More than 50 people attended the programme’s open day at Invermay last week. The two-year scholarship programme allows students, aged 16 to 20, to learn skills on sheep, beef and deer farms.
The fees-free programme was launched in 2020 but chief executive Wendy Paul said the students would need to pay to attend the course from next year.
"Unfortunately, we can not continue with this course being fees free."
The reasons include the cost of running the programme and inflationary pressure.
A fee helped students show commitment to the programme, they had "skin in the game" and respected the farm trainer’s work to offer it.
"Unfortunately we have had students that have not respected the investment and time our farm trainers have put in," Ms Paul said.
The fee was not yet confirmed but it was expected to be about $2500 a year.
"We will be working to make sure it is reasonable," she said.
More than 120 students were placed on more than 100 farms throughout New Zealand this year.
Last year, more students applied for the programme than the number of farms available to place them.
A goal was to place 95 students on farms next year. About a third of the farms were in the South Island.
On average, about 40% of the students were female and 60% were male. About 40% had an urban background.
The programme could transform the lives of students. However, the programme was not suitable for everyone, as it had "ups and downs" and students needed the right attitude and integrity to navigate those challenges.
"It is not all Country Calendar," she said.
A goal was to get all students employed within six months after graduation.
The target had been hit every year except last year as two students wanted to remain as casual staff and another moved to Australia to chase a dream playing in the National Rugby League competition.
Former Growing Future Farmers student Lily Cole, 19, graduated from the programme in November last year and shared her experiences at the open day.
She supported the introduction of a student fee.
"A lot of people do the course because they think it will be an escape from school and be easy and fun and they will get to do all the highlights — that it will be like Country Calendar, which it is on a good day but when you spend every day for three months in wet weather gear in spring, it can get a bit disheartening. A course fee will weed out people who aren’t going to stick it out," she said.
"It is all what you make of it ... you can’t prepare for it — leaving home is hard and you have to learn how to cook for yourself and budget," she said.
"I couldn’t wait to leave and I was out of there as soon as I could."
She found the paperwork she was required to complete to be more relevant, easier and more enjoyable than her study requirements at school.
She spent her first year on a sheep and beef farm in Kurow and, in her second year, she was one of five female students placed on sheep and beef property Russell Farms in Dipton.
"Make the most of who you are with because if you get a connection with them, it is going to make your life a lot easier," she said.
A major highlight was being given a pup to train as a working dog and she now had a team of five dogs and continued to work on Russell Farms.
The programme allowed students to learn from their mistakes and she encouraged students to ask lots of questions.
"You can have mess-ups and start again — take your time and figure it out, that’s what I did.
"You start out not knowing much and then you learn a little bit and that leads to more."
First year student Jack Robinson, 18, of Dunback, shared his experiences of being placed on Glenaray Station in Northern Southland.
"It is pretty cool. I have been enjoying working on such a big place."
Life on the 70,000ha sheep, beef and deer property included having meals served in a cookshop and living in shepherds’ quarters with 10 other staff.
The programme gave students "opportunities, opportunities, opportunities", such as working on Glenaray.
He was raised on a farm and had some skills before starting the programme and it allowed him to "polish" those skills by completing courses including first aid, fencing, chainsaw use, shearing and crutching sheep and driving farm vehicles.
Each course had been helpful.
"It opens your eyes on different ways to do things," he said.
Another eye-opener was a course with a rural banker on financial literacy.
Each week of the programme, he was given an $165 allowance.
"I discovered I was overindulging on social occasions."
He hated "book work" at school but during the programme he had learned to like it, he said.
