Young seeks mood for change

Young is standing against Morrison for the southern South Island directorship on the board of directors of Beef+Lamb NZ (BLNZ). He says he was asked by senior members of the farming sector last October if he would put his name forward.

Young has already received the backing of influential rural lobby Group Groundswell NZ, which has encouraged its members in the southern ward to vote for him.

“To get meaningful change, we need Geoffrey elected,” the lobby group told supporters in an email on January 10.

Young is not bothered that he is challenging the incumbent chair and says it is always better to have differing opinions and options for voters to choose from. He believes there appears to be a mood amongst farmers for change.

“If the incumbent chairman was voted from the board, I think it would send a very strong message to the other board members that farmers were not happy with their performance, particularly around advocacy,” he told Rural News. “They need to communicate and listen more to grassroots farmers to articulate very clearly to government what farmers are feeling and how they want to be represented.”

Young was the former president of Southland Federated Farmers. In 2020, he called on farmers to boycott Essential Freshwater regulations, which at the time upset both Environment Minister David Parker and Green Party MP Eugenie Sage.

Young also stood for the Southland district mayoralty in the local body elections last year, finishing in second place behind Rob Scott.

He concedes that his standing for election is both a direct challenge to Andrew Morrison and Beef+Lamb NZ.

“Beef and Lamb do a great job in all their core business, but while their profile and advocacy has been to the forefront in the past few years, many farmers believe they have lacked enough pushback on many government regulations and unity with our other two main rural voices,” Young claims.

He believes grassroots farmers are hugely disappointed with the advocacy work that Beef+Lamb has carried out in recent years.

“There are many examples of where farmers have felt disappointed with results from BLNZ. Firstly, they have often been out of step with our other two main rural advocates, namely Fed Farmers and DNZ (DairyNZ). The advocacy side of these three organisations needs a review and we need to have a totally united voice when dealing with this or any incoming government,” Young told Rural News.

He believes that more work needs to be done behind the scenes to achieve better outcomes.

“Probably HWEN would be top of the list most farmers are concerned about. The best thing about it is, the process has been held up for so long and enabled farmers to be kept out of the ETS, that we may get a total reset on carbon emissions over the coming couple of years,” Young adds.

“I am totally opposed to paying a tax on methane as well as trying to comply with the reductions this government is aiming for. It smacks of double dipping in my mind when there is no viable mitigation measures.”

Asked, if he’s elected, could he work with current board members and staff who have all set the current path BLNZ has travelled, Young is adamant that he can.

“There is no doubt I can work with anyone in farmer advocacy and I’m prepared to listen to all views,” he told Rural News.

“If elected, I think the board would certainly have to modify their collective stance on many of our important issues farmers are facing. I don’t foresee any problems working with other board members and will make my views very clear as I’m sure other board members will.”

How It Works

Beef+Lamb NZ's board is made up of six elected farmers representing three electorates in the North Island and three electorates in the South Island.

Each year two directors retire by rotation, with the southern South Island ward and Eastern North Island ward up for election this year.

Farmers are eligible to vote if they own 250 sheep, 50 beef cattle or 100 dairy cattle. They will already be on the BLNZ electoral roll if they have previously received referendum and annual meeting material from BLNZ. They will receive voting papers in the mail between 14 and 20 February.

For those farmers who are not on the on the electoral roll, they can register any time before midday on 21 March and they’ll receive an email from Electionz.com enabling them to vote online (voting closes 2pm 22 March).

Farmers who have questions or want to check you’re on the roll, call 0800 233 352 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Weighted Vote

BLNZ director elections and remits are based on weighted livestock numbers for each farm – and not one farm one vote.

“No single farming entity holds a large enough proportion of stock numbers to influence decisionmaking,” claims BLNZ chief operating officer Cros Spooner.

“The livestock numbers declared by the ten largest farming businesses on the BLNZ database equate to 3 to 4% of total sheep, beef and dairy cow numbers."

Crooner says BLNZ has seen little difference in the outcomes of one for one and weighted votes over the years.