August 13, 2025 • 6 mins
Federated Farmers says a report back to Parliament on the so-called "ban on carbon forestry" doesn’t go far enough to stop the march of pines across New Zealand’s productive farmland.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's kick off the show with the President of Federated Farmers,
Wayne Yolo Langford. Wayne flat out carving. You haven't even
had breakfast yet and it's gone midday.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I ah, good to be here, Jamie. I'm sitting up
in the trekker at the back of the farm, just
waiting for the cows to arrive at their break and
then I'll shoot home and have some breakfast hopefully. It's
been a big morning.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Stressful time for dairy farmers carving, even in good weather,
which you're enjoying at the moment.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, we're going to trusty mornings on a sunny day,
so I can't complain about that. You're right though, you
know it is. It is pretty intense and you're just
going from one drama to the next, so just hoping
that nothing happens. I had the local contractor or of
the Bobby calf truck knock over my knockover my Bobby
Calf pen this morning, so that doesn't help it my dramas.
(00:46):
So that's all right, we'll work through that.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Have you got your head around the Federated Farmer's press release,
I think it came out yesterday, the so called ban
on carbon forestry doesn't go far enough to stop the
march of pines across New Zealand's productive fan and Your
Forestry spokesperson Richard Dawkins sears, farmers will be feeling a
total sense of betrayal. Has he overegged that?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, well there is a bit of that going on,
because I mean we all remember that the promise are
standing on the Farmer Confidence till there in December saying hey,
we're going to stop in this full farm conversion. And
I know that they are attempting to try and do that,
but when they're only banning on Class one to five land,
that's only twelve percent of the area going into forestry.
So we need to do better than that. We've got
(01:33):
two thirds of our she and beef country that's Class
six or seven land and we need to protect it.
And so yeah, we definitely think it needs to go
further than what they've suggested.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So what would you like to see happen?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We need to we need to make sure that we
do cover off those different areas of land a he
of a lot better than we are. You know, we're
not against forest. Rud's in a right tree, right place
and all those sort of sounds is correct. But what
we've got to stop is making sure that we're still
not seeing these these four areas of our conversion across
those those really important parts of our land for the
(02:10):
sheem beef country.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I see Federated Farmers I EU saying massive loopholes still
remain in the Environment Select Committee's recommendations. Now, one of
these controversies was around if you'd bought a few seed
links and you said you had the intention to plant,
you were allowed to go into the etes.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, and that's right, that's what we are concerned about.
Theres And you know, if we knew that there was
going to be a full scales stop to the full
farm convergence, and hey, maybe we could live with one
of these, one or two of these. But when we
know that, you know, this Select Committee hasn't come back
as far as we'd like to go, and we know that,
hey maybe this isn't going to stop, then hey, as
(02:52):
not as easy to let those go. So you're definitely
going to have to dig into some of those loopholes
to see what we're doing, and we'll we are presenting
quite a few of those to the Minister's table very
shortly no doubt.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So you're happy that farmers or people can plant twenty
five percent of land land class one to five, and
they're probably for a lot of them, especially the good
land classes. They're not going to plant pine trees anyhow.
You're saying land class six is potentially a lottery.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, well it's and that's the issue. And some of
that country is still a good country and is still
in Rome born to farms, and particularly you know, we
often talk about it getting our young farmers on the land,
giving them opportunity to farm some of that land before
they move kind of up the ranks or on to
better country as well. So there is all these factors
to be considered, and we don't feel like that what's
(03:40):
come back from the Sick Committee has truly represented that
for fads and certainly they worked at Richard Dawkins and
the Metal Council have been putting in.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So I'm just trying to remember, off the top of
my head how many land classes we have? Do we
stop at nine? Do we Is it nine? Where we stop?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah? It's nine?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, So effectively, so effectively playing Devil's advocate here, But
you want the carbon farmers to go and plant merely
away on land Class nine that is steep, erosion prone
land way out the back of beyond. Maybe it's all
right for carbon farming. It certainly has little value for forestry.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, but what figurably we're saying is if it's just
for forestry, that's fine. But when you're carbon farming, it's
a completely different story. So yeah, Hey, if they're wanting
to plant it, harvest it for wood and that sort
of thing, that's all good. But when you're claiming an
atheist crewit, which is effective what we said as a
subsidy and a poorly thought out one, then that's not
a good place to be.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I don't know whether you heard Dennis Nilsen on the
Oracle of Forestry a wee bit earlier in the week.
