October 20, 2025 • 38 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Mark Wynne, Shane Jones, Fiona and Tom Langford, and Tom Martin.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckue Thanks to Brent. You're specialist in
John Deere machinery.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Gooday, New Zealand. Welcome to the Country. My name is
Jamie McKay. Show is brought to you by Brent. This
is the Pogues. I think Michelle's Chuck the Pogues in
here and Tuesday Morning and it's been a bit of
a rough Tuesday Morning around the country. More about that
in the tick. But it's app that we're playing an
Irish band because the Irish Meek and the Dawn meets Now.
(01:02):
I'm sixty five percent of the Alliance group Marquin, the
chair of the group to tack off the show. They
announced the results this morning. It was a bit of
an overwhelming mandate. Eighty eight percent of the shares on
issue voted. That's impressive in itself, and of those that voted,
eighty seven percent back the deal. Now, someone who hasn't
(01:24):
backed the deal is Winston Peters and his henchman Shane
Jones hasn't backed the deal either. I'm going to catch
up with Shane very shortly. He's at a mining conference
in Sydney. He'll be like a pig and Mark over there.
So FI owner and Tom Langford twenty twenty five share
Farmers of the Year, encouraging others to enter the twenty
twenty six Dairy Industry Awards. In a bit earlier this morning,
(01:47):
I caught up with farmer Tom Martin, a UK farming correspondent.
They've just had the British Farming Awards. Tom wasn't mentioned
in dispatches and we might also discuss what do you
do with a problem like Prince Andrew and Fergie. I've
been reading the book What a Pair of Grift as
those two are, but just on the weather and before
(02:08):
I go to Mark one. Tragically, one person has died
after being hit by a falling branch on Wellington's Mount Victoria.
As strong winds and heavy rain warnings remain around the country.
Thousands are without power today and flights have been canceled.
Several main roads are closed in the South Island this
(02:28):
morning due to slips and tree falls. There's an extensive
Orange weather warning remaining in fact in effect across most
of the South Island as the wild weather moves north,
damaging gales of up to one hundred and thirty kilometers
an hour are expected during this week of wild weather.
Heavy rain warnings are in place for the Gray Tasman
(02:51):
and Nelson Lakes District until one pm and for the
Tararua Range until five pm. Forecasters say the rain is
expected to move on in time for the long weekend.
Some consolation that is. So that's all lined up on
the show. Michelle will come in also with rural news
(03:12):
and we'll have a look at sports news for you
as well. But up next, it's the big story of
the day, the Alliance Group vote. No longer a farmer cooperative.
It's now foreign owned effectively by the Irish meat company
Dawn Meats. Let's kick off today's show with today's big story,
(03:37):
the first of two strategic farmer cooperative votes this month
Fonterra later in the month, of course, today or yesterday
was the Alliance Group vote over the Dawn Meat steal,
an overwhelming mandate. Mark Winn, chair of the Alliance Group,
is this vindication of you and the board?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, we'd delight, Jamie. The shareholders have voted and voted
very clearly in favor, so yes, it's the vindication of
the proposer from Dawn and we're really excited about that future.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, but for the farmer's mark, I do want to
sound cynical, but was it like Hobson's choice.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, it's a tough one. I think once farmers had
decided they didn't want to put capital in themselves, then
you go to external capital and when you start looking
across the world, you couldn't really come up with a
better partner than Dawn. So I think that's what they
saw and that's how they voted.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, all around. Supply, I get all that,
but you've kind of sold the family silverware once again.
I'm playing devil's advocate here. One hundred percent farmer owned
cooperative and we're going to hear from Shane Jones shortly,
and I think I know what he'll say, has now
gone into foreign ownership or foreign control?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, look at it has. At the end of the day,
we have had too much debt and it had to
be paid back. And if again our current shareholders weren't
able or went willing to put the capital and to
pay it back, we had to get capital from elsewhere,
or you know, the future looked pretty ugly. Indeed, so
(05:16):
that's the reality. Look, the equity position is sixty five
percent Dawn, thirty five percent Alliance co op. But there's
a whole lot of key decisions, twenty of them where
we will behave as a fifty to fifty joint venture.
And that's all locked and loaded into the agreement.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So the vote's done in dusted. What is the time
frame from here on in?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yes, so from today now we go through the or
the legal and documentation type work, go through the High
court process for the scheme of arrangement, and we expect
to have all of that complete, with the money in
the bank and the joint venture up and running pretty
much by the end of the first week of December.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
You had quite a high thresholder Bart to jump over
to get this deal past the goalie. If you want,
eighty eight percent of the shares on issue voted. That's
remarkably high. And of those that voted, eighty seven percent
back the deal. Now, I'm thinking of the big players
who wanted to recapitalize this between them themselves, they would
(06:18):
almost hold the other thirteen percent of the votes, wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
They Well, they'd be a reasonable chunk of that's thirteen
But I again, I think it just comes down to
the vast majority of the shareholders didn't want to put
the capital in and therefore vote appropriately given that Dawn
is a good global player, and probably they're thinking that,
you know, thirty five percent of a high performing company
(06:44):
is a really good alternative.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Well, with the wisdom of hindsight, was the Alliance Group
mark one a totally impure cooperative? Your biggest shareholder is
a stock firm, stock and station agent. Your second biggest
shareholder is PAMU.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, look, it's a very difficult question to answer. I
think in terms of the marketplace with the over capacity,
you know that the stock companies still play quite a
significant role for pretty much every player in the industry,
and so that won't go away until the capacity is rationalized.
So that makes it very tough. I think the lesson
(07:22):
learned for Alliance going all the way through is that
when you have a strong balance sheet, and arguably we
should have done a capital raise in the very good times,
when you have a strong balance sheet, you have much
more a field of options in front of you that
will decrease or diminish your dependency on some of those
so called festuses.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, now that you're no longer effectively cooperative. What's going
to happen to these big third party traders.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, I think they'll still have a role. We've got
to work all that through with Dawn and in fact
Nile Brown is in the country for a few days
and meeting with some of the larger farmers, So the
post discussions, no doubt will become front and center over
the next week or so. But I think once the
JV is established, we just have to sit down and
(08:13):
will work out the best strategy to procure livestock that
creates the best value for both the shareholders.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Hey, just let me go back to the final question
that the over capacity issue. This deal is going to
do nothing for that or does Dawn Meets have a
rationalization program in mind for the Alliance group and some
of your plants.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
No, no rationalization at all for us. Dawn have done
deep due diligence on Alliance and given that we made
the hard decision to close Smithfield Plant and Tomorrow last year,
they and the current Alliance board and management are very
comfortable with our capacity versus our regional stock flows. But
the overall industry still has far too much capacity, and
(08:56):
that will have to be addressed going Is it going.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
To be a matter of who blinks first?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
That's certainly the traditional way it's happened, and I think
that's a very value destructive outcome for both players and farmers.
So I'd like to think that there might be smarter
ways around collaboration that could be worked through going forward.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Hey, Mark, facetiously, a farmer did say to me this morning,
just in humor, that now when you're doing the Friday
afternoon calls to set the shed, you'll have to make
a toll call to Ireland.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, well we might have to do that. We'll see
how we go.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Markwin, thanks for your time. Congratulations to you and your board.
You've had an overwhelming mandate and I guess it's a
vindication of your plan to get Alliance out of the mare.
Well done.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Thank you, Jamie appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Thank you. Mike. Where did I get Mike from? I'm
talking into a Mike that's Mark, Markquin the Alliance scripture.
