The Country Full Show: Monday, May 5, 2025

Jamie Mackay talks to Toby Williams, Steve Maharey, Mike McIntyre, and Pita Alexander.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckuae. Thanks to Brent. You're specialist in
John Deere construction equipment.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Good afternoon or good a New Zealand good afternoon as well.
I'm Jamie McKay. This is the Country brought to you
by Brent New Zealand Music Month. Mike McIntyre from Jardin
in the studio is ten dollars the new norm for
the dairy industry. We'll ask him a bit later in
the air. He's chosen the music and this is the
old Coconut Rough song. I think that this doesn't sound

(00:56):
like the original artist. Will find out who it isn't
a tick, but you better get into the show because
we've got plenty to chat about today. On the first
work day after opening day, Toby Williams's Federated Farmer's Meat
and Wool chair and he's an UNTWO police. Federated farmers
are untwo policed about some of the loopholes that are

(01:18):
repairing around carbon farming, the gift that keeps on giving
unless you're a productive piece of land that should be
growing some food. Steve Mahari, former labor Cabinet minister on
the state of world politics after Trump's victories for the
left and there's no other word for it. In Canada
and Australia. Peter Alexander, farm accountant on the varying sector's

(01:41):
profitability derry versus sheep, versus beef, versus arable versus horticulture.
And as I say, Mike McIntire's in the studio co
hosting today from Jardin. We will come back to him,
but it's Toby Williams has turned to kick off the
show from Gisban Meat and wool chair. As I said, Toby,
were you out battling the feathered foe over the weekend?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
No, Damie is not really my cup of tea. But
I used to win an a bit younger. But it's
not with you.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, I'm with you. I'm retired, although I did visit
quite a few duck ponds and my Mi eyes. It's
always fun going to New my eyes on Saturday morning.
Look on Friday, I think it was just after we
went to where you guys came out with a press
release at Federated Farmers saying carbon forestry loopholes must be closed.
What are these loopholes you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, it's all around about the intent to plant it
before the fourth December. So we're really supportive of the
government's rule changes around the land classes to be able
to register for the ets. But you know, we're finding
a lot of farmers still selling and have been failed
overseas investment, you know, offers that have fallen through under
the new rules. And I'm also at nurseries who apparently

(02:53):
buying up farms and well I intended to plant that
fan because I already owned the trees. And we want
the government to come out and be really clear about
what they meant around on the fourth of deceverl what
couldn't call what does intend to plant mean? Because it's
causing a lot of consternation amongst rural people.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
So that was December last year when the government made
this announcement and they put a peg immediately in the sand.
And what you're saying is the idea that buying seedlings
before December twenty twenty four is an intention to plant
as an absolute joke, because I guess you know, anyone
can probably backdate an invoice for some seedlings.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, and that's all We're ready concerned about is how
do you actually show that there was true intent to
do that as people now scramble to get their better
class of land and get it registered into the ETS
before these new rules kicking. And it's just, you know,
it's a defies belief really that we're hearing more and
more farms, especially down in southand you know it's relatively
fat farms and are class you know, two, three four

(03:55):
that have been planted for pine trees. And I was spoken,
if you really clear goal, Jamie, if these plantry doing
plants are purely for production, no intent to claim carbon
of them their fillure boots. We've got no issues with
that at all. But it's a carbon that we're concerned
about and the ability to register.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, Toby, the reality of it is no one is
buying these these good productive farmland or rolling farmland to
plant trees for production forestry. We all know the.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Game, well, we do know the game, and it is
why we're going to be really clear that the government's
come out and categorically show that unless you've got a
you know and what that can be a credited back
you know that will survive some forensic accounting to look
at it then you know clearly you didn't have the
intent and trying to sell to somebody who who was
going to do that also should sheerly clearly, so you

(04:44):
didn't heed the intent you were trying to tell it. Unfortunately,
that's falling apart, that's falling away from you. So we
need the government to come cleared out really quickly, so
you know, maybe we've got a chance to keep in
the farm still producing food.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, I see that a Federated Farmer's President and Hawks
Bay Jim Galloway, you're offside and down the road that
was talking about some of the impacts these conversions are having.
And there's another couple in the central Hawks Bay region
have been sold to overseas buyers in recent weeks. And
that follows another so that these farms were eight hundred

