September 2, 2026 • 8 mins
We catch up with the former Federated Farmers President about life post presidency, the proposed changes to homekill rules, and celebrating 30 years of the Landcare Trust.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wayne Langford, good afternoon, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
How much good to be here. How's things?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yeah, no, very good, thank you. Very good. Now, how
are you getting on?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
How have you reallocated your time? I know you like
to stay busy, but you would have had to sort
of make a few adjustments since finishing as Federated Farmers President.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, no, I have had to a bit, but no,
it's been good. I'm not going to lie. I've just
finished my first three weeks since calving started, and the
old body's feeling it a bit, the old... The old
body that got used to a few cheeses in the
quarry lounges is now lifting a few calves this year.
(00:35):
So it's taking a bit to adapt, but actually absolutely
loving it. Yeah, we've got our farm kind of humming
along pretty well this year, and it's the first year
that we haven't had any heifers on farm. We've gone
all bulls and no AI, which is something different, and
it's meant that no heifers in the shed, so A
(00:56):
lot less excitement there and also a very, very quick calving.
So they calve down about 80% to 90% in the
first three weeks, which is just a bang. So it
all just happens like that. So it's been a heck
of a three weeks, but we're coming out of the
other end of it now.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, I'm pleased to hear you saying you're loving it
because I know when you were sort of hoping to
get that fourth year, you were a bit gutted at
the time to sort of be stepping away because of
all the progress you'd made.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
But that's good to hear that you're sort of right
into it back on the farm.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Oh, well, you know, I always said my favorite part
of the week, whether I was feds or not feds,
was milking my cows on the weekend. And we really do.
I know I did. I took it for granted at times,
you know, being able to get out on the farm
and just do things. And what's been the good thing
since leaving feds is that, you know, feds takes up
(01:46):
a lot of the time. It's a heck of a
lot more than a full-time role. And so I've been
able to get a fair few of those smaller jobs
done now rather than the kind of patching up things
after I've come back from being away or getting things
set up for when I've got to go away next.
Now I've got a bit of time on farm to
actually get some stuff done, which has been great. I
absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You only live once, the YOLO, that's still the motto,
the modus operandi.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, absolutely, but I've actually had a month off just
over the last month of August of kind of posting
it publicly. I'm a natural introvert, believe it or not,
and we've actually just leaned into carving, and just my
wife and I, you know, just here on the farm
and enjoying it and enjoying the sunshine and the calves
and the birds and the bees and everything else that
(02:32):
come with it, you know what I mean? It's just
been great. So getting back into it, you'll see a
post pop up tonight now that we're into September, but... But, yeah, no,
I have enjoyed a bit of quiet time in that.
But I think you just brought up before, the other
big massive part of this spring is that greatest rivalry, right?
Every Sunday morning, having the All Blacks show up. Oh,
how good is that thing? Oh, no. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Absolutely outstanding. It's brought back some wonderful memories, especially, I think,
for me. I know a lot of people refer to
that sort of one-off test in– 92 and then the
96 series, but actually the 76 series for me, Ian
Kirkpatrick in that era.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But, okay, so a couple of topics. The Landcare Trust,
30 years?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, as part of the chair of... I started being
president of FEDS almost on the Landcare Trust board. There's
eight different organisations that form up the Landcare Trust. You know,
some pretty big ones like Fish and Game and Rural
Woman and Forest and Bird and the Federation of Marriott
Authorities as well as a few others as well. So
Landcare Trust was kind of the early adopters in the
(03:35):
catchment group phase.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
While they've kind of had the tsunami of catchment groups,
I guess, come at them over the last probably 10
or 15 years, now they're starting to really find their
feet again in terms of their really specialised advice for
catchment groups and helping out some of the work that
catchment groups are doing, which is awesome. Yeah, to think
of where it's come from over the last 30 years
(04:01):
and all the catchment work that's gone on in New
Zealand and how much of a role Landcare Trust has
played in that. It's pretty cool just to hold the
mantle for a little bit to keep that going.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And there's some, as you say, great work of the
various catchment groups around the country.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Now, home kill rules, there's been a few adjustments there.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, it's good to see you, Mr Hoggart. I'm working
on something here, which is a great, Minister Hoggart. And yeah, just,
and it's good because, you know, we deal with all
these big issues, you know, climate change and farm plans
and emissions and everything else. But there are all these
little things that often need tweaking as well. And just
the home kill rules around You know, you're saying, you know,
(04:40):
a farmer or someone having to own a stock for
28 days before you can actually legally send it to
a home go operator, you know, seems a bit daft.
It's something that's kind of probably not being followed too
much and do we need to make some changes there? Also,
I really need to clarify the rules around donating meat
in particular and what that is because I can tell
(05:01):
you from working in the space, as you know, I've
done a fair bit in the space, it is a
bit of a grey area, and so it would be
good to tidy that up and get it sorted. But
good on Minnesota Guard for taking this on. Like I say,
I know he's got a lot on his plate, and
this may seem like small fry to some, but it
actually can have quite a big impact within our rural communities.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Can you just clarify for me, so what is the
grey area around that donated me? What do you mean,
what needs to be sorted there?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, that's probably the exact question, because if I was
to ring MPI five times, I'd probably get five different
answers on what I am or aren't allowed to do.
