Mar 13, 2026
Rising Stars 2026
This year’s Bayonet Rising Stars marked the fourth year that Waipa has hosted the competition, back at the Te Awamutu racecourse. Judging was carried out on Friday 6 March and covered 78 entries across 19 classes. This was down on last year but the quality remains as high as ever.
While numbers were down it was good to see more young farmers attend – some just looking and others with entries. Hopefully this trend will continue, and we’ll see more entries from the industry’s next generation in the following few years.
Results-wise this seemed like 2025 déjà vu with Crowley Deer dominating the hard antler classes though pushed hard by the Adlams. Bucking the trend was Doug McCall and Andrew Scurr in the 4-year hard antler class, bumping Crowley Deer down the pecking order. And as with last year, honours went to the South Island for all velvet classes and the fallow hard antler: Congratulations to Deer Genetics, Brock Deer, Dalmore Deer and Mayfield Deer. And a big thank you to all the competitors and Bayonet as the new competition sponsor.
The brochure will be out soon and can be downloaded from the NZDFA website (Velvet and hard antler competitions - Deer NZ).
The master at work. Hub Hall judging the goods
But wait! There’s more…
MC Mike confers with the boss.
And the (supreme) winner is… Crowley Deer!
