The Country 19/06/25: Brendan Attrill talks to Jamie Mackay

We track down the recipient of the Gordon Stephenson Trophy and newly-crowned Ambassador for Sustainable Farming and Growing for 2025 - a South Taranaki dairy farmer, who’s about to jump on a plane to go riding dirt bikes in a Mongolian desert!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He was the big winner last night, the South Taranaki
dairy farmer who was named the twenty twenty five National
Ambassador for Sustainable Farming and Growing and he's the recipient
of the Gordon Stephenson Trophy at the National Sustainability Showcase
at Takena in Wellington last night. What an intro for
this man, Brendan atrall Brendan, I'm going to talk about

(00:22):
your farm in a minute, but very very shortly, you're
going to jump on a plane to go and ride
dirt bikes in Mongolia.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Why Hi, Hi, Jamie. Yes, it's just what we'll do.
I'm along with being supporter of food and fiber in
New Zealand and particularly the dairy and GMB sections. How
am i outs racing cross country mobikes and do lond

(00:50):
since rides across across New Zealand and moree in the
last ten years. Just really enjoy and going through the
Simpson Desert and then yeah, in about two hours of
jumping on a plane and going to my goalie and
going through a Goby desit so it's going to be stretched.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, you've earned the right for a break. Tell us
why you were selected amongst some very strong candidates to
effectively be the most sustainable farmer in the country. Balance
Farm Environment Awards is what I call it, and honestly,
to win this is a real feather in your cap.
You're following in some huge gum boots. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Look, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, all
the eleven contestants were absolutely awesome when we got to
when I really got to discover who they were and
their businesses. It's not about me and Susan and the
family popping our head above above the other contestants. It's
just I'm probably a little bit further along my sustainability

(01:51):
and bi diversity journey on our own property compared to
some of the other contestants. But I think the key thing, Jamie,
is so you know, Okay, it was a really cold
celebration last night, but all eleven of our cohort, we
have to all continue that leadership position with elation sustainability

(02:12):
and all our food and viber sections.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Your third generation dairy farmer on your farm? Is it
called hunger? Did I get that somewhere there right?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yep?

Speaker 1 (02:22):
And I had to look it up on the map
because I said to you, you anywhere near Smiley Barrett
being a South Taranaki dairy farmer, you said, you're kind
of almost on the other side of the mountain. You're
just east of Stratford.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, ten minutes, Sir, Stratford. A little micro climate, a
couple of meters of rain, quite cold in the winter,
quite hot in the summer, but very good sare types
a traditional small daring area in the province and really

(02:54):
strong partial production and that just gives us a little
bit of a competitive edge. You know, if you if
you're looking at doing sustainable dairy or milk production.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
How did the drought affect you this year?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, it was interesting Southier. I look after a number
of other farmers and my other my combined role of
supervising properties, and the drought in South Tiernikee around the
coast was similar to a good quality Turmoo drought. It's
good that we're bounced out of that and we're getting
significant covers and care conditions looking all right. Some of

(03:31):
the animal wealthy stuff's looking pretty cool, but we do
need a significant recharge in the South tieran Akee zone.
Central was pretty good. It was all relative. We were dry,
but you know, nothing compared to like I say, what
South Ernick you hit to cope with?

Speaker 1 (03:48):
When I was reading through your CV. The thing that
stuck out for me because there's hundreds thousands of really
good environmentally friendly farmers and dairy farmers in this country.
But yeah, it's like the two seas communication and community.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah. I was lucky enough to be a dairy board
consulting officer for for a decade and that gave me
some really good quality communication skills. And I suppose as
I've got into managing large teams and been involved in
charitable trusts around sustainability and forest and bird and some

(04:26):
other stuff I'm involved with it. If you've got a
good communication style, it allows you to to to lead
appropriately and take people with you, and it also allows
you to in my own gentle way, create change and
around particularly around the sustainability, biodiversity space and the And

(04:48):
the important thing for dairy at the moment is that
you know, it's important that we are we are reducing
looking to reduce the absolute emissions so that you know,
we can create really high quality protein. We can win
win on the global stage. And it's just not the
airy around pasture, it's around all our food and fiber sections,

(05:09):
or that we that we were creating such a good
story out in New Zealand and community. Yeah, I love
giving back to the industry stuff. I've got our feeds
roll around the small employer section that I really enjoy
working with young sheer farming couples, Forest and bird On,
a member of Forest and bird On, the safety manager

(05:32):
for for our projects in South Taranaki around wetlands, and
I've got two big key with protection blocks and yeah,
I just find them. I find the time, and generally
finding the time means that I've got the right people
in the right jobs, achieving the right kpies. And then
so that allows me to motivate my people and team

(05:56):
and freeze up a little bit of time that I
can just keep all that community stuff going.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
You are a high achiever. Finally, it says in your
CV you've got extensive experience both nationally and internationally, not
only around dairy farming, but also across goat, sheep and
beef farming. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
So on the international front of Wheaton Island, UK, Brazil,
China being the primary ones, I was lucky enough to
be involved with quite a large corporate setup of cows
in China and that taught me a lot about the

(06:34):
you know, the principal's business, how to do really good
project management and all that type of stuff. And then
in the New Zealand thing, in one of my corporate roles,
we finished fifty sixty thousand still lambs down in the
South Island on corporate farms. Mum and Dad had a

(06:54):
goat farm at one point that I went through that
that was a fiber five farm and then sinking and
rotating bits to dairy, which is for our family where
we're sitting on our durning at the moment as dairy
is where our strengths are. But it's you know, it's

(07:14):
such a bloody good story around New Zealand. You know,
we are so good. They're producing high quality proteins. We're
definitely winning on the global stage. Everyone knows that all
their products coming out of the country are safe and yeah,
I mean agricultures on a on a on a flyer
and it's just lovely to see some young couples that

(07:36):
actually want to commit to to leading and agriculture and
they want to be milk and cows and you know,
dagging the sheep and working on the high country stations
and working in vegetable production and under undercover and you know,
deer farms themselves, and it's just such an exciting story

(07:56):
for for New Zealand's right at the moment.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Gee, You're going to be a wonderful national ambassador for
sustainable farming and growing Brendan Natural South Taranaki Dairy Farmer.
Well done, Congratulations on a great night, Thanks for your time,
safe travels to Mongolia.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Cool. Thanks Jomi, Cheers, NTE