Fewer at Century Farms awards

Otago Daily Times

15-05-2025

A key national farming event, Century Farms, will welcome lower-than-usual numbers south to its awards this year, although organisers expect the drop to be temporary.
The awards honour families who have farmed the same land for 100 years or more.
It recognises the early pioneers who cultivated and transformed the country's untamed land into the agricultural industry that exists today, and the families who are still farming those lands.
Century Farms celebrates its 19th year in Lawrence on Saturday, and chairman Eddie Fitzgerald said organisers and volunteers were ready to welcome more than 250 guests from across the country to the small rural township.
Many of their descendants continued to produce crops and livestock on the land with the same passion, hard work and perseverance shown in those early days, Mr Fitzgerald said.
Although the number of families was down to 22 this year, that still entailed a significant effort from local volunteers to mark the occasion.
"Because the event takes a lot of organisation, applications are already open for next year. We already have a good start on applicants for 2026, suggesting it could be a big one again.
"In 2021 we welcomed 80 families across two weekends, which was a significant challenge, so in some ways 22 is a good number, allowing us to focus on providing a fantastic experience and a warm Lawrence welcome for our visitors."
Family histories are celebrated during an awards dinner at the town's Simpson Park, then accompanying records archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.
Three sesquicentennial families would receive awards this weekend, Mr Fitzgerald said.
"Increasingly, with the value of land nowadays, succession within the same family can be harder and harder to achieve.
"We're seeing a lot of farms leaving families in the present climate, which makes the achievements of our century farmers, marking either 100 years or 150 years like the three sesquicentennial families this year, all the more remarkable."
Long-standing farming families often contributed significantly to their region in more ways than simply economically, he said.
"For many, the efforts of their ancestors have been underappreciated or completely unacknowledged. Through wars, depressions, pandemics, droughts and floods, financial crisis and government policies these families have survived and built an amazing legacy. They have stories worth telling, not just from a farming perspective but a cultural and social perspective as well.
"It's a real honour to acknowledge their hard work and perseverance."