July 28, 2025 • 5 mins
We catch up with a Methven arable farmer, who is also New Zealand’s special agriculture trade envoy. He discusses farmer confidence in the arable sector, trade, and tariffs.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's it like down sort of methan way we can
joined now by NZI specially a trade end boy member
of course, Hamish marked Hamous.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
How are you doing, Amosh? I'm very well, thanks And
the weather is a beautiful, stunning day today, not a
lot of cloud, not a lot of wind. We've had
probably two or three weeks now of what we would
call perfect winter weather to day's frosty, morning's.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Beautiful, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
And that's what it's been like where I sort of
spend half of the time down there with a great
team that remains in fielding. It's been like that, but
not here. Hey, look, of course farmer confidence survey time
and the dairy guys pretty positive sheep and beef sort
of somewhere in the middle there. But the arable, the
arable world much more challenging at the moment. Hamish, yeap.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
That is it in a nutshell, but it's probably worse
than challenging. And to put that simply, I would say
that inflation has caught up with arable farming. And I'm
not surprised to hear that confidence is down a lot,
because that's how I would feel as well.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, so well, what is really causing this term all?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Then?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
What are the what are the factors? What are the imports? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, put really simply, we've got high cost structure that
has caught up with a sale structure that's based on
international price. So we've got high costs of production and
low output costs and the two have virtually merged. So
pedical ryegraphs, for example, the profit margin and the foundation
(01:41):
bearable research did this work. So this isn't my research,
but the industry's research. The profit margin really isn't a
straw that we sell as opposed to the seed that
we're selling, because the costs are all absorbed in the production,
So there's a tiny bit left at the end.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
And that would be a tiny bit, wouldn't it. I mean,
that's just the.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We're talking about a profit margin by the time you
take all your costs out about five hundred dollars a
hector here, which is negligible.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Look, but what doesn't leave a lot of room for ero?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
No? No, it doesn't leave zero room for ERA, basically
doesn't it? Okay, So what's the is there? You know,
green shoots is the next twelve months. Is there any
hope sort of to start turning this around.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
There is hope. Hamoush Yes, and I gave a presentation
of the conference a while ago and described the eryl
sector as the perfect storm. At the moment, we've had
three years of global oversupply and our forage seed industry,
so there's been very good harvest in the Northern Hemisphere
over the last wee while. So there's a lot of
(02:55):
seeds sitting around. We have got them out, as you said,
a dairy in a sheep sector that are feeling buoyant again,
particularly the she even beef, so they will be wanting
to regrasp the very sector we wanting to feed grain.
So there is green shoots, but it highlights the fact
that our sector underpins all of those other ones and
(03:18):
there's very little room for us as arable farmers to
add value.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
It's interesting you say that perfect storm because I had
the absolute honor of being MC I think for the
Arable Awards that was three or four years ago now
in christ Church and I'm going and and things weren't
as you described them now as we know they are,
it's not the way you describe them as fact, So
that perfect storm has sort of come and hopefully it's
going to pass sooner than later. What are some of
(03:44):
the things that we can do, you know, what are
some of the regulation issues and the tariffs of this
world that are that are that are that can be
addressed or need to be addressed.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, there there's a few key things to me. The
arable sector we rely on being efficient because we live
in a world where export customers are heavily subsidized. We're not,
so we have to be efficient as we can. Therefore,
we need access to good technology, good chemistry, the things
(04:16):
that we rely on, good import regulation. We have some
troubles with the EPA at the moment getting new technology
into the country, so it would be good effect could
be fixed. In terms of the effects of tariffs on
the arable industry, I think that we're still trying to
(04:38):
sail that ship through or negotiate our way through those things.
It's a bit hard to know just yet, but it
probably is having a positive effect in terms of stuff
that would be destined for the United States that may
well be going to other countries maybe to avoid some
of those tariffs. So look Hamish, there is green shoots
(04:58):
for sure, but not that great just at the moment.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
No, I understand that, and let's hope things change in
terms of the EPA and in terms of ministry ministers, etcetera.
You know where does the sort of the rocket under
the proverbial need to be.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Well, the genuine thing about the arable industry is, to
my mind and the other farmer's mind, is that there's
there really is no one that's advocating on behalf ofout
the arable farmer per se. So if you think about
there in New Zealand, you think about beef and lamb,
you think about wine growers, you think about the other organizations,
(05:35):
the arable sector really doesn't have anyone that's doing that
on behalf of the sector. There is industry groups, but
no one that's genuinely doing it on behalf of the grower.
So I think that's the first thing we have to
sort out.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yep Okay, so plenty plenty needs to happen. Let's hope
there's a turnaround and get rid of this perfect storm. Hamershma,
thank you very much for joining us. Much appreciated, No worry,
thank you very much.
