The Country 04/07/25: Lawrence Field talks to Jamie Mackay

We preview the Rabobank farm succession workshops with a Wairarapa farm accountant, hobby farmer and former 1995 Sharemilker of the Year.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great to catch up with old friends on the country.
This bloke and I go way back to the nineteen
nineties when he was the sheer Milker of the Year
and I was a young pup starting out on radio.
He was one of my first guests, Lawrence Field. These days,
Lawrence is a farm accountant and the wire rapper, hobby
farmer and more importantly for the purposes of this yarn, Lawrence,

(00:23):
you're running the farm succession workshops for Rabobank. Great to
catch up mate. Good afternoon, and you've just flown out
of I think the Blenham Nelson region where you were
doing a workshop back to the wire Rapper or you're
making your way back there. How bad is it the weather.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Afternoon, Jamie. Yeah, it was got held up out of Blenham.
I don't know what the thing was there that Nie
Zillam plane couldn't get in, so drove across the Nelson
and got out this morning. But it still looks a
bit rough in that area.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
How do you segue from a share milker of the
year because you and your wife Marsella at the time
were were great farmers, the best share of farmers or
share milkers in the country. To being a farm accountant
and then getting on the road for rabobank. Because your
life is a bit like mine at the moment, Lawrence,
you're on the road almost full time.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, I just added up. I think I've been away
from home to three or four days out of for
the last ten weeks, three or four days a week. Here. Look,
these are the sort of third module of our financial
skills workshops for Rubbobank. And you know it was on
the back of a strong demand from farmers talking to farmers.

(01:35):
It's pretty topical at the moment, Jamie, with Todd Charteris's
white paper and you know a bit of discussion in
the media, but there's a real need out there for
families to address this. And I think procrastination is not
an option awkward conversation to have, though it is, Jamie,

(01:56):
and I think it's fair to acknowledge. And one of
the things that came out of it room, even just
yesterday was Hey, we're not in this alone. Other people
are going through the similar issues. It's not easy because
you know, it's about the numbers and it's about future plans,
but it's also really emotional. You know, for some people
they might be fifth generation on that farm, or they've

(02:17):
built up the business. And when I mentioned that our
word Jamie, that the retirement, it's sort of I get
quite a range of perspectives on that. You know, some
people are basically in denial.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Are some farm succession plans just not an option in
some ways because I'm thinking, you've battled away thirty or
forty years on the farm, You've worked really hard, but
you don't want to retire and be a pauper just
to allow the next generation in because surely after that
length of tenure of graft, you deserve better than a

(02:53):
shoe box in the middle of road. It's a bit
of Monty Python there.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
By the way, Absolutely, Jamie, I think, and we talk
about this in the workshops. To me, it absolutely starts
with the owners. You know, they're the first priority. There's
got to be a really good option for them. You know,
where are they going to live, how much capital do
they need, how much income do they need? And then
we need to think does anybody else in the family

(03:20):
want to go farming? Is that viable? Would they make
a good farmer? And I think, you know, we talk
about succession slash business transition. It may be that selling
the farm is the best option for everybody, you know,
and I think we shouldn't kind of rule that out
as a possibility or think that that's a failure if

(03:41):
we do that.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, and maybe the kids can then extract some capital
from you know, the farming or the family farming operations. Okay,
you're doing these workshops around the country for Rabobank, but
the good part of it is just to finish on.
They're free for all New Zealand farmers, regardless of you
bank with. And I'll give Rabobank a pat on the

(04:02):
bank for doing this. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Look, it's an initiative of their Client council, Jamie. They're
putting bat money back into the industry, you know, to
kind of build capacity and education. And you're right. It's
open to any farmers around the country. They just need
to jump onto the Rabobank Client Council website and there's
a place there to either register for upcoming website workshops

(04:27):
or register their interest if there's not one coming up
in your immediate area, and to.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Find out more, go to rabobank dot co dot and
z Ford slash Client hyphen Councils and that will direct
you to exactly the right place, Lawrence. Great to catch
up again. Gee, we've been chatting for thirty years. Doesn't
seem that long, does it.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
No, it goes by in a flash. That's what somebody
said at the workshop, Jamie. It's all happened too quick.
I'm not ready to retire.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
It sounds like me in this job.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
See you later, Jerio, Bye bye.