September 7, 2026 • 40 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Damien O'Connor, Robbie Jackson, Jen Corkran, Farmer Tom Martin, and Dr Jacqueline Rowarth.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Farmlands, because rural never
grows it alone.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Newstalk ZB. Good afternoon, New Zealand. Welcome to The Country.
I'm Jamie Mackay. The show is brought to you by...
(00:28):
Farmlands Isuzu and Pat Benatar today love as a battlefield. Well,
I'm looking forward to a battle with my old foe,
Damien O'Connor, waiting patiently on hold. Although, to be fair,
Chippy's come out this morning and said Labour will not
campaign on pricing agricultural emissions. OK, we're going to have
a yarn about that one with Damien to kick off
(00:50):
the show. Robbie Jackson, a South Otago cattle farmer, who's
found himself a bit of an overnight sensation as a
social media influencer. How did this come about? And why
did banging on a hammer in a workshop at 2am
change his life's trajectory? Jen Corcoran will join us from Rabobank.
They've come out with their September Agribusiness Monthly Report. The
(01:13):
income side of the ledge is not looking too bad
at all, but the real issue, and we'll update this
in rural news as well from Beef and Lamb New Zealand,
is the cost or the input side of your farming business.
Earlier this morning, I caught up with farmer Tom Martin,
our UK correspondent, and Dr Jacqueline Roweth on why nostalgia
(01:35):
for past farming practices ignores modern realities. Up next, gloves off,
Damien O'Connor. Second day back on the tools here on
(02:01):
the country, and I was really looking forward to kicking
off the show today with an argument. But bugger it,
I find myself agreeing with the Labour Party. Here's their
trade spokesperson, Damien O'Connor. Good to see Chippy come out
this morning, Damien O'Connor, and say Labour would not campaign
on pricing agricultural emissions. Finally, the pennies dropped for your lot.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Look, you know, if you agree with me, Jan, lucky
I'm sitting down, I would have fallen over. Look, the
ETS has been a bit of an nightmare. It was,
of course, the farmers' preferred option because we'd originally proposed
like a simple carbon tax that could have reinvested money
back into agriculture nonetheless we moved on we've been through
a complex set of changes the government national government allowed
(02:49):
in foreign cheap credits mucked up the market we came
back in we tried to i guess to re-credit the
market and it's been a bit of a muddle and
of course the forestry sector had always lobbied to to
get their credits in as as offsets and That has
meant that the price from ETS hasn't changed behaviour. It
(03:09):
means that we've had more trees in the ground. Shane
Jones with his billion trees didn't help when we were
negotiating in 2017. Nonetheless, we need to make these changes.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, but you're rewriting history here, Damien O'Connor, because this
all came about with Jacinda Ardern. and shine in their
billion trees policy.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
No, look, we were having forests planted for carbon. The
fact that the carbon credits weren't worth anything because National
had let in the foreign cheap credits meant that the
market slumped, but we'd actually had forestry generating carbon credits
since the set-up of the ETS. It's just that it
(03:52):
did take off, yes. Shane Jones had left the door open. Actually,
the foreigners could only invest in production forests, not for carbon,
but it was a bit of both. So, yes, I
accept that we had a massive, you know, afforestation still
below the levels that we had in 1999. But nonetheless,
there's a lot of good dry stock farming opportunities. land
(04:15):
gone into trees when it shouldn't. There's probably a bit
of dairy land or dry stock farming that's gone into
dairy that shouldn't as well. So there's a bit of
muddled land use, and I think we're going to work
through that.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, okay, Damien, but I don't want to re-litigate history
myself here, but the difference between 1999 and what we
faced in the past half a dozen years or so
was that back in 99, we were planting trees, yes,
but we weren't planting high-quality, pastoral land and trees?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
No, no.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
There are some good farms that have gone to trees.
I accept that that is wrong. We put in government,
put millions of dollars to boost the wool industry. That's
starting to work now. We need dual income from those
dry stock farming operations. And, you know, we've got good
prices for beef at the moment. So it's kind of
moving in the right direction for dry stock. But the
absence of any real income meant that people just sold
(05:09):
out for trees.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Now, finally, as I said, Labour has come out with
some policy. Now, why didn't you do your poor old
ag spokesperson, Jo Luxton, a bit of a favour and
let her announce some of this ag policy on the
Q & A rural debate? She was hung out to dry.
They were laughing at her.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Oh, that's terrible.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Look, it was a bit awkward for Jo because there
is some good policy in the pipeline.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, but Damien, we're only two months away from an election.
For God's sake, get your policy out there.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Oh, look, Jamie, I'm not in charge. You know, sometimes
I wish I was. Look, we've got a programme and
it is important that people get to see the policy
in a way that's not indigestible. Dump it all out
at once and no one will know what's out there.
So we will have some good policy coming out. It
is for a better New Zealand. We can't afford to have...
this current government carry on for another three years. It
(05:59):
would just be disastrous. Costs are going out of control.
We've got an economy that take away what's happening in
the rural sectors, and it's slumped.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Absolutely. New Zealand's almost totally dependent on the primary sector. Now,
having watched the Q & A debate, and I think
of Steve Abel, Daniel Ebb, and who was the other one?
Poor old Joe. Heaven help us if your lot got
in charge. It would be the death of farming.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Oh, get over it.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
No, I'm not getting over it. What did you make
of what Steve Abel was talking about?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Steve Abel was pointing out some very real issues that
are facing us into the future. There are some big
issues around nitrates in Canterbury and Southland and in the Waikato.
And if we don't address those, then the dairy industry
in particular is going to hit a brick wall, you know,
in about five to 10 years, if not sooner. And
we have to make sure that we have truly sustainable,
(06:53):
because people are investing billions of dollars, truly sustainable systems.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Also this morning, Chippy came out and said Labour is
fully committed to the Paris Agreement and will put New
Zealand on course to meet its targets. How are you
going to do that without pricing agricultural emissions?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Look, we're going to have to incentivise, and some of
that work is going on at the moment. We put
a couple of hundred million dollars into AgriZero as a
government when we were in, and some of that technology
is coming through. It's going to have to come through
pretty quickly. Farmers are going to have to take it
up if we are to reduce our ag emissions. But
(07:33):
across the rest of the economy, we've got to see
faster progress as well. So it is a big challenge
for us. But if we were to walk away from Paris,
people would just say, well, stuff you. You're not doing
your bit. We're burning in Europe. We've got these massive issues.
It's not just Nepal, but you wait and see some
of the other glaciers around the world. If we're not
doing our bit, we will be shut out of markets.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Okay, a final comment from Chippy, and I'm quoting him here.
He said, some large exporters were driving... this changed themselves, i.e.
emissions reductions, noting that Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms were
trying to reduce emissions. But the report goes on to
say these firms are struggling to meet their targets. Fonterra
(08:16):
is targeting a 30% reduction in emissions intensity by 2030
compared to 2018, yet as of 2025 had achieved just 3.8%
of a reduction.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
We're just going to have to try harder, aren't we?
We are all going to have to do that. Otherwise,
you know, if we talk about future generations in farming,
it's going to be a very, very sad place for
them to be. Not just the conditions that they face
farming because of the events like Gabrielle, but also the
difficulty getting into markets where people will be saying, you've
(08:53):
got to help us reduce the impact.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Of global warming.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And if you're not trying, then we'll go somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Hey, Damien, your ag policy sounds a bit like my
Secondary school reports must try harder.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Well, well, I think it's upon all of us to
try harder. And we can't reverse things overnight. We can't
make massive changes or revolution overnight, but we're going to
have to.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Move in the right direction.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And the current government at the moment is moving in
the wrong direction for the wrong reasons.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Damien O'Connor, Labour's candidate for Waitaki. That's going to be
a really interesting race. Thanks for your time on The Country.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
You're welcome. Thanks, Damien.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Thank you, Damien. Quarter after 12, you're with the country.
