July 19, 2026 • 40 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Ray Smith, David Seymour, Mike Whitty, Karn Dhaliwal, and Phil Duncan.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's The Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to a Suzu get demo
deals on the tough Dmax today.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Good afternoon, New Zealand. Welcome to the Country. I'm Jamie McKay.
The show is brought to you by Hi Suzu and Farmlands.
I was almost going to say rabobank again. I've got
to get my act in order. Look up my bit
short on sleep to be perfectly honest. Up at about
two thirty, just to check the score and the open
the British Open. Back to sleep. Up at four point
(00:56):
thirty to see Foxy bring it home? How good was
that Swarting highlight of the year? And the Football World
Cup was a bit of a damp squib in the
end the final after those great England games. But anyhow,
this is largely a rural show. I'll get told off,
so let's rip into it. One of the big issues
out there at the moment is the bird flu. So Raymith,
(01:18):
director General of MPI, is going to join us an attack.
He's waiting on hold to update the situation. We're hearing
that the country's largest egg supplier, Mainland Poultry, responsible for
forty percent of our eggs has put their chicks in
too effective lockdown. David Seymour, our Deputy Prime Minister, Act
(01:40):
Party leader, denying the election will be fought by celebrities
more interested in glitz than graft. Plus, we're going to
have a look about why. We'll find out why he
wants to make life easier for agricultural drone uses. Carn
Dallywell twenty twenty six Xander MacDonald Award winner. We talked
to Chloe Butcher Harry's last week. This guy won the
(02:01):
twenty twenty six award. A dynamic young guy who's involved
in horticulture and dairy. Mike Whitty out of Ravensdown. Trump's
doing a snow favors when it comes to fertilizer, the
price thereof and the availability this spring and Fell Duncan
on the weather we're in the depths of winter. Wasn't
a bad weekend where I wasn't an Eden All that
(02:23):
on the show. Plus, Michelle will have rural news for
you as well, and we can play a wee bit
a sweet. It has been the big news story of
the past week here in New Zealand. Yes, the threat
(02:43):
of bird flu. Now I'd note that New Zealand's largest
egg supplier, Mainland Poultry, is putting hundreds of thousands of
free range chickens into lockdown after the deadly bird flu
virus was detected in the country for the first time.
We've had two cases. To update the situation for us,
the Director General of mp I, Ray Smith Ray, did
(03:06):
you have a busy weekend keeping on the job here?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, we'll get a Jamie ye.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Look, Actually, my team they've been flat out last week
actually with us and and of course you'll note from
you know, the various things that we've been at together
at field days and various other presentations over the last
couple of years with the farming community. I've been talking
about this bird flu potentially coming to New Zealand and
of course it was the risk was heightened for us
(03:32):
when we did have that big outbreak and Maine that
a different sort of bird flu, but it gave us
an insight. But it is here now, and of course
there's been about seventeen cases in Australia over the last
month and so we expected to see birds landing here
with it as well. Only two detected at this point,
but given one of them is a native bird in
the y rapper, you would expect that we will find more.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So this highly pathogenic H five N one strain. Is
it worse on the strain from two years ago.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Well, different in terms of the mortality on the birds,
it's about the same. The difference is that this one
is spread by the wild bird population that have been,
you know, traveling across the world, particularly these big pelagic
seabirds that live out in the ocean and then come
on too land periodically. So the difference here is this
is spread by wildlife. The other one was more of
(04:27):
a localized thing where it was a low virus intensity
that had come from probably ducks or a swamp area
in New Zealand that had gotten into a poultry shed.
And just remember poultry, you know, don't have a long
life in these production systems, so they don't develop strong immunity,
so the disease spreads very quickly. So different, two different
(04:48):
types of avian influenza. This is the one we've always
been worried about though because Jamie with the one that
happened two years ago, mainland poultry, we could quarantine that facility,
which is what we did, and we worked with mainland
and we stamped it out and that facility has been
repopulated and it didn't spread anywhere else in New Zealand.
The difference here is because this is in the wild
(05:11):
bird population, it will spread obviously with the wind, and
so it's not controllable in the sense of being able
to quarantine or stamp it out.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So basically you got to keep the chocks on the cover.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Well, look in the UK, where they'd had five or
six years of this their experience, and we had people,
industry people and MPI people go together to the UK
to look at their experience. It comes in sort of
waves and a bits in the way that you remember
we had.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
These waves with COVID and we still do a little.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Bit now it doesn't have much prominence now. And what
they do is they still have birds that live outside.
People still have free range operations, but periodically they have
to bring the birds inside and they house them as
these waves pass through. So we're right at the beginning
of this. So nobody quite knows how extensive the viruses
in New Zealand, or how much spread there is, or
(06:02):
quite where we are on that cycle.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, I'll tell you what you guys at MPI and
I do pat you on the back. Have done a
pretty good job of keeping our borders safe. But the
heroes behind the scenes, the public of New Zealand, I
know they were on the ball with the Was it
the yellow legged hornet the last critter that was causing
us a bit of grief? Well, you've had something like
one hundred and fifty seven notifications on Saturday alone of
(06:27):
dead or unwell.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Birds, Jamie, the public of been outstanding, and actually that
was just Saturday.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
But since this outbreak.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Was first announced last week, we've had around six hundred
notifications where people have observed dead birds or sick birds
or something that they're concerned about. I mean, the key
thing here is we're interested in where someone sees a
few dead birds, you know, in proximity that it did.
(06:56):
Of course, you're going to come across a dead bird
here and there. I came across one back out on
the weekend. You know it had flying into a window.
So no need to report that, just dispose of it
in the normal manner. But what we are asking people
to do is where they see something unusual, particularly if
it's out on the coastline, and they and they spot
birds that are seabirds. That's a good early sign at
(07:17):
the stage. Although you know, we had a native hawk
which you know, they traveled to the coastline, but it
was found in a carleton somewhere. And so if everyone's
got their eyes open and keeps the reporting up, we'll
do our best to triage those cases and get out
pick them up and test them where we need to.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Obviously this is a real threat to the egg industry.
Mainland poultry, which has gone into lockdown supplies nearly forty
percent of the country's eggs. What about the chicken meat
side of the equation, and then going further on from that,
this is a two hipart question. Any risk of transmission
to animals or humans. Let's start with the chicken meat.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, no, of course, of course, for both chicken meat
and for egg producers. It's a serious issue. And if
the you know, really the way to keep it out
is to keep wild birds away from any ability to
contaminate or mix with, you know, with poultry. So you
don't want sort of birds getting in there with the
(08:19):
seces and water or anything like that, or birds mixing,
mixing any particular way. So they buy security measures on
these poultry farms, be their egg producers or chicken meat farms,
are really critical of course in the in the chicken
meat industry, the turnaround of birds, you know, from their
growth rate and then in production and then into supermarkets
(08:40):
is a lot faster than through the egg production system.
So they're constantly rotating birds through of course, as you
would expect, and they have got very good protocols around
how to deal with these things if if they do
tune up. But of course the biggest thing is to
try and try and keep it out, I mean in
relation to other animals, and said that this is new
(09:00):
for us in New Zealand, but you know, it's been
traveling around the world for five or six years, and
the only outbreak that really has been reported in cattles
in the United States. And you and people listening to
you will know that their farming systems in the United
States for kettle are quite different than what we have
here in New Zealand, which are largely outside extensive grazing systems,
and so you know, the way in which the kettle
(09:22):
got contaminated is unlikely to occur here, and in fact,
it hasn't been reported in any material way in the
UK or Ireland or places that we would see is
more similar to us in farming systems.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Keep our borders safe. Keep up the good work at MPI.
