August 27, 2024 • 38 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Miles Hurrell, Nicola Willis, Mark Leslie, Siobhan Lynch, and Ray Smith.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the Country Podcast with Jamie mckue Thanks to Brent.
You're specialist in John Deere construction equipment.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Get a New Zealand and welcome to the Country. Brought
to you by Brent. We're going to talk to Brent's
precision ag expert in Australia about robotic tractors. You'll be
surprised at where technology is heading. But we're going to
kick it off. We're kicking it off with a musical theme.
(00:54):
Actually today I'm Jamie mckaye. By the way, the richest
drummers in the world apparently this bloke Phil Collins the
second richest drummer in the world behind Ringo Starr. Of
course Ringo with the Beatles. But too much fanfare and speculation.
We are going to kick off the show today with
Chief Executive of Fonterra Miles Hurley. Put a call in
(01:17):
yesterday while I was on the road in South Canterbury
saying he needed to be on the show. A lot
of speculation overnight in this morning as to why. We
do know why now, so maybe we don't need the
drum roll that I've got cueued up. Nikola Willis, Finance Minister,
sitting in for the Prime Minister Christopher Luxen, who's off
with Winnie to the Pacific Island something or other. Mark Leslie,
(01:40):
chief Executive of PAMU, defending himself against claims from act
Party leader on Monday Show that Lancorp is taking taxpayers
for a ride. And Ray Smith, Director General of MPI,
what happened to m bovis have we beaten it? Amongst
other things? Our board is safe now that we've slashed
(02:01):
or slashed or reduced the workforce at all government departments,
including MPI. So without further ado, I reckon we should
get into this. So here it is the announcement from
Fonterra that we've all been waiting for. You got a
(02:22):
call while I was on the road yesterday. Miles Hurrale,
chief Executive, wants to be on the show for a
second time within the space of a weekend. When Miles
says jump, we normally say how high Miles? Now, there
were a couple of roomors circulating that you wanted to
come on to move the milk price to nine bucks.
I think we can dismiss that one. The other interesting
one was that you were going to resign and retire
(02:45):
to a yacht on the or a luxury cruising yacht
on the Mediterranean. Is that one true?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Well, good Jamie, I know neither of those are true,
but of course some are either. The optimist of course,
so we'll take it. But no, we're announcing today quite
a significant upgrade to our Studdem factory in the South
Island and it shows you know, we're here to deliver
for our farmers in an advanced to gredient space.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
As fate would have it. I was filming a video
and a spud paddock, but it's highly secretive, so I
can't say more than that. Miles yesterday and it was
right near your Clandy Boys site, and because Clandy Boys
off the main drag State Highway One, I'd never had
a look around there, so we took the opportunity to
have a look round. Gee, it's a big site.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
It is a big site. And we've had quite a
significant investment in Clandyborg the last few years as well,
mainly around and Motzarella cheese. So you know, the role
here for us is to grow our ingredients business, grow
food service business, and today's announcement is right along with that.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Well going down the road from Clandy Boy, we did
drive past Studham which is on State Highway one. What
are you doing there? How much you spending?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, it's about about seventy five million dollars as we're
sort of allowed or peaked for for that expansion. And
it's about I mean most that product that we make
in Studum at the moment as homework powder. But here
we are wanting to expand a medical and an active
nutrition our course nutrition products and so you know, a
significant investment were announcing today which goes to support as
I say that the evaluate ingredients part of our business
(04:16):
and what is a growing category globally?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Are you going to use some of the money that
you've got by flagging off the family silverware well that
you're going to get your consumer brands to pay for us.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Well, And let's be honest, I mean the earnings that
we've had in the last couple of years ago go
a long way to supporting us to continue to grow.
So you know what it is. I mean, we did
announce that we're going to look at our consumer business
and put that on the block, and we're in that process,
of course, but we also said would also come out
in September and talk about what our strategy is going forward.
(04:47):
But what you've seen here today is this is right
in the wheelhouse. We were going advanced ingredients, food service
and really proud that we can give that factory a lift.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So you're talking about high value protein. As you mentioned
the sports nutrition department, what else is it doing?
Speaker 4 (05:04):
And medical stuff, so medical nutrition, sports nutrition. So this
is a category that's sort of you know growing. It's
about a ten billion dollars a year category and for us,
as I say, it's right and sort of the crosses
of what we're targeting, you know, high value consumers in
both North America, Europe, Japan, career and so you know,
(05:24):
it's it's supporting those categories and putting our milk into
higher returns.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And I read in your press release that you're expecting
that sector to grow at an annualized rate of seven
percent per annum. That's impressive.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Well, it is impressive. And so you've seen some categories
and you know, we talked quite a lot about the
infant nutrition category with the growth rates in China coming back,
but we really see growth rates in this in this
category in our sports active living, you know, people are aging,
and they're looking for for more protein, more dairy protein
in the diets, and so you know, it's a good
good news story for us, so we'll take it.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
It's a beautiful down south today and the country's enjoyed
some pretty good weather and some mixed weather as well
as you'd expect as we head into the spring. Of course,
how's milk collection volumes going? Early days?
Speaker 4 (06:10):
I know, yeah, it's early days, but they are up
over this time last year, which I think is a
reflection of pretty good winter, the animal conditions they went
through winter, and so you know, carvings in a good space.
So you know, milk milk is up this time of year.
But as you said, to early days, but we'll keep
our fingers cross for a decent peak.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Now. I note that the milk futures market before your announcement,
was it like eight dollars eighty en z X was
saying something like nine dollars twenty. How long is it
tell you till the pr department at Fonterra rings me
up and says we've got to get miles on to
announce nine dollars. When's that likely to happen?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Well, yeah, we've always said we'll be the first, you'll
be the first to know along with our farmers if
we see a change. So we now set fifty cents
up last week, which which goes a long way to
sort of signaling where the markets heading. But again it's
early days, you know, week three of the funny year.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Least there's upside risk surely.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Well, but also downside. I mean you you only have
to look at the international market to see things are
a bit wobbly out there. So you know it's for us,
as you know, a realistic number at eight fifty. But
we've still got the spread up and down recognizing that
things can go over the way at the stage.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Okay, Myles Harrel, nice to chat to you, and nice
to know you're not heading off to the Mediterranean, but
you keep up the good work at Fonterra. Up chairs,
Thank you, thank you. Miles. Yeah, okay. Michelle Watts wandered
in here. Hello Michelle, Hello, how are you now? I
got the urgent call while I was on the on
the road yesterday filming the Secret of video that Miles
(07:40):
had to come on and I was to be honest,
I mean, this is okay, but it's not earth shattering yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
I got a phone call too, Jamie and I was
told nothing other than any had a big announcement, so oh.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Well, no, look it's a it's a good news story. Interestingly,
on as I said, we're in the Spud Paddock, which
was right next door to the Fonterrat Clandy Boys site,
which i'd never sort of had a look around. I
didn't go in, but we drove around it, and of
course you drive past. Fonterra also has one helped me
out here at Studham, obviously the one he's talking about.