Some of your feedback coming in. Great to hear from
Sir David Fagan, WTF, an acronym for WAPA. Uh, David says,
where were the millions he put into the wool industry? First,
I've heard of it. Yeah, I'm with you there. Uh,
Sir David, uh, here's another one. Didn't Labour bring in
(09:54):
Hewaka Ekenoa a few years ago? And now they're saying
no to emissions tax. Uh, You're bang on, Texter. This
is a U-turn, but I think it's a U-turn for
the better. Credit where credit's due. Next generations won't want
to go... Oh, you're going nuts on Damien. He's good
for ratings. Next generations won't want to go farming if
(10:16):
Damien and the green supermarket owners... Take the reins. There's
a great meme on social media. I think I might
have shared it on our Twitter or X page on
Chloe's supermarket. Instead of calling it Pack and Save, they
called it Pack and Soviet. And I thought that was
actually quite clever. Goodness, look, they can't run a bath,
(10:38):
let alone a supermarket chain. Anyhow, up next, a young bloke,
a young South Otago farmer by the name of Robbie Jackson,
who found himself a bit of an overnight sensation. as
a social media influencer. How did this come about? We'll
ask him next on The Country. So the best ideas
(11:12):
are always stolen and a good story is worth repeating.
Here's a great story. Michelle found it in Farmers Weekly.
Olivia Caldwell was the author of a story about a
young Catlin South Otago farmer who leads an interesting life,
to say the least. He has over 60,000 followers on
his three social media channels. His name is Robbie Jackson.
(11:35):
And Robbie, you started off going to university, but it
wasn't really your gig. Tell us a wee bit about
your life story. It's a good one.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
How's it going, guys?
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I went to Lincoln.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
I didn't actually finish Lincoln. It didn't really agree with me.
It wasn't really my cup of tea. And then, yeah,
I sort of came back down south. I'm from down
south originally and went to go drive tractors for a
fellow for the summer. And then I was going to
go overseas and somehow I ended up managing a farm
(12:08):
at 20 years old and sort of stuck around.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, well, I'm reading from the story here in Farmers Weekly.
In part, you didn't like Lincoln University because you didn't
enjoy living with close neighbours. You got told off for
working on trucks too late at night and making too
much noise.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Neighbours don't tend to appreciate it when
you're trying to beat UJs out at two in the
morning with a hammer.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Well, I don't blame them, to be perfectly honest. Do
you still do that now on the farm in South Otago?
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Oh, yeah. Yeah, well and truly, but there's no one
around to care.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So you don't really like people. It's not that you
don't like people. You don't like people too close. How
do you kind of meld that into being a social
media influencer? And how do you become a social media influencer?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
That's a very good question.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
So actually, I really like people. People's kind of one
of the things I love in life. I like freedom
a lot more. the freedom to do what I want
when I want, if that makes sense. And becoming a
social media influencer really wasn't anything I planned on doing.
(13:20):
Started off, I shared a couple videos that I thought
were a bit comical, and then people seemed to like them,
and then I did a few more. Now, I don't know,
I'd like to think that I'm helping people, giving them
a few tips and tricks, helping them through the industry,
helping promote the industry. But, yeah, I don't really know
how it all sort of came to be, but here
(13:40):
we are.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, there you go. You're on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
What's an example of the stuff you're putting out there,
and why is it resonating with rural New Zealand?
Speaker 6 (13:52):
So I do, like, I try to keep my content
very real, keep it very realistic. You know, I don't
pretty it all up.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
I show it how it is.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
You know, we all make mistakes. And a lot of
it is I'm trying to encourage younger fellas to just
have a crack at something. If you're not sure, just
have a go. But, you know, it might be changing
the oil in your truck or it might be doing
up a fence or it could be anything. I'll show
a wee bit of everything, a bit of mechanical work,
a bit of farming work, a whole lot. I just
(14:23):
want to encourage people to have a crack at things,
have a go.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Robbie Jackson, you're only 23 years of age. You've decided
university wasn't for you. You love farming. and it is
a reasonably remote area, the Catlins, where you're farming. What's
the end goal for you? Are you going to go
farming or are you just going to become a movie star?
Speaker 4 (14:44):
No, no, I'm going to be sticking at farming.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
I'm planning to take over the old man's sheep and
beef base in the next two to three years is the.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Running theory on that.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Have you told the old man this?
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're in cahoots about it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Well, that is quite young. You're 23 now. Two years'
time makes you 25. That's young to be taking farm
ownership for all that. Yes.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Well and truly.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
It's going to be, yeah, quite interesting how we're going
to make it all work.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
But anyways, we'll.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Find a way.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
How is the farming season? Because I think you're doing
a dairy support block at the moment or you're managing
a dairy support block, a sizable one at that. How's
the farming season treating you?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Oh, I don't really.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Know if there's a polite way of putting it. It's
been pretty average.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, because the weather's been real crap, hasn't it? The
further south you go.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
It's been shocking, man. Everything is just absolutely drenched. It's
just wet as anything.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It could be worse, Robbie. You could be on a
lambing beat.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
That's true.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
I am a wee bit spoilt here being a dairy
support farm. I don't do lambing and I don't do calving.
So this is actually the quietest time of the year
for me.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Lots of time for your creative juices to flow around
your social media posts. Hey, Robbie Jackson, great to catch
up with you. Where do we find you? What's your tag?
Speaker 6 (16:17):
You can just search up Robbie Jackson or Robbie JNZ
and you can find me on any of them, any
of the social medias.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Well, we've had a look at what you're doing on
social media, Robbie Jackson, and we love it here on
the country. And to be fair, people can read all
about it. There's a really good story this week in
Farmers Weekly by Olivia Corble. So well done.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Cheers. Thank you. Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Good on you, Robbie, mate. Thank you very much for
your time. 25 after 12, you're with the country. Some
of your feedback, we all need to try harder, says Damien.
So does that mean Damien's swapping the motorbike for a
Nissan Leaf? I don't know, Texter. I don't know. Up next,
we're going to have a look at Rabobank's September agribusiness outlook.
And I think in rural news, Michelle's going to update
(17:03):
the latest from Beef and Lamb New Zealand on the
profitability for the coming season. Farm Inputs interest and exchange rates,
(17:42):
oil and freight, not so flash.
Speaker 7 (17:45):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, that's a great summary for this
first monthly of the spring, September. And, you know, we've
titled it A Spring in the Steppe, which probably speaks
more to that commodity side Things are really looking quite
good out there, and we've got record highs across parts
of the red meat sector still right now. But as
(18:07):
you say, there's a lot of watching points around that
farm input side, and it's fair to say things aren't
very settled in the Middle East, and the dollar's slightly
stronger than it's been as well. So there's a few
things playing into the cost side of businesses, I think,
that we need to really be keeping an eye on
and talking about as we go into the busy seasons.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Okay, let's start with the income side of the ledger.
And I want to start with dairying. I was a
bit worried that that was calling its jets a bit,
but we've had a couple of positive GDT auctions. So
is it steadying the ship there?
Speaker 7 (18:39):
Yeah, things are steaming out, Jamie, and we expect that
to perhaps continue as milk supply growth globally starts to
slow down, right? So that's what's really driving things. We've
also got really good demand for the powders happening. There's
still a lot of that butterfat and cheese basically supply
out there. So that's sort of holding things back in
(19:00):
that space. But as the season goes on, You know,
the view of rubber research is that we've got good
upside potentially there, so things are looking quite good from
a potential farm gate milk price perspective for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And if we look at all of our commodities, in
some ways beef has been the star of the stable
of what's happening in the US despite the tariffs. But
you're cautioning a bit of a warning here regarding that
trim price for beef, the stuff they want to put
into their hamburgers in the US.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Why is that happening? I thought there was just an
out-and-out shortage.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
Yeah, well, there really is an out-and-out shortage of basically
domestic trim in the United States, and that is not
expected to go away anytime soon. What's changing around at
the moment a little bit is that the US has
opened up the other country's quota tariff and basically reduced
it to zero, or they say they're going to, for
about 300,000 tonnes of beef. Now, what that means, Jamie,
(19:55):
is that doesn't affect us really at all in terms
of our access into the United States market. But Brazil,
who's looking for a home for a lot of beef
because they can't actually see much into China right now
for other different China quota reasons, means that they may
start to pop more beef up into that market. And
what we're seeing is that US imported trim prices softening
(20:16):
quite kind of rapidly at the moment. However, let's remember,
it's at a very all-time high. And, you know, our
prices are also, because of that, very, very strong. So
we're coming down from a higher base because there potentially
might be a little bit more product for the next
90-odd days going into the United States. But again, remembering
New Zealand's got great relationships into the US for that trim.
