Farming is in Ben’s family for decades
Ben Galloway has stacked a huge amount of farming and sporting experience into his short 24 years.
He enters the East Coast Young Farmer Contest as a newbie but with a thorough grounding in the skills and knowledge he will need to win.
Ben Galloway was Head Boy of Dannevirke High School in 2012 gaining a cadetship at Smedley Station , during which he won an Affco Scholarship for a three-week tour to Britain to promote NZ Beef and Lamb before heading to Lincoln University to study a Diploma in Agriculture.
His AFFCO Scholarship whetted his appetite for travel and after Lincoln University he travelled overseas, essentially
Europe, earning his way shearing. This gave him a really interesting series of experiences in farming.
Returning, Ben worked for Shaun and Tracie Baxter in the Pongaroa district. He says working for Shaun and Tracie was great because they are “the best”, having been awarded Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year in 2014. He is particularly impressed with Shaun’s knowledge of statistics pertaining to the farm operation and says he learnt a lot.
Shaun really enjoys the Pongaroa community being Chairperson of Pongaroa Young Farmers and hooker in the Puketoi senior rugby team or “wherever he is needed”.
In 2019 he was awarded Tararua Shepherd of the Year and even managed fitting the
Hawke’s Bay Marathon into his time.
The 24-year old is currently 2IC on the sixth-generation family farm in Woodville with hopes to take over the business which runs 4,000 Romney ewes as well as Friesian bulls.
With the drought he has been flat-out managing the livestock and says he has not had time to study but hopes to gain a lot of experience at the contest for future events.