(08:13):
And then you go down the road a wee bit
further to Glenavy and there's the Yeely or Oceania one
down there. So when you're driving North Islanders from Dunedin
up to christ Church you see lots of lots of
factories because by memory, the Sinlay ones on the right
hand side of State Highway as well. And I think
we might have Sinley in the rural news, have we
(08:35):
we do?
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Indeed we do.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Indeed so richest drummers Phil Collins's number two, Ringo's number one,
although someone suggested that Ringo was overtaken by Paul McCartney
as the richest drummer but Paul McCartney didn't do much drumming,
did he.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
No, we've come to a consensus that he doesn't count
as a drummer. But that list, it's interesting. So the
list that these songs are from that we're playing right
now is actually from twenty twelve. However, I just looked
up the list from now so twenty twenty four and
it hasn't changed really at all. Charlie Wats are still
on there.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, and Pearl Charlie, he's the only one who's well
not still with us today. Dave Grohl's still there. Don
Henley's still there. Is the bloke from Metallica still there?
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Yeah, he's still around Yep.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Not really my cup of tea, but anyhow, Metallica, I'm
talking about big Don Henley fan. Up next. Nichola Willis
caught up with the Rewevered earlier this morning because she
was filling in for the Prime Minister not available today.
He's off shore. Nichola Willis up next, Mark Leslie, chief
executive of PAMU, defending himself against claims from David Seymour
(09:40):
that Lancorp is taking taxpayers for a ride. We've got
a special treat for you in the form of Chavorn
Lynch and we're going to talk to the Director General
of MPI, Ray Smith. It's all on the Country today.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Minister of Finance Nikola willis filling in for Prime Minister
Christopher Luxen on the Country today. Nicola, I have to
compliment you on your choice of words when describing the
competition amongst the banks as a cozy pillow fight? Was
that your own creative thinking? It was very good?
Speaker 6 (10:26):
If it was well, I have to credit the Commerce
Commission with that one. They breshed me on their report
where they've looked at the competition issues between the banks
and they were describing it as an oligopoly and price
matching and these technical terms, and they then used that
I think beautiful term of it's more like a cozy
pillow fight. And I thought, well, that's it, and that's
(10:46):
how I'm going to explain it to New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
What is a fair Because you've got a background in finance,
return on investment or should I say return on equity
for the banks because you know ASP thirteen point a
and Z should I say thirteen point eight? The ASPS
thirteen point seven? All the four Ussie banks are in
the double digits. Is that a fair return or is
that price gouging.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Well, what we know is that compared to the rest
of the world, our banks are some of the most
profitable that there are, and interestingly are more profitable than
their Australian counterparts despite having the same parent banks. And
what that translates to is less competitive banking services for
New Zealanders. So what I'm concerned about is our New
Zealander is paying.
Speaker 7 (11:27):
A few fees.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Are interest rate reductions being passed on swiftly? Our New
Zealanders getting competitive behavior between the banks, so that if
you go to one bank, they want to give you
a better deal, a sharper deal than the other bank
that you went to. And what the Comments Commission said is, look,
that's not happening enough. It's actually not competitive enough. We're
not getting as good a deal as people around the
(11:51):
world are. So that says there's something wrong and we
the government have to act.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Are farmers getting the short end of the stick compared
to say, residential borrowers, because compare to me that the
farming portfolio, if you want, is probably subsidizing the more
competitive residential market.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Yeah, well, this is something that's raised with me by
farmers a lot, because what they can see is that
many of them are finding it difficult to get lending.
When they do get lending, it's sometimes that pretty punitive
interest rates. And they look at that and they compare
what they're doing, which is investing in the productivity of
the country, borrowing exports, are creating jobs, and they say,
(12:32):
why is it so hard for me to get lending,
and yet it's pretty straightforward to someone borrowing for a house.
And so that is one of the issues, Jamie, that
we've asked the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee to have
a look at. They're doing this inquiry into banking. It's
going to go wider than the Commerce Commission look and
rural banking, the terms on which farmers get lending is
(12:54):
absolutely one of the subjects they can to scrutinize that
what we can to expect answers from the.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Banks on I see Chris Sipkins leaders talking about a
capital gains tax, a wealth tax, a combination of the two,
and even land taxes. Will that ever be on the
table under a national led government.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
Oh look, Jamie, I chuckled to myself when I saw
that yesterday. It's just so labor, isn't it there. They've
always got extra taxes on their mind, land tax, capital
gain tax, wealth tax. Where we're coming from as a government,
and where the National Party has come from, is Zeland
doesn't so much have a revenue problem right now. What
we have is a spending problem. We've had a government
(13:32):
that has been spending at such a rate of knots
that that's made our government finance is unsustainable. So we're
really focused on bringing discipline back to government spending, getting
rid of the wastefill stuff, bringing value for money back
so that we don't need to keep taxing New Zealanders
more and more and more. And obviously national campaign against
a capital gains tax. I'd argue that anyone in the
(13:55):
country paying rates right now is pretty confident they're paying
a land tax already.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, I would to agree with that one. In a
past life, you worked for Fonterra. In a past life,
you also worked for John Key. Well, these days, sir
John Key, he once famously said when we were the
rockstar economy that where Fonterra goes, New Zealand goes, is
that applicable at all? Now?
Speaker 8 (14:16):
Well?
Speaker 6 (14:17):
I think the fortunes of our dairy sector are really
important for the fortunes of our country. We're an economy
that requires exports, that needs to make our way in
the world, and we don't get rich by selling to
each other. One of the ways we have generated considerable
wealth and employment and opportunity is by selling world class
(14:38):
dairy products to the world. We produce them more sustainably,
more efficiently than anyone else, and I think we should
be proud of all of our dairy farmers in the
effort they do well, especially.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Out at this time of the year when they're working
literally twenty four to seven. Final comment on interest rates,
they're heading down? Are they going down quick enough for
your liking?
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Well, you see, Jamie, this is where I have to
be very careful with her banks. They do their job,
they set the interest rates.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
I do my job.
Speaker 6 (15:06):
I do the spending in the tax and I am
not allowed to seek to influence the Reserve Bank and
their activity except to say that it is our job
to make sure we're spending wisely and managing the economy wisely.
We've been doing that, so I was delighted to see
that interest rates came down faster than many had been predicting,
and I know how important it is to everyone in
(15:28):
our economy that they keep coming down.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
MICHAELA. Willis, Minister of Finance, thanks for filling the boots
of the PM today on the country. Appreciate your time.
Speaker 6 (15:37):
Thank you, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
There's my microphone on. I'm trying to find I was
trying to do two things at once there, Michelle, which
is I should never try and do. I was trying
to play a wee bit of deaf Leopard because, as
I said, I like here they go. I caught up
with Nikola Willis earlier this morning, too early for me
to be perfectly honest, because she was filling in for
(15:59):
Chris of a lux and we got an interesting text
and text and about our drummers with musical theme today
just to change things up a bit. Was the richest
drummers and ringo stars apparently the richest drummer. But a
text quite rightly said, umhere where is it gone? There's
so many texts coming and people who are figuring out
(16:20):
what I was doing in Winchester. I was just down
the road from Dick Taylor's old spud farm. The plot
thickens on a payment basis, writes the text, I'm all
over the place today on a payment basis per arm.