(20:38):
We've got good, consistent, compliant, safe product. And so I think,
you know, we're not necessarily competing all the time with
some of these other countries that might be able to
flood a market on a volume perspective if those relationships
don't perhaps exist in other countries. So we'll just keep
an eye on it. That might be why we're seeing
a little bit of softening in, you know, our Farmgate
prices for bull and cow-cow at the moment, but it
(21:00):
is coming down off a very, very strong position.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
There's a lot of sheep farmers out there at the
moment on the lambing beat, listening hopefully to this show.
Have you got words of encouragement for them? What are
the prospects for lamb like, Jen Corcoran?
Speaker 7 (21:14):
Yeah, great question, Jamie, and we talked about this, you know,
this time last year, right, because things were really picking
up and, you know, we're sitting steady above $ 12 at
the moment, obviously in a very low supply period before
these lambs grow bigger and start to hit the market
before Christmas. So the big question will really be when
that supply turns on and to what degree in New
Zealand because the export situation around that average export value
(21:37):
hit a new record in July at over $ 17, which
is a crazy amount of money because you're low on average. Now,
the reason for that is that we've got a good
diverse range of markets for our lamb. They're willing to
pay for it. There's a global shortage of sheep as well,
thanks to Aussie, and the northern hemisphere in general around
the UK and Europe. So, good demand broadly for sheep meat.
(21:59):
Mutton prices are also doing great things. I'm reasonably positive
for the outlook for this season. I think the big
question will be how many lambs hit the New Zealand
processing sector at once. If that even happens at all, right?
And that's kind of more around the weather. So I
think we're sitting in a good spot. We're above $ 12.
It's likely to soften through that peak, but I can't
(22:21):
see any situation where we would expect it to fall
off a cliff in any direction.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Right. Let's quickly finish on, because we've touched on farm inputs. Obviously,
fertilizer and fuel are a real issue off the back
of what's happening in the Middle East. But I want
to just finish on interest rates and the exchange rate. Now,
we're currently at about 59 US cents. You guys at
Rabobank are expecting us to get to 61 in the
(22:46):
next 12 months. I guess we can live with that.
The interesting one is interest rates. Ben Pickton, your guy
in Sydney, chief economist effectively, is saying another couple of
rises to 3.25%. And do you know what I think, Jen?
I think we can live with that because if I
look across the Tasman to where Ben's making these predictions,
The Aussies are currently at 4.35%, with future rises in prospect.
(23:12):
So maybe we're not doing that bad after all.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
No, we're not doing too bad. And I think the
rubber research view here that Ben talks about is that
the New Zealand economy is recovering. And I think we're
all kind of aware of that now. There's just that
little bit of inflation management that isn't quite finished. And
so what we're expecting because of all of that, and
it's been well kind of versed this year is that
there is still more rises to come we think and
(23:37):
a couple more to go really but um it's certainly
not looking too bad if we if we compare ourselves
to across the ditch and um and we'll just watch
and see.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
What happens you can read all about it on rabobank's
website rabobank.co.nz jen corcoran thanks for your time thanks jen
26 away from one some more of your feedback coming
in on the country being a young farmer it will
be a sad place to be with damien And his
lot in charge. Well, I agree with you, Texter. I mean,
(24:06):
the Greens are completely nutty to Party Maori. Well, I
dismiss them. They're activists. And the real threat out there,
I reckon, for you farmers is the Opportunity Party. Not
that they're being able to force this policy into place,
but even talk of a land tax would be the
death knell for farming. So you all get your say
(24:27):
on November the 7th. Vote wisely. Up next, Michelle with
Rural News. And we'll have a look at sport. Welcome
back to the country. It is 23 away from 1.
Here is Michelle Watt with the latest on profitability on
(24:49):
our sheep and beef farms. I'll play the wee rural
news thingy, Michelle.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
The country's rural news with Cub Cadet. It's one thing
to talk innovation, another to back it up.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Drive it. We dare you.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Visit steelfort.co.nz for your local stockist.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Thanks, Jamie.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
Sheep and beef farmers are being told to expect another
strong year for red meat returns, despite signs farm margins
will tighten. Beef and lamb New Zealand's new season outlook
forecasts lamb prices will ease by 8% and beef cattle
prices by 4.5%, while farm expenditure is expected to rise
to just over 4%. Average farm profit before tax is
(25:29):
forecast at $ 267, 000 for the 2026-2027 season, down 20% on
last year's record result. but still well above the five-year average.
Beef and lamb chair Kate Ackland says strong cash flows
have helped farmers repay debt, invest in fertiliser and complete
deferred maintenance after several tough seasons. And that's rural news.
You can find more at thecountry.co.nz.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yes, and those profitability levels are a lot better than
they were when Pat Benatar was coming out with this
banger in the 80s. Ah, the 80s.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Sport on the country with AFCO. 100% Kiwi owned and trusted.
That's rare.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, so Rassi's named a strong team for the fourth
and final test at Baltimore. All Blacks coach Dave Rennie
has declared his side has a big final performance in
them as they prepare for the fourth test against the
Springboks in the US on Sunday, 9 o'clock. Very friendly,
viewer-friendly time, that one. The squad landed in Washington, D.C.,
(26:29):
and needing a win to draw the series to all. Effectively,
they've lost it. Rennie gave his players a day off
overnight after the travel haul from Johannesburg. Interestingly, they shared
the plane with the Springboks. And the other interesting piece
of trivia, I heard this morning that the All Blacks,
and Baltimore's not a mile away from Washington, D.C., believe
(26:50):
it or not, they're staying in the Watergate Hotel in Washington.
How cool is that? Up next, earlier this morning, I
caught up with our UK correspondent, Farmer Tom Martin. Here's
our UK farming correspondent, Farmer Tom Martin, big-time social media influencer.
(27:13):
He is sort of the rural equivalent of Harry and Meghan. Now,
have you spotted them in your travels, Tom?
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Do you know, it's amazing that I'm the UK farming
correspondent because we spend a lot of time talking about
Harry and Meghan, don't we? I haven't spotted them. I
frankly haven't looked out for them. If it hadn't been
for the fact that Charles issued a statement today, Monday,
as we speak, basically saying that they're not working royals,
they're not to be addressed as your Royal Highness, and
(27:40):
their security isn't the responsibility of the royal family. If
we hadn't heard that, we wouldn't have heard anything from them.
And my advice to them, if they came to me,
would be to carry on with the evictus game, keep
your head down, and review things in a year's time.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Well, I think they have got a title, Royal Grifters. Now,
last time I chatted to you, because I haven't chatted
to you for a few weeks, you were in the
midst of a stinker of a drought. Surely it's over.
Surely the autumn rains have come.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
We've had some rain. We've had kind of about two
and a half inches here, which is probably the same
as we had for March, April, May, June, July and
most of August. So we have a little bit of rain.
It's greened up a fair bit. It broke virtually the
same day as the drought in 1976 broke. So that
kind of back end of August, the kind of 26th,
27th of August. And everything's greened up amazingly. We've literally
(28:36):
only had a couple of inches of rain and some
places haven't even had that. So we're still pretty dry.
But we've got a little bit of unsettled weather, which
might just, again, just help the soil to replenish their
soil moisture. So drought, I'm not sure if they've changed
the official settings or the official terminology, but the drought
(28:59):
certainly feels like it's over. At a surface level, I
don't know about the water table.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Our arable farmers here on the other side of the
world are having a terrible time or a tough time
of it. You guys are really not fearing much better.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Oh, we had a shocking harvest. Yields were down a
third yesterday. And we've only been saved by the world
wheat prices just creeping up a little bit. You know,
we obviously, on a personal level, want this war in
Ukraine to be over as quick as possible. But the
fact that it doesn't look like there's going to be
(29:38):
any kind of resolution will keep the wheat prices up
through to our winter. So that will help us out
a little bit. It's always a shame having to rely
on bad news somewhere, but that's the only way that
we seem to be able to make a profit here
in the UK.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
One of the really big contentious issues in the UK
has been the inheritance tax issue. from the Labour government. Now,
I note the Conservatives, bless them, are going to push
for the PM to scrap farm inheritance tax changes. Will
Andy Burnham be listening?
