The Country 10/03/25: Dave Whillans talks to Jamie Mackay

Mid Canterbury mixed cropping farmer says it's been a really tough season for arable farmers with poor harvest conditions and marginal returns for growers. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
While most of the country's farmers are praying for rain,
that's not the case in Canterbury for the arable and
cropping farmers. To tell us a wee bit more about it,
we've got one on the end of the blower. His
name is Dave Williams. Used to work in agri business
for Westpac. These days he is a mixed cropping farmer,
three hundred and thirty hectares, most of it irrigated in

(00:20):
mid Canterbury. Dave, it's been a bugger of the season.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It has. It's a great way to sum it up,
particularly toughs further inland and in the upper planes. It's
just been constant drizzle for nine ten weeks since the
midder December. Made it very hard for harvesting, very hard
het crops, finished all the small seeds. They've been knocked
around with it. So it's been tough. And it's hard
to say this when it's so dry in other parts

(00:45):
of the country, but Canterbury's traditionally dry and loves the
heat and we just haven't had it this year.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I've missed out on those traditional Northwesters to bring
those crops and minds you the livestock farmers, the pastoral farmers,
the dairy farmers. They must be laughing all the way
to the bank.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
They are loving it. They having a great season. That's
great to see. We need them to be doing well
and it's good to see that real strong lifting returns
to them as well. So it's been a long time
between drinks.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Mid Canterbury is some of the best cropping land, if
not the best cropping land in the country. It's sort
of the seed bowl for the country. You do a
lot of specialist seeds in Mid Canterbury and of course
you do need Mother Nature to come to the party
to ripen the crops. And it just hasn't happened.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
No, you're right, Look, it hasn't hasn't been here. It's
been really tough and the impact that it's had has
been phenomenal. So last year we grew seedpeas, we did
just under three and a half tonder the heatar for those.
This year we're down under a ton. Got some friends
over at Methan who have got some spinachin. They had
seventeen days of it. The whole thing written off, just
no harvestable seed and it clovy. Yields have been knocked

(01:51):
around milling wheat, certainly around this area in the Upper Plains,
a lot of people are struggling to achieve six tons
and at the currents are not even getting the cost
of production back, so some reasonable losses are likely out
of this year.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
I thought you would do all right in the season
like this selling the likes of feed wheat to dairy farmers.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Look not yet. We expect that the feed prices might
start to move a bit later in the season, but
at the moment when the big volumes come off, it's
holding down at some of the last year's prices. Also,
a lot of people are bringing in feed PKADDG and
that helps keep a lid on feed. Look, we'd like
to see that change, but that is what it is,

(02:36):
and people are using those mixes across the country and
they do keep prices relatively static.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Perhaps the biggest issue post COVID for farming has been
on farm inflation, that cost of production. And we all
know if you're a cropping farmer, you're getting hit harder
than probably pastoral farmers because you have so many things
you have to pay for, machinery, fuel, you name it, sprays,
all that sort of stuff, and you guys have been

(03:02):
hit really hard there, and.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
You can't get away from it. You've got to keep
on spending to grow next year's crops. So right now
people's done to drill a lot of the seed for
next year's crops and starting that spend already, and you
just need to keep on spending. Banking colonomists are talking
about inflation being much softer and lower than modelors, but
we're still wearing it. And I see this week in

(03:25):
the paper it's britten, just accounts of talking about a
rate rises and they're hoping to hold it at ten percent.
We just can't keep on operating an environment where we
have these great, big lumpy increases and costs and no
change on the income side.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Do you miss the corporate life, the banking life, the
regular paycheck? Because I reckon horticulture is a tough way
to make a living, and cropping's a tough way to
make a living as well, or arable farming, because one
event throws your whole can potentially throw your whole income
stream out the window.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, did right, You're not wrong at all. Yes, I
miss the corporate life, but love farming, love agriculture and
having a great time doing it, and it's just a
it's a real eye out and it's easy to talk
about farming and all the reps and consultants and everyone
that drives in the drive is a plenty of chairs
and they can talk to talk, but actually doing it
as another completely different skill set and you're just so

(04:18):
exposed and a lot of it you're dealing with on
your own. So my advice for a lot of farmers
who are struggling with this years impacts, know your numbers,
get into the detail on your gross margins, on your crops,
work through those with your professional team, and push back
on the sea companies. If you think you're going to
break even or might not make any money and there's
a bit of risks there, don't grow it or push

(04:42):
back on the sea company and try and get a
lift and price. You've really got to spend plenty of
time on the economics of what you're growing and make
sure that you're getting a return and at the risk,
because the risk is real and it keeps on getting
diinged up every year with all these weather events. You've
really got to make sure that you're making money out
of it, and particularly just even the cost of gear

(05:03):
going by the new tractor these days, or a new harvester,
and new harvesters well up over a million bucks and
there's not too many of those being sold at that
kind of price. But we can't do what we do
without having good quality infrastructure for sewing the seeds, for
harvesting it, for drying it and working through the system.
So you get into your numbers everyone and make sure
that you are making some money out of those crops

(05:25):
that we're growing.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Spoken like a true banker. Dave Willems, mixed cropping farmer
from mid Canterbury. Thanks for the advice on the country today.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
No worries thanks Seamie