The Board

Geraldine-based John Donkers operates a dairy farm consultancy business, is part owner and manager of a number of irrigated farming operations in Canterbury and has helped establish the Dunsandel Groundwater Users Group. He is a director of Central Plains Water Limited, which is in the process of developing a community water scheme for 60,000 hectares of Central Canterbury.

Dan Bloomer is managing director of Hawke’s Bay based Page Bloomer Associates – a consultancy company providing project leadership and support services for primary industries research and development, blending project management with technical skills in crop production, engineering and irrigation.

A Federated Farmers policy adviser Lionel Hume brings to the board specialist skills and knowledge in the fields of plant and soil science and Resource Management Act issues and policy. A South Auckland “dairy farming lad” in his childhood, Lionel always had an interest in agriculture.

Brought up on a dairy farm in northern Buller, Ian McIndoe left the coast to attend university. After graduating in 1976 he spent two years drilling water wells and working on irrigation systems for Bisleys in Christchurch. He then worked in Saudi Arabia for four years where he was project engineer for large dairy farm developments in the desert. On returning to NZ Ian spent several years as an engineering advisor for MAF, AgResearch and Lincoln Environmental, specialising in water resource management and irrigation. This included representing agricultural interests in water management plans and conservation orders.

Hugh Ritchie is a farmer first and foremost. He farms a 1700ha unit in the Hawke’s Bay taking in breeding stock, finishing lambs and cattle, 700ha cash cropping, cereals, seed and process vegetables. The farm is in its fifth season of irrigation with 250ha irrigated. Hugh completed the cal poly irrigation evaluation course through his Nuffield scholarshsip and this formed the basis of the Dan Bloomer lead irrigation evaluation SFF project.

Elizabeth Soal is employed by the Waitaki Irrigators Collective Limited as their Policy Manager.  The Collective represents an irrigable command area of over 75,000 hectares.  Its shareholders comprise five irrigation schemes and a society of individual irrigators.  She spends a great deal of her time engaging with community interest groups and representatives to help people understand the importance of irrigation to the economic development of regions, and New Zealand as a whole.  She has a good understanding of irrigation-related issues and policy developments at the regional and national levels.  Elizabeth strongly believes in the importance of having representative bodies to ensure people such as irrigators can have meaningful input into the public policy development process.