Speaker 4 (30:13):
I don't think he'll be listening to the Conservative Party,
but he is a Prime Minister who listens. He's a
Prime Minister who tends to.
Have a decent grasp on what's going on in the nation.
There is a fair bit of pressure from kind of
obvious circles to use the upcoming autumn budget to reverse
(30:34):
those inheritance tax changes, which were ridiculous, which won't generate,
they'll only generate kind of a change of behaviour rather
than a meaningful income for the Treasury. But will he
take that opportunity to make those changes? I don't know.
I certainly wouldn't be confident.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Who is Ben Goldsmith and why is he upsetting British
sheep farmers?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Ben Goldsmith is in the Goldsmith family, a wealthy, wealthy family,
I think related to the Rothschilds. Zach Goldsmith, his brother,
was in, I think he's in the House of Lords.
He's something to do with DEFRA. Ben certainly has plenty
to say for himself. He's really big into rewilding. He
runs a Um, he's part of a big, um, company
(31:21):
who specializes in natural capital. So he certainly has a
vested interest and he spent the last weekend, um, basically
picking fights with shepherds. One of the first things he
came out was not, not a very sensible thing to do,
but he basically came out to say that, um, uh,
that sheep are not well looked after. Um, they're lame,
they're infrequently checked, and they're kept in poor conditions. And
(31:45):
there was a bit of a backlash. And he was
basically saying that shepherds are.
Well, he started off by saying shepherds don't exist. There
are no shepherds anymore. And then when a lot of
people said, hang on a minute, I'm a shepherd, there
was a little bit of backtracking and changing. But he
certainly hasn't been carrying any favour Um, but he's since
(32:07):
written an article in the spectator magazine, uh, slightly rightly leaning, uh,
magazine publication here in the UK. Uh, and, uh, he,
he just basically been, been, been, been messing around. And
I think it's very difficult to understand until you, uh,
until you realize that he's, um, uh, incredibly pro rewilding
as a rewilding podcast, which is probably worth a listen
(32:29):
to be fair. Uh, and, um, and has a company
that is big into natural capital and rewilding. So, you know,
sometimes you just wish some people would just leave it
well alone. We've spoken about Harry and Meghan so far,
but Ben Scolesmith in this instance is another one. He's
taken on James Rebanks, a very famous shepherd, who's frankly,
(32:51):
Tom strips out of him over the weekend. It's not
something that's done anybody any good. It hasn't done anybody.
the sheep farmers any good at all and sometimes it's
just best to say now that's one of the sayings
from the north of England sometimes it's just best to
say now.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
As my mum used to say if you've got nothing
good to say say nothing there we go hey farmer
Tom Martin thanks as always for your time in.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
The UK always a pleasure Jamie good to have you.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Back good to be back Tom I caught up with
him a wee bit earlier this morning cheated a wee
bit it's like nearly 2 o'clock in the morning UK
time Up next, we wrap the country with Dr. Jacqueline Roweth.
(33:37):
Her name is Dr. Jacqueline Roweth, one of our leading
primary sector academics. She's kind enough fortnightly to write a
wonderful column for us. And I'm going to read out
your opening paragraph, Jacqueline, because I love it. In childhood,
the summers were longer, the days were hotter, the waters
were sparklier, and the ice cream was cheaper. And you
go on to write, the latter is probably true, the
(33:59):
first three not so much. The term is rosy retrospection,
the rose-tinted spectacle phenomenon. And I like looking back at
life through rose-tinted spectacles, Jacqueline. It's one of the pleasures
of getting older.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
Of course it is.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
And we love the childhood and indeed some of the
teens and indeed the specific good points about when we
were adults. But that is the point. We just get
rid of the bad memories. And apparently this is the
whole thing about childbirth, which I have not been through.
But why do people scream in agony and then have
another one? Because the bad bits are screened out in
(34:38):
one's memory at the joy of the baby or the
joy of the ice cream, sparkly waters and hotter days.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Probably explains why I still play golf. You're suggesting that
farming is also a subject to rosy retrospection, the good
old days when we didn't need nitrogen fertilisers.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yes, and we had horse-drawn carts and everything took very
much longer and all of those sorts of things, and
food insecurity was rife. We can remember that, remember why
we've got An Irish cop on every street corner in
New York, the potato famine. We can go right back
through history and say food insecurity was huge. We don't
(35:25):
have that nearly as much now. I know that people
say we're food insecure in New Zealand, but actually they
don't know what it meant in terms of what it
used to be 100 years ago. And a lot of
our technologies, our understanding of chemicals has enabled food to
be more available globally. I thank the farmers every day
(35:48):
for that. That old thought, you should thank a farmer
five times a day. Breakfast, lunch, tea and all the
other bits in between.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Well, that's a morning and afternoon tea thrown in there,
isn't it? That's an old-fashioned notion as well. Hey, Jacqueline,
I note from your column that that you were an
interested viewer, spectator, as was I, to the Q &
A rural debate. And honestly, I thought, heaven help us
if a centre-left government takes power. Or not heaven help us,
(36:20):
heaven help the farmers and the small businesses of this country.
They've got no idea.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
No, it was distressing to see that there were, in fact,
all parties are throwing out lollies, sweeties, in a way
that's sort of dotted around without grasping the central issue
of New Zealand's economic development and its economic foundation is agriculture.
This government has been trying to enable the farmers to
(36:49):
get on and do good food production and good food
production keeps our economy flowing. and because it's the export economy,
and also provide food for New Zealanders directly and indirectly
through the income.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
So some of.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
The things that were being spouted on Sunday were really worrying, like, oh,
wonderful one. Farmers can get more money for their product
if they don't use agrochemicals, if they're organic, for instance.
which is true, but they don't get a higher income
because the yield is down. And if the yield is down,
(37:27):
then that means prices will go up for the consumer
because there's less of it. So you can't have cheap
food and no agrochemicals. And anything espousing that is not
supported by science, economics, finance, anything.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Just not supported.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Unfortunately, Jo Luxton... And I like Jo as a person.
I keep saying this. It's almost as though I'm justifying
my criticism here. But she has almost been useless in
terms of coming out with ag policy. Still nothing. Well,
not that anything I've seen from the Labour Party. Steve Abel,
who is reasonably eloquent to give him his dues, the
(38:06):
Green Party ag spokesperson. Some of the commentary around the
debate was that he'd killed it. The only thing Steve
managed to kill was the prospect's of prosperous farming.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
So we go back to, unless you actually understand the
issue that you're dealing with, and sadly there's an awful
lot of policy arts type degrees in the groups, the
ministries that advise our politicians, unless you actually understand it,
you can't get through to the policy creation that will
(38:41):
enable the discipline, in this case farming, that you're talking about.
And what you and I have discussed before, there are
so few people with an ag science degree or some
sort of agricultural background actually in Parliament. And people who
live in rural areas don't always understand what's going on.
But people who have been farming do understand. We've got
(39:01):
ministers who have been farming who actually understand the issues
with income and assets and the difference between assets and
cash flow, which I don't think is understood by all politicians.
And the ability to actually invest to ensure a vibrant business.
And the vibrant business is what we need for New Zealand,
(39:22):
not just because of the export economy, but because of
the next generation. If you have a vibrant business, somebody
wants to buy it. or inherit it. And if it's
not vibrant, it's child abuse when your son or daughter
or grandchild or whatever says, what on earth do I
do now?
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Because all you've got is debt.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You can read all about it on our website, thecountry.co.nz.
Dr Jacqueline Roweth, thanks as always for your contribution and
your time.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Lovely to talk, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
Glad you're back. Sorry about the bug.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, good to be back, Jacqueline. And Steve from the
Hauraki Plains, thank you. Glad you're back from your junket ride, Steve.
I'll give you the clue, Steve. Three weeks of influenza
A was not a junket. I've been on plenty of
junkets in my life. That was not one of them.