Rasmith Director General, thanks for your time, Thanks Jamie sixteen
after twelve. Thanks Ray And what should you do if
you spot some sick birds? Well, if you see three
or more sick or dead wild birds in a group,
reported immediately to the Exotic Pest and Disease Hotline. Now
(09:55):
that number is write it down or remember it O
eight one hundred and eighty ninety nine sixty six from
anywhere in New Zealand, or report online at a report
dot MPI, dot govt dot NZ. Remember if, in like
race case, it's a bird that's flown under the window,
don't bother reporting that. It's very important we don't clog
(10:18):
the services up. But New Zealand is certainly paying their
bits of paying playing their role, should I say in
keeping bird flu out of New Zealand. Although to be honest,
everyone knew it. It was a matter of when not it,
So it's a matter of controlling it now. Up next,
David Seymour, is the election going to be fought by
(10:40):
celebrities more interested in glitz than graft and what are
ACT doing to make life easier for the users of
agricultural drones. We're going to chat to the twenty twenty
six Zender McDonald Award winner, Calm Dallywell, Mike Whitty out
a Ravens down. How much is your furt going to
cost you this spring thanks to the Middle East and Shakira.
(11:04):
It's not only the Middle East, it's Russia Ukraine that's
causing us problems there. Plus Phil Duncan on the weather.
(11:34):
David Seymour is the ACT party leader also Deputy Prime Minister.
David What is it about this twenty twenty sixth election
with the celebrity candidates Winston Scott, Tyane Randall, Stu Nash
if you can call stew a celebrity and Michael Laws
but Batwaller, I think you might have trumped them with
Paul Henry.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Yeah, I think I think most people have been saying
Paul's in a slightly different category. I'm not really following
what are doing. Good luck to them, but there's very
few people who understand that we need the rule of law,
property rights, open markets, the ability to accumulate capital, trade
(12:13):
freely and actually make money. That's what makes the world
go around. Most people in politics are trying to do
some version of robing Peter to pay Paul. So when
you get someone like Paul Henry who is a genuine,
true believer, his philosophy is ACT. He's a great communicator,
(12:34):
huge profile, and he's just piercing some of the gloom
over New Zealand politics. Of course you grab him with
both hands and we couldn't be happier. He's home.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Did he come to you or did you come to him?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Well, we've been talking for about three years. He wrote
an OpEd before the twenty twenty three elections saying he
was going to vote for US. Then a couple of
years ago he spoke to his our conference and he
was a total smash hit at the twenty four ACT conference.
And we've been talking over the years, and I don't
think anyone really went to anyone. That just kind of evolved.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
He's obviously going to get an electable position on your list.
Is that going to chuck out a good ACT candidate?
And I do not I do note that you're losing
two in my mind, really good ACT MPs, both retiring
stepping aside Brook Van Velden and of course mister Mark Cameron,
you're our guy, the old Northland farmer. Got a lot
(13:27):
of time for him, well so do I.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
And you know they're both going for different reasons and
they're both massive talents and massive losses. But on the
other hand, you know actors now are going concerned. So
Andrew Hogart I think has just come in to his
own the way he's been managing this arrival of bird
flu and farm environment plans and just about every issue
you think about. If I was in rural in New Zealand,
(13:51):
I'd be pretty happy that you've got someone who actually
knows what he's talking about at cabinet like Andrew Hoggart.
So you know, we can replace people. And as far
as Brock goes huge lost, huge talents. I'm as a
friend very happy for her, and I do consider a
long term personal friend. But obviously he has a colleagues
that annoyed that she's leaving us. So look, we keep
(14:13):
going and those two will be missed, but they will
also be replaced by great talent.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Do some of these celebrities bring glitz rather than graft?
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Look, I think if you look at Paul he's been
interviewed about a whole lot of policy stuff and he
gets it right. So you know, he's a genuine acts person.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, we're thrilled to have him.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
I think he's home.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Do you support Winstonce and Shane's pitch for one billion
dollars to survey our offshore oil and gas fields? That
was the big announcement from New Zealand first yesterday. Your
brother in arms of course, those two brothers in arms,
your coalition partners, David, I know that you get along
with them famously.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Well potentially. I mean a couple of questions. Number one is,
over the last few decades, oil companies have surveyed most
of New Zealand, So you'd have to ask, first of all,
for a billion dollars, what problem are we solving that
isn't already What are we going to find that it's
not already known by people that have paid for the survey?
And I guess the second issue is I don't want
(15:16):
to dwell on the past and people go back and forth,
and he said, she said, but it is a genuine
policy issue that you know, the reason people aren't investing
in New Zealand as because the government, you know, eight
years ago now, but still people have a long memory
because oil and gas exploration has a long time frame.
That government that those guys were part of scared the
(15:39):
Jesus and said maybe you can't trust New Zealand. So
whatever you make of that, I want to go into
the politics of it, but it is a genuine problem.
Let's assume that you know, people don't know where the
oil and guesses and the governments neands a billion dollars
and does find some potential. Then you have to actually
persuade people to come here. If they're not prepared to
come in for it themselves, will they make the much
(16:02):
larger investment in extracting it.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
So, look, there's a.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Lot of questions around it. You can't fault the intent.
We do need more energy and we are going to
need fossil fuels for a long time. But there's a
few questions there that I think probably need answers before
we sign up to it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Let's talk a week bit of policy if we can.
You're interested in drones, particularly agricultural drones.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Yeah, Look, some people will have seen Clarkson's farm, his
frustration with the regulators up there in England. Not much
different here. Huge potential for surveying and spraying and so on,
but the CIA is very tough on them. We're promoting
a new policy that we want to roll out in
a lot of areas after the election. That's innovation trials,
(16:46):
where you basically say, here's a bunch of rules. We
don't want to go through two years of negotiating rule changes.
We're just going to delete a bunch of rules in
a select area for a select time, make it easier
to use an agricultural drone. And hey, look if in
a couple of years time people have used this innovation
trial and the world hasn't ended, maybe we make it permanent.
So it's just a faster way of deregulating. And I
(17:07):
think it could be very good because ultimately, you Kiwi
Farmer is the most innovative community in the world, but
they can't be held back by red take. If we're
going to unlock New Zealand's potential, then we've got to
start doing more stuff with better technology than we have
been so far.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
David Seymour, thank you very much for your time. Good
on you for bringing Paul Henry into the election. Love
them or loathe them, and everyone seems to have an
opinion on him. He's certainly going to liven up the campaign.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Yeah, what to please are good on you, Jesus, I
got all on my line. Good on you, damd.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Thank you David. Where is he gone? I think that's
a bit of a Freudian slip there, Thank you, David Seymour.
Yet talking about drones, they're causing, believe it or not,
all sorts of grief for New Zealand farmers. I'll tell
you why after the break with Mike Whitty out of
Ravens Down. The reignition is that the right word of
(18:02):
the Middle East conflict. It's gloves off over there. Now,
what's it going to mean for farmers fertilizer prices in
the spring. We'll ask Mike Whitty that We're going to
talk to carn Delliwell. Twenty twenty six Xander McDonald Award winner,
a dynamic young man, only thirty two years of age
and he already has a huge farming portfolio. And Phil
(18:23):
Duncan on the weather. It's all on the country. Michelle's
going to wander in here and do rural news. She's
very excited by the way. There's so much good sport
on she's very excited about the new world mile record
that stood since nineteen ninety nine was broken over the weekend.
