Oxford Area School and North Loburn School teams placed first and second in the Tasman region AgriKidsNZ competition at Springston on February 19.
Known as the "Dudes and Dudettes", Oxford Area School’s team of William Glassford (12), William Shore (12) and Elizabeth Cooper (11) came out on top after a series of modules and then a race-off featuring the top seven teams.
Team supervisor Michelle Maginness says the children are over the moon at the result.
"They reckon it's the best day of their lives," she laughed. "They're pretty stoked, they're absolutely pumped.
"They've competed in the competition a few times and they really enjoy it so to get somewhere is just the icing on top of the cake."
All three children are from dairy farms and Ms Maginness described them as "real farm kids" who love being outside and out on the farm.
While Oxford Area School just entered one AgriKidsNZ team, North Loburn School entered four teams with "Tasman Tykes" and "Tihiraki Trio" both making the final race-off.
The Tasman Tykes put up a strong showing and crossed the line first in the final race-off, before being placed second overall.
In the race-off teams faced a series of challenges including an egg and spoon race, lassoing a "horse" and then putting on a bridle, relay hammering a nail, gumboot throwing, a water challenge and a four-legged race to finish.
Among the other schools competing was Seddon School in Marlborough, which sent eight teams down for the competition, with three qualifying for the final race-off.
Oxford Area School was also represented in the FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year contest by brothers Nicholas (15) and Connor (13) Slemint. The pair enjoyed their day of competing.
Rangiora High School’s Sam Grigg (17) and Charlotte Rhodes (17) qualified for the five team final "face-off" quiz, placed third overall.
Just two places in the Junior Young Farmer of the Year final were up for grabs, with Jack Dennehy-Coles and Finn O’Kane, of St Bede's College, placing first and Amelia Ridgen and Erin Humm, of Christchurch Girls' High School, second.
St Bede's College agriculture teacher and team supervisor John McPhail says his boys had a relatively short lead in time to prepare for the competition.
"I heard they were up quite late last night reading through different notes and cramming a bit of study," he said. "It was a tight turn around this year because we'd only been back at school for two weeks before entries were due.
"They were a last minute entry on the day before so it was good I managed to convince them and get them in there."
Jack and Finn are both in Year 12 and are boarders, with Jack from a dairy farm on the West Coast and Finn from a dairy farm in South Canterbury.
Under the Red traffic light system, each event on Saturday was run separately with the AgriKidsNZ and junior young farmer contests capped at 35 teams to comply with the 100 person capacity limit.
