The Country 20/07/26: Karn Dhaliwal talks to Jamie Mackay

The 2026 Zanda McDonald Award winner is a highly regarded agricultural entrepreneur. At 32, he is the founder and owner of Ohinewai Harvest Ltd and Dhaliwal Ag Ltd in the Waikato, recognised for building a diverse cropping and horticultural business from the ground up.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well. Last week on the show we caught up with
Chloe Butcher Harries, the Hawkspace Sheep and beef farm manager.
Of course, she was a finalist in the twenty six
Xander McDonald Award along with Lana Marshall, a good Southlander
and this bloke the one who ended up winning it.
His name is Carn Delliwell. He is a horticulturalist from Waikato,

(00:23):
North Waykatto. Although are you more a dairy farmer these
tastes Carn good? Afternoon, Yeah, afternoon, Jamie.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey, great to be on the show.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
So we do grow blueberries Kei. We fruit and have
an annual cropping operation. But the intension was when me
and Bry set up this seven years ago was always
be a diverse five business and get back to our
roots of partial farming, which is our bread and butter.
To be honest, so did a bear com management and

(00:53):
production system, so is new to us. So part of
our ye ten year goal was to silk back to partials.
So yeah, we think there's no better time in this
industry for yeah, the next generation to get into it.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Do you think dairy? I mean this is a silly question,
but it's an interesting one has Derry got a better
future than horticulture.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
I think like Deary's got a lot of longevity around it.
And when you talk about horticulture, I think you've got
to be careful around, you know, the sort of main groups.
Like a big part of why the deer industry was
so successful was the you know you act that enabled
you know, combined marketing effort and consolidation. And if you

(01:39):
look across the fence at horticulture, what's gone really really
well is the same in kiwi fruit and that's a
single desk marketer. So I think depending on where you
are in the horticultural sector, it really determines how how
how well it is governed like anything. But yeah, there

(02:01):
is really positive at the moment and I think it
will be for a long time.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, well, well do so for kiw fruit. But surely
you wouldn't pull out kiwi fruit vines to put cows on.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh no, no, no, definitely not. But I think you know,
I've been we've been doing this for seven years now,
and we've really in the last three years a scarred up.
And I think when you're sitting in the seat driving it,
you see the opportunities ahead of you and right now
if you're seeing a combination of a lot of willingness

(02:36):
by the banks pit capital into the farming sector, and
you're also seeing high commodity prices, So as a business owner,
you've got the ability to really drive that top line
through good commodity prices, and then there's there's a good
fly of capital into the sector. So for anyone, any
aspiring farm or business owner, particularly the next generation coming,

(03:00):
think it's the best time to be gearing up to
really grow your business in the industry, whether that's in
horticulture or add Talk to.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Me about blueberries because we've kind of I jest with
another rural radio show about blueberry gait. Is it an issue?
Should we be concerned about importing blueberries? Because as I
understand that we export them as well, why can't we
just be self sufficient and blueberries here? That's why do
we import them?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, I think that the industry has raised their concerns.
I think some of them are certainly valid, and bi
securities at the top of our list and will cause
a major impact of the horticultural sector. There's always a
balance between our trading partners. As a small nation on

(03:48):
the fundamental of reciprocal trade. So it's in my penis
definitely a watch and see. Can we be self sufficient, yes,
we absolutely can be South Suss efficient. Can we live
without two way trade? Yeah, in my opinion that be
really tough to do that.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
We're a trading nation after all. Can you awarded the
Zander McDonald Award in March? What are we three four
months on? How's your life changed?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's been. It's been, to be honest, I just did
not expect the support from local farmers in my community.
The reach out of head, and the biggest thing is
the connections you make and the people you get around you.
That's the biggest value of HEAD. I mean, I'm always

(04:40):
asking the question of you know, how can we do?
What can we do better? And just having those the
heads and the heads that have been in the industry
for a long time alongside you has been just a
wonderful experience. So I just sometimes you get lucky and
I've been extremely privileged. And we've got the New Zealand

(05:01):
Tour coming up mentoring trip at the start of August
and we'll be having the twenty twenty five winners along
for that as well. So Bryce and myself will be
accompanied by Jack from Australia and Meghan from New Zealand.
There so really looking forward to it, but it's been
a wonderful experience.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Well, you make your own luck and you did very
well because you're beat off a very strong field. Chloe Butcher,
Harries and Lana Marshall. Lana, if you're listening, we might
try and get you on the show next week. Calm Deally, Well,
thanks for your time. Good luck with the kiwi fruit
and the blueberries and the dairy cows.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Appreciate that. Jamie, thank you.