The Country 15/05/26: Campbell Parker talks to Jamie Mackay

The Chief Executive of DairyNZ wraps up Dairy Week on The Country as we look at the changing landscape for the industry and why the rising cost of the five Fs is of concern.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Dairy Week here on the country and it's
been brought to you by Meridian and Farmlands. We've had
a lot of interesting chats this week. I thought I
would wrap it and wrap it with the bow with
the bloken charge of well looking after the dairy farmers
in some ways in New Zealand. Here Dairy and zed's
chief executive Campbell Parker and Campbell I want to talk

(00:21):
about the changing landscape for dairy farming. I was chatting
to Heather Duplicylan last night on z B and we
were talking about these dairy conversions in Canterbury. It seems
there's going to be more of them than originally expected.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
How are you, Jomy, Look, the first thing I'd say
about the dairy sector and let's come to the conversions.
But you know, dairy is the mainstay of this New
Zealand's economy and the prosperity and in the community. So
you know, we do do dairy well in this country
and that should be celebrated. That's my first point. In
terms of Canterbury conversions. There's lots of mixed numbers that
you hear, but I was in Canterbury myself this week

(00:58):
and I'll just put the f over around talking to
one farm of there who's converting so A, it's coming
out of cropping land and it's going into dairy at
a lower footprint than was previously farms. That's the first point.
The second point is they are including storage for the
effluent at five times more than what they're required to
by the council because they actually want to put that

(01:19):
across one hundred percent of the land. So the point
around that is farm has been a lot more precise
about how they're doing it, and the leading practices in
Cannabur are very good around that. So, yes, the activity
is happening, but it's very different than what people may
have a lens of historic conversions.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, we're looking at maybe an extra twenty five thousand
dairy cows over the next couple of years. Interestingly, the
total number a nationwide has dropped about two percent. And
I guess when you look at land use change and
a perfect example Campbell would be the Bay of Plenty.
I know some of that really good dairy country's going
into kiwi fruit.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Will we do this?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
You know, Jamie, that the annual dairy statistics and you're right,
that has numbers of cows have come well off the
peak from twenty fifteen and we see about one hundred
and fifteen one hundred and twenty farms go out of
very production either into things like horticulture, you know, urban
sprawl or amalgamations on an annual basis, and that's a
trend that is continuing.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
So you know we'll get balanced up somewhere else as well.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
What do you got going at field days because we're
counting the sleeps now, well, what's a month away.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, lot field does always are really important, you know,
part of the calendar.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I look forward to being there. It's a busy time.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
We'll be in three main spots, so we'll be in
our own one of the main pavilion, so we'll be
showcasing some of the critical work we're doing for farmers
access to where some of the science has been done
around what and how that links to research farms. We'll
be in the Science of Farmers Hub, so that's really
important around some of those bigger sector pieces that we're

(02:53):
doing around things like resilient pasts, is dairy beef and
where the sector is going. We'll also be in the
Advocation Sea Hub along with Federated Farmers around the whole policy.
And we've got general election this year and we've got
a small site for our dairy training business as well,
so you know, skills and supporting farmers were that, so
we'll be well represented.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Dairy is our biggest industry. We need it now more
than ever. The income side of the ledger has been
pretty good for the past couple of seasons. It looks
like it's going to be pretty positive as we look
ahead to the next season as well. The cost side
of the ledge is not quite as good. And you
guys at Dairy and Z talk about the five.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
F's, yeah, we do jo MEIG and you know that's
been driven by some of the crisis that's happening at
the moment offshore, but that's around fuel, fertilizer, feed, freight
and finance, but definitely on farm cost pressures.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
And I think that a couple of key things.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
It's done in cannibry this week took to number of
farmers that are definitely seeing it come through in all
of those categories, so the margins will get squeezed. Price
is good, but cost is definitely going up, so keeping
an eye on that. But it really goes back to
our point of advantage, which is homegrown feed. So you know,
the best farmers, regardless of system, are good at measuring performance,

(04:11):
measuring grass and converting it into milk and proteins. So
you know, back to some of those basics become really
important when you come under under cost pressure.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
And how good with the New Zealand Airy Industry Awards
last Saturday night and wrote the rower.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, wonderful celebration.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
I heard Graham McCullum give you a bit of a
you know, a wind up about coming into a video.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
But look, Grant, his name's Grant McCullum. He'll be upset
that you didn't get his name right there. Jeez, he's
a forgettable character. I don't blame you.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
You carry on, Yeah, but purposeful.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Look wonderful evening, six hundred and forty people in the
room and celebration right across the sector. I mean the
sectors in great heart, but we should always come together
and celebrate. And what I love about those awards is
it's where the emerging leader has come through that will
take the sector forward, whether it be trainee farm manager

(05:04):
or chief farmer.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
So wonderful celebration.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Campbell Parker, chief executive of Dairy and Zed and you,
my friend rap Dairy Week here on the Country with
Meridian and Farmlands. Thanks for your time.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Thanks Jamie. We look forward to seeing it field though,