January 26, 2026 • 37 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Geoff Ross, Damien O'Connor, Todd Clark, Kevin "Smiley" Barrett, and Cam Clayton.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to a Suzu get demo
deals on the tough Dmax Today.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Sam, it's so good.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Get a New Zealand Welcome to the Country. Alanis Morisset
for no other reason than she starts with a not
much prep gone into that, but there's a wee bit
gone onto the rest of the show. We're going to
kick it off with the co owner of Lake Harwia Station.
Would say he's a bit controversial. He certainly thinks outside
the box. Jeff Ross saying the solution to meeting our
(01:08):
Paris climate targets is New Zealand farmers and New Zealand
Farms will tell you why in a minute. Damian O'Connor,
first time to the batter's box for twenty twenty six Labors.
I was going to say AGG spokesperson, that's Joe Luxton.
He is, of course Labour's trade spokesperson. I want to
get his take on the Indy and FTA. I see
(01:29):
that Stephen Jacobi came out and said good things about
the deal that Todd McClay struck. So we'll see what
Damien thinks. Roads trucks. The latest poll is Winston going
to be our next prime Minister? Todd Clark, a US
farming correspondent, we are heading to Kentucky. In Lexington, Kentucky,
it is a brutal storm over their house farming or
(01:52):
how the farmer's handling it will tell you what the
hell's happening up the road at Minneapolis and Minnesota. There Yes,
bad bad Ice, Smiley, Barrett, Taranaki, Dairy Pharma, Siah of
course the Barrett Rugby clan. Apparently the boys get their
pace from their mother. But anyhow, we're going to have
(02:13):
Smiley on the show to talk farming and footy. I've
got a great story about yesterday's winner of the cub
Cadet Alex five four seven right on MOA from Steelfort.
We phoned the bloke off up should I say, when
we got off air at one o'clock, and she had
an interesting side story. We're going to tell you about
that as well. Michelle will do rural news and we'll
(02:36):
have sports news for you as well. But up next
Jeff Ross. So here's an interesting topic to kick off
the country today. What is the solution to meeting app
(02:57):
Harris targets. Well, the solution is hidden in plain sight,
sitting right in front of our eyes. It is New
Zealand farmers who are often blamed for being the problem.
To tell us more, Co owner of Lake Harwea station entrepreneur,
Jeff Ross, Jeff, you've been doing some serious homework on this.
Good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
How are you well. I'm battling away. I haven't. Haven't
really enjoyed the southern summer, to be fair, because we
haven't had much of one. I was in your neck
of the Wards Central Otago over the weekend. It was
like winter. But I guess all this moisture will be
welcomed by farmers such as yourself.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Look, we're having a feel quite guilty in saying this,
but we're having a cracker of a summer here actually
some of the best grass growth we've had.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Talk to me about the solution to meeting our Paris targets,
because I think we spoke before Christmas at some stage
about New Zealand farmers being the solution.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yeah, absolutely so. Look, as recently as last week, the
government has reconfirmed our commitment to our Paris targets, to
our NDCs but the big question is how we're going
to do it, because we're not actually reducing our emissions
is anywhere near as fast enough as we need to
a lot of people have said the only way we
can do it is by importing carbon credits, which of
(04:16):
course would be a crazy thing to do. The solution is,
in plain sight, it is on New Zealand farms, largely
New Zealand sheep and beef farms. But currently the carbon
credits we create we can't actually sell to the government,
or we can't actually sell to other governments or in
fact other companies. The only place we can sell and
currently is our local ets, So that would be like
(04:40):
only being able to sell our milk and meat to
the local countdown. So you know, we need a global
market to get pricing tension, and this is actually a
real simple fix. We can do that by making sure
our credits we create here are compliant with something called
Article six point four in the in the Paris Agreement,
(05:02):
which is actually relatively simple for our credits to actually qualify.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So how do we go about changing the rules so
we qualify.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
So look, the government does need to do it, but
it is really simple. So you know, scrub and bush
and plantations that are permanent on New Zealand farms will
qualify for the ETS with a slight couple of additions,
largely around pest control. They should also then qualify under
Article six point four to be able to be sold
(05:31):
to our government and in fact other governments as well.
And if you look at the price of carbon in
the EU at the moment, it's one hundred and eighty
five dollars New Zealand per ton versus what the price
of carbon in New Zealand is right now, which is
thirty five dollars a ton. So we're missing out on
a huge opportunity by not accessing that global market.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
New Zealand. Sheep and beef farms make up your words,
not mine, make up over forty percent of our country's
land mass. Much of this land is existing and newly
generating areas of native bush. Now I've got to make
a farming made of mine. Down on the Hokanui Hills
in Southland. Who was smart enough to fence off some
regenerating native bush, get the pests out of there, get
(06:16):
it established, get it up and running, and he is
now getting his annual carbon credits.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
That's exactly right. And a lot of that land is
marginal land or often non productive, so it's adding incremental
revenue to the farm, which is what we're doing currently
at carbon Fields assessing and putting applications and under the ETA,
so we can do that now. But what I guess
I'm advocating for is opening up the market globally and
(06:46):
not just to companies which Article sorry, not just to
countries which Article six point four will allow us to do,
but also companies so big buars like Google and Amazon
and Mesur and whatnot, a huge bars of carbon credits.
And there's another certification called an ICVCM which actually Sure
Quality in New Zealand could do. They've done the scoping.
(07:06):
Shore Quality works with New Zealand farmers, so they could
create that standard or that certification, so we could sell
to companies as well. And so we've got, you know,
a route to market and a company like carbon Fields,
we've got Shore Quality who can do the standards and
so the openings are there really at the kind of
(07:27):
the flick of a button to allow us to access
those markets.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
What this largely apply to sheep and beef, especially extensive
farms as opposed to intensive dairy farms where there's probably
very little native bush or scrubby vegetation that would qualify.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So those of us and sheep and
beef often look quite enviously in an envious way at
the dairy farmer's returns. You know, they are typically around
eight percent return on capital. I think beef and lamb
has the average for or sheep and bee farmers around
two percent return on capital. That's obviously nowhere near enough
(08:06):
even in current times, so we've got to increase that.
So it's this extensive land holding, you know, that is
of high value that many of us have, but of
relatively it's delivering relatively low returns. So this is a
route to actually creating greater returns for us and j Ross.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Just finally, I guess there's a bit of a rub
off here in terms of improvement and biodiversity and especially
water quality.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Well, that's right, and this is this can be done
for existing bush, native bush. This is incentivised native biodiversity
instead of pines. It gives us a much better route there,
and it gives us the opportunity to have that balance
of keeping our pastoral farming on the good land, and
then on the rougher land, the marginal land promoting you know,
(08:50):
native biodiversity, which is you know again something at carbon fields.
We're monetizing it at the moment, and you know, farmers
can jump on carbonfields dot product n Z to to
get underway with that. But if we can open up
these markets the returns will be considerably more.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Jeff ross Lake harwea station. Always good to catch up
on the country.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Cheers Jamie, thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Sixteen after twelve you are with the country. Interesting. Okay,
up next Damien O'Connor might have to be nice to Damien.
He could be the next Minister of Trade. You to
believe the latest Read Research poll with urn Z is
it skewed a bit because of red radio? I don't know,
(09:34):
but we might ask. We might ask Damien that one.
I think one of the most interesting stats and we'll
talk to Damien about this weeks. They've got paper for
Africa in here. When it comes to preferred prime minister
and this is just one pole. Obviously, Chippy's sitting at
twenty one point one percent, incumbent Christopher Luxan nineteen point four.
(09:55):
But what's your back boys, Yes, he's in at twelve
point six Winston.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Yes, a Saturday name.
Speaker 7 (10:17):
Lin Bacto Valley living or you know this is called
Way Out West by James Rain Australian crawl.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And a man who's not way out West anymore is east.