We'll catch you back tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Farmlands. Because rural never
grows it alone. Newstalk ZB.
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Farmlands, because rural never
grows it alone.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Newstalk ZB. Good afternoon, New Zealand. Welcome to The Country.
I'm Jamie Mackay. The show is brought to you by...
(00:28):
Farmlands Isuzu and Pat Benatar today love as a battlefield. Well,
I'm looking forward to a battle with my old foe,
Damien O'Connor, waiting patiently on hold. Although, to be fair,
Chippy's come out this morning and said Labour will not
campaign on pricing agricultural emissions. OK, we're going to have
a yarn about that one with Damien to kick off
(00:50):
the show. Robbie Jackson, a South Otago cattle farmer, who's
found himself a bit of an overnight sensation as a
social media influencer. How did this come about? And why
did banging on a hammer in a workshop at 2am
change his life's trajectory? Jen Corcoran will join us from Rabobank.
They've come out with their September Agribusiness Monthly Report. The
(01:13):
income side of the ledge is not looking too bad
at all, but the real issue, and we'll update this
in rural news as well from Beef and Lamb New Zealand,
is the cost or the input side of your farming business.
Earlier this morning, I caught up with farmer Tom Martin,
our UK correspondent, and Dr Jacqueline Roweth on why nostalgia
(01:35):
for past farming practices ignores modern realities. Up next, gloves off,
Damien O'Connor. Second day back on the tools here on
(02:01):
the country, and I was really looking forward to kicking
off the show today with an argument. But bugger it,
I find myself agreeing with the Labour Party. Here's their
trade spokesperson, Damien O'Connor. Good to see Chippy come out
this morning, Damien O'Connor, and say Labour would not campaign
on pricing agricultural emissions. Finally, the pennies dropped for your lot.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Look, you know, if you agree with me, Jan, lucky
I'm sitting down, I would have fallen over. Look, the
ETS has been a bit of an nightmare. It was,
of course, the farmers' preferred option because we'd originally proposed
like a simple carbon tax that could have reinvested money
back into agriculture nonetheless we moved on we've been through
a complex set of changes the government national government allowed
(02:49):
in foreign cheap credits mucked up the market we came
back in we tried to i guess to re-credit the
market and it's been a bit of a muddle and
of course the forestry sector had always lobbied to to
get their credits in as as offsets and That has
meant that the price from ETS hasn't changed behaviour. It
(03:09):
means that we've had more trees in the ground. Shane
Jones with his billion trees didn't help when we were
negotiating in 2017. Nonetheless, we need to make these changes.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, but you're rewriting history here, Damien O'Connor, because this
all came about with Jacinda Ardern. and shine in their
billion trees policy.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
No, look, we were having forests planted for carbon. The
fact that the carbon credits weren't worth anything because National
had let in the foreign cheap credits meant that the
market slumped, but we'd actually had forestry generating carbon credits
since the set-up of the ETS. It's just that it
(03:52):
did take off, yes. Shane Jones had left the door open. Actually,
the foreigners could only invest in production forests, not for carbon,
but it was a bit of both. So, yes, I
accept that we had a massive, you know, afforestation still
below the levels that we had in 1999. But nonetheless,
there's a lot of good dry stock farming opportunities. land
(04:15):
gone into trees when it shouldn't. There's probably a bit
of dairy land or dry stock farming that's gone into
dairy that shouldn't as well. So there's a bit of
muddled land use, and I think we're going to work
through that.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, okay, Damien, but I don't want to re-litigate history
myself here, but the difference between 1999 and what we
faced in the past half a dozen years or so
was that back in 99, we were planting trees, yes,
but we weren't planting high-quality, pastoral land and trees?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
No, no.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
There are some good farms that have gone to trees.
I accept that that is wrong. We put in government,
put millions of dollars to boost the wool industry. That's
starting to work now. We need dual income from those
dry stock farming operations. And, you know, we've got good
prices for beef at the moment. So it's kind of
moving in the right direction for dry stock. But the
absence of any real income meant that people just sold
(05:09):
out for trees.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Now, finally, as I said, Labour has come out with
some policy. Now, why didn't you do your poor old
ag spokesperson, Jo Luxton, a bit of a favour and
let her announce some of this ag policy on the
Q & A rural debate? She was hung out to dry.
They were laughing at her.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Oh, that's terrible.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Look, it was a bit awkward for Jo because there
is some good policy in the pipeline.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, but Damien, we're only two months away from an election.
For God's sake, get your policy out there.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Oh, look, Jamie, I'm not in charge. You know, sometimes
I wish I was. Look, we've got a programme and
it is important that people get to see the policy
in a way that's not indigestible. Dump it all out
at once and no one will know what's out there.
So we will have some good policy coming out. It
is for a better New Zealand. We can't afford to have...
this current government carry on for another three years. It
(05:59):
would just be disastrous. Costs are going out of control.
We've got an economy that take away what's happening in
the rural sectors, and it's slumped.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Absolutely. New Zealand's almost totally dependent on the primary sector. Now,
having watched the Q & A debate, and I think
of Steve Abel, Daniel Ebb, and who was the other one?
Poor old Joe. Heaven help us if your lot got
in charge. It would be the death of farming.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Oh, get over it.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
No, I'm not getting over it. What did you make
of what Steve Abel was talking about?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Steve Abel was pointing out some very real issues that
are facing us into the future. There are some big
issues around nitrates in Canterbury and Southland and in the Waikato.
And if we don't address those, then the dairy industry
in particular is going to hit a brick wall, you know,
in about five to 10 years, if not sooner. And
we have to make sure that we have truly sustainable,
(06:53):
because people are investing billions of dollars, truly sustainable systems.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Also this morning, Chippy came out and said Labour is
fully committed to the Paris Agreement and will put New
Zealand on course to meet its targets. How are you
going to do that without pricing agricultural emissions?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Look, we're going to have to incentivise, and some of
that work is going on at the moment. We put
a couple of hundred million dollars into AgriZero as a
government when we were in, and some of that technology
is coming through. It's going to have to come through
pretty quickly. Farmers are going to have to take it
up if we are to reduce our ag emissions. But
(07:33):
across the rest of the economy, we've got to see
faster progress as well. So it is a big challenge
for us. But if we were to walk away from Paris,
people would just say, well, stuff you. You're not doing
your bit. We're burning in Europe. We've got these massive issues.
It's not just Nepal, but you wait and see some
of the other glaciers around the world. If we're not
doing our bit, we will be shut out of markets.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Okay, a final comment from Chippy, and I'm quoting him here.
He said, some large exporters were driving... this changed themselves, i.e.
emissions reductions, noting that Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms were
trying to reduce emissions. But the report goes on to
say these firms are struggling to meet their targets. Fonterra
(08:16):
is targeting a 30% reduction in emissions intensity by 2030
compared to 2018, yet as of 2025 had achieved just 3.8%
of a reduction.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
We're just going to have to try harder, aren't we?
We are all going to have to do that. Otherwise,
you know, if we talk about future generations in farming,
it's going to be a very, very sad place for
them to be. Not just the conditions that they face
farming because of the events like Gabrielle, but also the
difficulty getting into markets where people will be saying, you've
(08:53):
got to help us reduce the impact.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Of global warming.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And if you're not trying, then we'll go somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Hey, Damien, your ag policy sounds a bit like my
Secondary school reports must try harder.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Well, well, I think it's upon all of us to
try harder. And we can't reverse things overnight. We can't
make massive changes or revolution overnight, but we're going to
have to.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Move in the right direction.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And the current government at the moment is moving in
the wrong direction for the wrong reasons.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Damien O'Connor, Labour's candidate for Waitaki. That's going to be
a really interesting race. Thanks for your time on The Country.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
You're welcome. Thanks, Damien.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Thank you, Damien. Quarter after 12, you're with the country.
