August 31, 2026 • 39 mins
Hamish McKay talks to Dr Elizabeth Heeg, Hamish Best, Megan Whitehead, Alec Astle, and James Blair.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Isuzu Utes. Get a
double cab D-Max from $ 55, 990. Newstalk ZB.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Mackay, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
On the show today, a response to criticism from the
Forestry Owners Association. They had their opportunity to talk back,
so to speak. We analyse the new rules around home
kill and why local is so important to one Wellington farmer.
Top shearer Megan Whitehead is on the show and she
(00:37):
takes the top knot off her big comeback plans, a
record attempt in December.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And from the provincial sports file. a look at the.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Time-honoured cricket tradition of the wonderful Hawke Cup. But first,
it's time to talk forestry.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Is Dr Elizabeth Heath, CEO of the Forestry Owners Association.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Good afternoon. How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Great, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Look, as an industry, do you feel you're copping a
fair bit?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Is that unfair?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Oh, look, we are really keen to tell the good
story that we have to tell about the great fiber
that we grow here in New Zealand and all the
great things that you can do with it. And I
think we're looking for opportunities like this to be able
to talk more about what we're growing here in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
OK, so what are some of these positive stories that
need to be out there?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Well, first and foremost, we are one of the most
efficient producers of fiber in the world and really high
quality wood fiber. And, you know, what we're able to
do with that is only surpassed by the fact that
we can grow it in a way that, you know,
we've got kiwi and our native falcons and all kinds
(01:58):
of biodiversity that are living in it while we're growing it,
and we're able to then manage the harvest and do
all that sustainably, often in tandem to great farming systems
as well. So we're an efficient producer of high-quality building
products and a whole range of pulp and paper, and
(02:19):
the way that we do that is often in conjunction
with some great farming systems as well.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Elizabeth, the problem is, I guess, if I'm from the
East Coast, I'm not seeing those positive stories in terms
of good practices and everything we're seeing around the slash
and the harvesting.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I mean, how are you going to overcome that imagery?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
So part of what we are going to have to
work on is responding to these really bad storm events
and how we disentangle what is a result of forestry
practice and what's a result of these traumatic storm events.
The tough thing in Tide Offity is we got hammered
(02:59):
with a really terrible cyclone up there. And then I
think everybody looked at all the wood that had come
down and assumed that that was a result of poor practice.
And actually, a lot of the trees that came down
in that were standing trees that got blown over or
there was landslide events. Climate change is really throwing us
some curveballs, especially with these big storms. You know, we've
(03:23):
subsequently had a couple of places in the country where
we've had big blowovers and what we call wind throw
events in the last few years. I think in Tide Offity,
particularly the soil type up there makes it extra tricky
for how we're going to work through that. And we're
really focused on getting it right. So we're putting research
and development and we're putting a lot of time into
engineering and into trying to figure out how we manage
(03:44):
those systems under this increased pressure so that it's not
a compliance problem, that we're doing everything we can to
to try and manage in those systems effectively, even given
the fact that we're dealing with increased pressure.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Do you think you can genuinely offer hope to the
people of those regions that we're not going to see
the same impact? I mean, we've got to accept climate
change is happening, weather events are happening, trees will come down,
as you have said, in a natural kind of way.
But are you confident that there's enough being done that
we won't see the huge impact that we've seen?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
I think that depends on the nature of the storm events,
and anybody that tells you we're going to be able
to 100% manage it, I think, isn't really looking at
the reality of some of what we're seeing. Some of
the briefings I've been to from Earth Sciences lately about
the weather we're in store for in the next couple
of years with this El Nino and then going into
(04:45):
a La Nina, we're getting less of a break of
good weather in between these events. That being said, I
back New Zealand ingenuity on this. We've got some great engineers,
some really smart people that are out there thinking about
how we work through this from a forestry engineering and
from a management perspective. And I think we're going to
(05:06):
do everything we can to meet the challenge. But part
of what we've got to do is keep working the
systems in order to do that. So if we stand still,
the risk doesn't go away. It actually just gets realized
in different ways. We've got to keep working through and
keep managing these systems in order to try to mitigate
the risks that we're dealing with.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
What do you make of the fact that it would appear,
and many believe this, that New Zealand rely too heavily
on forestry offsets rather than reducing gross emissions?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Well, I think we need to do more to reduce
gross emissions. But right now, the forestry that we've got
in the emissions trading scheme and otherwise is the climate
mitigation that's actually working, like it's pulling CO2 out of
the atmosphere. And so we don't want to stop doing
what's working because we need to do more. We actually
(06:02):
need to keep doing what's working and And then talk
about how we do the more on top of that.
And to be fair, there's some awesome systems out there.
People are electrifying both their forestry and their farming systems,
and we're finding all kinds of ways to reduce emissions.
I think that's where, again, we just need to bring
that intellect into how we're going to do it. But
(06:24):
don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don't stop
doing the thing that's working. in order to go after
the gross emissions reductions, which we absolutely need.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You talk of this wonderful fibre timber, what percentage of
trees is actually for timber production versus this offset planting?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, at the national level, I think what makes it
tough for people to understand, I get a lot of
people send me pictures of what they think is a
carbon forest. And I'm like, well, I know the people
who planted that. That's a timber forest. But they are
thinking about entering into the emissions trading scheme. In a
lot of cases, you'll have folks that basically have maintained
(07:04):
their optionality. So they may be growing a timber crop,
but their intentions may change over the course of growing
that crop. So right now we know from some of
the surveys MPI does that about 80% of people that
have a forest in the AETS are anticipating that they're
going to harvest that forest, right? And I think at
(07:27):
the national level, that means the majority of forests you
see are for timber, even if they're in the emissions
trading scheme. But it's all going to depend, when you
get that 30 years down the track, It's going to
depend on what the price of carbon is and the
price of timber is. And because we represent timber growers,
one of the things we're really keen to make sure
(07:49):
of is that, you know, that timber is going to
be high value and it's going to mean that we've
got this continued wood flow and the fiber flow going
through our manufacturing system. We can still have great onshore
wood processing.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Is it fair to have sort of a dollar each
way like that?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Oh, you know, my grandfather was a farmer. I'm not
a farmer. But I think for people that are working
on the land and have a long-term asset, I think
having the potential to make an income on that asset
as it's growing, like you do with the emissions trading scheme,
is pretty important when you look at how tight cost
(08:29):
margins are right now. And then I think when you
get to the point where you could harvest timber and
you potentially are going to have to pay some of
that back, depending on how you're doing your accounting, I
think all of that is part of the system. So
I absolutely think carbon income can be a great way
for farmers and foresters to diversify their risks, especially in
(08:52):
what we have right now, which is a very risky environment.
And I think that's going to be an important part
of managing rural systems going forward. There's also the potential, like,
you know, Minister Hoggard talked about these nature credit markets.
There's going to be a lot of potential for us
to diversify financial instruments in the rural landscape. And I
think we need to embrace that and find ways to
(09:13):
work with it because the costs aren't going away. And
we're growing stuff on our land that has a lot
of value in different kinds of markets, different kinds of
financial systems. We should take advantage of that rather than
be scared of it. But I think we've got to
absolutely manage it in a responsible way.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Dr.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Elizabeth Heeg, CEO of the Forestry Owners Association, thank you
for your time today.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
This is The Country.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
It is coming up to 13 minutes or quarter past, 30,
quarter past midday.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
There you go. Got to put the old goggles on
to read the clock. See, there you go. This is
The Country. Coming up, we're going to talk to a
great local provider of meat down near Wellington. That is next.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
This is The Country. Well, Hamish Best is a Kiwi
farmer whose number one goal is to sell locally and
it's Wellingtonians who benefit from this.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Hamish joins us now on the show. Good afternoon.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
G'day Hamish, how are you?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, I'm very, very well, thank you. And very interested
in the story. Now, first of all, Conscious Valley, is
that a place or is that your trade name?