(05:19):
hectares and four hundred and eighty hectares a fifteen hundred
hectare sheep and beef farm sold very recently to an
overseas buyer. There's an awful example down in my home
patch on the Hockanui Hills of a farm that's going
to carbon farming and a lot of it shouldn't be going.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, there is and some of those judgments that came
out from the Hawk's Bay. Ones will either the land's
actually no good for anything else, only the best thing
for it is only in pine trees. Look, well, bet
that there's been a good quality landown. They might have
had a few challenging seasons. But you know that's cow country,
that's sheep and cow country, and it's our breeding country.
So what we're finding is our breeding numbers of cows

(06:00):
and news are falling because the better country is soaked up.
Do better land uses, finishing animals, dairy support and then
got there. So we're now starting to cut our nose
off to spite our faces and put pressure onto our
our veteriny. Our share is our meat processes.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
You're also saying farmers are increasingly reporting that carbon farming
brings with it other issues like out of control pig
and deer numbers, wildfire risk, and rampant wilding pines. And
I do know. I know a farmer well who's surrounded
by carbon farming, and he was trying desperately to grow

(06:35):
a winter feed crop, but he couldn't because the feral
animals were coming down from out of the pine trees
or out of the forests are out of the bush
and eating everything in front of them.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, there's a mess, Theresa. We've certainly got that up
here on these character has been for twenty years now.
We've been battling this and the rest of the country
sort of. So he's dying to see what happens when
you're massive forestation and as a real lack of desire
from this companies to sort of get in there and
work with landowners to really tackle the problem. We've been
working with forest owners to put an agreement together about

(07:08):
how you should farm and forests to each other. But
you know, there's a mess of fears and we see
it all over the place. Pigs are really bad, especially
around lemmy time. Any winter crop you put in a
perfect snack for a dear.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Do you think the government went far enough with its
rules or its legislation which is going to come into
force shortly. But as I said, they put the peg
in the sand at December last year. They're making it
very difficult to plant on land use classes one to
six thereafter. I guess classes what's seven eight? I'm not

(07:43):
even sure if there is a nine, but seven and
eight are fine for forestry. They're probably fine for carbon farming,
but I don't think the forest is the actual production.
Foresters want a bar of that land because it's too
remote and it's too steep.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, that's exactly right, and so you know, people plant
that land. You know, class under sex you can still plant,
you just can't claim the carbon out of it. And
that's what you know. So we are supportive of those rules.
We do think they've gone far enough and it gives
us a bit of balance. But we need to get
through this sort of initial teething period of the next
twelve months of how we determine the intent to plant

(08:17):
pine trees, because the government does seem to be held
bent on putting as many pine trees as the ground
as possible to you know, to pay our way through
the Paris Accord. And before they argue and say they're
not going to we're looking at planting one hundred and
eighty thousand years of conservation land. So it's you know,
they really want as many pine trees in the ground.
So we need to get on top of this and
make sure we're stilled a productive rural economy.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
How's the farming season going in the Gisbon East Coast region.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
We've probably had one of the best years, I think,
and you know, in a long time, we've we've sort
of been drowned the last few years, and a bit
dry in places before that. But I think of all
of the country, if you found anybody and there gains
been sort of east coast areas complaining about the weather
and and you know, you've got to actually tell them
maybe they should pack up and choose a different job,
because we've had an absolute deltare has been really brilliant.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
We're going to be talking to Peter Alexander farm accountant
a bit later in the hour and looking at the
respective profitability of varying sectors. How's the profitability of a
sheep farmer this year?

Speaker 3 (09:18):
And sheep farming is really good. And I used my
own example. We sort of set a budget last year
coming into during this year to finishing. We sort of
thought we've got one hundred and ten dollars for ound
them to be pretty happy, probably just about break even,
and we're now pushing out it one hundred and sixty
hundred and seventy dollars a lamb of the last ones
we've got. So it's really nice to be back into
that profitability and obviously beef prices are amazing. The concerns

(09:41):
we do have around why our especially our sheep price
is so high. We don't want it to be procurement driven.
We want to the market driven to make sure our
processes are still able to function. Because we lose a
big processes because they're losing money. Then you know, we
all lose out in the end. So it's nice to
be backing profit.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Certainly on you, Toby Williams, Meet and wheel Chair for
Federated Farmers. Thanks for your time. I'm always appreciated.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Thanks Sami great Dame good On he.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
There we go. It is seventeen after twelve in the
studio Special guest. He's down in Dunedin because his lad
is looking around at university hostels for Otago University next year.
Mike McIntyre out of jard and we're going to chat
to you a bit later in the Mike about his
ten dollars the new norm. But have you had a

(10:28):
look around? Has he found you might might want to
get away bit closer to that, Mike, Mike, has he
found his university hostel of choice?

