Wheat Quality Competition Now Open for Entries

Media release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

4th April 2007

Ravensdown’s Wheat Quality Competition 2007 – Now Open for Entries

Ravensdown and the wheat industry are once again looking for the champion wheat growers of 2007. The Ravensdown Wheat Quality Competition promotes the production of quality wheat using good management practices.

It is now in its 14th year and continues to have the support of key industry players - United Wheatgrowers, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), the New Zealand Flour Millers Association, New Zealand Feed Manufacturers Association and Sanitarium.

Tony van der Weerden, Ravensdown Technical Development Manager says, “With the considerable support we have from across the industry we can give even better recognition for farmers growing quality wheat. This support has enabled us to further improve our prizes to the national winners, which is great recognition for those who produce good quality wheat.”

In addition to the national prizes, there are up to five regional prizes of $200 worth of Ravensdown agricultural chemicals. The aim of this is to encourage more entries from across all the regions,” he adds. “We expect to see greater interest than ever this year as the crops are looking really good – much better than last year.”

The competition runs in five regions: Northern (above the Waimakariri including the North Island); Central Canterbury; Mid-Canterbury; South Canterbury and Otago-Southland. Farmers from all regions are encouraged to submit entries to bench-mark the quality of their wheat compared with others in their region, as well as on a national basis.

All farmers who enter the competition get sent a copy of their results, along with the benchmark for their region and the national results. This enables them to see how their wheat stacks up and to identify improvements they could make to enhance the quality of their own wheat.

“Quality wheat is the basis for producing quality flour. By taking part in the competition wheat growers benchmark their management techniques with those in their local region and nationally. It’s an interesting competition, as the whole wheat industry benefits through the sharing of best practice techniques,” says Tony van der Weerden.

“Ravensdown has an ongoing commitment to excellence and technology transfer and this is a very valuable competition for us and the wheat industry,” he says.

This year’s competition continues with the Bread, Biscuit and Feed Wheat categories, as well as the special Weet-bix category. Overall winners of the three main categories will each win a $1,000 cash prize and a trophy cup. Winners of the Bread and Biscuit categories also win their choice of $500 worth of Ravensdown products and services. Second place winners for the Bread, Biscuit and Feed Wheat categories all get $400 worth of Ravensdown products and services. Each of the regional winners win $200 worth of Ravensdown agricultural chemicals. The winner of the Weet-bix category receive a $500 cash prize.

Entry samples should be sent with a completed entry form to Ravensdown’s Methven Store by 1 May 2007. These will be judged by agronomy experts and a professional miller and will be assessed on agronomic practices, grain quality and appearance (variety, colour and cleanness).

Entry forms are available from the Ravensdown Customer Centre on 0800 100 123 – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or the Ravensdown website on www.ravensdown.co.nz.

ENDS

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