July 16, 2026 • 7 mins
Federated Farmers banking and RMA reform spokesman talks about the latest banking survey and why Feds are sounding the alarm over councils rushing to sign new Iwi partnership agreements before the RMA is replaced.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's kick it off with Mark Hooper. He's a Taranaki
calkocki Federated Farmers Banking, an RIMA Reform spokesperson, Mark. Good afternoon.
Have you started carving it on your Taranaki farm?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, we certainly have probably a
dozen or so in so it's just starting to really
ramp up.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Is it something you look forward to or something you dread?
I mean, being a former sheep farmer, was always excited
about the harvest of lambing, but I can't say I
ever really looked forward to lambing season.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's kind of one of those situations where you're not
looking forward to it, but once it gets underway, you
just kind of really want to get on with the
job and get it done. So then you're sort of
looking forward to seeing more come in and get get
it over and done with as soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I want to start with Federated Farmers Banking or Latest
Banking Survey. Some really interesting numbers and I've just had
a quick readily, so forgive me if I don't get
all the numbers right. So farmers have been repaying debt,
which is good. I mean, the farm debt has dropped
one point four billion to sixty one point two billion,
(01:13):
And I would have thought, for the life for me
that surely the dairy farmers would have had the biggest
median mortgage. But no, that's not the case. It's the
arable farmers. They've got an average or a median mortgage
of three point five million, the highest of all farm types,
and they're getting the worst returns at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, yeah, so that's right. So a little bit of confusion.
They're preps in terminology because the average for the dairy
survey is higher, but that's because there's some significant, big
players that make up those numbers. So it's more reflective
in terms of what the situation is. If you use
the mediane and the median number puts arable. Really whichever
(01:59):
way yet do it? It puts the arable guys certainly
got the heat on. They've got the highest medium mortgage,
and I've got the most commodity pressure and rising costs
pressure on them. So a bit of a tough situation
for those guys.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh absolutely, mind you you look at the cost of
headers or combine harvesters, whatever you want to call them,
you can get up. They can be up to a
million bucks.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, so that's the major issue actually, is the replacement
process there. And for a lot of guys, you know,
they would have had that on a regular, whatever it is,
three or five year kind of cycle, and it's almost
become incredibly difficult at the top end. And that has
a flowdown effect of course on the secondhand market as well,
(02:44):
because there'll be a lot of other small operators that
are looking out for those machines, but if they're not available,
it just keeps a squeeze on all the way through.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So the survey was taken over five hundred and forty farmers,
which is a pretty good sample size when you consider
the total number of farm in the country. Here's another
number that's quite interesting. The number of respondents with mortgages
under two million dollars has risen to forty one percent,
up from thirty eight. So that's a good number. But
(03:13):
it just goes to show you that, not surprisingly, when
you're dealing with large asset bases, there's a lot of
debt behind it.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, there is. Actually I think you'll find that there's
the number of farmers with mortgages under two million has
actually increased, So that's a reflection of the amount of
debt that has been paid down, and so just you know,
a little bit of a little bit of more regal
room I guess coming in there in terms of the
(03:45):
strategic use of both the good cash flow that we
had during the autumn, and of course the Fonterra capital
redistribution is perhaps playing into that as well.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
The average mortgage rate was five point four nine percent,
down from five point seven eight percent in the November survey.
Two out of five respondents in this May survey have
over seventy five percent of their loans on floating and
I guess, like a lot of business people, they've been
riding the ocr down on floating rates, but now it's
(04:19):
heading the other way. So I wouldn't be surprised, Mark
Hooper if when you do your next banking survey, the
average mortgage rate's probably going to be more than five
point four nine percent.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, yeah, well it's that And so it is interesting
just looking at what those ratios in terms of fixed
and unfixed, and there is a bit of exposure there,
so that's certainly an area of risk. I guess. The
thing to also consider around those average interest rates is
(04:51):
that there's quite a lot of very variance in those
rates in the rural sector, and so the banks are
also situation where they're competing quite strongly for that share
of the rural debt. And so that's going to help
in terms of keeping a little bit of a lid
on that process. And I think you know, within that gope,
(05:13):
if the people are doing good budgets and are showing
good business performance, then there is opportunity to keep those
interest rates fairly tight.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, just some good news for the banks to finish with,
because there were they off and our easy targets for us.