We'll talk about that as well as Foxy Obviously the
(18:47):
World Cup, if you haven't caught up on that one. Well,
even though Spain sort of won it narrowly, Argentina were
never really in it, and the Black Caps are going
pretty well in the West Indies. Mike Whitty is the
(19:11):
chief operating officer for Ravens Doown, of course, one of
the two big fertilizer companies in this country. Now, this
Middle East war is doing no one anywhere in the
world any good as far as I can see, and
it's certainly going to bite hard this spring for New
Zealand farmers. How hard Let's ask the man himself. This
(19:31):
Middle East situation is getting worse rather than better, Mike,
what sort of effect is that going to have on
fertilizer and the cost thereof this spring?
Speaker 6 (19:40):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Look, we've already seen the impact over
the last three or four months from the Middle East,
but it's continuing and I suppose that's the ongoing impact
and uncertain We're in a very good position, very good
stocks in country or on the water, So where it
(20:05):
ends up is still a question mark. And price wise, look,
prices escalated significantly for nitrogen products that've come off quite
a lot, and now we're seeing it starting to go
back up again, So there's uncertainty there. But for the spring,
we're in a very good position.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I guess it's a bit like the fuel situation. It's
not a supply issue, it's a price issue.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
A number that i'd read reported was that for the
average dairy farmer, I guess we'll use the dairy industry
because it's our biggest farming industry, the forecast for fertilizer
prices for this spring would be up by an average
of forty three percent. Does that number still hold true
or will it be more?
Speaker 6 (20:49):
Yeah, Look, I think that that's a pretty good indication overall,
and it depends on the product being consumed, of course,
But nitrogen ices have gone up quite significantly soften.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Recently, but again with this.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
With the conflict kicking off again, we're starting to see
that move up again. But you know, I think we're
okay for the spring, but volatility and uncertainty is going
to be an ongoing challenge for the industry, and there's
you say, energy is a key component of that.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And it's not just the Middle East war or conflict
as Trump calls it, that's causing a New Zealand farmer's issue.
This Russia Ukraine thing is starting to blow up. No
bad pun intended either.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Yes, you're right, Jamie. It's having quite a significant impact on.
What we're seeing is Ukraine's been very successful with drone
attacks within Russia and going over getting up to over
a thousand kilometers away from the borders. And what that's
focused on is energy, so oil, fertilizer, infrastructure because some
(22:02):
of that's used in explosives, and a lot of the infrastructure.
So what we're seeing there is, you know, Russia to
some countries is a significant exporter of energy and fertilizer
and that's directly been impacted now so again reducing supply
from a world point of view.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Because we manufacture super phosphate, correct me if I'm wrong
here in New Zealand, we do, don't we?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yes, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So does it stand to reason that there's not going
to be as well an issue there?
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Yeah, Well, the positive about that is that we get
our sulfur out of Canada from a long term supply
of their and our possate rocks are coming out of
Australia and Africa.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
So you know, other than.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
The impact on price on sulfur because fifty five percent
of the world to trade is not available at the moment,
but you know there's a clear price in pack but
availability are strong.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
We're in a really good position.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Okay a couple to quickly finish on can farmers buy
now and save money later? I can you afford by
and try and at least lock in the market at
these levels.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Yeah, Look, people can purchase now if they want to
make that decision. Look, I think that where the prices
in market are now you are about reflective on what
the international prices are today. But you know there is
(23:34):
clearly a risk with escalation in the Middle East impacting further.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
And just a final word, congratulations to the team at
Ravenstown whoever made the decision. It might have been you,
Mike Whitty, the chief operating officer to sponsor sponsor that
most iconic of Canterbury christ Church events, the Canterbury A
and P Show. I'm sure Sir David Carter will be
very pleased.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
I'm sure he is, and we're very proud to be
a sponsor. You know, we've been there for a long time,
so we see it as an important part of the
agricultural industry in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
So yeah, happy to help out.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's a great event. Love it. Mike Widdy from Ravenstown,
Thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Excellent, Thanks Jamie.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
That is coming up to twenty five way from one
here on the country. Someone has texted and wants to
know the eight hundred number for the dead or sick birds.
I hope you haven't got three or more at your
place because if you have, that number is eight hundred
eighty ninety nine sixty six. Some feedback coming and hi Jamie.
(24:42):
The big problem we have after the disgraceful debarcle of
the band by the last labor New Zealand First government,
and I'm assuming they're meaning the oil and Gas Band
there for research band is rebuilding investor confidence. They won't
bother with us unless there is long term certainty. It's
as simple as writes Tony. And the proposed nitrogen fertilizer
(25:04):
plant in South And would be quite handy. At the moment.
New Zealand would be self sufficient says Matt. Yeah, because
we've got Capuni and Taranaki there, but I reckon we
should build another one seriously, like we need to be
self sufficient and well Shane wants us to be self
sufficient and fossil fuels. We've got plenty of coal, but
(25:25):
we need to be self sufficient in things like urea
and oil. Imagine if we were self sufficient and oil,
what a good position we'd be. And right up next
rural news and sports news. It has been a cracker
of a day, in fact, the cracker of a weekend
for sport Calm Dallywill before the end of the Dynamic
Young New Zealander and Phil Duncan. He's a New Zealander,
(25:49):
he's no longer young.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
What food.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Twenty one away from one? You're with the country right
some of your feedback in Margaret from Taranaki has texted
me in and said, get Jamie, how do we keep
seven paradise ducks out of our beefe's beef cattle, our
beefe's round concrete water troughs to prevent contamination in case
(26:25):
this bird flu Well, Margaret from Rahutu and Taranat, I
know a way you could get rid of the seven
Paradise ducks is there duck sheeting season still open?
Speaker 8 (26:37):
And Taranaki No, Taranaki actually closed at the end of jow.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Maybe you can't do that, sorry, Margaret, we'll put a
silencer on. No, I'll just get in trouble for saying
that it's still going down here, isn't it?
Speaker 8 (26:48):
That is I think this week he might be the
last weekend. Text as if I'm wrong about that, send
it on, but I think this weekend's the last weekend.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
They're pests. They're in your cattle's water trough.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
And also it's a banging limit on them as well,
So just make sure you.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Look that up.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Well, it won't it'll be more than seven, won't it.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
It's more than seven.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
But yeah, go on, Margaret, go out and blast them.
That'll get me in trouble. Here's Michelle. She's going to
settle things down with Rural.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
News, the country's world news with cub Cadets, New Zealand's
leading right on lawn Bower brands at steel Ford dot
co dot nz for your locals doggist.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
They're like cats and hay barns.
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Michelle pests, yes, and Abe used to ring us and
check about the cats because.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We have wild cats in the spread toxoplesmosis only one
thing for the cats and the hay barn too, and
it's not good news for the cats. I hope my
sister's not leading listening. I think she's a cat. She's
a cat lady and a chuck lady. I wonder if
she's got her chucks and doors. She's silly enough to
have them indoors with her anyhow where you go.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Okay, it's over it. From that topic, the Wolves of
New Zealand sharing team has face the odds and being
beaten and the first match of the four Test series
in Wales sharing twenty Welsh speckled sheep each on Saturday
at the New Test Match event the Iphan Shares in Upland,
Mid Wales, New Zealand Shares Open champion Jack Fagan and
Test match newcomer Hemi Braddock lost by six point five
(28:09):
points to former world champion going on Leo Lloyd Evans
and Experience international Githan Lewis. So the teams do over that.
We might try and catch up with Jack at some
point while he's in the UK. But that's real news.