He's living in Dunedin. Damien O'Connor, Labour's trade spokesperson, Damien,
you've had to say, you get how are you? You've
had to servitize I guess because of your geographic location
with your West Coast, your beloved West Coast.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Oh yeah, it's my terrang wise, my home and then
are coming off of farm people to understand that, you know,
it's it's hard to kind of disconnect and I will
never be disconnected, but people want presents in an electric
MP and you know, being away and doing trade. I get.
So I wasn't on in West Coast. Heasman enough and
that's part of the reason. I guess I got voted out.
So I have to accept that and you know, make
(11:07):
way for some new person who'll come in and you know,
do their best from a labor perspective for West Coast tesmany.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Now I did say too in the last break that
I might have to be nice to here just in
case you do end up as as the Minister of
Trade day man. But well you won't have done.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
You can't come the things that you can't deliver.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Well I probably can't. The thing is the guy who's
taken over from you, Todd McLay, has done a good
job because I haven't spoken to you since this Indian
free trade agreement was announced and he's come out and
said this, he's rubbish claims that New Zealand could have
got a better free trade deal with India if it
had prolonged negotiations. He said there was basically a window.
(11:47):
If we didn't take it, then the next opportunity could
be years. He said he was a bit critical of
the EU deal. He thought it might have been concluded
a bit early. That was under your leadership, I think,
or was it? And the other thing was it was
EU under you?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Yes it was. Yeah, we negotiated the U Trade Agreement
in spite of what he might say, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Okay, And you know what he did say, and we
probably already know this. This is going to be very
advantageous for the likes of sheep, meat, key we fruit apples.
The deal's not so good for dairy. It was never
going to be good because they'd never wanted to do
a dairy deal. So to be fair and try and
be bipartisan here, Damien, you'd have to give Todd maclay
a bit of a pat on the back, wouldn't you.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Look?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Look, you know, it is good that we have concluded
an agreement. I guess the question around the Prime Minister
setting a three year deadline and probably given the Indians
a bit of leverage on that. But the other reality
that we accept is that Donald Trump's been stirring up
the world. India and many other countries have seen the
value and bilectoral trade agreements. India's taken a slightly different
(12:52):
approach to its expectations around migration and you know, wanting
to build their own economy. So I guess the combination
of those facts, along with you know, a lot of
effort from negotiators and Todd certainly visited the country on
a number of occasions, meant that we've got the deal
in front of us. Now, if we said no, you know,
then it might not occur, or the chances of it
(13:13):
might not occur for a long time. So you know,
we're working through that we've just had a meeting in caucus.
We've got a few things that we want a request
of government, and so Christopher Higgins Chris Hipkins will be
talking to Christal Reluction about the final conclusion and agreement.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So in other words, you'll support it because Winston won't.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
No, that's not at all no. I mean Winston can
choose to do whatever he likes, as he always does,
based on his own logic, and we will be looking,
as you know, a party that has always supported trade.
We negotiated they're trying to choose trying to free trade
agreement in two thousand and eight at UK EU. We've
always supported progress in that area. CPTPP. We need it
(13:53):
as a country. We understand that we've just got to
make sure that we evolve the conditions of the agreement
as we kind of progress. As a counch we have
to have provisions around treaty of white honey, and disagreement
includes those It isn't as good for dairy. India has
a huge dairy industry. They're very protective. There are some
(14:15):
opportunities in there, and I've spoken with industry, some industry
leaders to get their summary of it, and I guess
on balance, most of them think this is good.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Okay, Well, I hope bipartisan politics prevails and you get
around the table with Luxeon and Co. And get this
voted for Winston. Of course, by day he's almost daily
he's getting into a stronger position preferred PM. He's now
sitting at twelve point six. Your manship, he's at twenty
(14:44):
one point one. Christopher Luxen languishing really at nineteen point four.
Do you think Winston might say to the pair of them,
I want to be Prime Minister.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Look, I can't prejudge what Winston might say, but look,
Chris Hopkins is way ahead and we'll be focusing on
maximizing the labor vote right across the country.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
He's not way ahead. He's ahead by less than two percent.
But to be fair, this is only one pole. Labour's
on thirty five percent, Nationals on thirty two. So you've
got a handy lead and that seems to be consistent
across the poles. But your problem to get to getting
across the line is obviously your coalition partners. The Greens
have fallen again to party, Maori continue to slide, and
(15:28):
I think Labour might have a crack at those Malori seats, well.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Dad would be good. We'll certainly be contesting them and
we'll have some great candidates. So you know, there's a
lot of time between now and polling day. As you said,
we've just got to focus on maximizing the vote for
ourselves and putting forward some ideas that will make a
difference to people. They voted for a change and for
a better outcome that most of them have been very disappointed.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Hey, you just to finish on you wanted to comment
briefly on roads and trucks. What's that about?
Speaker 5 (16:01):
The point I was making? And you know clearly the
terrible situation up on these coast again, and you know
went around here a couple of months ago. These are
fragile roads and we have the high efficiency or heavy
vehicles that are running around the country on every road now.
They were never intended for some of those other fragile roads,
and we're going to be chasing our tail trying to
(16:21):
fix up these roads with events and as long as
we've got these heavy trucks on them. And I know
it's a dilemma. I'm not saying that we can turn
it there around overnight, but it's a bit of an issue.
Anyone who spends a long time on the roads like
I do, can see the degradation of our roading network.
It's in part probably because the standards that Wakakatai are
(16:42):
specifying contracts, but also because we've got heavier trucks traveling
faster and the roads up in the East Coast and
other parts of the country is simply not built for that.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Do we go back to the future and just limit
the tonnage of trucks on the road.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I think we have to align the tonnage with the
end engineering specifications, and I think that's out of kilter.
And for our sectors across the rural a country, you know,
in our areas, we need to get that right. It's
vital that we have those roading links, not just for
you know, people in communities, actually to shift the stock
and commerce.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Okay, Damian, Well that was all rather tame really, because
the punters are wanting an argument. Surely we can argue
about something before you disappear.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Well, you know, I guess there's something that we could
pick on, and I guess climate change. This government has
its head in the sand over climate change, and every
single week we're seeing examples of weather events that are
driven by changing global warming and changing climatic patterns. We're
going to have to address it, and trying to ignore
it and step back from international agreements is crazy stuff.
(17:51):
But we've seen it's not the only crazy thing that
the government's done.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Of course, Oh of course not. Okay, Well, we've already
offered a solution on the show today, Jeff Ross Khawa Station.
You'll know, Jeff, he's saying, it's just simple, change the
rules and we can sell carbon credits to the highest
bidder around the world, and we can make money out
of the Paris Climate Agreement rather than cost us money.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
Look, I think there's some truth in that, but you
know the fact that this government has screwed up the
etes and sent mixed signals to people participating as well
as landowners is not helping, you know, us go forward.
And we had you know, the billion tree man Shane
Jones out there. I'm now trying to deny the reality
that you know, he has encouraged tree planting in areas
(18:35):
where it shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, Damien, thanks for your time. Good to have you
back in twenty six.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Thanks very much.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
There we go Damian O'Connor, Labour's trade spokesperson. Up next,
we're going to head to the US. Our guy over there,
he's in Lexington, Kentucky, bluegrass country, Todd Clark. I was
watching Fox News last night and gee, some of the
snow numbers, some of the ice numbers, and I'm talking
about the freezing ice, not the ones that are shooting people,
(19:03):
and and and some of the temperatures are mind boggling
over there with this, with this Arctic pole of vortex,
I think they call it storm. So Todd Clark's up
next from Lexington, Kentucky. He is a US farming correspondent.