Yeah arm, you play the drums with the drummer from
def Leppard should be up there. And of course Michelle
(16:40):
being the good bell Kluther Bogan, you are deaf Leppard's
sort of second nature to you. And you knew. I
didn't know the drummer from deaf Leppard only had one arm.
Hang on, let me where have you gone? There you
go try that?
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I thought everyone knew that, Jamie, But maybe it's just
like a Bogan fun fact. Yeah, Rickellen, he's only got
one arm and.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Play how do you play the with one arm?
Speaker 5 (17:01):
So he went from playing. It wasn't through his whole career.
It was partly through an electronic drum set and it
was on this album actually, So.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
This great song pour some sugar on me, babe has
only got a drama with one arm. It has indeed,
now yet more useless information for you. Today. It's a
sunny Wednesday. Why not go and watch the movie The
Bank of Dave. It's about a bloke who sets up
a bank in England true story to raise or to
(17:30):
fund his community because they no one else would lend
them some money. And the kicker at the end is
in this true story, he gets def Leppard to do
a fundraising concert so he can make enough money to
start up as a bank. It's called the Bank of Dave.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Might have to look that one up, Jamie.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
It sounds pretty good.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
It is a great movie. Okay, we're going to take
a break. On the other side of it. David Seymour,
you might remember him on Monday's show talking about PAMU Landcrp,
claiming Land Corp is taking taxpayers for a ride. His
fate would have it. He's in town today, Mark Leslie,
the chief executive of Parmo. He's down the road from
(18:08):
us at silver Fern Farms. We're going to ring him
up in just a tick and ask him if the
taxpayers getting fair value out of Parmu and whether the
government should be in the business of farming at all.
That's up next on the country. Depending on who you believe, PARMU,
(18:45):
formerly known as Land Corp, either made a net operating
profit of twenty million or an after tax loss of
twenty six million. In fact, they made both of them.
It's just which way you report it. Now on Monday Show,
you might remember David Seymour, AC Party leader, was on
putting the boot into Land Corps, saying Land Corp has
delivered an extremely poor return on taxpayers investment for many years.
(19:08):
No private operation would be able to continue to fail
like this, Land Corp is taking taxpayers for a ride.
Chief executive of said company, Mark Leslie joins us, what
do you say in your defense? Seymour was pretty tough
on you.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
I think he's been very clear about his views on it,
which is fine, and many people have the the views.
And I think, as per your intro, Jamie, the point around,
we make a profit from our core operations from the
farming perspective, and we controlled the controllables, as I say,
for a lot of our teams, and we had some
very good farm performance metrics. But we did also, like
(19:45):
many other farmers, get hit by some pricing challenges as well.
The loss after tax conversation, a lot of that comes
back to a decrease in farm values and loss of values,
and so that's what drove that loss a net profit
after tax perspective. If you go back two years ago,
we saw the absolute reverse of that and saw some
huge and great gains and land value and that was
(20:07):
back and that's our part of it. So as you know,
it's the psychical nature part of it, and so year
on year we continue to try to drive that performance
part of it. But equally, I think you had my
new tubeman John ray On here a while back, and
you had Jacqueline yesday talking about we need to make
sure we're delving value. I suppose New Jella ink beyond
just that cash part of it and the other benefits
(20:28):
weekend drive from our farming.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
OPRUL should the New Zealand government And this is a
generic sort of question during these tough financial times with
a very stretched balance sheet, cash is short, we can't
even build hospitals properly. Should we be in the business
of farming at all?
Speaker 9 (20:47):
And I think, hey, that's a decision for for my
owners in the ministers and the likes. But equally I
look at it from the other side and say, if
we are going to have this farming business, how do
we generate the most value out of it? And some
that you will come purely from a cash return. Some
of it will come from the areas where we can support,
whether it's what we've done with the ship milking industry,
(21:08):
what we do with growing young farmers and their preshaps
the work we do with genetics and some of the
opportunities that come out of that in terms of low
be same animals and like. So, if we're going to
own that business, how do we make sure we maximize
us returns from a cash and brought a bit a
fit perspective.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
How does Landcorp slash PALMU measure against the private sector.
And I'm looking at some of the figures you threw
out on your press release that came out on Friday
about your annual operating result. For instance, your landing percentage
across the board is up one point five percent in
the past year to one hundred and thirty one. Are
you head of the average farmer out there?
Speaker 9 (21:45):
I think we're probably on that metric, we're probably pretty
commit parable to what the average is at the moment.
And so we we've got a pretty clear plan in
terms of an om sitting here Silver and Farms, as
you said, with my regional heads across the country, and
we've got a very clear plan between sort of this year,
we're already now in and through the next two to
three seasons, and as you know, with a biological system.
(22:07):
It does take a bit of time has changed some
of these things to really drive some improvements in that
landing percentages and death rates, but equally on our production
side for the ear units that get the INCA rates
right and get the milk production flowing from that as well.
So we've set ourselves in pretty aggressive targets over the
next three years that we'd see us again. We've set
ourselves a twenty five million dollar improvement and profit on
(22:29):
that top line that we were talking about earlier on
assuming prices were the same as we're there we're today,
but underlying that some pretty clear performance metrics we want
to drive out of those arms.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Hey, Mark Leslie, thank you very much for your time.
Can I just comment on your press release which, as
I said, came out last week. You were talking about
enriching our land and enriching our people and riching the
future of food and fiber for our row And isn't
this a bit fluffy?
Speaker 9 (22:54):
Yeah, you might say so, but fluffy, But I think
also looking around in terms of the conversation with been
having that the enriching our people pieces, that's very much
giving those opportunities for young, young farmers to come through
the environment, come through the farming environment. The environmental pieces
is looking after our land and it's I think it
aligns with the likes of self and farms as we've
just been talking about the Fontier where they're heading to
(23:15):
with some of their perspectives and things like that. So
we're very conscious there's a drive for a farming performance piece.
But at the end of the day from a people,
from an environmental from a customer's perspective as well, there's
there's some things that we need to be doing as well.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Hey is Shane Jones or David Cymoura Winston, who's ever
driving it? Making you going to change your name from
PAMU back to land call.
Speaker 9 (23:36):
No, that compensation hasn't come up, so it hasn't been
a focus of mind. Amy's mine's been as we've been
talking about focusing on that farming performance and that that
broader impact we can have.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Good on youre Mark Leslie, Thanks for your time. Enjoy
the rest of your day in Duneda.
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Thanks, Amy, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
It's a wonderful day that is indeed, Thank you Mark.
Stunning day in duned and heading for a high seventeen.
Pretty good around the country, some more rain. I think
one more rain coming for the North, very important the
next month or so. We're other wise. I love it
when a text comes in Michelle and calls me a Marxist,
because I know then that I'm hitting the mark, because
(24:11):
I don't think I am a Marxist. I'd be accused
of a lot of things, but not being a Marxist.
It's about the banking competition, and I'll come back to
that text. But we're chasing our tail time wise, so
we're going to take a we break, come back with
Rural News. I think Michelle's got something in Rural News
about sin Lay John Penno rocking the boat a wee
(24:33):
bit there, and we'll have a look at sports as well.
