Fed Farmers N. Canterbury president to step down

Lynda Murchison is Federated Farmers' second female president in North Canterbury. Photo / Supplied

Lynda Murchison is looking forward to stepping back, after nearly four years leading Federated Farmers in North Canterbury.

The Waipara sheep and beef farmer and environmental consultant become the province's second female president in September 2013, following Banks Peninsula farmer Pam Richardson, and has announced she will step down at the annual meeting on May 11.

Mrs Murchison stepped down in April 2015 due to family reasons, before resuming in the role 12 months later.

She said the North Canterbury province had one of the youngest Federated Farmers executives in the country and it had been a challenge filling the roles of senior and junior vice-president in recent years.

''Sometimes you just have to have the courage to step back and say 'I'm not doing it' and have the confidence someone else will step up,'' she said.

''I've watched some of my predecessors keep saying 'if no-one else will do it, I'll stay on for another year', so no-one puts their hand up.

''Over time you can lose a bit of enthusiasm, so it's good to have new people coming through.''

A sub-committee had been working on creating ''more of a board structure'' to share the workload to make it easier to find a new president.

''The general consensus is that they will be able to use their co-opting powers to share the workload, but I've left that up to the young ones to decide,'' Mrs Murchison said.

''But I understand there are one or two nominations being lined up.''

She said the biggest positive was there were ''some willing volunteers'' putting their hands up following conversations about portfolios, with younger people wanting to play a part.

''I think that's really important because as the retired ones will tell you, it's really hard to perform these roles effectively when you're not actively farming day in, day out.

''But there's a lot of competing demands on young people, so it's about getting the balance right.''

Federated Farmers' North Canterbury province is the largest in the country, covering from Rakaia River to Kaikoura.

The annual meeting and field day will be held in Banks Peninsula on Friday, May 11, with the prospect of visiting some farms involved in aquatic ventures.