(19:33):
His name is Todd Clark. He's based out of Lexington, Kentucky,
where they have the wonderful bluegrass come springtime. I don't
think there'll be much blue grass there at the moment.
There might be some blue faces, Todd Clark, and lots
of white grass. How bad is the storm in the
US at the moment, because we're hearing some horrendous numbers.
Speaker 7 (19:55):
Good afternoon, Jamie. It's I think the worst part of
the storm is how widespread it is. It covers I'm
not sure how many states, but probably a third of
the country, if not more than that. In the storm
for us didn't turn out to be as bad as predicted.
They were predicting fourteen inches of snow. We ended up
(20:17):
with maybe five. But the temperatures that are following this storm,
that's the worst part. We won't break zero celsius for
over a week, and that's as far out as I
can see, so it maybe it lasts longer than that.
But we've got about a quarter inch of ice that's
(20:38):
encrusted everything the snow, so when you walk out on
five inches of snow, you don't break through that, and
so it's pretty brutal conditions for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
We'll talk about some of those brutal conditions around the
stites at the moment, But what are the logistics of
running your farm at the moment? Obviously, grazing pastures off
the table, so it's just a matter of feeding them supplements.
Are you having any issues getting around?
Speaker 7 (21:05):
You find a little bit in uh water is the
worst part. We're having to break out ice on the
stock tanks. One place I just fed a couple of
hours ago, there's the water system was frozen solid. I'm
not sure why that was, and so I had to
(21:25):
break a spot on a pond and let them drink
and then run them back out out of that pasture.
But it's yeah, it's tough going. Everything takes twice as
long as it should, and for the most part, everybody's
at home. It's it reminds me of COVID. They're out
on the roads. There's there's no one, so it's it's
(21:48):
a it's a solitary life at the moment. At zero
degrees or colder, the windhaills are are brutal as well.
We've I think we're negative fourteen something like that at
the moment, so it's not fun to be outside.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Here in New Zealand, Todd, we measure our temperatures in celsius.
You guys measure yours and fahrenheit, And to give people
an idea, thirty two degrees fahrenheit is freezing. It's zero
degrees celsius. Now two hundred million Americans are under some
form of extreme cold alert here in New Zealand. I
(22:23):
did some homework on this one, Todd, just to bandy
some numbers about the coldest temperature ever recorded was way
back in nineteen hundred and three in Ranfurly in central
Otago minus twenty five point six degrees celsius. Some of
the temperatures on the Canadian border US Canadian border are
getting as low as minus forty five degrees celsius in
(22:47):
temperature that's walk outside and get frostbite sort of temperature.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
I'm glad to be in Kentucky, another on the Canadian border,
but it's it's tough enough here. I can't imagine trying
to trying to do anything up there. Even the road crews,
you can't. You can't clear and salt the roads and
have any effect at temperatures like that. You just have
to wait it out.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Do you know what the coldest temperature ever recorded on
planet Earth was? Or as Todd.
Speaker 7 (23:18):
No, I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I know you bet you don't, but I just googled
it just for the sake of this interview. And imagine
how cold this would be minus eighty nine point two
degrees celsius at a Soviet station down in Antarctica. Anyhow, Right,
we'll move on from the weather and maybe talk about
of politics. What the hell's happening in Minnesota? Minneapolis there
(23:39):
where the ice agents are bad no bad pun intended
seem to be killing people.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
Yeah, I'm going to start by saying that I don't
think anyone should be killed ever, not a not a
fan of that sort of thing. But by the same token,
the the people that are protesting, there's bad actors, they
(24:07):
don't deserve to be shot, but just the way they're
pushing back against law enforcement that that sort of thing
should never happen either. And there's been a little bit
of a history of this sort of thing in Minnesota,
not the shootings, but just the lack of respect for
(24:28):
authority and that sort of thing. So it's in some
respects it's not surprising that this is going on out there.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You live in a troubled country at the moment, so
we're lucky by comparison. The good news for you, Todd Clark,
is that you're going to get out of the troubled
country for a while and get out of those freezing
temperatures and come to a New Zealand summer and a
couple of weeks time here in New Zealand would have
to warm up away but at the bottom half of
the country. But we're looking forward to hosting you and
your farming mates.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
Yeah, we're excited about it too. We're looking forward to it.
We're going to have a good look around. We start
at the top of the North Island and end up
down in in the cargo, so counting the days down
at this point.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Todd Clik thank you very much for your time. We'll
catch you in a few weeks time live here in
the studio. You've got to sing for your supper if
you want a free bed, and we'll look forward to
your company.
Speaker 7 (25:19):
Then sounds good, thanks Jennis.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Yeah, so those boys will be in the country in
the middle of February. Looking forward to hosting them here
in Dunedin as they make their way around the country.
Michelle came up with a wonderful piece of trivia. She's
good on trivia, she said, for me to ask Todd
and I forgot to about Groundhog Day. I just thought
it was the name of a movie, but it's a
(25:42):
popular American tradition celebrated annually on the second of February.
So what's that next week? Is it where a groundhog
emerges from hibernation to predict the weather. If he sees
his shadow, six more weeks of winter are predicted. If
not spring arrives early. Groundhole Day February second, up next,
(26:04):
the said Michelle with rural news. We'll have sports news
for you. Smiley Barrett. I wonder what he's got to
say about the footing. You'll have plenty to say about
farming and if we get the chance, a great story
around yesterday's wonder of the ride on MOA from Steelford,
cam Clayton. Very interesting man, that's twenty away from one.
(26:34):
You're with the country. Here's Michelle what with the latest
and rural news.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
What the Country's world news with Cob Canet, New Zealand's
leading right on lawn Bower Brand visit Steelford dot co
dot nzid for your locals, Doggist.
Speaker 8 (26:48):
And Canterbury Arable farmers are facing millions of dollars of
losses after a third big hailstorm hit parts of the
country on our region Sorry on Friday. Crops have been destroyed.
What others have gone to sea during on going where
they're making them unusable? Federated Farmer's Arable Chair David Burkett,
who grows crops like wheat, barley and vegetable seeds in
the least in just south of christ Church, says growers
(27:09):
that should be harvesting but are sitting on their hands
at the moment because things are just so wheat and
it's going to take a long time to dry out
it's so cold.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, they're having a hell of a time if we
saw them on one of the network news channels last night. Yeah,
and it's like the second or third bad harvest year
they've had in a rowan Canterbury. Yeah, so our fingers
across that once we get to February, which is traditionally
of course, they're best where the month that it comes
right for the poor old arable farmers hopefully because they
need a break.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
His sport sport on the country with AFCO business well.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Done, kiwe. Liam Lawson's excited that drivers can make more
of a difference this season after his first testing session
in racing balls and new Formula One car. The season's
cars have a fifty to fifty hybrid power split, a
smaller chassis and a new overtake mode. Maybe I need
(28:00):
one of those when I get stuck behind a camper
van and top seed Arena. Sabolenka is first up on
a swell that's so tough in Australia at the moment.
In a sweltering afternoon of Australian Open quarter finals, Sabolenka
takes on America Eva Jovich at one thirty. I assume
(28:22):
that's our time, is it? Yeah? It must be anyhow
are they're really really struggling in the heat in Melbourne?
Up next it is Smiley Barrett, Taranaki dairy farmer. Actually
Todd did ask me in the commercial break whether they
could call in and have a cup of tea with Smiley.
I'll have to ask them up next.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
But I'm kind, I'm sure i'd put I'm healthy.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
It is quarter at well, it's fourteen away from one.
Smiley Barrett joins us from his coastal Taranaki dairy farm,
talk about of farming and foody. I'll start with the farming,
and I guess you've got to be careful what you
say about the footy. Smiley. How's the season treating you?
Did you get a lot of spill over rain from
that big event on the North Island?
