May 11, 2026 • 40 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Emma Higgins, Damien O'Connor, Rocky Hawkins, and Farmer Tom Martin.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the Country Podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to Farmlands,
Better Drenched Plans and Better Heard Health.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Start here.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Get Amy's Eland. Good afternoon, I'm Jamie McKay. This is
the Country, brought to you by Rabobank. That's the best
of the Country on Saturday morning. Farmlands and Isuzu get
it right. You're looking for a good vehicle, trust me
have a crack at that Isuzu m U X seventh seater.
It is a cracker. We were going to kick off
the show with excuse me labors agg A spokesperson Damian O'Connor.
(00:57):
Are lots of debate about the gene technology laws in
this country, and also he wanted to talk about the
sale of farms to foreigners. Unfortunately, we're having a bit
of trouble tracking Damian O'Connor down, so we're going to
kick off the show very shortly with Emma Higgins. It's
dairy week here on the Country, so we're going to
(01:17):
have a look at the banks May Agri Business Monthly Report.
Hot off the press, we'll have a look at dairy, beef,
sheep fuel Furt. We really want to go there interest
in exchange rates. When's ob I think we've got another
OCR later this month? When can we expect interest rates
to rise? Rocky Hawkins Hawks Bay out of Hawks Bay
(01:38):
a legend of the sport of dog trialing. The Zellen
Champs are coming up later this month and Hawk's Bay
May twenty five to twenty nine will preview those and
Earlier this morning I caught up with farmer Tom Martin.
Our UK farming correspondent is Sakia Starmer on his way out.
How's he faring as an arable farmer with poor prices
(01:59):
and sky high prices for fuel and fertilizer And believe
it or not, it's their spring. It's what the equivalent
of our November over there, and they are in a
stinker stinker of a spring drought had thirty mills since February.
We'll talk to farmer Tom Martin about that. Michelle will
(02:21):
have rural news for you and we'll update sport as well.
Up next, it is Emma Higgins from Ravo Bank.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Dairy Week on the country thanks to Meridian and Farmland's
making moving day easier for farmers.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Her name is Emma Higgins. She's a senior ag analyst.
For Rabobank. They've just come out with their May Agribusiness monthly. Now, Emma,
because it's dairy week here on the country, let's start
with the biggest game in town, dairy And your headline
here is dairy markets will find a floor in twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Yeah, so big heading, isn't it When we've got a
lot of dynamics happening right now which suggests a bit
of divergence across the dairy complex. I think let's start
at the top right. We have had a lot of
milk being produced in New Zealand for the twenty five
to twenty sixth season and look that might continue into
the new season as well. But so far we've had
(03:32):
a standout for March, which is the latest numbers being produced,
with milk production volumes up almost ten percent year on
year for that month, So stand out there. That's flowing
through into the broader story that we talked about for
a while now, Jmie, which is global milk supply remains abundant. Now,
this is the case also in the Northern Hemisphere, and
(03:54):
this is what's leading to a bit of a divergence
across the dairy complex. When we think about the GDP
results and we think about how butter has trended versus say,
for example, of skim milk potter. So there's a lot
of prem availability sitting out in Europe and also in
the United States as well, and that supply is being
(04:15):
tuned into butter. It's comfortably exceeding demand and that's placing
downward pressure on prices. New Zealand's not been immune to this,
and that's why our butter prices have melted by around
thirty percent compared to last year, where we were sitting
about eight thousand US dollars per ton mark. On the
flip side, skimut powder absolute star of the stables. The
(04:39):
protein markets are telling a very different story to fat.
Our protein demand globally has been much more resilient. There's
a lot of good trends supporting that, and so skimmitt
powder basically is benefiting from this and that's helping underpin
milk pressful casts where they are today.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yep, we've got a lot to be thankful for in
terms of over white Americans and their white loss drugs.
Now is that same demand as ravenous for protein, for
instance from beef?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Well interesting you say that look right now, the beef
markets have remained pretty well supported over the last couple
of months, and that's been the story that we've spoken
to for a while now. I guess on the front
of it, what's helping on the price side of things
right now is that we've had a lot less throughput
coming through. Started to see some of that start to
trend across as we've moved through the autumn months, but
(05:31):
broadly prices are still really supported. We know that the
global beef supply, if reflect to global, is expected to
run quite tight across the course of this year, so
less beef supply tends to point to stronger beef prices
here in New Zealand, particularly when we're thinking about again
that key market the United States. So all in all,
(05:52):
it's looking like another good season ahead for beef. The
one thing we need to keep on our radars is
what might be happening with when it comes to their
beef import safeguards might just steady the flow there. But
all in all, things are looking pretty nice for the
beef guys.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
What about sheep? Still tight supply out there. It's a
supply and demand equation and as it stands at the moment,
the markets look pretty stable and can I say positive
for lamb and mutton.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Absolutely, let's go with that, because you're right, we've got
really great dynamics which have supported our sheep farmers here
in New Zealand tight supply, and we've had actually diversified
export demand as well. If we think about we have
been shipping our volumes to have had about a third
over the six months of this season head across to
China and about a quarter over into the EU.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
And some of.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
These markets are really high value as we know, particularly
with the twenty percent heading across to the UK and
the US as well. So all in all, looking ahead,
demand seems to remain quite robust across the course of
the season, and you know we'll be subject to the
usual timing and volume shoes that we tend to see
for farm gate prices, but as you say, dynamics are
(07:04):
still supportive commodity outlooks.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
We're having a look at these in the Rabobank Agribusiness
Monthly for the month of May. Fertilizer and fuel not good.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I think it's the talking point amongst everyone, right, you know,
there is no way of getting around this. What is
happening right now globally and particularly our the Middle East
is having ramification tier in New Zealand. At the moment,
you know, global urear prices are continuing to raise. We've
seen the biggest leap already occur, certainly after the immediate
aftermath of the Golf War three, but they're still continuing
(07:38):
to remain elevated and ticking upwards as well. Look, a
lot depends on the Strait of Hamoz and when it's
going to reopen and how we'll start to see some
of that supply starting to feed through into global markets.
At this point in time, our forecast is for the
next couple of weeks, hopefully some positive response to come through.
(07:58):
But look, Jamie, I mean the night every night. I
think the dynamics are always changing, and it's you know,
we're trying to get a handle on what's going on
and what that might mean for all of these really
important commodity inputs for our New Zealand partial systems.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
No relief at the petrol pump or in the bulky
until such time as we get this one sorted. The
other interesting one that you look at and your commodity
outlooks are interest rates and exchange rates. Now the Aussies
have lifted their official cash rate, we kept ours where
it was at als review. We're looking at it again
this month. What's Rabobank saying in terms of OCR lifts.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
We are still thinking that it's going to be unlikely
that we'll see a rate hike come through this month,
so we're sticking to our view that that will probably
emerge later on this year. And a lot of the
support really comes back to some of the sentiment that
the Reserve Bank has talked to in the past in
a public manner. So will Swait and what happens at
(09:01):
the end of this month's but for now we're sticking
to our view that it might be a little bit
later in the year and maybe October.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
What about foreign exchange, I know that we've strengthened against
the US dollar.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yes we have.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
We have indeed, which is interesting right when we think
about globally what's going on and how that might impact
again on the input side of things. Look, ultimately, we
have seen that strengthening and we think that there will
continue taking that twelve months for you and our estimations
right now in our forecast is may be seeing a
rally towards that sixty two cent mark over the.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Next twelve months, and I guess as an exporting nation
we could possibly live with that. Every cloud has its
silver lining. It makes fuel a wee bit cheaper and fertilizer.
Emma Higgins, senior egg analysts for Rabobank, always appreciate your
time on the country.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Thank you so much, Jemy.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Good on you, Emma. Yet talking about fuel and fertilizer.
Earlier this morning, I caught up the UK farm and
correspondent Tom Farmer on Martin. They're having some real issues
over there, not only keeping a prime minister, but trying
to make some money as arable farmers. It is dairy
week here on the country. With Meridian and Farmlands, as
(10:12):
I said yesterday, you can enjoy an account credited up
to three hundred dollars when you're moving moving day with Meridian.
