Mr Copinga and his wife Cathy sold their dairy farm and stud herd Rivendell Holsteins in 2023, ending more than 20 years of dairy farming and breeding Holstein Friesians in Isla Bank.
They moved to Te Puke to be closer to family and have since invested in kiwifruit, pine trees, a dairy farm and property.
Mr Copinga returned to Southland for the Holstein Friesian New Zealand annual conference in Invercargill last month.
At the annual meeting, he was elected president of the association.
He was vice-president and treasurer for the three years prior.
Now was the right time to take on the top position because he was no longer farming "24/7" and he lived closer to the association’s national office, he said.
"I’ve got more time to dedicate to it and there are a lot of industry matters I’m really interested in and I will always have a passion for this breed."
The appeal of the breed was it "being dialled-in to converting feed to milk".
Holstein Friesian were the best dairy breed to mate a beef sire to, such as Hereford, to produce calves in demand.
The 2025 Holstein Friesian New Zealand Awards were part of the conference and Rivendell Sham Beatric-ET 4*ET EX3 SP won cow of the year, which was bred by Mr and Mrs Copinga and was now owned by the Cummings Family Trust, of Wyndham.