What's it like down sort of methan way we can
joined now by NZI specially a trade end boy member
of course, Hamish marked Hamous.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
How are you doing, Amosh? I'm very well, thanks And
the weather is a beautiful, stunning day today, not a
lot of cloud, not a lot of wind. We've had
probably two or three weeks now of what we would
call perfect winter weather to day's frosty, morning's.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Beautiful, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
And that's what it's been like where I sort of
spend half of the time down there with a great
team that remains in fielding. It's been like that, but
not here. Hey, look, of course farmer confidence survey time
and the dairy guys pretty positive sheep and beef sort
of somewhere in the middle there. But the arable, the
arable world much more challenging at the moment. Hamish, yeap.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
That is it in a nutshell, but it's probably worse
than challenging. And to put that simply, I would say
that inflation has caught up with arable farming. And I'm
not surprised to hear that confidence is down a lot,
because that's how I would feel as well.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, so well, what is really causing this term all?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Then?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
What are the what are the factors? What are the imports? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, put really simply, we've got high cost structure that
has caught up with a sale structure that's based on
international price. So we've got high costs of production and
low output costs and the two have virtually merged. So
pedical ryegraphs, for example, the profit margin and the foundation
(01:41):
bearable research did this work. So this isn't my research,
but the industry's research. The profit margin really isn't a
straw that we sell as opposed to the seed that
we're selling, because the costs are all absorbed in the production,
So there's a tiny bit left at the end.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
And that would be a tiny bit, wouldn't it. I mean,
that's just the.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We're talking about a profit margin by the time you
take all your costs out about five hundred dollars a
hector here, which is negligible.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Look, but what doesn't leave a lot of room for ero?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
No? No, it doesn't leave zero room for ERA, basically
doesn't it? Okay, So what's the is there? You know,
green shoots is the next twelve months. Is there any
hope sort of to start turning this around.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
There is hope. Hamoush Yes, and I gave a presentation
of the conference a while ago and described the eryl
sector as the perfect storm. At the moment, we've had
three years of global oversupply and our forage seed industry,
so there's been very good harvest in the Northern Hemisphere
over the last wee while. So there's a lot of
(02:55):
seeds sitting around. We have got them out, as you said,
a dairy in a sheep sector that are feeling buoyant again,
particularly the she even beef, so they will be wanting
to regrasp the very sector we wanting to feed grain.
So there is green shoots, but it highlights the fact
that our sector underpins all of those other ones and
(03:18):
there's very little room for us as arable farmers to
add value.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
It's interesting you say that perfect storm because I had
the absolute honor of being MC I think for the
Arable Awards that was three or four years ago now
in christ Church and I'm going and and things weren't
as you described them now as we know they are,
it's not the way you describe them as fact, So
that perfect storm has sort of come and hopefully it's
going to pass sooner than later. What are some of
(03:44):
the things that we can do, you know, what are
some of the regulation issues and the tariffs of this
world that are that are that are that can be
addressed or need to be addressed.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, there there's a few key things to me. The
arable sector we rely on being efficient because we live
in a world where export customers are heavily subsidized. We're not,
so we have to be efficient as we can. Therefore,
we need access to good technology, good chemistry, the things
(04:16):
that we rely on, good import regulation. We have some
troubles with the EPA at the moment getting new technology
into the country, so it would be good effect could
be fixed. In terms of the effects of tariffs on
the arable industry, I think that we're still trying to
(04:38):
sail that ship through or negotiate our way through those things.
It's a bit hard to know just yet, but it
probably is having a positive effect in terms of stuff
that would be destined for the United States that may
well be going to other countries maybe to avoid some
of those tariffs. So look Hamish, there is green shoots
(04:58):
for sure, but not that great just at the moment.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
No, I understand that, and let's hope things change in
terms of the EPA and in terms of ministry ministers, etcetera.
You know where does the sort of the rocket under
the proverbial need to be.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Well, the genuine thing about the arable industry is, to
my mind and the other farmer's mind, is that there's
there really is no one that's advocating on behalf ofout
the arable farmer per se. So if you think about
there in New Zealand, you think about beef and lamb,
you think about wine growers, you think about the other organizations,
(05:35):
the arable sector really doesn't have anyone that's doing that
on behalf of the sector. There is industry groups, but
no one that's genuinely doing it on behalf of the grower.
So I think that's the first thing we have to
sort out.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yep Okay, so plenty plenty needs to happen. Let's hope
there's a turnaround and get rid of this perfect storm. Hamershma,
thank you very much for joining us. Much appreciated, No worry,
thank you very much.
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