Methven’s James Clark was thinking of flagging university until he figured out its farming benefits outweighed the student debt.
The 18-year-old, who was raised on the family’s 460ha family property, Valetta Farm, is a second-year student at Lincoln University.
Rather than entering the workforce immediately he opted to go to university, and is studying towards a bachelor of agriculture degree and is considering a fourth year of study to add agricultural science.
Science lessons in plants, soils and animal health would, he feels, provide a wider foundation of farming knowledge.
"I was a bit on the fence of ‘do I really need to or do I just not take on debt and just get on working with some hands-on experience’, but I was persuaded [to study].
"In this day and age you are taken a lot more seriously with a degree. Farming isn’t just running a couple of sheep any more — there is a whole lot to it and it’s getting quite scientific, so it’s quite an advantage of having a deeper understanding to be successful."
The young arable farmer has helped his parents, David and Jayne Clark, on the arable and stock farm from an early age, and wants to become a farmer himself.
"Things change, but at this point I’m likely to come back and take over the family business, but I’m not sure what shape that’s going to be.
"We are currently sheep and crop farmers in Canterbury, but with all the change in the sector going on at the moment, I don’t know exactly what I’m going to come home to in the end, so I’m just trying to learn as much as I can so I can cope with whatever I want to do when I finally get out of uni."
He said that was a long way down the track and while his siblings are less keen on farming than him at this stage, that could change.
Most of the farm near Mayfield is irrigated and has been with the Clarks for about 30 years, with the family involved in farming for four or five generations in Canterbury and South Auckland.
The variety of farming — managing crops and animals, machinery operations and maintenance — attracts him most to this life.
"I like how, yes, one day you will spend a day in the tractor, but the next day you will get out and do some stock work or get out in the field and actually do things hands-on.
"I don’t do that well with repetitive stuff and I quite like variety. But I definitely do like some of the tractor work when I get the opportunity."
He said the funding assistance would be invaluable in his university years, as he was trying to get through them as debt-free as possible.
"I think it will go to repaying some sort of student debt because there is a lot of that. My rent is cheap enough [that] it will pay for a year of rent or a mixture of fees so it’s very handy. It will definitely go to schooling so I have less debt."
On the weekends he is often at Valetta Farm working to keep his overheads down.
Time will be set aside for getting more involved in the Young Farmers organisation.
He has competed the past three years in the junior competition, reaching the grand finals twice, including a runner-up finish in 2024.
A debut in the senior section of the Tasman district competition at the Ellesmere
A & P Show taught him the ropes about what is involved in the big league.
"I didn’t get anywhere, but it was a great opportunity and a good gauge on how much a step up it was and what I needed to do to get better. It’s a good social thing and you still come out at the end of the day and learn something new."
Over the university holidays he spent the first 10 weeks on a dairy farm at the Acland family’s Mt Somers Station, completing practical work requirements for his degree.
He appreciated the opportunity to work at a farm with much of the latest technology, including Halter collars and a modern milking shed.
"If we were going to convert to dairying or go into dairy farming it’s probably the direction we would go into, so it was a good experience for many reasons. Before I went the door was pretty closed [about working on a dairy farm] and it’s opened slightly, I would say."
The technology, science and business model of dairying was an eye-opener for him, but his preference at this stage remains to work in the same mixed cropping operation as Valetta Farm.
Ravensdown chief executive Garry Diack said the judging panel was highly impressed with his application.
"James is exactly the kind of young farmer this scholarship was designed to encourage. We recognise the passion he has for agriculture and the long-term success of the industry."
