OPINION: Your old mate reckons with the looming failure of He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) it's not only the Government that should take the fall.
He suggests the leadership of industry bodies - particularly Beef+Lamb NZ and DairyNZ - should seriously consider their futures.
Both organisations' leadership and advocacy on behalf of farmers has been poor throughout the whole process.
They failed to get farmers on board, acquiesced to the Government time after time and consistently failed to push back on the sector's behalf.
Former B+LNZ chair Andrew Morrison lost his job when farmers voted him out - due to the HWEN debacle.
Many dairy farmers now believe it is appropriate that DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel should fall on his sword as he has been at the forefront of pushing the deeply unpopular HWEN.