You can find more at the country, dot co dot
m Z and on the sport.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yes, more text traffic coming in this weekend. It closes
in south and yes you're right, Michelle, and they need
to be declared a pest. And that has brought andy
from Southland, says Sport on.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
The country with AFCO invested in your foaming success.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
See they I don't want to go on about this, Michelle,
but they're worse for water quality than dairy cattle ducks.
So I think we could just have open season on
the ducks. Can we do that?
Speaker 5 (28:51):
No?
Speaker 8 (28:51):
I don't know if we should start like a policy
on that somehow. You got to be sports news there.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yes, you're trying to get me back on track. The
statistics show spain worthy winners of football's World Cup. There
may have been only one goal between Spain and Argentina
after extra time in New Jersey, but the Spanish had
sixty eight percent of the possession and twenty shots compared
to the defending champions three eleven Argentinian shots were on target,
(29:17):
or eleven Spanish shots were on target compared to Argentina's zero.
Argentina did win the yellow card count, however, up five zip,
and they also had a player red carded Ryan Fox.
If you haven't caught it, Sports story of the Year
is celebrating joining an exclusive forsome of New Zealand golfers
to win a major, fending off American challenge, an American
(29:40):
challenge to win the Open by one shot and the
toughest of wins for New Zealand. This is cricket by
the way in Barbados, beating the West Indies by just
one wicket in the fourth One Day Cricket International, railing
in one hundred and eighty nine to secure the series
three to one with the game to spare up next.
Carn Alliwell the twenty twenty six Xander McDonald Award winner.
Speaker 9 (30:12):
Well.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Last week on the show we caught up with Chloe
Butcher Harries, the Hawks, Bay 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 Waitkato,
(30:35):
North Waitekatto. Although are you more a dairy farmer these days?
Carn good, afternoon, Yeah, afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
Hey, great to be on the show.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (30:45):
So we do grow blueberries, Kiwi fruit and have an
annual cropping operation. But the tension was when me and
Bryce set up this gig seven years ago, was always
be at the best five business and get back to
our roots of partial farming, which is our bread and butter,
to be honest, and did it be a common management
(31:05):
and production system so is new to us. So part
of our ten year goal was to still go 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 2 (31:22):
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 7 (31:29):
I think like Derry'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.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
The sort of main groups.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
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
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
(32:01):
are in the aut cultural sector, it really determines how
how how well it is governed like anything. But yeah,
there is really positive at the moment, and I think
it will be for a long time.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, well, well for kiw fruit, but surely you wouldn't
pull out kiwi fruit vines to put cows on.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Oh no, no, no, definitely not.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
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, you see the opportunities
ahead of you. And right now you've seen a combination
of a lot of willingness by the banks of capital
(32:50):
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 a good flow of capital into the sector.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
So for anyone, any aspiring farm.
Speaker 7 (33:09):
Or business owner, particularly the next generation coming up, I
actually think it's the best time to be gearing up
to you really grow your business in the industry, whether
that's in horticulture or agg Talk to.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
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 9 (33:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (33:39):
I think that the industry has raised their concerns. I
think some of them are a 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
(34:00):
on the fundamental of reciprocal trade. So it's in my
opinioni's definitely a watch and see.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Can we be self.
Speaker 7 (34:09):
Sufficient, Yes, we absolutely can be self sufficient. Can we
live without two way trade? Yeah, in my opinion that
be really tough to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
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 7 (34:30):
It's been I've 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.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
That's the biggest value of HAD.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
I mean, I'm always 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 your
has been just a wonderful experience. So I just sometimes
you get lucky and I've been extremely privileged.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
And we've got.
Speaker 7 (35:12):
The New Zealand Tool 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.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
There so really looking forward to it.
Speaker 7 (35:30):
It's been a wonderful experience.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
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,
can't Deally, Well, thanks for your time. Good luck with
the Kiwi fruit and the blueberries and the dairy cows.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Appreciate that, Jamie, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Nying away from one. Thank you can Hey, just updating
the bird flu. This is the latest we've got lockdown
for more than half a million chickens. Is the threat
of bird flu loom. We've got two detected cases of
the H five N one strain. None identified in poultry,
No new cases identified. Chicken and eggs remain safe to
(36:12):
eat and our largest egg supply of mainland poultry is
keeping its free range chooks undercover. Chief Executive John McKay
says free range farming has more risk. He says when
fowls are outside they can interact with wild birds and
this is a temporary precaution. Hopefully it blows over. Phill
(36:33):
Duncan talking about wind up. Next on the Country talking
weather wrapping the country for a Monday. Phil Duncan from
weather Watch. He's very excited. He's launched a new lightning
(36:53):
app but maybe failure chose the wrong time of the
year to launch it. Not much like about at the moment,
my friend, No.
Speaker 9 (37:02):
Good day, Thank you, Yes you know where the watchers
launched the new Zealand lightning tracker and we're working with
met Service. We've got their data in it and so
this is the sort of that used to be run
by Transpower, so it's a very good network. But you
are right, we've chosen unfortunately, a very quiet spell.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
From the sea point of view, I reckon like November
would be a much better time. We get thunder, plump
sne and a bit of lightning.
Speaker 9 (37:26):
Yeah, ill promoted every time there's a thunderstorm, rather than
just saying it's all here now. But yeah, we've got
we manage some thunderstorms later this week because we've got
a proper wintry blast on the way and it's going
to cover the whole country by the weekend. But the
airflow with it may be a little bit more southwesterly,
which usually means from sort of Dunedin northwards. If you're
(37:47):
on the eastern side of the country, it may not
be too bad cold, but it could still be quite
sunny and dry. But before that arrives on the Friday,
which is when it properly comes into the South Island,
there could be some snow flurries. You are in the
Denedan area and we are expecting snow down to maybe
only a couple of hundred meters for a time around
(38:07):
the South Island and maybe sort of five or six
hundred meters for a brief time around the North Island
in the lower half, and a thousand meters for the
top half. So it's a proper wintery change, but the
wind direction will mean some sunny, dry areas in the
mix as well.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
I was going to say, phil shock, horror, snow and winter.
Speaker 9 (38:25):
Yeah, it's been a while since we've talked about snow
and demedin. We've had it sort of on the ranges
and on the mountains, but we haven't had many low
level snow events this year. This could be a lower
level snow event, more so for Southland, maybe into the Audland.
But it's worth just monitoring. If those winds change direction,
it could change the forecast quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
So normally after a spell like that, we get a
big high coming in and then a fine period and
if we've had meaningful snow or cold temperatures, the big
e flood comes under play.
Speaker 9 (38:56):
Frost, yeah, I think I think there will be frost around,
maybe not initially for everybody going into the weekend, because
there'll be wind blowing along with it. That usually keeps
the temperature up a degree or two, but that will
change by the end of the weekend, and so yes,
going into next week could be very frosty for some
inland areas. In fact, that could start as early as
the weekend if you're in a sheltered part of the country.
(39:19):
But there is more high pressure coming in it. We're
seeing some enormous high pressure zones stretching, you know, twelve
thousand kilometers across coming through from Australia from the Indian Ocean.
That's no change this week as well, more of that
and Australia gets the cold blast too, but only for
two days Wednesday and Thursday, and then it's replaced by
high pressure which will eventually make it to us.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Okay, Phil, you'll forgive me for not playing around with
your lightning at this morning, I was watching Grant. I
was going to Grant Fox. Let's try the other Fox,
Ryan winning the British Open. All the Open. Hey, thanks
for your time, feel always good, the chat all good,
Thank you. Here we go. Phil Duncan from weather Watch
wrapping the country today. We'll catch it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Catch all the latest from the Land. It's the Country
podcast with Jamie Mackay. Thanks to Asuzu get demo deals
on the tough Dmax today
Catch all the latest from the land. It's The Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to a Suzu get demo
deals on the tough Dmax today.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Good afternoon, New Zealand. Welcome to the Country. I'm Jamie McKay.
