The Country 08/12/25: Richard Loe talks to Jamie Mackay

Today we find a former All Blacks hard man doing the hard yards on the drafting gate at the Waikura Station on-farm sale in the back of beyond - with 12,000 lambs, 1000 ewes and 1000 cattle up for grabs!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We all love fred Dagg, don't we.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Here's a man who's the same generation as me, so
he would have grown up with fred Dagg as well.
Former All Blacks hard man Richard Lowe doing the hard
yards on the drafting gate. But what are your memories
of fred Dagg LOWI?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yeah, you know, you can remin this and it's a
tune that once you hear it, like I just a
then it brings back a few memories that a couple
of little locals up here standard off the day, three
of them in gunloots and they probably knew something that
was going on, but they have tendered the wilts since
the temperature has gone up.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I see that. I read.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I got an email this morning there's a heat warning
for the Gisbane region and you're just are you sort
of half as why Kurras stations sort of halfway on
the road between Gisbon and a Potocky.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
You come over the hill to the coast and then
your Cataan land there. It's beautiful country's surrounded by native
bosh but the gullies of you know, bear land, graft
lands and it's a great it's a great property, ey'd
to yet, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I hope it's not surrounded by pine trees, is it.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I can't see a pine tree anywhere. We patched the
minercure and that sort of thing, and yeah, I saw
on the drive up from down south, I saw a
fair bit of that. It wasn't It wasn't pleasant viewing. No.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
I thought you were a sort of a semi retired
gentleman farmer these days, based on the banks potentially.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
What are you doing way up there?

Speaker 3 (01:28):
My son got me up. He's a sock agent up
this way, and he got me up as a bit
of cheap labory. I ah, a few days, so that's
what I've been doing. We're up here with his team
haslers and we're just drafting up. It's a huge, huge draft,
about ten thousand, using about three thousand from it. So
they put about ten thousand odd lambs up a thousand

(01:51):
odd cattle, and I think it's about ten thousand i'd use.
I'm not sure, jeez.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I'll tell you what LOI with the price of beef
at the moment, they could afford probably to pay you
some wages one thousand cattle. Imagine imagine how much that
would bring in.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
I suggest that commission check check will be fairly good.
But I did one on Palm fil in North Canterbury
last week got two seventy for a time.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, it is amazing you've been You've been in the
farming industry effectively all your life. And correct me if
I'm wrong. You actually started out as a stock agent.
Have you known sheep and beef to be this boyant
and you're what forty years in the business.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
No, it's great, and it looks as it's going to
remain up there for some time. You know, the lamb's good,
mutton's good, beef of every description is good. And you
know it's probably numbers are going to keep it up
there for a while because demand is good. But they're
not a lot of numbers out there, are there.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
No, the only thing that's not good at the moment
is the all Blacks.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, well we've got we're someone now that's what thirty
thirty odd degrees here and there of thirty three or
four in the Hawk's Bay A step in summer.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, I know it's summer, but we've got what we
normally do over summer as all Black fans, and you're
closer to the action than most of us. We do
like to solve the problems for Rayser. If you were
picking the all blacks, what would be the one thing
you would do? There you go, you can discive us
an answer to them. We'll let you go and have
some lunch.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
I reckon if I was Ray, I'd try to take
more control like a Rati Harasmus. And yet I think
we've got to too many noises coming out of addressing shed.
But that's just meat.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
I reckon you might be banging on that Rasi. Rassi
has got that job through till the twenty thirty one
Rugby World Cup in the US. So he's going to
do four Rugby World Cups.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, and I'll beat you when they go into the
changing shed. He sits ninety nine percent of what's to
be said. Not every assistant coach have done some description.
I think that's our biggest problem, that all back book.
If they come out confused, who do we listen to first? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, think you're banging on? Hey, thanks for your time, and.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yes, I've just got a kick from old Joe Stanley
about an hour ago to remind me that he was
coming down to Canterbury this weekend because him and I
apparently are doing a ROADI over to the west coast
to John Steegens ninety birthday.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh well, John Sturgeon is a great New Zealand and
he was. He was the manager of the All Blacks.
Me and you and Joe Stanley were in there.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Right, Yes, he probably badly said in a well, well.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
You would have taken a bit of looking after, so
he did bloody well there anyhow, Richard Low, and say
a load to your son. Jerkie's a great bloke and
of course he's with haslets and no doubt that they're
going to be very busy over the next few days.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
That on farm sale, by the way, is tomorrow, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yes, one pm up here.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Good on you, hey, thanks for your time, really appreciate it, Jamie.
Right there we go, Richard Low,