The Country 06/03/26: Shane McManaway talks to Jamie Mackay

Wairarapa farmer, the new chair of Growing Future Farmers, and the man behind the Greytown Health Centre. He comments on the Wairarapa season and a great weekend for the region.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Shane mcmanaway Wire a Rapper farm, a former chief executive
of All Flex, is the new chair of Growing Future Farmers.
He's a man behind and his wife Lynette to be
fair behind the gray Town Health Center, looking forward to
having a look around that this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Shane.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
You were going to come up and do the spot live,
but you weren't prepared to give up two hours of
time on your digger. You love your toys.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
No good afternoon, Jamie. Yeah, I had a bit of
a window after some awful weather to get some earth
moving done, so I've sort of got my nose to
the grindstone on that. But a beautiful day up here
at on Gahar and getting well.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Through the job now, I must say. And we arrived
in the dark last night, Shane. But leaving your place
this morning to come up the road. You're just outside
a great town to come up the road to master it.
And my goodness, the Wire a Rapper is looking mint
at the moment. I don't think I've ever seen it
as green at this time.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Of the year. No, it's exceptional, Jamie. In fact, you know,
we've got so much grass around us. It's a good
position to be in and I guess that coupled with
good prices. You know, we're in a perfect spot at
the moment, So we just need to keep making sure
that we do what we do well. And I think
it's going to be a great season for us.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
It's going to be a great it's going to be
a great weekend for the wire Rapper region. This is
this is truly the biggest act in town and you
can multiply that by four. I don't know where the
Mavis agrees with me. With the World Champs on as well.
What a great event for your region.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, it's magnificent and good to see that you've got
sharing royalty there with my dear friend Mavis Jamie. Yeah,
it's magnificent for the wire rapp and it has been
for a number of years. I've been heavily involved in
it over the years, in early days, back in the
Sunbeam days when I was involved with that some sharing,
and then into Orflex. We're heavily involved and I certainly
certainly love it looking forward tomorrow night. My grandfather was

(01:51):
a sharer and my father was a sharer, and so
we've had I've seen how hard it is to get
the wall off those sheep and you know, the speed
of these guys and the skill that they've got is
just incredible.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Talk to me about your new role as the chair
of Growing Future Farmers.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, Jamie, I'm really excited about this. Growing Future Farmers
is something that I'm really passionate about. I mean, I've
had for a number of years now. I guess kicking
off of the Zanda McDonald a Ward and looking to
try and to track young people and lift them up
in our industry was the starting point. And I'm still
the chair of that and heavily involved in that with
our conference coming up next week in and christ Church

(02:30):
announcing our winners. But the opportunity came along to be
part of Growing Future Farmers, which I've been watching from
the sideline for a long time and been incredibly impressed
inve and initiative fit kicked off by Tam and Jex
Blake out at Gisbon. They saw a need and today
a number of years on, it's a really stable and
well run operation, putting through about sixty to seventy young

(02:51):
students in a very very organized way. And you know,
basically what we're looking to do is transform the ag
sector through GFF and just making sure that we continue
to highlight two young people leaving school that a career
and agriculture in a well organized fashion can be an
incredibly good career. It's absolutely served me well, and I

(03:13):
left school at fifteen.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Okay, well, you've done very well for yourself, you don't
mind me saying.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
If I can own as many tractors, cars and ride
on moas as you, Shane, I would die a happy man.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah. No, Jamie, maybe a little bit of iron disease around,
but certainly we certainly like good gear, and we'd like
to keep our gear and our farms and tip top condition,
and we're super proud of what we've got.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Okay, Roland Smith's just wandered in here, so I'm going
to have a quick yarn to him because I know
he's on a tight time frame. But Shane, thank you
so much for hosting us. Really looking forward to a
tour of your great town health center this afternoon. To
you and Lynette. If every region or province had people
like you, we would have no problems at all. Thanks
for your support.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Great thanks Jamien Forward catching up for be later in
the day,