Speaker 6 (10:29):
That's the trade name. We farm out in Ohariu Valley,
which is just 20 minutes away from Wellington. So half
the name is to do with where we farm, but
the other half is just about people making, I guess,
a decision about where their meat comes from.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, and what led to this idea to sell locally?
Speaker 6 (10:47):
I was living in Melbourne and knew that I was
coming back to the farm. And I, during COVID, had
a really high quality local butchery that just during those
COVID times had massive queues outside it. And so I thought, well,
people are going to pay for good quality meat and
we might as well, we grow really good quality meat here.
And I just wanted Wellingtonians to have access to that.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, just describe for me the property you're on and
what's behind that high quality property.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
It's a steep hill country farm based on the west
coast there. We've got a few windmills floating around, so
it's a pretty windy, gnarly sort of spot. But that
wind brings a lot of salt air in off the
Cook Strait. The pastures are pretty diverse. The sheep have
a lot to choose from. And then we finish our
lambs on specialist sort of lucerne herb mixes.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And what's your specialty?
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Our specialty would definitely be our lamb. It's what we've
won most of our awards for. We basically butcher the
whole animal. So the thick cut loin chops, they've won
plenty of awards. This year we won the Outstanding Food
Producers Meat category with our lamb shoulder rack. So I
guess those two would have to be right up there.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Sounds very mouthwatering to say the least. Now, There's some
rules too around. So what sort of category do you
sort of fall under?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
The home kill?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
And I know there's been some rule changes around that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
How does that affect you?
Speaker 6 (12:17):
The rule changes, yeah, they're interesting. They won't affect us
too much. We kill through our local abattoir and then
get processed through a registered butchery. We sort of have
to do that in order to sell to the public
and to restaurants and to supermarkets. But I guess the
rule change would be a good thing for people who
(12:37):
have access to a farmer or a hunter who want to,
I guess, get access to better quality meat.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Okay. So what about this end user engagement?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
That must be a satisfying part of the role to
get off farm and actually be at the coalface.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
Oh, there's nothing more motivating as a farmer than talking
to your end user because you Every week I get
so much positive feedback from our market customers and we
become a part of their weekly shop. So yeah, honestly,
it's probably been the biggest positive to opening Conscious Valley.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Do you deal direct with restaurants as well as the markets?
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Yeah, we do. And I'm a bit of a foodie.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
I lived in Melbourne.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
I love the food scene over there. So dealing with
restaurants is cool. We deal with a couple of the
Michelin star restaurants in Wellington and And even the other
ones we deal with, they've all got their own unique
little flavours and ways of cooking, which is fun to explore.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
And does the brand Conscious Valley get recognised at these
Michelin star restaurants?
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Well, interestingly, yeah, it did. One of the judges mentioned
that the lamb dish from Conscious Valley was one of
his favourite dishes when he was judging a particular restaurant
that won a Michelin star.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So that was.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
It was pretty cool. Humble little farm on the west
coast of Wellington.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, that is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Well, great to see you making the best of your
farm and the opportunity and selling local. These are heady,
exciting times for the ag sector, aren't they? And, you know,
something you'd encourage young people to get involved in. And
you've been involved as a finalist in the likes of
the Zander McDonald Awards.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
These are good times.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Great times to be a farmer at the moment and
even I've been in the industry 15 odd years now
since I left school probably the brightest time I've seen
probably the brightest time my parents have seen and I
guess for anyone out there who's wanting to apply for
the Zander scholarship the Zander award it's such an amazing
(14:51):
group of people they put you up on their shoulders
and they really try and get the best of you.
And you have access to mentors that you couldn't even
dream of, whether they're farmers or successful business people and
other people your age. It's just such a, it's such
a cool thing.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Was that something that, I guess, as you say, you
got this idea in Melbourne, but the things that you
picked up from being involved with the Xander McDonald and
Ward all sort of bedded in together to take you
to where you are now?
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Oh, yeah, 100%. I guess you always pick up things
from everywhere and you don't realise you've picked them up
until you go and use them. But just having the
confidence to be able to pick up the phone and
ring someone like Doug Avery after meeting him at the
Xander conference, you know, those little things just add to
(15:45):
your career.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Tell us about the Wellington Harbourside markets on a Sunday.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You know, is that pumping?
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
Well, you know the saying, Hamish, you can't beat Wellington
on a good day. So if the sun's out, the
markets are probably the best place to be in Wellington
on a Sunday. There's food trucks everywhere. There's fresh veg,
beautiful fresh meat. And you're right on the harbour there. So, yeah,
I love Wellington. So I'm a bit of an advocate
(16:15):
for the city.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, no, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And how long does it take you to get from
the home place in the Aharia Valley through to the
central city?
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Well, I've just finished my restaurant run this morning, and
I left the city at 22.11, and I got home
at 11 o'clock, so 20 minutes if you get a
good run.
Speaker 8 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Does that kind of, you know, irons and a few
fires and that sort of mixed portfolio of life, I guess,
make your farming and your general life far more enjoyable?
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Yeah, definitely. I guess growing up here, I got used
to a bit of the city life. So I enjoy
those comforts, but I also enjoy being out in the
back of the farm by myself with no one around. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
It's a bit, Hamish, a bit like the guys that
I grew up with in Northern Manawatu and most of
the next generation or my generation, a little younger, they
all have the farm up in the Apity, but they
still live in Palmerston North now, but they still like
to get up to the back of the farm a
couple of days of the week, if you know what
I mean.
Speaker 7 (17:19):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, exactly. Hey, great stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Hamish Best from Conscious Valley down there in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
No worries.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Thanks, Hamish.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
25 minutes after midday here on The Country. Still to come,
we are going to be talking one of the greats
of provincial sport, the old Hawk Cup. That is later
on in the show. Coming up, top sharer Megan Whitehead.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
After the record again. That's all coming up on The Country. Well,
we turn our attention now to shearing.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yep, that great pastime, you know, that back-breaking, one of
the hardest jobs around.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I always remember the great story of Colin King saying.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
that when he took up marathon running, it was no
problem because he used to do two marathons a day
in the wool shed. Now, looking to make a comeback and,
of course, somebody who's already made a huge splash in
the world of.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Shearing is Megan Whitehead. Gore Shearer joins us now. G'day, Megan.
Speaker 9 (18:30):
Hi, how are you going?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, very good, thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So you've got your sort of back right into it
and you've got some pretty.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Big goals because you've achieved before, but you want to
achieve more.
Speaker 9 (18:41):
Yeah, yeah, I'm planning on attempting the nine-hour strong world
lamb record again at Robert Grant's Otapiri Gorge on the
18th of December.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Okay, so between now and there, what's the preparation look like?
Speaker 9 (18:56):
I've been training since the start of May. I've been
doing CrossFit for four months, and then I met Luxton
last night to put another training regime in place for
the next, four months till we record.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
So what's the target now? What do you have to beat?
Speaker 9 (19:16):
I have to beat 720, which Sasha Bond holds currently.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, Sasha, that's your North Island shearer, 720 in nine hours.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
How confident are you feeling?
Speaker 9 (19:31):
I've done it before.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
So.
Speaker 9 (19:36):
Yeah, I'm going straight to the records. Yeah, just concentrating
on my training and my passion. And, yeah, I'll try
my very best.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
So you're 30 years of age now. Do you think
you're sort of... of starting to hit your peak powers?
Speaker 9 (19:53):
Yeah, I've been told before apparently you don't hit your
peak until 10 years of sharing and I'm at that now.
So you're always learning with sharing. Yeah, whether it's the
nutrition side of things and training and and gear and
your pattern, you're always learning. So I am confident in
(20:15):
my pattern, and I've got a lot more experience up
my sleeve.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So it's always sort of like minuscule improvements that add up,
don't they, which must add up over the course of
a nine-hour day to sort of get to 700-plus.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
Yeah, yeah, we're talking, yeah, seconds, every little second. on
your cutter changes, your entry into the pen, and each
blow needs to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
How close do you think it's going to be for
you to get this record? I mean, we saw with
Simon Goss back in January, what was that?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It came down to about one sheep, didn't it? One lamb?
