The Country 18/12/25: Chris Russell talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Australian correspondent reflects on the Bondi Beach shooting, beef feedlots at 100% capacity and his Aussie Ag person of the Year.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
But last week on the Countries for our favorite correspondence.
This bloke is probably my favorite correspondent because he's my
most long standing been on the shows since nineteen ninety four,
Pussie correspondent Chris Russell. And Chris would be remiss of
me not to talk to you, and I've avoided it
largely this week because it's so tragic and depressing, the
Bondi Beach massacre. As a Sydney height, this must be

(00:24):
so distressing to you and everyone in Australia.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think it absolutely and almost you know, Australia likes
to think of himself as being above them, beyond all
that sort of thing. But of course when no one's
immune from it, and especially this radicalization that's obviously occurred
with these guys were particularly the young fire. But the
big effect that's been talked about in the agricultural world

(00:49):
is the potential effect on gun control and you know,
some sort of knee jerk reaction to what farmers and
feral pest controllers are now allowed to use in the
never ending battle against the pigs, cats, rabbits. Boxes all
required different caliber, different numbers of weapons, close long range,

(01:13):
et cetera, and yet if there's some sort of blanket
rule board in that says that they can't have more
than say three weapons, and they you know, and they
start restricting. There's some ideas which I think are a
good idea, like, for example, you have to be an
Australian citizen to get a license. That's a great idea.
But they've got to make sure that they don't throw
the baby out with the bath water in terms of

(01:34):
feral animal control of this. The problem is that forty
percent of the licenses, Jamie are being held in the cities,
and the average number of guns that these people in
the cities have is five, which clearly people in the
cities don't need five weapons other than for maybe their
own sort of edivocation and interest. So we're going to
see some changes, but let's hope that they just keep

(01:56):
in mind that for some people they're a tool of
trade and are very necessary.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
One Jamie sympathies go out to your nation, Chris. Feed lots,
let's talk about of farming are at one hundred percent capacity.
We just can't get enough beef.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, well absolutely, and of course that's having a big
effect on store cattle where they're paying five dollars a
kilo for store animals to put in these feed lots.
We've got about a million and a half spaces in
feed lots. They're all absolutely full. And of course China's
extra demand during the period when they had the registered
those American beef suppliers that really boosted it. But that

(02:35):
everything still seems to be going up, and of course
underlying that is America, our biggest customer now taking all
the off cut meat at the record numbers every month.
I've lost track with how many records we set this year.
So feed lots are doing well, they're expanding. It's hard
to become a feed lot in Australia. The environmental controls
is significant. I remember visiting a guy in Queensland who's

(02:58):
one fence one foot in the old money inside the
limit of how fai had to be from his neighbour's fence,
and that stopped the entire feed lot. So it's a
very hardening to own a feed lot. But actually with
large numbers and the ones that are there absolutely flat
out at the moment.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Who is your agg person of the year and this
is your Australian Egg Person of the Year, because we're
announcing as on tomorrow's show Who Are You.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Going Well, I've got a joint award here to doctor
Peter Kirkland, team leader and doctor Paul Hicks, the virologists
for the foot and mouth disease vaccine program they developed
here in Sydney at the Elizabeth MacArthur Institute. They've managed
to use tay technologies used in COVID vaccine, but this
time to foot and mouth. Of course, we couldn't bring

(03:43):
the foot and mouth vaccine that's used worldwide because it's
based on live virus and that's prohibited from import into Australia.
So we have a Sydney here. We send a lot
of it to Indonesia, but we can't use no oarn tattle. Well,
this one, once it's registered, will be able to the
tests extraordinary live uninfected cattle mixed up with infected cattle.

(04:05):
None of them that had been actually in vaccinated with
this actually got sick with put in mouth. So to me,
he's potentially saved US fifty billion dollars in costs if
we ever had even one outbreak here in Australia. And
for he he's the unsung hero of agriculture this year.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Jamie Chris Russell, thanks for your contribution throughout twenty twenty five.
For catching back next year mate, for your thirty second
year in a row and really enjoying will enjoy day
two of that third Ashes Test at the Adelaide over
one of my favorite sports grounds in the world. Catch
you next year, mate

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, no worries and Hay Christmas all the listeners and
look forward to it.