All farmer's satisfaction with banks reached sixty nine percent in May,
the highest rate recorded in the last eight years of
the FED Farmers twice a year banking surveys, and the
other one was because this number was getting worryingly high.
Number of farmers who said they were feeling undue pressure
(05:43):
from their bank came in at just ten percent, the
lowest since twenty eighteen. So that's a good news or
two good numbers to finish with. Now I want you
to put on your RIMA reform hat, Mark Hooper. Why
is FEDS or why are FED sounding the alarm over
councils rushing to sign new EWE partnership agreements before the
(06:04):
Resource Management Act is replaced. Is this skullduggery.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, there's certainly a bit of a gold rush of
activity happening there at the moment. We have just understanding,
I guess what the bigger picture is, and that is
these agreements, the man agreements are a joint decision making
kind of agreement on how counsels and e we will
(06:30):
operate around resource management planning processes and what have you.
So there's two things to understand here. One is why
these are sort of generally problematic. They're not all a
standard template, so they do vary a bit. And the
second thing as to why there's such a rush on
at the moment, and that's because there's I guess reasonably
(06:53):
well signaled in the new resource management legislation coming out
in the natural environment and spill. That's the process of
being able to introduce new agreements is likely to be stopped,
and so there's a rush on with them at the moment.
Because if you've got one underway now or signed up,
(07:16):
it's a statutory agreement, so that means it carries forward
into whatever new entity there might be either after the
legislation has been passed or even after a council has
been reformed. So if you can get them through now,
they carry on. And so that's why there's a real
rush happening at present.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well we're relying on you guys at feeds to keep
Mark Hooper, thanks for your tom good luck carving on
your Taranaki dairy farm.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Thank you for that
Let's kick it off with Mark Hooper. He's a Taranaki
calkocki Federated Farmers Banking, an RIMA Reform spokesperson, Mark. Good afternoon.
Have you started carving it on your Taranaki farm?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, we certainly have probably a
dozen or so in so it's just starting to really
ramp up.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Is it something you look forward to or something you dread?
I mean, being a former sheep farmer, was always excited
about the harvest of lambing, but I can't say I
ever really looked forward to lambing season.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's kind of one of those situations where you're not
looking forward to it, but once it gets underway, you
just kind of really want to get on with the
job and get it done. So then you're sort of
looking forward to seeing more come in and get get
it over and done with as soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I want to start with Federated Farmers Banking or Latest
Banking Survey. Some really interesting numbers and I've just had
a quick readily, so forgive me if I don't get
all the numbers right. So farmers have been repaying debt,
which is good. I mean, the farm debt has dropped
one point four billion to sixty one point two billion,
(01:13):
And I would have thought, for the life for me
that surely the dairy farmers would have had the biggest
median mortgage. But no, that's not the case. It's the
arable farmers. They've got an average or a median mortgage
of three point five million, the highest of all farm types,
and they're getting the worst returns at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, yeah, so that's right. So a little bit of confusion.
They're preps in terminology because the average for the dairy
survey is higher, but that's because there's some significant, big
players that make up those numbers. So it's more reflective
in terms of what the situation is. If you use
the mediane and the median number puts arable. Really whichever
(01:59):
way yet do it? It puts the arable guys certainly
got the heat on. They've got the highest medium mortgage,
and I've got the most commodity pressure and rising costs
pressure on them. So a bit of a tough situation
for those guys.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh absolutely, mind you you look at the cost of
headers or combine harvesters, whatever you want to call them,
you can get up. They can be up to a
million bucks.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, so that's the major issue actually, is the replacement
process there. And for a lot of guys, you know,
they would have had that on a regular, whatever it is,
three or five year kind of cycle, and it's almost
become incredibly difficult at the top end. And that has
a flowdown effect of course on the secondhand market as well,
(02:44):
because there'll be a lot of other small operators that
are looking out for those machines, but if they're not available,
it just keeps a squeeze on all the way through.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So the survey was taken over five hundred and forty farmers,
which is a pretty good sample size when you consider
the total number of farm in the country. Here's another
number that's quite interesting. The number of respondents with mortgages
under two million dollars has risen to forty one percent,
up from thirty eight. So that's a good number. But
(03:13):
it just goes to show you that, not surprisingly, when
you're dealing with large asset bases, there's a lot of
debt behind it.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, there is. Actually I think you'll find that there's
the number of farmers with mortgages under two million has
actually increased, So that's a reflection of the amount of
debt that has been paid down, and so just you know,
a little bit of a little bit of more regal
room I guess coming in there in terms of the
(03:45):
strategic use of both the good cash flow that we
had during the autumn, and of course the Fonterra capital
redistribution is perhaps playing into that as well.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
The average mortgage rate was five point four nine percent,
down from five point seven eight percent in the November survey.
Two out of five respondents in this May survey have
over seventy five percent of their loans on floating and
I guess, like a lot of business people, they've been
riding the ocr down on floating rates, but now it's
(04:19):
heading the other way. So I wouldn't be surprised, Mark
Hooper if when you do your next banking survey, the
average mortgage rate's probably going to be more than five
point four nine percent.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, yeah, well it's that And so it is interesting
just looking at what those ratios in terms of fixed
and unfixed, and there is a bit of exposure there,
so that's certainly an area of risk. I guess. The
thing to also consider around those average interest rates is
(04:51):
that there's quite a lot of very variance in those
rates in the rural sector, and so the banks are
also situation where they're competing quite strongly for that share
of the rural debt. And so that's going to help
in terms of keeping a little bit of a lid
on that process. And I think you know, within that gope,
(05:13):
if the people are doing good budgets and are showing
good business performance, then there is opportunity to keep those
interest rates fairly tight.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, just some good news for the banks to finish with,
because there were they off and our easy targets for us.
All farmer's satisfaction with banks reached sixty nine percent in May,
the highest rate recorded in the last eight years of
the FED Farmers twice a year banking surveys, and the
other one was because this number was getting worryingly high.
Number of farmers who said they were feeling undue pressure
(05:43):
from their bank came in at just ten percent, the
lowest since twenty eighteen. So that's a good news or
two good numbers to finish with. Now I want you
to put on your RIMA reform hat, Mark Hooper. Why
is FEDS or why are FED sounding the alarm over
councils rushing to sign new EWE partnership agreements before the
(06:04):
Resource Management Act is replaced. Is this skullduggery.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, there's certainly a bit of a gold rush of
activity happening there at the moment. We have just understanding,
I guess what the bigger picture is, and that is
these agreements, the man agreements are a joint decision making
kind of agreement on how counsels and e we will
(06:30):
operate around resource management planning processes and what have you.
So there's two things to understand here. One is why
these are sort of generally problematic. They're not all a
standard template, so they do vary a bit. And the
second thing as to why there's such a rush on
at the moment, and that's because there's I guess reasonably
(06:53):
well signaled in the new resource management legislation coming out
in the natural environment and spill. That's the process of
being able to introduce new agreements is likely to be stopped,
and so there's a rush on with them at the moment.
Because if you've got one underway now or signed up,
(07:16):
it's a statutory agreement, so that means it carries forward
into whatever new entity there might be either after the
legislation has been passed or even after a council has
been reformed. So if you can get them through now,
they carry on. And so that's why there's a real
rush happening at present.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well we're relying on you guys at feeds to keep
Mark Hooper, thanks for your tom good luck carving on
your Taranaki dairy farm.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Thank you for that
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