Speaker 9 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's very tough on the mind. It's just
fighting down to the seconds to... Yeah, be in his position, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
How do you get that kind of mental strength?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I mean, you've got to have intestinal fortitude to keep
going for nine hours.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And as I mentioned, and what is without a doubt
the toughest job in the world.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
But how do you sort of, I don't know, stay
so focused but zoned out at the same.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Time, I guess?
Speaker 9 (21:22):
Yeah, I guess I'm very stubborn and very pig-headed, and
I think that's a good thing, going for a record.
I'm pretty good at staying on track and blocking everything
out and staying focused. Yeah. Because you can't let anything
get to you. If things don't go wrong, you've got
to stay focused and stay in the moment. Yeah, if
(21:45):
you've got to move forward, you can't let anything get
to you.
Speaker 8 (21:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
And that attention to detail too.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I mean, I know that you can't let anything get
into you because with Simon was the situation, I think,
where the air conditioning unit went down and nobody could
kind of quite pick out what was going on and
he sort of, he fell off the pace for a
little bit. So you do have to be incredibly focused.
Who's the team that.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, that's why.
Speaker 9 (22:08):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
No, no, sorry, Karen.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
Yep.
Speaker 9 (22:10):
That's why you need a good team behind you. They
make your day fall into place. And if you don't
have a good team, things will fall apart and that's when...
the pressure will come on to you and you don't
want to be thinking about any of that. Your team
should have you set up for the day. You should
be just focused on shearing the sheep.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So tell us about your team. Who are the integral
members of it?
Speaker 9 (22:32):
Well, Dad, Quentin Whitehead, he's been my second and he's
the heart and soul of every record I've done. Clint
Bellamy has one of his good friends who he used
to share around the world with. He's from the North
Island Taranaki. He's been at every single one of my records,
and then plus I've got Ben Fox, who's a farmer
(22:54):
from Down Portification. He's been on my team, and my
brother Rambo, they've been there since day one, and they
know how everything runs. So, yeah, I'm pretty lucky to
have them every year, well, every record attempt, sorry.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
The old man could share a bit too, couldn't he?
Speaker 9 (23:13):
Yeah, definitely. He's a perfectionist in everything he does. Whether
it's farming or dog trails, nothing goes past him.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
And for the team, everybody has pretty clearly defined roles
that they know they have to take care of?
Speaker 9 (23:29):
Yeah, they all work that out within themselves. I'm just
concentrated on sharing my sheep, really. I don't really know
what goes on behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
So between now and, what are we talking, December, obviously
a fair.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Bit of shed work to do. How do you strike
the balance?
Speaker 9 (23:52):
Yeah, well, the shed's got to be rearranged. So builders
come in and the porthole's got to be a certain
size and you're only allowed builders at 22 sheep in
the pen. All fours have got to be touched on
the ground. You've got to re-carpet the whole pen and
the reinforcing pen. The pen's got to be a certain
(24:17):
size and you want it as efficient as possible so
I'm not walking to the back of the pen.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 9 (24:26):
There's a lot to do with the farmer as well
and looking after my lambs and we also wash them
the day before the weaned, washed and then I shear them.
So the farmer's got a big responsibility in taking care
of those lambs and getting them up to standard for
me to go ahead with the record as well, which
(24:46):
I'm very grateful for Cameron and Robert Grant. They've been
there for the past three of my records.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Well, I guess you can't wait for it to come around,
but you've got a few months to fill in in between.
Speaker 9 (24:59):
Yeah, yeah. Exciting, but nerve-wracking.
Speaker 7 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
All the best, and we'll follow it a bit closer
to the time and check in with how you're going. But,
Megan Whitehead, all the very best for the months ahead
as you build up to that big record attempt in December.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Ada Gord here, Megan Whitehead, all the best to her.
Coming up on the show, we are going.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
To have news and sport, but also the Young Grower
of the Year and the Time Honoured Hawk Cup.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
A look at a new book that has come out
on that. Looking forward to that. Coming up on The Country.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
MUSIC PLAYS 22.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Minutes away from 1 o'clock. That's 12.38.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Standing by now for news and sport on the country.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
The country's rural news with Cub Cadet, New Zealand's leading
ride-on lawnmower brand. Visit steelfort.co.nz for your local stockist.
Speaker 8 (26:06):
Thanks, Hamish. And I just want to assure everyone out there,
we've had a lot of texts come in asking for
an update on Jamie's condition. He texted me today to
let everyone know that he's fighting a very bad case
of Influenza A. So he is around. He's just very unwell.
So we wish him all the best and hope he
gets well soon. And hopefully that puts everyone's minds at
rest that's been texting in, wishing him all the best.
(26:28):
And Jamie, if you're listening, we hope that you get
better soon. We miss you here at the country. Although
it's great working with you, Hamish. Enjoy having you on
the show as well. And hopefully the listeners do too.
In rural news, farmers are facing higher levies for mandatory
livestock tracing program from Tuesday, despite opposing cost increases. Osprey,
funded by industry and government, runs the National Animal Identification
(26:49):
and Tracing Program, tracking livestock movements for biosecurity and animal
disease management. Its board decided to raise prices for NAIT
air tags by 39% to $ 1. 35 for deer and cattle
and slaughter fees up 28% to $ 1. 91 per cattle beast
from the 1st of September. And farmers and growers on
the West Coast will now have a chance to showcase
(27:10):
their environmental achievements on a national stage with the Balanced
Farm Environment Awards expanding to include a 12th region. The
West Coast has officially joined the awards programme, giving local
primary producers the opportunity to have their work recognised and
celebrated alongside some of New Zealand's leading farming and growing businesses.
And applications for the Balanced Farm Environment Awards are open
now and close on October 31st.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
And that's rural news.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
You've got sport there, Mark.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Sport on the country with AFCO. 100% Kiwi owned.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
That's rare.
Speaker 10 (27:42):
Yes, thank you, Michelle. Netball New Zealand will have a
privatised domestic competition next year, backed by investors Ali Williams
and Anna Mowbray. The governing body has signed a non-binding
team sheet where the licences for the league and teams
will be held by the entrepreneurial... here. Questions remain about
the numbers of teams involved. Broadcast deal, the length of
(28:04):
the competition and placement on the calendar. Mowbray and Williams
have committed to a minimum five team requirement next year
with a view of making this the country's undisputed home
of World Netball. Netball New Zealand will take a governance
role on the board established to run the competition. Back
to you Hamish.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Thank you very much MW and MK. Hey what about
the movie Lomu? Will you be checking that.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Out, mate?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Absolutely.
Speaker 10 (28:31):
He's a childhood hero of mine, like many other people
my age.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I love the way the sort of advertising around it
plays on there. Oh, oh, Lomu. Yeah, fantastic. Righty-o, we'll
take a break.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
When we come back, it is time to talk to
the Young Grower of the Year on the country. The Country,
Hamish Mackay with you. And as Michelle mentioned, all the
best to our buddy, my cousin Jamie. Yeah, he's got
a bit on his plate at the moment, but he's
a force of nature and he will be back sooner
than later.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I'm sure of that.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
It is coming up to about what's around about 16
minutes away from one o'clock.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
That's very sort of northern Manawatu rural with me, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Sort of roundabout, you know, you don't get too concerned
about things like the time of day. We're going to
talk something that is part of the social and sporting
fabric of, well, rural New Zealand. You know, I sort
of say Danny Virk to Dunsandal, you.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Know, the Hawke Cup of cricket.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Joining us to look at this is, look, he's probably
got a number of titles, but he used to be
a teacher and a senior master at the school that
I attended, the mighty PNBHS. Alec Astle, good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
That's a very good introduction.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
How are you, sir? I can't help but not call
you sir.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
And it's a good upbringing that you had at Farmers
North Boys.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Very good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, good, good, good.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Author, historian, educator, cricketer, all those things. This history of
the Hawke Cup, what's the magic there? What's behind this?
