The Country 10/03/26: Doug Avery talks to Jamie Mackay

We catch up with The Resilient Farmer, a long-time mentor of the Zanda McDonald Awards.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're wrapping the country from the Impact Summit. Dug Avery

(00:02):
the Resilient Farmer. Great to catch up again. We're old mates.
Remember that year we traveled around the country to the
field Day's road show together.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, that was a great, hilarious Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Now, I was looking at your face when Doctor Victoria
was talking about the eighty gram eighty grand steaks. You
look like someone to cut your throat.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, you know, we're into a bit more than that.
Pretty pretty keen on our on quality food, Jamie, and
I think I'm very lucky that I can still join
in Hagley Park tomorrow morning and make a bit of
a fall on myself. But I'm still reasibly fit, so
that's cool.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Good on you.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's all those steaks have eaten all over the years.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, exactly. You and Nancy might be the only ones
over there tomorrow morning, but good luck with that. You've
come down from Marlborough. I know your son phrases running
the outfit at the moment, but is Marlborough looking good?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah? Marwis great. It's been it's been a challenging season.
We had a terrible autumn last year, a brilliant winter
and then the spring Pete it out, so he ended
up getting a bit dry, and then we've had rain,
and of course the lucing just grows and takes off.
So it's been fabulous, absolutely fabulous, and such an awesome
thing to be back back in the room here. I

(01:09):
always refer to this kind of thing as the incubator
of the future. There's so much excitement, and.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
There's so many young, well compared to us, young dynamic people,
and they're lucky. You talk to those people like Nancy
and Tessa, you know, the future of agriculture is good.
Are you still actively engaged on the speaking scene? Do
you still do it?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I've got a bit coming up. I've got an invitation
to talk to the young Horticultures a Year competition, and
Nelson and got a gig at Lincoln University shortly with
future Leaders and they've got a tennis for Farming Day.
And yeah, last year I was in the States at
an inaugural resilience thing at Oregon State University in Salem.

(01:54):
That was a pretty big event for me, and I
do one on pastures while I was up there, And yeah,
a lot these days, but I love it still.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
I still I've got thirty seconds left. We've talked a
bit about Trump. Is he a genius or is he
completely bonkers?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, it's kind of interesting where you know, Like I
was in the States for a month and there are
people over there that love him, and there are a
lot of people that hate him. I've got somebody coming
to stay with him next week who hates him. He
polarizes people, and I don't think there's anyone who, you know,
agrees with everything he does.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
No, I wouldn't. Well, I don't agree with everything he does.
But anyhow, we'll see how quickly he can finish things
in the Middle East. Let's hope it's sooner rather than later.