Chevorn lynch ray Smith, Director General of MPI, to come
before the end of the hour.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Your Steen.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Are the wealthiest drummers of all time. Charlie Watts is
on the list, He's no longer here to enjoy it.
I always get confused, Michelle, you don't even need to
answer this between Charlie Watt and Watts, just as I
get confused between Keith Richard and Richard's I honestly don't
know how Charlie's dead and Keith's still alive. One of
(25:21):
my favorite all time individuals. Here's the latest and that's Keith.
That is Keith Richards. Here is Here's Michelle Watt. Any
relation to Charlie. He'sa Watts and the Latest and Rural News.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
The country's world news with cub Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on Lawnbower brand.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Visit steel Ford dot co dot Nz for your locals.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Douggist, the former head of dairy company Sinley Milk, is
threatening to upset a vital meeting to save the financially
strapped business. The company set and it had received a
complaint from former chief executive and share John Peno that
Sinlay's two major shareholders, Bright Dairy and A True Milk,
should not be allowed to vote on the two hundred
and eighteen million dollar capital raising a special meeting to
(26:05):
approve the dealers due next month, with the two shareholders
not able to vote to give themselves new shares, but
allowed to vote the other to receive shares. Peno's complaint
is that the votes breach stock exchange and takeover rules
and the only minority shareholders should be able to vote.
Pino holds two point three per well.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I think, sorry, John, it's Hobson's choice for you. It's
in leaf. They if they don't bar you out, you're gone.
You're insolvent. So I don't know what choice you've got there.
That's the latest and rural news. His sport.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Sport with AFCO. Visit them online at FCO dot co
dot nz.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
No worries for the spring Box over their depth at locked,
despite veteran eben Itzabeth missing Sunday's Rugby Championship game against
the All Blacks at Alice Park. Or is he or
is he? How is say? The one hundred and twenty
four Test forward a sidelined with the knee niggle and
the next two cabs off the rank are also And
did I see their player Peter Steph de Toy, that
(27:01):
great number six. They're playing him as a lock. South
Africa's assistant coach David Dion's says it's simply time for
the next man to step up. It's going to be
so good that game on Sunday morning, and the US
Open has just seen it. This is the Tennis Open,
of course, has just seen its longest ever match five
hours and thirty five minutes pales in comparison to some
(27:23):
of those matches at Wimbledon. Dan Evans has pipped, how
do I go do this? Korran Hatch aren't off in
five sets? Never heard of either of them. Up next,
we've got a bit of a treat for you. We're
going to talk about robotic tractors and electric tractors and
hybrid tractors and are they a thing? Mike Casey, if
(27:46):
you're listening in central Otago, you're going to enjoy Chevorn Lynch.
She's up next with a name like a Chevorn Lynch.
You would have to swear. Our next guest on the
country is Irish, believe it or not. She is Scottish.
And when she's not Scottish, she's the director of sales
precision Technology for Brent and Chavon and Lynch. Today we're
(28:10):
going to talk about robotic tractors, and I know that
we've got GPS smart tractors. You'd barely have to do anything,
maybe turn them at the end of the at the
end of the row. How far away off getting a
tractor that you can pre program and send out to
plow a paddock. Good afternoon, by the way.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
Oh good afternoon to you, Jamie, thank you for having me.
And yet I think for New Zealand we will probably
see this in our market in twenty thirty, possibly before
and for testing in country. But John Deere are one
hundred percent focused on working towards autonomy. They are testing
(28:48):
this in North America now, and it's all the technology
that is in the tractors today combined and with a
bank of cameras and a few extra sensors. It's not
paying the sky sort of stuff. So yeah, we will
see this within the next ten years.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Well, I spent a lot of time on tractors, driving
tractors in my youth, and I was a farmer for
ten or twelve years, so I certainly now my WIY
around a tractor. But a couple of years ago chavellne
I went to film a video, a promotional video about
a tractor. In the blog said start it up and
lift the back it up. I couldn't even figure out
how to start it up. I mean, they lack spaceships.
(29:25):
Will you need to be a rocket scientist to drive
these new tractors?
Speaker 7 (29:30):
No, I don't take me to be a rocket scientist
to drive these new tractors, and I think that's one
of John Deere's things is making sure that we've got
people who can't operate these machines there. Obviously there's a
labor shortage of qualified and people who know their way
around machines, so it's making things easier for the operators. However,
(29:50):
what we do need to do is we need to
get our customers aware of the technology that's in the
machines now and our digital tools and get them using
it so that they are aware of it when autonomy
does come.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Well, we're talking about robotic tractors and we've got a
mite up in Central Otago who's got a fully electric tractor,
albeit on flat ground on a cherry orchard. But how
far away away or will the technology ever be there
for a fully electric tractor? And I look at some
of those big that big machinery a use for cropping
(30:20):
in like West Australia, and that will that ever be
run by battery powered tractors.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
I don't think we will see a large horse power
tractor fully electric. Just be down to the logistics of it,
so they need to be pulling and implement carrying the
size of the machine as a battery, So smaller horsepower
tractors for your orchard and your high value crop tractors. Yes,
but I don't see a fully electric machine in the
large horse power tractors.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Well, I'm driving a hybrid use at the moment. What
about a hybrid tractor possibility.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
If you have a look at John Deere's sustainability report,
they are looking at cleaner fuels hydrogen in electric, so
they're not putting their all their eggs in one basket
with electrification, which I think is a smart move because
they've got different requirements for different markets and different horse
powers and different markets. So yeah, hybrid absolutely could be
(31:15):
one of those possibilities.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
We know here in New Zealand that farming has been
a bit of a tough gig for the past couple
of years and that trector ciles have been muted probably
away bit on the norm, but they're always very cyclical.
How are Australian farmers going by comparison.
Speaker 7 (31:32):
In a similar way. We've probably seen the market come
back from the last couple of years that we've seen
similar to New Zealand. However, if you take away the
COVID years, it is kind of returning to that normal level.
Interest is definitely still there. If customers are not purchasing machines,
what they are looking to do is upgrade their technology.
So it's yes, there is still a market out there.
(31:55):
It might not be for machinery at the moment, it
might be for the technology instead.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Now you're not only an expert in the field of
robotic tractors. You also apply around with golf courses. I
do too, but not very successfully. But you're not talking
about playing, You're talking about drowns. How does that fit
into your job?
Speaker 7 (32:13):
Absolutely? I might be from the just south of the
home of golf, but I know nothing about actually playing golf.
So John Deere is using the the precision technology that
we've used in the bag space for the past ten
to fifteen years and now in a golf space. So
with the GPS Progator and some of our fairway moors,
(32:33):
GPS auto track and section control spraying, so not putting
out too much product on a course, no need for
four markers anymore, being able to map the course with
a drawn put it into John Deere operations center, and
they know how big their courses obviously most supers will
know that already. But there's so much more technology that
(32:56):
we can start implementing in the golf space with our
golf courses across New Zealand, and the interest and uptick
from certain courses already has been fantastic.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Well, I know your mowers are very sought after. Chevorne
Lynch from Brand, Thank you very much for your time today.
