Nightcaps farmers celebrate

It may not be the oldest but the Nightcaps Young Farmers group is certainly in the top three in New Zealand.

At the weekend, the Southland group celebrated in style to mark its 500th meeting.

It was a significant milestone from the group, as especially about 10 years ago the club only had five members.

Today it has a strong membership of 42. Club member Justin Oostveen said about 130 people sat for the dinner at the Nightcaps town hall, but counting in people who came a bit later, he believed about 150 people turned up to celebrate.

It was important to mark the milestone and to award life memberships to Willy Buchanan, Simon Greer and Hayden Peter. Nightcaps Young Farmers was established in 1953.

‘‘I wouldn’t say we are the oldest group in New Zealand for young farmers, but we’d be in the top three,’’ Oostveen said.

A tough decision was made years ago to shift its meeting to Winton, but it paid off as more members started to join. It resulted in a rapid improvement to its membership numbers, he said.

The 500th Nightcaps Young Farmers Meeting Committee members, back row from left: Hayden King, Victoria Butterick, Alexis Muir, Chris Malcom, Melissa Hamilton, Megan Dyer. Front row from left: Andrew Cowie, Allen Gregory and Justin Oostveen.