Speaker 4 (10:37):
I think each one he sees it is better than
the last as well, so I think he's been pretty impressed.
You know, as a young person, I think it's a
fantastic opportunity. But we've seen a lot of pretty excited
people wandering around those halls, so I think the big
thing for him is going to be concentrated on actually
getting through the exams. If he actually gets into the halls,
there's a risk I think he gets a little bit
too carried away by the social side of things, which

(10:58):
seems to be pretty well promoted as well.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
We can't always get into the horse. I'm an ex
Irana man. So have you been to Irana yet?

Speaker 5 (11:05):
I haven't.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
He's going there this afternoon, so he's checking that one out.
But I think he was pretty impressed by the ones
he did see. Cumberland and Unicole and Knox and Solomon.
You know, there's so many offers, and each seem to
have the little niche game for them as well, which
is you know, which nice sea.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
How's Auckland going. It's our biggest economy, you.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
Know, versus provincial New Zealand. I think it's probably struggling.

Speaker 6 (11:26):
You know.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
The cost of living in Christis obviously had a big
impact locally, you know, traffic is something that's built back
up again. A couple of big weather events recently have
obviously knocked a bit of a punch out of things
as well. But going through the provinces, you know, you
can see something that we've seen in the past, you know,
through the global financial crisis, certainly during COVID as well,
where they've lifted the rest of the New Zealand economy out,

(11:48):
and it looks like we're going to get another run
at this in the next couple of years as well.

Speaker 7 (11:52):
Well.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
You ponder whether a ten dollars is the new norm
for dairy feels like I set up that one. Well,
where's the futures market sitting at it?

Speaker 5 (12:00):
Nowhere at ninety five years, so we're there all thereabouts.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, but that's for next season.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
Yeah, what about this season? Yeah, we're at ten fifteen
for the season.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
We just traded I think twenty five or one hundred
and fifty thousand solid here Now.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Good stuff? Okay, And this is this isn't This isn't
coconut rough is it? This is Sarah leone By.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
It's bizetto I think it is.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
I just went through all the lists of the ones
I chose in New Zealand Music Month, and they're all
twenty five years old. But I saw this one had
been re released. I thought I'd give a bit more
of a contemporary swing to it.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
There we go. That is Mike McIntyre in the studio.
We'll come back to him. But up next on the country.
It is a guy who could have been Prime minister
if he'd hung in there, Steve Mahari get his take
on the world up next. A great to catch up

(12:57):
with this man again, Steve Mahari. Back in the day, Steve,
I think you were number three in the Labor cabinet
behind Helen Clark and Michael Cullen. Some people, myself included,
said you could have been a prime minister and said
instead of Jasinda Adran, what would have happened to New
Zealand if that was the.

Speaker 6 (13:14):
Case, Well, who knows, hypothetical. I think Jessinda always had
an agenda which probably most people the Labor Party would
have applauded if you look back where she was talking
about child poverty and trying to make the country more
friendly to electric vehicles and all sorts of things that
were good progressive causes. The problem they had, of course,
was delivery, and I hope that what would be one

(13:36):
thing about me would have been if I'd ever done that,
Who knows it would have been that we would have
been in a good position to have delivered, because, of course,
one of the problems that whole labor term suffered from
was the nine years before it, where there were just
constant changes of leaders and not enough attention paid for policy.
So delivery was therefore always going to be really hard.

(14:00):
To have thought that if there have been a better
run up to that time, just Thinder would have had
a better platform, and we're delivered on what she was toking.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah, but she was at the end of the day,
she was too left wing. Aren't we going back even
around the world to centrist politics?