If you move with Meridian and you build through Farmland's
your Farmland's card, you get the discount and the rebate
teas and sees apply. Yes, moving day, Well it's more
(10:35):
than one day, isn't it. Moving a few days is
coming up at the end of May early June. Up
next to someone who I think he used to milk
cows in a past life. Labour's agg spokesperson Damian O'Connor,
we're having a bit of trouble. We're having a bit
of trouble trying to track them down. We think we've
(10:56):
got them. We'll see how we get on after the
break the country. It's seventeen after twelve. But of Phil Collins,
Phil Bailey from Earth Wind and Fire. What a great
band they are, not even Sneaks and Genesis and it's
all happening on the country. A land of confusion by Genesis?
(11:39):
Was that what we had in twenty twenty to twenty
twenty three under Jacinda and Chris Hipkins? Let let me
ask the man who was Minister of Agriculture and Trade.
To be fair, he did a good job on trade,
Damien O'Connor. Was it a land of confusion back in
those dark old times?
Speaker 5 (11:56):
That's such a terrible, vicious National Party rhetoric that you, Hey,
we had a few challenges. I don't know whether you noticed, Jamie.
You might have been hiding under a bush somewhere, but
I think we did pretty well actually, and compared to
most other countries in the world, we were highly acknowledged
and appreciated for our efforts.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Okay, let's go to the future home, not the past.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I'd arranged yesterday for you to come on to the
show and have a friendly, friendly chat with me, and
I said, just drop me a text with a couple
of topics that you might like to cover. Of course,
you never bothered getting back to me in time. Before
midday we were having some phone issues. I had to
dump you for Emma Higgins. But meanwhile, here's a text
and hot off the press from Shane Jones any space
(12:41):
this week, I want to talk about fuel doc reform,
local government reform, Mailori party reform. Now there's a politician,
Damian O'Connor Honor's game front footing up.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Oh really okay here, Well, aside from going to the
I guess the Defense Industry Awards and then to a
funeral of my or an event last night, now, I
didn't have time to text back. I'm sorry about that, Jamie.
If you don't know what should be the issues that
you questioned the opposition on, then maybe in the wrong game.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
No, no, no, I'm just I'm just I'm just giving
you the opportunity to raise some of your preferred topics.
I've got plenty of topics I can throw at you.
Don't worry about that. I was just giving I was
just giving you the I was giving you the opportunity
to leed, to get on the front foot and lead
with something you'd like to talk about.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
Hey, can I can?
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I appreciate that. And one of the things that I
did text Baut to you late it was is the
sale of three farms at Clyde Vale where the overseas
investment offer said no, they shouldn't be sold to foreigners.
And the two minutes is one from ACT and one
from National said yes, we'll override that and they will
be sold to foreigners. And debt is concerning many in
the dairy industry.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Okay, I can. I can see that? Mind you all
the what about all the farms that we sold? Because
I'm going to be talking to a dog trill guy
up next, and he was lamenting when I was teeing
up the interview yesterday. He was just lamenting the fact
that they've lost all this good sheep and beef country
on which to work. They're dogs damien because it's gone
into trees. And I can blame or I actually blame
(14:11):
Shane Jones for some of it, but that's pre twenty twenty,
in the second cycle of that government. It was your lot.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
No you no, we put the brakes on it. Actually,
although it's been ignored and forgotten by yourself, we did
put the brakes on. Shane insisted that the door be
opened for finners to buy production for ust or farms
for production. We never allowed finners to buy it for
carbon farms. And indeed it is a said outcome. But
you should ask Shane about that.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, but whose fault was it? Then we're going to
look back in this and look back in history in
years to come and go what the hell were we thinking?
Because you're blaming Shane. Shane's blaming you. National's blaming you.
You're blaming National. The fact that is, we've got large
tracts of land hang on Damien that did go to
carbon farming. I seriously doubt whether they will these pine
(15:02):
plantations will ever be harvested. They're just going to be
a blight on our landscape. Not to mention an environmental threat.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Well, you have to talk to the forest industry and
alternative income streams through drystock farming and say which one
gives the most. You have to talk to the farmers
who sold and tell them why they should get less
for their land. It's a complex issue, and I guess
most governments haven't been or have been reluctant and haven't
wanted to intervene on how farmers should sell land to
(15:32):
whom other than the one of foreign ownership. So land
news change has continued for as long as I've been around, Jamie,
and I think that that diversification, which is what we
call of their times.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, but Damienment government policy sent exactly the wrong signals,
and that's why we had this splurge of carbon farming.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Be careful for what you asked for, because actually we'd
had a simple carbon tax proposal that would have helped
address out into the national obligations and actually helped move
to to I guess electrification, that's the new word. But
actually the farmer's objected to that and we ended up
with an ETS. And it's not been a perfect tool.
In fact, at times it's been really clumsy, But that's
(16:14):
the one that governments, and there have been a few
of them, have committed to. It has produced some of
these perverse outcomes in some areas. But ultimately, farmers have
sold the land to the person who gives them offers
them the most, and that's that's a critical issue for
government to intervene on, and most governments are reluctant to
do that.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, and to be honest, you can't blame farmers. You
and I both know this. You only get to sell
it once. So often it has sold, and more often
than not, and nearly all the time to the highest bidder,
because if not to the highest bidder, that person can
then on sell it to the highest bidder. Hey, where
do you sit or where does labour sit around? The
government still intending to pass legislation to liberalize these gene
(16:56):
technology laws because this is something that is dividing not
only the politicians, are also farmers.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
While not dividing us. We talked about making some changes
to genetic modification engineering legislation to all our more research
in the lab. We didn't go so far as to
say we support any field growing trials or field trials
of that. So we opposed that the rush and clumsy
(17:24):
legislation that Judas Colins put forward has just been stopped
and blocked at the moment. But you know, it's pretty dumb.
You know, we need to have a mature conversation about
where that science might assist us, where the potential risks are.
None of the government's consideration took into account the economic
impacts of introducing into our economy. That's pretty dumb. I
(17:48):
would say.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Shane Shane Jones, if he was on the show today
instead of you, even though he was very well prepared,
he would like to talk would have liked to have
talked about local government reform. We all know it's necessary.
Where do you sit on the Stamian.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Well, I think we can have some changes, but forcing
it down the throats of you know, people who are
elected across our country to try and do the right
thing when they have their hands tied regarding income, forcing
them into something in three months time is just ridiculous.
It's unfair, it's unworkable, and it will result in crazy outcomes.
(18:23):
We need to work through it this really, really carefully.
And where we have voluntary amalgamations and people working together,
we should step in the central government and help that.
But what is proposed from this government is just crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, but you'd have to agree. Having a local body
with the population of I don't know, I'm just thinking
of the clue of district. I think it's seven or
eight thousand, don't quote me on that, but it's small.
Next not that these are ones that I know Gore
next door's got twelve thousand or something like that. That's
just too small. There's no critical mass in there. There's
no critical ratepayer mass.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
I look, I agreed, as Western district is Billo district.
There are many of them across the country. But then
the next thing you'll be complaining about a some official
from the council comes in, you know, hops in a
car and travels two hundred kilometers because it's still within
their district and tells you what to do and has
no understanding of the local area. You'll be jumping up
and down as well. So it's not just a simple
(19:15):
task of throwing everyone into one organization saying oh, it's
all going to be more efficient and better outcomes that
that indeed may may produce the inverse of what we want.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Let's finish with Shane's preferred final topic, Maori party reform.
You realize, amen, that any chance that you had, or
a center left government had of winning the elections probably
going down the toilet because the Maori Party won't win
the Maori Party seats, although the Maori seats get.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
A statement, just do some mathematics. Look, we're doing all
right in the polls and it's moving out.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
No, I'm not arguing that. No, but you need the
don't you worrying about? You need the overhang that the
Maori seats bring you. It's party MARII gets what two
percent of the vote and that they've got six or
seven seats.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
We are intending to win back all those Miley seats
and make sure that we have a stable government and
all the indications are from the polls is that's where
we'll be after November.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
The stable in the Greens, should they be mentioned in
the same sentence?
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Of course they should. Most of the issues that they've
raised over the last thirty years had been very very real.
How you implement them and bring them in as something
where you need a pragmatic leader, and that's Labor has
played a really significant part.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
We have worked with them in the past.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
We haven't brought down the economy, we haven't made things worse.