I'm not quite sure whether Mark got my joke about
the Friday afternoon ring around that used to be the
story in the old days. The meat companies A bit
of collusion. I can't say that now you would be sued.
But anyhow, it was an overwhelming vote. Congratulations, I guess
(10:09):
to Mark one and the Alliance board on that one.
Up next, Up next on the Country. He's in Sydney
and je I said I'd ring him about quarter past twelve,
so I'm running away bit late. Shane Jones, Prince of
the Provinces. He's at a mining conference. Obviously he'll be
pretty happy about that, but what does he make of
the Alliance vote? Him and Winston have been critical of
(10:33):
overseas or foreign buyers taking over our companies. They're none
too poleased about Fonterra divesting its consumer brands business either.
Shane Jones up next on the Country before the end
of the hour, The Owner and Tom Langford twenty twenty
five Sheer Farmers of the Year Why you should consider
entering the twenty twenty six Dairy Industry Awards And farmer
(10:54):
Tom Martin, a UK farming correspondent. He is the Prince
(11:17):
of the Provinces, the Minister of digging it up and
damning it up. Yes, Shane Jones, He's in Sydney for
a mining conference. Shane, Before we talk about mining and
having spent some time recently in Perth, I can see
the upside of it. I want to get stuck into
you in Winston momentarily about your meddling in the Alliance
vote and the upcoming Fonterra vote. It's none of your business.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
No, Politicians who have a broad view of history and
have a good understanding of what are the vulnerabilities facing
our nation have every right to call out corporate leaders
if we disagree with their strategy, because Fonterra would not
exist if it wasn't for politicians. Helen Clark breathed life
to their entity and Alliance by their own admission, we're
(12:04):
doing this to satisfy the ossionned banks. Both of those
issues are very political, but.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
The farmer owned cooperatives effectively like a private company. The
owners decide their future.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Now the owners aren't deciding their future. The owners are
jumping to the tune of the ossie O banks. This
is what the promoter of the deal said all along
and anything that looks like the ossioned banks are operating
in a manner that over time is going to deny
us more profit making opportunities with value added and going
(12:38):
up the value chain.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Those are all yeah, But you realize, of course that
your coalition partners Luxeon and Seymour were totally supportive of,
for instance, the Fonterra deal. It's better for the economy,
according to them, it's more profitable.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Well, time will tell whether or not the whole existence
of Fonterra, what has been its net benefits since those
healthy and of Helen Clark breathing life into it, or
Winston was saying, we know we're not luddites. We can't
stop the farmers from taking the capital. And a lot
of them are at an aging cohort and they probably
want to get out of farming. The kids go on
a milk cows. But know this from us. Fonterra and
(13:16):
the farmers will knocking down our door after the next election.
Can can we help them with water rights? Can we
help them with nutrient rights? Can we help them with
what they'll regard as the dead weight burden of excessive environmentalism? Well,
it's a two way street.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That sounds a bit like a threat.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
It's not a threat. They're already knocking on my door.
They're already saying that the White Catted Regional Plan is
so onerous a number of them dealt whether or not
they can raise the necessary capital to meet these new
water standards. Now, fortunately I agree with them. I agree
more with the veggie growers that they're being forced out
of business by these klingon rent seeking sort of catastrophe suits.
(13:56):
Believe everything that we do to touch the land is
going to lead to some sort of permanent detrimental effect.
There's always trade offs when you use capital, land people,
and you try and satisfy markets.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And here was I thinking you and once that would
be one hundred percent supportive without a file of our
number one export industry.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Now they know exactly when New Zealand first stands, and
it's not unreasonable for us to call out this huge organization.
And look, I know them all, and we can't stop
what they're doing. But I've got to ask you, are
we just now an entity that creates an ongoing flow
(14:39):
of commodities and we've probably given up and surrendered to
others value associated with brands. They told me there is
no value in brands. So that's the case. How come
these other people are knocking on the door to buy them?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You might learn a listen lesson, should I say, from history?
Here remember the old six million or eight million dollar
Mantao sparings worldwide domination. You add blah blah blah, how
did that end up for Fonterra Shane.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
That's exactly right. They wasted all that money in China,
but that had to do with a gregious governance failure.
And why is that the government's problem if a large
organization like Fonterra was unable to execute a corporate strategy.
And I guess what you're saying is that there are
other entities around the world more than capable of kicking
(15:26):
that goal, and that New Zealand's largest company should surrender
to them the ability to make that level of money.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
What's happening in Sydney? What are you doing there? There's
a mining conference. You'd be like a peg in market
one of these.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Mate well over ten thousand people. The guts of the
issue is that we are here to promote the reinvigoration
of our mineral sector. There's a lot of Kiwis who
are selling We's goods services all around the world and
this is a great, big jamboree. I came last year
after a long period of absence from the New Zealand
(16:02):
political establishment, and they invited me back and I'm giving
a speech in engaging with all sorts of media. But
the real story is we're legitimizing mining. We're opening up
the opportunities. And look, you can't change the weather climate
speaking through all these political incantations, and we've got to
(16:23):
bring to a halt the serene seeking behavior from the
stakeholders who don't want mining to happen unless they get
they're part of the pie, and then of course reduces
the whole viability of the project. But it won't be
just mining that's under attack. I mean, I'm telling you
vegetable growing, farming, and a variety of the primary produce sectors.
It can to consistently be facing political stresses and attacks.
(16:46):
That's why the farmers, the miners, the forestry people, they
have a sort of hate love relationship with New Zealand.
First Sadley, but the others realize that we're an important
ingredient to balance in robustness and pushing back against this
rent seeking tapeworm behavior.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And as if you're not going to have enough fun
in Sydney with your mining jamboree as you called it,
Shane Jones, you're off then to the United States for
two more mining conferences. This is kind of utopia for you, yes, yes.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
No, well and truly putting our footprint down. We are
world leaders in terms of geothermal technology, geothermal human capital,
but we need more geothermal generation back home to reduce
the level of dependency that business has on the main grid.
(17:40):
Because I've long since decided the gentailors, I'm not going
to save New Zealand businesses. But I'll have more to
say about that at the next election. So us going
to America is to share our knowledge, attract further investment,
maintain the momentum that we've got geothermal fields. We've got
the knowledge, we've got the technological mohow, and we just
(18:02):
need to affect better levels of connectivity.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Hey, one to really quickly finish on, because I know
you've got to go to another interview. The mega strike
on Thursday, teachers, nurses, doctors, What the hell's Palestine got
to do with teachers?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Well, a lot of these strikes, as Judith Collins has articulated,
a lot of these strikes are driven by politics. They're
driven by the Green Party, They're driven by Labor Party,
and the kids in Kaitai kaiko Eketahuna. They don't give
a rats and neither do their pearents as to what
status New Zealand has adopted in respect of Palestine. So
(18:40):
it's diversionary politics and it's just a reminder of how
egregious really the political wakness has penetrated into the advocacy
of the public less the public service the union's purporting
to represent them. I'm solidly with Simeon and Judith Collins,
but it's all design mate to sap the will of
(19:02):
the government to stand robustly and win another election. I'll
have more to say about that early next year. But
no one is going to use climate change, strikes or
other forms of wocism to undermine our resolve to continue
to turn the country around and make more jobs boost
our earnings. But we're all in it together. And just
(19:23):
because Fonterra and the meat farmers are capable of making
independent decisions, they should always expect people to have opinions,
not the least of which are the politicians at in
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Okay, well, we can agree on the war on work.
Were all in boots and all for that one. But
we can agree to disagree on the alliance and Fonterra.
