January 14, 2026 • 38 mins
Hamish McKay talks to Richard Loe, Mike Siermans, Chris Russell, Tony Cochrane, and Mike Inglis.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The country with Hamish mckuy and Farmland's advice you can
trust products you can count on.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good afternoon, Welcome into the country with Farmlands Harmless mckaye
and for Jamie McKay for the first week of twenty
twenty twenty six. So you're having a cracking old day
wherever you might be, gimmer Burn, Grieton, gordonton all the
g's hey question of the day and you would have
(00:38):
got a bit of a lead into this from our
sports news. What would you make of Jamie, Joseph, Dave,
Renny and Tana Umang are having lunch in a Wellington
cafe today of all days. Yes, coming up the latest
on Raisor Robinson with iconic all black front row for
man who doesn't mince his word speaks sense. Richard Lowe
(00:59):
has Raisin burnt down his own house. Also coming up,
like we did there, I am Michelle and dened and
she smiled at me. You know, through the fandangle technology
that we have these days, we'll talk to Mike Ingles
from MPI and the latter is on the Queensland fruit
fly and the yellow legged hornet. Sounds like something out
(01:20):
of a Batman movie. Ozzie Curus Chris Russell will be
with us PGG Rights and National Deer and Velvet Manager
Tony Cochran a dollar each way perhaps on venison and
velvet as things improved for our deer farmers there as well,
and will meet the new CEO of Federated Farmers. But
(01:40):
right now Richard Lowe joined us. Lowe. Look, I tell
you what this is not just smoke signals. It's a
raging inferno around Eraser Robertson and his future which seems
like it's all over. What's your take? Well, what have
you heard?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Good, I've known has here probably what you've heard. Plenty
of opinions out there, But who do you go to
in the end?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Z are.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
To ask the question too, because you know you talk
about raised and is seen going. There's no CEO, there's
no CFO, no high performance, no commercials, there's just you know,
for the last few years it's been disintegrating in the
head office, so you know, and the way they treated
you think back the way they treated Fozzy Free Razor
(02:37):
wasn't great. So you know, yeah, there has to be
a bit of accountability somewhere along the line. And I
think there are that many jump ship before this even
came about, isn't that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah? I think so. I think we've got to look
at some of the issues, well, a lot of issues.
But your old teammate, David Kirk, he's the guy who's
it's in the big seat. I suppose hopefully he's from
a board level that we are addressing some of these issues.
I mean, as you say, they need to be addressed.
But first and foremost, I would have to say, though,
you've got to go back and if it pans out
(03:14):
and we're standing by to hear what the latest on
Raiser Robinson is. The minute he was doing the Buller.
If you don't pick me, I'm off to coach Figi
as far as I was concerned, he'd burned his own
house down then and showed no respect to Ian Foster
in terms of demanding that he should be coaching. He's
he on Rugby, sent Joe Smith and there to find
out more. And I don't think he I mean I can't.
I'm not quoting him, but I'm not sure. He's the
(03:35):
biggest raisor fan in the world. So it's kind of
come home to roost, really, hasn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
And it's probably because Raiser has his own team and
there I say it, whether it be whether it be
Henry Henson or even Wayne Smith, they get their own
people around them. And I think Raises lot Jace Ryan,
which has proved himself under a couple of different coaches,
(04:05):
has the experience and the ability. Where you go to
Scott Hanson and co Tomothy Ellison, they haven't. And when
you see Leon McDonald and Holland, Leon McDonald's only there
a month or two before he said no, he can't
work with it. Holland did that and said it at
(04:28):
the end of this last tour or before the doer,
but he just walked back into the hurricanes. Don't the
same people pay the wages at both organizations, you know?
So there were warning signs all over the place we
went there before this raised its head this week.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Bottom line is lowe. End of the day, the performances
weren't good enough. Okay, there were enough, there were seventy
four percent winning percentage, but when we got thumped, we
got absolutely pinged. I mean Damien McKenzie's miracle try against
I mean we should have been out the back door
that day. But I give credit to some of the pliers,
(05:03):
the fact that they were able to guts it out
even though things internally weren't that good.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, you know you throw that game in with the
Argentine in England and there I say, Wellington Springbock Test.
They weren't great performances. But you know these are professional players.
They you know, something's going wrong if they should be
able to get out on the field and play the game.
You know, I just think from what an old timeer
(05:32):
looking in, I think one or two things.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
That they are.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
They are probably training too much and not playing enough
these days. If someone has a sixty minute go before
the sub, I've had a big out thing, which is rubbish.
And then we you know, there are a lot of
players play eighty minutes, but only a few play you
know should play that. But the other one is, you know,
(05:58):
too many voices yep, yep at halftime with the spring box.
I'd suggest if any of the assistant coaches, for example,
Tony Brown wanted to say something to the playoffs, I
bet you it's comes out of Rathmas's mouth.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Not Tony's.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And you know, you look at our team, the All Blacks,
they look to be going okay, in the first half.
They come out half time and they look bewildered. Who
do we listen to first? Who are constructions? You know,
they're about half a dozen different coaches and the raiser
probably has his five six worth and it just confuses
(06:36):
at all. So you know it should be should be
one command?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Does it all?
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yeah, during the week, you've got an assistant coaching helping,
but you know the instructions should come from one person.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I feel yeah, and that's going to it seems like
it's we understand Jamie, Joseph Dave, Renny Tanner, Humonger in
the Capitol today. I'd be happy with them. I'd want
Joe Smith to be involved at some level. But we'll
stand by Lowe. Okay, thank you for your time. Richard
low iconic all black front row. Don't forget low He
played forty nine tests with eighty minutes every time, so
add that up you can see where he gets a
(07:10):
bit of a Ben's bonded about that one. We're standing
by to here. What is the latest on Razor Robinson?
By all accounts, he's got his own ghost burnt down,
his own house. Seems like he's gone. We will keep
you posted here on the country. Well, the new CEO
(07:43):
of Federated Farmers has had his head on the job
for a couple of months now, but it's our first
chance to sort of catch up and introduce to you
the man at the helm, Mike Simons, get a Mike.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Get a Harish. It's lovely to be here. Thank you
for the invite.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, good to chat, right, Okay, So congratulations on that.
What's a new role. But you have been you know,
you've had the feed under the table for a little while.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I have. It's been it's been about three and a
half four months now and I thoroughly enjoyed working with
the team here. And yeah, I'm pleased that we've we've
made it official that I am now the sea.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It's great, Yeah, great stuff. You look, given your background,
why feeds, what's what's the big attraction for that role?
And you come from pharmaceutical and different and a good
variety of sectors, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I guess, I guess earlier in my career I sort
of worked out that I wanted to work for an
injured ink for one of a better words, you know,
I wanted to do something good for New Zealand and
good for the agricultural sector as well. So I've had
a couple of different jobs, mainly in the pharmaceutical industry,
so that's a pretty hard nosed industry around sales and marketing,
(08:56):
and I see that I come with some fresh eye
into Federated Farmers to give them some of those new
ideas and to work with the team to move forward
on membership and help policy as well.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
What are some of those ideas given that you would
be fully fully indoctrinated by now that you know that
farming is the backbone of the country.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Farming is definitely the backbone of the country hammership. So
I come to this looking at how I can add
some real value to Federated Farmers. We are superb on
the advocacy and the policy side, you know, we have
a real strength around looking at the problems and bringing
solutions to government and to local and to central government.
(09:41):
But I'm sort of more on that side of membership
and pulling a team together of members that we can
continue to thrive into the future. So my focus is
going to be more around that commercial side and making
sure that people know why they're members festival and then
wanting them to be members with us.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, so what is our membership uptake like across the country.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
The membership uptake is really good. I think because of
the provincial and national focus that we have. We have
a really good spread across the whole country and we're growing.
