Sam Tipping (25) is a man of many parts.
Cattle breeder, sheep judge, a former fencing contractor, rugby player and rural banker in Timaru, he has been kept busy over the years.
This month he is travelling to the Royal Perth Show as part of the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) Youth New Zealand team to judge sheep.
Next year, he is in the NZ Hereford Young Breeders team for the Boehringer Ingelheim World Hereford Conference 2020 in Queenstown and Wanaka.
''People will be coming from all over the world. I'll be in the young breeder competition.''
Mr Tipping grew up in Waikato, where his family were involved in farming and fencing.
His interest in breeding cattle developed with visits to his grandparents at Te Toko Station, a 1236ha sheep and beef farm northwest of Waitomo in the King Country.
After leaving St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton and a brief stay in Canada, he started his own fencing contracting business for 16 months and began breeding Kamaro Herefords.
''I always enjoyed cattle and the guy down the road had a stud. I got had some spare cash and got the opportunity to buy some cows.'
His cattle are kept on a 27ha block.
''I'm hoping to bring them down here.''
Leaving fencing behind, he studied at Massey University and graduated in 2016 with a bachelor of agricultural science degree.
After working for the BNZ in Hastings and Hamilton, he transferred to Timaru as agribusiness partner for South Canterbury, where he deals with clients wanting to borrow money to buy a farm, perhaps their first, or for expansion.
''It's slightly different down here. In Taranaki-Waikato it's 50-50 dairy sheep, beef.
''Down here my portfolio goes from Waimate up to the high country; there's plenty of variety.
''A fair part of the job is getting to talk to salt of the earth people and understand their concerns.''
He saw several challenging issues confronting the rural sector - the environmental and freshwater requirements which would change how people farmed in the future and the impact of investment in forestry.
''There's not as much of it here [forestry] because it's not so good for growing Pinus.
''But the recent sale of Lagoon Hill station in the Wairarapa will have a flow-on effect through managers, shepherds, suppliers; these sales have a big impact on rural communities.''
Lagoon Hill was sold by Sir Michael Fay to Kauri Forestry LP, European investors who are using Craigmore Sustainables, a specialist manager of rural properties, as managers.
Last year Craigmore entered into a joint venture with German partners GlenSilva, part of Westphalen Group, one of Germany's largest owners and operators of agricultural and forest land, to establish Kauri Forestry LP.
Another issue Mr Tipping identified was the farming sector's negative portrayal in the media and on social media.
'''There's a lot of misinformation from the likes of Forest and Bird, Safe (Save Animals From Exploitation) and the keyboard warriors.
''It all comes down to education; we're trying to get it across. But it's a lot easier to sell bad news, not good news.''
These three issues Mr Tipping said were affecting farmers and the rural community in terms of possible borrowing and expansion, and how they planned for the future.
''The best thing to do is to share good stories. I've joined an AgProud NZ group. We promote good stories and have 3500 members. They're chucking up some cool stories that shed a good light on farming.''
Since moving south he has found people much the same.
''There are top people in the agricultural world and there are some neat people in South Canterbury.''
This winter he played rugby for Pleasant Point as a hooker which he enjoyed.
''One reason I got into banking was to see how to grow a business, what people do wrong and right.
''I enjoy being in agribusiness.''
-By Chris Tobin