He said, basically he doesn't believe any pine trees are
planted without the intention of harvesting them. I call bs
on that one. What do you reckon?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, I would tell you that's certainly not what I've
been hearing in send part of the country of course,
where we you know, we haven't got to that point yet,
I don't think, and we're seeing it. We'll see a
gloss of it come next to head or two and
then we're going to have to deal with all those
problems that are associated with it.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
We talked about the farmer and the forest. Can forester
can be friends? Well, how about federated farmers and the
Labor Party can be friends? Are you're quoted as saying
or feeds are that they support the Labor Party minority
view from the Select Committee hearings that a thorough review
of the etes and carbon forestry should be undertaken. This
(05:27):
is what Damian O'Connor was banging on about.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Oh, it's good to see when you get to two
gingers putting their head together. I mean, Toby, we you know,
we sometimes ring some sense to hither and so and so.
Maybe that's maybe that's what's happening there. And yeah, ultimately,
you know, not everything that Damien has done has wrong.
We're incorrect, there is there are some points where he's
correct at times.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Your meeting with Chippy, I think next week will you
be raising and I'm going to raise it with them
shortly capital gains tax for farming or a wealth.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Takes, Yeah, no doubt we will be talking about that.
I think we're talking about a missions targets and a
few other things as well. But I mean, that's a
pretty simple and short conversation from our point of view,
and we'll be letting him know that it'll be interesting
to see what he's coming back back with and I'll
be looking forward to hearing une with him actually to
see what he sees on it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Wine Langford, President of Federated Farmers, Thanks for your time.
It's lunchtime. You go and have some breakfast.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well do thanks, Jamie, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
There he goes the President of Federated Farmers, Wayne Langford,
Let's kick off the show with the President of Federated Farmers,
Wayne Yolo Langford. Wayne flat out carving. You haven't even
had breakfast yet and it's gone midday.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I ah, good to be here, Jamie. I'm sitting up
in the trekker at the back of the farm, just
waiting for the cows to arrive at their break and
then I'll shoot home and have some breakfast hopefully. It's
been a big morning.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Stressful time for dairy farmers carving, even in good weather,
which you're enjoying at the moment.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, we're going to trusty mornings on a sunny day,
so I can't complain about that. You're right though, you
know it is. It is pretty intense and you're just
going from one drama to the next, so just hoping
that nothing happens. I had the local contractor or of
the Bobby calf truck knock over my knockover my Bobby
Calf pen this morning, so that doesn't help it my dramas.
(00:46):
So that's all right, we'll work through that.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Have you got your head around the Federated Farmer's press release,
I think it came out yesterday, the so called ban
on carbon forestry doesn't go far enough to stop the
march of pines across New Zealand's productive fan and Your
Forestry spokesperson Richard Dawkins sears, farmers will be feeling a
total sense of betrayal. Has he overegged that?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, well there is a bit of that going on,
because I mean we all remember that the promise are
standing on the Farmer Confidence till there in December saying hey,
we're going to stop in this full farm conversion. And
I know that they are attempting to try and do that,
but when they're only banning on Class one to five land,
that's only twelve percent of the area going into forestry.
So we need to do better than that. We've got
(01:33):
two thirds of our she and beef country that's Class
six or seven land and we need to protect it.
And so yeah, we definitely think it needs to go
further than what they've suggested.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So what would you like to see happen?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We need to we need to make sure that we
do cover off those different areas of land a he
of a lot better than we are. You know, we're
not against forest. Rud's in a right tree, right place
and all those sort of sounds is correct. But what
we've got to stop is making sure that we're still
not seeing these these four areas of our conversion across
those those really important parts of our land for the
(02:10):
sheem beef country.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I see Federated Farmers I EU saying massive loopholes still
remain in the Environment Select Committee's recommendations. Now, one of
these controversies was around if you'd bought a few seed
links and you said you had the intention to plant,
you were allowed to go into the etes.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, and that's right, that's what we are concerned about.