Some of your feedback coming in. Great to hear from
Sir David Fagan, WTF, an acronym for WAPA. Uh, David says,
where were the millions he put into the wool industry? First,
I've heard of it. Yeah, I'm with you there. Uh,
Sir David, uh, here's another one. Didn't Labour bring in
(09:54):
Hewaka Ekenoa a few years ago? And now they're saying
no to emissions tax. Uh, You're bang on, Texter. This
is a U-turn, but I think it's a U-turn for
the better. Credit where credit's due. Next generations won't want
to go... Oh, you're going nuts on Damien. He's good
for ratings. Next generations won't want to go farming if
(10:16):
Damien and the green supermarket owners... Take the reins. There's
a great meme on social media. I think I might
have shared it on our Twitter or X page on
Chloe's supermarket. Instead of calling it Pack and Save, they
called it Pack and Soviet. And I thought that was
actually quite clever. Goodness, look, they can't run a bath,
(10:38):
let alone a supermarket chain. Anyhow, up next, a young bloke,
a young South Otago farmer by the name of Robbie Jackson,
who found himself a bit of an overnight sensation. as
a social media influencer. How did this come about? We'll
ask him next on The Country. So the best ideas
(11:12):
are always stolen and a good story is worth repeating.
Here's a great story. Michelle found it in Farmers Weekly.
Olivia Caldwell was the author of a story about a
young Catlin South Otago farmer who leads an interesting life,
to say the least. He has over 60,000 followers on
his three social media channels. His name is Robbie Jackson.
(11:35):
And Robbie, you started off going to university, but it
wasn't really your gig. Tell us a wee bit about
your life story. It's a good one.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
How's it going, guys?
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I went to Lincoln.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
I didn't actually finish Lincoln. It didn't really agree with me.
It wasn't really my cup of tea. And then, yeah,
I sort of came back down south. I'm from down
south originally and went to go drive tractors for a
fellow for the summer. And then I was going to
go overseas and somehow I ended up managing a farm
(12:08):
at 20 years old and sort of stuck around.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, well, I'm reading from the story here in Farmers Weekly.
In part, you didn't like Lincoln University because you didn't
enjoy living with close neighbours. You got told off for
working on trucks too late at night and making too
much noise.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Neighbours don't tend to appreciate it when
you're trying to beat UJs out at two in the
morning with a hammer.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Well, I don't blame them, to be perfectly honest. Do
you still do that now on the farm in South Otago?
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Oh, yeah. Yeah, well and truly, but there's no one
around to care.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So you don't really like people. It's not that you
don't like people. You don't like people too close. How
do you kind of meld that into being a social
media influencer? And how do you become a social media influencer?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
That's a very good question.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
So actually, I really like people. People's kind of one
of the things I love in life. I like freedom
a lot more. the freedom to do what I want
when I want, if that makes sense. And becoming a
social media influencer really wasn't anything I planned on doing.
(13:20):
Started off, I shared a couple videos that I thought
were a bit comical, and then people seemed to like them,
and then I did a few more. Now, I don't know,
I'd like to think that I'm helping people, giving them
a few tips and tricks, helping them through the industry,
helping promote the industry. But, yeah, I don't really know
how it all sort of came to be, but here
(13:40):
we are.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, there you go. You're on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
What's an example of the stuff you're putting out there,
and why is it resonating with rural New Zealand?
Speaker 6 (13:52):
So I do, like, I try to keep my content
very real, keep it very realistic. You know, I don't
pretty it all up.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
I show it how it is.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
You know, we all make mistakes. And a lot of
it is I'm trying to encourage younger fellas to just
have a crack at something. If you're not sure, just
have a go. But, you know, it might be changing
the oil in your truck or it might be doing
up a fence or it could be anything. I'll show
a wee bit of everything, a bit of mechanical work,
a bit of farming work, a whole lot. I just
(14:23):
want to encourage people to have a crack at things,
have a go.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Robbie Jackson, you're only 23 years of age. You've decided
university wasn't for you. You love farming. and it is
a reasonably remote area, the Catlins, where you're farming. What's
the end goal for you? Are you going to go
farming or are you just going to become a movie star?
Speaker 4 (14:44):
No, no, I'm going to be sticking at farming.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
I'm planning to take over the old man's sheep and
beef base in the next two to three years is the.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Running theory on that.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Have you told the old man this?
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're in cahoots about it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Well, that is quite young. You're 23 now. Two years'
time makes you 25. That's young to be taking farm
ownership for all that. Yes.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Well and truly.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
It's going to be, yeah, quite interesting how we're going
to make it all work.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
But anyways, we'll.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Find a way.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
How is the farming season? Because I think you're doing
a dairy support block at the moment or you're managing
a dairy support block, a sizable one at that. How's
the farming season treating you?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Oh, I don't really.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Know if there's a polite way of putting it. It's
been pretty average.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, because the weather's been real crap, hasn't it? The
further south you go.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
It's been shocking, man. Everything is just absolutely drenched. It's
just wet as anything.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It could be worse, Robbie. You could be on a
lambing beat.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
That's true.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
I am a wee bit spoilt here being a dairy
support farm. I don't do lambing and I don't do calving.
So this is actually the quietest time of the year
for me.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Lots of time for your creative juices to flow around
your social media posts. Hey, Robbie Jackson, great to catch
up with you. Where do we find you? What's your tag?
Speaker 6 (16:17):
You can just search up Robbie Jackson or Robbie JNZ
and you can find me on any of them, any
of the social medias.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Well, we've had a look at what you're doing on
social media, Robbie Jackson, and we love it here on
the country. And to be fair, people can read all
about it. There's a really good story this week in
Farmers Weekly by Olivia Corble. So well done.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Cheers. Thank you. Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Good on you, Robbie, mate. Thank you very much for
your time. 25 after 12, you're with the country. Some
of your feedback, we all need to try harder, says Damien.
So does that mean Damien's swapping the motorbike for a
Nissan Leaf? I don't know, Texter. I don't know. Up next,
we're going to have a look at Rabobank's September agribusiness outlook.
And I think in rural news, Michelle's going to update
(17:03):
the latest from Beef and Lamb New Zealand on the
profitability for the coming season. Farm Inputs interest and exchange rates,
(17:42):
oil and freight, not so flash.
Speaker 7 (17:45):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, that's a great summary for this
first monthly of the spring, September. And, you know, we've
titled it A Spring in the Steppe, which probably speaks
more to that commodity side Things are really looking quite
good out there, and we've got record highs across parts
of the red meat sector still right now. But as
(18:07):
you say, there's a lot of watching points around that
farm input side, and it's fair to say things aren't
very settled in the Middle East, and the dollar's slightly
stronger than it's been as well. So there's a few
things playing into the cost side of businesses, I think,
that we need to really be keeping an eye on
and talking about as we go into the busy seasons.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Okay, let's start with the income side of the ledger.
And I want to start with dairying. I was a
bit worried that that was calling its jets a bit,
but we've had a couple of positive GDT auctions. So
is it steadying the ship there?
Speaker 7 (18:39):
Yeah, things are steaming out, Jamie, and we expect that
to perhaps continue as milk supply growth globally starts to
slow down, right? So that's what's really driving things. We've
also got really good demand for the powders happening. There's
still a lot of that butterfat and cheese basically supply
out there. So that's sort of holding things back in
(19:00):
that space. But as the season goes on, You know,
the view of rubber research is that we've got good
upside potentially there, so things are looking quite good from
a potential farm gate milk price perspective for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And if we look at all of our commodities, in
some ways beef has been the star of the stable
of what's happening in the US despite the tariffs. But
you're cautioning a bit of a warning here regarding that
trim price for beef, the stuff they want to put
into their hamburgers in the US.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Why is that happening? I thought there was just an
out-and-out shortage.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
Yeah, well, there really is an out-and-out shortage of basically
domestic trim in the United States, and that is not
expected to go away anytime soon. What's changing around at
the moment a little bit is that the US has
opened up the other country's quota tariff and basically reduced
it to zero, or they say they're going to, for
about 300,000 tonnes of beef. Now, what that means, Jamie,
(19:55):
is that doesn't affect us really at all in terms
of our access into the United States market. But Brazil,
who's looking for a home for a lot of beef
because they can't actually see much into China right now
for other different China quota reasons, means that they may
start to pop more beef up into that market. And
what we're seeing is that US imported trim prices softening
(20:16):
quite kind of rapidly at the moment. However, let's remember,
it's at a very all-time high. And, you know, our
prices are also, because of that, very, very strong. So
we're coming down from a higher base because there potentially
might be a little bit more product for the next
90-odd days going into the United States. But again, remembering
New Zealand's got great relationships into the US for that trim.