You and Winstant need to butt out. Great to chat.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Okay mate, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Thank you Shane. It is twelve thirty here on the country.
Some of your feedback go coming. And now that we've
got our new flash, new text machine working, I hope
Dawn meets Gas as third party traders. They are the
parasites of the meat industry. Another one coming in and
his Zealand First's idea of value add is only about
adding value to the country i e. The government without
(20:15):
a care in regards to how much it costs the producer.
They're not worried if value ad creates more cost than
added value. In Ben that is a good text. And
another one's just come in. Why you couldn't ever consider
giving New Zealand First your support at the ballot box?
Says this text are just dumb, ill informed and ignorant
(20:37):
of the facts. This is from a Fonterra supplier, obviously,
and he says, Jamie, love your work, but you need
to go harder at ignorant comments like that. Well I
did challenge him on it. I think him in Winston
need to butt out. Luxeen and Seymour leave it up
to the farmers. It's your cooperative you decide, not politicians
go and fix the economy. Chane trying to do that
(21:00):
at the moment. He wants to mine the whole country.
Some people in Central Otago don't like the idea of that.
That's another story for another day. Up next, Rural News
with Michelle and a bit of a weather warning from
Big Phil Duncan. Oh, welcome back to the country. It
(21:23):
is twenty seven away from one. Michelle's got something on
the weather or have you?
Speaker 6 (21:28):
Yeah, I've got a wee bit of an update.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Let me tell you what Phil Duncan says very quickly.
There are two main windy surges today and Thursday, although
windy weather will still linger for Wednesday and Friday in
some locations. Rain will be heaviest on the West coast
up to four hundred mills there. Keep up to date
with official warnings and watches, says Phil from the Met Service.
(21:51):
It certainly is bad out there and we've had the
tragedy of a person losing their life in Wellington. Hes
Michelle not sports, She's doing Rural.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
The Country's world news with cop Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawnlower brand. Visit steel Ford dot Cote dot
zen for your local stockist.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Yeah, that's right, Jamie. It's looking pretty rough out there.
Thousands of properties are without power across the country. In
New Zealand is pausing flights until one pm due to
the high winds in the capitol. And as you said,
a man unfortunately sadly has passed or died in Wellington.
He was killed by a falling tree branch. There's orange,
strong wind and heavy rain warnings in place for much
(22:31):
of the South Island and Eastern and Lower North Island,
and Met Services said that gus could reach up to
one hundred and twenty kilometers an hour or have in
Wellington and while the suburbs Calbourne overnight. It looks pretty
rough up there. To keep an eye on those warnings
on Met Service.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
There we go. That's a weather warning from Michelle Watt
Sport with AFCO.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Visit them online at AFCO dot Co dot enz.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Here's a diet warning from Phil Taylor. But that's great,
he says. He claims he has Mongolian blood dating back
to the era of Genghis Khan, so no longer eats
chips or spuds because they give them heartburn. There you go,
a darts player with a healthy diet. That's unusual. The
sixteen time world champion, who retired from the professional game
in twenty eighteen, has stepped up to the OKI as
(23:19):
in hockey to address his diet and fitness of late.
I've got no idea what that means, but I am
we need to get this bloke on the show. Michelle.
Mid Canterbury coach Matt Winter's keen to stick with the
Hammers after their perfect Heartland Championship Rugby campaign, and I
think he's an agronomous So you can chase Matt down.
I'd like to have a talk to them. The Mid
(23:40):
Canterbury Hammers did very well. No time to waste up.
Next y, you should enter the twenty twenty six Stairy
Industry Awards with the twenty twenty five Sheer Farmers of
the Year Fiona and Tom Langford.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Wow, shut your down, Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Fiona and Tom Langford are the twenty twenty five New
Zealand Dairy Industry Award Share Farmers of the entries are
open for the twenty twenty six awards and these two
dynamic young farmers are going to tell us why you
should consider entering the Dairy Industry Awards. I'll start with you,
Fiona Ladies. First, why would you encourage people or what
(24:20):
would you say to people who are pondering entering the awards.
Speaker 7 (24:24):
I think it's an absolutely great opportunity to look at
your business, a really deep dive into your business. You know,
Tom and I sat down together, you know, discussed what
we were doing well and areas we wanted to improve.
And not only that, we had three experts. You come
and assess us and look at our business and give
(24:45):
us that sort of three six review, deep dive, valuable
feedback on our business. It's not often that you get
experts from from different areas of your business come together
and give you that feedback.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Tom Langford, you are share Farming's parents farmers. I understand that.
Am I correct in saying that? Tom?
Speaker 8 (25:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
So before you entered the awards, I mean you would
obviously describe yourselves as high performing share farmers or share milkers.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
Yeah, I mean we always consider ourselves to achieve the
best results we can. We've sort of been in a
high performing environment working for Yosa Marian who are Fiona's parents.
So look it was important for us to sort of
bench mark ourselves against others in the dairy industry. We
(25:38):
didn't expect to win when we entered the Dairy Industry Awards.
We sort of looked at it as an opportunity to
look at ourselves and look how where we could improve
our business, and so we were really surprised with the
result that we were able to achieve.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Well, maybe Tom, you shouldn't have been, because both you
and Fiona, who are the twenty twenty five, are share
farmers or share milkers of the Year. You've both got
bscs Bachelor of Science, Fiona majoring in human nutrition. She's
got a master's degree in dietetics. I hope I got
that one right. That is a mouthful you for your sins.
(26:15):
A BSc in food science with honors, and until you
met Fiona, you hadn't even been on a farm.
Speaker 8 (26:21):
No, that's right, very much green. I was suddenly a
surprise for Fiona's parents when I introduced myself and told
them I'd never been on a dairy farm. But you know,
it's a great place to grow up, it's a great
place to learn. We've loved every opportunity we've had on
the dairy farm and the opportunities that it's given us
(26:44):
in our family.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You were both part of the Fonterra Technical graduate program.
That is how you met. Was it a tough decision
for you and out and out town need to go farming.
Speaker 8 (26:58):
We definitely undernowed about it for a while in the
first place. But look, I think I got offered redundancy
while I was looking after our boy whilst also doing
the farm work, and we never looked back after that.
Made the decision to take the redundancy, and very happy
with that decision looking back.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You're not only sharemokers, you're also share parents, sharing the
childcare duties. And I think you've got three young sons, now, yeah,
that's correct.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Here we have three boys, six, four and two, so
they definitely keep us very busy.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I know we kicked off our discussion by encouraging people
to enter the dairy industry awards and it's made a
big difference to you guys. But if people are really
you know, the jury's out for them. They don't think
they're good enough, what would you say.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
I think you can really surprise yourself, and I don't
think you only do it for the point of winning,
there's so many other things that you get out of
the process as well, you know, the industry connections, the networking,
just meeting the judges, people that you may otherwise not
have met, and it just opens other doors as well
for us as sheer farmers. We were able to meet
(28:09):
trainees and managers who had applied for their potential talent
call for us for starting in the future as well.
So I don't think that winning should be the only
reason that you enter There's so many other reasons to
look into it as well, and I think along the
way you learn a lot about yourself too, and you
might surprise yourself.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Entries are open now. They close on the fifth of December.
There are early bird prizes on offer if you entered
before October the twenty seventh. Are Tom Langford, I'm going
to leave the final word to you. As a bloke
who left town hadn't never been on a farm, I
still find that hard to believe. You and Fiana have
been very successful in your dairying career. How many doors
(28:49):
has it open for you?