Theres And you know, if we knew that there was
going to be a full scales stop to the full
farm convergence, and hey, maybe we could live with one
of these, one or two of these. But when we
know that, you know, this Select Committee hasn't come back
as far as we'd like to go, and we know that,
hey maybe this isn't going to stop, then hey, as
(02:52):
not as easy to let those go. So you're definitely
going to have to dig into some of those loopholes
to see what we're doing, and we'll we are presenting
quite a few of those to the Minister's table very
shortly no doubt.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So you're happy that farmers or people can plant twenty
five percent of land land class one to five, and
they're probably for a lot of them, especially the good
land classes. They're not going to plant pine trees anyhow.
You're saying land class six is potentially a lottery.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, well it's and that's the issue. And some of
that country is still a good country and is still
in Rome born to farms, and particularly you know, we
often talk about it getting our young farmers on the land,
giving them opportunity to farm some of that land before
they move kind of up the ranks or on to
better country as well. So there is all these factors
to be considered, and we don't feel like that what's
(03:40):
come back from the Sick Committee has truly represented that
for fads and certainly they worked at Richard Dawkins and
the Metal Council have been putting in.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So I'm just trying to remember, off the top of
my head how many land classes we have? Do we
stop at nine? Do we Is it nine? Where we stop?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah? It's nine?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, So effectively, so effectively playing Devil's advocate here, But
you want the carbon farmers to go and plant merely
away on land Class nine that is steep, erosion prone
land way out the back of beyond. Maybe it's all
right for carbon farming. It certainly has little value for forestry.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, but what figurably we're saying is if it's just
for forestry, that's fine. But when you're carbon farming, it's
a completely different story. So yeah, Hey, if they're wanting
to plant it, harvest it for wood and that sort
of thing, that's all good. But when you're claiming an
atheist crewit, which is effective what we said as a
subsidy and a poorly thought out one, then that's not
a good place to be.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I don't know whether you heard Dennis Nilsen on the
Oracle of Forestry a wee bit earlier in the week.
He said, basically he doesn't believe any pine trees are
planted without the intention of harvesting them. I call bs
on that one. What do you reckon?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, I would tell you that's certainly not what I've
been hearing in send part of the country of course,
where we you know, we haven't got to that point yet,
I don't think, and we're seeing it. We'll see a
gloss of it come next to head or two and
then we're going to have to deal with all those
problems that are associated with it.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
We talked about the farmer and the forest. Can forester
can be friends? Well, how about federated farmers and the
Labor Party can be friends? Are you're quoted as saying
or feeds are that they support the Labor Party minority
view from the Select Committee hearings that a thorough review
of the etes and carbon forestry should be undertaken. This
(05:27):
is what Damian O'Connor was banging on about.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Oh, it's good to see when you get to two
gingers putting their head together. I mean, Toby, we you know,
we sometimes ring some sense to hither and so and so.
Maybe that's maybe that's what's happening there. And yeah, ultimately,
you know, not everything that Damien has done has wrong.
We're incorrect, there is there are some points where he's
correct at times.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Your meeting with Chippy, I think next week will you
be raising and I'm going to raise it with them
shortly capital gains tax for farming or a wealth.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Takes, Yeah, no doubt we will be talking about that.
I think we're talking about a missions targets and a
few other things as well. But I mean, that's a
pretty simple and short conversation from our point of view,
and we'll be letting him know that it'll be interesting
to see what he's coming back back with and I'll
be looking forward to hearing une with him actually to
see what he sees on it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Wine Langford, President of Federated Farmers, Thanks for your time.
It's lunchtime. You go and have some breakfast.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well do thanks, Jamie, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
There he goes the President of Federated Farmers, Wayne Langford,
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