The just-turned 23-year-old — his birthday was on the first day of the competition — came close to becoming the youngest winner in the history of the competition.
That honour is understood to be taken by James Robertson, who was 22 when he won in 2019.
At this stage the Tasman finalist is happily second-in-charge for owner-operators Andrew and Hayley Slater at their 430-cow farm on 113 hectares halfway between Canterbury’s Dunsandel and Darfield.
The trio have been talking about extending the arrangement via a sharemilking partnership and are putting the feelers out.
"It was always the plan to go sharemilking at some point and I was sort of hoping the name you can garner for yourself from this competition can get myself to the front of the queue when it comes to opportunities."
Nibbles have yet to emerge as this isn’t the time of the year when these decisions are made by farm owners and more is likely to be known from October to December.
In the meantime, Mr Dodson was kicking back with a well-deserved holiday with his partner in Tonga, with the Slaters giving him strict instructions to not think about work.
The 2IC was recovering with a week in the sun after having to shrug off flu effects on the final day that saw him take to the cough-medicine bottle just before the final quiz earlier this month
Mr Dodson said it was an honour to come out of the grand final in Hamilton as one of the youngest winners.
"I probably got a little bit lucky in that no other guys had been there before, so all seven of us had fresh eyes. There is quite a bit of advantage if you have been there and done it before, just giving you more experience. So I think we were all pretty equal."
A come-from-behind win was snatched after he was lying fifth before the quick-fire buzzer round.
He said all the time he put in preparing for the event and keeping his head in the game helped his bid to win the title.
Being so young, initially his plan was to try to win one of the section awards.
"But I came into the quiz fifth and I thought I could chance my arm here because I backed myself in the quiz and knew I had a good chance of getting some points there. I just went all out and would have been pretty stoked with a top three spot in my first attempt in the grand final at my age. To come out on the better side of that was surprising."
Paying off were all the mock quiz sessions with his mates led by his grandmaster father.
"My dad put hours and hours into helping me prepare. I also had some of the boys coming out once a week from an hour’s drive away to test me on the buzzer, and I think that showed."
Aside from the buzzer quiz, the seven finalists took on the challenges of an exam, interview, heavy machinery and livestock events, and public speaking over three days. More than 500 spectators turned up at Claudelands Oval to watch Friday’s practical day earlier this month.
Northern finalist and runner-up Caleb Eady missed out by just three points, with Aorangi’s Gareth McKerchar finishing third.
Mr Dodson won the agri-knowledge award on the way to claiming the overall title and got more than $90,000 in prizes.
He said the quadbike, $15,000 in cash and many other prizes from generous sponsors would help him towards his sharemilking goal.
Young Farmers chief executive Lynda Coppersmith said the Tasman finalist impressed everyone with his broad knowledge and leadership skills.
During the Hamilton event, Otago Boys’ High School’s Shamus Young and Hayden Drummond were named Junior Young Farmers of the Year.
Mt Hutt College students James Clark and Jack Foster were runners-up, and Kaela Brans and Liana Redpath from Napier Girls’ High School third.
In the AgriKidsNZ competition, Te Waotu School’s Jackie Sneddon, Ben Barbour and Joshua Barbour won, with Longbeach Primary School’s Henry Pottinger, Edward White and George Lash runners-up, while Pippa Muir from Seddon School won Contestant of the Year.