The main gist of what we're working on, as long
as you're donating meat at the moment, then you can
donate it. Obviously, food banks and stuff can't sell donated
meat or anything like that. And so it's just getting
(05:50):
some real clear rules around what you are and aren't
allowed to do in that space. and making sure, obviously,
that we're keeping everyone safe through this all because food
safety is absolutely paramount, and we want to make sure
that people are being looked after.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yep, yep. Okay, you mentioned the All Blacks.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
What do you see happening in how many, 62 and
a half hours' time in Soweto?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, an 8.1 to the All Blacks. Just how good
has it been? That running rugby that we've lost for
10 years is back, and it's so good. I feel
like we can attack from anywhere on the park. And,
you know, that's why we love the Dan Carter, Richard
McCoy era, was because they just grabbed that ball, and
no matter where they were, they took off with it,
(06:34):
you know. And I feel like we've got that back.
We've got some muscle up front again, and I'm looking
forward to it. It's just great to have a series.
I'm not quite as old as you. You know, I
remember the 96 series, and I was 13, 14 at
the time for that. You know, and to live through
this one again, this is pretty cool. So it's awesome
to see them plan so well.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, it is, Wayne.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Somebody I want to give a little bit of praise
to that I don't know that I always have, and
we mentioned Dan Carter.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I'm loving watching Ruben Love, the way he runs onto
the ball.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
He tests the fences, but when he looks to then offload,
it's always so accurate in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Somebody who did that beautifully. and regularly against the South
Africans was Andrew Mertens.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I just saw, like, you know, just a random feed
pop up on social media of Merts running into space
or turning the defence around and then offloading a beautiful pass.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You know, and that's the sort of footy we've got
back to.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, we dominated the world for 10 years playing a
certain type of rugby and the rest of the world
caught up and started playing similar rugby to us. Now
we've started, I think we've started playing a different type
of rugby that the world is then going to have
to look at and say, how are we going to
beat these guys again? And hopefully that takes us back
to the dominant side that we were because, man, it's
good to watch. I just love watching.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
It's great. And there's too much good stuff going on
on the All Blacks side now. The media are sort
of trying to beat up this war of words. Well,
Rassi Erasmus has just been Rassi, and Dave Rennie's just
been the quiet, silent cheever that he is. So we
all look forward to the footy. And we've enjoyed having
you on the show, Wayne Lankford. Thank you very much
for joining us.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Thanks for having me. Cheers.
Wayne Langford, good afternoon, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
How much good to be here. How's things?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yeah, no, very good, thank you. Very good. Now, how
are you getting on?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
How have you reallocated your time? I know you like
to stay busy, but you would have had to sort
of make a few adjustments since finishing as Federated Farmers President.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, no, I have had to a bit, but no,
it's been good. I'm not going to lie. I've just
finished my first three weeks since calving started, and the
old body's feeling it a bit, the old... The old
body that got used to a few cheeses in the
quarry lounges is now lifting a few calves this year.
(00:35):
So it's taking a bit to adapt, but actually absolutely
loving it. Yeah, we've got our farm kind of humming
along pretty well this year, and it's the first year
that we haven't had any heifers on farm. We've gone
all bulls and no AI, which is something different, and
it's meant that no heifers in the shed, so A
(00:56):
lot less excitement there and also a very, very quick calving.
So they calve down about 80% to 90% in the
first three weeks, which is just a bang. So it
all just happens like that. So it's been a heck
of a three weeks, but we're coming out of the
other end of it now.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, I'm pleased to hear you saying you're loving it
because I know when you were sort of hoping to
get that fourth year, you were a bit gutted at
the time to sort of be stepping away because of
all the progress you'd made.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
But that's good to hear that you're sort of right
into it back on the farm.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Oh, well, you know, I always said my favorite part
of the week, whether I was feds or not feds,
was milking my cows on the weekend. And we really do.
I know I did. I took it for granted at times,
you know, being able to get out on the farm
and just do things. And what's been the good thing
since leaving feds is that, you know, feds takes up
(01:46):
a lot of the time. It's a heck of a
lot more than a full-time role. And so I've been
able to get a fair few of those smaller jobs
done now rather than the kind of patching up things
after I've come back from being away or getting things
set up for when I've got to go away next.
Now I've got a bit of time on farm to
actually get some stuff done, which has been great. I
absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You only live once, the YOLO, that's still the motto,
the modus operandi.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, absolutely, but I've actually had a month off just
over the last month of August of kind of posting
it publicly. I'm a natural introvert, believe it or not,
and we've actually just leaned into carving, and just my
wife and I, you know, just here on the farm
and enjoying it and enjoying the sunshine and the calves
and the birds and the bees and everything else that
(02:32):
come with it, you know what I mean? It's just
been great. So getting back into it, you'll see a
post pop up tonight now that we're into September, but... But, yeah, no,
I have enjoyed a bit of quiet time in that.
