Mr Stevens, 49, retained his position at the council’s annual meeting in Wānaka on October 23.
He was absent from the meeting as he was in Rarotonga.
His family’s 240ha farm Cairnlea, near Poolburn, was put on the market the same week.
The family have lived on the farm for more than 20 years and the decision was tough for himself and his wife Deb.
"The hardest part of it is making the decision," he said.
None of their three children, Lucy, 16, Harry, 19 and Josh 20, wanted to take it on, and the farm lacked the scale required to run only sheep and beef, he said.
The farm operation also features dairy grazing, but those cattle numbers have decreased as more dairy farmers are running their own cattle or decreasing their herd size.
The Stevens also planned on selling their Poll Dorset stud Cairnlea this year.
A ram sale would be held on December 13 and the stud would celebrate 50 years.
Mr Stevens put his hand up to retain the council role as he doubted the farm would sell soon. He would continue to be levy payer, making him eligible for re-election.
A farm sale would be more likely at the end of the trading season at the end of March next year, he said.
Only a levy payer could be chair of a farmer council.
If the farm sold he would continue as chairman until the next annual meeting.
"The council are happy for me to stay on, as they think I have something to offer, which is pretty humbling. As long as I can run a good meeting and get results for farmers, a few extra months [as chairman] won’t make a difference."
He was investigating a "change in direction" for his career and intended leaving farming after the farm sold.
"I might do something else for a few years while I still can ... There are a lot of unknowns at the moment. If the farm doesn’t sell for two years, I’ll just box on," he said.
The former Maniototo Area School teacher had no plans to return to that profession after finishing full-time in 2022.
A plan was to continue teaching agriculture through Primary ITO and look at securing facilitation work, similar to his roles as chairman of the council and the Ida Valley Catchment Group.
He planned to stay on the catchment group after the farm sells.
"I have a project I want to get finished first — getting all the willows out of Poolburn Gorge."
