Tuesday, 21 January 2020 13:55

Hoggard eyes Feds presidency

Written by  Peter Burke
Andrew Hoggard. Andrew Hoggard.

Federated Farmers vice president Andrew Hoggard will be standing for president of the farmer lobby at this year’s annual meeting in June.

Current president Katie Milne will automatically step down after spending three years in the role.

Hoggard confirmed to Dairy News that he will be throwing his hat in the ring.

The Manawatu farmer has been involved in the federation for many years in various roles and has played a leadership role in dealing with some difficult and controversial issues. One of these was, and still is Horizons Regional Councils ‘One plan’ which seeks to put significant pressure on dairy farmers in the region. 

Hoggard is an equity partner and manager of the family farm north of Feilding. The farm runs 560 cows, split into two herds on the 220ha property. He has an agricultural economics degree from Massey University and is a fourth generation dairy farmer. Originally the family farmed near Upper Hutt near Wellington but moved up to the Manawatu in 1998.

Hoggard regards himself a supporter of the free market and as he puts it ‘I’m not into government running everything’. But while he has strong free market views he does believe that government does have a role in kick starting major infrastructure projects such as irrigation schemes.

He says before June he has to sort out the arrangements on his own farm and make sure everything is structured right, given that the role traditionally requires the president to frequently be in Wellington or other parts of the country or the world.

“I have spent god only knows how many years in feds now and it doesn’t sit well with me not to finish off what I started. I am definitely keen on doing the job, but who know someone else may decide they want to do it and get the backing of others. But I will put my name foreword at this stage because this has been my passion for the last few years,” he says. 

More like this

Editorial: Sensible move

OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.

Dairy unity

OPINION: A last-minute compromise ensured that the election of the new Federated Farmers national dairy chair wasn't a repeat of the Super 15 rugby final - Canterbury versus Waikato.

Featured

Big return on a small investment

Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.

Editorial: Sensible move

OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Cuddling cows

OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…

Bikinis in cowshed

OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter