The Country 17/10/25: Neville Clark talks to Jamie Mackay

Jamie catches up with a Gisborne local and legendary PGG Wrightson Livestock Auctioneer.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're broadcasting from the branch site very shortly for Rick Lad.
Do you think I'm being unkind? But I mean if
you were thinking of a name for a seventies pawn star,
Rick lad would be one of the first ones you'd
think of, wouldn't it. Oh yeah, Neville Clark by the way.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
With us, Yeah no, that would just roll out. I
mean he's probably he's probably seven or eight inches, but
shorter than a Rick Ladd would look.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well we're talking in high tier. Yeah, hi, yeah, okay, well,
thank goodness for that. Anyhow shall we get the show?
Should we get the show back.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
On the road?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now you've got a hip replacement, yes, limping like an
old man with your with your crutch there. And I
was going to say it was from your rugby days
at Riversdale back in the eighties when we were playing
forty there, But no doubt the old rodeo because your
former New Zealand Rodeo champ has taken a bit of
a toll on the body. Yes sort of.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
It wasn't really from that, but I mean I haven't
lived to life in the cupboard. I mean we've been
forty four years a stock agent, you know, on sale
yards and rolling over rails rodeo for twenty five years,
when playing polo for twenty years, and I mean life
for living, and I just don't want to look back
and say well I.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Had Well, I don't think you could ever be accused
of that. You're never going to die wondering. We were
talking to Toby Williams about the price of lambs at
the moment store lambs one hundred and eighty dollars six
dollars seventy two per kilogram. Lively, you've never seen anything
like that in your forty years in the business, have you.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
No, we haven't, And I mean it's a new era
and it's hard for a lot of people to get
the head around, but it is what it is. And
I mean you've got land use change is having a
big effect and we really haven't seen the full effects
of that. And I think of what happened to you
four fellas in South and a targo. I mean, those
those are numbers that we haven't seen come on yet.

(01:40):
And I mean the world's about to go into a
good period where protein is going to be needed. We
know we've had a protein shortage. We've talked about it
for ten years. I mean, reality is here.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, I know, carbon farming's a bit of a dirty
word up here. Your old mate Graham Williams the one
start him on that, But you know in my home
patch it is as well. And I'm for absolutely a
staunch supporter of forestry, right tree, right place, but it
has been an issue and I'm just hoping obviously a
change of legs are slation and perhaps more importantly, a

(02:14):
change in fortune for sheep and beef farmers, especially sheep farmers,
will stop this conversion happening on good pastoral land.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah. Well, I mean that's been a travesty of poor
leadership really, and hopefully we've turned the corner. Although I
do believe, you know, the regulation got going now they've
ring fenced it, but they've put a ten foot gate
in a fourteen foot hole, and they need to be
a bit you know, they need to be a bit
smarter about that. I know they need the urban vote,

(02:43):
but they need the rule vote, and that's what's going
to pull us out of this, and it's what makes
days like this so important for our community.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
So you talk a lot of sense. I know you
do a lot of auctioneering for charity, what do you
got lined up over the next couple of days.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
We've got some wonderful things. We've got the big Equine
Parade today which is celebrating hundred and fifty years of
the horse, and the horse has been so important to Giswyn.
And we've got some amazing equestrian people. May and Ham
is the first one that comes to mind, but we've
had some, you know, one the horse made what we are.
We've got the ball Ride tonight, which is something new
for us here. We normally have a shepherd drive, but

(03:16):
this is a big boys and tomorrow afternoon, good afternoons entertainment,
Grand parade, Shepherds challenge round the ring with a bit
of speed and hustle, motorbikes, donkey race. Yeah, it's just
going to be what makes Gisburne.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Quintessential heartland rural New Zealand. Thev Neville Clark, PGG Rights
and livestock auction. They're great to catch up mate, Always
good to see you again after all these year