Heaps. There were 27 potential cadets plus their families, so there would have been up to 70 people there. We were blown away by the support and it is really humbling to get it. We had a really good frost followed by a beautiful, warm day and there was plenty of interest, questions and good conversations. It shows there is a demand for cadetships, which is pretty cool.
Q. Is that attendance on par with past years?
No, it is miles ahead, three times of what we’ve seen in the past. There are a lot of positive young people out there that are dying to get into agriculture.
Q. That’s great because a lot of the rhetoric at the moment is about the industry being in the doldrums.
We spoke about there being a lot of negativity out there in agriculture, sheep and beef farming in particular and the pricing of lamb and mutton not being in a good space but it is awesome to see so many young people wanting to come in, give it a go and be enthusiastic about it.
Q. Any theory on why there has been an increase in interest for the cadetship?
The demand is growing for cadetships in the agriculture sector and I also think we’ve been advertising a fair bit andgetting the word out about who we are and what we are doing.
Q. How many spots are available on your two-year cadetship?
Only two. I wish we couldtake more but we will be working with Growing FutureFarmers to hopefullyplace ones we can’taccept.
Q. I hear a lot of interest for cadetships in previous years had come from Canterbury. Has that trend continued?
Yeah, 50% or more would have been from Canterbury.
Q. Any theory on why southerners are not making up the majority?
I don’t know. There were more Southlanders this time, which is good but I don’t know, we just have a good, strong following from Canterbury. There are a lot of young kids upthere who want to have a go. We get a few from Otago but very few from Southland.