Speaker 6 (14:15):
I think that there is a shift there. I think
I've we've talked just off here about the article by
Stephen Joyce suggesting that we're seeing a big shift in
the world. A be a bit cautious about that. These
things that are driving the right wing, like Trump and
so on around the world are still there. They haven't
gone away. I think it's what's happening is that people
are starting to wake up and that sort of centrist

(14:38):
group who are pretty laxadaisical about politics often are just
starting to wake up to say, gee, if this carries on,
then you end up with people like Trump. And so
we've seen the result in caund with Senate in Singapore,
with Senate in Australia, that people are starting to say no, no,
we better be careful about this. But I don't think
the fighters. There's just huge dry is for that kind

(15:00):
of politics to go. And I think the big thing
that we all should be doing is saying the center
is the place that a good government should be, whether
it's center right or center left. And if we want
to avoid the kinds of stuff that's happening in the
US which we ought to really avoid, then we really
need to do something about getting out voting and putting
in place people you care about.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Steve Maharri. And that's the exact reason why Chris Hopkins
is a dead man walking in my humble opinion, not
necessarily because of where he and the Labor Party sit,
but where has coalition partners sit, the Greens and to
Party Maori. For a lot of New Zealanders, they are
totally unelectable.

Speaker 6 (15:40):
Well, I couldn't agree more. I think that the mart
Party of course pits themselves as only for Mary, and
only for a particular section of Mary of course as well,
that they are quite judgmental about who they feel fits
that mold. So that's a pretty difficult pill for the
majority of people to swallow, and that the Green just

(16:00):
seemed to be unable to decide what they're on about.
They seem increasingly to want to represent a very small
part of the country as well, and that once again
doesn't help with trying to win a majority of people
to a platform that will change the country. So I
think Labor's got a problem with its potential partners at
the moment, and hopefully they're talking with them about the
fact that they need to shape up and start to

(16:22):
talk about things in a way which a majority of
people could accept.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Peter Dutton, let me get it right, got kicked to
touch in Australia over the weekend. He was described as
the Ossie Trump, as Winston Peter's the New Zealand Trump.

Speaker 6 (16:36):
He sort of as I think Winston has always been
a person who's understood that he needs about five percent
of the vote, and we used to in the old
days referred to that as the pist off vote in
New Zealand and that's not a big vote, but it
is about five percent or a little bit more. And
he knows that he placed it, that he gets them
and he gets back into parliament. So I don't think
Winston's the kind of person. He genuinely would be a

(16:58):
Trump much an old style National Party wet really when
it comes down to it, to allow that to happen.
But he knows that there are a number of people
now that listen to that kind of stuff and they
would be a good side percent and it's a good
ticket for them to get back into parliament. Steve, I
think it's shameful they does it, but that's really okay.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Steve Mahurry, I reckon if an election was held tomorrow.
This is just my view again, and you'd know a
lot more about it than me. Winston and Shane Jones
would do a lot better than five percent.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
I think on this ticket there are so that certainly
saying James is because he's got a time in parliament
to come, yet he will want to stay there and
they could well do that. You remember last time they
started to rock up towards ten percent and so on,
they looked like they were doing quite well. But I
don't think it'll either be a kind of trumpy and
big vote for them, and they don't think they would
believe that they'd get it. But they know that if

(17:48):
they run on all these things like the woe agenda
that they're now running on, they can get a good,
good proportion of vote and guarantee themselves return to Parliament.
And I think that's what they're after.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Steve Maharry with us YR old mate David Parker is
doing is valedictory speech this week and he'll fire a
few shots no doubt about a wealth tax or a
capital gains tax. I know it's well and truly back
on the table, but will people vote for it.

Speaker 6 (18:13):
Well. I ought to work to something like this because
it's pretty clear that we don't have enough tax to
do the kinds of things that everyone says they want
to do, like run a decent health system and so on.
So something has to change. And you'll notice that the
National Party also are talking about where when new revenue
comes from, whether it's a capital gains tax or whether
it's a wealth tax. I think one of the basic
principles of a fair tax system would be that we

(18:36):
tax thing that anything that gives you income. At the moment,
we rely far too heavily, of course, on just income tax,
and that's not something other countries do, and that's something
we seem to have pushed ourselves into a corner over.
So I hope what the pay does do is come
up with something sensible. I think a wealth tax, for example,
which perhaps was parked exclusively for health and education, that

(18:59):
people who paid it would know that their money was
going to causes that everybody wanted to see addressed. I
think probably they'd get away with it, but they need
to get past us arguing over it and settled out
and give people a good chance to absorb it. Otherwise
to be going into the election campaign with the policy
people are not used to and that's very difficult to
vote for.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
You've got a Gold card and a winter energy payment.
You don't need it. I don't need it. Surely they've
got to do something about the age of eligibility for
National Super and perhaps means testing. Not National Super, because
I think it's a universal benefit that people have earned
over a lifetime of paying tax, but things like energy
payments they could be indexed to income.

