Incoming SFF chair's vision for the future

The King Country sheep and beef farmer feels that right now rural communities are being decimated by land use changes and economic challenges. The red meat sector has its own problems with lamb prices subdued.

Nelson, who takes over as SFF chair at its annual meeting this week, told Rural News that she cares about rural communities and the future of farming families, and it's a big part of her new role.

She runs a 1450ha breeding and finishing block in Aria with husband Blair - running 4000 ewes, 300 beef breeding cows and 750 finishing cattle, mostly Friesian bulls. Their three teenage children, who are either at Lincoln University or shepherding in North Otago, are all keen to go into livestock farming.

Nelson says the children are a big part of why she's doing the role.

"Because I really want the future of farming and the rural communities, they will live in to be thriving, healthy and happy places. Right now, what's happening in our sheep and beef sector that's not a given.

"We need to take a look at what we've been doing and what we can do better in the future - the part that we have to do differently is to work more closely together right across the industry."

Nelson joined the SFF board in October 2021 as a board-appointed director. She successfully contested the director election last year and is now a farmer-elected director.

When she first joined the board, the chair's role was not something she was thinking about. But over the last 12 months, she has been groomed to take over as co-op chair.

Nelson is originally from Cheviot and has a veterinary degree from Massey University. As well as 10 years at a vet practice in Waikato, she has also been an associate director at Beef + Lamb NZ and a catchment coordinator at King Country River Care.

She says the co-operative aligns with her family's values of caring for the land, people, and community.

"I want to make sure that future generations have similar opportunities to work and live rurally, just as I have been lucky enough to do," she says.

"The broader outlook for the red meat sector is positive, but we're facing into some difficult challenges at the moment. Land use change, workforce shortages, and logistics challenges all threaten to distract us away from our core focus of delivering high-quality produce into market."

In May next year Nelson will also take over the chairmanship of Silver Fern Farms Limited.