But I think you just brought up before, the other
big massive part of this spring is that greatest rivalry, right?
Every Sunday morning, having the All Blacks show up. Oh,
how good is that thing? Oh, no. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Absolutely outstanding. It's brought back some wonderful memories, especially, I think,
for me. I know a lot of people refer to
that sort of one-off test in– 92 and then the
96 series, but actually the 76 series for me, Ian
Kirkpatrick in that era.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But, okay, so a couple of topics. The Landcare Trust,
30 years?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, as part of the chair of... I started being
president of FEDS almost on the Landcare Trust board. There's
eight different organisations that form up the Landcare Trust. You know,
some pretty big ones like Fish and Game and Rural
Woman and Forest and Bird and the Federation of Marriott
Authorities as well as a few others as well. So
Landcare Trust was kind of the early adopters in the
(03:35):
catchment group phase.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
While they've kind of had the tsunami of catchment groups,
I guess, come at them over the last probably 10
or 15 years, now they're starting to really find their
feet again in terms of their really specialised advice for
catchment groups and helping out some of the work that
catchment groups are doing, which is awesome. Yeah, to think
of where it's come from over the last 30 years
(04:01):
and all the catchment work that's gone on in New
Zealand and how much of a role Landcare Trust has
played in that. It's pretty cool just to hold the
mantle for a little bit to keep that going.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And there's some, as you say, great work of the
various catchment groups around the country.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Now, home kill rules, there's been a few adjustments there.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, it's good to see you, Mr Hoggart. I'm working
on something here, which is a great, Minister Hoggart. And yeah, just,
and it's good because, you know, we deal with all
these big issues, you know, climate change and farm plans
and emissions and everything else. But there are all these
little things that often need tweaking as well. And just
the home kill rules around You know, you're saying, you know,
(04:40):
a farmer or someone having to own a stock for
28 days before you can actually legally send it to
a home go operator, you know, seems a bit daft.
It's something that's kind of probably not being followed too
much and do we need to make some changes there? Also,
I really need to clarify the rules around donating meat
in particular and what that is because I can tell
(05:01):
you from working in the space, as you know, I've
done a fair bit in the space, it is a
bit of a grey area, and so it would be
good to tidy that up and get it sorted. But
good on Minnesota Guard for taking this on. Like I say,
I know he's got a lot on his plate, and
this may seem like small fry to some, but it
actually can have quite a big impact within our rural communities.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Can you just clarify for me, so what is the
grey area around that donated me? What do you mean,
what needs to be sorted there?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, that's probably the exact question, because if I was
to ring MPI five times, I'd probably get five different
answers on what I am or aren't allowed to do.
The main gist of what we're working on, as long
as you're donating meat at the moment, then you can
donate it. Obviously, food banks and stuff can't sell donated
meat or anything like that. And so it's just getting
(05:50):
some real clear rules around what you are and aren't
allowed to do in that space. and making sure, obviously,
that we're keeping everyone safe through this all because food
safety is absolutely paramount, and we want to make sure
that people are being looked after.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yep, yep. Okay, you mentioned the All Blacks.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
What do you see happening in how many, 62 and
a half hours' time in Soweto?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, an 8.1 to the All Blacks. Just how good
has it been? That running rugby that we've lost for
10 years is back, and it's so good. I feel
like we can attack from anywhere on the park. And,
you know, that's why we love the Dan Carter, Richard
McCoy era, was because they just grabbed that ball, and
no matter where they were, they took off with it,
(06:34):
you know. And I feel like we've got that back.
We've got some muscle up front again, and I'm looking
forward to it. It's just great to have a series.
I'm not quite as old as you. You know, I
remember the 96 series, and I was 13, 14 at
the time for that. You know, and to live through
this one again, this is pretty cool. So it's awesome
to see them plan so well.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, it is, Wayne.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Somebody I want to give a little bit of praise
to that I don't know that I always have, and
we mentioned Dan Carter.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I'm loving watching Ruben Love, the way he runs onto
the ball.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
He tests the fences, but when he looks to then offload,
it's always so accurate in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Somebody who did that beautifully. and regularly against the South
Africans was Andrew Mertens.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I just saw, like, you know, just a random feed
pop up on social media of Merts running into space
or turning the defence around and then offloading a beautiful pass.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You know, and that's the sort of footy we've got
back to.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, we dominated the world for 10 years playing a
certain type of rugby and the rest of the world
caught up and started playing similar rugby to us. Now
we've started, I think we've started playing a different type
of rugby that the world is then going to have
to look at and say, how are we going to
beat these guys again? And hopefully that takes us back
to the dominant side that we were because, man, it's
good to watch. I just love watching.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
It's great. And there's too much good stuff going on
on the All Blacks side now. The media are sort
of trying to beat up this war of words. Well,
Rassi Erasmus has just been Rassi, and Dave Rennie's just
been the quiet, silent cheever that he is. So we
all look forward to the footy. And we've enjoyed having
you on the show, Wayne Lankford. Thank you very much
for joining us.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Thanks for having me. Cheers.
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