"I'm still a sheep and cattle farmer from Napier. That will remain".
Bruce Wills might be swapping his Swanndri for a suit more often but he intends striking a balance between being a farmer and fulfilling his role as Federated Farmers national president.
Mr Wills has succeeded Southland farmer Don Nicolson as the elected head of the rural lobby organisation.
Chosen at the organisation's annual meeting in Rotorua on July 1, he admitted the ensuing days had been "a bit of a scramble".
Four nominations were received for the presidency - the most seeking the office in the organisation's history - and it was the first contested election for the position since the early 1990s.
Before heading to Rotorua, Mr Wills considered he had a 25% chance of being elected.
"I was not one to assume the position was going to come my way," he said, and he had planned "a pretty busy" farming week the following week.
But then the vote went his way and it was "a case of reorganising pretty smartly".
While he realised he was going to be doing "a whole lot less farming", he still had a team of dogs and any stock work that he needed to be part of would have to be shifted to weekends, he said.
Mr Wills, who was previously meat and fibre spokesman, defeated two other national board members - vice-president Donald Aubrey and dairy spokesman Lachlan McKenzie, along with former national vice-president Frank Brenmuhl.
Asked why he thought there was such high interest in the position, Mr Wills said there had been speculation, including that it was due to a keenness for change, but he believed it was "just more circumstances and timing" rather than any real message.
There have been some major changes around the top table, with a "huge breadth of experience, backgrounds and skills" which augured well for the organisation, he said.
Joining Mr Wills and new vice-president Dr William Rolleston, who is a South Canterbury farmer and biotechnologist, are former New Yorker Anders Crofoot, who farms Castlepoint Station in the Wairarapa, meat and fibre chairwoman Jeanette Maxwell (Mid-Canterbury), dairy chairman Willy Leferink (Ashburton), Ian MacKenzie (Mid-Canterbury) and David Rose (Southland).
The make-up of the national board very much reflected where farming was and where it was going. It was now a very diverse business with people from all sorts of backgrounds and interests, he said.
Asked what style of leadership people could expected from him, Mr Wills said he had made it clear that he wanted to be more collaborative with the organisation's advocacy and more inclusive.
It was inevitable that there would be a change of style and approach from the new board.
Mr Wills, who was comfortable with being in the public eye, said he had always acknowledged he did not have the farming experience or the political experience that many of his predecessors had.
His background - more than 20 years in the banking industry - was "quite different" but he saw that as a strength.
He had an opportunity in his early 40s to ask himself if he wanted to continue working in finance "with a tie around my neck" or have a go at something different.
The opportunity presented itself for him to return to the family farm, Trelinnoe, on which he grew up, to farm in partnership with his brother Scott. That was seven years ago and he "thoroughly" enjoyed farming.
The medium to steep hill country property won the rural category of the 2008 Hawkes Bay environmental awards.
While much of the country had been blessed with a "pretty kind climate" this year and some of the better prices seen for a long time, most of Mr Wills' seven years farming had been fairly challenging - with some "pretty appalling" prices and severe droughts. The challenge was to maintain the good prices.
Asked what challenges faced farming going into the future, he cited the Emissions Trading Scheme as "a big one", the Resource Management Act had "been there for quite some time", the implementation of the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme was being debated and there were also "good old local government rules and regulations" which the organisation watched closely.
Federated Farmers would look at anything that was going to get in the way of its members achieving their potential, he said.
The profile of the organisation had been reinforced to him with the "huge amount" of support he had received since his election.
He was "quite humbled and overwhelmed" at the level of interest and support, not just from the rural movement but across all sectors.
"The message I've picked up ... is Federated Farmers is seen as an important advocacy group, an organisation people watch closely."