It is official — 2023 is the Year of the Farmer.

On Friday night at the Wanaka A&P Show, the Otago Daily Times and Rural Life launched Year of the Farmer, a celebration of the South Island’s farmers and growers.

Chatto Creek farmer and TV personality Matt Chisholm talked about his passion for his own patch of pasture, appropriately called The Land, where he has a Southdown sheep stud.

"Farmers allow us to do what we do with our lives because we don’t have to produce food for ourselves. Farmers could take their money and buy into a business with a considerably better return, but they don’t. They continue to chip away, working 100 hours a week, for the good of their animals and their environment," he said.

To nominate a farmer go to www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/yotf or see page 29. Nominations close on April 28.