The Country 12/11/25: Lawrence Field talks to Jamie Mackay

Wairarapa farm accountant, and 1995 NZ Sharemilker of the Year, who has been conducting the Rabobank farm succession workshops. The new series of workshops launched earlier this year to support farm succession planning is proving hugely popular with Kiwi farmers and growers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we all know how dry it's getting in Hawks Bay.
Let's go down the road a wee bit to the
Wira Rapper region. There we find Lawrence Field now in
a past life. In fact, thirty years ago this year
Lawrence was a Sheer milker of the Year. These days
he's a wire rapper farm accountant. And for your sins, Lawrence,
you're busy running the Rabobank succession planning workshops. We're going

(00:24):
to come back to that one. Talk to me about
the dry or otherwise in the Wirre Rapper region.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. It's really variable. There's an incredible
gradient from west to east, so I think with the
predominant westleis we've been getting anybody up under the hills
is actually really too wet, you know, struggling to get
supplement made, pugging paddocks, and then once you go out east,

(00:52):
people are winning early offloading store lambs and it's really
quite dire. So it's quite variable right across the wire
Rapper but we could from about you know, State Highway
to east everybody could do with some decent rains.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
You were mentioning to me in the commercial break about
Peter Jackson, Sir Peter Jackson, he's got a farm there.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, he's just round the road from us Matahiwee. And
there's probably a band you know, to the west of
State Highway two that's in a sweet spot, not too
dry and not too wet. So not that Peter will
be worried about how much grass is growing.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yes, I'm sure he's not dependent on his farm for
his income. What about that other well known wire wrapper
farmer and filmmaker, the preachy pious James Cameron. Where's his farm?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
His farm is down by Lake wire Rapper, out from Featherston,
and a lot of those blocks down there have really
good irrigation, and at least with Westerley where Westley winds,
our rivers will have been topped up regularly. I don't
think anybody will have been rished, so the irrigators will
be going flat out, and a lot of places, including

(02:04):
on Cameron's walnut.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Well, on his walnuts. I don't think he has any animals.
That he does, by the way, make great movies, and
his Avatar movies are coming out shortly. Let's give him
credit for that. But I do get annoyed. Sorry, I've
got to get this off my chest, Lawrence, when people
who fly on private jets between Auckland and Ala lecture
us on greenhouse gas emissions. Anyhow, I've got that off

(02:27):
my chest. Talk to me about your farm succession workshops.
I do get a wee bit worried, Lawrence when I
see in the press release jingo lingo jingos such as
Succession Journey Discovery Phase. Do you all sit round in
a circle at the workshop and sing kumbay.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Our No, there's no, there's no kumbaya, Jamie. It's it's
they're actually a really good combination of prevent presenting a
few ideas, you know, a bit of research and and
some things that I've pulled together from a whole range
of sources. And then we encourage family groups to attend,

(03:08):
you know, at least two from each business and even
preferably somebody from the next generation. So whenever we do
a section, then there's a chance for people to look
at it themselves, you know, to have a little discussion
in their family group. And one of the classics is timing. Now,
I won't ask you or I about, you know, how

(03:30):
long we might keep doing what we're doing, Jamie, but
a lot of people say I'm going to be out
of here in five years, but if you ask them
in three years time, it's still five years. It's a
roll in five years. So you know, it's the discovery
is about working out what do people want, you know,
where do we want to live, how long are we
going to keep doing this, what's our role in the

(03:52):
ongoing farm, all those sorts of things. So it's a
good combination of a bit of theory, a bit of practice,
and we have a few laughs.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
So you're not sitting around in one big group. I
presume you break into family groups because you don't want
to air your dirty laundry in public, as it were,
or have your family argument over succession in public. But
I guess it does encourage people to open up a
wee bit.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, it does, And you know, I think we create
quite a good trusting environment where sometimes people will share stories,
you know, of how they've got on. One of the
classics I heard, Jamie was there was a father and
son who said that they were six weeks six years
into a three year plan. So no, this is how

(04:38):
it goes, but it is there's a real opportunity for
people to work together in their family groups.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
The biggest problem with farm succession, and I know this well,
is that you've got a huge asset, it might be
five or ten million dollar asset. You may have several siblings,
one of them or maybe two of them want to
go farming. How you treat the other ones, and even
more importantly, how mum and dad get off the farm
and don't live a life as paupose.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, and I'm unapologetic Jamie that I absolutely believe
it starts with the owners. You know, we talk about
the golden rule. She who's got the gold makes the rules.
So it's got to start with the owners. You know,
there has to be a secure future for them. And yeah,

(05:28):
and then we look at then we can talk about,
well does anybody have the interest or the skills to
go farming? And my approach, Jamie, is that the order
that you were born in and your gender has nothing
to do with who would make the best farmer, who
would make the best success of this business. And that's

(05:48):
where you know you've got to start from.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
I believe it's all about starting the conversation. You know,
your workshops this year, you've run what eighteen of them
this year? They've been very successful rabobanks to keep bankrolling this,
and I know you don't come cheap, Lawrence, so they're
going to be doing it again in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, eighteen workshops this year, you're right, Jamie, not far
under five hundred farmers and growers attended. So at this
stage we're planning to run twenty four for next year,
right across the country from Southland to Northland. And so
it's a great opportunity to get along and as you say,

(06:27):
start the conversation, start thinking about how you would how
you would.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Make a start and register your interest.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, exactly. The best way, even if the workshops aren't
up there yet, is go to the rubber Bank website
and there's a tab there called Knowledge and Networks, and
you scroll down there and there's an ability to register
your interest for a workshop that may be coming up
later in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
And you don't even need to be a rabobank client.
Lawrence Field out of the word a rapper. Thank you
for your time, and I do hope you get some
rain east of State Highway.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Too, Thanks Jamie. That'll be great. Good to talk