Pádraig Walshe, a Co Laois dairy farmer, was last night elected president of the Irish Farmers' Association.
Hundreds of supporters crowded into City West Hotel in Dublin to hear the 47-year-old dairy and beef farmer named new president, following a count which lasted almost 12 hours. He will replace John Dillon, who ends his four-year term early next month.
Carried in triumph into the count centre, the new president declared that rural Ireland was not gone and he was going to ensure that it was not gone.
"Farming is not on its way out. Farming is still the backbone of rural Ireland, and I will work hard to ensure it remains that way. I hope after four years' leadership to leave it in a better condition than it is today," he said.
His rivals for the post, outgoing deputy president Ruaidhri Deasy, from Co Tipperary, and runner-up last time, Raymond O'Malley from Co Louth, had conceded victory to the Laois man early in the day as he surged ahead in first-preference votes.
Mr O'Malley, who had travelled 35,000 miles around the branches in the last three months, expressed disappointment at losing for a second time but said he wished Mr Walsh well.
Mr Deasy, son of the founder of the organisation, Rickard Deasy, said he would be reassessing his earlier statements that if he lost he would not be standing again.
At the end of the first count Mr Walshe, who farms 177 acres near Durrow, had amassed 819 first-preference votes compared with 615 for Mr O'Malley and 474 for Mr Deasy.
By 7pm many of the O'Malley and Deasy supporters who had canvassed the 946 branches for their candidates began melting away to leave the stage clear for the Laois celebration.
Television monitors carried the voting branch by branch as the 100 counters worked through the day to determine who would be the winner of the hard-fought election.
The trend emerging late in the afternoon showed Mr Walshe, married with four children, had taken Munster and had run Mr O'Malley tightly in the race for Leinster votes. Mr O'Malley's vote had collapsed in Munster, and his Connacht, Leinster and Ulster wins were not enough.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Walshe, the 12th president of the IFA, said he regarded the WTO outcome as "a major challenge, not an insurmountable threat".
He said he wanted to work with the Government to remove the barriers to competitiveness and to ensure a vibrant farming sector that would attract bright young people into it as a career.
Yesterday also saw the election of another farm leader, the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Tipperary farmer Jackie Cahill.