In fact, we've had progressive, positive, positive policies. In working
with the Greens and we can do that again.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I'm worried about your memory. I think it's fading. You've
forgotten twenty twenty to twenty twenty three. Your financial policies
brought this nation to its knees. Damen Ah for good.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
This crowd has borrowed more, given tax cuts, back, cut
the funding for public infrastructure, and made things worse. What
are you saying about them?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Well, the lesser of two evils is what I'm saying
at this stage, Jamien.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
I'm saying we did have some costs related to COVID. Actually,
the cost of living did go up related to the
Ukraine War. Yes, we accept that this cloud has got
in and made it worse prior to.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I don't want to be a defender of Luxe in here,
but he's had Trump's tariffs last year, He's had Trump's
war this year. They're fairly challenging financial issues as well.
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Well.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Well, yes, I accept that, but actually they gave text
cuts fourteen billion dollars they gave back to people. No
one really noticed that in their pockets, and that has
undermined the ability of government to spend money where they should.
Look at the roads that you drive on, it's a
good indication.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Damien O'Connor, thanks for turning up and coming up with
at least one subject on this on the show today.
Good there we god that fader and fade up Phil
Genesis or Phil Genesis, Phil Collins when he was with
Genesis the Land of Confusion. I reckon, that's what we
(22:09):
were like between twenty twenty and twenty three. No, it's
not that easy now either. To be fair, Damien did
raise some fair points. Are you going nuts on the
old text machine? Let us know what you think. Our
texts number is five double O nine. I will censor.
I will read some of these. There's some good pine
(22:30):
Tree ones coming in. Actually, we'll do that next.
Speaker 8 (22:32):
In Rural News and Sports News.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
The Country's Rural News with cub Cadet. It's one thing
to talk innovation, another to back it up drive it.
We Dare you visit steel Ford dot co dot nz
for your local star.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Guest Gee catches me out. That's steel Fort Line. I look,
you're going nuts on the old text machine. So if
you want me to read out your texts, make them
readable in terms of the language you use. Damien is
Yesterday's man. Jamie's big chip on the shoulder since the
last election. Mark Hi ravensdown put up all prices overnight.
(23:18):
That's hardly surprising. Unfortunately, costs over seventeen hundred dollars now
for a ton of DAP. That's from Tim Well Damien.
We all know that you and the party you were
in were rowing up. This is quite poetic. That river Denial,
by the way, which is in Egypt. You should never
(23:42):
govern again. A block of a block of carbon farmed
pine trees and mangoweka got blown over in a storm
a few months ago. The log and contractors have moven
moving to salvage what they can. How does that work?
You know, that's a good question. The amen is full
of it. Labor and the then New Zealand First Mates
(24:03):
gave pan Pak, a foreign COMPANYIO dispensation to buy twenty
five hectares of land, including farmland, to plant pine trees.
That's from Andrew and Hawk's Bay. We'll get to some
moria text. But I better do sports news sport on.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
The country with AFCO one hundred percent key.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
We owned and trusted it.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That's rare and I'm hoping that the sports news is updated.
I haven't even had a look at it. Back to
the future for the All Blacks. Yes, I heard this
one this morning. So Graham Henry is rejoining the side,
this time as an independent selector alongside head coach Graham
Rennie and assistant Neil Barnes. It's a bit like when
they brought the great bj Lahore back under Graham Henry
(24:49):
to assist and I think that's a good idea bringing
him back. And Tottenham remained two points off relegation with
two matches to play in the Premier leag football season
after a one all draw with Leeds. Are we going
to get back to some of your texts, but talking
about pine trees up next. I think our next guest,
(25:11):
Rocky Hawkins might have something to say about pine trees.
In fact, I know he will because of his talking
to him yesterday. Tearing up this interview, we're going to
talk about the New Zealand Dog Triill Champs coming up shortly.
It's all going to be happening in Hawks Bay later
(25:31):
this month, in fact, May twenty five to twenty nine.
It's the New Zealand Dog Trial Championships in conjunction with
the North Island Champs. To tell us more, a man
who comes with a big rap. His name is Rocky Hawkins.
He's from the Hawks Bay and Rocky my old mate
Graham Williams up the road in Gisbon said, you are
(25:51):
a legend and I need to talk to you about
the New Zealand Dog Trills coming up, the championships. Do
you believe everything?
Speaker 7 (25:58):
He says, no, and you'd only find yourself in trouble
if you did.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, you're very well connected. What's your connection with the
New Zealand Dog Trial champs coming up? As I said
later this month.
Speaker 7 (26:11):
I'm a Goidman boy originally, but I've been down here
for thirty eight years and I'm prevident of the Hawk's
Bay Association which is hosting a championship. So I'm in
the firing line when things go wrong, and you hear
nothing about me when they go well.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
So they're being held at Tiati, which is what about
halfway between Hastings.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
And why Puk.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, about twenty five minutes south
of Hastings via yep.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Okay, so you've had to set up the course for
four disciplines. It's still four disciplines.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Yeah, yes, it is, yep. Yeah, it's held at the
at the Tidy Dog Troll club Ground. It'll be the
seventh time I think that they've been held there since
nineteen seventy seven, so it's real good grounds can get
a bit of trouble with five early in the morning.
Sometimes it's just that time of the year.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
How many competitors are you expecting, Because it would appear
to me and my dad used to be a dog trialist.
I used to have friends who were good dog trialists.
I used to love commentating it at the rural games
in a past life. It would appear to me that
dog trialing's going through a bit of a renaissance. Is
it getting more popular?
Speaker 7 (27:22):
Rocky, Yeah, it has been in different areas. I mean
areas like Given that have had a hell of a
hiding with pine trees. I mean they've gone from having
I think a dozen clubs and when I was up there,
down to seven net. They lost another one last year
with why power Station Dog Trolls. That was their last one.
(27:43):
That's if you know, all planted and trees, which is
just another club that's gone under because of that. But yeah,
overall sent of like Wanganui, I mean they've got a
hell of a big following. You know, they've still got
a lot of big stations and a lot of sheepherds
over there, So yeah, it's certainly it's certainly got strong
(28:05):
areas and the other areas some are just hanging on.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
But perhaps I was more referring to, I think the
increasing number of female competitors, and it was a bit
of a eye opener for me when I went down
to the Federated Farmer's High Country Field Day Glenary station.
It was a fantastic day, but you look at the
crew of shepherds down there. They were dominated by young
females who all had a big team of dogs, and
(28:30):
all of them I think were kind of dog trialists
as well.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
Yeah, I look, there's some fantastic girls around. I mean
the current new villain champion vig Veg Champions, Samantha Shaw
from Givelin. You've got Steph Tweed from down South. She's
feats of all the time. Joe wore up in Giveln
and we're just very lucky that big scragg and Wirel's
looking after young kids now because when she gets out
(28:56):
and gets furious in trouble as well.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
So for suplums, two hunt away two heading are the
clear favorites or is it just on the day.
Speaker 7 (29:07):
Oh, I think you are a lot of guys. We've
got heading dogs and wives. But yeah, a lot of
the older guys once they're not done so much work,
just stick to the heading dogs, but easier to control
and handle them, probably don't need quite so much work
as a as a young boys stift hunt away. But yeah,
we've got like it's all closed entries. We have three
(29:29):
hundred and ten competitives and there's about five hundred and
thirty odd dogs competing, so it's a both week.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Who are your icon competitors?
Speaker 7 (29:40):
Oh yeah, Look, I mean Lloyd Smith in the South
Island of a legend. He's he's got a record as
long as your arm. He's won five New Villain Championships.
But I think has his four days of his ability
with his training days. He's been doing that for years
and he's certainly lifted the caliber of dogs around the country.
And I mean, you know, there's any amount of young
(30:01):
guys around with good, good dogs now, and I think
of a lot of it attributes goes, you know, to
Lord's ability to put his training methods across. But my
one time icon who I've grown up with and followed
all my life and I've always had total respect from
his nerve utting and gives them. I think he's what
he's got. He's got the best record of anyone alive
(30:23):
in New Villain. He's won seven New Villain championships with
five different dogs. I think he's been in just one
hundred seventy runoffs, which is an amazing feat. Was probably
twenty five different dogs. And he's just just a great
fellow that will talk to anybody, and he's a big
game player. He'll come up from behind him and when
(30:45):
when people have just about forgotten he was there. So
he's someone always to look out out for. He's he's
eighty two or three years old, still climbs on the
fourth every day and goes to work in the back
of gives them and in an area that's again surrounded
in pine trees.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So yeah, absolutely trag. Don't start Graham Williams on the
pine trees. I guess it's the equivalent of like those
of us with memories long enough for that magnificent show,
the Dog Show, Ginger Anderson. He was a bit of
a household name and dog trialing.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
Yeah, well he is, and him and move a pretty
good mate too, So yeah, Ginger is still about and
he's another one with a record of long of your arm.