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Well, Murray Brown, who I played cricket with for many
years in the Manama 2, we wrote a history of
Manama 2 cricket, which we published in 2021. And then
in 2022, a friend of mine suggested that we might
like to have a crack at the Hawke Cup because
nobody had really written too much about the Hawke Cup,
(30:29):
which is sort of the equivalent of the Renfrewley Shield
amongst what were called the minor provinces of New Zealand
or minor associations. So it got kicked off in 1910-11.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
There would be a few stories to tell. How much
sort of enjoyment have you gleaned from this exercise?
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Oh, a great amount. I played for about 20 years
for Manama 2, as did Murray, and because of my
association playing cricket, I can go back to some of
the fellows that even played in the late 1920s and
then all the way through to the current day. So
it's been a great memory. And with the book that
(31:12):
we've written... As it's sold, we've actually had a number
of people contact us and have great conversations about their grandfathers,
their fathers, and even themselves in terms of playing in
this competition. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Are there one or two individual stories that stand out?
Speaker 5 (31:32):
There's a lot of stories that stand out, actually.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
But, yeah, there are.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
I mean, obviously, when Bulla beat Canterbury Country to win
the Hawke Cup, That was a David and Goliath moment.
And you've got the tiniest cricket association in New Zealand
winning off one of the significant associations in terms of size.
That was another story. And also in the late 1940s
(31:59):
when Manama 2 had the cup and they went and
played in Hawke's Bay, they lost by concession. Man number
two were not happy with the umpiring decisions, all the
LBW decisions that were made, so they suggested to change
the umpire, which didn't happen. So they decided, right, that's it,
we're packing our bags and going home. And New Zealand
(32:22):
Cricket Council at that stage were left with no other
option but to award the trophy to Hawke's Bay. And
I think that, if I remember rightly, that was the
first time that Hawke's Bay had actually won the Hawke Cup.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
It makes the hair stand up on the back of
my neck, Alec Astle, when I hear the name Buller
beating Canterbury Country.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That's just the riveting old yarns. Fantastic.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
Yeah, it was fantastic. And then, of course, they had
to defend it and they didn't have a pitch, a
grass pitch. So they had to get permission to play
on an artificial, which has not been done before. And
they were playing North Otago, the second smallest association in
New Zealand, and they'd never played each other. And so...
As it turned out, Port Otago won it. They took
(33:05):
it back to Oamaru and they didn't have a pitch
because Centennial Park was being renovated. And so they had
to play at Waitaki Boys. And they used sheep trucks
with large white covers over them as a sight screen
for that particular game.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
You and Murray obviously had a lot of fun putting
this together. How do we get a hold of it? Bookstores?
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Online? Online.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
No, because it's a limited sort of publication and we've
done it as a labour of love, you can get
it from emailing either myself or Murray to get the book.
It's a pretty substantial publication. It's 485 pages. It's a
great doorstop. It weighs two kgs. And so, yeah, it's
(33:51):
going to cost $ 75. And if you want our emails,
I can give those to you because that's how we
can be contacted.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I'll get those off air from you, Alec, and then
we'll make sure that people can get a hold of
those for that.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
The history of the Hawke Cup, what are.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
We talking, 1910 right through to basically now?
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Yeah, till 2025.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Fantastic.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Alec Estill, thank you very much for joining us and
I look forward.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
To having a good look at that.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Just Buller beating Canterbury Country and then not having a
wicket to play it on. Imagine it was a bit
like the concrete one we had at Aperty Primary School.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Righty-o, we'll take a break.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
When we come back, we've got time for the Young
Grower of the Year. Well, over the weekend, the Young
Grower of the Year was announced after a couple of
days of competition for regional winners across a series of
challenges down there at an event hosted at 45 South
(34:47):
Cherries in Cromwell. And the Young Grower of the Year
is James Blair, who joins us on the show.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Good afternoon, James. How are you?
Speaker 7 (34:57):
Good, thanks. How are you?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, great. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Is that a little bit of an accent I sense
or hear there?
Speaker 7 (35:06):
Yeah, not originally from New Zealand, from the UK and
then moved to New Zealand about three and a half
years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Saw the light and making every post a winner you
are too, James.
Speaker 7 (35:19):
Yeah, it's definitely been a good decision to move over here.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Okay, so there were seven finalists and you competed in
a series of practical and theoretical horticultural modules. How tough
was it to take out this title against some very
good opponents?
Speaker 7 (35:35):
It was, yeah, it was extremely tough. All the competitors
come from a range of backgrounds and different crops. And yeah,
the level of competition was incredible. So yeah, it was
very tough.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Okay, so what were you best at? What were your strengths?
How did you get the title?
Speaker 7 (35:56):
I think some of just the day-to-day on-farm stuff, a
bit of the technical, you know, crop management, crop establishment,
just stuff we sort of do day-to-day that you probably
don't realise. So I think that probably helped a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
And you also had to be involved in a panel
discussion and provide a speech, too, to a big gala
dinner that was a sellout in Cromwell.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
That would have been fairly nerve-wracking.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
Yeah, I think before the panel discussion, it's quite intimate,
and everybody was definitely feeling the nerves. But once you
get the first couple of questions out of the way,
you get into the flow, and it becomes a little
bit easier.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Okay, we are talking to James Blair, Young Grower of
the Year. Now tell us about your day job, an
agronomist with AS Wilcox.
Speaker 7 (36:48):
Yep, so my job sort of covers a few different regions,
but I guess the fundamentals of the job are just
trying to do a good job of growing a crop,
grow a good, high-yielding, healthy crop while sort of looking
after the environment at the same time.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
What got you into the cropping side of things, the
agronomy side of things, your background?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
You grew up on a dairy farm in the UK?
Speaker 7 (37:12):
Yeah, so I grew up on a dairy farm. We
grew a small amount of cropping and sort of saw
what the agronomists were up to and sort of fell
into it from there. I wanted to sort of do
something within agriculture and then sort of fell into agronomy.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
You obviously enjoy a good road trip too, James, because
you cover a fair bit of territory from Bukinui in
the far north down to Olkuni.
Speaker 7 (37:40):
Yes, I spend lots of time in the car. So
the past few weeks I've been listening to lots of podcasts,
just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Excellent. Any favourite podcasts other than the country?
Speaker 7 (37:54):
I've been listening to a range of podcasts, even podcasts
from back in the UK as well, just to... see
what's happening i guess within the within the wider picture
of agriculture yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Okay so um what's the favorite part of your job
you know is there a particular crop or something that
you have a real passion.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
For um.
Speaker 7 (38:16):
Yeah so my job my job now mainly focuses on
potatoes um so i guess just yeah my favorite thing
has been out in the paddock crop walking when it's
a When it's a nice blue sky day, yeah, there's
nothing better.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Well, Nick, you get back to work and enjoy the
rest of the week. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 8 (38:33):
Awesome.
Speaker 7 (38:33):
Thanks very much. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
The young grower of the year there, James Blair. Great stuff. Well,
great to have your company on the country today. Now, look,
I hope you did your homework from yesterday. Advice we
had from Elena Dutta from Farmlands on yesterday's show around,
of course, planning feed supply needs to, you know, have
(38:57):
a holistic approach, not just a paddock by paddock situation.
You know, when it comes to fertiliser, soil temperature, that's critical,
all those types of things, and choosing the right cultivar,
all that type of thing. And hey, how good was
it to see on TVNZ last night covering our man
Pat Logan and the New Zealand Wollongong team beating the
(39:17):
Aussies in.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
The hybrid dog trialling.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I was stoked after we had Pat on the show
yesterday to get home and see that coverage there last night.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Have a great day wherever you are, whatever you make.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Might be doing across this great fabulous country of ours
and we'll catch you again tomorrow between 12 and.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
1 right here on the country. I'm Hamish McKay bye
for now.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Isuzu Utes. Get a
double cab D-Max from $ 55, 990.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Newstalk ZV.
