Last month, NZYF celebrated a significant milestone - passing the 1000-member mark.
After many years of falling membership, the organisation has turned around that decline and is growing strongly.
Since restructuring nearly four years ago, membership levels have grown 25% a year.
Mr Belton (33), who joined the Rangiora young farmers club after graduating from Lincoln University with a bachelor's degree in agricultural science just over 10 years ago, has achieved what he wanted to on the national board.
A few years ago, the organisation had a "few issues".
Membership was below 500 and "something drastic" needed to happen.
He praised the efforts of former national president Hilary Phillips, who "got the ball rolling" and sought expertise from outside the organisation, and acknowledged Ben Allomes for carrying on her work.
Now, both finances and membership were looking good and the organisation was in a much better position.
Mr Belton, who is also retiring this year as chairman of the National Bank Young Farmer Contest, has been finance manager at PGG Wrightson in Oamaru since February.
He moved south to Waikouaiti, with his fiancee, as a lifestyle choice.
He has previously worked as a farm consultant in Rangiora, spent six years in Nelson working for Ravensdown Fertiliser and, most recently, worked for two years as an agronomist for Landcorp.
He has worked his way through the ranks of NZYF, becoming involved with many of the organisation's activities.
He was Tasman regional chairman for two years and later national vice-president for three years.
He convened a Tasman regional final of the Young Farmer Contest in Nelson and also served as Tasman regional manager for the contest.
He is serving his second term as contest chairman and has been on the NZYF national board for five years.
As the contest chairman, he retains a place on the board.
A national board meeting at the New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek this week will be his last and he was leaving with a lot of "good memories."
Next month will also be his swansong with the Young Farmer Contest and he will attend the grand final of the contest in Palmerston North from July 8-11.
This year's grand final was "absolutely wide open" with none of the seven finalists having previous grand final experience, he said.
Otago-Southland is represented by Southland finance manager Richard Copland (30), while Aorangi's representative is Tim O'Sullivan (29), from Pleasant Point.
In his younger years, Mr Belton "had a crack" competing at a few district finals and was third in the Tasman regional final in 2003, before concentrating on the organisational side of the event.
The contest, which had to constantly move with the times, was in very good heart.
"It's New Zealand's premier rural event. To do that, we have to keep up with technology and also with where we believe New Zealand farming should be. That still is a jack-of-all-trades," he said.
A development being worked through was adding a section into the contest that focused on the rural wellbeing of the contestant and their community - their community footprint.
A very successful addition to the contest had been Agrikids, which was "really moving ahead" under new manager Bronwyn Muir.
Not only did it bring a larger audience to regional finals but also the children taking part were NZYF's future members.