You know, there's numerous numerous people in the villain that
are super capable and have had a lot of success.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Let's just finish on the social fabric of dog trialing
and rural and New Zealand. Is a young kid. I
spent many a happy hour running around with other kids
while our dad's back in those days. We're having a
couple of quiets after the dog trials.
Speaker 7 (31:47):
Yeah, look, I mean the social side of it's fantastic.
I mean I grew up up the East Coast and
you know those dogs up there, and those were a
hearty annual. You know that all the locals would come
down on a Saturday night and the guitar would come
out with the big barbecues, and like you say, there'd
be kid running around at cetera. And it was a
fantastic lifestyle and we used to look forward to it.
(32:08):
You know, of a young sheep every weekend getting to
the trials and it's a great it's a great way
to meet lots of other young guys. You end up
playing rugby with them. You're selling dogs to each other
and you find out who's working where and networking for
jobs and that sort of thing. And like you say,
it's a good post to have a few be of afterwards,
and yeah, to socialize. It's and unfortunately with all the
(32:32):
pine trees going in and that sort of thing, it's
getting less and less.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah, that is a real shame. Don't start me on
the pine trees where we should be growing the sheep
and beef. But nevermind. And of course with the rise
of all these young female shepherds you go along to
the dog trails and meet your future wife. Hey, Rocky Hawkins,
good luck for those National dog trails coming up in
Hawk's Bay May twenty five, twenty nine. We'll keep an
eye on the results here on the country.
Speaker 7 (32:57):
Yeah to you, Jamie, and thanks very much for your.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Time, my pleasure, Rocky. It's sixteen I make that fourteen
away from one up next. Earlier this morning I caught
up with our UK Farming correspondent, Tom Martin. He is
a UK Farming correspondent farmer Tom Martin is a social
(33:19):
media moniker. He's a huge influencer. And Tom, you were
telling me that you could be responsible for the demise
of Sakia Starmer single handedly.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Definitely not a single handly, but I mean, obviously pressure
is mounting on Cirqui. I mean he's he's had he's
had MPs really kind of lining up to so that
he needs to go, and that's in public, and then
I'm hearing this evening that the cabinet ministers are telling
him he needs to set a date for his departure. Well,
of course he doesn't have to go. I mean, he
(33:51):
does not have to go unless he's forced out with
a Labor Party, but he's there's nothing that would trigger
necessarily trigger a general election, so we could have him
from other three years and frankly, in terms of being
replaced by other members of the current government, he might
be the least worst. I don't know better the devil
you know.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well, the reason I jist said you could be responsible
for the demise of Sakir Starmer. You have taken you
and your father, I think, have taken the government to court,
the Labor government to court effectively over the fairness of
the inheritance text. Could that be the straw that breaks
the camel's back if that was to come out on
the next day or two.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
I mean it could be the case was about gosh,
the kind of mid middle of March, and they have
to announce their verdict within either three months or twelve weeks. Well,
you know we're not far off that, And it could
be he's under such pressure, mind you. I think if
the members of the cabinet are saying it needs to go,
that probably will hold greater sway than us. But if
(34:53):
it's found out that the government have acted unlawfully or
you know, against their own promises, I mean, that's that's
a pretty difficult bridge to cross for somebody who was
Director of Public Prosecutions and really pride themselves on doing
the right thing and following legal process.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Talk about a farming and like farmers here in New Zealand,
you're an arable farmer north of London, are you suffering
badly from the fuel and fertilizer crisis? If that isn't
bad enough, you've got the triple whny because you've got
drought and spring and that's the worst time and the
farming calendar you normally get some spring rains to kick
(35:30):
things off. You've only had thirty mills since February.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
That's right, those lovely warm spring rains that you know,
the early April showers. April showers bring mayflowers. Well, we've
had almost no rainfall at all, yes, since since the
end of February and inch of rain we've been normally
expecting three or four times that amount and this and
for us this time begin know, we're if we're thinking
about what the crop needs, there's lots of different nutrients,
(35:57):
but actually it needs the rainfall to move that news
nutrients around to make them accessible to the plants. So
there's a a lot of crops looking pretty stunted, pretty poor.
They're wilting away or they're rushing. They're rushing through the
growth stages and rushing to kind of put the to
produce a seed, and of course there'll be fewer seeds,
they'll be smaller than me, will be correspondingly diminished. So
(36:20):
it's not a great time, mind you. In the northwestern
in Scotland, they've only just come out of an incredibly,
incredibly unseasonably wet period. So we're only a tiny islands,
as you well know, Jennie, but we can have people
who are who are completely flooded out in one area
and you know, you drive tw undred and fifty miles perhaps,
and where we are in the east, we're absolutely baked.
(36:41):
The ground is parts are big cracks in the soil,
and we're studying even the smallest cloud with anticipation of
just a drop of rain, even a heavy dew. We'ld
do right now.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Since we last chattered about three weeks ago, I think
it was how much movement have we seen fuel and
fertilizer prises.
Speaker 6 (37:01):
Yeah, gosh, I mean a huge amount. I mean, with
our red diesel prices have more than doubled, and they
don't seem to be I mean, prices go up, but
they go up but don't seem to come down that easily.
But the actual issue I think is that is that
the world's grain prices haven't moved that much. I mean,
in during the early Ukraine period we had obviously fertilizer
(37:26):
and fuel went up, but so did grain correspondingly, and
it wasn't a bad time for us as farmers. But
fuel and furt's gone through the roof and grain is
just kind of grumbling along pretty much where it's been
for the last twelve months. There's there's not really been
a huge amount of movements. So that's it's going to
be crippling, I think for farmers around the world, but
here in the UK we're on very narrow margins anyway,
(37:48):
and with this weather it's it's going to be enough
to push people over the edge. And with the inheritance
tax changes just having come in on the sixth of April,
those people who are pushed over the edge, they'll be
oh gosh, there'll be that. We've we've we've got We've
got a lot going on here in there a lot
of cause to be to be concerned in in UK agriculture.
(38:08):
And it feels in the in the country as well.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Actually yeah, but we know tiers from the British farmers,
I would think of Sakia starmer got the heave hope
just finally you are an arable farmer. But have you
sort of and I guess you have. Every farmer does
look at diversification. Could you go into full time livestock
farming for instance?
Speaker 6 (38:28):
Yeah, I mean we we we bring in four or
five hundred years in the winter time to run across
our stubbles and our cover crops, you know, and we
have run we have run our own sheep in the past, cattle,
et cetera. We're quite close to a big city, so
we could, you know, we could, we could. There's a
number of things that we could do, h you know,
(38:49):
and and we have perhaps something we can talk about
another time. But it's challenging that, you know, with with
profit margins so tight, the offering isn't the seed money
to to start those of the ventures available. But yeah,
a lot of people doing interesting and pretty maverick things,
but it doesn't take away from the fact that of
(39:12):
the actual you know, the about travesty, that you can't
make money from producing food something people need every day exactly.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You could always grow that most lucrative of crops houses,
but then that would ruin the farm, wouldn't that. Tom,
Hey gott to go. Thank you very much for your time,
and we'll chat again in a few weeks and we'll
see if Sakia Starmer is still the British Prime Minister.
Speaker 6 (39:34):
Unlikely, but who knows, who knows?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
And folks that wraps the country, Thanks for listening, really appreciated.
It is Dairy Week with Meridian and Farmlands. On tomorrow's show,
we'll have Christopher Luxe and our guy and Shanghai Hunter
McGregor and for Dairy Week, It's the turn of Mark Delatore,
(39:58):
chief executive of Open Country Dairy, our second biggest dairy company,
are with their forecast milk price for the coming season.
We'll catch you tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie Mackay. Thanks to farmlands, better drenched plans
and better heard health.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Start here.
