Farmlands change

Chris Dennison.
Chris Dennison.
Thorpe farmer Chris Dennison has been elected to the Farmlands board, ousting long-serving director and fellow North Otago farmer John Foley.

Last month, Mr Dennison was critical of the co-operative’s performance after it posted a $9million loss, saying it appeared to have "lost its way". The result of the South Island director election was announced at the company’s annual meeting in Christchurch on Tuesday.

Mr Dennison and his wife Kay run a 400ha arable farm with an adjacent dairy farm milking 800 cows on the lower Waitaki Plains.

Mr Dennison is also a director of TracMap and Network Waitaki, former chairman of the Lower Waitaki Irrigation Company and former deputy chairman of Ravensdown.

In a statement, Farmlands chairman Lachie Johnstone said Mr Dennison had great experience in both farming and governance and the co-operative would benefit from that experience.

He also paid tribute to Mr Foley, who had been on the board of Farmlands and its predecessor CRT for the past 16 years. He was instrumental in bringing the two co-operatives together and had played a critical role in its "many successes".

Mr Dennison said he was excited to help Farmlands move "onwards and upwards" and looked forward to working with the board to help the company reach its potential.

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