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Isuzu Utes. Get a
double cab D-Max from $ 55, 990. Newstalk ZB.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Mackay, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
On the show today, a response to criticism from the
Forestry Owners Association. They had their opportunity to talk back,
so to speak. We analyse the new rules around home
kill and why local is so important to one Wellington farmer.
Top shearer Megan Whitehead is on the show and she
(00:37):
takes the top knot off her big comeback plans, a
record attempt in December.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And from the provincial sports file. a look at the.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Time-honoured cricket tradition of the wonderful Hawke Cup. But first,
it's time to talk forestry.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Is Dr Elizabeth Heath, CEO of the Forestry Owners Association.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Good afternoon. How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Great, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Look, as an industry, do you feel you're copping a
fair bit?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Is that unfair?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Oh, look, we are really keen to tell the good
story that we have to tell about the great fiber
that we grow here in New Zealand and all the
great things that you can do with it. And I
think we're looking for opportunities like this to be able
to talk more about what we're growing here in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
OK, so what are some of these positive stories that
need to be out there?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Well, first and foremost, we are one of the most
efficient producers of fiber in the world and really high
quality wood fiber. And, you know, what we're able to
do with that is only surpassed by the fact that
we can grow it in a way that, you know,
we've got kiwi and our native falcons and all kinds
(01:58):
of biodiversity that are living in it while we're growing it,
and we're able to then manage the harvest and do
all that sustainably, often in tandem to great farming systems
as well. So we're an efficient producer of high-quality building
products and a whole range of pulp and paper, and
(02:19):
the way that we do that is often in conjunction
with some great farming systems as well.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Elizabeth, the problem is, I guess, if I'm from the
East Coast, I'm not seeing those positive stories in terms
of good practices and everything we're seeing around the slash
and the harvesting.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I mean, how are you going to overcome that imagery?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
So part of what we are going to have to
work on is responding to these really bad storm events
and how we disentangle what is a result of forestry
practice and what's a result of these traumatic storm events.
The tough thing in Tide Offity is we got hammered
(02:59):
with a really terrible cyclone up there. And then I
think everybody looked at all the wood that had come
down and assumed that that was a result of poor practice.
And actually, a lot of the trees that came down
in that were standing trees that got blown over or
there was landslide events. Climate change is really throwing us
some curveballs, especially with these big storms. You know, we've
(03:23):
subsequently had a couple of places in the country where
we've had big blowovers and what we call wind throw
events in the last few years. I think in Tide Offity,
particularly the soil type up there makes it extra tricky
for how we're going to work through that. And we're
really focused on getting it right. So we're putting research
and development and we're putting a lot of time into
engineering and into trying to figure out how we manage
(03:44):
those systems under this increased pressure so that it's not
a compliance problem, that we're doing everything we can to
to try and manage in those systems effectively, even given
the fact that we're dealing with increased pressure.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Do you think you can genuinely offer hope to the
people of those regions that we're not going to see
the same impact? I mean, we've got to accept climate
change is happening, weather events are happening, trees will come down,
as you have said, in a natural kind of way.
But are you confident that there's enough being done that
we won't see the huge impact that we've seen?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
I think that depends on the nature of the storm events,
and anybody that tells you we're going to be able
to 100% manage it, I think, isn't really looking at
the reality of some of what we're seeing. Some of
the briefings I've been to from Earth Sciences lately about
the weather we're in store for in the next couple
of years with this El Nino and then going into
(04:45):
a La Nina, we're getting less of a break of
good weather in between these events. That being said, I
back New Zealand ingenuity on this. We've got some great engineers,
some really smart people that are out there thinking about
how we work through this from a forestry engineering and
from a management perspective. And I think we're going to
(05:06):
do everything we can to meet the challenge. But part
of what we've got to do is keep working the
systems in order to do that. So if we stand still,
the risk doesn't go away. It actually just gets realized
in different ways. We've got to keep working through and
keep managing these systems in order to try to mitigate
the risks that we're dealing with.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
What do you make of the fact that it would appear,
and many believe this, that New Zealand rely too heavily
on forestry offsets rather than reducing gross emissions?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Well, I think we need to do more to reduce
gross emissions. But right now, the forestry that we've got
in the emissions trading scheme and otherwise is the climate
mitigation that's actually working, like it's pulling CO2 out of
the atmosphere. And so we don't want to stop doing
what's working because we need to do more. We actually
(06:02):
need to keep doing what's working and And then talk
about how we do the more on top of that.
And to be fair, there's some awesome systems out there.
People are electrifying both their forestry and their farming systems,
and we're finding all kinds of ways to reduce emissions.
I think that's where, again, we just need to bring
that intellect into how we're going to do it. But
(06:24):
don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don't stop
doing the thing that's working. in order to go after
the gross emissions reductions, which we absolutely need.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You talk of this wonderful fibre timber, what percentage of
trees is actually for timber production versus this offset planting?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, at the national level, I think what makes it
tough for people to understand, I get a lot of
people send me pictures of what they think is a
carbon forest. And I'm like, well, I know the people
who planted that. That's a timber forest. But they are
thinking about entering into the emissions trading scheme. In a
lot of cases, you'll have folks that basically have maintained
(07:04):
their optionality. So they may be growing a timber crop,
but their intentions may change over the course of growing
that crop. So right now we know from some of
the surveys MPI does that about 80% of people that
have a forest in the AETS are anticipating that they're
going to harvest that forest, right? And I think at
(07:27):
the national level, that means the majority of forests you
see are for timber, even if they're in the emissions
trading scheme. But it's all going to depend, when you
get that 30 years down the track, It's going to
depend on what the price of carbon is and the
price of timber is. And because we represent timber growers,
one of the things we're really keen to make sure
(07:49):
of is that, you know, that timber is going to
be high value and it's going to mean that we've
got this continued wood flow and the fiber flow going
through our manufacturing system. We can still have great onshore
wood processing.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Is it fair to have sort of a dollar each
way like that?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Oh, you know, my grandfather was a farmer. I'm not
a farmer. But I think for people that are working
on the land and have a long-term asset, I think
having the potential to make an income on that asset
as it's growing, like you do with the emissions trading scheme,
is pretty important when you look at how tight cost
(08:29):
margins are right now. And then I think when you
get to the point where you could harvest timber and
you potentially are going to have to pay some of
that back, depending on how you're doing your accounting, I
think all of that is part of the system. So
I absolutely think carbon income can be a great way
for farmers and foresters to diversify their risks, especially in
(08:52):
what we have right now, which is a very risky environment.
And I think that's going to be an important part
of managing rural systems going forward. There's also the potential, like,
you know, Minister Hoggard talked about these nature credit markets.
There's going to be a lot of potential for us
to diversify financial instruments in the rural landscape. And I
think we need to embrace that and find ways to
(09:13):
work with it because the costs aren't going away. And
we're growing stuff on our land that has a lot
of value in different kinds of markets, different kinds of
financial systems. We should take advantage of that rather than
be scared of it. But I think we've got to
absolutely manage it in a responsible way.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Dr.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Elizabeth Heeg, CEO of the Forestry Owners Association, thank you
for your time today.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
This is The Country.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
It is coming up to 13 minutes or quarter past, 30,
quarter past midday.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
There you go. Got to put the old goggles on
to read the clock. See, there you go. This is
The Country. Coming up, we're going to talk to a
great local provider of meat down near Wellington. That is next.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
This is The Country. Well, Hamish Best is a Kiwi
farmer whose number one goal is to sell locally and
it's Wellingtonians who benefit from this.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Hamish joins us now on the show. Good afternoon.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
G'day Hamish, how are you?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, I'm very, very well, thank you. And very interested
in the story. Now, first of all, Conscious Valley, is
that a place or is that your trade name?