Speaker 6 (19:44):
Yeah, I agree that. I'm great you said that SUPER
should be universal, because a minute you start doing that,
you're basically turning it into a benefit, and you are
means testing it, which means there are fine whether thresholders.
It costs an enormous amount of money. It means people
who don't get it a campaign, and I think that
other people shouldn't get it or just internite me. I
think it's one of the best systems in the world

(20:06):
to just say it's universal and you don't get all
of it. If you're still earning lots of money, then
you can your SUPER will be lower anyway, all those
sorts of safeguards. But I think the other add ons.
You're right, something like a community card would be a
reasonable way to say, if you've got that, then you
get the winter energy payment. If you don't, you don't
because you're right, I don't need it. You don't need it,

(20:28):
but it rolls through, and I think some sort of
guardrails around those sorts of things seems to me to
be sensible, but not SUPER. I think that would be silly.
Should the age go up, I think probably when you
look at people like you and me, we're still fully active,
you start to think, well, maybe in future generations, giving
people plenty of time to adjust it, something like sixty

(20:49):
seven is not such a bad thing to do, given
them length of time people work in the age now here, Hey.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Let's just finish a final comment on New Zealand as
a food producer, because you do a lot of work
in that area. How well positioned are we as a
nation at the moment, you know, with all the uncertainty
geo political tension, the Trump tariffs, all that sort of stuff.
How well positioned do we stuck away at the bottom
of the South Pacific and just producing high quality food

(21:16):
to export around the world. I'd say we're in a
better position than a lot of countries.

Speaker 6 (21:21):
Well, we've got things that people want. So that's good,
isn't it? That food is something that people always want.
How difficult difficultly really will be that obviously we're going
to ship things that are heavy all around the world
at the time when people are worried about that with
environmental issues and climate change and so on. So I
think we've got a big job in front of us
of ensuring that we're not dependent on commodities. As you

(21:45):
and I've talked before, but we've actually got food products
that is that there is. We do a lot more
to them before they lead leave the shores, so we
get more money for them, and that people become very
very attuned to the fact that they want to have
a new Zealand product there. I still don't think that
we're doing enough of that. I keep asking MPI, for example,
where is the food strategy that you told us the

(22:07):
country was going to have. While they say it's on
our website, We'll go to the website and convince yourself
that's a food strategy. I think when we still are
too complacent about the fact that this is a difficult
product to have when you're a long way from everywhere else,
we need to refine it more, make more money out
of it, and really win people around the world to
say they must have these products, because that's our vulnerability,

(22:30):
not that we don't have something great, but that we
are quite vulnerable because of things like distance in our
still heavy dependence on commodities, so there's a lot of
stuff to do. I think, in terms of a food strategy,
get I'm much. I'm very encouraged, Jamie. As the last comment,
if you travel around the country you see people who've
got this message all over the place. They're really getting

(22:51):
stuck into doing something special with the product they've got
branding it. Looking at niche markets around the world. The
problem is we don't have a new system like that
that supports them. So that's what I think is a
big challenge for food Still.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Hey, Steve Maharray, thank you very much for your time
a labor politician making a lot of sense. Former Labor
Party politician. I think you'd make a great panel with
Steve and Joyce. I might. We'll start working on that one.
Thanks for your time.

Speaker 6 (23:17):
Okay, take you.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Thank you, Steve Maharry, Steve Joyce. That sounds quite good,
doesn't It's Mike McIntyre in the studio. Is ten dollars
the new norm? Sum are your feedback? Oh, it's a
toss up between Peters and Seymour as to who is
New Zealand's Trump. Leading up to last election, Seymour started
saying he might sit on the cross benches act then

(23:40):
dropped in the polls. Another text a saying New Zealand
you can get us on five to double O nine.
By the way, Another text are saying New Zealand productivity
is some of the lowest in the lowest in the
western world. Yep, I think you're probably right there. If
we could fix that, we wouldn't need more tax Another
one saying, if you want to, you can donate your

(24:01):
super to charity. Yeah, there's a thing out there, Sarien
Taylor's pushing it at the moment. It's I think it's
called share my super. So if you don't need it,
give it to somebody else. And here's a question for
Mike McIntyre, I might just bring him in. Actually, what
we'll get to ten dollars first, Milk or Lamb? I
thought the answer of Pete's texted in that the answer

(24:24):
is rather obvious. Milk, I mean the dairy payout will
be ten bucks. Lamb still got quite a way to go.