So we've just had a bit of a growth spirit
just before Christmas about another five hundred members because of
the good advocacy work and because they can see that
when they join us they're actually part of the team
(10:29):
that makes a difference. I can give you an example
of that Hamish, a consenting crisis in the South Island.
We had over four thousand people join our petition and
we've made a real difference to getting those consents rolled
over for farmers. It's a big, big deal.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, fantastic. Okay, let's have a conversation twelve months from now,
as if we're having it right now, what impact would
you like to have made by Christmas this year?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
So I'd like to have a really clear understanding of
how the guver It can increase even further the confidence
and farming. I would like to have a lot more
members join us and help us to understand the issues
that they've got around their different provinces and to actually
support us in numbers as well.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
So what good looks like to.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Me is probably around another thousand members to join us
and having clear ideas around bringing that to the government
and having clear policies.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeap, no good stuff, good stuff farmers on the same page.
See sometimes say there's not a rural urban divide, there's
often a bigger rural rural divide. So there's a challenge
for you. Mike, thank you very much for joining us.
Mike Simmons, the new CEO of Federated Farmers, much appreciated.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Thank famous so digital.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Well.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I don't know if the future of farming is certain,
but it's certainly bright and good to have Mike Simmons
on the show. There, the new CEO of Federated Farmer
standing by it across the ditch to Aussie correspondent The Live,
why that he is Chris Russell? Next, well, Australia correspondent
(12:17):
Chris Russell joins us. Now, Chris, welcome to twenty twenty six.
How well have your summer had been pretty hot over there?
Speaker 6 (12:24):
Yeah, look it's been pretty warm and yeah, happy new
year to year if we just still say that and
to everyone listening, it's good to be cranking up for
another year over here. But it's been a very warm Christmas.
I think I was telling you off here that you know,
we had all the kids over here, all the grandkids
swimming in the pool because the pool water was thirty
degrees unheeded. The day temperature on Christmas Eve was about
(12:45):
forty four point six here, so that's getting up there.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, it certainly is right. You had a record year
for beef exports. But what effect will the new Chinese
tariffs have?
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Yes, well, we did have an a mating year. Really
about one point five million tons that we've exported out
of Australia this year, which is you know, that's the
first time we've been over that one point five million.
Biggest customer, of course, United States took about four hundred
and twelve thousand tons, which is up about seventeen percent
year on year. But the little click on the horizon
(13:20):
really is this new Chinese tariff on anything over quota.
Now the instant thing is that Australia's quota has just
been set for this year at two hundred and three
thousand tons. New Zealand there's two hundred and six thousand,
so that's surprising of course, if you look at the
quota that comes in from Brazil that's sitting up there,
around one point one two million tons it goes in,
(13:42):
so they're even more affected. And they've actually just imposed
a self imposed limit on their monthly exports of about
eighty thousand tons to try and keep that under control
and not run out of quota by the middle of
the year. But last we normally to China. I think
this year's China we sold about two hundred seventy thousand tons,
so we're well over. You only put about one hundred
(14:04):
and sixty five thousand tons in, so you actually don't
even use your current quota, so I'm not seeing it's
going to affect you that much. But certainly for us,
we would normally anticipate to the quota would only be
around about two thirds of the amount of beef that
we would send over there, so that's going to have
(14:24):
some effect homeish.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, we'll look and follow that closely. Bit of the
status quo from the Kiwi in latest Australia day lamb
Ad hits the spot.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Ah, it's awesome. You should google that and have a look.
I've sent a copy across to Michelle say, she may
put a link up on your Facebook page, but it's
an awesome ad based around the new statistics that say
we dropped out of the top ten favorite places to
live in the world, and of course taking note of
(14:55):
that and saying, well, you know, but Lamb is the cure.
A fantastic ad full of puns and humor. Same Sam
Kekovich hosting it. You'll love it. And of course that's
the highlight of the Lamb sales in the year. They
go up about twenty five percent based on that ad
around Australia Day. It's been one of the most successful
(15:15):
campaigns for any agricultural product in Australian history.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Homish, Yeah, oh fantastic, looking forward to having a look
at that. Now, look, everything affects everything, doesn't it. When
we talk about the effect of the Iranian tensions, that's
going to have a bit of a flow on potentially
quite significant for Australian agriculture.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Well, not only Australia, I think globally. You might think that,
you know, Iran is a hell of a long way away,
but you've got to remember they produce about ten percent
of the world's urea and you know, of course largely
on the base of how energy intensive UREA production is.
In fact, we've got factories in Australia to shut down
because the energy just doesn't make it viable to produce
(15:57):
urea in Australia. So you know, if we actually switch
off these UREA plants or switch off access these U
rear plants in Iran, and that's certainly going to be
a big disruption to our fertilizers supply. And you can't
just turn on factories overnight in other countries. So I
(16:19):
think that's probably the single biggest effect that we're likely
to see. We don't shift that much stuff there, and
what we do will find other markets for but there's
not much we can do about that. And I imagine
New Zealand will have the same problem.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Hamish, Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, how's the talks with
the EU going over a free trade agreement? How's that
looking for Australia at the moment.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Well, look, they're pretty keen to accelerate these Unlike New Zealand,
Australia has jacked up at about the naming issues for
things like prosecco and feta and parmesan and so on.
We just said that we're just not going to do that.
So and of course we al also want a much
(17:03):
better access for our agricultural goods, so we're not getting that.
There's really nothing in it for Australia. Now, I know
New Zealand's sort of bitting the bullet and sort of
taking a pragmatic view that's better to have agreement than
no agreement, but we haven't done that. Of course, Europe
would love to get TARA free access of their motor
cars in particular into Australia, and they also want access
(17:25):
to our mineral sands, you know, these rear earths and
all these things that we keep hearing about that have
become so critical in the production of electric cars and
so on. So there is pressure from both sides to
get a meeting, but at the moment both sides are implacable.
The other issue with Europe is there's twenty seven members
that have all to agree to it as well. So
(17:46):
it's even if you do get an agreement between the
EU Commissioner and our Trade Minister Don Farrell, you know,
it's sitting and it takes some time to get around
those twenty seven people and talk them into it because
they've all got their own interest at heart, despite them
being trading as a single block. So I'm not all
that optimistic that's going to happen unless we just cave in,
which I think would be a terrible thing. There's no
(18:07):
point in having one if we don't get better access
for our Australian agricultural goods. And certainly some of these
name things they're required for a just fabricator Prosecco, for example,
actually named the town after the wine retrospectively in and
out claiming naming rights. That's ridiculous. So I just don't
see that being something that we're going to give in either.
(18:29):
But both the ministers are saying, well, we need to
get on with it, and that's certainly true. But you know,
all these subsidies that they have in Europe are very expensive.
It's an implacable problem over there politically.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yep, Chris Almo's going to wrap it up. But there's
this sort of a feel good but sad story at
the same time about a cow that ended up what
eighty k's out to see Because we've heard a lot
about the heat and the fires, but not so much
about those floods up north.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Yeah, well that's we've had big floods up there from
a cyclone that went through and one of the survival
stories that we've heard ab out of this they reckon
they've lost around about fifty thousand head of cattle so far,
which is not as much as the big losses they
had back in twenty twenty one, but just fifty thousands
(19:16):
a lot.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
But one cow called up in Queensland, a heifer belonging
to a bloke called who goes under the name of
Lizard Seymour. His name is probab name's Michael, but he
calls himself Lizard. They had six hundred and fifty millimeters
of rame as from this cyclone Koji, and he lost
a fair few head of cattle, about seventy head, and
he'd sort of given up on them a bit until
(19:38):
he got a range from the Mackay Police to say
that an eleven month old ren Brangus heifer had been
washed washed off up on the beach and was sitting
on the beach waiting to be rescued. Now that cow
that's true, that well, it is true, had gone over
three weirs, Marani, Marion and doubleton Ware down to them
out of the river. Eighty kilo is out the sea,
(19:58):
and then the returning tired and brought her back in
and shoved on the beach. As you can imagine, she
was pretty naked, but her brother went down there with
a trailer. His brother went down there with a trailer,
picked her up border home or just sent a picture
over online and she looks as though she's going to
be back on the farm, you know, with her first
calves sometime this year. So that's an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
There we go. Love a good, amazing, feel good story.