The show is brought to you by Hi Suzu and Farmlands.
I was almost going to say rabobank again. I've got
to get my act in order. Look up my bit
short on sleep to be perfectly honest. Up at about
two thirty, just to check the score and the open
the British Open. Back to sleep. Up at four point
(00:56):
thirty to see Foxy bring it home? How good was
that Swarting highlight of the year? And the Football World
Cup was a bit of a damp squib in the
end the final after those great England games. But anyhow,
this is largely a rural show. I'll get told off,
so let's rip into it. One of the big issues
out there at the moment is the bird flu. So Raymith,
(01:18):
director General of MPI, is going to join us an attack.
He's waiting on hold to update the situation. We're hearing
that the country's largest egg supplier, Mainland Poultry, responsible for
forty percent of our eggs has put their chicks in
too effective lockdown. David Seymour, our Deputy Prime Minister, Act
(01:40):
Party leader, denying the election will be fought by celebrities
more interested in glitz than graft. Plus, we're going to
have a look about why. We'll find out why he
wants to make life easier for agricultural drone uses. Carn
Dallywell twenty twenty six Xander MacDonald Award winner. We talked
to Chloe Butcher Harry's last week. This guy won the
(02:01):
twenty twenty six award. A dynamic young guy who's involved
in horticulture and dairy. Mike Whitty out of Ravensdown. Trump's
doing a snow favors when it comes to fertilizer, the
price thereof and the availability this spring and Fell Duncan
on the weather we're in the depths of winter. Wasn't
a bad weekend where I wasn't an Eden All that
(02:23):
on the show. Plus, Michelle will have rural news for
you as well, and we can play a wee bit
a sweet. It has been the big news story of
the past week here in New Zealand. Yes, the threat
(02:43):
of bird flu. Now I'd note that New Zealand's largest
egg supplier, Mainland Poultry, is putting hundreds of thousands of
free range chickens into lockdown after the deadly bird flu
virus was detected in the country for the first time.
We've had two cases. To update the situation for us,
the Director General of mp I, Ray Smith Ray, did
(03:06):
you have a busy weekend keeping on the job here?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, we'll get a Jamie ye.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Look, Actually, my team they've been flat out last week
actually with us and and of course you'll note from
you know, the various things that we've been at together
at field days and various other presentations over the last
couple of years with the farming community. I've been talking
about this bird flu potentially coming to New Zealand and
of course it was the risk was heightened for us
(03:32):
when we did have that big outbreak and Maine that
a different sort of bird flu, but it gave us
an insight. But it is here now, and of course
there's been about seventeen cases in Australia over the last
month and so we expected to see birds landing here
with it as well. Only two detected at this point,
but given one of them is a native bird in
the y rapper, you would expect that we will find more.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So this highly pathogenic H five N one strain. Is
it worse on the strain from two years ago.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Well, different in terms of the mortality on the birds,
it's about the same. The difference is that this one
is spread by the wild bird population that have been,
you know, traveling across the world, particularly these big pelagic
seabirds that live out in the ocean and then come
on too land periodically. So the difference here is this
is spread by wildlife. The other one was more of
(04:27):
a localized thing where it was a low virus intensity
that had come from probably ducks or a swamp area
in New Zealand that had gotten into a poultry shed.
And just remember poultry, you know, don't have a long
life in these production systems, so they don't develop strong immunity,
so the disease spreads very quickly. So different, two different
(04:48):
types of avian influenza. This is the one we've always
been worried about though because Jamie with the one that
happened two years ago, mainland poultry, we could quarantine that facility,
which is what we did, and we worked with mainland
and we stamped it out and that facility has been
repopulated and it didn't spread anywhere else in New Zealand.
The difference here is because this is in the wild
(05:11):
bird population, it will spread obviously with the wind, and
so it's not controllable in the sense of being able
to quarantine or stamp it out.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So basically you got to keep the chocks on the cover.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Well, look in the UK, where they'd had five or
six years of this their experience, and we had people,
industry people and MPI people go together to the UK
to look at their experience. It comes in sort of
waves and a bits in the way that you remember
we had.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
These waves with COVID and we still do a little.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Bit now it doesn't have much prominence now. And what
they do is they still have birds that live outside.
People still have free range operations, but periodically they have
to bring the birds inside and they house them as
these waves pass through. So we're right at the beginning
of this. So nobody quite knows how extensive the viruses
in New Zealand, or how much spread there is, or
(06:02):
quite where we are on that cycle.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, I'll tell you what you guys at MPI and
I do pat you on the back. Have done a
pretty good job of keeping our borders safe. But the
heroes behind the scenes, the public of New Zealand, I
know they were on the ball with the Was it
the yellow legged hornet the last critter that was causing
us a bit of grief? Well, you've had something like
one hundred and fifty seven notifications on Saturday alone of
(06:27):
dead or unwell.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Birds, Jamie, the public of been outstanding, and actually that
was just Saturday.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
But since this outbreak.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Was first announced last week, we've had around six hundred
notifications where people have observed dead birds or sick birds
or something that they're concerned about. I mean, the key
thing here is we're interested in where someone sees a
few dead birds, you know, in proximity that it did.
(06:56):
Of course, you're going to come across a dead bird
here and there. I came across one back out on
the weekend. You know it had flying into a window.
So no need to report that, just dispose of it
in the normal manner. But what we are asking people
to do is where they see something unusual, particularly if
it's out on the coastline, and they and they spot
birds that are seabirds. That's a good early sign at
(07:17):
the stage. Although you know, we had a native hawk
which you know, they traveled to the coastline, but it
was found in a carleton somewhere. And so if everyone's
got their eyes open and keeps the reporting up, we'll
do our best to triage those cases and get out
pick them up and test them where we need to.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Obviously this is a real threat to the egg industry.
Mainland poultry, which has gone into lockdown supplies nearly forty
percent of the country's eggs. What about the chicken meat
side of the equation, and then going further on from that,
this is a two hipart question. Any risk of transmission
to animals or humans. Let's start with the chicken meat.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, no, of course, of course, for both chicken meat
and for egg producers. It's a serious issue. And if
the you know, really the way to keep it out
is to keep wild birds away from any ability to
contaminate or mix with, you know, with poultry. So you
don't want sort of birds getting in there with the
(08:19):
seces and water or anything like that, or birds mixing,
mixing any particular way. So they buy security measures on
these poultry farms, be their egg producers or chicken meat farms,
are really critical of course in the in the chicken
meat industry, the turnaround of birds, you know, from their
growth rate and then in production and then into supermarkets
(08:40):
is a lot faster than through the egg production system.
So they're constantly rotating birds through of course, as you
would expect, and they have got very good protocols around
how to deal with these things if if they do
tune up. But of course the biggest thing is to
try and try and keep it out, I mean in
relation to other animals, and said that this is new
(09:00):
for us in New Zealand, but you know, it's been
traveling around the world for five or six years, and
the only outbreak that really has been reported in cattles
in the United States. And you and people listening to
you will know that their farming systems in the United
States for kettle are quite different than what we have
here in New Zealand, which are largely outside extensive grazing systems,
and so you know, the way in which the kettle
(09:22):
got contaminated is unlikely to occur here, and in fact,
it hasn't been reported in any material way in the
UK or Ireland or places that we would see is
more similar to us in farming systems.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Keep our borders safe. Keep up the good work at MPI.