Speaker 5 (24:30):
Grab the both here.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
THEO wouldn't It shouldn't be.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
A race, But do you know what, it's really simple.
But the key for it. Guys mightn't agree with me
because they want more than ten bucks, maybe for the green,
but if everything was ten dollars, we'd be in a
sweet spot. And by everything I'm talking about, I'm talking
about strong wall strong crossbred wool, which is still next

(24:53):
to worthless. I know people criticizing me for bagging wool,
but when I was a farmer in the eighties, we
used to get five and six dollars at kilo for
strong crossbred wool chuck. In the inflation we've had since then,
I mean ten dollars. Still, it's got to be worth that.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
Every season Country Calendar episode there seems to be someone
innovating a way of getting a good price of strong wool.
But for whatever reason, you know, we're just not seeing it,
are we.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
So here's another one coming. And Jamie mackay is New
Zealand's Tucker Carlson. Is that an insult or a compliment?
An insult?

Speaker 5 (25:27):
I think it's an insult.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Okay, thank you text. At least you were nice about it.
Lorrie Patterson has texted and from Groundswell can't keep a
good ground swell man down. Lorrie says there's only one
way to fix the endless pine tree planting on good farmland,
and that's to get out of Paris. Where have we
heard that before? That will put the skids under carbon
credits and people will start buying farms for the right reason.

(25:52):
There you go. You can give us your feedback on
five double o nine. I'm going to Tucker Carlson's like
a kind of an uber right wing commentator.

Speaker 8 (26:01):
Isn't it.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (26:01):
I wouldn't describe myself as that, but anyhow, I'm going
to google them and just check whether that's an insult
or a compliment. Up next, Rural News with Michelle.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
Do you want to read.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Sports news, Mike, I'm happy not to, but can we
print it off for him? Yeah, we'll get him to
read sports news. Peter Alexander farm accountant before the end
of the hour as well. And there's ten dollars the
new norm for milk or for the milk price. We'll
ask We'll ask Mike that before the end of the hours. Time.

(26:39):
So Star, this is Beedy Good Bade Good Bad. It
is twenty two away from one. You're with the country
brought to you by Brent Mike McIntyre in the studio.
Michelle's here cruel. I've never heard of a song who

(27:02):
sings the song This is.

Speaker 9 (27:03):
Dane Rumble And I think, what are you saying, Mike
that you went to my score something with this guy?

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Well, you two need some mic technique. You need to
get closer to that, mic anyhow, So Dane Rumble.

Speaker 9 (27:15):
Dane Rumble yes has a bit of a cult following.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Not on rivers, Darley didn't. Anyhow, Here's Michelle. What was
the latest and rural? Was he big in Bellcluther?

Speaker 9 (27:24):
Probably?

Speaker 5 (27:24):
What I mean?

Speaker 9 (27:25):
You were there as big as not as big as
wagon wheel.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Let's face it, Okay. Here's Michelle with Rural.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
News, the Country's world news with culd Cadet, New Zealand's
leading right on lawn bower Bread, visit steel Ford dot
co dot said for your local stockist.

Speaker 9 (27:41):
And this morning the annual agriculture production statistics came out
for the year. I won't go through too many of
them because there's a lot of numbers here, but some
interesting statistics for you. So dairy cattle was at five
point eight million, which was down one percent from twenty
twenty three. And sheep, this is the other one that
I pulled out, was twenty three point six million, which
was down three from twenty twenty three, which I think

(28:01):
is to be expected with the latest discussions and things
like that around sheet prices and wall and stuff like that.
We've also got over the weekend obviously, we had duck
hunting going on, and thousands gathered in wetlands and waterways
around the country. It was mixed success with the weather
I think around the country. From the reports I've heard
down here, it was actually not too bad. It rained
down south, but where I was in North Otago it

(28:24):
was a beautiful day. A bit of wind, though it
might have kept the ducks a bit low.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, some foot like south and apparently had a duck
pandemic or not a pandemic, an epidemic. What am I
what's the word I'm looking for. It's one of those words.
A shed load of ducks. But some of the ponds
didn't get great results, and I can point to our pond.
It's been passed on to the next generation. I'd have
to say, without wanting to be too critical of the

(28:50):
next generation down it was a pretty poor effort. They
could learn a lot from their forebears when it comes
to accurate aiming.