Love the accent even if it's not Irish. Thanks for
your time nor worries.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
Thank you Jimmy for having.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
My pleasure, Chevorn. Love that accent. Actually, we're talking about
getting an Irish agg journalist on the show in the
next few days as well. Can't beat those accents up. Next,
we're going to wrap it with the Director General of MPI.
His name is Ray Smith. Always enjoyed chatting to this
(33:43):
man on the country and that's because he's got a
pretty important job in our country. He's the Director General
of MPI, Ray Smith. Ray, here's a starter for you.
You've got reduced staff numbers like every government department. Are
our border is still safe. You're not going to drop
the ball on us.
Speaker 8 (33:59):
Are you, Jamie. No, We're in a really good place
on biosecurity. We never touched the front line of that
part of our operation and we were fully staffed here,
but look there's always plenty happening in that bio security space.
We've got this tomato virus, the brown rugos fruit virus
that's in Australia, and we do import some tomatoes from Australia,
(34:21):
particularly out of Queensland, so we put a temporary pause
on importation of tomatoes just while we work with our
colleagues in Australia to make sure that there's no risk
of any importation coming here. So we're pretty confident that
the Queensland government will sort out their part and then
we might be able to resume that trade. But that's
a good example of where we act quickly when we
know there's a problem.
Speaker 9 (34:41):
Now.
Speaker 8 (34:42):
The other thing is we've had a group from industry,
from the poultry industry along with the MPI, stuff and
our Chief Victory Officer in the UK went on a
joint visit to have a look at how they've handled
the avian influenza, the highly pathogenic one that we haven't
got in New Zealand yet, but of course we're all
always worried about it turning up on our shores, so
(35:02):
that was a really good joint visit to make sure
we can look after the poultry industry in Jamie. I
should really touch on em bogus just to say, you know,
we haven't had a case since April. We're in spring now,
this is the time when if anything's going to pop up,
it might pop out of the woodwork. But you know,
so far, so good. So let's let's just keep up
that good work on farm and then always buy security
practices and keep it out.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Well, maybe there's a bit to celebrate around m bovus.
No other country has eliminated it. When do we finally
become free of M bovus? Is there a time period?
Is it a bit like cancer you've got to survive
five years to be free of it?
Speaker 8 (35:36):
Very similar to that. Actually, I think if we can
stay free for four years, we basically can make that declaration.
So we've got a little ways to go, and that
just makes sure we get right through the tail of
it and ensure that there's nothing less.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Now, I've seen some headlines, not necessarily good ones over
the winter around animal welfare, especially the wintering of livestock.
Do we have an issue?
Speaker 8 (36:00):
Well, look, there has been some high profile cases recently,
and if I put it in context, Jamie. We received
two and a half thousand complaints of poor animal welfare
practice a year, and you know what we do is
we get in and we work alongside farmers and owners
of animals first to try and put things right. And
I would just say to anyone that's listening, and look,
a lot of farmers report, you know, neighboring farms with
(36:22):
their concerned if you're worried about someone that's got poor
practices or they might be struggling to get things organized
on your farm, if they give us a yell, our
animal Welfare inspectors we're on farm support team, will get
out there first and try to put it right with them.
That's our model. We always try to kind of clean
this up and get things in the right place and
help people out. But sadly, you know, there's always some
(36:43):
cases we have to take forward with where the harm
is serious and it's not only damaging to the animals,
but to our reputation as a country it as a
trading nation. So look, we took thirty seven cases through
the prosecution in the last year, and there's been a
couple of high profile ones this year where some of
that winter in practice hasn't quite been right and people
(37:03):
haven't acted in the way that we'd have wanted. But again,
can I put it in context to see our overall
program of proactive visits has found that farmers across the
country have done a really good job of making sure
that they've got their animals in the good state where
there's plenty of water available to them and good feed
and places for them to lie down. So overall we're
doing well. There's always a few applesy that we just
(37:24):
got to kind of go and sort out.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
I must make the observation as a Southlander through and
through and driving a lot around that province, the winter
grazing management and techniques have improved markedly over the last
ten or fifteen years. So well done to those farmers.
Okay Raysmith, Director General of MPI, keep on keeping our
borders safe. Thanks for your time, Thanks very much, sir
(37:48):
ray Smith. Doctor Raysmith, I think he's doctor Raysmith wrapping
the country. Director General of MPI, just a text and
here looking at ROI return on investment, I was actually
looking at return on equity as just politics of NB
creating competition reduces cost and improved service. Much more positive
than your surprising bolt of Marxism, Jamie, Well, where's the competition, Texter. Anyhow,
(38:13):
it's been a good day. You enjoy the rest of yours.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Catch you're the latest from the land.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
It's the Country Podcast with Jamie McGue Thanks to Brent,
your specialist in John Dre machinery
Catch all the latest from the land.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the Country Podcast with Jamie mckue Thanks to Brent.
You're specialist in John Deere construction equipment.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Get a New Zealand and welcome to the Country. Brought
to you by Brent. We're going to talk to Brent's
precision ag expert in Australia about robotic tractors. You'll be
surprised at where technology is heading. But we're going to
kick it off. We're kicking it off with a musical theme.
(00:54):
Actually today I'm Jamie mckaye. By the way, the richest
drummers in the world apparently this bloke Phil Collins the
second richest drummer in the world behind Ringo Starr. Of
course Ringo with the Beatles. But too much fanfare and speculation.
We are going to kick off the show today with
Chief Executive of Fonterra Miles Hurley. Put a call in
(01:17):
yesterday while I was on the road in South Canterbury
saying he needed to be on the show. A lot
of speculation overnight in this morning as to why. We
do know why now, so maybe we don't need the
drum roll that I've got cueued up. Nikola Willis, Finance Minister,
sitting in for the Prime Minister Christopher Luxen, who's off
with Winnie to the Pacific Island something or other. Mark Leslie,
(01:40):
chief Executive of PAMU, defending himself against claims from act
Party leader on Monday Show that Lancorp is taking taxpayers
for a ride. And Ray Smith, Director General of MPI,
what happened to m bovis have we beaten it? Amongst
other things? Our board is safe now that we've slashed
(02:01):
or slashed or reduced the workforce at all government departments,
including MPI. So without further ado, I reckon we should
get into this. So here it is the announcement from
Fonterra that we've all been waiting for. You got a
(02:22):
call while I was on the road yesterday. Miles Hurrale,
chief Executive, wants to be on the show for a
second time within the space of a weekend. When Miles
says jump, we normally say how high Miles? Now, there
were a couple of roomors circulating that you wanted to
come on to move the milk price to nine bucks.
