The Country 13/08/26: Campbell Parker talks to Jamie Mackay

The chief executive of DairyNZ talks about plantain, director nominations and election priorities.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the country. Let's dodge politics for a while.
Shall we on the country or I don't know if
we can totally because Campbell Parker joins us. He's the
chief executive of the Dairy and z and they want
to talk about their election priorities. But to get away
from politics for a while, Campbell, let's talk about this
latest Lincoln University trial on plantain and pastures. Is this

(00:21):
a breakthrough?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, because it's part of the Board of Plantain program
that's been running for the last since twenty twenty one,
and the specific research that was announced last week is
the four year trial at Lincoln University which is part
of that program. And look that the results are really encouraging.
Showed up to thirty three percent reduction in nitrogen leeching

(00:43):
with plantain at various rates within this ward and it
is it was very encouraging because it's, you know, one
of the tools that's in the toolbox that farmers can consider.
It's also recognized by the majority of the councils. Now.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Now, now let me go back to my days as
a farmer. That's a lot that's the nineteen eighties and
let me go back even further to my days at
Lincoln College and plant science one oh one, how do
you get on maintaining plantain and your past your sword?
How long does it last? And do you need to
be using short rotation grasses with plantain to keep enough

(01:18):
of it in the sword to make these numbers work?
Is that a sensible question?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, and that's a very good question. Back to agronomy,
you know, first and foremost it's about management practices. So
not only is the research, but it's about thirty partner
farms across the country Jamie, So there's a range of
management practices around that. What people are finding also that
to keep it to your direct question, sometimes putting extra
seed in with fertilizer application is how farmers and those

(01:45):
sensitive catchments are keeping the percentage levels up because the persistency,
over time, it will come out of the sward as well.
The really encouraging piece in research is even with lower levels,
you're still getting a good core in terms of the
reduction and nygrogen. So you know, that's been a question
about how do you fit that in with your management practices.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Direct denominations for dairy and zed when do they close
or when do they open?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yes, so they're open now. We've only got one farm
elected director position up this year, so cam Henderson's up
by rotation, so they're out now and run through. I've
got the twenty first of August is when they close,
so that's what's that end of next week. And then
there are a couple of positions on our Director Remuneration
Committee as well. We're extending that from three people to

(02:34):
four people, so there are also nominations out for that.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
And I noticed, as I said at the beginning, dairy
and Zed has its election priorities. All industry good bodies do.
You just don't know who you're going to be dealing with.
That's part of the problem, Campbell. But I guess these
election priorities aren't going to change regardless of who is
Prime Minister.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Absolutely Jamie in the way we've shaped them up, and
our headline around that is keeping dairy strong, keeps new
Zelle strong with such an important industry, so regardless of
whoever's in power, the six priorities we've called out we
think are really important for the sector. I'm not going
to go through the mall, they're all on our website,
but the things you'd expect a couple of them that
I will mention. One around getting the RMA and the

(03:15):
water settings right given the topic we're talking about with
plantain as well and nitrates, so that's really important. One
of the other ones that's in there is around makingtrol
we've still got strong biosecurity systems given it's also bio
security awareness. We're coming up as well.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yes, you bang on, Campbell Parker, Chief executive of darien Z.
Our borders, being a maritime nation at the bottom of
the world are our absolute treasures, our wonderful geographic advantage
over many other agricultural nations around the world. Thanks for
your time, no problem, Thanks Jamie.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Good to talk