Speaker 8 (28:52):
Look, the dairy industry has been amazing for us and
the opportunities that we have in the future that we've
taken on a second farm this season, so we're running
two farms nearly two thousand cows. I certainly didn't think
we'd be doing that six years ago, and that sort
of a trajectory that you can achieve in the dairy industry,
(29:14):
and I think the dairy industry where wards has certainly
helped us along that journey. So if you're thinking about it,
if you're on the fence, if you need someone to
talk to, you can reach out to us or anyone's
in the regions. There's plenty of information on the Dairy
Industry Awards website.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
That website is Dairy Industry Awards dot co dot nz.
You can enter there before the fifth of December. Final
question for you, Tom, I'm embarrassed to ask for the
owner this one, so I'm going to ask you because
it's her family farm. Have you made more money going
share farming and getting into the dairy industry than you
would have if the pair of you had stayed, for instance,
with the likes of Fonterra in their grad program.
Speaker 8 (29:57):
Short answer, Yes, it's done. It's been a great financial
decision for us to jump into the sheer farming in
the family farm so we're doing very well out of
it and we're very pleased with the decision to move
away from the corporate world and onto the farm.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Sounds like you're living the dream. Tom and Fiona Langford
twenty twenty five cheer Farmers of the Year. Thanks for
your time. You can enter at Dairy Industry Awards dot
co dot NZ. Those entries close on the fifth of December. Yes,
thanks guys, and talking about Fonterra will have Myles Hurrel
on the show tomorrow but up next. Earlier this morning
I caught up with our UK Farming correspondent, farmer Tom Martin.
(30:40):
My love, here's a UK farming correspondent, farmer Tom Martin,
social media influencer arable farmer just north of London and Tom,
I want to talk about the British Farming Awards for
twenty twenty five. I see you missed out on the
Arable Farmer of the Year title as well as the
(31:00):
Regenerative Farmer of the Year title. Were you nominated?
Speaker 4 (31:05):
No, I wasn't nominated, but I saw Arable Farmer of
the Year as Will Olive, a fantastic farmer not too
far away from from here, been doing some great experimentation
in the world of grain maize and very very worthy recipient. Yeah,
there's some, there's some great, some great captains of industry
celebrated at the British Farming Awards. It's one of the
(31:25):
two kind of major British agriculture awards. There's the Farmer's
Weekly Awards from the Farmer's Weekly magazine, and then the
British Farming Awards is really I think founded by the
Farmers Guardian. That's the kind of countertitle to the Farmers Weekly.
So yeah, great, it sounds like a great evening. I've
been before, but didn't go this time. We've been pretty
(31:46):
busy yep.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Last Thursday in Birmingham. Well there's always next year for you. Tom.
You've been flat out because I think you have you
finished all your autumn harvest and have you have you
got your winter sun crops?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
And that's right, so we I mean really we've been
flat out. From about the third or fourth of July,
all the harvesting was completed, I guess in record time. Really,
we had such a dry spring and summertime. It's been
probably the worst harvest, but it's been followed by a
(32:17):
really kind autumn planting. Season. We're pretty dry here in
the East as usual, but we've had a little bit
of moisture. Everything's gone in really well. And of course,
you know, the seed when you plant it is full
of potential. Everything else after that will rob it. But
you know, it's a time of optimism amidst kind of
political backdrop of kind of thoroughly depressing pessimism.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I've picked up on a couple of stories and I've
flicked them through to you, and no doubt you will
have seen these as well. Scientists worn the UK must
grow drought proof weight or risk a food crisis. And
also we'll start with that one. But tying in with
it is that the UK food system needs a war
time scale overhaul to survive. Let's start with the drought
(33:04):
proof weight. Are you growing lead? No?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
But we are we.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
I mean, I guess what we're doing is we're trying
to droughtproof our soils. So we're improving our organic matter,
improving our soil health using things like green manures, cover cropping,
companion planting, that kind of thing, and differing rotations. But
you know what we are, as you guys are, We're
an ireland. We rely on that maritime climate climate which
(33:28):
is little rain, a little and often, you know, and
kind of relatively mild weather. But we seem to be
getting these more continental systems where we're getting a lot
of rain in the middle of middle and the end
of winter, very dry times in the summer, and hot temperatures,
and so the wheat varieties and other crops as well
(33:49):
that we've traditionally employed in the UK that just don't
seem to be performing in this kind of new climate
that we're experiencing. Kind of for the last five years,
we've had real periods of extended drought in the spring period.
So yeah, we've definitely got to be looking at other varieties,
but there's a lot of other things that we're doing
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
What about this wartime scale overhaul. You know, they're talking
about the biggest overhaul since the Second World War, and
one of the areas they're looking at is healthier diets
because at the moment in the UK, half of your
veggies are imported and I couldn't believe the stat tom
eighty five percent of your fruit is imported.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, well, I mean we've been grubbing up orchards, apple
orchard traditional British apple orchards in those traditional areas of
East Anglia and in the West, they're not viable. We're
undercut by competition from abroad, and you know, so then
therefore we are Yeah, we're importing eighty five percent. We've
(34:54):
just planted six hundred fruit trees on the farm last
year and so hopefully we can get a very small
way to mitigate that. But the report was in essence
a bit of an overhaul or recommending an overhaul. It
was one of those reports about kind of you know,
food systems twenty fifty and it was pretty high level.
(35:15):
But we clearly do need a bit of a change.
We're importing more food I think than we've ever imported
as an island nation. We are less healthy than we've
ever been. People have never been more divorced from where
their food comes from. Our exercise or exercise levels I
think are going up. There's a huge disparity in exercise
(35:36):
and fitness, and so I do think we need a
pretty systemic change. I'm not sure we've got a government
that's going to be delivering that, but that you know,
the challenge is there and with it the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Well, unless your cricket team's going okay, mind you all
be it coached by a bunch of New Zealanders. Let's
just finish on a book I've been reading during my
travels in the past couple of weeks, and it's an
absolutely sharker. It's called entitled, and it's about the former
Duke of York and the former Duchess of York. My goodness,
those two are grifters and that's being kind to them.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah, do you know, well, you know, Jamie, I'm sure
every family's got it's black sheep, and if if yours
hasn't been, you are.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
It probably, But this is not about me. This is
about Andrew and Fergie.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
Yeah, it's it's pretty remarkable. You've got just you know
that the variation in that one one generation. You've got Andrew,
Charles's who's doing a great job. You've got Princess and
who's the hardest working royal is the most remarkable human being.
I mean, she's she's absolutely you know, she's an absolute rocket.
And then and then Andrew, who's you know, Who's who's
(36:49):
made some pretty terrible decisions in well, seemingly for decades.
So I'm sure there's there's more to come out as
there always is. But yeah, I hope Yoully, we don't
publish a book. Well at least.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Okay, at least you've got William and Kate to look
forward to, who I think will do a good job
carrying the Royal torch. And this poor old Edward. Of course,
he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot or
an ashtray on a motorbike, but never mind, he's not
causing much harm. Hey farmer Tom, thanks for some of
your time. We'll catch you back next month and you
start getting your CV ready for the British Farming Awards
(37:26):
for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Thanks David shut up.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Are wrapping the country for today on tomorrow's show, by
the way, Christopher Lux and Miles Hurrel on tonight's GDT
Auction and Jane Smith, amongst others Emma Higgins I think
also from Rabobank, Mike McIntire, my go to guy at
Jardin on the GDT Auction tonight. Futures are calling for
a decent correction again off the back of yesterday's strong
(37:56):
production numbers for September. Interesting times we live on. We'll
catch you back tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckaye. Thanks to Brent, you're specialist in
John Deere construction equipment.