Rasmith Director General, thanks for your time, Thanks Jamie sixteen
after twelve. Thanks Ray And what should you do if
you spot some sick birds? Well, if you see three
or more sick or dead wild birds in a group,
reported immediately to the Exotic Pest and Disease Hotline. Now
(09:55):
that number is write it down or remember it O
eight one hundred and eighty ninety nine sixty six from
anywhere in New Zealand, or report online at a report
dot MPI, dot govt dot NZ. Remember if, in like
race case, it's a bird that's flown under the window,
don't bother reporting that. It's very important we don't clog
(10:18):
the services up. But New Zealand is certainly paying their
bits of paying playing their role, should I say in
keeping bird flu out of New Zealand. Although to be honest,
everyone knew it. It was a matter of when not it,
So it's a matter of controlling it now. Up next,
David Seymour, is the election going to be fought by
(10:40):
celebrities more interested in glitz than graft and what are
ACT doing to make life easier for the users of
agricultural drones. We're going to chat to the twenty twenty
six Zender McDonald Award winner, Calm Dallywell, Mike Whitty out
a Ravens down. How much is your furt going to
cost you this spring thanks to the Middle East and Shakira.
(11:04):
It's not only the Middle East, it's Russia Ukraine that's
causing us problems there. Plus Phil Duncan on the weather.
(11:34):
David Seymour is the ACT party leader also Deputy Prime Minister.
David What is it about this twenty twenty sixth election
with the celebrity candidates Winston Scott, Tyane Randall, Stu Nash
if you can call stew a celebrity and Michael Laws
but Batwaller, I think you might have trumped them with
Paul Henry.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Yeah, I think I think most people have been saying
Paul's in a slightly different category. I'm not really following
what are doing. Good luck to them, but there's very
few people who understand that we need the rule of law,
property rights, open markets, the ability to accumulate capital, trade
(12:13):
freely and actually make money. That's what makes the world
go around. Most people in politics are trying to do
some version of robing Peter to pay Paul. So when
you get someone like Paul Henry who is a genuine,
true believer, his philosophy is ACT. He's a great communicator,
(12:34):
huge profile, and he's just piercing some of the gloom
over New Zealand politics. Of course you grab him with
both hands and we couldn't be happier. He's home.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Did he come to you or did you come to him?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Well, we've been talking for about three years. He wrote
an OpEd before the twenty twenty three elections saying he
was going to vote for US. Then a couple of
years ago he spoke to his our conference and he
was a total smash hit at the twenty four ACT conference.
And we've been talking over the years, and I don't
think anyone really went to anyone. That just kind of evolved.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
He's obviously going to get an electable position on your list.
Is that going to chuck out a good ACT candidate?
And I do not I do note that you're losing
two in my mind, really good ACT MPs, both retiring
stepping aside Brook Van Velden and of course mister Mark Cameron,
you're our guy, the old Northland farmer. Got a lot
(13:27):
of time for him, well so do I.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
And you know they're both going for different reasons and
they're both massive talents and massive losses. But on the
other hand, you know actors now are going concerned. So
Andrew Hogart I think has just come in to his
own the way he's been managing this arrival of bird
flu and farm environment plans and just about every issue
you think about. If I was in rural in New Zealand,
(13:51):
I'd be pretty happy that you've got someone who actually
knows what he's talking about at cabinet like Andrew Hoggart.
So you know, we can replace people. And as far
as Brock goes huge lost, huge talents. I'm as a
friend very happy for her, and I do consider a
long term personal friend. But obviously he has a colleagues
that annoyed that she's leaving us. So look, we keep
(14:13):
going and those two will be missed, but they will
also be replaced by great talent.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Do some of these celebrities bring glitz rather than graft?
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Look, I think if you look at Paul he's been
interviewed about a whole lot of policy stuff and he
gets it right. So you know, he's a genuine acts person.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, we're thrilled to have him.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
I think he's home.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Do you support Winstonce and Shane's pitch for one billion
dollars to survey our offshore oil and gas fields? That
was the big announcement from New Zealand first yesterday. Your
brother in arms of course, those two brothers in arms,
your coalition partners, David, I know that you get along
with them famously.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Well potentially. I mean a couple of questions. Number one is,
over the last few decades, oil companies have surveyed most
of New Zealand, So you'd have to ask, first of all,
for a billion dollars, what problem are we solving that
isn't already What are we going to find that it's
not already known by people that have paid for the survey?
And I guess the second issue is I don't want
(15:16):
to dwell on the past and people go back and forth,
and he said, she said, but it is a genuine
policy issue that you know, the reason people aren't investing
in New Zealand as because the government, you know, eight
years ago now, but still people have a long memory
because oil and gas exploration has a long time frame.
That government that those guys were part of scared the
(15:39):
Jesus and said maybe you can't trust New Zealand. So
whatever you make of that, I want to go into
the politics of it, but it is a genuine problem.
Let's assume that you know, people don't know where the
oil and guesses and the governments neands a billion dollars
and does find some potential. Then you have to actually
persuade people to come here. If they're not prepared to
come in for it themselves, will they make the much
(16:02):
larger investment in extracting it.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
So, look, there's a.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Lot of questions around it. You can't fault the intent.
We do need more energy and we are going to
need fossil fuels for a long time. But there's a
few questions there that I think probably need answers before
we sign up to it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Let's talk a week bit of policy if we can.
You're interested in drones, particularly agricultural drones.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Yeah, Look, some people will have seen Clarkson's farm, his
frustration with the regulators up there in England. Not much
different here. Huge potential for surveying and spraying and so on,
but the CIA is very tough on them. We're promoting
a new policy that we want to roll out in
a lot of areas after the election. That's innovation trials,
(16:46):
where you basically say, here's a bunch of rules. We
don't want to go through two years of negotiating rule changes.
We're just going to delete a bunch of rules in
a select area for a select time, make it easier
to use an agricultural drone. And hey, look if in
a couple of years time people have used this innovation
trial and the world hasn't ended, maybe we make it permanent.
So it's just a faster way of deregulating. And I
(17:07):
think it could be very good because ultimately, you Kiwi
Farmer is the most innovative community in the world, but
they can't be held back by red take. If we're
going to unlock New Zealand's potential, then we've got to
start doing more stuff with better technology than we have
been so far.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
David Seymour, thank you very much for your time. Good
on you for bringing Paul Henry into the election. Love
them or loathe them, and everyone seems to have an
opinion on him. He's certainly going to liven up the campaign.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Yeah, what to please are good on you, Jesus, I
got all on my line. Good on you, damd.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Thank you David. Where is he gone? I think that's
a bit of a Freudian slip there, Thank you, David Seymour.
Yet talking about drones, they're causing, believe it or not,
all sorts of grief for New Zealand farmers. I'll tell
you why after the break with Mike Whitty out of
Ravens Down. The reignition is that the right word of
(18:02):
the Middle East conflict. It's gloves off over there. Now,
what's it going to mean for farmers fertilizer prices in
the spring. We'll ask Mike Whitty that We're going to
talk to carn Delliwell. Twenty twenty six Xander McDonald Award winner,
a dynamic young man, only thirty two years of age
and he already has a huge farming portfolio. And Phil
(18:23):
Duncan on the weather. It's all on the country. Michelle's
going to wander in here and do rural news. She's
very excited by the way. There's so much good sport
on she's very excited about the new world mile record
that stood since nineteen ninety nine was broken over the weekend.