Catch all the latest from the land.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the Country Podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to Farmlands,
Better Drenched Plans and Better Heard Health.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Start here.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Get Amy's Eland. Good afternoon, I'm Jamie McKay. This is
the Country, brought to you by Rabobank. That's the best
of the Country on Saturday morning. Farmlands and Isuzu get
it right. You're looking for a good vehicle, trust me
have a crack at that Isuzu m U X seventh seater.
It is a cracker. We were going to kick off
the show with excuse me labors agg A spokesperson Damian O'Connor.
(00:57):
Are lots of debate about the gene technology laws in
this country, and also he wanted to talk about the
sale of farms to foreigners. Unfortunately, we're having a bit
of trouble tracking Damian O'Connor down, so we're going to
kick off the show very shortly with Emma Higgins. It's
dairy week here on the Country, so we're going to
(01:17):
have a look at the banks May Agri Business Monthly Report.
Hot off the press, we'll have a look at dairy, beef,
sheep fuel Furt. We really want to go there interest
in exchange rates. When's ob I think we've got another
OCR later this month? When can we expect interest rates
to rise? Rocky Hawkins Hawks Bay out of Hawks Bay
(01:38):
a legend of the sport of dog trialing. The Zellen
Champs are coming up later this month and Hawk's Bay
May twenty five to twenty nine will preview those and
Earlier this morning I caught up with farmer Tom Martin.
Our UK farming correspondent is Sakia Starmer on his way out.
How's he faring as an arable farmer with poor prices
(01:59):
and sky high prices for fuel and fertilizer And believe
it or not, it's their spring. It's what the equivalent
of our November over there, and they are in a
stinker stinker of a spring drought had thirty mills since February.
We'll talk to farmer Tom Martin about that. Michelle will
(02:21):
have rural news for you and we'll update sport as well.
Up next, it is Emma Higgins from Ravo Bank.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Dairy Week on the country thanks to Meridian and Farmland's
making moving day easier for farmers.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Her name is Emma Higgins. She's a senior ag analyst.
For Rabobank. They've just come out with their May Agribusiness monthly. Now, Emma,
because it's dairy week here on the country, let's start
with the biggest game in town, dairy And your headline
here is dairy markets will find a floor in twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Yeah, so big heading, isn't it When we've got a
lot of dynamics happening right now which suggests a bit
of divergence across the dairy complex. I think let's start
at the top right. We have had a lot of
milk being produced in New Zealand for the twenty five
to twenty sixth season and look that might continue into
the new season as well. But so far we've had
(03:32):
a standout for March, which is the latest numbers being produced,
with milk production volumes up almost ten percent year on
year for that month, So stand out there. That's flowing
through into the broader story that we talked about for
a while now, Jmie, which is global milk supply remains abundant. Now,
this is the case also in the Northern Hemisphere, and
(03:54):
this is what's leading to a bit of a divergence
across the dairy complex. When we think about the GDP
results and we think about how butter has trended versus say,
for example, of skim milk potter. So there's a lot
of prem availability sitting out in Europe and also in
the United States as well, and that supply is being
(04:15):
tuned into butter. It's comfortably exceeding demand and that's placing
downward pressure on prices. New Zealand's not been immune to this,
and that's why our butter prices have melted by around
thirty percent compared to last year, where we were sitting
about eight thousand US dollars per ton mark. On the
flip side, skimut powder absolute star of the stables. The
(04:39):
protein markets are telling a very different story to fat.
Our protein demand globally has been much more resilient. There's
a lot of good trends supporting that, and so skimmitt
powder basically is benefiting from this and that's helping underpin
milk pressful casts where they are today.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yep, we've got a lot to be thankful for in
terms of over white Americans and their white loss drugs.
Now is that same demand as ravenous for protein, for
instance from beef?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Well interesting you say that look right now, the beef
markets have remained pretty well supported over the last couple
of months, and that's been the story that we've spoken
to for a while now. I guess on the front
of it, what's helping on the price side of things
right now is that we've had a lot less throughput
coming through. Started to see some of that start to
trend across as we've moved through the autumn months, but
(05:31):
broadly prices are still really supported. We know that the
global beef supply, if reflect to global, is expected to
run quite tight across the course of this year, so
less beef supply tends to point to stronger beef prices
here in New Zealand, particularly when we're thinking about again
that key market the United States. So all in all,
(05:52):
it's looking like another good season ahead for beef. The
one thing we need to keep on our radars is
what might be happening with when it comes to their
beef import safeguards might just steady the flow there. But
all in all, things are looking pretty nice for the
beef guys.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
What about sheep? Still tight supply out there. It's a
supply and demand equation and as it stands at the moment,
the markets look pretty stable and can I say positive
for lamb and mutton.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Absolutely, let's go with that, because you're right, we've got
really great dynamics which have supported our sheep farmers here
in New Zealand tight supply, and we've had actually diversified
export demand as well. If we think about we have
been shipping our volumes to have had about a third
over the six months of this season head across to
China and about a quarter over into the EU.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
And some of.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
These markets are really high value as we know, particularly
with the twenty percent heading across to the UK and
the US as well. So all in all, looking ahead,
demand seems to remain quite robust across the course of
the season, and you know we'll be subject to the
usual timing and volume shoes that we tend to see
for farm gate prices, but as you say, dynamics are
(07:04):
still supportive commodity outlooks.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
We're having a look at these in the Rabobank Agribusiness
Monthly for the month of May. Fertilizer and fuel not good.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I think it's the talking point amongst everyone, right, you know,
there is no way of getting around this. What is
happening right now globally and particularly our the Middle East
is having ramification tier in New Zealand. At the moment,
you know, global urear prices are continuing to raise. We've
seen the biggest leap already occur, certainly after the immediate
aftermath of the Golf War three, but they're still continuing
(07:38):
to remain elevated and ticking upwards as well. Look, a
lot depends on the Strait of Hamoz and when it's
going to reopen and how we'll start to see some
of that supply starting to feed through into global markets.
At this point in time, our forecast is for the
next couple of weeks, hopefully some positive response to come through.
(07:58):
But look, Jamie, I mean the night every night. I
think the dynamics are always changing, and it's you know,
we're trying to get a handle on what's going on
and what that might mean for all of these really
important commodity inputs for our New Zealand partial systems.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
No relief at the petrol pump or in the bulky
until such time as we get this one sorted. The
other interesting one that you look at and your commodity
outlooks are interest rates and exchange rates. Now the Aussies
have lifted their official cash rate, we kept ours where
it was at als review. We're looking at it again
this month. What's Rabobank saying in terms of OCR lifts.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
We are still thinking that it's going to be unlikely
that we'll see a rate hike come through this month,
so we're sticking to our view that that will probably
emerge later on this year. And a lot of the
support really comes back to some of the sentiment that
the Reserve Bank has talked to in the past in
a public manner. So will Swait and what happens at
(09:01):
the end of this month's but for now we're sticking
to our view that it might be a little bit
later in the year and maybe October.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
What about foreign exchange, I know that we've strengthened against
the US dollar.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yes we have.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
We have indeed, which is interesting right when we think
about globally what's going on and how that might impact
again on the input side of things. Look, ultimately, we
have seen that strengthening and we think that there will
continue taking that twelve months for you and our estimations
right now in our forecast is may be seeing a
rally towards that sixty two cent mark over the.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Next twelve months, and I guess as an exporting nation
we could possibly live with that. Every cloud has its
silver lining. It makes fuel a wee bit cheaper and fertilizer.
Emma Higgins, senior egg analysts for Rabobank, always appreciate your
time on the country.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Thank you so much, Jemy.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Good on you, Emma. Yet talking about fuel and fertilizer.
Earlier this morning, I caught up the UK farm and
correspondent Tom Farmer on Martin. They're having some real issues
over there, not only keeping a prime minister, but trying
to make some money as arable farmers. It is dairy
week here on the country. With Meridian and Farmlands, as
(10:12):
I said yesterday, you can enjoy an account credited up
to three hundred dollars when you're moving moving day with Meridian.
