Farmer elected to B+LNZ as director
King Country sheep and beef farmer Martin Coup has been elected to the board of Beef + Lamb New Zealand to represent the Northern North Island region.
He replaces former chairman James Parsons, who stood down at the organisation’s annual meeting on March 22.
Southland sheep and beef farmer Andrew Morrison was elected to replace Parsons as chairman.
Coup won 5392 votes.the position was contested by Murray Jagger from Whangarei (2210) and Ross Wallis from Raglan (1128).
The voting return percentage was 16.91 per cent. This represents 19 per cent of sheep, 18 per cent of cattle and 12 per cent of dairy livestock numbers in the region.
Martin Coup and his wife Wendy farm a 700 ha sheep and beef farm at Aria.
He is a farmer representative on the Red Meat Profit Partnership advisory group and Mid-northern farmer council. He was national chairman of the B+LNZ Farmer Council for three years and chaired the organisation’s Innovation Farm advisory group.
He also served a three-year term as a director on the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand.
Coup is a Kellogg Rural Leadership graduate and has completed the Institute of Directors strategy, finance and governance essentials programme.
Central Canterbury farmer Kate Acland was also appointed as associate director, replacing Marton farmer, Andrew Stewart. The associate director role is a one-year term.