Speaker 6 (10:29):
That's the trade name. We farm out in Ohariu Valley,
which is just 20 minutes away from Wellington. So half
the name is to do with where we farm, but
the other half is just about people making, I guess,
a decision about where their meat comes from.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, and what led to this idea to sell locally?
Speaker 6 (10:47):
I was living in Melbourne and knew that I was
coming back to the farm. And I, during COVID, had
a really high quality local butchery that just during those
COVID times had massive queues outside it. And so I thought, well,
people are going to pay for good quality meat and
we might as well, we grow really good quality meat here.
And I just wanted Wellingtonians to have access to that.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, just describe for me the property you're on and
what's behind that high quality property.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
It's a steep hill country farm based on the west
coast there. We've got a few windmills floating around, so
it's a pretty windy, gnarly sort of spot. But that
wind brings a lot of salt air in off the
Cook Strait. The pastures are pretty diverse. The sheep have
a lot to choose from. And then we finish our
lambs on specialist sort of lucerne herb mixes.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And what's your specialty?
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Our specialty would definitely be our lamb. It's what we've
won most of our awards for. We basically butcher the
whole animal. So the thick cut loin chops, they've won
plenty of awards. This year we won the Outstanding Food
Producers Meat category with our lamb shoulder rack. So I
guess those two would have to be right up there.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Sounds very mouthwatering to say the least. Now, There's some
rules too around. So what sort of category do you
sort of fall under?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
The home kill?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
And I know there's been some rule changes around that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
How does that affect you?
Speaker 6 (12:17):
The rule changes, yeah, they're interesting. They won't affect us
too much. We kill through our local abattoir and then
get processed through a registered butchery. We sort of have
to do that in order to sell to the public
and to restaurants and to supermarkets. But I guess the
rule change would be a good thing for people who
(12:37):
have access to a farmer or a hunter who want to,
I guess, get access to better quality meat.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Okay. So what about this end user engagement?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
That must be a satisfying part of the role to
get off farm and actually be at the coalface.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
Oh, there's nothing more motivating as a farmer than talking
to your end user because you Every week I get
so much positive feedback from our market customers and we
become a part of their weekly shop. So yeah, honestly,
it's probably been the biggest positive to opening Conscious Valley.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Do you deal direct with restaurants as well as the markets?
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Yeah, we do. And I'm a bit of a foodie.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
I lived in Melbourne.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
I love the food scene over there. So dealing with
restaurants is cool. We deal with a couple of the
Michelin star restaurants in Wellington and And even the other
ones we deal with, they've all got their own unique
little flavours and ways of cooking, which is fun to explore.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
And does the brand Conscious Valley get recognised at these
Michelin star restaurants?
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Well, interestingly, yeah, it did. One of the judges mentioned
that the lamb dish from Conscious Valley was one of
his favourite dishes when he was judging a particular restaurant
that won a Michelin star.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So that was.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
It was pretty cool. Humble little farm on the west
coast of Wellington.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, that is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Well, great to see you making the best of your
farm and the opportunity and selling local. These are heady,
exciting times for the ag sector, aren't they? And, you know,
something you'd encourage young people to get involved in. And
you've been involved as a finalist in the likes of
the Zander McDonald Awards.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
These are good times.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Great times to be a farmer at the moment and
even I've been in the industry 15 odd years now
since I left school probably the brightest time I've seen
probably the brightest time my parents have seen and I
guess for anyone out there who's wanting to apply for
the Zander scholarship the Zander award it's such an amazing
(14:51):
group of people they put you up on their shoulders
and they really try and get the best of you.
And you have access to mentors that you couldn't even
dream of, whether they're farmers or successful business people and
other people your age. It's just such a, it's such
a cool thing.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Was that something that, I guess, as you say, you
got this idea in Melbourne, but the things that you
picked up from being involved with the Xander McDonald and
Ward all sort of bedded in together to take you
to where you are now?
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Oh, yeah, 100%. I guess you always pick up things
from everywhere and you don't realise you've picked them up
until you go and use them. But just having the
confidence to be able to pick up the phone and
ring someone like Doug Avery after meeting him at the
Xander conference, you know, those little things just add to
(15:45):
your career.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Tell us about the Wellington Harbourside markets on a Sunday.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You know, is that pumping?
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
Well, you know the saying, Hamish, you can't beat Wellington
on a good day. So if the sun's out, the
markets are probably the best place to be in Wellington
on a Sunday. There's food trucks everywhere. There's fresh veg,
beautiful fresh meat. And you're right on the harbour there. So, yeah,
I love Wellington. So I'm a bit of an advocate
(16:15):
for the city.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, no, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And how long does it take you to get from
the home place in the Aharia Valley through to the
central city?
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Well, I've just finished my restaurant run this morning, and
I left the city at 22.11, and I got home
at 11 o'clock, so 20 minutes if you get a
good run.
Speaker 8 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Does that kind of, you know, irons and a few
fires and that sort of mixed portfolio of life, I guess,
make your farming and your general life far more enjoyable?
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Yeah, definitely. I guess growing up here, I got used
to a bit of the city life. So I enjoy
those comforts, but I also enjoy being out in the
back of the farm by myself with no one around. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
It's a bit, Hamish, a bit like the guys that
I grew up with in Northern Manawatu and most of
the next generation or my generation, a little younger, they
all have the farm up in the Apity, but they
still live in Palmerston North now, but they still like
to get up to the back of the farm a
couple of days of the week, if you know what
I mean.
Speaker 7 (17:19):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, exactly. Hey, great stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Hamish Best from Conscious Valley down there in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
No worries.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Thanks, Hamish.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
25 minutes after midday here on The Country. Still to come,
we are going to be talking one of the greats
of provincial sport, the old Hawk Cup. That is later
on in the show. Coming up, top sharer Megan Whitehead.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
After the record again. That's all coming up on The Country. Well,
we turn our attention now to shearing.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yep, that great pastime, you know, that back-breaking, one of
the hardest jobs around.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I always remember the great story of Colin King saying.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
that when he took up marathon running, it was no
problem because he used to do two marathons a day
in the wool shed. Now, looking to make a comeback and,
of course, somebody who's already made a huge splash in
the world of.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Shearing is Megan Whitehead. Gore Shearer joins us now. G'day, Megan.
Speaker 9 (18:30):
Hi, how are you going?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, very good, thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So you've got your sort of back right into it
and you've got some pretty.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Big goals because you've achieved before, but you want to
achieve more.
Speaker 9 (18:41):
Yeah, yeah, I'm planning on attempting the nine-hour strong world
lamb record again at Robert Grant's Otapiri Gorge on the
18th of December.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Okay, so between now and there, what's the preparation look like?
Speaker 9 (18:56):
I've been training since the start of May. I've been
doing CrossFit for four months, and then I met Luxton
last night to put another training regime in place for
the next, four months till we record.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
So what's the target now? What do you have to beat?
Speaker 9 (19:16):
I have to beat 720, which Sasha Bond holds currently.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, Sasha, that's your North Island shearer, 720 in nine hours.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
How confident are you feeling?
Speaker 9 (19:31):
I've done it before.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
So.
Speaker 9 (19:36):
Yeah, I'm going straight to the records. Yeah, just concentrating
on my training and my passion. And, yeah, I'll try
my very best.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
So you're 30 years of age now. Do you think
you're sort of... of starting to hit your peak powers?
Speaker 9 (19:53):
Yeah, I've been told before apparently you don't hit your
peak until 10 years of sharing and I'm at that now.
So you're always learning with sharing. Yeah, whether it's the
nutrition side of things and training and and gear and
your pattern, you're always learning. So I am confident in
(20:15):
my pattern, and I've got a lot more experience up
my sleeve.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So it's always sort of like minuscule improvements that add up,
don't they, which must add up over the course of
a nine-hour day to sort of get to 700-plus.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
Yeah, yeah, we're talking, yeah, seconds, every little second. on
your cutter changes, your entry into the pen, and each
blow needs to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
How close do you think it's going to be for
you to get this record? I mean, we saw with
Simon Goss back in January, what was that?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It came down to about one sheep, didn't it? One lamb?