Speaker 9 (28:58):
Might need to go down there and give them some
less Well back in.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
My day, Back in my day, here's here's a text
coming and to me, you are way too wet to
be Tucker Carlston. You are more like John Campbell, Mark
too Rooks. Have you got nothing better to do with
your time. I mean there's a carbon farmer for you.
That's what that's how carbon farmers think. You see, here's

(29:22):
Mike McIntyre with the latest sport, not a bad shot, Actually,
Rock's not a bad shot.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Sport with AFCO. Visit them online at AFCO dot co
dot NZED.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
The Blackfurn Sevens are thump rivals Australia thirty one seven
in the finals to win the World Championship tournament in
Los Angeles. These guys always my pick for the sports
team of the year.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Actually, well they're the best rugby team in New Zealand.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
I think so.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
Yeah, and they're comprehensively outplaying everyone else. A third place
finished on the New Zealand men's side, they wrapped up
this season with a thirty eight seventeen win over Argentina
after being well beaten by.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
South Africa in the semifinals.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
Super ABI cheer Kevin Maloy, another St. Peter's old boy,
is welcoming a more competitive season. The race of the
playoffs is lightning with sorry tightening, with Mina Pacifica and
Fijian Drew securing multi wins. Two Australian sides are sitting
in the top four, and sixteen points are separating the
top nine teams with four regulation weeks still to play.
Maloy believes the rule changes have paid off.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
Now.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
I went to Saint Peter's and Gore Catholic boarding school.
You went to Saint Peter's.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
In Ackland, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Epsom, Yeah, So we used to play into school with
ross Miny College on the North Shore and Martin Snedden,
two great callbacks marked each other for a couple of
years and then we played Saint Peter's College on our
Northern tour, first time I'd ever been on a plane
and they were like I think with Auckland Graham of

(30:47):
the top team at the time in Auckland rugby. They
gave us a bit of a it was like about
thirty points or something. But we're a smaller school. But
I remember John Tammerherry was in the Saint Peter's team
that I played against.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
They still have an end rugby dinner which he longed
to as well. And you know John Tammy, Harry's always
there and has a lot to say, so I think
he's relieved relived those glory days as well.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Here good on them. There you go, Verse fifteen Rugby.
Those were the glory days. Up next Peter Alexander, a
man who's still having glory days. He's still working seven
days a week. What's wrong with him? We'll talk to
him next and look at the profitability of varying farm sectors.

Speaker 8 (31:23):
This is the country.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
It is just gone quarter away from one. You're at
the country, brought to you by Brant. Just having a
weave of trouble tracking down Peter Alexander. Michelle is working
over time to get him on the blower so we
can have a yarn to him. This is z renegade fighter?
Is this rebel sport? Mike's not on Mike? Is this
rebel sport?

Speaker 5 (31:55):
It is?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, yeah, okay, now you you need to ponder is
ten dollars the new norm? But I do need to
go to Peter Alexander because I want to get his
commentary on profitability before you comment on it from a
dairy sector's point of view. So bear with us, we apologize.
We'll be back with Peter Alexander. Just Peter Alexander is

(32:21):
a christ Church based farm accountant and raconteur still actively
involved on the speaking circuit. He writes, I am working
seven days a week, because there is nothing I would
rather do. Trying to add value to a farming couple's
financial affairs is a very satisfying way of making a living. Peter,

(32:42):
I'm going to talk about your lack of a lifestyle
and just a tick, but I want to talk you
to talk about your clients. How are your sheep farming
clients in particular going this year and how do they
compare to your dairy farming clients, your arable farming clients
and your beef farmers.

Speaker 7 (33:00):
The very side of it is going extremely well right
up and down the country, no question about that. The
sheep and beef has certainly improved since the June twenty
four year, but you're coming off a very low base.
They're very low. The arable people are quite a small group,
but most of them on the outskirts of towns. They've

(33:22):
got valuable land, a lot of this arable group, but
most of them are going well. I've just had a
discussion with several farmers who are thanking God that the
heavy rains down here and the Canterbury Plains have taken
place after harvest.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Flooding aside, and I know it's been a major issue
for some people. But the old subsoil or the soil
system in Canterbury has to be fully charged heading into winter.
And that's not a bad thing when you come out
the other side in spring.