(20:38):
We've got good, consistent, compliant, safe product. And so I think,
you know, we're not necessarily competing all the time with
some of these other countries that might be able to
flood a market on a volume perspective if those relationships
don't perhaps exist in other countries. So we'll just keep
an eye on it. That might be why we're seeing
a little bit of softening in, you know, our Farmgate
prices for bull and cow-cow at the moment, but it
(21:00):
is coming down off a very, very strong position.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
There's a lot of sheep farmers out there at the
moment on the lambing beat, listening hopefully to this show.
Have you got words of encouragement for them? What are
the prospects for lamb like, Jen Corcoran?
Speaker 7 (21:14):
Yeah, great question, Jamie, and we talked about this, you know,
this time last year, right, because things were really picking
up and, you know, we're sitting steady above $ 12 at
the moment, obviously in a very low supply period before
these lambs grow bigger and start to hit the market
before Christmas. So the big question will really be when
that supply turns on and to what degree in New
Zealand because the export situation around that average export value
(21:37):
hit a new record in July at over $ 17, which
is a crazy amount of money because you're low on average. Now,
the reason for that is that we've got a good
diverse range of markets for our lamb. They're willing to
pay for it. There's a global shortage of sheep as well,
thanks to Aussie, and the northern hemisphere in general around
the UK and Europe. So, good demand broadly for sheep meat.
(21:59):
Mutton prices are also doing great things. I'm reasonably positive
for the outlook for this season. I think the big
question will be how many lambs hit the New Zealand
processing sector at once. If that even happens at all, right?
And that's kind of more around the weather. So I
think we're sitting in a good spot. We're above $ 12.
It's likely to soften through that peak, but I can't
(22:21):
see any situation where we would expect it to fall
off a cliff in any direction.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Right. Let's quickly finish on, because we've touched on farm inputs. Obviously,
fertilizer and fuel are a real issue off the back
of what's happening in the Middle East. But I want
to just finish on interest rates and the exchange rate. Now,
we're currently at about 59 US cents. You guys at
Rabobank are expecting us to get to 61 in the
(22:46):
next 12 months. I guess we can live with that.
The interesting one is interest rates. Ben Pickton, your guy
in Sydney, chief economist effectively, is saying another couple of
rises to 3.25%. And do you know what I think, Jen?
I think we can live with that because if I
look across the Tasman to where Ben's making these predictions,
The Aussies are currently at 4.35%, with future rises in prospect.
(23:12):
So maybe we're not doing that bad after all.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
No, we're not doing too bad. And I think the
rubber research view here that Ben talks about is that
the New Zealand economy is recovering. And I think we're
all kind of aware of that now. There's just that
little bit of inflation management that isn't quite finished. And
so what we're expecting because of all of that, and
it's been well kind of versed this year is that
there is still more rises to come we think and
(23:37):
a couple more to go really but um it's certainly
not looking too bad if we if we compare ourselves
to across the ditch and um and we'll just watch
and see.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
What happens you can read all about it on rabobank's
website rabobank.co.nz jen corcoran thanks for your time thanks jen
26 away from one some more of your feedback coming
in on the country being a young farmer it will
be a sad place to be with damien And his
lot in charge. Well, I agree with you, Texter. I mean,
(24:06):
the Greens are completely nutty to Party Maori. Well, I
dismiss them. They're activists. And the real threat out there,
I reckon, for you farmers is the Opportunity Party. Not
that they're being able to force this policy into place,
but even talk of a land tax would be the
death knell for farming. So you all get your say
(24:27):
on November the 7th. Vote wisely. Up next, Michelle with
Rural News. And we'll have a look at sport. Welcome
back to the country. It is 23 away from 1.
Here is Michelle Watt with the latest on profitability on
(24:49):
our sheep and beef farms. I'll play the wee rural
news thingy, Michelle.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
The country's rural news with Cub Cadet. It's one thing
to talk innovation, another to back it up.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Drive it. We dare you.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Visit steelfort.co.nz for your local stockist.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Thanks, Jamie.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
Sheep and beef farmers are being told to expect another
strong year for red meat returns, despite signs farm margins
will tighten. Beef and lamb New Zealand's new season outlook
forecasts lamb prices will ease by 8% and beef cattle
prices by 4.5%, while farm expenditure is expected to rise
to just over 4%. Average farm profit before tax is
(25:29):
forecast at $ 267, 000 for the 2026-2027 season, down 20% on
last year's record result. but still well above the five-year average.
Beef and lamb chair Kate Ackland says strong cash flows
have helped farmers repay debt, invest in fertiliser and complete
deferred maintenance after several tough seasons. And that's rural news.
You can find more at thecountry.co.nz.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yes, and those profitability levels are a lot better than
they were when Pat Benatar was coming out with this
banger in the 80s. Ah, the 80s.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Sport on the country with AFCO. 100% Kiwi owned and trusted.
That's rare.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, so Rassi's named a strong team for the fourth
and final test at Baltimore. All Blacks coach Dave Rennie
has declared his side has a big final performance in
them as they prepare for the fourth test against the
Springboks in the US on Sunday, 9 o'clock. Very friendly,
viewer-friendly time, that one. The squad landed in Washington, D.C.,
(26:29):
and needing a win to draw the series to all. Effectively,
they've lost it. Rennie gave his players a day off
overnight after the travel haul from Johannesburg. Interestingly, they shared
the plane with the Springboks. And the other interesting piece
of trivia, I heard this morning that the All Blacks,
and Baltimore's not a mile away from Washington, D.C., believe
(26:50):
it or not, they're staying in the Watergate Hotel in Washington.
How cool is that? Up next, earlier this morning, I
caught up with our UK correspondent, Farmer Tom Martin. Here's
our UK farming correspondent, Farmer Tom Martin, big-time social media influencer.
(27:13):
He is sort of the rural equivalent of Harry and Meghan. Now,
have you spotted them in your travels, Tom?
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Do you know, it's amazing that I'm the UK farming
correspondent because we spend a lot of time talking about
Harry and Meghan, don't we? I haven't spotted them. I
frankly haven't looked out for them. If it hadn't been
for the fact that Charles issued a statement today, Monday,
as we speak, basically saying that they're not working royals,
they're not to be addressed as your Royal Highness, and
(27:40):
their security isn't the responsibility of the royal family. If
we hadn't heard that, we wouldn't have heard anything from them.
And my advice to them, if they came to me,
would be to carry on with the evictus game, keep
your head down, and review things in a year's time.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Well, I think they have got a title, Royal Grifters. Now,
last time I chatted to you, because I haven't chatted
to you for a few weeks, you were in the
midst of a stinker of a drought. Surely it's over.
Surely the autumn rains have come.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
We've had some rain. We've had kind of about two
and a half inches here, which is probably the same
as we had for March, April, May, June, July and
most of August. So we have a little bit of rain.
It's greened up a fair bit. It broke virtually the
same day as the drought in 1976 broke. So that
kind of back end of August, the kind of 26th,
27th of August. And everything's greened up amazingly. We've literally
(28:36):
only had a couple of inches of rain and some
places haven't even had that. So we're still pretty dry.
But we've got a little bit of unsettled weather, which
might just, again, just help the soil to replenish their
soil moisture. So drought, I'm not sure if they've changed
the official settings or the official terminology, but the drought
(28:59):
certainly feels like it's over. At a surface level, I
don't know about the water table.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Our arable farmers here on the other side of the
world are having a terrible time or a tough time
of it. You guys are really not fearing much better.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Oh, we had a shocking harvest. Yields were down a
third yesterday. And we've only been saved by the world
wheat prices just creeping up a little bit. You know,
we obviously, on a personal level, want this war in
Ukraine to be over as quick as possible. But the
fact that it doesn't look like there's going to be
(29:38):
any kind of resolution will keep the wheat prices up
through to our winter. So that will help us out
a little bit. It's always a shame having to rely
on bad news somewhere, but that's the only way that
we seem to be able to make a profit here
in the UK.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
One of the really big contentious issues in the UK
has been the inheritance tax issue. from the Labour government. Now,
I note the Conservatives, bless them, are going to push
for the PM to scrap farm inheritance tax changes. Will
Andy Burnham be listening?
