'Amazing' response to appointment

Katie Milne, seen here with heifers on her farm, is splitting her time between the West Coast and Wellington. Photo / Supplied

Katie Milne has had an ''amazing'' response to becoming the first female national president of Federated Farmers in its 118-year history.

The West Coast dairy farmer was elected to the position vacated by South Canterbury's William Rolleston after a three-year term. She told Central Rural Life she had received ''a heap of cards from people all up and down the Coast'' since her appointment was announced late last month.

Ms Milne and her partner Ian Whitmore own a farm at Rotomanu, near Lake Brunner, where they milk 200 Jersey cows on a pasture-based system. They rear replacement heifer calves on a separate run-off and operate a contracting business making silage pits, hay and baleage, and spreading dairy effluent.

Ms Milne previously worked at the Kokiri meat works in a raft of roles, including carcass grading, meat inspection, food safety and ISO 9002 accreditation. She has also been a systems auditor, LIC saleswoman and records assistant.

Her involvement with Federated Farmers began in 1991 when, aged 23, she took her concerns about the impact of the Resource Management Act to a provincial meeting.

Ms Milne has served as the West Coast president and a national board member, as well as being a member of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and Farmer Mental Wellness Strategy Group, chairing the West Coast TBfree committee and setting up Lake Brunner environmental projects.

She was named Dairy Woman of the Year and a Rural Woman of Influence in 2015.

Ms Milne said she would have to spend a bit more time away from the farm as the federation's president, but she was already used to travelling to Wellington for board matters. She also went to Auckland last year to participate in the Global Women ''Women in Leadership'' programme, which was part of her Dairy Woman of the Year prize.

She had a ''grassroots style'' she hoped would encourage more farmers to sign up as federation members, Ms Milne said.

Signing up was more important than ever, with the ''social licence to farm'' being attacked again by people from outside the sector, she said.