A Bay of Plenty sharemilker has been elected president of New Zealand Young Farmers.
Richard Fowler of Te Puke was elected at the organisation's annual general meeting in Palmerston North.

Newly elected Young Farmers president Richard Fowler (left) with vice president Tim Van Molen, Ben Allomes, and Kyle Goodwin (right).

Richard has been chairman of the Te Puke Young Farmers and vice chairman of the Waikato-Bay of Plenty region; a job he has stepped down from to take on the national position.
Richard is also no stranger to the competition side of the Young Farmers, having represented his region in the national finals in both 2006 and 2007, finishing a creditable fourth each time.
Richard takes over from Ben Allomes, who has done a lot to build the membership of Young Farmers to over 1000 for the first time in fifteen years. He sees it as his challenge to work on increasing that to 5000 members.