He told farmers he emphatically believed in the co-op model and they needed to embrace trading among farmers (TAF). If they wished to vary the way it operated they were able to do so quickly.
Wilson gained the most votes as farmers’ first choice in the single transferable vote (STV) voting system, and was the first to be elected under the cascading voting system where farmers rank candidates. Sitting director and Massey University professor Nicola Shadbolt was next, followed by Read, who is also chair of the New Zealand Cooperatives Association. He took the vacant third spot on the board created by the resignation of Colin Armer in August last year.
Although not elected, the order of the unsuccessful candidates under the STV system showed Grant Cochrane, who also ran for election last year, followed Read relatively closely. DairyNZ director Michael Spaans was next in line followed by Donna Smit, Grant Rowan, Jacqueline Rowarth, Lachie Cameron, Jan Marten Kingma and Eric Ray. Smit received more first ranking votes than Michael Spaans but failed to collect on the ranking votes cascading to her from other candidates.
New FSC members were elected in all five of the seats which were contested. Graham Barlow was elected in ward eight Hamilton, Malcolm Piggott in ward nine Morrinsville, Robin Barkla in ward 17 eastern Bay of Plenty, Rob Poole in ward 23 Egmont Plains and Greg Kirkwood in ward 32 Southern Canterbury.
Unopposed councillors elected were: Alex Wright, ward two, Whangarei; Tracey Bryan, ward four, southern Northland; Bill Millar, ward five, South Auckland; Murray Linton, ward 11, Western Bay of Plenty; Kevin Ferris, ward 14, Te Awamutu; Kevin Turnbull, ward 20, Northern Taranaki; Sandra Cordell, ward 26, Hawke’s Bay; Evan Baigent, ward 29, Tasman Marlborough and Vaughan Templeton, ward 35, Western Southland.
