Oinks sniff out AgriKids national win

Three budding South Marlborough farmers have brought national glory back from Invercargill after winning the 2025 AgriKidsNZ Grand Final.

‘The Oinks’ - made up of Seddon School’s Liam Underwood, Fred Maher, and Manawa Doonan – excelled across a Race Off, hands-on modules, and quizzes, to earn gold out of 21 teams in the 8–13-year-old section of the FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition.

The trio had qualified in the AgriKidsNZ finals for three consecutive years from the Tasman regionals and were pleased to get over the line by using their competition experience.

“On the opening night, the host Te Radar asked me what we wanted to do differently this year, and I said “win” which got a few laughs”, said Manawa Doonan.

“There were new activities this year in the Race Off like hand-milking a fake udder, completing farm-to-table processes, and answering a riddle to break a code - it’s like an obstacle course winning that took plenty of teamwork”.

“It has meant our parents have started asking more of us around the farms at home though”.

Liam, Manawa and Fred followed up winning the Race Off by finishing fourth in the Agri Quiz and eighth in Modules, that left them champions.

“I think we went in with more knowledge and confidence knowing what the national AgriKids competition was like, which helped in winning the Race Off because we were calmer under the the pressure of learning what we had to do”, said Liam, who received individual recognition as AgriK Contestant of the Year, decided by sponsor representatives running modules.

“We had 10 minutes for each of the seven modules, which covered so much from biosecurity, risk assessments and pest recognition to driving a tractor and naming motorbike parts in more depth than the Race Off”.

Seddon School took the top 3 positions at Tasman regionals, where approximately 40 teams from Mid & North Canterbury, West Coast, Nelson and Marlborough face off, with the Cattle Girls and Agri Stags joining The Oinks as the Tasman representatives and coming in 10th and 14th respectively.

Winning the AgriKids national title does mean ‘The Oinks’ are not allowed to compete again, but the friends are eager to see the success of more Marlborough entries.

“We’re young enough to enter again so it may mean breaking up The Oinks team but if we can’t enter ourselves, we want to mentor more Marlborough entrants because the three years leading up to this win have been so rewarding for us.”, said Fred.

“Maybe The Oinks members will return to give Junior Young Farmer a go – we’ll see”.