I think we can dismiss that one. The other interesting
one was that you were going to resign and retire
(02:45):
to a yacht on the or a luxury cruising yacht
on the Mediterranean. Is that one true?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Well, good Jamie, I know neither of those are true,
but of course some are either. The optimist of course,
so we'll take it. But no, we're announcing today quite
a significant upgrade to our Studdem factory in the South
Island and it shows you know, we're here to deliver
for our farmers in an advanced to gredient space.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
As fate would have it. I was filming a video
and a spud paddock, but it's highly secretive, so I
can't say more than that. Miles yesterday and it was
right near your Clandy Boys site, and because Clandy Boys
off the main drag State Highway One, I'd never had
a look around there, so we took the opportunity to
have a look round. Gee, it's a big site.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
It is a big site. And we've had quite a
significant investment in Clandyborg the last few years as well,
mainly around and Motzarella cheese. So you know, the role
here for us is to grow our ingredients business, grow
food service business, and today's announcement is right along with that.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Well going down the road from Clandy Boy, we did
drive past Studham which is on State Highway one. What
are you doing there? How much you spending?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, it's about about seventy five million dollars as we're
sort of allowed or peaked for for that expansion. And
it's about I mean most that product that we make
in Studum at the moment as homework powder. But here
we are wanting to expand a medical and an active
nutrition our course nutrition products and so you know, a
significant investment were announcing today which goes to support as
I say that the evaluate ingredients part of our business
(04:16):
and what is a growing category globally?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Are you going to use some of the money that
you've got by flagging off the family silverware well that
you're going to get your consumer brands to pay for us.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Well, And let's be honest, I mean the earnings that
we've had in the last couple of years ago go
a long way to supporting us to continue to grow.
So you know what it is. I mean, we did
announce that we're going to look at our consumer business
and put that on the block, and we're in that process,
of course, but we also said would also come out
in September and talk about what our strategy is going forward.
(04:47):
But what you've seen here today is this is right
in the wheelhouse. We were going advanced ingredients, food service
and really proud that we can give that factory a lift.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So you're talking about high value protein. As you mentioned
the sports nutrition department, what else is it doing?
Speaker 4 (05:04):
And medical stuff, so medical nutrition, sports nutrition. So this
is a category that's sort of you know growing. It's
about a ten billion dollars a year category and for us,
as I say, it's right and sort of the crosses
of what we're targeting, you know, high value consumers in
both North America, Europe, Japan, career and so you know,
(05:24):
it's it's supporting those categories and putting our milk into
higher returns.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And I read in your press release that you're expecting
that sector to grow at an annualized rate of seven
percent per annum. That's impressive.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Well, it is impressive. And so you've seen some categories
and you know, we talked quite a lot about the
infant nutrition category with the growth rates in China coming back,
but we really see growth rates in this in this
category in our sports active living, you know, people are aging,
and they're looking for for more protein, more dairy protein
in the diets, and so you know, it's a good
good news story for us, so we'll take it.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
It's a beautiful down south today and the country's enjoyed
some pretty good weather and some mixed weather as well
as you'd expect as we head into the spring. Of course,
how's milk collection volumes going? Early days?
Speaker 4 (06:10):
I know, yeah, it's early days, but they are up
over this time last year, which I think is a
reflection of pretty good winter, the animal conditions they went
through winter, and so you know, carvings in a good space.
So you know, milk milk is up this time of year.
But as you said, to early days, but we'll keep
our fingers cross for a decent peak.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Now. I note that the milk futures market before your announcement,
was it like eight dollars eighty en z X was
saying something like nine dollars twenty. How long is it
tell you till the pr department at Fonterra rings me
up and says we've got to get miles on to
announce nine dollars. When's that likely to happen?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Well, yeah, we've always said we'll be the first, you'll
be the first to know along with our farmers if
we see a change. So we now set fifty cents
up last week, which which goes a long way to
sort of signaling where the markets heading. But again it's
early days, you know, week three of the funny year.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Least there's upside risk surely.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Well, but also downside. I mean you you only have
to look at the international market to see things are
a bit wobbly out there. So you know it's for us,
as you know, a realistic number at eight fifty. But
we've still got the spread up and down recognizing that
things can go over the way at the stage.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Okay, Myles Harrel, nice to chat to you, and nice
to know you're not heading off to the Mediterranean, but
you keep up the good work at Fonterra. Up chairs,
Thank you, thank you. Miles. Yeah, okay. Michelle Watts wandered
in here. Hello Michelle, Hello, how are you now? I
got the urgent call while I was on the on
the road yesterday filming the Secret of video that Miles
(07:40):
had to come on and I was to be honest,
I mean, this is okay, but it's not earth shattering yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
I got a phone call too, Jamie and I was
told nothing other than any had a big announcement, so oh.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Well, no, look it's a it's a good news story. Interestingly,
on as I said, we're in the Spud Paddock, which
was right next door to the Fonterrat Clandy Boys site,
which i'd never sort of had a look around. I
didn't go in, but we drove around it, and of
course you drive past. Fonterra also has one helped me
out here at Studham, obviously the one he's talking about.
(08:13):
And then you go down the road a wee bit
further to Glenavy and there's the Yeely or Oceania one
down there. So when you're driving North Islanders from Dunedin
up to christ Church you see lots of lots of
factories because by memory, the Sinlay ones on the right
hand side of State Highway as well. And I think
we might have Sinley in the rural news, have we
(08:35):
we do?
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Indeed we do.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Indeed so richest drummers Phil Collins's number two, Ringo's number one,
although someone suggested that Ringo was overtaken by Paul McCartney
as the richest drummer but Paul McCartney didn't do much drumming,
did he.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
No, we've come to a consensus that he doesn't count
as a drummer. But that list, it's interesting. So the
list that these songs are from that we're playing right
now is actually from twenty twelve. However, I just looked
up the list from now so twenty twenty four and
it hasn't changed really at all. Charlie Wats are still
on there.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, and Pearl Charlie, he's the only one who's well
not still with us today. Dave Grohl's still there. Don
Henley's still there. Is the bloke from Metallica still there?
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Yeah, he's still around Yep.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Not really my cup of tea, but anyhow, Metallica, I'm
talking about big Don Henley fan. Up next. Nichola Willis
caught up with the Rewevered earlier this morning because she
was filling in for the Prime Minister not available today.
He's off shore. Nichola Willis up next, Mark Leslie, chief
executive of PAMU, defending himself against claims from David Seymour
(09:40):
that Lancorp is taking taxpayers for a ride. We've got
a special treat for you in the form of Chavorn
Lynch and we're going to talk to the Director General
of MPI, Ray Smith. It's all on the Country today.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Minister of Finance Nikola willis filling in for Prime Minister
Christopher Luxen on the Country today. Nicola, I have to
compliment you on your choice of words when describing the
competition amongst the banks as a cozy pillow fight? Was
that your own creative thinking? It was very good?
Speaker 6 (10:26):
If it was well, I have to credit the Commerce
Commission with that one. They breshed me on their report
where they've looked at the competition issues between the banks
and they were describing it as an oligopoly and price
matching and these technical terms, and they then used that
I think beautiful term of it's more like a cozy
pillow fight. And I thought, well, that's it, and that's
(10:46):
how I'm going to explain it to New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
What is a fair Because you've got a background in finance,
return on investment or should I say return on equity
for the banks because you know ASP thirteen point a
and Z should I say thirteen point eight? The ASPS
thirteen point seven? All the four Ussie banks are in
the double digits. Is that a fair return or is
that price gouging.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Well, what we know is that compared to the rest
of the world, our banks are some of the most
profitable that there are, and interestingly are more profitable than
their Australian counterparts despite having the same parent banks. And
what that translates to is less competitive banking services for
New Zealanders. So what I'm concerned about is our New
Zealander is paying.