To wrap it up. That's our Australia correspondent at Chris Russell.
Thanks very much, Chris, don't worries damn still to come
out of the country. The lad's on the Queensland fruit
fly and the fandangled yellow legged hornets. Catch up with
(20:44):
Mike Ingles from MPI on that What's happening in the
dear world? Venison or velvet or a dollar each wave.
Time now for a bit of news.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
The countries, World news with Cove Cadets, New Zealand's leading
right arm lawn bower bread visit steel Ford dot cott
Zim for your local stockist.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
Thanks Hamish, and you won't know what's going on with
the weather in Auckland, because I know the studio you're
in has no windows outside and it's like a box.
But apparently most of the North Island lies under a
severe thunderstorm watch with a day of heavy rain and
violent electrical storms and a dozen warnings and watches are
in place from Northland to Wellington. Broad scale heavy rains
expected to hit Auckland from one pm, so just after
(21:26):
you finished there in the studio to take your raincoat
with you and go right through for twelve hours. So
keep an eye out on the weather watches out there
if you're up in the North Island and probably the
lower half of the upper half of the South Island
maybe as well. Just keep an eye out on those
weather wardings. Now we're up with sport, sport on.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
The country with a fco business well done.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, potentially is it the world's worst kept secret and
announcement expect at any moment on the future of all
Black coach Razor Robinson. Stay tuned for that. Just to
unconfirmed reports of a reasonably well powerful contingent, a trifecta
of great rugby minds being together in Wellington today, of
all days, Jmie, Joseph, Dave, Rennie and Tana Umang. I
(22:12):
don't know what that says, but I think you can
read between the lines and there you go. That's our sport.
Speaker 9 (22:18):
God, it's I'm lazy when I love tied to talk
venison and velvet and all things dear here on the
country pgs you, writes in National Dear and Velvet manager
Tony Cochran joins us.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Now welcome into twenty twenty six. Tony, how are you traveling?
Speaker 7 (22:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Good things hamus.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Have you summoned well summered?
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Well? Well, yes, is a bit around this there a
bit of growth, you might say, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, look that's an okay time of the year for
that to happen, Tony house things in the world of
venison and vel it and the like.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Yeah, well they've had a bit of an upswing this
this year, as all meat products have, but particularly venison
it's done to come back into its own. We've got
really good, stable, high prices around the eleven bucks, you know,
and higher for some contracts, but it's steady, it's stable,
and there's been quite a few of the mixed stage
(23:23):
stags exit the system, which is also helping the velvet industry.
We think there could be as much as two hundred
tons of velvet exit the system this season based on
what's been sent to the works and paid well for,
you know, the particularly the North American venison supply chain,
(23:43):
which likes the bigger cuts of meat.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Right. Okay, well that's pretty damn positive, isn't it, Because
you know, it's not that long ago we were having
that sort of pretty doom and gloom kind of discussion,
you know, is eleven dollars sustainable? And is it a
good town for farmers? Or where would you like to
see it? And where would they like to see it?
And what's these sentiment?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
Yeah, every farmer would love to see a higher price
than that, but they know that the risk of derailing
the sort of certainty of supply for the purchases and
also over cooking markets, venison can be substituted for cheaper products.
So it's always you know, to back of mine. But
you know, there's no reason why we shouldn't be holding
(24:28):
onto these high prices for quite some time, particularly for venison.
The main reason is that supply is so low it's
not picked to really start picking itself up, and you know,
getting back into sort of where we were several years
ago for the next sort of three or four years.
And you know, it was seen with velvet that everyone
(24:51):
has retained velvet stags over hindes, breeding hinds for venison
over the last sort of five to ten years, and
that's now got to its peak where the velvet market's oversupplied.
Having a bit of diversity within deer, having a venison
and a velvet model and of course using out balls
as terminal signs and high growth rate red red deer
(25:13):
is also a good thing to have.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Is it really a case of you know, to cover
behind so to speak, time It is a dollar each way,
a dollar on the venison, a dollar on the velvet.
From a farming perspective, and.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
That other leg to the story is is trophy is
the hunting fraternity. So you know, most of those guys
are self sufficient as far as not having to go
to farms to look for these animals that are well
bred for trophies. But it certainly does help. It keeps
things buoyant, and you know, dear people are very passionate
(25:50):
about what they do. And you know, we've seen high
high prices for venison currently lower prices for velvet than
last year, probably back about ten percent, but you know,
the the confidence is there in the future to hold it,
hold in there and hold a line too. That's helped
us this season, particularly with velvet. We didn't sell a
(26:10):
stick leading up to Christmas based on the fact we
had low offers and we knew that the market had
too much stock. So you're just pushing a pushing a
product that it's not required.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but you're seducing with
the kill rate. Get those bigger cut succesor that will
actually help the velvet market down the track a bit, oh.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
For sure, yep.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I think so. That and the fact that the stags
that have already been sent to the works aren't going
to produce regrowth, so that's going to the second cut
that's going to sort of lower the volume or the supply.
But we know going into next season we're going to
be probably around two hundred and tokinsor less of velvet.
And we know also at the consumer end of the
dear velvet market that prices don't really change. It's really
(26:56):
that wholesale supply and demand maxim between a lot of
sentiment involved here. Yeah, and economies are improving, you know,
South Korea and China, they're starting to look upwards, probably
a little bit faster than us.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, Tiny Cochrane, PGG Rights and National Deer and Velvet Manager,
Tony your thoughts for twenty twenty six. The one thing
that I get. You know, I'm not not in farming
on a day to day basis, but I'm close enough.
There seems to be across our what we produce and
what we market to the world a nice dose of
(27:33):
medium to long term longevity as opposed to you know,
the volatility that is really we've experienced, I don't know,
post rogernomics, post SMP removal. It just feels like you
can kind of have a little bit more of a
bank on the future at the moment. Right across the
board and farming, is that your take?
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, totally right behind John that Amish. Yeah, you know
there's horses for courses.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
That's the right right place for the right tree, but.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
There's also the right place to the right animal. And Yeah,
people have got their priorities, and cash flow is one
of them, but you know they've also got a they've
also got to look forward as to where they are,
where the family are, where the we're the best return.
But yeah, it's it's what suits the camp country and
suits the land and that's that's part of the mix
(28:21):
as well.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Isn't it.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
And I think everyone is starting to look forward. No
one's looking over them shoulders. Yep, we've got a whole
leg of opportunities in New Zealand. Is sitting right in
the hot seat.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, brity, good stuff, Tony. Thank you very
much for joining us as PGG Rights and National Deer
and Velvet Manager. Tony Cochran here on the country. Yes,
(28:52):
the country brought to you by Farmland's Hammers McKay in
for Jamie McKay for the first week of the year.
So we've got the situation of course as you'll be
away with the Queensland fruit fly and also the fendangled
yellow leged hornet. So we're going to go out to
the expert on this MPI by our Security z more
than Regional Commissioner Mike Ingles. What is the situation with
(29:14):
these two? What's the lightest?
Speaker 10 (29:17):
Yeah, just with a fruit fly.
