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Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Willy Leferink is saddened by Colin Armer's exit from Fonterra board.
"It was a shock," says Leferink.
"It is sad Colin won't see out his term to November's annual general meeting. I thought Colin would have stuck with it for the next three or so months."
Leferink says Armer's departure means the board is losing some genuine institutional knowledge.
"It seems to be going from a blended board of new blood and older hands, to a board where there will be a number of reasonably fresh directors.
"That's not a criticism of the new directors, but experience needs to be retained in a blended board.
"It is all the more reason why Fonterra needs a deputy chair."
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair, Bevan Lill, said Beef + Lamb NZ data indicated that for the last six years, the average arable return on investment was about 0.8% while inflation ran about 4% - so the average arable farm was going backwards at about 3% a year.
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Surprised, humbled and quite thrilled. That’s the reaction of James Allen, one of the founding partners and now chief executive of AgFirst, on being made a life member of the Institute of Rural Professionals.
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