If you move with Meridian and you build through Farmland's
your Farmland's card, you get the discount and the rebate
teas and sees apply. Yes, moving day, Well it's more
(10:35):
than one day, isn't it. Moving a few days is
coming up at the end of May early June. Up
next to someone who I think he used to milk
cows in a past life. Labour's agg spokesperson Damian O'Connor,
we're having a bit of trouble. We're having a bit
of trouble trying to track them down. We think we've
(10:56):
got them. We'll see how we get on after the
break the country. It's seventeen after twelve. But of Phil Collins,
Phil Bailey from Earth Wind and Fire. What a great
band they are, not even Sneaks and Genesis and it's
all happening on the country. A land of confusion by Genesis?
(11:39):
Was that what we had in twenty twenty to twenty
twenty three under Jacinda and Chris Hipkins? Let let me
ask the man who was Minister of Agriculture and Trade.
To be fair, he did a good job on trade,
Damien O'Connor. Was it a land of confusion back in
those dark old times?
Speaker 5 (11:56):
That's such a terrible, vicious National Party rhetoric that you, Hey,
we had a few challenges. I don't know whether you noticed, Jamie.
You might have been hiding under a bush somewhere, but
I think we did pretty well actually, and compared to
most other countries in the world, we were highly acknowledged
and appreciated for our efforts.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Okay, let's go to the future home, not the past.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I'd arranged yesterday for you to come on to the
show and have a friendly, friendly chat with me, and
I said, just drop me a text with a couple
of topics that you might like to cover. Of course,
you never bothered getting back to me in time. Before
midday we were having some phone issues. I had to
dump you for Emma Higgins. But meanwhile, here's a text
and hot off the press from Shane Jones any space
(12:41):
this week, I want to talk about fuel doc reform,
local government reform, Mailori party reform. Now there's a politician,
Damian O'Connor Honor's game front footing up.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Oh really okay here, Well, aside from going to the
I guess the Defense Industry Awards and then to a
funeral of my or an event last night, now, I
didn't have time to text back. I'm sorry about that, Jamie.
If you don't know what should be the issues that
you questioned the opposition on, then maybe in the wrong game.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
No, no, no, I'm just I'm just I'm just giving
you the opportunity to raise some of your preferred topics.
I've got plenty of topics I can throw at you.
Don't worry about that. I was just giving I was
just giving you the I was giving you the opportunity
to leed, to get on the front foot and lead
with something you'd like to talk about.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
Hey, can I can?
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I appreciate that. And one of the things that I
did text Baut to you late it was is the
sale of three farms at Clyde Vale where the overseas
investment offer said no, they shouldn't be sold to foreigners.
And the two minutes is one from ACT and one
from National said yes, we'll override that and they will
be sold to foreigners. And debt is concerning many in
the dairy industry.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Okay, I can. I can see that? Mind you all
the what about all the farms that we sold? Because
I'm going to be talking to a dog trill guy
up next, and he was lamenting when I was teeing
up the interview yesterday. He was just lamenting the fact
that they've lost all this good sheep and beef country
on which to work. They're dogs damien because it's gone
into trees. And I can blame or I actually blame
(14:11):
Shane Jones for some of it, but that's pre twenty twenty,
in the second cycle of that government. It was your lot.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
No you no, we put the brakes on it. Actually,
although it's been ignored and forgotten by yourself, we did
put the brakes on. Shane insisted that the door be
opened for finners to buy production for ust or farms
for production. We never allowed finners to buy it for
carbon farms. And indeed it is a said outcome. But
you should ask Shane about that.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, but whose fault was it? Then we're going to
look back in this and look back in history in
years to come and go what the hell were we thinking?
Because you're blaming Shane. Shane's blaming you. National's blaming you.
You're blaming National. The fact that is, we've got large
tracts of land hang on Damien that did go to
carbon farming. I seriously doubt whether they will these pine
(15:02):
plantations will ever be harvested. They're just going to be
a blight on our landscape. Not to mention an environmental threat.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Well, you have to talk to the forest industry and
alternative income streams through drystock farming and say which one
gives the most. You have to talk to the farmers
who sold and tell them why they should get less
for their land. It's a complex issue, and I guess
most governments haven't been or have been reluctant and haven't
wanted to intervene on how farmers should sell land to
(15:32):
whom other than the one of foreign ownership. So land
news change has continued for as long as I've been around, Jamie,
and I think that that diversification, which is what we
call of their times.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, but Damienment government policy sent exactly the wrong signals,
and that's why we had this splurge of carbon farming.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Be careful for what you asked for, because actually we'd
had a simple carbon tax proposal that would have helped
address out into the national obligations and actually helped move
to to I guess electrification, that's the new word. But
actually the farmer's objected to that and we ended up
with an ETS. And it's not been a perfect tool.
In fact, at times it's been really clumsy, But that's
(16:14):
the one that governments, and there have been a few
of them, have committed to. It has produced some of
these perverse outcomes in some areas. But ultimately, farmers have
sold the land to the person who gives them offers
them the most, and that's that's a critical issue for
government to intervene on, and most governments are reluctant to
do that.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, and to be honest, you can't blame farmers. You
and I both know this. You only get to sell
it once. So often it has sold, and more often
than not, and nearly all the time to the highest bidder,
because if not to the highest bidder, that person can
then on sell it to the highest bidder. Hey, where
do you sit or where does labour sit around? The
government still intending to pass legislation to liberalize these gene
(16:56):
technology laws because this is something that is dividing not
only the politicians, are also farmers.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
While not dividing us. We talked about making some changes
to genetic modification engineering legislation to all our more research
in the lab. We didn't go so far as to
say we support any field growing trials or field trials
of that. So we opposed that the rush and clumsy
(17:24):
legislation that Judas Colins put forward has just been stopped
and blocked at the moment. But you know, it's pretty dumb.
You know, we need to have a mature conversation about
where that science might assist us, where the potential risks are.
None of the government's consideration took into account the economic
impacts of introducing into our economy. That's pretty dumb. I
(17:48):
would say.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Shane Shane Jones, if he was on the show today
instead of you, even though he was very well prepared,
he would like to talk would have liked to have
talked about local government reform. We all know it's necessary.
Where do you sit on the Stamian.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Well, I think we can have some changes, but forcing
it down the throats of you know, people who are
elected across our country to try and do the right
thing when they have their hands tied regarding income, forcing
them into something in three months time is just ridiculous.
It's unfair, it's unworkable, and it will result in crazy outcomes.
(18:23):
We need to work through it this really, really carefully.
And where we have voluntary amalgamations and people working together,
we should step in the central government and help that.
But what is proposed from this government is just crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, but you'd have to agree. Having a local body
with the population of I don't know, I'm just thinking
of the clue of district. I think it's seven or
eight thousand, don't quote me on that, but it's small.
Next not that these are ones that I know Gore
next door's got twelve thousand or something like that. That's
just too small. There's no critical mass in there. There's
no critical ratepayer mass.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
I look, I agreed, as Western district is Billo district.
There are many of them across the country. But then
the next thing you'll be complaining about a some official
from the council comes in, you know, hops in a
car and travels two hundred kilometers because it's still within
their district and tells you what to do and has
no understanding of the local area. You'll be jumping up
and down as well. So it's not just a simple
(19:15):
task of throwing everyone into one organization saying oh, it's
all going to be more efficient and better outcomes that
that indeed may may produce the inverse of what we want.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Let's finish with Shane's preferred final topic, Maori party reform.
You realize, amen, that any chance that you had, or
a center left government had of winning the elections probably
going down the toilet because the Maori Party won't win
the Maori Party seats, although the Maori seats get.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
A statement, just do some mathematics. Look, we're doing all
right in the polls and it's moving out.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
No, I'm not arguing that. No, but you need the
don't you worrying about? You need the overhang that the
Maori seats bring you. It's party MARII gets what two
percent of the vote and that they've got six or
seven seats.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
We are intending to win back all those Miley seats
and make sure that we have a stable government and
all the indications are from the polls is that's where
we'll be after November.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
The stable in the Greens, should they be mentioned in
the same sentence?
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Of course they should. Most of the issues that they've
raised over the last thirty years had been very very real.
How you implement them and bring them in as something
where you need a pragmatic leader, and that's Labor has
played a really significant part.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
We have worked with them in the past.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
We haven't brought down the economy, we haven't made things worse.