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckue Thanks to Brent. You're specialist in
John Deere machinery.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Gooday, New Zealand. Welcome to the Country. My name is
Jamie McKay. Show is brought to you by Brent. This
is the Pogues. I think Michelle's Chuck the Pogues in
here and Tuesday Morning and it's been a bit of
a rough Tuesday Morning around the country. More about that
in the tick. But it's app that we're playing an
Irish band because the Irish Meek and the Dawn meets Now.
(01:02):
I'm sixty five percent of the Alliance group Marquin, the
chair of the group to tack off the show. They
announced the results this morning. It was a bit of
an overwhelming mandate. Eighty eight percent of the shares on
issue voted. That's impressive in itself, and of those that voted,
eighty seven percent back the deal. Now, someone who hasn't
(01:24):
backed the deal is Winston Peters and his henchman Shane
Jones hasn't backed the deal either. I'm going to catch
up with Shane very shortly. He's at a mining conference
in Sydney. He'll be like a pig and Mark over there.
So FI owner and Tom Langford twenty twenty five share
Farmers of the Year, encouraging others to enter the twenty
twenty six Dairy Industry Awards. In a bit earlier this morning,
(01:47):
I caught up with farmer Tom Martin, a UK farming correspondent.
They've just had the British Farming Awards. Tom wasn't mentioned
in dispatches and we might also discuss what do you
do with a problem like Prince Andrew and Fergie. I've
been reading the book What a Pair of Grift as
those two are, but just on the weather and before
(02:08):
I go to Mark one. Tragically, one person has died
after being hit by a falling branch on Wellington's Mount Victoria.
As strong winds and heavy rain warnings remain around the country.
Thousands are without power today and flights have been canceled.
Several main roads are closed in the South Island this
(02:28):
morning due to slips and tree falls. There's an extensive
Orange weather warning remaining in fact in effect across most
of the South Island as the wild weather moves north,
damaging gales of up to one hundred and thirty kilometers
an hour are expected during this week of wild weather.
Heavy rain warnings are in place for the Gray Tasman
(02:51):
and Nelson Lakes District until one pm and for the
Tararua Range until five pm. Forecasters say the rain is
expected to move on in time for the long weekend.
Some consolation that is. So that's all lined up on
the show. Michelle will come in also with rural news
(03:12):
and we'll have a look at sports news for you
as well. But up next, it's the big story of
the day, the Alliance Group vote. No longer a farmer cooperative.
It's now foreign owned effectively by the Irish meat company
Dawn Meats. Let's kick off today's show with today's big story,
(03:37):
the first of two strategic farmer cooperative votes this month
Fonterra later in the month, of course, today or yesterday
was the Alliance Group vote over the Dawn Meat steal,
an overwhelming mandate. Mark Winn, chair of the Alliance Group,
is this vindication of you and the board?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, we'd delight, Jamie. The shareholders have voted and voted
very clearly in favor, so yes, it's the vindication of
the proposer from Dawn and we're really excited about that future.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, but for the farmer's mark, I do want to
sound cynical, but was it like Hobson's choice.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, it's a tough one. I think once farmers had
decided they didn't want to put capital in themselves, then
you go to external capital and when you start looking
across the world, you couldn't really come up with a
better partner than Dawn. So I think that's what they
saw and that's how they voted.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, all around. Supply, I get all that,
but you've kind of sold the family silverware once again.
I'm playing devil's advocate here. One hundred percent farmer owned
cooperative and we're going to hear from Shane Jones shortly,
and I think I know what he'll say, has now
gone into foreign ownership or foreign control?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, look at it has. At the end of the day,
we have had too much debt and it had to
be paid back. And if again our current shareholders weren't
able or went willing to put the capital and to
pay it back, we had to get capital from elsewhere,
or you know, the future looked pretty ugly. Indeed, so
(05:16):
that's the reality. Look, the equity position is sixty five
percent Dawn, thirty five percent Alliance co op. But there's
a whole lot of key decisions, twenty of them where
we will behave as a fifty to fifty joint venture.
And that's all locked and loaded into the agreement.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So the vote's done in dusted. What is the time
frame from here on in?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yes, so from today now we go through the or
the legal and documentation type work, go through the High
court process for the scheme of arrangement, and we expect
to have all of that complete, with the money in
the bank and the joint venture up and running pretty
much by the end of the first week of December.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
You had quite a high thresholder Bart to jump over
to get this deal past the goalie. If you want,
eighty eight percent of the shares on issue voted. That's
remarkably high. And of those that voted, eighty seven percent
back the deal. Now, I'm thinking of the big players
who wanted to recapitalize this between them themselves, they would
(06:18):
almost hold the other thirteen percent of the votes, wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
They Well, they'd be a reasonable chunk of that's thirteen
But I again, I think it just comes down to
the vast majority of the shareholders didn't want to put
the capital in and therefore vote appropriately given that Dawn
is a good global player, and probably they're thinking that,
you know, thirty five percent of a high performing company
(06:44):
is a really good alternative.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Well, with the wisdom of hindsight, was the Alliance Group
mark one a totally impure cooperative? Your biggest shareholder is
a stock firm, stock and station agent. Your second biggest
shareholder is PAMU.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, look, it's a very difficult question to answer. I
think in terms of the marketplace with the over capacity,
you know that the stock companies still play quite a
significant role for pretty much every player in the industry,
and so that won't go away until the capacity is rationalized.
So that makes it very tough. I think the lesson
(07:22):
learned for Alliance going all the way through is that
when you have a strong balance sheet, and arguably we
should have done a capital raise in the very good times,
when you have a strong balance sheet, you have much
more a field of options in front of you that
will decrease or diminish your dependency on some of those
so called festuses.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, now that you're no longer effectively cooperative. What's going
to happen to these big third party traders.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, I think they'll still have a role. We've got
to work all that through with Dawn and in fact
Nile Brown is in the country for a few days
and meeting with some of the larger farmers, So the
post discussions, no doubt will become front and center over
the next week or so. But I think once the
JV is established, we just have to sit down and
(08:13):
will work out the best strategy to procure livestock that
creates the best value for both the shareholders.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Hey, just let me go back to the final question
that the over capacity issue. This deal is going to
do nothing for that or does Dawn Meets have a
rationalization program in mind for the Alliance group and some
of your plants.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
No, no rationalization at all for us. Dawn have done
deep due diligence on Alliance and given that we made
the hard decision to close Smithfield Plant and Tomorrow last year,
they and the current Alliance board and management are very
comfortable with our capacity versus our regional stock flows. But
the overall industry still has far too much capacity, and
(08:56):
that will have to be addressed going Is it going.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
To be a matter of who blinks first?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
That's certainly the traditional way it's happened, and I think
that's a very value destructive outcome for both players and farmers.
So I'd like to think that there might be smarter
ways around collaboration that could be worked through going forward.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Hey, Mark, facetiously, a farmer did say to me this morning,
just in humor, that now when you're doing the Friday
afternoon calls to set the shed, you'll have to make
a toll call to Ireland.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, well we might have to do that. We'll see
how we go.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Markwin, thanks for your time. Congratulations to you and your board.
You've had an overwhelming mandate and I guess it's a
vindication of your plan to get Alliance out of the mare.
Well done.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Thank you, Jamie appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Thank you. Mike. Where did I get Mike from? I'm
talking into a Mike that's Mark, Markquin the Alliance scripture.
I'm not quite sure whether Mark got my joke about
the Friday afternoon ring around that used to be the
story in the old days. The meat companies A bit
of collusion. I can't say that now you would be sued.
