The Country 13/08/25: Tracy Brown talks to Jamie Mackay

The chair of DairyNZ comments on calving, the payout, Board of Directors elections and the RMA/NPS-FM submission. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's bit of a change attack now on the country.

(00:02):
We go from the meat industry to the dairy industry.
Tracy Brown is a matter matter dairy farmer farms just
near Hobbiton. She's also the chair for her Sins of
Dairy and Zed. Tracy putting on your farmer's hat at
the coal face. How's carving going in the White Shadow?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, we're well over halfway through now, Jamie. Today's a
nice sunny day, so that's always good. We've had some
sort of wheat patches, but all in all it's been
pretty good. So yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty good compared to
some other years.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
And no doubt with the prospect of a ten dollar
payout for the season we've just finished. And I see
the b in Zed earlier this week came out and
therefore casting ten twenty five for the twenty five twenty
sixth season. Happy days for you dairy farmers.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, but let's not forget our margins squazed Jamie. As well,
with the increase in the break even milk price, you
know it's you know, while we're optimistic, you know, we've
still got some challenges.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
So yeah, you farmers are never happy. I get that.
I totally get that, but it's a lot easier to
balance the books at ten dollars than seven or eight dollars.
Radio nominations for the board of directors for darien Z
I think opened on Monday. What if people are listening

(01:27):
and thinking I'm not good enough to be one of those,
what do you say to people who should put their
name forward.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, so we've got two vacancies a share, so myself
and Chris Lois are up for reelection, so we're both restanding,
but we're always looking. Darin's is always keen for farmers
to have choice, so we're looking. I guess potential candidates
would be those that are willing to really engage the
fellow farmers. They're interested in policy and willing to engage

(01:57):
around that really to help us deliver on our strategy
and get you got to research outcomes and good solutions
into farmer's hands. So you know, I think anybody that's
interested in being a director should talk to another director
potentially and just sort of find out what's involved. There
is a bit of time commitment, so you need to

(02:18):
be in a position to be able to sort of
give some time back to the sector. But yeah, really
encourage anyone that's interested to sort of get in touch
and find out more about it.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well, as a sitting director who's standing again for an election,
you and Chris won't be encouraging people too much.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I think, like I said before, Jamie, it's always good
for farmers to have choice, and it's always good for
directors to feel like they're being the right to be there.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
So, okay, what one more topic to cover off and
this is the RMA fresh water. Be careful, Tracy'd be
very very careful. I have a low threshold to boredom.
Make this exciting or I'll bid you farewell.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Okay, Jobie, I've been told. Okay, So I guess. So
there's sort of there's been a process underway for consultation darians.
It's been to out there. Our team has been talking
to farmers just to better understand what other things are
concerned about and what they want to see in our submission.
So we've done that. We want this, you know. We
want the new roles to be practical. We want them

(03:19):
to be science based. We want a really good focus
on environmental and human health. We want any solutions to
be farmer lead driven by catchments and we want a
policy package that's trusted by farmers and communities. So we've
done a lot of work on this. The next favorite
consultations October. If people want to know more about what's

(03:41):
in the Daring Said submission, We've done a really good
Talking Dairy podcast with David Cooper, who's one of our
or who as our principal regional policy advisors, so on
the Darian Said website, and have a listen to that
if you want more detail. But you know, I'm confident
that we've gone through a good process and been sort
of clear with where we think the sector needs to head,

(04:03):
where New Zealand needs to head with us to ensure
god water quality outcomes.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Tracy Brown, chair of Dairy and Zed, good luck with
the rest of the carving at Hobbiton or just next
door to orbiton Go.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well thanks Jamie,