We'll talk about that as well as Foxy Obviously the
(18:47):
World Cup, if you haven't caught up on that one. Well,
even though Spain sort of won it narrowly, Argentina were
never really in it, and the Black Caps are going
pretty well in the West Indies. Mike Whitty is the
(19:11):
chief operating officer for Ravens Doown, of course, one of
the two big fertilizer companies in this country. Now, this
Middle East war is doing no one anywhere in the
world any good as far as I can see, and
it's certainly going to bite hard this spring for New
Zealand farmers. How hard Let's ask the man himself. This
(19:31):
Middle East situation is getting worse rather than better, Mike,
what sort of effect is that going to have on
fertilizer and the cost thereof this spring?
Speaker 6 (19:40):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Look, we've already seen the impact over
the last three or four months from the Middle East,
but it's continuing and I suppose that's the ongoing impact
and uncertain We're in a very good position, very good
stocks in country or on the water, So where it
(20:05):
ends up is still a question mark. And price wise, look,
prices escalated significantly for nitrogen products that've come off quite
a lot, and now we're seeing it starting to go
back up again, So there's uncertainty there. But for the spring,
we're in a very good position.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I guess it's a bit like the fuel situation. It's
not a supply issue, it's a price issue.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
A number that i'd read reported was that for the
average dairy farmer, I guess we'll use the dairy industry
because it's our biggest farming industry, the forecast for fertilizer
prices for this spring would be up by an average
of forty three percent. Does that number still hold true
or will it be more?
Speaker 6 (20:49):
Yeah, Look, I think that that's a pretty good indication overall,
and it depends on the product being consumed, of course,
But nitrogen ices have gone up quite significantly soften.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Recently, but again with this.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
With the conflict kicking off again, we're starting to see
that move up again. But you know, I think we're
okay for the spring, but volatility and uncertainty is going
to be an ongoing challenge for the industry, and there's
you say, energy is a key component of that.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And it's not just the Middle East war or conflict
as Trump calls it, that's causing a New Zealand farmer's issue.
This Russia Ukraine thing is starting to blow up. No
bad pun intended either.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Yes, you're right, Jamie. It's having quite a significant impact on.
What we're seeing is Ukraine's been very successful with drone
attacks within Russia and going over getting up to over
a thousand kilometers away from the borders. And what that's
focused on is energy, so oil, fertilizer, infrastructure because some
(22:02):
of that's used in explosives, and a lot of the infrastructure.
So what we're seeing there is, you know, Russia to
some countries is a significant exporter of energy and fertilizer
and that's directly been impacted now so again reducing supply
from a world point of view.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Because we manufacture super phosphate, correct me if I'm wrong
here in New Zealand, we do, don't we?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yes, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So does it stand to reason that there's not going
to be as well an issue there?
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Yeah, Well, the positive about that is that we get
our sulfur out of Canada from a long term supply
of their and our possate rocks are coming out of
Australia and Africa.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
So you know, other than.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
The impact on price on sulfur because fifty five percent
of the world to trade is not available at the moment,
but you know there's a clear price in pack but
availability are strong.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
We're in a really good position.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Okay a couple to quickly finish on can farmers buy
now and save money later? I can you afford by
and try and at least lock in the market at
these levels.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Yeah, Look, people can purchase now if they want to
make that decision. Look, I think that where the prices
in market are now you are about reflective on what
the international prices are today. But you know there is
(23:34):
clearly a risk with escalation in the Middle East impacting further.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
And just a final word, congratulations to the team at
Ravenstown whoever made the decision. It might have been you,
Mike Whitty, the chief operating officer to sponsor sponsor that
most iconic of Canterbury christ Church events, the Canterbury A
and P Show. I'm sure Sir David Carter will be
very pleased.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
I'm sure he is, and we're very proud to be
a sponsor. You know, we've been there for a long time,
so we see it as an important part of the
agricultural industry in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
So yeah, happy to help out.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's a great event. Love it. Mike Widdy from Ravenstown,
Thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Excellent, Thanks Jamie.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
That is coming up to twenty five way from one
here on the country. Someone has texted and wants to
know the eight hundred number for the dead or sick birds.
I hope you haven't got three or more at your
place because if you have, that number is eight hundred
eighty ninety nine sixty six. Some feedback coming and hi Jamie.
(24:42):
The big problem we have after the disgraceful debarcle of
the band by the last labor New Zealand First government,
and I'm assuming they're meaning the oil and Gas Band
there for research band is rebuilding investor confidence. They won't
bother with us unless there is long term certainty. It's
as simple as writes Tony. And the proposed nitrogen fertilizer
(25:04):
plant in South And would be quite handy. At the moment.
New Zealand would be self sufficient says Matt. Yeah, because
we've got Capuni and Taranaki there, but I reckon we
should build another one seriously, like we need to be
self sufficient and well Shane wants us to be self
sufficient and fossil fuels. We've got plenty of coal, but
(25:25):
we need to be self sufficient in things like urea
and oil. Imagine if we were self sufficient and oil,
what a good position we'd be. And right up next
rural news and sports news. It has been a cracker
of a day, in fact, the cracker of a weekend
for sport Calm Dallywill before the end of the Dynamic
Young New Zealander and Phil Duncan. He's a New Zealander,
(25:49):
he's no longer young.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
What food.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Twenty one away from one? You're with the country right
some of your feedback in Margaret from Taranaki has texted
me in and said, get Jamie, how do we keep
seven paradise ducks out of our beefe's beef cattle, our
beefe's round concrete water troughs to prevent contamination in case
(26:25):
this bird flu Well, Margaret from Rahutu and Taranat, I
know a way you could get rid of the seven
Paradise ducks is there duck sheeting season still open?
Speaker 8 (26:37):
And Taranaki No, Taranaki actually closed at the end of jow.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Maybe you can't do that, sorry, Margaret, we'll put a
silencer on. No, I'll just get in trouble for saying
that it's still going down here, isn't it?
Speaker 8 (26:48):
That is I think this week he might be the
last weekend. Text as if I'm wrong about that, send
it on, but I think this weekend's the last weekend.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
They're pests. They're in your cattle's water trough.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
And also it's a banging limit on them as well,
So just make sure you.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Look that up.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Well, it won't it'll be more than seven, won't it.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
It's more than seven.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
But yeah, go on, Margaret, go out and blast them.
That'll get me in trouble. Here's Michelle. She's going to
settle things down with Rural.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
News, the country's world news with cub Cadets, New Zealand's
leading right on lawn Bower brands at steel Ford dot
co dot nz for your locals doggist.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
They're like cats and hay barns.
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Michelle pests, yes, and Abe used to ring us and
check about the cats because.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We have wild cats in the spread toxoplesmosis only one
thing for the cats and the hay barn too, and
it's not good news for the cats. I hope my
sister's not leading listening. I think she's a cat. She's
a cat lady and a chuck lady. I wonder if
she's got her chucks and doors. She's silly enough to
have them indoors with her anyhow where you go.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Okay, it's over it. From that topic, the Wolves of
New Zealand sharing team has face the odds and being
beaten and the first match of the four Test series
in Wales sharing twenty Welsh speckled sheep each on Saturday
at the New Test Match event the Iphan Shares in Upland,
Mid Wales, New Zealand Shares Open champion Jack Fagan and
Test match newcomer Hemi Braddock lost by six point five
(28:09):
points to former world champion going on Leo Lloyd Evans
and Experience international Githan Lewis. So the teams do over that.
We might try and catch up with Jack at some
point while he's in the UK. But that's real news.
You can find more at the country, dot co dot
m Z and on the sport.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yes, more text traffic coming in this weekend. It closes
in south and yes you're right, Michelle, and they need
to be declared a pest. And that has brought andy
from Southland, says Sport on.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
The country with AFCO invested in your foaming success.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
See they I don't want to go on about this, Michelle,
but they're worse for water quality than dairy cattle ducks.