Speaker 9 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's very tough on the mind. It's just
fighting down to the seconds to... Yeah, be in his position, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
How do you get that kind of mental strength?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I mean, you've got to have intestinal fortitude to keep
going for nine hours.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And as I mentioned, and what is without a doubt
the toughest job in the world.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
But how do you sort of, I don't know, stay
so focused but zoned out at the same.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Time, I guess?
Speaker 9 (21:22):
Yeah, I guess I'm very stubborn and very pig-headed, and
I think that's a good thing, going for a record.
I'm pretty good at staying on track and blocking everything
out and staying focused. Yeah. Because you can't let anything
get to you. If things don't go wrong, you've got
to stay focused and stay in the moment. Yeah, if
(21:45):
you've got to move forward, you can't let anything get
to you.
Speaker 8 (21:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
And that attention to detail too.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I mean, I know that you can't let anything get
into you because with Simon was the situation, I think,
where the air conditioning unit went down and nobody could
kind of quite pick out what was going on and
he sort of, he fell off the pace for a
little bit. So you do have to be incredibly focused.
Who's the team that.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, that's why.
Speaker 9 (22:08):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
No, no, sorry, Karen.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
Yep.
Speaker 9 (22:10):
That's why you need a good team behind you. They
make your day fall into place. And if you don't
have a good team, things will fall apart and that's when...
the pressure will come on to you and you don't
want to be thinking about any of that. Your team
should have you set up for the day. You should
be just focused on shearing the sheep.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So tell us about your team. Who are the integral
members of it?
Speaker 9 (22:32):
Well, Dad, Quentin Whitehead, he's been my second and he's
the heart and soul of every record I've done. Clint
Bellamy has one of his good friends who he used
to share around the world with. He's from the North
Island Taranaki. He's been at every single one of my records,
and then plus I've got Ben Fox, who's a farmer
(22:54):
from Down Portification. He's been on my team, and my
brother Rambo, they've been there since day one, and they
know how everything runs. So, yeah, I'm pretty lucky to
have them every year, well, every record attempt, sorry.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
The old man could share a bit too, couldn't he?
Speaker 9 (23:13):
Yeah, definitely. He's a perfectionist in everything he does. Whether
it's farming or dog trails, nothing goes past him.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
And for the team, everybody has pretty clearly defined roles
that they know they have to take care of?
Speaker 9 (23:29):
Yeah, they all work that out within themselves. I'm just
concentrated on sharing my sheep, really. I don't really know
what goes on behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
So between now and, what are we talking, December, obviously
a fair.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Bit of shed work to do. How do you strike
the balance?
Speaker 9 (23:52):
Yeah, well, the shed's got to be rearranged. So builders
come in and the porthole's got to be a certain
size and you're only allowed builders at 22 sheep in
the pen. All fours have got to be touched on
the ground. You've got to re-carpet the whole pen and
the reinforcing pen. The pen's got to be a certain
(24:17):
size and you want it as efficient as possible so
I'm not walking to the back of the pen.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 9 (24:26):
There's a lot to do with the farmer as well
and looking after my lambs and we also wash them
the day before the weaned, washed and then I shear them.
So the farmer's got a big responsibility in taking care
of those lambs and getting them up to standard for
me to go ahead with the record as well, which
(24:46):
I'm very grateful for Cameron and Robert Grant. They've been
there for the past three of my records.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Well, I guess you can't wait for it to come around,
but you've got a few months to fill in in between.
Speaker 9 (24:59):
Yeah, yeah. Exciting, but nerve-wracking.
Speaker 7 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
All the best, and we'll follow it a bit closer
to the time and check in with how you're going. But,
Megan Whitehead, all the very best for the months ahead
as you build up to that big record attempt in December.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Ada Gord here, Megan Whitehead, all the best to her.
Coming up on the show, we are going.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
To have news and sport, but also the Young Grower
of the Year and the Time Honoured Hawk Cup.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
A look at a new book that has come out
on that. Looking forward to that. Coming up on The Country.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
MUSIC PLAYS 22.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Minutes away from 1 o'clock. That's 12.38.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Standing by now for news and sport on the country.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
The country's rural news with Cub Cadet, New Zealand's leading
ride-on lawnmower brand. Visit steelfort.co.nz for your local stockist.
Speaker 8 (26:06):
Thanks, Hamish. And I just want to assure everyone out there,
we've had a lot of texts come in asking for
an update on Jamie's condition. He texted me today to
let everyone know that he's fighting a very bad case
of Influenza A. So he is around. He's just very unwell.
So we wish him all the best and hope he
gets well soon. And hopefully that puts everyone's minds at
rest that's been texting in, wishing him all the best.
(26:28):
And Jamie, if you're listening, we hope that you get
better soon. We miss you here at the country. Although
it's great working with you, Hamish. Enjoy having you on
the show as well. And hopefully the listeners do too.
In rural news, farmers are facing higher levies for mandatory
livestock tracing program from Tuesday, despite opposing cost increases. Osprey,
funded by industry and government, runs the National Animal Identification
(26:49):
and Tracing Program, tracking livestock movements for biosecurity and animal
disease management. Its board decided to raise prices for NAIT
air tags by 39% to $ 1. 35 for deer and cattle
and slaughter fees up 28% to $ 1. 91 per cattle beast
from the 1st of September. And farmers and growers on
the West Coast will now have a chance to showcase
(27:10):
their environmental achievements on a national stage with the Balanced
Farm Environment Awards expanding to include a 12th region. The
West Coast has officially joined the awards programme, giving local
primary producers the opportunity to have their work recognised and
celebrated alongside some of New Zealand's leading farming and growing businesses.
And applications for the Balanced Farm Environment Awards are open
now and close on October 31st.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
And that's rural news.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
You've got sport there, Mark.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Sport on the country with AFCO. 100% Kiwi owned.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
That's rare.
Speaker 10 (27:42):
Yes, thank you, Michelle. Netball New Zealand will have a
privatised domestic competition next year, backed by investors Ali Williams
and Anna Mowbray. The governing body has signed a non-binding
team sheet where the licences for the league and teams
will be held by the entrepreneurial... here. Questions remain about
the numbers of teams involved. Broadcast deal, the length of
(28:04):
the competition and placement on the calendar. Mowbray and Williams
have committed to a minimum five team requirement next year
with a view of making this the country's undisputed home
of World Netball. Netball New Zealand will take a governance
role on the board established to run the competition. Back
to you Hamish.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Thank you very much MW and MK. Hey what about
the movie Lomu? Will you be checking that.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Out, mate?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Absolutely.
Speaker 10 (28:31):
He's a childhood hero of mine, like many other people
my age.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I love the way the sort of advertising around it
plays on there. Oh, oh, Lomu. Yeah, fantastic. Righty-o, we'll
take a break.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
When we come back, it is time to talk to
the Young Grower of the Year on the country. The Country,
Hamish Mackay with you. And as Michelle mentioned, all the
best to our buddy, my cousin Jamie. Yeah, he's got
a bit on his plate at the moment, but he's
a force of nature and he will be back sooner
than later.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I'm sure of that.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
It is coming up to about what's around about 16
minutes away from one o'clock.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
That's very sort of northern Manawatu rural with me, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Sort of roundabout, you know, you don't get too concerned
about things like the time of day. We're going to
talk something that is part of the social and sporting
fabric of, well, rural New Zealand. You know, I sort
of say Danny Virk to Dunsandal, you.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Know, the Hawke Cup of cricket.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Joining us to look at this is, look, he's probably
got a number of titles, but he used to be
a teacher and a senior master at the school that
I attended, the mighty PNBHS. Alec Astle, good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
That's a very good introduction.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
How are you, sir? I can't help but not call
you sir.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
And it's a good upbringing that you had at Farmers
North Boys.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Very good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, good, good, good.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Author, historian, educator, cricketer, all those things. This history of
the Hawke Cup, what's the magic there? What's behind this?