In fact, we've had progressive, positive, positive policies. In working
with the Greens and we can do that again.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I'm worried about your memory. I think it's fading. You've
forgotten twenty twenty to twenty twenty three. Your financial policies
brought this nation to its knees. Damen Ah for good.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
This crowd has borrowed more, given tax cuts, back, cut
the funding for public infrastructure, and made things worse. What
are you saying about them?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Well, the lesser of two evils is what I'm saying
at this stage, Jamien.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
I'm saying we did have some costs related to COVID. Actually,
the cost of living did go up related to the
Ukraine War. Yes, we accept that this cloud has got
in and made it worse prior to.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I don't want to be a defender of Luxe in here,
but he's had Trump's tariffs last year, He's had Trump's
war this year. They're fairly challenging financial issues as well.
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Well.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Well, yes, I accept that, but actually they gave text
cuts fourteen billion dollars they gave back to people. No
one really noticed that in their pockets, and that has
undermined the ability of government to spend money where they should.
Look at the roads that you drive on, it's a
good indication.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Damien O'Connor, thanks for turning up and coming up with
at least one subject on this on the show today.
Good there we god that fader and fade up Phil
Genesis or Phil Genesis, Phil Collins when he was with
Genesis the Land of Confusion. I reckon, that's what we
(22:09):
were like between twenty twenty and twenty three. No, it's
not that easy now either. To be fair, Damien did
raise some fair points. Are you going nuts on the
old text machine? Let us know what you think. Our
texts number is five double O nine. I will censor.
I will read some of these. There's some good pine
(22:30):
Tree ones coming in. Actually, we'll do that next.
Speaker 8 (22:32):
In Rural News and Sports News.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
The Country's Rural News with cub Cadet. It's one thing
to talk innovation, another to back it up drive it.
We Dare you visit steel Ford dot co dot nz
for your local star.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Guest Gee catches me out. That's steel Fort Line. I look,
you're going nuts on the old text machine. So if
you want me to read out your texts, make them
readable in terms of the language you use. Damien is
Yesterday's man. Jamie's big chip on the shoulder since the
last election. Mark Hi ravensdown put up all prices overnight.
(23:18):
That's hardly surprising. Unfortunately, costs over seventeen hundred dollars now
for a ton of DAP. That's from Tim Well Damien.
We all know that you and the party you were
in were rowing up. This is quite poetic. That river Denial,
by the way, which is in Egypt. You should never
(23:42):
govern again. A block of a block of carbon farmed
pine trees and mangoweka got blown over in a storm
a few months ago. The log and contractors have moven
moving to salvage what they can. How does that work?
You know, that's a good question. The amen is full
of it. Labor and the then New Zealand First Mates
(24:03):
gave pan Pak, a foreign COMPANYIO dispensation to buy twenty
five hectares of land, including farmland, to plant pine trees.
That's from Andrew and Hawk's Bay. We'll get to some
moria text. But I better do sports news sport on.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
The country with AFCO one hundred percent key.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
We owned and trusted it.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That's rare and I'm hoping that the sports news is updated.
I haven't even had a look at it. Back to
the future for the All Blacks. Yes, I heard this
one this morning. So Graham Henry is rejoining the side,
this time as an independent selector alongside head coach Graham
Rennie and assistant Neil Barnes. It's a bit like when
they brought the great bj Lahore back under Graham Henry
(24:49):
to assist and I think that's a good idea bringing
him back. And Tottenham remained two points off relegation with
two matches to play in the Premier leag football season
after a one all draw with Leeds. Are we going
to get back to some of your texts, but talking
about pine trees up next. I think our next guest,
(25:11):
Rocky Hawkins might have something to say about pine trees.
In fact, I know he will because of his talking
to him yesterday. Tearing up this interview, we're going to
talk about the New Zealand Dog Triill Champs coming up shortly.
It's all going to be happening in Hawks Bay later
(25:31):
this month, in fact, May twenty five to twenty nine.
It's the New Zealand Dog Trial Championships in conjunction with
the North Island Champs. To tell us more, a man
who comes with a big rap. His name is Rocky Hawkins.
He's from the Hawks Bay and Rocky my old mate
Graham Williams up the road in Gisbon said, you are
(25:51):
a legend and I need to talk to you about
the New Zealand Dog Trills coming up, the championships. Do
you believe everything?
Speaker 7 (25:58):
He says, no, and you'd only find yourself in trouble
if you did.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, you're very well connected. What's your connection with the
New Zealand Dog Trial champs coming up? As I said
later this month.
Speaker 7 (26:11):
I'm a Goidman boy originally, but I've been down here
for thirty eight years and I'm prevident of the Hawk's
Bay Association which is hosting a championship. So I'm in
the firing line when things go wrong, and you hear
nothing about me when they go well.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
So they're being held at Tiati, which is what about
halfway between Hastings.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
And why Puk.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, about twenty five minutes south
of Hastings via yep.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Okay, so you've had to set up the course for
four disciplines. It's still four disciplines.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Yeah, yes, it is, yep. Yeah, it's held at the
at the Tidy Dog Troll club Ground. It'll be the
seventh time I think that they've been held there since
nineteen seventy seven, so it's real good grounds can get
a bit of trouble with five early in the morning.
Sometimes it's just that time of the year.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
How many competitors are you expecting, Because it would appear
to me and my dad used to be a dog trialist.
I used to have friends who were good dog trialists.
I used to love commentating it at the rural games
in a past life. It would appear to me that
dog trialing's going through a bit of a renaissance. Is
it getting more popular?
Speaker 7 (27:22):
Rocky, Yeah, it has been in different areas. I mean
areas like Given that have had a hell of a
hiding with pine trees. I mean they've gone from having
I think a dozen clubs and when I was up there,
down to seven net. They lost another one last year
with why power Station Dog Trolls. That was their last one.
(27:43):
That's if you know, all planted and trees, which is
just another club that's gone under because of that. But yeah,
overall sent of like Wanganui, I mean they've got a
hell of a big following. You know, they've still got
a lot of big stations and a lot of sheepherds
over there, So yeah, it's certainly it's certainly got strong
(28:05):
areas and the other areas some are just hanging on.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
But perhaps I was more referring to, I think the
increasing number of female competitors, and it was a bit
of a eye opener for me when I went down
to the Federated Farmer's High Country Field Day Glenary station.
It was a fantastic day, but you look at the
crew of shepherds down there. They were dominated by young
females who all had a big team of dogs, and
(28:30):
all of them I think were kind of dog trialists
as well.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
Yeah, I look, there's some fantastic girls around. I mean
the current new villain champion vig Veg Champions, Samantha Shaw
from Givelin. You've got Steph Tweed from down South. She's
feats of all the time. Joe wore up in Giveln
and we're just very lucky that big scragg and Wirel's
looking after young kids now because when she gets out
(28:56):
and gets furious in trouble as well.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
So for suplums, two hunt away two heading are the
clear favorites or is it just on the day.
Speaker 7 (29:07):
Oh, I think you are a lot of guys. We've
got heading dogs and wives. But yeah, a lot of
the older guys once they're not done so much work,
just stick to the heading dogs, but easier to control
and handle them, probably don't need quite so much work
as a as a young boys stift hunt away. But yeah,
we've got like it's all closed entries. We have three
(29:29):
hundred and ten competitives and there's about five hundred and
thirty odd dogs competing, so it's a both week.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Who are your icon competitors?
Speaker 7 (29:40):
Oh yeah, Look, I mean Lloyd Smith in the South
Island of a legend. He's he's got a record as
long as your arm. He's won five New Villain Championships.
But I think has his four days of his ability
with his training days. He's been doing that for years
and he's certainly lifted the caliber of dogs around the country.
And I mean, you know, there's any amount of young
(30:01):
guys around with good, good dogs now, and I think
of a lot of it attributes goes, you know, to
Lord's ability to put his training methods across. But my
one time icon who I've grown up with and followed
all my life and I've always had total respect from
his nerve utting and gives them. I think he's what
he's got. He's got the best record of anyone alive
(30:23):
in New Villain. He's won seven New Villain championships with
five different dogs. I think he's been in just one
hundred seventy runoffs, which is an amazing feat. Was probably
twenty five different dogs. And he's just just a great
fellow that will talk to anybody, and he's a big
game player. He'll come up from behind him and when
(30:45):
when people have just about forgotten he was there. So
he's someone always to look out out for. He's he's
eighty two or three years old, still climbs on the
fourth every day and goes to work in the back
of gives them and in an area that's again surrounded
in pine trees.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So yeah, absolutely trag. Don't start Graham Williams on the
pine trees. I guess it's the equivalent of like those
of us with memories long enough for that magnificent show,
the Dog Show, Ginger Anderson. He was a bit of
a household name and dog trialing.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
Yeah, well he is, and him and move a pretty
good mate too, So yeah, Ginger is still about and
he's another one with a record of long of your arm.