But anyhow, it was an overwhelming vote. Congratulations, I guess
(10:09):
to Mark one and the Alliance board on that one.
Up next, Up next on the Country. He's in Sydney
and je I said I'd ring him about quarter past twelve,
so I'm running away bit late. Shane Jones, Prince of
the Provinces. He's at a mining conference. Obviously he'll be
pretty happy about that, but what does he make of
the Alliance vote? Him and Winston have been critical of
(10:33):
overseas or foreign buyers taking over our companies. They're none
too poleased about Fonterra divesting its consumer brands business either.
Shane Jones up next on the Country before the end
of the hour, The Owner and Tom Langford twenty twenty
five Sheer Farmers of the Year Why you should consider
entering the twenty twenty six Dairy Industry Awards And farmer
(10:54):
Tom Martin, a UK farming correspondent. He is the Prince
(11:17):
of the Provinces, the Minister of digging it up and
damning it up. Yes, Shane Jones, He's in Sydney for
a mining conference. Shane, Before we talk about mining and
having spent some time recently in Perth, I can see
the upside of it. I want to get stuck into
you in Winston momentarily about your meddling in the Alliance
vote and the upcoming Fonterra vote. It's none of your business.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
No, Politicians who have a broad view of history and
have a good understanding of what are the vulnerabilities facing
our nation have every right to call out corporate leaders
if we disagree with their strategy, because Fonterra would not
exist if it wasn't for politicians. Helen Clark breathed life
to their entity and Alliance by their own admission, we're
(12:04):
doing this to satisfy the ossionned banks. Both of those
issues are very political, but.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
The farmer owned cooperatives effectively like a private company. The
owners decide their future.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Now the owners aren't deciding their future. The owners are
jumping to the tune of the ossie O banks. This
is what the promoter of the deal said all along
and anything that looks like the ossioned banks are operating
in a manner that over time is going to deny
us more profit making opportunities with value added and going
(12:38):
up the value chain.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Those are all yeah, But you realize, of course that
your coalition partners Luxeon and Seymour were totally supportive of,
for instance, the Fonterra deal. It's better for the economy,
according to them, it's more profitable.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Well, time will tell whether or not the whole existence
of Fonterra, what has been its net benefits since those
healthy and of Helen Clark breathing life into it, or
Winston was saying, we know we're not luddites. We can't
stop the farmers from taking the capital. And a lot
of them are at an aging cohort and they probably
want to get out of farming. The kids go on
a milk cows. But know this from us. Fonterra and
(13:16):
the farmers will knocking down our door after the next election.
Can can we help them with water rights? Can we
help them with nutrient rights? Can we help them with
what they'll regard as the dead weight burden of excessive environmentalism? Well,
it's a two way street.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That sounds a bit like a threat.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
It's not a threat. They're already knocking on my door.
They're already saying that the White Catted Regional Plan is
so onerous a number of them dealt whether or not
they can raise the necessary capital to meet these new
water standards. Now, fortunately I agree with them. I agree
more with the veggie growers that they're being forced out
of business by these klingon rent seeking sort of catastrophe suits.
(13:56):
Believe everything that we do to touch the land is
going to lead to some sort of permanent detrimental effect.
There's always trade offs when you use capital, land people,
and you try and satisfy markets.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And here was I thinking you and once that would
be one hundred percent supportive without a file of our
number one export industry.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Now they know exactly when New Zealand first stands, and
it's not unreasonable for us to call out this huge organization.
And look, I know them all, and we can't stop
what they're doing. But I've got to ask you, are
we just now an entity that creates an ongoing flow
(14:39):
of commodities and we've probably given up and surrendered to
others value associated with brands. They told me there is
no value in brands. So that's the case. How come
these other people are knocking on the door to buy them?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You might learn a listen lesson, should I say, from history?
Here remember the old six million or eight million dollar
Mantao sparings worldwide domination. You add blah blah blah, how
did that end up for Fonterra Shane.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
That's exactly right. They wasted all that money in China,
but that had to do with a gregious governance failure.
And why is that the government's problem if a large
organization like Fonterra was unable to execute a corporate strategy.
And I guess what you're saying is that there are
other entities around the world more than capable of kicking
(15:26):
that goal, and that New Zealand's largest company should surrender
to them the ability to make that level of money.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
What's happening in Sydney? What are you doing there? There's
a mining conference. You'd be like a peg in market
one of these.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Mate well over ten thousand people. The guts of the
issue is that we are here to promote the reinvigoration
of our mineral sector. There's a lot of Kiwis who
are selling We's goods services all around the world and
this is a great, big jamboree. I came last year
after a long period of absence from the New Zealand
(16:02):
political establishment, and they invited me back and I'm giving
a speech in engaging with all sorts of media. But
the real story is we're legitimizing mining. We're opening up
the opportunities. And look, you can't change the weather climate
speaking through all these political incantations, and we've got to
(16:23):
bring to a halt the serene seeking behavior from the
stakeholders who don't want mining to happen unless they get
they're part of the pie, and then of course reduces
the whole viability of the project. But it won't be
just mining that's under attack. I mean, I'm telling you
vegetable growing, farming, and a variety of the primary produce sectors.
It can to consistently be facing political stresses and attacks.
(16:46):
That's why the farmers, the miners, the forestry people, they
have a sort of hate love relationship with New Zealand.
First Sadley, but the others realize that we're an important
ingredient to balance in robustness and pushing back against this
rent seeking tapeworm behavior.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And as if you're not going to have enough fun
in Sydney with your mining jamboree as you called it,
Shane Jones, you're off then to the United States for
two more mining conferences. This is kind of utopia for you, yes, yes.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
No, well and truly putting our footprint down. We are
world leaders in terms of geothermal technology, geothermal human capital,
but we need more geothermal generation back home to reduce
the level of dependency that business has on the main grid.
(17:40):
Because I've long since decided the gentailors, I'm not going
to save New Zealand businesses. But I'll have more to
say about that at the next election. So us going
to America is to share our knowledge, attract further investment,
maintain the momentum that we've got geothermal fields. We've got
the knowledge, we've got the technological mohow, and we just
(18:02):
need to affect better levels of connectivity.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Hey, one to really quickly finish on, because I know
you've got to go to another interview. The mega strike
on Thursday, teachers, nurses, doctors, What the hell's Palestine got
to do with teachers?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Well, a lot of these strikes, as Judith Collins has articulated,
a lot of these strikes are driven by politics. They're
driven by the Green Party, They're driven by Labor Party,
and the kids in Kaitai kaiko Eketahuna. They don't give
a rats and neither do their pearents as to what
status New Zealand has adopted in respect of Palestine. So
(18:40):
it's diversionary politics and it's just a reminder of how
egregious really the political wakness has penetrated into the advocacy
of the public less the public service the union's purporting
to represent them. I'm solidly with Simeon and Judith Collins,
but it's all design mate to sap the will of
(19:02):
the government to stand robustly and win another election. I'll
have more to say about that early next year. But
no one is going to use climate change, strikes or
other forms of wocism to undermine our resolve to continue
to turn the country around and make more jobs boost
our earnings. But we're all in it together. And just
(19:23):
because Fonterra and the meat farmers are capable of making
independent decisions, they should always expect people to have opinions,
not the least of which are the politicians at in
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Okay, well, we can agree on the war on work.
Were all in boots and all for that one. But
we can agree to disagree on the alliance and Fonterra.
You and Winstant need to butt out. Great to chat.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Okay mate, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Thank you Shane. It is twelve thirty here on the country.