Speaker 11 (29:18):
In the seventh of January we had a single male
Queensland fruit fly in one of our traps. We've got
eight thousand traps throughout the country's surveillance trap so we
found one in the Mount Roscoll region and again we
immediately went into a response mode with that. It was
a Queensland fruit fly single mail. This is the first
Queensland one we've had since twenty nineteen, so initially kicked
(29:41):
in that forty hours sufficient our staff and our specialist
staff are contractors.
Speaker 10 (29:47):
Our local community has.
Speaker 11 (29:48):
Been great, so we've not found on another one since
then across the last week, but we continue to manage
it carefully.
Speaker 10 (29:56):
We've got two.
Speaker 11 (29:57):
Zones in place in a controlled area noticed make sure
we're managing and controlling the fruit going out.
Speaker 10 (30:04):
In and out of the area, and we're.
Speaker 11 (30:05):
Also collecting the fruit every day. So the community have
been absolutely fantastic. We're truly blessed in this country where
people understand biosecurity and work through the local boards.
Speaker 10 (30:15):
And our industry partners.
Speaker 11 (30:16):
So Belt Embraces absolutely quickly responded a lot of stuff
and a lot of resource out about going to markets
and stuff. So in terms of the fruit fly, we're
in a good space with that and we'll continue to
manage it and keep on.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
Top of it.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Okay, what about the yellow legged hornet.
Speaker 11 (30:33):
Yeah, we've been dealing with the vespa velutina as it's known,
the yellow legged hornet from from Asia, although it is
endemic in parts of Europe in the UK and that's
been from the third of November. Again, the teams have
done an excellent job here, including engaging with aparists, the
b industry colleagues and our wider horticulture industry colleagues. The
(30:54):
impact of this pest. We don't look a bit like
the fruit fly. We do not want this hornet in
our country. Up to date we found forty queens. We
continue to put out about nine hundred and seventy traps
and my team have also done about eight and a
half thousand ground surveys. That's going out checking ground surveys,
checking for nests. And again the public response in the
(31:16):
Glenfield area on the North Shore has been incredible. We
had nearly nine and a half thousand note rotations from
people throughout the country. We've got this contained within a
one to two klimeter area and we're continuing to manage that.
The real benefit of this is we've managed to get
what nearly six hundred apieris on site in terms of
our hive surveillance, members of the public making their own
(31:38):
traps doing an awesome job in that space.
Speaker 10 (31:40):
So we're running.
Speaker 11 (31:41):
Both operations at once, but with the same focus and
the same.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
Energy and the resources and pace.
Speaker 11 (31:47):
And as always with these we've got a great track record,
as you know in New Zealand of eradicating these pests
and that can only be done with the collaboration of
my team of the local communities, the local board and
men of the public alongside our industry partners. So both
I would say to the very confident in both that
we're on top of it and managing it, but again
we're never complacent, will continue to manage it over the
(32:10):
coming weeks.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You're listening to the country, we're talking to Mike Ingles
MPI Bio Security and said Northern Regional Commissioner. That warms
the cockles of my hat. Might like to hear that
people get it, I understand, because the threats exponential huge
if we don't get it.
Speaker 11 (32:26):
Wry, Yeah, and it's absolutely fantastic our notification, even though
in terms of we always take technical advice and that
the hornet we've got UK experts we've got people from Europe,
we've got our own internal experts in New Zealand. But
one of the things that when we speak to our
external colleagues is we didn't really we already had a
(32:46):
great system where people phone the hotline on a one
hundred eighty ninety nine sixty six for a variety of reasons.
And even my team being out and about, we know
there's an imposition with the fruit fly in terms of
moving whole fruit in and out of the zone.
Speaker 10 (33:00):
But to a person that we've met and.
Speaker 11 (33:03):
We've been known to properties, I'm up here today again
going dound and engaging republic and across the piece, the
response we get is fantastic.
Speaker 10 (33:11):
It's just incredible, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Mike Ingles, MPI Biosecurity ends in Northern Regional Commissioner, thank
you very much for your time.
Speaker 10 (33:19):
Thank you so much, Amus, enjoy your day.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
There you Mike Ingles there from MPI Northern Region. There. Look,
I think we should, Michelle Watts, I think we should
congratulate the public who responded, as Mike says so well,
to this threat of the Queensland fruit fly and the
yellow I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't find it amusing,
but I do find the yellow legged yellow legged hornet
(33:56):
is quite a cool name.
Speaker 8 (33:58):
I've actually got some breaking news.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Breaking news for breaking news, breaking news.
Speaker 8 (34:03):
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson is set to depart the
role for two years into the job. It's understood the
announcement will be made today that Robertson is finishing in
his position, the role that was contracted until twenty twenty seven.
So we await that big announcement that meeting, which we
presume will be after one o'clock. So keep your ears
open on news. Talks'd be for the rest of that news.
(34:24):
But it sounds like it's maybe all bit confirmed.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, so you know, if you're riding the headline, what
would it be? Come on, I know you want to
do this.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Oh, I know.
Speaker 8 (34:33):
I don't want to be mean, but you know, there's
so many things about Razor, isn't it Rais.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Has been cut real disposable.
Speaker 8 (34:38):
I think I've already seen that one being used. But yeah,
keep years open for that. It's still one hundred percent
has not been confirmed. It's ninety nine point nine looking
at this new story.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, it has an escaped by a whisker. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Look,
it's been a bit of a sorry tale, hasn't it really.
And if you go back over time and you look
at some of these things, I think the way that
he was appointed it was pretty average, to be perfect honest,
didn't show much respect to the prior coach, Ian Foster,
who along with Jasement almost almost pulled off a World
(35:09):
Cup victory over that period of time. But when you
come out and say things like boullah as An, I'm
off to coach Fiji if you don't make me the
all Black coach, you're setting yourself up for before. And
then there was the deplorable Sky three part documentary on
the Chosen One, the Great Savior of New Zealand rugby,
and what a load of bollocks that turned out to be. Yeah,
I'm just going to be perfectly frank about that. I
(35:30):
don't think that that was a great thing to do
the guy. The guy was put on a pedestal and
then climbed even high, added another pedestal, and then within
three or four months into his tenure, Leon McDonald walks
out Jason Holland later on in the piece, I mean
that this is the last couple of days. Nothing really new.
We knew during the All Black End of Year tour.
That's been that things were very disrupted.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
It's worth mentioning that he's on Rugby has yet to
make any comment on this, So do keep your ears open.
So i'd say ninety nine point, I'm not going to
undred conn do.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
You really covering zero zero one is going to cover your.
Speaker 8 (36:06):
Backside myself on the story.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
You sent me off on a tirade. I mean, you're
the one who's sort of, you know, given me the
free license to say these things. But look, I tell
you what, that whole picture of Ardie Savia slumped against
a goalpost pad after the loss to England had took
in him. Yeah, I mean that set a hell of
a lot, Michelle, that set a hell of a lot.
(36:31):
I mean, this ain't sort of like looking over the
Rhny ranges between Apitty and Norse wooden going smoke signals
are coming across. This is like the Towering Inferno of
nineteen seventy five, Way Before You Were Born, which was
one of the great movies. I'm sure it's Jamie McKay's
favorite movie of all time.
Speaker 8 (36:49):
Look, we'll wait with baited breast to have this announcement
out later on today, Hamish, but we better actually just
about head off and.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
We just about done. Can't I keep of, you know, ranting, waxing, lyrical.
I mean, I do, I do? You know I do?
It was nice to meet today, to meet CEO Mike Simmons,
the new Federated Farmer's CEO. Brighter times for the deer
industry with the old venison looking solid in the in
the medium term. And tomorrow we'll hit to China to one.
(37:18):
We'll catch up with our man over the Hunter McGregor
to have a look at what opportunity there is for
the beef. There you go. You can shut me up
now if you like. Stand by for more news on Razor.
