The Country 02/05/25: Shane McManaway talks to Jamie Mackay

This Wairarapa farmer and philanthropist has been inducted into the Business Hall of Fame. Last time we chatted, he was in the middle of Cyclone Alfred on the Gold Coast. How did that compare to the Wahine storm of 1968?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Shane mcmanay inducted along with his wife La Matt no
doubt into the Business Hall of Fame. Shane, there are
no ends to the accolades that are being heaped upon
you as you continue to deliver for rural New Zealand.
Congratulations mate, Oh thank you, Jamien, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
We were certainly humble, both Lynette and I to be
inducted into this hall. It came as a great surprise.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
We just get on and do what we do.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
We are certainly constant cheerleas I guess for our industry
and we try and do what we can for our
local community. And to get this induction into the Hall
of Fame was pretty special for us.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, well deserved, of course. You built at not a hospital,
a health center there in the southern Wire. Rappa, how's
it going.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Good, Jamie? I was there probably half an hour ago.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I called in there, and it's a thriving place and
sometimes you wish that it had nobody there, because it
would mean everybody's fitting healthy and well and didn't need
to go there, but that's unfortunately not the case. It's
an integrated medical facility and covers off a whole range
of aspects around health, and yeah, it just grows and
grows and grows. So it's something we're super proud to

(01:11):
put there, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Talk to me about the weather. We know Wellington got
a real hammering yesterday. What is it like today? Up
the road and the wire are upper.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's eased off a but now it's still pretty miserable
outside of the winds drop right down.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Rain's pretty much stopped, so I think we're the worst
of it's over now.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
But yesterday, Jamie, I might just add that I spent
probably two thirds of the day in my Kywalker jacket
and leggings as I was out doing stuff around the
around the farm. We had about ninety mills of rain,
a very very strong southerly all day. Bit of damage around,
but certainly we weren't battered around likely where I think

(01:51):
south of there, down around the Cape Pallace, a region
in certainly Wellington.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Last time we chatted to you a month or so
ago on the show, you were on the Gold Coast.
You have a lot of business interests over there as well,
and you were stuck in the middle of Cyclone Alfred.
And you're old enough to remember the Wahino Storm of
nineteen or of Easter nineteen sixty eight.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
How did they compare? Quite different?

Speaker 3 (02:17):
I guess the one on the Gold Coast, the cyclone
was constant for three and a half days a probably
blowing sort of around about ninety two one hundred and
ten kilometers an hour, just didn't sort of give up,
and lots and lots of rain over that period of time.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
We had somewhere around one meter of rain. And we're
on the beach.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
There were and the waves right out the back of
the Columba and a half with something like about twenty
two meters and they were breaking at around twelve meters.
And you had probably seen most of the photos on
the Gold Coast where it took the sand away. It
was unbelievable, to be quite honest, but it was pretty constant.
Whereas the Waheni Jamie. I was twelve, and I remember
it really, really clearly. We went round the farm with

(02:55):
Dad and they have a look at which was the
silliest thing we probably should have ever done. We should
have stayed indoors. But I remember seeing rows and rows
of pine trees just peeling over like Domino's and it
was just a complete. The noise was horrendous, and so
yesterday was I don't think it was anything like that,
but it was. It was certainly windy enough.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Here, let's finish on a really positive note. I'm getting
lots of information and about stock prices at the moment
store lambs one hundred and fifty bucks, Wiener calves over
one thousand dollars. Great money.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, it's certainly over a thousand, Jamie. I just bought
a unit load last week. I think there were thirteen
hundred and twenty bucks for some anger Steers, some Wieners.
But you know, on the now on the other side,
just sent a unit load out yesterday of rising two
year old cattle, and you know they've probably come in
at around about twenty six twenty seven hundred bucks each,
which is incredible money. But you know, we need to

(03:50):
be up at that sort of level to make these
things work.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
That's for sure. The costs have gone through the roof.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
But no, we certainly not complain of about four and
a half five thousand lambs on. It will head off
in the winter and we're hoping that those prices hold
up for those as well.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Hey, Sean mcgwannell, mcmanaway, Thank you very much for your time.
Congratulations to you and Lynette for being inducted into the
New Zealand Business Hall of Fame, so well deserved in
your case, go well

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh thank you, Jamie, much appreciated.