Some of your feedback go coming. And now that we've
got our new flash, new text machine working, I hope
Dawn meets Gas as third party traders. They are the
parasites of the meat industry. Another one coming in and
his Zealand First's idea of value add is only about
adding value to the country i e. The government without
(20:15):
a care in regards to how much it costs the producer.
They're not worried if value ad creates more cost than
added value. In Ben that is a good text. And
another one's just come in. Why you couldn't ever consider
giving New Zealand First your support at the ballot box?
Says this text are just dumb, ill informed and ignorant
(20:37):
of the facts. This is from a Fonterra supplier, obviously,
and he says, Jamie, love your work, but you need
to go harder at ignorant comments like that. Well I
did challenge him on it. I think him in Winston
need to butt out. Luxeen and Seymour leave it up
to the farmers. It's your cooperative you decide, not politicians
go and fix the economy. Chane trying to do that
(21:00):
at the moment. He wants to mine the whole country.
Some people in Central Otago don't like the idea of that.
That's another story for another day. Up next, Rural News
with Michelle and a bit of a weather warning from
Big Phil Duncan. Oh, welcome back to the country. It
(21:23):
is twenty seven away from one. Michelle's got something on
the weather or have you?
Speaker 6 (21:28):
Yeah, I've got a wee bit of an update.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Let me tell you what Phil Duncan says very quickly.
There are two main windy surges today and Thursday, although
windy weather will still linger for Wednesday and Friday in
some locations. Rain will be heaviest on the West coast
up to four hundred mills there. Keep up to date
with official warnings and watches, says Phil from the Met Service.
(21:51):
It certainly is bad out there and we've had the
tragedy of a person losing their life in Wellington. Hes
Michelle not sports, She's doing Rural.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
The Country's world news with cop Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawnlower brand. Visit steel Ford dot Cote dot
zen for your local stockist.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Yeah, that's right, Jamie. It's looking pretty rough out there.
Thousands of properties are without power across the country. In
New Zealand is pausing flights until one pm due to
the high winds in the capitol. And as you said,
a man unfortunately sadly has passed or died in Wellington.
He was killed by a falling tree branch. There's orange,
strong wind and heavy rain warnings in place for much
(22:31):
of the South Island and Eastern and Lower North Island,
and Met Services said that gus could reach up to
one hundred and twenty kilometers an hour or have in
Wellington and while the suburbs Calbourne overnight. It looks pretty
rough up there. To keep an eye on those warnings
on Met Service.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
There we go. That's a weather warning from Michelle Watt
Sport with AFCO.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Visit them online at AFCO dot Co dot enz.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Here's a diet warning from Phil Taylor. But that's great,
he says. He claims he has Mongolian blood dating back
to the era of Genghis Khan, so no longer eats
chips or spuds because they give them heartburn. There you go,
a darts player with a healthy diet. That's unusual. The
sixteen time world champion, who retired from the professional game
in twenty eighteen, has stepped up to the OKI as
(23:19):
in hockey to address his diet and fitness of late.
I've got no idea what that means, but I am
we need to get this bloke on the show. Michelle.
Mid Canterbury coach Matt Winter's keen to stick with the
Hammers after their perfect Heartland Championship Rugby campaign, and I
think he's an agronomous So you can chase Matt down.
I'd like to have a talk to them. The Mid
(23:40):
Canterbury Hammers did very well. No time to waste up.
Next y, you should enter the twenty twenty six Stairy
Industry Awards with the twenty twenty five Sheer Farmers of
the Year Fiona and Tom Langford.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Wow, shut your down, Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Fiona and Tom Langford are the twenty twenty five New
Zealand Dairy Industry Award Share Farmers of the entries are
open for the twenty twenty six awards and these two
dynamic young farmers are going to tell us why you
should consider entering the Dairy Industry Awards. I'll start with you,
Fiona Ladies. First, why would you encourage people or what
(24:20):
would you say to people who are pondering entering the awards.
Speaker 7 (24:24):
I think it's an absolutely great opportunity to look at
your business, a really deep dive into your business. You know,
Tom and I sat down together, you know, discussed what
we were doing well and areas we wanted to improve.
And not only that, we had three experts. You come
and assess us and look at our business and give
(24:45):
us that sort of three six review, deep dive, valuable
feedback on our business. It's not often that you get
experts from from different areas of your business come together
and give you that feedback.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Tom Langford, you are share Farming's parents farmers. I understand that.
Am I correct in saying that? Tom?
Speaker 8 (25:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
So before you entered the awards, I mean you would
obviously describe yourselves as high performing share farmers or share milkers.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
Yeah, I mean we always consider ourselves to achieve the
best results we can. We've sort of been in a
high performing environment working for Yosa Marian who are Fiona's parents.
So look it was important for us to sort of
bench mark ourselves against others in the dairy industry. We
(25:38):
didn't expect to win when we entered the Dairy Industry Awards.
We sort of looked at it as an opportunity to
look at ourselves and look how where we could improve
our business, and so we were really surprised with the
result that we were able to achieve.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Well, maybe Tom, you shouldn't have been, because both you
and Fiona, who are the twenty twenty five, are share
farmers or share milkers of the Year. You've both got
bscs Bachelor of Science, Fiona majoring in human nutrition. She's
got a master's degree in dietetics. I hope I got
that one right. That is a mouthful you for your sins.
(26:15):
A BSc in food science with honors, and until you
met Fiona, you hadn't even been on a farm.
Speaker 8 (26:21):
No, that's right, very much green. I was suddenly a
surprise for Fiona's parents when I introduced myself and told
them I'd never been on a dairy farm. But you know,
it's a great place to grow up, it's a great
place to learn. We've loved every opportunity we've had on
the dairy farm and the opportunities that it's given us
(26:44):
in our family.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You were both part of the Fonterra Technical graduate program.
That is how you met. Was it a tough decision
for you and out and out town need to go farming.
Speaker 8 (26:58):
We definitely undernowed about it for a while in the
first place. But look, I think I got offered redundancy
while I was looking after our boy whilst also doing
the farm work, and we never looked back after that.
Made the decision to take the redundancy, and very happy
with that decision looking back.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You're not only sharemokers, you're also share parents, sharing the
childcare duties. And I think you've got three young sons, now, yeah,
that's correct.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Here we have three boys, six, four and two, so
they definitely keep us very busy.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I know we kicked off our discussion by encouraging people
to enter the dairy industry awards and it's made a
big difference to you guys. But if people are really
you know, the jury's out for them. They don't think
they're good enough, what would you say.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
I think you can really surprise yourself, and I don't
think you only do it for the point of winning,
there's so many other things that you get out of
the process as well, you know, the industry connections, the networking,
just meeting the judges, people that you may otherwise not
have met, and it just opens other doors as well
for us as sheer farmers. We were able to meet
(28:09):
trainees and managers who had applied for their potential talent
call for us for starting in the future as well.
So I don't think that winning should be the only
reason that you enter There's so many other reasons to
look into it as well, and I think along the
way you learn a lot about yourself too, and you
might surprise yourself.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Entries are open now. They close on the fifth of December.
There are early bird prizes on offer if you entered
before October the twenty seventh. Are Tom Langford, I'm going
to leave the final word to you. As a bloke
who left town hadn't never been on a farm, I
still find that hard to believe. You and Fiana have
been very successful in your dairying career. How many doors
(28:49):
has it open for you?