Speaker 7 (11:27):
A few fees.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Are interest rate reductions being passed on swiftly? Our New
Zealanders getting competitive behavior between the banks, so that if
you go to one bank, they want to give you
a better deal, a sharper deal than the other bank
that you went to. And what the Comments Commission said is, look,
that's not happening enough. It's actually not competitive enough. We're
not getting as good a deal as people around the
(11:51):
world are. So that says there's something wrong and we
the government have to act.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Are farmers getting the short end of the stick compared
to say, residential borrowers, because compare to me that the
farming portfolio, if you want, is probably subsidizing the more
competitive residential market.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Yeah, well, this is something that's raised with me by
farmers a lot, because what they can see is that
many of them are finding it difficult to get lending.
When they do get lending, it's sometimes that pretty punitive
interest rates. And they look at that and they compare
what they're doing, which is investing in the productivity of
the country, borrowing exports, are creating jobs, and they say,
(12:32):
why is it so hard for me to get lending,
and yet it's pretty straightforward to someone borrowing for a house.
And so that is one of the issues, Jamie, that
we've asked the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee to have
a look at. They're doing this inquiry into banking. It's
going to go wider than the Commerce Commission look and
rural banking, the terms on which farmers get lending is
(12:54):
absolutely one of the subjects they can to scrutinize that
what we can to expect answers from the.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Banks on I see Chris Sipkins leaders talking about a
capital gains tax, a wealth tax, a combination of the two,
and even land taxes. Will that ever be on the
table under a national led government.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
Oh look, Jamie, I chuckled to myself when I saw
that yesterday. It's just so labor, isn't it there. They've
always got extra taxes on their mind, land tax, capital
gain tax, wealth tax. Where we're coming from as a government,
and where the National Party has come from, is Zeland
doesn't so much have a revenue problem right now. What
we have is a spending problem. We've had a government
(13:32):
that has been spending at such a rate of knots
that that's made our government finance is unsustainable. So we're
really focused on bringing discipline back to government spending, getting
rid of the wastefill stuff, bringing value for money back
so that we don't need to keep taxing New Zealanders
more and more and more. And obviously national campaign against
a capital gains tax. I'd argue that anyone in the
(13:55):
country paying rates right now is pretty confident they're paying
a land tax already.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, I would to agree with that one. In a
past life, you worked for Fonterra. In a past life,
you also worked for John Key. Well, these days, sir
John Key, he once famously said when we were the
rockstar economy that where Fonterra goes, New Zealand goes, is
that applicable at all? Now?
Speaker 8 (14:16):
Well?
Speaker 6 (14:17):
I think the fortunes of our dairy sector are really
important for the fortunes of our country. We're an economy
that requires exports, that needs to make our way in
the world, and we don't get rich by selling to
each other. One of the ways we have generated considerable
wealth and employment and opportunity is by selling world class
(14:38):
dairy products to the world. We produce them more sustainably,
more efficiently than anyone else, and I think we should
be proud of all of our dairy farmers in the
effort they do well, especially.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Out at this time of the year when they're working
literally twenty four to seven. Final comment on interest rates,
they're heading down? Are they going down quick enough for
your liking?
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Well, you see, Jamie, this is where I have to
be very careful with her banks. They do their job,
they set the interest rates.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
I do my job.
Speaker 6 (15:06):
I do the spending in the tax and I am
not allowed to seek to influence the Reserve Bank and
their activity except to say that it is our job
to make sure we're spending wisely and managing the economy wisely.
We've been doing that, so I was delighted to see
that interest rates came down faster than many had been predicting,
and I know how important it is to everyone in
(15:28):
our economy that they keep coming down.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
MICHAELA. Willis, Minister of Finance, thanks for filling the boots
of the PM today on the country. Appreciate your time.
Speaker 6 (15:37):
Thank you, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
There's my microphone on. I'm trying to find I was
trying to do two things at once there, Michelle, which
is I should never try and do. I was trying
to play a wee bit of deaf Leopard because, as
I said, I like here they go. I caught up
with Nikola Willis earlier this morning, too early for me
to be perfectly honest, because she was filling in for
(15:59):
Chris of a lux and we got an interesting text
and text and about our drummers with musical theme today
just to change things up a bit. Was the richest
drummers and ringo stars apparently the richest drummer. But a
text quite rightly said, umhere where is it gone? There's
so many texts coming and people who are figuring out
(16:20):
what I was doing in Winchester. I was just down
the road from Dick Taylor's old spud farm. The plot
thickens on a payment basis, writes the text, I'm all
over the place today on a payment basis per arm.
Yeah arm, you play the drums with the drummer from
def Leppard should be up there. And of course Michelle
(16:40):
being the good bell Kluther Bogan, you are deaf Leppard's
sort of second nature to you. And you knew. I
didn't know the drummer from deaf Leppard only had one arm.
Hang on, let me where have you gone? There you
go try that?
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I thought everyone knew that, Jamie, But maybe it's just
like a Bogan fun fact. Yeah, Rickellen, he's only got
one arm and.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Play how do you play the with one arm?
Speaker 5 (17:01):
So he went from playing. It wasn't through his whole career.
It was partly through an electronic drum set and it
was on this album actually, So.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
This great song pour some sugar on me, babe has
only got a drama with one arm. It has indeed,
now yet more useless information for you. Today. It's a
sunny Wednesday. Why not go and watch the movie The
Bank of Dave. It's about a bloke who sets up
a bank in England true story to raise or to
(17:30):
fund his community because they no one else would lend
them some money. And the kicker at the end is
in this true story, he gets def Leppard to do
a fundraising concert so he can make enough money to
start up as a bank. It's called the Bank of Dave.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Might have to look that one up, Jamie.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
It sounds pretty good.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
It is a great movie. Okay, we're going to take
a break. On the other side of it. David Seymour,
you might remember him on Monday's show talking about PAMU Landcrp,
claiming Land Corp is taking taxpayers for a ride. His
fate would have it. He's in town today, Mark Leslie,
the chief executive of Parmo. He's down the road from
(18:08):
us at silver Fern Farms. We're going to ring him
up in just a tick and ask him if the
taxpayers getting fair value out of Parmu and whether the
government should be in the business of farming at all.
That's up next on the country. Depending on who you believe, PARMU,
(18:45):
formerly known as Land Corp, either made a net operating
profit of twenty million or an after tax loss of
twenty six million. In fact, they made both of them.
It's just which way you report it. Now on Monday Show,
you might remember David Seymour, AC Party leader, was on
putting the boot into Land Corps, saying Land Corp has
delivered an extremely poor return on taxpayers investment for many years.
(19:08):
No private operation would be able to continue to fail
like this, Land Corp is taking taxpayers for a ride.
Chief executive of said company, Mark Leslie joins us, what
do you say in your defense? Seymour was pretty tough
on you.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
I think he's been very clear about his views on it,
which is fine, and many people have the the views.