Speaker 9 (29:11):
Hey, good afternoon, Jeremie. And in lists year, yeah, we did.
With it's been pretty underpredictable of the weather, Jermy. Of
you know, it sort of take quite of a notice
in it sort of week to week and with sort
of weakish sort of lows. Sorry, high's coming up from
down below, and there's a lot of tropical moisture sort
of hanging around, and it's pretty hard to sort of predict,
(29:31):
you know, what's happening a week here or three days
actually land a week out, you know. So yeah, it
has been we have been getting some good rain, which
is which is a very it's probably a bit like
we were three years ago there. We had very good
covers going through the summer and it's great after the
last year wasist time this last year we were rolling
at a lot of settlement.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, okay, so are you happy with your lot as
a dairy farmer at the moment? Obviously a couple of
positive GDT auctions to start the season off. It was
getting are we but worrying with nine falls in a
row at the end of last year.
Speaker 9 (30:04):
Here it was like I had a friend who used
to work with I mean Boston, and I and Michael
Murvie come out the end of October actually and he
was he seed then that the milk price in the
back of Ireland in the autumn he had dropped thirty percent,
you know, so you know, frontier are pretty slow. It's
announcing it, you know. So here I mean was obviously
(30:25):
with you know, Sun with a price bend, but the
other obviously pulled you know, they've narrative down there. But
and obviously with the States, you know, with China not
taking the grain out of the States, there was a
lot of food on here and over there. So the
American farmers were pumping edends of cares and I think
(30:45):
they are up four percent men in production, which four
percent of States production is nineteen percent of New Zealand production.
So if we're nineteen percent extra production, Jamie, you know
where it's got to go on the open market. So
that's what's steeped in the milk price. I believe the.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Boys come home for Christmas and help out on the
phone them.
Speaker 9 (31:01):
Here they do, they did well. The hadn't actually come
over for Christmas. We had had a few celebrations. Actually
we had just shut the door in the home before
we had had of My youngest daughter got married and
early decenbac and then we just had Blake's witting this weekend,
so she's been pretty frantic in the Baared household. So
they didn't come over for Christmas. Captain dead, but Yester
(31:24):
we decided to stay, stay with you, stay with you,
You're stay where you are and just you will see
you later on.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Okay, yeah, we remissively not to ask you this. Who's
going to be the next door black coach? You'll get
all the inside whispers.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
I don't know that, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Come on, well, there's.
Speaker 9 (31:44):
Not too many they can put your hand up. Really,
it was now they're thrown out to overseas. You know,
the coach needs day overseas experience, well when he's in
on rugby. I mean they should be letting their coaches
go overseas, you know. I mean the media was a
sceni before raids. I got the job, banging on he's
the best men for the for the job and you
immediate got that to answer for this and new jeal. Right,
(32:04):
we should be looking at coaches, you know, go overseas
to gain that experience, you know, to coach different cultures
and in different environments and different players and most important
learn from their mistakes so how they can be a
better coach.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
You know.
Speaker 9 (32:16):
So that's my viewnit, But like saying, now, there's there's
few and far between because they haven't let coaches go overseas,
you know, well, I.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Think, well, I think we've only got two to pick
from now, haven't we Jamie Joseph or Dave Rennie or
maybe a combination of the two.
Speaker 9 (32:30):
Well, listen, I mean fun that. You know, we've had
good coaches there, like you know, Jason the Holland, which
you know I write very highly. Probably, I don't know
why you left us in Jamie, why walked out? Yeah,
whether obviously you need to get raised on the show
and ask him why.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I don't think Rais is doing much media at the moment.
I don't blame him either. Part of me feels a
bit sorry for him. The whole thing. Well, anyhow, we'll
we'll see what comes out on the Wash. It will
keep us all amused and entertained over the next few weeks,
selecting that all black coach. Hey, Smiley, I've got to go.
Thanks for some of your time, really appreciated, and I'm
glad you're enjoying a pretty good, relatively good season on
(33:09):
your Taranaki dairy farm.
Speaker 9 (33:12):
We have a good day there.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
We got Smiley Barrett. Kevin Barrett, what a great man.
He is up next, the winner of yesterday's competition. We
phoned him after one o'clock and got a really interesting response.
Cam Clayton up next wrapping the country for a Tuesday.
(33:37):
Yesterday we announced the winner of the Right on Moa
from steele Fort. Michelle and I called him up after
one o'clock and this is what happened. Well, hopefully Michelle
he answers. Come on, Cam Clayton in the White hatto
answer your phone. You can do it, Cam Cam speaking.
(34:01):
Oh hello, Cam, it's Jamie McKay and Michelle Watt from
the Country. How are you, Jamie?
Speaker 7 (34:07):
This must be a good phone call.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Well, it is a good phone call. You weren't listening
to our show perchance.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Were you?
Speaker 6 (34:12):
Well?
Speaker 10 (34:13):
No, but my social media is blowing up for me.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Well, I'm pleased to I'm pleased to hear that Cam
because I was worried we've got no listeners, but we
obviously have a couple of them. Well, the good news
is we can make this official for you. Michelle. You
can thank her because your name came out of the
number generator. You've won the cub Cadet ALEX five four
seven Right on Moer, valued at six thousand and three
hundred and eighty nine dollars. What do you do? In
(34:38):
the Whitecadow.
Speaker 10 (34:39):
Cam, thank you very much. Team that's Epach and the
White Kadow Me and my partner we Lease Farms and
Runner Hereford Hereford stud providing breeding balls for the dairy
market and we also run cast Frage us in trade Lambs.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Well, have you got a big lawn?
Speaker 10 (34:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, we've got a real big one.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Well, I'll tell you what the cub Cadet because I've
had a play round on it and even I can
drive it and I'm not the best driver in the world.
It's a brilliant moa. So Cam look, really appreciate you
listening and all your mates listening who have warned you
that you've won this so it's going to go to
a good home. Will get the team and still fought
to get a hold of you and arrange delivery to
(35:21):
your place.
Speaker 10 (35:22):
Awesome, Awesome. We really appreciate your podcast and your channel
on the radio. It's great help for the young farmer
of the preparation we're in into the regional final and
the Wakabar plenty twenty eighth of March, so it's as
good preparation gives us plenty to look up on and
read up on.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Are you in the finals yourself or are you organizing?
Speaker 10 (35:42):
Yeah, I've made the top eight for the Wakatabar plenty,
so we're head down into the box and we're studying
up hard to try and take one of the seven
spots to go to a grand final and taranaku mena
or two in July.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Well, jeez, Cam Clayton, you're a brilliant wonder. We're going
to keep and iron you. Hopefully you might be the
twenty twenty six FMG Young Farmer of the Year. But
as it stands at the moment, you've got a steel fork, cub,
get it right on MOA great too, great, the chat
will be in touch.
Speaker 10 (36:11):
We'll be in touch. Cheers, Thank you, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Now that is what we call in radio land, Michelle,
A perfect one. A. Well done to your random number
generator for pulling Cam out of the hat. What an
eloquent young man he is.
Speaker 8 (36:24):
I think both ed jews dropped to the floor, didn't
they when he started talking about young farmer when we were.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
No, we had no idea. I'm just wondering what he
was going on about. But there you go. He's in
the final or we'll contest the regional final, as he
said on the twenty eighth of March, where kadobe have
plenty but talking about the young farmers and thanks for
giving me. This list gets under way this Saturday, Aragi
Regional Final. The following Saturday, it's down to Otago's Southland
(36:49):
the following Saturday, Tasman and then they take a week
or two off and head to the North Island Taranaki,
Manawa two East Coast wkat Obay of Plenty where Cam
will be and they finished with the Northern Regional Final
on Saturday the eleventh of April. That's the Country for today.