Speaker 8 (28:52):
Look, the dairy industry has been amazing for us and
the opportunities that we have in the future that we've
taken on a second farm this season, so we're running
two farms nearly two thousand cows. I certainly didn't think
we'd be doing that six years ago, and that sort
of a trajectory that you can achieve in the dairy industry,
(29:14):
and I think the dairy industry where wards has certainly
helped us along that journey. So if you're thinking about it,
if you're on the fence, if you need someone to
talk to, you can reach out to us or anyone's
in the regions. There's plenty of information on the Dairy
Industry Awards website.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
That website is Dairy Industry Awards dot co dot nz.
You can enter there before the fifth of December. Final
question for you, Tom, I'm embarrassed to ask for the
owner this one, so I'm going to ask you because
it's her family farm. Have you made more money going
share farming and getting into the dairy industry than you
would have if the pair of you had stayed, for instance,
with the likes of Fonterra in their grad program.
Speaker 8 (29:57):
Short answer, Yes, it's done. It's been a great financial
decision for us to jump into the sheer farming in
the family farm so we're doing very well out of
it and we're very pleased with the decision to move
away from the corporate world and onto the farm.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Sounds like you're living the dream. Tom and Fiona Langford
twenty twenty five cheer Farmers of the Year. Thanks for
your time. You can enter at Dairy Industry Awards dot
co dot NZ. Those entries close on the fifth of December. Yes,
thanks guys, and talking about Fonterra will have Myles Hurrel
on the show tomorrow but up next. Earlier this morning
I caught up with our UK Farming correspondent, farmer Tom Martin.
(30:40):
My love, here's a UK farming correspondent, farmer Tom Martin,
social media influencer arable farmer just north of London and Tom,
I want to talk about the British Farming Awards for
twenty twenty five. I see you missed out on the
Arable Farmer of the Year title as well as the
(31:00):
Regenerative Farmer of the Year title. Were you nominated?
Speaker 4 (31:05):
No, I wasn't nominated, but I saw Arable Farmer of
the Year as Will Olive, a fantastic farmer not too
far away from from here, been doing some great experimentation
in the world of grain maize and very very worthy recipient. Yeah,
there's some, there's some great, some great captains of industry
celebrated at the British Farming Awards. It's one of the
(31:25):
two kind of major British agriculture awards. There's the Farmer's
Weekly Awards from the Farmer's Weekly magazine, and then the
British Farming Awards is really I think founded by the
Farmers Guardian. That's the kind of countertitle to the Farmers Weekly.
So yeah, great, it sounds like a great evening. I've
been before, but didn't go this time. We've been pretty
(31:46):
busy yep.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Last Thursday in Birmingham. Well there's always next year for you. Tom.
You've been flat out because I think you have you
finished all your autumn harvest and have you have you
got your winter sun crops?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
And that's right, so we I mean really we've been
flat out. From about the third or fourth of July,
all the harvesting was completed, I guess in record time. Really,
we had such a dry spring and summertime. It's been
probably the worst harvest, but it's been followed by a
(32:17):
really kind autumn planting. Season. We're pretty dry here in
the East as usual, but we've had a little bit
of moisture. Everything's gone in really well. And of course,
you know, the seed when you plant it is full
of potential. Everything else after that will rob it. But
you know, it's a time of optimism amidst kind of
political backdrop of kind of thoroughly depressing pessimism.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I've picked up on a couple of stories and I've
flicked them through to you, and no doubt you will
have seen these as well. Scientists worn the UK must
grow drought proof weight or risk a food crisis. And
also we'll start with that one. But tying in with
it is that the UK food system needs a war
time scale overhaul to survive. Let's start with the drought
(33:04):
proof weight. Are you growing lead? No?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
But we are we.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
I mean, I guess what we're doing is we're trying
to droughtproof our soils. So we're improving our organic matter,
improving our soil health using things like green manures, cover cropping,
companion planting, that kind of thing, and differing rotations. But
you know what we are, as you guys are, We're
an ireland. We rely on that maritime climate climate which
(33:28):
is little rain, a little and often, you know, and
kind of relatively mild weather. But we seem to be
getting these more continental systems where we're getting a lot
of rain in the middle of middle and the end
of winter, very dry times in the summer, and hot temperatures,
and so the wheat varieties and other crops as well
(33:49):
that we've traditionally employed in the UK that just don't
seem to be performing in this kind of new climate
that we're experiencing. Kind of for the last five years,
we've had real periods of extended drought in the spring period.
So yeah, we've definitely got to be looking at other varieties,
but there's a lot of other things that we're doing
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
What about this wartime scale overhaul. You know, they're talking
about the biggest overhaul since the Second World War, and
one of the areas they're looking at is healthier diets
because at the moment in the UK, half of your
veggies are imported and I couldn't believe the stat tom
eighty five percent of your fruit is imported.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, well, I mean we've been grubbing up orchards, apple
orchard traditional British apple orchards in those traditional areas of
East Anglia and in the West, they're not viable. We're
undercut by competition from abroad, and you know, so then
therefore we are Yeah, we're importing eighty five percent. We've
(34:54):
just planted six hundred fruit trees on the farm last
year and so hopefully we can get a very small
way to mitigate that. But the report was in essence
a bit of an overhaul or recommending an overhaul. It
was one of those reports about kind of you know,
food systems twenty fifty and it was pretty high level.
(35:15):
But we clearly do need a bit of a change.
We're importing more food I think than we've ever imported
as an island nation. We are less healthy than we've
ever been. People have never been more divorced from where
their food comes from. Our exercise or exercise levels I
think are going up. There's a huge disparity in exercise
(35:36):
and fitness, and so I do think we need a
pretty systemic change. I'm not sure we've got a government
that's going to be delivering that, but that you know,
the challenge is there and with it the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Well, unless your cricket team's going okay, mind you all
be it coached by a bunch of New Zealanders. Let's
just finish on a book I've been reading during my
travels in the past couple of weeks, and it's an
absolutely sharker. It's called entitled, and it's about the former
Duke of York and the former Duchess of York. My goodness,
those two are grifters and that's being kind to them.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah, do you know, well, you know, Jamie, I'm sure
every family's got it's black sheep, and if if yours
hasn't been, you are.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
It probably, But this is not about me. This is
about Andrew and Fergie.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
Yeah, it's it's pretty remarkable. You've got just you know
that the variation in that one one generation. You've got Andrew,
Charles's who's doing a great job. You've got Princess and
who's the hardest working royal is the most remarkable human being.
I mean, she's she's absolutely you know, she's an absolute rocket.
And then and then Andrew, who's you know, Who's who's
(36:49):
made some pretty terrible decisions in well, seemingly for decades.
So I'm sure there's there's more to come out as
there always is. But yeah, I hope Yoully, we don't
publish a book. Well at least.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Okay, at least you've got William and Kate to look
forward to, who I think will do a good job
carrying the Royal torch. And this poor old Edward. Of course,
he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot or
an ashtray on a motorbike, but never mind, he's not
causing much harm. Hey farmer Tom, thanks for some of
your time. We'll catch you back next month and you
start getting your CV ready for the British Farming Awards
(37:26):
for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Thanks David shut up.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Are wrapping the country for today on tomorrow's show, by
the way, Christopher Lux and Miles Hurrel on tonight's GDT
Auction and Jane Smith, amongst others Emma Higgins I think
also from Rabobank, Mike McIntire, my go to guy at
Jardin on the GDT Auction tonight. Futures are calling for
a decent correction again off the back of yesterday's strong
(37:56):
production numbers for September. Interesting times we live on. We'll
catch you back tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckaye. Thanks to Brent, you're specialist in
John Deere construction equipment.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.