southern Men: Slade Thwaites, Fletcher Duff and Lucian Webster from Northern Southland College.
—Limehills Young Farmers: Angus Officer, Will Riley and Hunter Legg from Limehills School.
—Limehills: Sam Cairns, George Collie and Jack Howard from Limehills School.