We'll catch you back tomorrow and just like Cam, thanks
(37:10):
for listening.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie Mackay. Thanks to Aisuzu get demo deals
on the tough Dmax today
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to a Suzu get demo
deals on the tough Dmax Today.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Sam, it's so good.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Get a New Zealand Welcome to the Country. Alanis Morisset
for no other reason than she starts with a not
much prep gone into that, but there's a wee bit
gone onto the rest of the show. We're going to
kick it off with the co owner of Lake Harwia Station.
Would say he's a bit controversial. He certainly thinks outside
the box. Jeff Ross saying the solution to meeting our
(01:08):
Paris climate targets is New Zealand farmers and New Zealand
Farms will tell you why in a minute. Damian O'Connor,
first time to the batter's box for twenty twenty six Labors.
I was going to say AGG spokesperson, that's Joe Luxton.
He is, of course Labour's trade spokesperson. I want to
get his take on the Indy and FTA. I see
(01:29):
that Stephen Jacobi came out and said good things about
the deal that Todd McClay struck. So we'll see what
Damien thinks. Roads trucks. The latest poll is Winston going
to be our next prime Minister? Todd Clark, a US
farming correspondent, we are heading to Kentucky. In Lexington, Kentucky,
it is a brutal storm over their house farming or
(01:52):
how the farmer's handling it will tell you what the
hell's happening up the road at Minneapolis and Minnesota. There Yes,
bad bad Ice, Smiley, Barrett, Taranaki, Dairy Pharma, Siah of
course the Barrett Rugby clan. Apparently the boys get their
pace from their mother. But anyhow, we're going to have
(02:13):
Smiley on the show to talk farming and footy. I've
got a great story about yesterday's winner of the cub
Cadet Alex five four seven right on MOA from Steelfort.
We phoned the bloke off up should I say, when
we got off air at one o'clock, and she had
an interesting side story. We're going to tell you about
that as well. Michelle will do rural news and we'll
(02:36):
have sports news for you as well. But up next
Jeff Ross. So here's an interesting topic to kick off
the country today. What is the solution to meeting app
(02:57):
Harris targets. Well, the solution is hidden in plain sight,
sitting right in front of our eyes. It is New
Zealand farmers who are often blamed for being the problem.
To tell us more, Co owner of Lake Harwea station entrepreneur,
Jeff Ross, Jeff, you've been doing some serious homework on this.
Good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
How are you well. I'm battling away. I haven't. Haven't
really enjoyed the southern summer, to be fair, because we
haven't had much of one. I was in your neck
of the Wards Central Otago over the weekend. It was
like winter. But I guess all this moisture will be
welcomed by farmers such as yourself.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Look, we're having a feel quite guilty in saying this,
but we're having a cracker of a summer here actually
some of the best grass growth we've had.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Talk to me about the solution to meeting our Paris targets,
because I think we spoke before Christmas at some stage
about New Zealand farmers being the solution.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yeah, absolutely so. Look, as recently as last week, the
government has reconfirmed our commitment to our Paris targets, to
our NDCs but the big question is how we're going
to do it, because we're not actually reducing our emissions
is anywhere near as fast enough as we need to
a lot of people have said the only way we
can do it is by importing carbon credits, which of
(04:16):
course would be a crazy thing to do. The solution is,
in plain sight, it is on New Zealand farms, largely
New Zealand sheep and beef farms. But currently the carbon
credits we create we can't actually sell to the government,
or we can't actually sell to other governments or in
fact other companies. The only place we can sell and
currently is our local ets, So that would be like
(04:40):
only being able to sell our milk and meat to
the local countdown. So you know, we need a global
market to get pricing tension, and this is actually a
real simple fix. We can do that by making sure
our credits we create here are compliant with something called
Article six point four in the in the Paris Agreement,
(05:02):
which is actually relatively simple for our credits to actually qualify.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So how do we go about changing the rules so
we qualify.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
So look, the government does need to do it, but
it is really simple. So you know, scrub and bush
and plantations that are permanent on New Zealand farms will
qualify for the ETS with a slight couple of additions,
largely around pest control. They should also then qualify under
Article six point four to be able to be sold
(05:31):
to our government and in fact other governments as well.
And if you look at the price of carbon in
the EU at the moment, it's one hundred and eighty
five dollars New Zealand per ton versus what the price
of carbon in New Zealand is right now, which is
thirty five dollars a ton. So we're missing out on
a huge opportunity by not accessing that global market.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
New Zealand. Sheep and beef farms make up your words,
not mine, make up over forty percent of our country's
land mass. Much of this land is existing and newly
generating areas of native bush. Now I've got to make
a farming made of mine. Down on the Hokanui Hills
in Southland. Who was smart enough to fence off some
regenerating native bush, get the pests out of there, get
(06:16):
it established, get it up and running, and he is
now getting his annual carbon credits.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
That's exactly right. And a lot of that land is
marginal land or often non productive, so it's adding incremental
revenue to the farm, which is what we're doing currently
at carbon Fields assessing and putting applications and under the ETA,
so we can do that now. But what I guess
I'm advocating for is opening up the market globally and
(06:46):
not just to companies which Article sorry, not just to
countries which Article six point four will allow us to do,
but also companies so big buars like Google and Amazon
and Mesur and whatnot, a huge bars of carbon credits.
And there's another certification called an ICVCM which actually Sure
Quality in New Zealand could do. They've done the scoping.
(07:06):
Shore Quality works with New Zealand farmers, so they could
create that standard or that certification, so we could sell
to companies as well. And so we've got, you know,
a route to market and a company like carbon Fields,
we've got Shore Quality who can do the standards and
so the openings are there really at the kind of
(07:27):
the flick of a button to allow us to access
those markets.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
What this largely apply to sheep and beef, especially extensive
farms as opposed to intensive dairy farms where there's probably
very little native bush or scrubby vegetation that would qualify.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So those of us and sheep and
beef often look quite enviously in an envious way at
the dairy farmer's returns. You know, they are typically around
eight percent return on capital. I think beef and lamb
has the average for or sheep and bee farmers around
two percent return on capital. That's obviously nowhere near enough
(08:06):
even in current times, so we've got to increase that.
So it's this extensive land holding, you know, that is
of high value that many of us have, but of
relatively it's delivering relatively low returns. So this is a
route to actually creating greater returns for us and j Ross.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Just finally, I guess there's a bit of a rub
off here in terms of improvement and biodiversity and especially
water quality.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Well, that's right, and this is this can be done
for existing bush, native bush. This is incentivised native biodiversity
instead of pines. It gives us a much better route there,
and it gives us the opportunity to have that balance
of keeping our pastoral farming on the good land, and
then on the rougher land, the marginal land promoting you know,
(08:50):
native biodiversity, which is you know again something at carbon fields.
We're monetizing it at the moment, and you know, farmers
can jump on carbonfields dot product n Z to to
get underway with that. But if we can open up
these markets the returns will be considerably more.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Jeff ross Lake harwea station. Always good to catch up
on the country.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Cheers Jamie, thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Sixteen after twelve you are with the country. Interesting. Okay,
up next Damien O'Connor might have to be nice to Damien.
He could be the next Minister of Trade. You to
believe the latest Read Research poll with urn Z is
it skewed a bit because of red radio? I don't know,
(09:34):
but we might ask. We might ask Damien that one.
I think one of the most interesting stats and we'll
talk to Damien about this weeks. They've got paper for
Africa in here. When it comes to preferred prime minister
and this is just one pole. Obviously, Chippy's sitting at
twenty one point one percent, incumbent Christopher Luxan nineteen point four.
(09:55):
But what's your back boys, Yes, he's in at twelve
point six Winston.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Yes, a Saturday name.
Speaker 7 (10:17):
Lin Bacto Valley living or you know this is called
Way Out West by James Rain Australian crawl.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And a man who's not way out West anymore is east.