You know, there's numerous numerous people in the villain that
are super capable and have had a lot of success.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Let's just finish on the social fabric of dog trialing
and rural and New Zealand. Is a young kid. I
spent many a happy hour running around with other kids
while our dad's back in those days. We're having a
couple of quiets after the dog trials.
Speaker 7 (31:47):
Yeah, look, I mean the social side of it's fantastic.
I mean I grew up up the East Coast and
you know those dogs up there, and those were a
hearty annual. You know that all the locals would come
down on a Saturday night and the guitar would come
out with the big barbecues, and like you say, there'd
be kid running around at cetera. And it was a
fantastic lifestyle and we used to look forward to it.
(32:08):
You know, of a young sheep every weekend getting to
the trials and it's a great it's a great way
to meet lots of other young guys. You end up
playing rugby with them. You're selling dogs to each other
and you find out who's working where and networking for
jobs and that sort of thing. And like you say,
it's a good post to have a few be of afterwards,
and yeah, to socialize. It's and unfortunately with all the
(32:32):
pine trees going in and that sort of thing, it's
getting less and less.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah, that is a real shame. Don't start me on
the pine trees where we should be growing the sheep
and beef. But nevermind. And of course with the rise
of all these young female shepherds you go along to
the dog trails and meet your future wife. Hey, Rocky Hawkins,
good luck for those National dog trails coming up in
Hawk's Bay May twenty five, twenty nine. We'll keep an
eye on the results here on the country.
Speaker 7 (32:57):
Yeah to you, Jamie, and thanks very much for your.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Time, my pleasure, Rocky. It's sixteen I make that fourteen
away from one up next. Earlier this morning I caught
up with our UK Farming correspondent, Tom Martin. He is
a UK Farming correspondent farmer Tom Martin is a social
(33:19):
media moniker. He's a huge influencer. And Tom, you were
telling me that you could be responsible for the demise
of Sakia Starmer single handedly.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Definitely not a single handly, but I mean, obviously pressure
is mounting on Cirqui. I mean he's he's had he's
had MPs really kind of lining up to so that
he needs to go, and that's in public, and then
I'm hearing this evening that the cabinet ministers are telling
him he needs to set a date for his departure. Well,
of course he doesn't have to go. I mean, he
(33:51):
does not have to go unless he's forced out with
a Labor Party, but he's there's nothing that would trigger
necessarily trigger a general election, so we could have him
from other three years and frankly, in terms of being
replaced by other members of the current government, he might
be the least worst. I don't know better the devil
you know.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well, the reason I jist said you could be responsible
for the demise of Sakir Starmer. You have taken you
and your father, I think, have taken the government to court,
the Labor government to court effectively over the fairness of
the inheritance text. Could that be the straw that breaks
the camel's back if that was to come out on
the next day or two.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
I mean it could be the case was about gosh,
the kind of mid middle of March, and they have
to announce their verdict within either three months or twelve weeks. Well,
you know we're not far off that, And it could
be he's under such pressure, mind you. I think if
the members of the cabinet are saying it needs to go,
that probably will hold greater sway than us. But if
(34:53):
it's found out that the government have acted unlawfully or
you know, against their own promises, I mean, that's that's
a pretty difficult bridge to cross for somebody who was
Director of Public Prosecutions and really pride themselves on doing
the right thing and following legal process.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Talk about a farming and like farmers here in New Zealand,
you're an arable farmer north of London, are you suffering
badly from the fuel and fertilizer crisis? If that isn't
bad enough, you've got the triple whny because you've got
drought and spring and that's the worst time and the
farming calendar you normally get some spring rains to kick
(35:30):
things off. You've only had thirty mills since February.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
That's right, those lovely warm spring rains that you know,
the early April showers. April showers bring mayflowers. Well, we've
had almost no rainfall at all, yes, since since the
end of February and inch of rain we've been normally
expecting three or four times that amount and this and
for us this time begin know, we're if we're thinking
about what the crop needs, there's lots of different nutrients,
(35:57):
but actually it needs the rainfall to move that news
nutrients around to make them accessible to the plants. So
there's a a lot of crops looking pretty stunted, pretty poor.
They're wilting away or they're rushing. They're rushing through the
growth stages and rushing to kind of put the to
produce a seed, and of course there'll be fewer seeds,
they'll be smaller than me, will be correspondingly diminished. So
(36:20):
it's not a great time, mind you. In the northwestern
in Scotland, they've only just come out of an incredibly,
incredibly unseasonably wet period. So we're only a tiny islands,
as you well know, Jennie, but we can have people
who are who are completely flooded out in one area
and you know, you drive tw undred and fifty miles perhaps,
and where we are in the east, we're absolutely baked.
(36:41):
The ground is parts are big cracks in the soil,
and we're studying even the smallest cloud with anticipation of
just a drop of rain, even a heavy dew. We'ld
do right now.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Since we last chattered about three weeks ago, I think
it was how much movement have we seen fuel and
fertilizer prises.
Speaker 6 (37:01):
Yeah, gosh, I mean a huge amount. I mean, with
our red diesel prices have more than doubled, and they
don't seem to be I mean, prices go up, but
they go up but don't seem to come down that easily.
But the actual issue I think is that is that
the world's grain prices haven't moved that much. I mean,
in during the early Ukraine period we had obviously fertilizer
(37:26):
and fuel went up, but so did grain correspondingly, and
it wasn't a bad time for us as farmers. But
fuel and furt's gone through the roof and grain is
just kind of grumbling along pretty much where it's been
for the last twelve months. There's there's not really been
a huge amount of movements. So that's it's going to
be crippling, I think for farmers around the world, but
here in the UK we're on very narrow margins anyway,
(37:48):
and with this weather it's it's going to be enough
to push people over the edge. And with the inheritance
tax changes just having come in on the sixth of April,
those people who are pushed over the edge, they'll be
oh gosh, there'll be that. We've we've we've got We've
got a lot going on here in there a lot
of cause to be to be concerned in in UK agriculture.
(38:08):
And it feels in the in the country as well.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Actually yeah, but we know tiers from the British farmers,
I would think of Sakia starmer got the heave hope
just finally you are an arable farmer. But have you
sort of and I guess you have. Every farmer does
look at diversification. Could you go into full time livestock
farming for instance?
Speaker 6 (38:28):
Yeah, I mean we we we bring in four or
five hundred years in the winter time to run across
our stubbles and our cover crops, you know, and we
have run we have run our own sheep in the past, cattle,
et cetera. We're quite close to a big city, so
we could, you know, we could, we could. There's a
number of things that we could do, h you know,
(38:49):
and and we have perhaps something we can talk about
another time. But it's challenging that, you know, with with
profit margins so tight, the offering isn't the seed money
to to start those of the ventures available. But yeah,
a lot of people doing interesting and pretty maverick things,
but it doesn't take away from the fact that of
(39:12):
the actual you know, the about travesty, that you can't
make money from producing food something people need every day exactly.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You could always grow that most lucrative of crops houses,
but then that would ruin the farm, wouldn't that. Tom,
Hey gott to go. Thank you very much for your time,
and we'll chat again in a few weeks and we'll
see if Sakia Starmer is still the British Prime Minister.
Speaker 6 (39:34):
Unlikely, but who knows, who knows?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
And folks that wraps the country, Thanks for listening, really appreciated.
It is Dairy Week with Meridian and Farmlands. On tomorrow's show,
we'll have Christopher Luxe and our guy and Shanghai Hunter
McGregor and for Dairy Week, It's the turn of Mark Delatore,
(39:58):
chief executive of Open Country Dairy, our second biggest dairy company,
are with their forecast milk price for the coming season.
We'll catch you tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie Mackay. Thanks to farmlands, better drenched plans
and better heard health.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Start here.
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