Competition boosts community spirit
The real winner of this year’s FMG Young Farmer Region-off have been the regional communities.
For almost three decades, the Cambridge Rd farm has been owned by Te Awamutu College, thanks to a bequeathment by Dr Lindsay Rogers – a Te Awamutu Walk of Fame inductee for his international recognition as the “Guerrilla Surgeon” during World War II. Now the college is selling the farm as due to “changing legislation with regard to farming, it was becoming too hard” and running the farm was becoming complicated vs. the returns available.
The Rogers Charitable Trust (RCT), formed in 1995 and made up of four Te Awamutu College Board of Trustees representatives and two community representatives, has moved to put the Cambridge Rd farm the doctor bequeathed to Te Awamutu College on the market and use the proceeds to continue to honour Rogers’ intentions, but in a different way.
The board says the decision to sell the farm has been four years in the making and was not made lightly.