He's living in Dunedin. Damien O'Connor, Labour's trade spokesperson, Damien,
you've had to say, you get how are you? You've
had to servitize I guess because of your geographic location
with your West Coast, your beloved West Coast.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Oh yeah, it's my terrang wise, my home and then
are coming off of farm people to understand that, you know,
it's it's hard to kind of disconnect and I will
never be disconnected, but people want presents in an electric
MP and you know, being away and doing trade. I get.
So I wasn't on in West Coast. Heasman enough and
that's part of the reason. I guess I got voted out.
So I have to accept that and you know, make
(11:07):
way for some new person who'll come in and you know,
do their best from a labor perspective for West Coast tesmany.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Now I did say too in the last break that
I might have to be nice to here just in
case you do end up as as the Minister of
Trade day man. But well you won't have done.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
You can't come the things that you can't deliver.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Well I probably can't. The thing is the guy who's
taken over from you, Todd McLay, has done a good
job because I haven't spoken to you since this Indian
free trade agreement was announced and he's come out and
said this, he's rubbish claims that New Zealand could have
got a better free trade deal with India if it
had prolonged negotiations. He said there was basically a window.
(11:47):
If we didn't take it, then the next opportunity could
be years. He said he was a bit critical of
the EU deal. He thought it might have been concluded
a bit early. That was under your leadership, I think,
or was it? And the other thing was it was
EU under you?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Yes it was. Yeah, we negotiated the U Trade Agreement
in spite of what he might say, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Okay, And you know what he did say, and we
probably already know this. This is going to be very
advantageous for the likes of sheep, meat, key we fruit apples.
The deal's not so good for dairy. It was never
going to be good because they'd never wanted to do
a dairy deal. So to be fair and try and
be bipartisan here, Damien, you'd have to give Todd maclay
a bit of a pat on the back, wouldn't you.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Look?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Look, you know, it is good that we have concluded
an agreement. I guess the question around the Prime Minister
setting a three year deadline and probably given the Indians
a bit of leverage on that. But the other reality
that we accept is that Donald Trump's been stirring up
the world. India and many other countries have seen the
value and bilectoral trade agreements. India's taken a slightly different
(12:52):
approach to its expectations around migration and you know, wanting
to build their own economy. So I guess the combination
of those facts, along with you know, a lot of
effort from negotiators and Todd certainly visited the country on
a number of occasions, meant that we've got the deal
in front of us. Now, if we said no, you know,
then it might not occur, or the chances of it
(13:13):
might not occur for a long time. So you know,
we're working through that we've just had a meeting in caucus.
We've got a few things that we want a request
of government, and so Christopher Higgins Chris Hipkins will be
talking to Christal Reluction about the final conclusion and agreement.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So in other words, you'll support it because Winston won't.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
No, that's not at all no. I mean Winston can
choose to do whatever he likes, as he always does,
based on his own logic, and we will be looking,
as you know, a party that has always supported trade.
We negotiated they're trying to choose trying to free trade
agreement in two thousand and eight at UK EU. We've
always supported progress in that area. CPTPP. We need it
(13:53):
as a country. We understand that we've just got to
make sure that we evolve the conditions of the agreement
as we kind of progress. As a counch we have
to have provisions around treaty of white honey, and disagreement
includes those It isn't as good for dairy. India has
a huge dairy industry. They're very protective. There are some
(14:15):
opportunities in there, and I've spoken with industry, some industry
leaders to get their summary of it, and I guess
on balance, most of them think this is good.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Okay, Well, I hope bipartisan politics prevails and you get
around the table with Luxeon and Co. And get this
voted for Winston. Of course, by day he's almost daily
he's getting into a stronger position preferred PM. He's now
sitting at twelve point six. Your manship, he's at twenty
(14:44):
one point one. Christopher Luxen languishing really at nineteen point four.
Do you think Winston might say to the pair of them,
I want to be Prime Minister.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Look, I can't prejudge what Winston might say, but look,
Chris Hopkins is way ahead and we'll be focusing on
maximizing the labor vote right across the country.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
He's not way ahead. He's ahead by less than two percent.
But to be fair, this is only one pole. Labour's
on thirty five percent, Nationals on thirty two. So you've
got a handy lead and that seems to be consistent
across the poles. But your problem to get to getting
across the line is obviously your coalition partners. The Greens
have fallen again to party, Maori continue to slide, and
(15:28):
I think Labour might have a crack at those Malori seats, well.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Dad would be good. We'll certainly be contesting them and
we'll have some great candidates. So you know, there's a
lot of time between now and polling day. As you said,
we've just got to focus on maximizing the vote for
ourselves and putting forward some ideas that will make a
difference to people. They voted for a change and for
a better outcome that most of them have been very disappointed.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Hey, you just to finish on you wanted to comment
briefly on roads and trucks. What's that about?
Speaker 5 (16:01):
The point I was making? And you know clearly the
terrible situation up on these coast again, and you know
went around here a couple of months ago. These are
fragile roads and we have the high efficiency or heavy
vehicles that are running around the country on every road now.
They were never intended for some of those other fragile roads,
and we're going to be chasing our tail trying to
(16:21):
fix up these roads with events and as long as
we've got these heavy trucks on them. And I know
it's a dilemma. I'm not saying that we can turn
it there around overnight, but it's a bit of an issue.
Anyone who spends a long time on the roads like
I do, can see the degradation of our roading network.
It's in part probably because the standards that Wakakatai are
(16:42):
specifying contracts, but also because we've got heavier trucks traveling
faster and the roads up in the East Coast and
other parts of the country is simply not built for that.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Do we go back to the future and just limit
the tonnage of trucks on the road.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I think we have to align the tonnage with the
end engineering specifications, and I think that's out of kilter.
And for our sectors across the rural a country, you know,
in our areas, we need to get that right. It's
vital that we have those roading links, not just for
you know, people in communities, actually to shift the stock
and commerce.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Okay, Damian, Well that was all rather tame really, because
the punters are wanting an argument. Surely we can argue
about something before you disappear.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Well, you know, I guess there's something that we could
pick on, and I guess climate change. This government has
its head in the sand over climate change, and every
single week we're seeing examples of weather events that are
driven by changing global warming and changing climatic patterns. We're
going to have to address it, and trying to ignore
it and step back from international agreements is crazy stuff.
(17:51):
But we've seen it's not the only crazy thing that
the government's done.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Of course, Oh of course not. Okay, Well, we've already
offered a solution on the show today, Jeff Ross Khawa Station.
You'll know, Jeff, he's saying, it's just simple, change the
rules and we can sell carbon credits to the highest
bidder around the world, and we can make money out
of the Paris Climate Agreement rather than cost us money.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
Look, I think there's some truth in that, but you
know the fact that this government has screwed up the
etes and sent mixed signals to people participating as well
as landowners is not helping, you know, us go forward.
And we had you know, the billion tree man Shane
Jones out there. I'm now trying to deny the reality
that you know, he has encouraged tree planting in areas
(18:35):
where it shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, Damien, thanks for your time. Good to have you
back in twenty six.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Thanks very much.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
There we go Damian O'Connor, Labour's trade spokesperson. Up next,
we're going to head to the US. Our guy over there,
he's in Lexington, Kentucky, bluegrass country, Todd Clark. I was
watching Fox News last night and gee, some of the
snow numbers, some of the ice numbers, and I'm talking
about the freezing ice, not the ones that are shooting people,
(19:03):
and and and some of the temperatures are mind boggling
over there with this, with this Arctic pole of vortex,
I think they call it storm. So Todd Clark's up
next from Lexington, Kentucky. He is a US farming correspondent.
(19:33):
His name is Todd Clark. He's based out of Lexington, Kentucky,
where they have the wonderful bluegrass come springtime. I don't
think there'll be much blue grass there at the moment.