Speaker 4 (30:13):
I don't think he'll be listening to the Conservative Party,
but he is a Prime Minister who listens. He's a
Prime Minister who tends to.
Have a decent grasp on what's going on in the nation.
There is a fair bit of pressure from kind of
obvious circles to use the upcoming autumn budget to reverse
(30:34):
those inheritance tax changes, which were ridiculous, which won't generate,
they'll only generate kind of a change of behaviour rather
than a meaningful income for the Treasury. But will he
take that opportunity to make those changes? I don't know.
I certainly wouldn't be confident.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Who is Ben Goldsmith and why is he upsetting British
sheep farmers?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Ben Goldsmith is in the Goldsmith family, a wealthy, wealthy family,
I think related to the Rothschilds. Zach Goldsmith, his brother,
was in, I think he's in the House of Lords.
He's something to do with DEFRA. Ben certainly has plenty
to say for himself. He's really big into rewilding. He
runs a Um, he's part of a big, um, company
(31:21):
who specializes in natural capital. So he certainly has a
vested interest and he spent the last weekend, um, basically
picking fights with shepherds. One of the first things he
came out was not, not a very sensible thing to do,
but he basically came out to say that, um, uh,
that sheep are not well looked after. Um, they're lame,
they're infrequently checked, and they're kept in poor conditions. And
(31:45):
there was a bit of a backlash. And he was
basically saying that shepherds are.
Well, he started off by saying shepherds don't exist. There
are no shepherds anymore. And then when a lot of
people said, hang on a minute, I'm a shepherd, there
was a little bit of backtracking and changing. But he
certainly hasn't been carrying any favour Um, but he's since
(32:07):
written an article in the spectator magazine, uh, slightly rightly leaning, uh,
magazine publication here in the UK. Uh, and, uh, he,
he just basically been, been, been, been messing around. And
I think it's very difficult to understand until you, uh,
until you realize that he's, um, uh, incredibly pro rewilding
as a rewilding podcast, which is probably worth a listen
(32:29):
to be fair. Uh, and, um, and has a company
that is big into natural capital and rewilding. So, you know,
sometimes you just wish some people would just leave it
well alone. We've spoken about Harry and Meghan so far,
but Ben Scolesmith in this instance is another one. He's
taken on James Rebanks, a very famous shepherd, who's frankly,
(32:51):
Tom strips out of him over the weekend. It's not
something that's done anybody any good. It hasn't done anybody.
the sheep farmers any good at all and sometimes it's
just best to say now that's one of the sayings
from the north of England sometimes it's just best to
say now.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
As my mum used to say if you've got nothing
good to say say nothing there we go hey farmer
Tom Martin thanks as always for your time in.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
The UK always a pleasure Jamie good to have you.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Back good to be back Tom I caught up with
him a wee bit earlier this morning cheated a wee
bit it's like nearly 2 o'clock in the morning UK
time Up next, we wrap the country with Dr. Jacqueline Roweth.
(33:37):
Her name is Dr. Jacqueline Roweth, one of our leading
primary sector academics. She's kind enough fortnightly to write a
wonderful column for us. And I'm going to read out
your opening paragraph, Jacqueline, because I love it. In childhood,
the summers were longer, the days were hotter, the waters
were sparklier, and the ice cream was cheaper. And you
go on to write, the latter is probably true, the
(33:59):
first three not so much. The term is rosy retrospection,
the rose-tinted spectacle phenomenon. And I like looking back at
life through rose-tinted spectacles, Jacqueline. It's one of the pleasures
of getting older.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
Of course it is.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
And we love the childhood and indeed some of the
teens and indeed the specific good points about when we
were adults. But that is the point. We just get
rid of the bad memories. And apparently this is the
whole thing about childbirth, which I have not been through.
But why do people scream in agony and then have
another one? Because the bad bits are screened out in
(34:38):
one's memory at the joy of the baby or the
joy of the ice cream, sparkly waters and hotter days.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Probably explains why I still play golf. You're suggesting that
farming is also a subject to rosy retrospection, the good
old days when we didn't need nitrogen fertilisers.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yes, and we had horse-drawn carts and everything took very
much longer and all of those sorts of things, and
food insecurity was rife. We can remember that, remember why
we've got An Irish cop on every street corner in
New York, the potato famine. We can go right back
through history and say food insecurity was huge. We don't
(35:25):
have that nearly as much now. I know that people
say we're food insecure in New Zealand, but actually they
don't know what it meant in terms of what it
used to be 100 years ago. And a lot of
our technologies, our understanding of chemicals has enabled food to
be more available globally. I thank the farmers every day
(35:48):
for that. That old thought, you should thank a farmer
five times a day. Breakfast, lunch, tea and all the
other bits in between.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Well, that's a morning and afternoon tea thrown in there,
isn't it? That's an old-fashioned notion as well. Hey, Jacqueline,
I note from your column that that you were an
interested viewer, spectator, as was I, to the Q &
A rural debate. And honestly, I thought, heaven help us
if a centre-left government takes power. Or not heaven help us,
(36:20):
heaven help the farmers and the small businesses of this country.
They've got no idea.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
No, it was distressing to see that there were, in fact,
all parties are throwing out lollies, sweeties, in a way
that's sort of dotted around without grasping the central issue
of New Zealand's economic development and its economic foundation is agriculture.
This government has been trying to enable the farmers to
(36:49):
get on and do good food production and good food
production keeps our economy flowing. and because it's the export economy,
and also provide food for New Zealanders directly and indirectly
through the income.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
So some of.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
The things that were being spouted on Sunday were really worrying, like, oh,
wonderful one. Farmers can get more money for their product
if they don't use agrochemicals, if they're organic, for instance.
which is true, but they don't get a higher income
because the yield is down. And if the yield is down,
(37:27):
then that means prices will go up for the consumer
because there's less of it. So you can't have cheap
food and no agrochemicals. And anything espousing that is not
supported by science, economics, finance, anything.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Just not supported.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Unfortunately, Jo Luxton... And I like Jo as a person.
I keep saying this. It's almost as though I'm justifying
my criticism here. But she has almost been useless in
terms of coming out with ag policy. Still nothing. Well,
not that anything I've seen from the Labour Party. Steve Abel,
who is reasonably eloquent to give him his dues, the
(38:06):
Green Party ag spokesperson. Some of the commentary around the
debate was that he'd killed it. The only thing Steve
managed to kill was the prospect's of prosperous farming.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
So we go back to, unless you actually understand the
issue that you're dealing with, and sadly there's an awful
lot of policy arts type degrees in the groups, the
ministries that advise our politicians, unless you actually understand it,
you can't get through to the policy creation that will
(38:41):
enable the discipline, in this case farming, that you're talking about.
And what you and I have discussed before, there are
so few people with an ag science degree or some
sort of agricultural background actually in Parliament. And people who
live in rural areas don't always understand what's going on.
But people who have been farming do understand. We've got
(39:01):
ministers who have been farming who actually understand the issues
with income and assets and the difference between assets and
cash flow, which I don't think is understood by all politicians.
And the ability to actually invest to ensure a vibrant business.
And the vibrant business is what we need for New Zealand,
(39:22):
not just because of the export economy, but because of
the next generation. If you have a vibrant business, somebody
wants to buy it. or inherit it. And if it's
not vibrant, it's child abuse when your son or daughter
or grandchild or whatever says, what on earth do I
do now?
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Because all you've got is debt.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You can read all about it on our website, thecountry.co.nz.
Dr Jacqueline Roweth, thanks as always for your contribution and
your time.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Lovely to talk, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
Glad you're back. Sorry about the bug.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, good to be back, Jacqueline. And Steve from the
Hauraki Plains, thank you. Glad you're back from your junket ride, Steve.
I'll give you the clue, Steve. Three weeks of influenza
A was not a junket. I've been on plenty of
junkets in my life. That was not one of them.
We'll catch you back tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Farmlands. Because rural never
grows it alone. Newstalk ZB.
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