Speaker 8 (37:28):
Absolutely bye.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Okay the country with Hamish Burguye and Farmland's advice. You
can trust, products you can count on.
The country with Hamish mckuy and Farmland's advice you can
trust products you can count on.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good afternoon, Welcome into the country with Farmlands Harmless mckaye
and for Jamie McKay for the first week of twenty
twenty twenty six. So you're having a cracking old day
wherever you might be, gimmer Burn, Grieton, gordonton all the
g's hey question of the day and you would have
(00:38):
got a bit of a lead into this from our
sports news. What would you make of Jamie, Joseph, Dave,
Renny and Tana Umang are having lunch in a Wellington
cafe today of all days. Yes, coming up the latest
on Raisor Robinson with iconic all black front row for
man who doesn't mince his word speaks sense. Richard Lowe
(00:59):
has Raisin burnt down his own house. Also coming up,
like we did there, I am Michelle and dened and
she smiled at me. You know, through the fandangle technology
that we have these days, we'll talk to Mike Ingles
from MPI and the latter is on the Queensland fruit
fly and the yellow legged hornet. Sounds like something out
(01:20):
of a Batman movie. Ozzie Curus Chris Russell will be
with us PGG Rights and National Deer and Velvet Manager
Tony Cochran a dollar each way perhaps on venison and
velvet as things improved for our deer farmers there as well,
and will meet the new CEO of Federated Farmers. But
(01:40):
right now Richard Lowe joined us. Lowe. Look, I tell
you what this is not just smoke signals. It's a
raging inferno around Eraser Robertson and his future which seems
like it's all over. What's your take? Well, what have
you heard?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Good, I've known has here probably what you've heard. Plenty
of opinions out there, But who do you go to
in the end?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Z are.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
To ask the question too, because you know you talk
about raised and is seen going. There's no CEO, there's
no CFO, no high performance, no commercials, there's just you know,
for the last few years it's been disintegrating in the
head office, so you know, and the way they treated
you think back the way they treated Fozzy Free Razor
(02:37):
wasn't great. So you know, yeah, there has to be
a bit of accountability somewhere along the line. And I
think there are that many jump ship before this even
came about, isn't that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah? I think so. I think we've got to look
at some of the issues, well, a lot of issues.
But your old teammate, David Kirk, he's the guy who's
it's in the big seat. I suppose hopefully he's from
a board level that we are addressing some of these issues.
I mean, as you say, they need to be addressed.
But first and foremost, I would have to say, though,
you've got to go back and if it pans out
(03:14):
and we're standing by to hear what the latest on
Raiser Robinson is. The minute he was doing the Buller.
If you don't pick me, I'm off to coach Figi
as far as I was concerned, he'd burned his own
house down then and showed no respect to Ian Foster
in terms of demanding that he should be coaching. He's
he on Rugby, sent Joe Smith and there to find
out more. And I don't think he I mean I can't.
I'm not quoting him, but I'm not sure. He's the
(03:35):
biggest raisor fan in the world. So it's kind of
come home to roost, really, hasn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
And it's probably because Raiser has his own team and
there I say it, whether it be whether it be
Henry Henson or even Wayne Smith, they get their own
people around them. And I think Raises lot Jace Ryan,
which has proved himself under a couple of different coaches,
(04:05):
has the experience and the ability. Where you go to
Scott Hanson and co Tomothy Ellison, they haven't. And when
you see Leon McDonald and Holland, Leon McDonald's only there
a month or two before he said no, he can't
work with it. Holland did that and said it at
(04:28):
the end of this last tour or before the doer,
but he just walked back into the hurricanes. Don't the
same people pay the wages at both organizations, you know?
So there were warning signs all over the place we
went there before this raised its head this week.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Bottom line is lowe. End of the day, the performances
weren't good enough. Okay, there were enough, there were seventy
four percent winning percentage, but when we got thumped, we
got absolutely pinged. I mean Damien McKenzie's miracle try against
I mean we should have been out the back door
that day. But I give credit to some of the pliers,
(05:03):
the fact that they were able to guts it out
even though things internally weren't that good.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, you know you throw that game in with the
Argentine in England and there I say, Wellington Springbock Test.
They weren't great performances. But you know these are professional players.
They you know, something's going wrong if they should be
able to get out on the field and play the game.
You know, I just think from what an old timeer
(05:32):
looking in, I think one or two things.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
That they are.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
They are probably training too much and not playing enough
these days. If someone has a sixty minute go before
the sub, I've had a big out thing, which is rubbish.
And then we you know, there are a lot of
players play eighty minutes, but only a few play you
know should play that. But the other one is, you know,
(05:58):
too many voices yep, yep at halftime with the spring box.
I'd suggest if any of the assistant coaches, for example,
Tony Brown wanted to say something to the playoffs, I
bet you it's comes out of Rathmas's mouth.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Not Tony's.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And you know, you look at our team, the All Blacks,
they look to be going okay, in the first half.
They come out half time and they look bewildered. Who
do we listen to first? Who are constructions? You know,
they're about half a dozen different coaches and the raiser
probably has his five six worth and it just confuses
(06:36):
at all. So you know it should be should be
one command?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Does it all?
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yeah, during the week, you've got an assistant coaching helping,
but you know the instructions should come from one person.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I feel yeah, and that's going to it seems like
it's we understand Jamie, Joseph Dave, Renny Tanner, Humonger in
the Capitol today. I'd be happy with them. I'd want
Joe Smith to be involved at some level. But we'll
stand by Lowe. Okay, thank you for your time. Richard
low iconic all black front row. Don't forget low He
played forty nine tests with eighty minutes every time, so
add that up you can see where he gets a
(07:10):
bit of a Ben's bonded about that one. We're standing
by to here. What is the latest on Razor Robinson?
By all accounts, he's got his own ghost burnt down,
his own house. Seems like he's gone. We will keep
you posted here on the country. Well, the new CEO
(07:43):
of Federated Farmers has had his head on the job
for a couple of months now, but it's our first
chance to sort of catch up and introduce to you
the man at the helm, Mike Simons, get a Mike.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Get a Harish. It's lovely to be here. Thank you
for the invite.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, good to chat, right, Okay, So congratulations on that.
What's a new role. But you have been you know,
you've had the feed under the table for a little while.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I have. It's been it's been about three and a
half four months now and I thoroughly enjoyed working with
the team here. And yeah, I'm pleased that we've we've
made it official that I am now the sea.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It's great, Yeah, great stuff. You look, given your background,
why feeds, what's what's the big attraction for that role?
And you come from pharmaceutical and different and a good
variety of sectors, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I guess, I guess earlier in my career I sort
of worked out that I wanted to work for an
injured ink for one of a better words, you know,
I wanted to do something good for New Zealand and
good for the agricultural sector as well. So I've had
a couple of different jobs, mainly in the pharmaceutical industry,
so that's a pretty hard nosed industry around sales and marketing,
(08:56):
and I see that I come with some fresh eye
into Federated Farmers to give them some of those new
ideas and to work with the team to move forward
on membership and help policy as well.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
What are some of those ideas given that you would
be fully fully indoctrinated by now that you know that
farming is the backbone of the country.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Farming is definitely the backbone of the country hammership. So
I come to this looking at how I can add
some real value to Federated Farmers. We are superb on
the advocacy and the policy side, you know, we have
a real strength around looking at the problems and bringing
solutions to government and to local and to central government.
(09:41):
But I'm sort of more on that side of membership
and pulling a team together of members that we can
continue to thrive into the future. So my focus is
going to be more around that commercial side and making
sure that people know why they're members festival and then
wanting them to be members with us.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, so what is our membership uptake like across the country.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
The membership uptake is really good. I think because of
the provincial and national focus that we have. We have
a really good spread across the whole country and we're growing.