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Well, Murray Brown, who I played cricket with for many
years in the Manama 2, we wrote a history of
Manama 2 cricket, which we published in 2021. And then
in 2022, a friend of mine suggested that we might
like to have a crack at the Hawke Cup because
nobody had really written too much about the Hawke Cup,
(30:29):
which is sort of the equivalent of the Renfrewley Shield
amongst what were called the minor provinces of New Zealand
or minor associations. So it got kicked off in 1910-11.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
There would be a few stories to tell. How much
sort of enjoyment have you gleaned from this exercise?
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Oh, a great amount. I played for about 20 years
for Manama 2, as did Murray, and because of my
association playing cricket, I can go back to some of
the fellows that even played in the late 1920s and
then all the way through to the current day. So
it's been a great memory. And with the book that
(31:12):
we've written... As it's sold, we've actually had a number
of people contact us and have great conversations about their grandfathers,
their fathers, and even themselves in terms of playing in
this competition. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Are there one or two individual stories that stand out?
Speaker 5 (31:32):
There's a lot of stories that stand out, actually.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
But, yeah, there are.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
I mean, obviously, when Bulla beat Canterbury Country to win
the Hawke Cup, That was a David and Goliath moment.
And you've got the tiniest cricket association in New Zealand
winning off one of the significant associations in terms of size.
That was another story. And also in the late 1940s
(31:59):
when Manama 2 had the cup and they went and
played in Hawke's Bay, they lost by concession. Man number
two were not happy with the umpiring decisions, all the
LBW decisions that were made, so they suggested to change
the umpire, which didn't happen. So they decided, right, that's it,
we're packing our bags and going home. And New Zealand
(32:22):
Cricket Council at that stage were left with no other
option but to award the trophy to Hawke's Bay. And
I think that, if I remember rightly, that was the
first time that Hawke's Bay had actually won the Hawke Cup.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
It makes the hair stand up on the back of
my neck, Alec Astle, when I hear the name Buller
beating Canterbury Country.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That's just the riveting old yarns. Fantastic.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
Yeah, it was fantastic. And then, of course, they had
to defend it and they didn't have a pitch, a
grass pitch. So they had to get permission to play
on an artificial, which has not been done before. And
they were playing North Otago, the second smallest association in
New Zealand, and they'd never played each other. And so...
As it turned out, Port Otago won it. They took
(33:05):
it back to Oamaru and they didn't have a pitch
because Centennial Park was being renovated. And so they had
to play at Waitaki Boys. And they used sheep trucks
with large white covers over them as a sight screen
for that particular game.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
You and Murray obviously had a lot of fun putting
this together. How do we get a hold of it? Bookstores?
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Online? Online.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
No, because it's a limited sort of publication and we've
done it as a labour of love, you can get
it from emailing either myself or Murray to get the book.
It's a pretty substantial publication. It's 485 pages. It's a
great doorstop. It weighs two kgs. And so, yeah, it's
(33:51):
going to cost $ 75. And if you want our emails,
I can give those to you because that's how we
can be contacted.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I'll get those off air from you, Alec, and then
we'll make sure that people can get a hold of
those for that.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
The history of the Hawke Cup, what are.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
We talking, 1910 right through to basically now?
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Yeah, till 2025.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Fantastic.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Alec Estill, thank you very much for joining us and
I look forward.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
To having a good look at that.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Just Buller beating Canterbury Country and then not having a
wicket to play it on. Imagine it was a bit
like the concrete one we had at Aperty Primary School.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Righty-o, we'll take a break.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
When we come back, we've got time for the Young
Grower of the Year. Well, over the weekend, the Young
Grower of the Year was announced after a couple of
days of competition for regional winners across a series of
challenges down there at an event hosted at 45 South
(34:47):
Cherries in Cromwell. And the Young Grower of the Year
is James Blair, who joins us on the show.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Good afternoon, James. How are you?
Speaker 7 (34:57):
Good, thanks. How are you?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, great. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Is that a little bit of an accent I sense
or hear there?
Speaker 7 (35:06):
Yeah, not originally from New Zealand, from the UK and
then moved to New Zealand about three and a half
years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Saw the light and making every post a winner you
are too, James.
Speaker 7 (35:19):
Yeah, it's definitely been a good decision to move over here.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Okay, so there were seven finalists and you competed in
a series of practical and theoretical horticultural modules. How tough
was it to take out this title against some very
good opponents?
Speaker 7 (35:35):
It was, yeah, it was extremely tough. All the competitors
come from a range of backgrounds and different crops. And yeah,
the level of competition was incredible. So yeah, it was
very tough.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Okay, so what were you best at? What were your strengths?
How did you get the title?
Speaker 7 (35:56):
I think some of just the day-to-day on-farm stuff, a
bit of the technical, you know, crop management, crop establishment,
just stuff we sort of do day-to-day that you probably
don't realise. So I think that probably helped a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
And you also had to be involved in a panel
discussion and provide a speech, too, to a big gala
dinner that was a sellout in Cromwell.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
That would have been fairly nerve-wracking.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
Yeah, I think before the panel discussion, it's quite intimate,
and everybody was definitely feeling the nerves. But once you
get the first couple of questions out of the way,
you get into the flow, and it becomes a little
bit easier.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Okay, we are talking to James Blair, Young Grower of
the Year. Now tell us about your day job, an
agronomist with AS Wilcox.
Speaker 7 (36:48):
Yep, so my job sort of covers a few different regions,
but I guess the fundamentals of the job are just
trying to do a good job of growing a crop,
grow a good, high-yielding, healthy crop while sort of looking
after the environment at the same time.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
What got you into the cropping side of things, the
agronomy side of things, your background?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
You grew up on a dairy farm in the UK?
Speaker 7 (37:12):
Yeah, so I grew up on a dairy farm. We
grew a small amount of cropping and sort of saw
what the agronomists were up to and sort of fell
into it from there. I wanted to sort of do
something within agriculture and then sort of fell into agronomy.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
You obviously enjoy a good road trip too, James, because
you cover a fair bit of territory from Bukinui in
the far north down to Olkuni.
Speaker 7 (37:40):
Yes, I spend lots of time in the car. So
the past few weeks I've been listening to lots of podcasts,
just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Excellent. Any favourite podcasts other than the country?
Speaker 7 (37:54):
I've been listening to a range of podcasts, even podcasts
from back in the UK as well, just to... see
what's happening i guess within the within the wider picture
of agriculture yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Okay so um what's the favorite part of your job
you know is there a particular crop or something that
you have a real passion.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
For um.
Speaker 7 (38:16):
Yeah so my job my job now mainly focuses on
potatoes um so i guess just yeah my favorite thing
has been out in the paddock crop walking when it's
a When it's a nice blue sky day, yeah, there's
nothing better.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Well, Nick, you get back to work and enjoy the
rest of the week. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 8 (38:33):
Awesome.
Speaker 7 (38:33):
Thanks very much. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
The young grower of the year there, James Blair. Great stuff. Well,
great to have your company on the country today. Now, look,
I hope you did your homework from yesterday. Advice we
had from Elena Dutta from Farmlands on yesterday's show around,
of course, planning feed supply needs to, you know, have
(38:57):
a holistic approach, not just a paddock by paddock situation.
You know, when it comes to fertiliser, soil temperature, that's critical,
all those types of things, and choosing the right cultivar,
all that type of thing. And hey, how good was
it to see on TVNZ last night covering our man
Pat Logan and the New Zealand Wollongong team beating the
(39:17):
Aussies in.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
The hybrid dog trialling.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I was stoked after we had Pat on the show
yesterday to get home and see that coverage there last night.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Have a great day wherever you are, whatever you make.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Might be doing across this great fabulous country of ours
and we'll catch you again tomorrow between 12 and.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
1 right here on the country. I'm Hamish McKay bye
for now.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Isuzu Utes. Get a
double cab D-Max from $ 55, 990.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Newstalk ZV.
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
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.