So I think we could just have open season on
the ducks. Can we do that?
Speaker 5 (28:51):
No?
Speaker 8 (28:51):
I don't know if we should start like a policy
on that somehow. You got to be sports news there.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yes, you're trying to get me back on track. The
statistics show spain worthy winners of football's World Cup. There
may have been only one goal between Spain and Argentina
after extra time in New Jersey, but the Spanish had
sixty eight percent of the possession and twenty shots compared
to the defending champions three eleven Argentinian shots were on target,
(29:17):
or eleven Spanish shots were on target compared to Argentina's zero.
Argentina did win the yellow card count, however, up five zip,
and they also had a player red carded Ryan Fox.
If you haven't caught it, Sports story of the Year
is celebrating joining an exclusive forsome of New Zealand golfers
to win a major, fending off American challenge, an American
(29:40):
challenge to win the Open by one shot and the
toughest of wins for New Zealand. This is cricket by
the way in Barbados, beating the West Indies by just
one wicket in the fourth One Day Cricket International, railing
in one hundred and eighty nine to secure the series
three to one with the game to spare up next.
Carn Alliwell the twenty twenty six Xander McDonald Award winner.
Speaker 9 (30:12):
Well.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Last week on the show we caught up with Chloe
Butcher Harries, the Hawks, Bay 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 Waitkato,
(30:35):
North Waitekatto. Although are you more a dairy farmer these days?
Carn good, afternoon, Yeah, afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
Hey, great to be on the show.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (30:45):
So we do grow blueberries, Kiwi fruit and have an
annual cropping operation. But the tension was when me and
Bryce set up this gig seven years ago, was always
be at the best five business and get back to
our roots of partial farming, which is our bread and butter,
to be honest, and did it be a common management
(31:05):
and production system so is new to us. So part
of our ten year goal was to still go 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 2 (31:22):
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 7 (31:29):
I think like Derry'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.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
The sort of main groups.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
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
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
(32:01):
are in the aut cultural sector, it really determines how
how how well it is governed like anything. But yeah,
there is really positive at the moment, and I think
it will be for a long time.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, well, well for kiw fruit, but surely you wouldn't
pull out kiwi fruit vines to put cows on.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Oh no, no, no, definitely not.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
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, you see the opportunities
ahead of you. And right now you've seen a combination
of a lot of willingness by the banks of capital
(32:50):
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 a good flow of capital into the sector.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
So for anyone, any aspiring farm.
Speaker 7 (33:09):
Or business owner, particularly the next generation coming up, I
actually think it's the best time to be gearing up
to you really grow your business in the industry, whether
that's in horticulture or agg Talk to.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
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 9 (33:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (33:39):
I think that the industry has raised their concerns. I
think some of them are a 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
(34:00):
on the fundamental of reciprocal trade. So it's in my
opinioni's definitely a watch and see.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Can we be self.
Speaker 7 (34:09):
Sufficient, Yes, we absolutely can be self sufficient. Can we
live without two way trade? Yeah, in my opinion that
be really tough to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
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 7 (34:30):
It's been I've 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.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
That's the biggest value of HAD.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
I mean, I'm always 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 your
has been just a wonderful experience. So I just sometimes
you get lucky and I've been extremely privileged.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
And we've got.
Speaker 7 (35:12):
The New Zealand Tool 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.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
There so really looking forward to it.
Speaker 7 (35:30):
It's been a wonderful experience.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
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,
can't Deally, Well, thanks for your time. Good luck with
the Kiwi fruit and the blueberries and the dairy cows.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Appreciate that, Jamie, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Nying away from one. Thank you can Hey, just updating
the bird flu. This is the latest we've got lockdown
for more than half a million chickens. Is the threat
of bird flu loom. We've got two detected cases of
the H five N one strain. None identified in poultry,
No new cases identified. Chicken and eggs remain safe to
(36:12):
eat and our largest egg supply of mainland poultry is
keeping its free range chooks undercover. Chief Executive John McKay
says free range farming has more risk. He says when
fowls are outside they can interact with wild birds and
this is a temporary precaution. Hopefully it blows over. Phill
(36:33):
Duncan talking about wind up. Next on the Country talking
weather wrapping the country for a Monday. Phil Duncan from
weather Watch. He's very excited. He's launched a new lightning
(36:53):
app but maybe failure chose the wrong time of the
year to launch it. Not much like about at the moment,
my friend, No.
Speaker 9 (37:02):
Good day, Thank you, Yes you know where the watchers
launched the new Zealand lightning tracker and we're working with
met Service. We've got their data in it and so
this is the sort of that used to be run
by Transpower, so it's a very good network. But you
are right, we've chosen unfortunately, a very quiet spell.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
From the sea point of view, I reckon like November
would be a much better time. We get thunder, plump
sne and a bit of lightning.
Speaker 9 (37:26):
Yeah, ill promoted every time there's a thunderstorm, rather than
just saying it's all here now. But yeah, we've got
we manage some thunderstorms later this week because we've got
a proper wintry blast on the way and it's going
to cover the whole country by the weekend. But the
airflow with it may be a little bit more southwesterly,
which usually means from sort of Dunedin northwards. If you're
(37:47):
on the eastern side of the country, it may not
be too bad cold, but it could still be quite
sunny and dry. But before that arrives on the Friday,
which is when it properly comes into the South Island,
there could be some snow flurries. You are in the
Denedan area and we are expecting snow down to maybe
only a couple of hundred meters for a time around
(38:07):
the South Island and maybe sort of five or six
hundred meters for a brief time around the North Island
in the lower half, and a thousand meters for the
top half. So it's a proper wintery change, but the
wind direction will mean some sunny, dry areas in the
mix as well.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
I was going to say, phil shock, horror, snow and winter.
Speaker 9 (38:25):
Yeah, it's been a while since we've talked about snow
and demedin. We've had it sort of on the ranges
and on the mountains, but we haven't had many low
level snow events this year. This could be a lower
level snow event, more so for Southland, maybe into the Audland.
But it's worth just monitoring. If those winds change direction,
it could change the forecast quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
So normally after a spell like that, we get a
big high coming in and then a fine period and
if we've had meaningful snow or cold temperatures, the big
e flood comes under play.
Speaker 9 (38:56):
Frost, yeah, I think I think there will be frost around,
maybe not initially for everybody going into the weekend, because
there'll be wind blowing along with it. That usually keeps
the temperature up a degree or two, but that will
change by the end of the weekend, and so yes,
going into next week could be very frosty for some
inland areas. In fact, that could start as early as
the weekend if you're in a sheltered part of the country.
(39:19):
But there is more high pressure coming in it. We're
seeing some enormous high pressure zones stretching, you know, twelve
thousand kilometers across coming through from Australia from the Indian Ocean.
That's no change this week as well, more of that
and Australia gets the cold blast too, but only for
two days Wednesday and Thursday, and then it's replaced by
high pressure which will eventually make it to us.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Okay, Phil, you'll forgive me for not playing around with
your lightning at this morning, I was watching Grant. I
was going to Grant Fox. Let's try the other Fox,
Ryan winning the British Open. All the Open. Hey, thanks
for your time, feel always good, the chat all good,
Thank you. Here we go. Phil Duncan from weather Watch
wrapping the country today. We'll catch it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Catch all the latest from the Land. It's the Country
podcast with Jamie Mackay. Thanks to Asuzu get demo deals
on the tough Dmax today
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