So we've just had a bit of a growth spirit
just before Christmas about another five hundred members because of
the good advocacy work and because they can see that
when they join us they're actually part of the team
(10:29):
that makes a difference. I can give you an example
of that Hamish, a consenting crisis in the South Island.
We had over four thousand people join our petition and
we've made a real difference to getting those consents rolled
over for farmers. It's a big, big deal.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, fantastic. Okay, let's have a conversation twelve months from now,
as if we're having it right now, what impact would
you like to have made by Christmas this year?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
So I'd like to have a really clear understanding of
how the guver It can increase even further the confidence
and farming. I would like to have a lot more
members join us and help us to understand the issues
that they've got around their different provinces and to actually
support us in numbers as well.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
So what good looks like to.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Me is probably around another thousand members to join us
and having clear ideas around bringing that to the government
and having clear policies.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeap, no good stuff, good stuff farmers on the same page.
See sometimes say there's not a rural urban divide, there's
often a bigger rural rural divide. So there's a challenge
for you. Mike, thank you very much for joining us.
Mike Simmons, the new CEO of Federated Farmers, much appreciated.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Thank famous so digital.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Well.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I don't know if the future of farming is certain,
but it's certainly bright and good to have Mike Simmons
on the show. There, the new CEO of Federated Farmer
standing by it across the ditch to Aussie correspondent The Live,
why that he is Chris Russell? Next, well, Australia correspondent
(12:17):
Chris Russell joins us. Now, Chris, welcome to twenty twenty six.
How well have your summer had been pretty hot over there?
Speaker 6 (12:24):
Yeah, look it's been pretty warm and yeah, happy new
year to year if we just still say that and
to everyone listening, it's good to be cranking up for
another year over here. But it's been a very warm Christmas.
I think I was telling you off here that you know,
we had all the kids over here, all the grandkids
swimming in the pool because the pool water was thirty
degrees unheeded. The day temperature on Christmas Eve was about
(12:45):
forty four point six here, so that's getting up there.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, it certainly is right. You had a record year
for beef exports. But what effect will the new Chinese
tariffs have?
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Yes, well, we did have an a mating year. Really
about one point five million tons that we've exported out
of Australia this year, which is you know, that's the
first time we've been over that one point five million.
Biggest customer, of course, United States took about four hundred
and twelve thousand tons, which is up about seventeen percent
year on year. But the little click on the horizon
(13:20):
really is this new Chinese tariff on anything over quota.
Now the instant thing is that Australia's quota has just
been set for this year at two hundred and three
thousand tons. New Zealand there's two hundred and six thousand,
so that's surprising of course, if you look at the
quota that comes in from Brazil that's sitting up there,
around one point one two million tons it goes in,
(13:42):
so they're even more affected. And they've actually just imposed
a self imposed limit on their monthly exports of about
eighty thousand tons to try and keep that under control
and not run out of quota by the middle of
the year. But last we normally to China. I think
this year's China we sold about two hundred seventy thousand tons,
so we're well over. You only put about one hundred
(14:04):
and sixty five thousand tons in, so you actually don't
even use your current quota, so I'm not seeing it's
going to affect you that much. But certainly for us,
we would normally anticipate to the quota would only be
around about two thirds of the amount of beef that
we would send over there, so that's going to have
(14:24):
some effect homeish.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, we'll look and follow that closely. Bit of the
status quo from the Kiwi in latest Australia day lamb
Ad hits the spot.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Ah, it's awesome. You should google that and have a look.
I've sent a copy across to Michelle say, she may
put a link up on your Facebook page, but it's
an awesome ad based around the new statistics that say
we dropped out of the top ten favorite places to
live in the world, and of course taking note of
(14:55):
that and saying, well, you know, but Lamb is the cure.
A fantastic ad full of puns and humor. Same Sam
Kekovich hosting it. You'll love it. And of course that's
the highlight of the Lamb sales in the year. They
go up about twenty five percent based on that ad
around Australia Day. It's been one of the most successful
(15:15):
campaigns for any agricultural product in Australian history.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Homish, Yeah, oh fantastic, looking forward to having a look
at that. Now, look, everything affects everything, doesn't it. When
we talk about the effect of the Iranian tensions, that's
going to have a bit of a flow on potentially
quite significant for Australian agriculture.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Well, not only Australia, I think globally. You might think that,
you know, Iran is a hell of a long way away,
but you've got to remember they produce about ten percent
of the world's urea and you know, of course largely
on the base of how energy intensive UREA production is.
In fact, we've got factories in Australia to shut down
because the energy just doesn't make it viable to produce
(15:57):
urea in Australia. So you know, if we actually switch
off these UREA plants or switch off access these U
rear plants in Iran, and that's certainly going to be
a big disruption to our fertilizers supply. And you can't
just turn on factories overnight in other countries. So I
(16:19):
think that's probably the single biggest effect that we're likely
to see. We don't shift that much stuff there, and
what we do will find other markets for but there's
not much we can do about that. And I imagine
New Zealand will have the same problem.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Hamish, Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, how's the talks with
the EU going over a free trade agreement? How's that
looking for Australia at the moment.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Well, look, they're pretty keen to accelerate these Unlike New Zealand,
Australia has jacked up at about the naming issues for
things like prosecco and feta and parmesan and so on.
We just said that we're just not going to do that.
So and of course we al also want a much
(17:03):
better access for our agricultural goods, so we're not getting that.
There's really nothing in it for Australia. Now, I know
New Zealand's sort of bitting the bullet and sort of
taking a pragmatic view that's better to have agreement than
no agreement, but we haven't done that. Of course, Europe
would love to get TARA free access of their motor
cars in particular into Australia, and they also want access
(17:25):
to our mineral sands, you know, these rear earths and
all these things that we keep hearing about that have
become so critical in the production of electric cars and
so on. So there is pressure from both sides to
get a meeting, but at the moment both sides are implacable.
The other issue with Europe is there's twenty seven members
that have all to agree to it as well. So
(17:46):
it's even if you do get an agreement between the
EU Commissioner and our Trade Minister Don Farrell, you know,
it's sitting and it takes some time to get around
those twenty seven people and talk them into it because
they've all got their own interest at heart, despite them
being trading as a single block. So I'm not all
that optimistic that's going to happen unless we just cave in,
which I think would be a terrible thing. There's no
(18:07):
point in having one if we don't get better access
for our Australian agricultural goods. And certainly some of these
name things they're required for a just fabricator Prosecco, for example,
actually named the town after the wine retrospectively in and
out claiming naming rights. That's ridiculous. So I just don't
see that being something that we're going to give in either.
(18:29):
But both the ministers are saying, well, we need to
get on with it, and that's certainly true. But you know,
all these subsidies that they have in Europe are very expensive.
It's an implacable problem over there politically.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yep, Chris Almo's going to wrap it up. But there's
this sort of a feel good but sad story at
the same time about a cow that ended up what
eighty k's out to see Because we've heard a lot
about the heat and the fires, but not so much
about those floods up north.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Yeah, well that's we've had big floods up there from
a cyclone that went through and one of the survival
stories that we've heard ab out of this they reckon
they've lost around about fifty thousand head of cattle so far,
which is not as much as the big losses they
had back in twenty twenty one, but just fifty thousands
(19:16):
a lot.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
But one cow called up in Queensland, a heifer belonging
to a bloke called who goes under the name of
Lizard Seymour. His name is probab name's Michael, but he
calls himself Lizard. They had six hundred and fifty millimeters
of rame as from this cyclone Koji, and he lost
a fair few head of cattle, about seventy head, and
he'd sort of given up on them a bit until
(19:38):
he got a range from the Mackay Police to say
that an eleven month old ren Brangus heifer had been
washed washed off up on the beach and was sitting
on the beach waiting to be rescued. Now that cow
that's true, that well, it is true, had gone over
three weirs, Marani, Marion and doubleton Ware down to them
out of the river. Eighty kilo is out the sea,
(19:58):
and then the returning tired and brought her back in
and shoved on the beach. As you can imagine, she
was pretty naked, but her brother went down there with
a trailer. His brother went down there with a trailer,
picked her up border home or just sent a picture
over online and she looks as though she's going to
be back on the farm, you know, with her first
calves sometime this year. So that's an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
There we go. Love a good, amazing, feel good story.
