The history of Federated Farmers of New Zealand

As far back at 1902 a nation-wide New Zealand farmers Union was constituted. The New Zealand Farmers Union was a force to be reckoned with. Its motto was "principles-not party", yet it had political clout, helping the Reform Party oust the Liberals in 1912, the new Prime Minister being Auckland farmer William Massey.

The union then backed Massey in the 1913 Waterfront Strike, organising mounted farmers as specials. In Wellington there was fighting between, as they were known, Massey's Cossacks (the farmers) and the Red Feds (the watersiders and other unionists opposed to compulsory conciliation and arbitration).

However, rural political representation was far from unified. Aside from the Farmers Union, there was also the New Zealand Sheepowner's Federation, along with other smaller producer organisations. The idea of one super organisation was often mooted.

The spur that finally led to action was the massive increase in direct political management of the economy generated by World War Two and the Labour Government of that period. Sectors had to be involved in the political process or get left behind. This was made obvious by the successes of the trade union movement.

By 1943 the Farmers Union and the Sheepowner's Federation were talking amalgamation. Fear that the more numerous dairy farmers would swamp the sheep farmers led to the view that a parent body spanning separate commodity councils was the answer.

On 29 September 1944, the decision was made to call the new body the United Farmers Federation of New Zealand. However, before the name was registered a group of Auckland Farmers registered the same name. To resolve this another name, Federated Farmers of New Zealand (Inc), was registered, being the name that remains to this day.

At the time the Auckland province of the New Zealand Farmers Union was highly suspicious of the proposed new national body. The Auckland Farmers Union was engaged in commercial activities, which it didn't want submerged. Also, Auckland was a hotbed of Social Credit supporters, whose views were not shared by the Farmers Union elsewhere or the Sheepowners' Federation.

In the first months of 1945, efforts to sort this out were intense. At a conference held in August the decision was made that Auckland's commercial activities would remain separate, being managed by a co-operative, and that an Auckland branch of Federated Farmers would be part of the national structure. On 20 September 1945, a Provisional Federated Farmers Dominion Council meeting adopted this formula.

The first Federated Farmers province to formally commence operations was the Wellington Central Provincial District which held a meeting in Marton on 30 April 1945, electing a provincial executive. The first Dominion Conference took place in October of 1946. Federated Farmers was up and running!

In 2005 Federated Farmers celebrated 60 years as the voice of New Zealand farming.