9th June 2026 // Rural News in partnership with Farmlands

Federated Farmers leadership race shapes up ahead of AGM Fieldays opens at Mystery Creek BNZ launches funding boost for first farm buyers Rural News is in partnership with Farmlands as part of CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp - our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch / listen.   Federated Farmers leadership race shapes up ahead of AGM A leadership contest is shaping up at Federated Farmers' annual general meeting later this month, with sitting president Wayne Langford indicating he may seek an unprecedented fourth year in the role. Langford says he's keen to stand if there is member support — but the move is raising questions about constitutional process and has caused unease among some past and present members of the organisation. For most of Federated Farmers' eighty-two year history, the presidency has carried a three-year term. Vice-president Colin Hurst has already lodged his nomination for the top job, setting up what would be a rare competitive election. The last contested Federated Farmers presidential race was in 2011 when Bruce Wills beat three other challengers in Rotorua. A motion passed at November's National Council meeting suggested sitting officers could seek an extra year under the constitution — but the legality of that motion has since been called into question. The AGM takes place in Auckland later this month.   Fieldays opens tomorrow at Mystery Creek New Zealand's biggest agricultural event opens its gates tomorrow, with Fieldays running at Mystery Creek Events Centre until Friday. More than twelve-hundred exhibitors will fill the site with agri-tech, farm machinery, new-to-market vehicles, financial solutions to artisan food and almost everything in-between. New this year is a Fieldays Function Centre on the Village Green, while the event also marks the tenth anniversary of the Hauora Taiwhenua Health and Wellbeing Hub and five years for the Forestry Hub. Popular competitions including the Tractor Pull, fencing and excavator challenges return alongside the Family Fun Zone and the Heritage Village. Ticket buyers this year can also donate to the Rural Support Trust when they walk through the gates. CountryWide Connect will be broadcasting live from Fieldays with Sarah and Andy every day at our partner Ecolab’s site..   BNZ launches funding boost for first farm buyers BNZ is expanding its support for aspiring farm owners, launching a new funding package designed to ease the financial pressure of buying a first farm. The BNZ First Farm Funding Boost offers eligible buyers up to a one percent interest rate discount on the first two million dollars of borrowing for the first two years, alongside up to two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars in working capital at two-point-nine-nine percent for six months to help manage early cashflow. For a buyer borrowing more than two million dollars, the savings could exceed forty-thousand dollars across the first two seasons. BNZ General Manager Agribusiness Dave Handley says buying a first farm takes capability, commitment and careful planning — and the early years can put real pressure on cashflow. The package is available to first farm buyers across the wider agricultural sector, as well as first-time fifty-fifty sharemilkers and first-time owners entering via eligible equity partnerships. It builds on BNZ's First Farm initiative launched last year in the dairy sector.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.