To wrap it up. That's our Australia correspondent at Chris Russell.
Thanks very much, Chris, don't worries damn still to come
out of the country. The lad's on the Queensland fruit
fly and the fandangled yellow legged hornets. Catch up with
(20:44):
Mike Ingles from MPI on that What's happening in the
dear world? Venison or velvet or a dollar each wave.
Time now for a bit of news.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
The countries, World news with Cove Cadets, New Zealand's leading
right arm lawn bower bread visit steel Ford dot cott
Zim for your local stockist.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
Thanks Hamish, and you won't know what's going on with
the weather in Auckland, because I know the studio you're
in has no windows outside and it's like a box.
But apparently most of the North Island lies under a
severe thunderstorm watch with a day of heavy rain and
violent electrical storms and a dozen warnings and watches are
in place from Northland to Wellington. Broad scale heavy rains
expected to hit Auckland from one pm, so just after
(21:26):
you finished there in the studio to take your raincoat
with you and go right through for twelve hours. So
keep an eye out on the weather watches out there
if you're up in the North Island and probably the
lower half of the upper half of the South Island
maybe as well. Just keep an eye out on those
weather wardings. Now we're up with sport, sport on.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
The country with a fco business well done.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, potentially is it the world's worst kept secret and
announcement expect at any moment on the future of all
Black coach Razor Robinson. Stay tuned for that. Just to
unconfirmed reports of a reasonably well powerful contingent, a trifecta
of great rugby minds being together in Wellington today, of
all days, Jmie, Joseph, Dave, Rennie and Tana Umang. I
(22:12):
don't know what that says, but I think you can
read between the lines and there you go. That's our sport.
Speaker 9 (22:18):
God, it's I'm lazy when I love tied to talk
venison and velvet and all things dear here on the
country pgs you, writes in National Dear and Velvet manager
Tony Cochran joins us.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Now welcome into twenty twenty six. Tony, how are you traveling?
Speaker 7 (22:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Good things hamus.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Have you summoned well summered?
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Well? Well, yes, is a bit around this there a
bit of growth, you might say, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, look that's an okay time of the year for
that to happen, Tony house things in the world of
venison and vel it and the like.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Yeah, well they've had a bit of an upswing this
this year, as all meat products have, but particularly venison
it's done to come back into its own. We've got
really good, stable, high prices around the eleven bucks, you know,
and higher for some contracts, but it's steady, it's stable,
and there's been quite a few of the mixed stage
(23:23):
stags exit the system, which is also helping the velvet industry.
We think there could be as much as two hundred
tons of velvet exit the system this season based on
what's been sent to the works and paid well for,
you know, the particularly the North American venison supply chain,
(23:43):
which likes the bigger cuts of meat.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Right. Okay, well that's pretty damn positive, isn't it, Because
you know, it's not that long ago we were having
that sort of pretty doom and gloom kind of discussion,
you know, is eleven dollars sustainable? And is it a
good town for farmers? Or where would you like to
see it? And where would they like to see it?
And what's these sentiment?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
Yeah, every farmer would love to see a higher price
than that, but they know that the risk of derailing
the sort of certainty of supply for the purchases and
also over cooking markets, venison can be substituted for cheaper products.
So it's always you know, to back of mine. But
you know, there's no reason why we shouldn't be holding
(24:28):
onto these high prices for quite some time, particularly for venison.
The main reason is that supply is so low it's
not picked to really start picking itself up, and you know,
getting back into sort of where we were several years
ago for the next sort of three or four years.
And you know, it was seen with velvet that everyone
(24:51):
has retained velvet stags over hindes, breeding hinds for venison
over the last sort of five to ten years, and
that's now got to its peak where the velvet market's oversupplied.
Having a bit of diversity within deer, having a venison
and a velvet model and of course using out balls
as terminal signs and high growth rate red red deer
(25:13):
is also a good thing to have.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Is it really a case of you know, to cover
behind so to speak, time It is a dollar each way,
a dollar on the venison, a dollar on the velvet.
From a farming perspective, and.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
That other leg to the story is is trophy is
the hunting fraternity. So you know, most of those guys
are self sufficient as far as not having to go
to farms to look for these animals that are well
bred for trophies. But it certainly does help. It keeps
things buoyant, and you know, dear people are very passionate
(25:50):
about what they do. And you know, we've seen high
high prices for venison currently lower prices for velvet than
last year, probably back about ten percent, but you know,
the the confidence is there in the future to hold it,
hold in there and hold a line too. That's helped
us this season, particularly with velvet. We didn't sell a
(26:10):
stick leading up to Christmas based on the fact we
had low offers and we knew that the market had
too much stock. So you're just pushing a pushing a
product that it's not required.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but you're seducing with
the kill rate. Get those bigger cut succesor that will
actually help the velvet market down the track a bit, oh.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
For sure, yep.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I think so. That and the fact that the stags
that have already been sent to the works aren't going
to produce regrowth, so that's going to the second cut
that's going to sort of lower the volume or the supply.
But we know going into next season we're going to
be probably around two hundred and tokinsor less of velvet.
And we know also at the consumer end of the
dear velvet market that prices don't really change. It's really
(26:56):
that wholesale supply and demand maxim between a lot of
sentiment involved here. Yeah, and economies are improving, you know,
South Korea and China, they're starting to look upwards, probably
a little bit faster than us.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, Tiny Cochrane, PGG Rights and National Deer and Velvet Manager,
Tony your thoughts for twenty twenty six. The one thing
that I get. You know, I'm not not in farming
on a day to day basis, but I'm close enough.
There seems to be across our what we produce and
what we market to the world a nice dose of
(27:33):
medium to long term longevity as opposed to you know,
the volatility that is really we've experienced, I don't know,
post rogernomics, post SMP removal. It just feels like you
can kind of have a little bit more of a
bank on the future at the moment. Right across the
board and farming, is that your take?
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, totally right behind John that Amish. Yeah, you know
there's horses for courses.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
That's the right right place for the right tree, but.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
There's also the right place to the right animal. And Yeah,
people have got their priorities, and cash flow is one
of them, but you know they've also got a they've
also got to look forward as to where they are,
where the family are, where the we're the best return.
But yeah, it's it's what suits the camp country and
suits the land and that's that's part of the mix
(28:21):
as well.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Isn't it.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
And I think everyone is starting to look forward. No
one's looking over them shoulders. Yep, we've got a whole
leg of opportunities in New Zealand. Is sitting right in
the hot seat.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, brity, good stuff, Tony. Thank you very
much for joining us as PGG Rights and National Deer
and Velvet Manager. Tony Cochran here on the country. Yes,
(28:52):
the country brought to you by Farmland's Hammers McKay in
for Jamie McKay for the first week of the year.
So we've got the situation of course as you'll be
away with the Queensland fruit fly and also the fendangled
yellow leged hornet. So we're going to go out to
the expert on this MPI by our Security z more
than Regional Commissioner Mike Ingles. What is the situation with
(29:14):
these two? What's the lightest?
Speaker 10 (29:17):
Yeah, just with a fruit fly.
Speaker 11 (29:18):
In the seventh of January we had a single male
Queensland fruit fly in one of our traps. We've got
eight thousand traps throughout the country's surveillance trap so we
found one in the Mount Roscoll region and again we
immediately went into a response mode with that. It was
a Queensland fruit fly single mail. This is the first
Queensland one we've had since twenty nineteen, so initially kicked
(29:41):
in that forty hours sufficient our staff and our specialist
staff are contractors.