There might be some blue faces, Todd Clark, and lots
of white grass. How bad is the storm in the
US at the moment, because we're hearing some horrendous numbers.
Speaker 7 (19:55):
Good afternoon, Jamie. It's I think the worst part of
the storm is how widespread it is. It covers I'm
not sure how many states, but probably a third of
the country, if not more than that. In the storm
for us didn't turn out to be as bad as predicted.
They were predicting fourteen inches of snow. We ended up
(20:17):
with maybe five. But the temperatures that are following this storm,
that's the worst part. We won't break zero celsius for
over a week, and that's as far out as I
can see, so it maybe it lasts longer than that.
But we've got about a quarter inch of ice that's
(20:38):
encrusted everything the snow, so when you walk out on
five inches of snow, you don't break through that, and
so it's pretty brutal conditions for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
We'll talk about some of those brutal conditions around the
stites at the moment, But what are the logistics of
running your farm at the moment? Obviously, grazing pastures off
the table, so it's just a matter of feeding them supplements.
Are you having any issues getting around?
Speaker 7 (21:05):
You find a little bit in uh water is the
worst part. We're having to break out ice on the
stock tanks. One place I just fed a couple of
hours ago, there's the water system was frozen solid. I'm
not sure why that was, and so I had to
(21:25):
break a spot on a pond and let them drink
and then run them back out out of that pasture.
But it's yeah, it's tough going. Everything takes twice as
long as it should, and for the most part, everybody's
at home. It's it reminds me of COVID. They're out
on the roads. There's there's no one, so it's it's
(21:48):
a it's a solitary life at the moment. At zero
degrees or colder, the windhaills are are brutal as well.
We've I think we're negative fourteen something like that at
the moment, so it's not fun to be outside.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Here in New Zealand, Todd, we measure our temperatures in celsius.
You guys measure yours and fahrenheit, And to give people
an idea, thirty two degrees fahrenheit is freezing. It's zero
degrees celsius. Now two hundred million Americans are under some
form of extreme cold alert here in New Zealand. I
(22:23):
did some homework on this one, Todd, just to bandy
some numbers about the coldest temperature ever recorded was way
back in nineteen hundred and three in Ranfurly in central
Otago minus twenty five point six degrees celsius. Some of
the temperatures on the Canadian border US Canadian border are
getting as low as minus forty five degrees celsius in
(22:47):
temperature that's walk outside and get frostbite sort of temperature.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
I'm glad to be in Kentucky, another on the Canadian border,
but it's it's tough enough here. I can't imagine trying
to trying to do anything up there. Even the road crews,
you can't. You can't clear and salt the roads and
have any effect at temperatures like that. You just have
to wait it out.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Do you know what the coldest temperature ever recorded on
planet Earth was? Or as Todd.
Speaker 7 (23:18):
No, I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I know you bet you don't, but I just googled
it just for the sake of this interview. And imagine
how cold this would be minus eighty nine point two
degrees celsius at a Soviet station down in Antarctica. Anyhow, Right,
we'll move on from the weather and maybe talk about
of politics. What the hell's happening in Minnesota? Minneapolis there
(23:39):
where the ice agents are bad no bad pun intended
seem to be killing people.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
Yeah, I'm going to start by saying that I don't
think anyone should be killed ever, not a not a
fan of that sort of thing. But by the same token,
the the people that are protesting, there's bad actors, they
(24:07):
don't deserve to be shot, but just the way they're
pushing back against law enforcement that that sort of thing
should never happen either. And there's been a little bit
of a history of this sort of thing in Minnesota,
not the shootings, but just the lack of respect for
(24:28):
authority and that sort of thing. So it's in some
respects it's not surprising that this is going on out there.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You live in a troubled country at the moment, so
we're lucky by comparison. The good news for you, Todd Clark,
is that you're going to get out of the troubled
country for a while and get out of those freezing
temperatures and come to a New Zealand summer and a
couple of weeks time here in New Zealand would have
to warm up away but at the bottom half of
the country. But we're looking forward to hosting you and
your farming mates.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
Yeah, we're excited about it too. We're looking forward to it.
We're going to have a good look around. We start
at the top of the North Island and end up
down in in the cargo, so counting the days down
at this point.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Todd Clik thank you very much for your time. We'll
catch you in a few weeks time live here in
the studio. You've got to sing for your supper if
you want a free bed, and we'll look forward to
your company.
Speaker 7 (25:19):
Then sounds good, thanks Jennis.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Yeah, so those boys will be in the country in
the middle of February. Looking forward to hosting them here
in Dunedin as they make their way around the country.
Michelle came up with a wonderful piece of trivia. She's
good on trivia, she said, for me to ask Todd
and I forgot to about Groundhog Day. I just thought
it was the name of a movie, but it's a
(25:42):
popular American tradition celebrated annually on the second of February.
So what's that next week? Is it where a groundhog
emerges from hibernation to predict the weather. If he sees
his shadow, six more weeks of winter are predicted. If
not spring arrives early. Groundhole Day February second, up next,
(26:04):
the said Michelle with rural news. We'll have sports news
for you. Smiley Barrett. I wonder what he's got to
say about the footing. You'll have plenty to say about
farming and if we get the chance, a great story
around yesterday's wonder of the ride on MOA from Steelford,
cam Clayton. Very interesting man, that's twenty away from one.
(26:34):
You're with the country. Here's Michelle what with the latest
and rural news.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
What the Country's world news with Cob Canet, New Zealand's
leading right on lawn Bower Brand visit Steelford dot co
dot nzid for your locals, Doggist.
Speaker 8 (26:48):
And Canterbury Arable farmers are facing millions of dollars of
losses after a third big hailstorm hit parts of the
country on our region Sorry on Friday. Crops have been destroyed.
What others have gone to sea during on going where
they're making them unusable? Federated Farmer's Arable Chair David Burkett,
who grows crops like wheat, barley and vegetable seeds in
the least in just south of christ Church, says growers
(27:09):
that should be harvesting but are sitting on their hands
at the moment because things are just so wheat and
it's going to take a long time to dry out
it's so cold.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, they're having a hell of a time if we
saw them on one of the network news channels last night. Yeah,
and it's like the second or third bad harvest year
they've had in a rowan Canterbury. Yeah, so our fingers
across that once we get to February, which is traditionally
of course, they're best where the month that it comes
right for the poor old arable farmers hopefully because they
need a break.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
His sport sport on the country with AFCO business well.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Done, kiwe. Liam Lawson's excited that drivers can make more
of a difference this season after his first testing session
in racing balls and new Formula One car. The season's
cars have a fifty to fifty hybrid power split, a
smaller chassis and a new overtake mode. Maybe I need
(28:00):
one of those when I get stuck behind a camper
van and top seed Arena. Sabolenka is first up on
a swell that's so tough in Australia at the moment.
In a sweltering afternoon of Australian Open quarter finals, Sabolenka
takes on America Eva Jovich at one thirty. I assume
(28:22):
that's our time, is it? Yeah? It must be anyhow
are they're really really struggling in the heat in Melbourne?
Up next it is Smiley Barrett, Taranaki dairy farmer. Actually
Todd did ask me in the commercial break whether they
could call in and have a cup of tea with Smiley.
I'll have to ask them up next.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
But I'm kind, I'm sure i'd put I'm healthy.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
It is quarter at well, it's fourteen away from one.
Smiley Barrett joins us from his coastal Taranaki dairy farm,
talk about of farming and foody. I'll start with the farming,
and I guess you've got to be careful what you
say about the footy. Smiley. How's the season treating you?
Did you get a lot of spill over rain from
that big event on the North Island?
Speaker 9 (29:11):
Hey, good afternoon, Jeremie. And in lists year, yeah, we did.
