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Mark Hooper
There has been another twist to the Federated Farmers annual election fiasco.
A third nomination has been filed for the post of national president.
Feds national board member Mark Hooper’s nomination makes it a three-way battle between him, current president Wayne Langford and vice president, Colin Hurst.
Rural News understands that Hooper has been nominated as a back-up candidate if Langford’s nomination is disallowed at the annual meeting in Auckland later this month.
And if Langford gets enough votes to stay on for another year, Hooper will become his vice president.
Langford, who has served three years in the role, plans to stay on for another year, upsetting some Feds leaders. Traditionally, the Feds president serves for three years and then the vice president takes over.
Langford told Rural News that they will be an election this year for the president’s post.
“Elections are good - it means that members have got a chance to stand up and vote and it gives whoever is in charge a mandate to represent them,” he says.
Langford says he’s seeking to stay on for another year because Federated Farmers has just employed a new chief executive.
“It's standard good governance that you wouldn't replace your chair and hire a new CEO within the space of three or four months.
“We just want some stability for the organisation.
“We've also got an election (general election) coming up, and we've just announced our election platform.
“So, we've got to get that over the line for farmers.”
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
Red meat farmers are using higher farmgate returns to make their farms more resilient, says Federated Farmers meat and wool industry group chair Richard Dawkins.
Newly appointed Federated Farmers vice president Sandra Faulkner says she is honoured and excited to hold the role.
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson says his party – NZ First - isn’t opposed to the “trade element” of a free trade deal with India.
The managing director of a company seeking to build a solar farm in Canterbury says receiving fast-track approval is a “really positive outcome”.
Retiring MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron is blasting the Green Party for proposing to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser and cutting cow numbers.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Wayne and Ange Moxham of Horowhenua have just been named as Fonterra's top organic performer for milksolids. As well as providing organic milk to Fonterra, the couple also sell Udderly Organic milk to more than 100 outlets in the region and are embarking on another exciting venture producing organic gelato. Reporter Peter Burke went along to see their farming operation.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
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