Speaker 10 (29:47):
Our local community has.
Speaker 11 (29:48):
Been great, so we've not found on another one since
then across the last week, but we continue to manage
it carefully.
Speaker 10 (29:56):
We've got two.
Speaker 11 (29:57):
Zones in place in a controlled area noticed make sure
we're managing and controlling the fruit going out.
Speaker 10 (30:04):
In and out of the area, and we're.
Speaker 11 (30:05):
Also collecting the fruit every day. So the community have
been absolutely fantastic. We're truly blessed in this country where
people understand biosecurity and work through the local boards.
Speaker 10 (30:15):
And our industry partners.
Speaker 11 (30:16):
So Belt Embraces absolutely quickly responded a lot of stuff
and a lot of resource out about going to markets
and stuff. So in terms of the fruit fly, we're
in a good space with that and we'll continue to
manage it and keep on.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
Top of it.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Okay, what about the yellow legged hornet.
Speaker 11 (30:33):
Yeah, we've been dealing with the vespa velutina as it's known,
the yellow legged hornet from from Asia, although it is
endemic in parts of Europe in the UK and that's
been from the third of November. Again, the teams have
done an excellent job here, including engaging with aparists, the
b industry colleagues and our wider horticulture industry colleagues. The
(30:54):
impact of this pest. We don't look a bit like
the fruit fly. We do not want this hornet in
our country. Up to date we found forty queens. We
continue to put out about nine hundred and seventy traps
and my team have also done about eight and a
half thousand ground surveys. That's going out checking ground surveys,
checking for nests. And again the public response in the
(31:16):
Glenfield area on the North Shore has been incredible. We
had nearly nine and a half thousand note rotations from
people throughout the country. We've got this contained within a
one to two klimeter area and we're continuing to manage that.
The real benefit of this is we've managed to get
what nearly six hundred apieris on site in terms of
our hive surveillance, members of the public making their own
(31:38):
traps doing an awesome job in that space.
Speaker 10 (31:40):
So we're running.
Speaker 11 (31:41):
Both operations at once, but with the same focus and
the same.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
Energy and the resources and pace.
Speaker 11 (31:47):
And as always with these we've got a great track record,
as you know in New Zealand of eradicating these pests
and that can only be done with the collaboration of
my team of the local communities, the local board and
men of the public alongside our industry partners. So both
I would say to the very confident in both that
we're on top of it and managing it, but again
we're never complacent, will continue to manage it over the
(32:10):
coming weeks.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You're listening to the country, we're talking to Mike Ingles
MPI Bio Security and said Northern Regional Commissioner. That warms
the cockles of my hat. Might like to hear that
people get it, I understand, because the threats exponential huge
if we don't get it.
Speaker 11 (32:26):
Wry, Yeah, and it's absolutely fantastic our notification, even though
in terms of we always take technical advice and that
the hornet we've got UK experts we've got people from Europe,
we've got our own internal experts in New Zealand. But
one of the things that when we speak to our
external colleagues is we didn't really we already had a
(32:46):
great system where people phone the hotline on a one
hundred eighty ninety nine sixty six for a variety of reasons.
And even my team being out and about, we know
there's an imposition with the fruit fly in terms of
moving whole fruit in and out of the zone.
Speaker 10 (33:00):
But to a person that we've met and.
Speaker 11 (33:03):
We've been known to properties, I'm up here today again
going dound and engaging republic and across the piece, the
response we get is fantastic.
Speaker 10 (33:11):
It's just incredible, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Mike Ingles, MPI Biosecurity ends in Northern Regional Commissioner, thank
you very much for your time.
Speaker 10 (33:19):
Thank you so much, Amus, enjoy your day.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
There you Mike Ingles there from MPI Northern Region. There. Look,
I think we should, Michelle Watts, I think we should
congratulate the public who responded, as Mike says so well,
to this threat of the Queensland fruit fly and the
yellow I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't find it amusing,
but I do find the yellow legged yellow legged hornet
(33:56):
is quite a cool name.
Speaker 8 (33:58):
I've actually got some breaking news.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Breaking news for breaking news, breaking news.
Speaker 8 (34:03):
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson is set to depart the
role for two years into the job. It's understood the
announcement will be made today that Robertson is finishing in
his position, the role that was contracted until twenty twenty seven.
So we await that big announcement that meeting, which we
presume will be after one o'clock. So keep your ears
open on news. Talks'd be for the rest of that news.
(34:24):
But it sounds like it's maybe all bit confirmed.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, so you know, if you're riding the headline, what
would it be? Come on, I know you want to
do this.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Oh, I know.
Speaker 8 (34:33):
I don't want to be mean, but you know, there's
so many things about Razor, isn't it Rais.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Has been cut real disposable.
Speaker 8 (34:38):
I think I've already seen that one being used. But yeah,
keep years open for that. It's still one hundred percent
has not been confirmed. It's ninety nine point nine looking
at this new story.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, it has an escaped by a whisker. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Look,
it's been a bit of a sorry tale, hasn't it really.
And if you go back over time and you look
at some of these things, I think the way that
he was appointed it was pretty average, to be perfect honest,
didn't show much respect to the prior coach, Ian Foster,
who along with Jasement almost almost pulled off a World
(35:09):
Cup victory over that period of time. But when you
come out and say things like boullah as An, I'm
off to coach Fiji if you don't make me the
all Black coach, you're setting yourself up for before. And
then there was the deplorable Sky three part documentary on
the Chosen One, the Great Savior of New Zealand rugby,
and what a load of bollocks that turned out to be. Yeah,
I'm just going to be perfectly frank about that. I
(35:30):
don't think that that was a great thing to do
the guy. The guy was put on a pedestal and
then climbed even high, added another pedestal, and then within
three or four months into his tenure, Leon McDonald walks
out Jason Holland later on in the piece, I mean
that this is the last couple of days. Nothing really new.
We knew during the All Black End of Year tour.
That's been that things were very disrupted.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
It's worth mentioning that he's on Rugby has yet to
make any comment on this, So do keep your ears open.
So i'd say ninety nine point, I'm not going to
undred conn do.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
You really covering zero zero one is going to cover your.
Speaker 8 (36:06):
Backside myself on the story.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
You sent me off on a tirade. I mean, you're
the one who's sort of, you know, given me the
free license to say these things. But look, I tell
you what, that whole picture of Ardie Savia slumped against
a goalpost pad after the loss to England had took
in him. Yeah, I mean that set a hell of
a lot, Michelle, that set a hell of a lot.
(36:31):
I mean, this ain't sort of like looking over the
Rhny ranges between Apitty and Norse wooden going smoke signals
are coming across. This is like the Towering Inferno of
nineteen seventy five, Way Before You Were Born, which was
one of the great movies. I'm sure it's Jamie McKay's
favorite movie of all time.
Speaker 8 (36:49):
Look, we'll wait with baited breast to have this announcement
out later on today, Hamish, but we better actually just
about head off and.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
We just about done. Can't I keep of, you know, ranting, waxing, lyrical.
I mean, I do, I do? You know I do?
It was nice to meet today, to meet CEO Mike Simmons,
the new Federated Farmer's CEO. Brighter times for the deer
industry with the old venison looking solid in the in
the medium term. And tomorrow we'll hit to China to one.
(37:18):
We'll catch up with our man over the Hunter McGregor
to have a look at what opportunity there is for
the beef. There you go. You can shut me up
now if you like. Stand by for more news on Razor.
Speaker 8 (37:28):
Absolutely bye.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Okay the country with Hamish Burguye and Farmland's advice. You
can trust, products you can count on.
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