Beef + Lamb NZ chair Andrew Morrison has been ousted from the board by Southland sheep and beef farmer Geoffrey Young.
Young won the Southern South Island director election with 8777 weighted votes, with Morrison gaining 6587 votes.
Morrison’s term will end at the BLNZ annual meeting in New Plymouth on March 30.
At the same time, Morrison’s term with the New Zealand Meat Board will conclude and that board will elect a new chair following the BLNZ meeting.
Young had earlier told Farmers Weekly that the He Waka Eke Noa negotiations showed that sector leaders rolled over too easily for the government, and that the agreement needed to be renegotiated.
He said he was standing as an independent but that senior members of the federation and the lobby group Groundswell had asked him to put his name forward.
Turnout in the Southern South Island director election was 36%.
The farmer director election in the Eastern North Island (ENI) electorate was postponed following the significant disruption caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
A new process and deadline for voting for the ENI farmer director role will be announced following the annual meeting.