Speaker 7 (33:55):
No, quite right, it's a good thing. While we're on
the subject, what am I finding out in the mainstream,
the questions I'm getting in meetings and what have you.
If we're going to hold sheep numbers, we've got to
get two hundred dollars. I think for Lamb wall needs
six dollars a kilogram for the strying wall. That we

(34:15):
are still a long way from it. It's a great product,
but it's a long way from being economic. We must
be getting close to another works closure, Jamie. If we
are not going to hold the sheep comers. I think
they reduced about ten percent this last year. We're down
to about twenty one point five million sheep. We've come
down from seventy two million to twenty one point five million.

(34:38):
It's been almost a million head per year over that
forty three years have dropped.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Do you think sheep farmers may end help getting rich
by default? I the last man standing theory, and I'm
talking about for Lamb here not for wall.

Speaker 7 (34:54):
It's a very interesting point that I find in the
two twenty four and the twenty five. All yeah, a
lot of my very sound sheep and beef beef went well,
but sheep farmers made losses but still got job satisfaction.
That is a very interesting trait. Not too many industries
in New Zealand do you make a loss and you

(35:16):
still get job satisfaction. That's a plus for agriculture. But
it's a long way from an answer.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Well, it's not a very good response really, or result
for someone like you in account that minds you. As
I said at the beginning of this chat, Peter, are
you working seven days a week because there's nothing you
would rather do? Have you not heard of golf or
bowls or walking or hunting? I don't know.

Speaker 7 (35:39):
I used to play a lot of tennis and table tennis,
but I've stopped all that. I'm sure I quite like golf,
but I don't want to because i'd quite like it.
It would distract me from work.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Hey, Peter, Alexander, Look, thanks as always for your time.
You keep working seven days a week because there's nothing
you would rather do?

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Correct see later?

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Okay, bye, got on your Peter seven Away from One,
I had the ten dollars theme, the ten dollars jug
Days are well. I'm truly gone. Yes they are. Are
the chills best music for a long time. Music's very subjective,
isn't it. Right Up next, Mike McIntyre's ten dollars the
new norm for the milk Price. I've dragged this one

(36:26):
out of the back of my backside deep ob session.
I reckon this was the late nineties and cold Mike
McIntyre to wrap it, Thanks for coming into the studio. Mike,
ten dollars. You've had just about an hour to ponder
this is it the new norm?

Speaker 4 (36:40):
I don't think it's a new norm, but I think
the ten dollars in and off itself is a fantastic
result for this season. If you go back to like
the thirteen fourteen season where we had the eight forty.
Remember half the country was in a drought and so
not everyone got the production. But this year we've had
ten dollars plus milk price, we've had good earnings for
the cops for those who get dividends, and then also
we've got fantastic production as well, So it's really been

(37:02):
one of those unicorn seasons.

Speaker 5 (37:03):
I like to refer to it as.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Is Derey going to get escape Trump's tariffs more than
other products?

Speaker 5 (37:09):
I think?

Speaker 4 (37:10):
So yeah, if you ever look at what we sent
through into into the States, it's very much the high
functioning proteins, and so yes, there obviously will be tarrifs
in there, but I think they can you know, the
margin still substantial enough to make it worthwhile sending into
that part of the world. And obviously the biggest you
would be if someone like Mexico was to throw in

(37:31):
retaliatory towerffs. But Shineborn that the president there, she seems
to be fairly sensible and certainly you know it's going
along with the rest of the play.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Okay, So if I was to a you're the head
of derivatives or you used to be, you've got a
flash new title now at Jardon. But if I was
to lock in a milk price today for next season,
what was that number again?

Speaker 5 (37:48):
Nine eighty five?

Speaker 2 (37:49):
That's what It's not bad business risk management, isn't I think?

Speaker 4 (37:52):
So yeah, yeah, so yeah, and we possibly go high,
but there's a lot of unknowns at the stage, and
you know, we're still you know, a month away from
know what the milk price is going to be for
this year, but I think you know we're in a rude.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Health Okay, there we go. That is Mike McIntire from Jardin.
We're going to go out for lunch. Who's paying? No, no, no,
I'm just joking. I think I owe your lunch from
when I was an Awkland good to catch up. We'll
catch you again tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to Brent starkest of the
leading agriculture brands.