With it's been pretty underpredictable of the weather, Jermy. Of
you know, it sort of take quite of a notice
in it sort of week to week and with sort
of weakish sort of lows. Sorry, high's coming up from
down below, and there's a lot of tropical moisture sort
of hanging around, and it's pretty hard to sort of predict,
(29:31):
you know, what's happening a week here or three days
actually land a week out, you know. So yeah, it
has been we have been getting some good rain, which
is which is a very it's probably a bit like
we were three years ago there. We had very good
covers going through the summer and it's great after the
last year wasist time this last year we were rolling
at a lot of settlement.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, okay, so are you happy with your lot as
a dairy farmer at the moment? Obviously a couple of
positive GDT auctions to start the season off. It was
getting are we but worrying with nine falls in a
row at the end of last year.
Speaker 9 (30:04):
Here it was like I had a friend who used
to work with I mean Boston, and I and Michael
Murvie come out the end of October actually and he
was he seed then that the milk price in the
back of Ireland in the autumn he had dropped thirty percent,
you know, so you know, frontier are pretty slow. It's
announcing it, you know. So here I mean was obviously
(30:25):
with you know, Sun with a price bend, but the
other obviously pulled you know, they've narrative down there. But
and obviously with the States, you know, with China not
taking the grain out of the States, there was a
lot of food on here and over there. So the
American farmers were pumping edends of cares and I think
(30:45):
they are up four percent men in production, which four
percent of States production is nineteen percent of New Zealand production.
So if we're nineteen percent extra production, Jamie, you know
where it's got to go on the open market. So
that's what's steeped in the milk price. I believe the.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Boys come home for Christmas and help out on the
phone them.
Speaker 9 (31:01):
Here they do, they did well. The hadn't actually come
over for Christmas. We had had a few celebrations. Actually
we had just shut the door in the home before
we had had of My youngest daughter got married and
early decenbac and then we just had Blake's witting this weekend,
so she's been pretty frantic in the Baared household. So
they didn't come over for Christmas. Captain dead, but Yester
(31:24):
we decided to stay, stay with you, stay with you,
You're stay where you are and just you will see
you later on.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Okay, yeah, we remissively not to ask you this. Who's
going to be the next door black coach? You'll get
all the inside whispers.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
I don't know that, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Come on, well, there's.
Speaker 9 (31:44):
Not too many they can put your hand up. Really,
it was now they're thrown out to overseas. You know,
the coach needs day overseas experience, well when he's in
on rugby. I mean they should be letting their coaches
go overseas, you know. I mean the media was a
sceni before raids. I got the job, banging on he's
the best men for the for the job and you
immediate got that to answer for this and new jeal. Right,
(32:04):
we should be looking at coaches, you know, go overseas
to gain that experience, you know, to coach different cultures
and in different environments and different players and most important
learn from their mistakes so how they can be a
better coach.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
You know.
Speaker 9 (32:16):
So that's my viewnit, But like saying, now, there's there's
few and far between because they haven't let coaches go overseas,
you know, well, I.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Think, well, I think we've only got two to pick
from now, haven't we Jamie Joseph or Dave Rennie or
maybe a combination of the two.
Speaker 9 (32:30):
Well, listen, I mean fun that. You know, we've had
good coaches there, like you know, Jason the Holland, which
you know I write very highly. Probably, I don't know
why you left us in Jamie, why walked out? Yeah,
whether obviously you need to get raised on the show
and ask him why.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I don't think Rais is doing much media at the moment.
I don't blame him either. Part of me feels a
bit sorry for him. The whole thing. Well, anyhow, we'll
we'll see what comes out on the Wash. It will
keep us all amused and entertained over the next few weeks,
selecting that all black coach. Hey, Smiley, I've got to go.
Thanks for some of your time, really appreciated, and I'm
glad you're enjoying a pretty good, relatively good season on
(33:09):
your Taranaki dairy farm.
Speaker 9 (33:12):
We have a good day there.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
We got Smiley Barrett. Kevin Barrett, what a great man.
He is up next, the winner of yesterday's competition. We
phoned him after one o'clock and got a really interesting response.
Cam Clayton up next wrapping the country for a Tuesday.
(33:37):
Yesterday we announced the winner of the Right on Moa
from steele Fort. Michelle and I called him up after
one o'clock and this is what happened. Well, hopefully Michelle
he answers. Come on, Cam Clayton in the White hatto
answer your phone. You can do it, Cam Cam speaking.
(34:01):
Oh hello, Cam, it's Jamie McKay and Michelle Watt from
the Country. How are you, Jamie?
Speaker 7 (34:07):
This must be a good phone call.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Well, it is a good phone call. You weren't listening
to our show perchance.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Were you?
Speaker 6 (34:12):
Well?
Speaker 10 (34:13):
No, but my social media is blowing up for me.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Well, I'm pleased to I'm pleased to hear that Cam
because I was worried we've got no listeners, but we
obviously have a couple of them. Well, the good news
is we can make this official for you. Michelle. You
can thank her because your name came out of the
number generator. You've won the cub Cadet ALEX five four
seven Right on Moer, valued at six thousand and three
hundred and eighty nine dollars. What do you do? In
(34:38):
the Whitecadow.
Speaker 10 (34:39):
Cam, thank you very much. Team that's Epach and the
White Kadow Me and my partner we Lease Farms and
Runner Hereford Hereford stud providing breeding balls for the dairy
market and we also run cast Frage us in trade Lambs.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Well, have you got a big lawn?
Speaker 10 (34:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, we've got a real big one.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Well, I'll tell you what the cub Cadet because I've
had a play round on it and even I can
drive it and I'm not the best driver in the world.
It's a brilliant moa. So Cam look, really appreciate you
listening and all your mates listening who have warned you
that you've won this so it's going to go to
a good home. Will get the team and still fought
to get a hold of you and arrange delivery to
(35:21):
your place.
Speaker 10 (35:22):
Awesome, Awesome. We really appreciate your podcast and your channel
on the radio. It's great help for the young farmer
of the preparation we're in into the regional final and
the Wakabar plenty twenty eighth of March, so it's as
good preparation gives us plenty to look up on and
read up on.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Are you in the finals yourself or are you organizing?
Speaker 10 (35:42):
Yeah, I've made the top eight for the Wakatabar plenty,
so we're head down into the box and we're studying
up hard to try and take one of the seven
spots to go to a grand final and taranaku mena
or two in July.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Well, jeez, Cam Clayton, you're a brilliant wonder. We're going
to keep and iron you. Hopefully you might be the
twenty twenty six FMG Young Farmer of the Year. But
as it stands at the moment, you've got a steel fork, cub,
get it right on MOA great too, great, the chat
will be in touch.
Speaker 10 (36:11):
We'll be in touch. Cheers, Thank you, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Now that is what we call in radio land, Michelle,
A perfect one. A. Well done to your random number
generator for pulling Cam out of the hat. What an
eloquent young man he is.
Speaker 8 (36:24):
I think both ed jews dropped to the floor, didn't
they when he started talking about young farmer when we were.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
No, we had no idea. I'm just wondering what he
was going on about. But there you go. He's in
the final or we'll contest the regional final, as he
said on the twenty eighth of March, where kadobe have
plenty but talking about the young farmers and thanks for
giving me. This list gets under way this Saturday, Aragi
Regional Final. The following Saturday, it's down to Otago's Southland
(36:49):
the following Saturday, Tasman and then they take a week
or two off and head to the North Island Taranaki,
Manawa two East Coast wkat Obay of Plenty where Cam
will be and they finished with the Northern Regional Final
on Saturday the eleventh of April. That's the Country for today.
We'll catch you back tomorrow and just like Cam, thanks
(37:10):
for listening.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie Mackay. Thanks to Aisuzu get demo deals
on the tough Dmax today
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