The Country 03/07/25: Craig "Wiggy" Wiggins talks to Jamie Mackay

We catch up with a rural health advocate to find out what he’s been up to lately. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I saved the best for Lass Craig and WEGGI weakons
rural or rural and physical health advocates.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Did I get that right?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're a health advocate, Wiggy and you know you and
I give each other a bit of stick.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
But you're doing a bloody good job. What are you
up to?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yeah? Thanks Sammy. You would being really busy lately.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Slave mcfallan and Andrew Roland from Fullside Bar, slaved from
Mates and Construction, We've been and whatever with We've been
trapping around the country doing quite a few events at
Club New Zealand, like the Workingmen's Clubs, RISS and mesas
and stuff, and basically looking forward to being able to
bring a lot of training for the rural service industries
into rural New Zealand so that people in the stock

(00:39):
agents and agronomous and vents they can actually reach out
to their clients and know that's okay to do it.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Absolutely, you've downsized your farming operation here at mid Canterbury.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
You're a bit of a towning now like myself.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
But it is I was just saying too, I think
David Carter a bit earlier in the hour, you would
go a long way in New Zealand to buy to
find better farm land than here in mid Canterrey.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
But this is where all the you know, for instance,
the seed crops are grown for the country and the world.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Yeah, there's a pilethora of stuff that happens here, whether
it's seeds, berries, you know, there's apple.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
There's an apple orchard getting built here now.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
You know, it's always been a great place to breed,
you using lambs and rams and balls and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
I just talked to a deer farmer.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
He's on a roll as well as well as a
dairy industry too, so there's a lot going on.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I had an interesting discussion with Peter ware on carbon farming.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
We agreed to disagree.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
But I don't want to see the cantery planes like
they were in the nineteen seventies covered in pine trees.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
No, not at all.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
You know, there's a place for every tree. There's the
right place and in it's a matter of getting it right.
The thing to do. You know, we do need some
good windbreaks and stuff here, so let's be able to
benefit from those rather than blanket blanket plantings.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, and the farmers should be given credit for everything
on their farm that sequesters carbon and that includes a
lot of those big windbreaks.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Yeah, definitely, And if you actually do fly over Canterbury
there's a lot of them, so you know we should
be able to count those. And it's just getting the
formula right, I guess. But yeah, the big thing is, Jamie,
if there's a wedday like this and farmers are in
here connecting, that's that's the most.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Important thing, and really good. A problem shared is a
problem halved.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
And I'm looking we're broadcasting from a marquee outside of
rural co and I think Ashburton was heading for a
higher five degrees today. I think it would struggle to
be that. But we've got a beautiful big heater from
where we're.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Broadcasting, so just good to be here, yea it is,
and great food, great atmosphere.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
All we need is a gate for them to lean on, Jamie.
And I'll be right in my own ally.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, you do a good job in all seriousness, so
you won't be in Dunedin over the weekend for the rugby.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
No not I missed that invite to your corporate box mode,
but I'm looking forward to the next one.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, you can