And I think, as per your intro, Jamie, the point around,
we make a profit from our core operations from the
farming perspective, and we controlled the controllables, as I say,
for a lot of our teams, and we had some
very good farm performance metrics. But we did also, like
(19:45):
many other farmers, get hit by some pricing challenges as well.
The loss after tax conversation, a lot of that comes
back to a decrease in farm values and loss of values,
and so that's what drove that loss a net profit
after tax perspective. If you go back two years ago,
we saw the absolute reverse of that and saw some
huge and great gains and land value and that was
(20:07):
back and that's our part of it. So as you know,
it's the psychical nature part of it, and so year
on year we continue to try to drive that performance
part of it. But equally, I think you had my
new tubeman John ray On here a while back, and
you had Jacqueline yesday talking about we need to make
sure we're delving value. I suppose New Jella ink beyond
just that cash part of it and the other benefits
(20:28):
weekend drive from our farming.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
OPRUL should the New Zealand government And this is a
generic sort of question during these tough financial times with
a very stretched balance sheet, cash is short, we can't
even build hospitals properly. Should we be in the business
of farming at all?
Speaker 9 (20:47):
And I think, hey, that's a decision for for my
owners in the ministers and the likes. But equally I
look at it from the other side and say, if
we are going to have this farming business, how do
we generate the most value out of it? And some
that you will come purely from a cash return. Some
of it will come from the areas where we can support,
whether it's what we've done with the ship milking industry,
(21:08):
what we do with growing young farmers and their preshaps
the work we do with genetics and some of the
opportunities that come out of that in terms of low
be same animals and like. So, if we're going to
own that business, how do we make sure we maximize
us returns from a cash and brought a bit a
fit perspective.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
How does Landcorp slash PALMU measure against the private sector.
And I'm looking at some of the figures you threw
out on your press release that came out on Friday
about your annual operating result. For instance, your landing percentage
across the board is up one point five percent in
the past year to one hundred and thirty one. Are
you head of the average farmer out there?
Speaker 9 (21:45):
I think we're probably on that metric, we're probably pretty
commit parable to what the average is at the moment.
And so we we've got a pretty clear plan in
terms of an om sitting here Silver and Farms, as
you said, with my regional heads across the country, and
we've got a very clear plan between sort of this year,
we're already now in and through the next two to
three seasons, and as you know, with a biological system.
(22:07):
It does take a bit of time has changed some
of these things to really drive some improvements in that
landing percentages and death rates, but equally on our production
side for the ear units that get the INCA rates
right and get the milk production flowing from that as well.
So we've set ourselves in pretty aggressive targets over the
next three years that we'd see us again. We've set
ourselves a twenty five million dollar improvement and profit on
(22:29):
that top line that we were talking about earlier on
assuming prices were the same as we're there we're today,
but underlying that some pretty clear performance metrics we want
to drive out of those arms.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Hey, Mark Leslie, thank you very much for your time.
Can I just comment on your press release which, as
I said, came out last week. You were talking about
enriching our land and enriching our people and riching the
future of food and fiber for our row And isn't
this a bit fluffy?
Speaker 9 (22:54):
Yeah, you might say so, but fluffy, But I think
also looking around in terms of the conversation with been
having that the enriching our people pieces, that's very much
giving those opportunities for young, young farmers to come through
the environment, come through the farming environment. The environmental pieces
is looking after our land and it's I think it
aligns with the likes of self and farms as we've
just been talking about the Fontier where they're heading to
(23:15):
with some of their perspectives and things like that. So
we're very conscious there's a drive for a farming performance piece.
But at the end of the day from a people,
from an environmental from a customer's perspective as well, there's
there's some things that we need to be doing as well.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Hey is Shane Jones or David Cymoura Winston, who's ever
driving it? Making you going to change your name from
PAMU back to land call.
Speaker 9 (23:36):
No, that compensation hasn't come up, so it hasn't been
a focus of mind. Amy's mine's been as we've been
talking about focusing on that farming performance and that that
broader impact we can have.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Good on youre Mark Leslie, Thanks for your time. Enjoy
the rest of your day in Duneda.
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Thanks, Amy, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
It's a wonderful day that is indeed, Thank you Mark.
Stunning day in duned and heading for a high seventeen.
Pretty good around the country, some more rain. I think
one more rain coming for the North, very important the
next month or so. We're other wise. I love it
when a text comes in Michelle and calls me a Marxist,
because I know then that I'm hitting the mark, because
(24:11):
I don't think I am a Marxist. I'd be accused
of a lot of things, but not being a Marxist.
It's about the banking competition, and I'll come back to
that text. But we're chasing our tail time wise, so
we're going to take a we break, come back with
Rural News. I think Michelle's got something in Rural News
about sin Lay John Penno rocking the boat a wee
(24:33):
bit there, and we'll have a look at sports as well.
Chevorn lynch ray Smith, Director General of MPI, to come
before the end of the hour.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Your Steen.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Are the wealthiest drummers of all time. Charlie Watts is
on the list, He's no longer here to enjoy it.
I always get confused, Michelle, you don't even need to
answer this between Charlie Watt and Watts, just as I
get confused between Keith Richard and Richard's I honestly don't
know how Charlie's dead and Keith's still alive. One of
(25:21):
my favorite all time individuals. Here's the latest and that's Keith.
That is Keith Richards. Here is Here's Michelle Watt. Any
relation to Charlie. He'sa Watts and the Latest and Rural News.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
The country's world news with cub Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on Lawnbower brand.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Visit steel Ford dot co dot Nz for your locals.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Douggist, the former head of dairy company Sinley Milk, is
threatening to upset a vital meeting to save the financially
strapped business. The company set and it had received a
complaint from former chief executive and share John Peno that
Sinlay's two major shareholders, Bright Dairy and A True Milk,
should not be allowed to vote on the two hundred
and eighteen million dollar capital raising a special meeting to
(26:05):
approve the dealers due next month, with the two shareholders
not able to vote to give themselves new shares, but
allowed to vote the other to receive shares. Peno's complaint
is that the votes breach stock exchange and takeover rules
and the only minority shareholders should be able to vote.
Pino holds two point three per well.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I think, sorry, John, it's Hobson's choice for you. It's
in leaf. They if they don't bar you out, you're gone.
You're insolvent. So I don't know what choice you've got there.
That's the latest and rural news. His sport.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Sport with AFCO. Visit them online at FCO dot co
dot nz.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
No worries for the spring Box over their depth at locked,
despite veteran eben Itzabeth missing Sunday's Rugby Championship game against
the All Blacks at Alice Park. Or is he or
is he? How is say? The one hundred and twenty
four Test forward a sidelined with the knee niggle and
the next two cabs off the rank are also And
did I see their player Peter Steph de Toy, that
(27:01):
great number six. They're playing him as a lock. South
Africa's assistant coach David Dion's says it's simply time for
the next man to step up. It's going to be
so good that game on Sunday morning, and the US
Open has just seen it. This is the Tennis Open,
of course, has just seen its longest ever match five
hours and thirty five minutes pales in comparison to some
(27:23):
of those matches at Wimbledon. Dan Evans has pipped, how
do I go do this? Korran Hatch aren't off in
five sets? Never heard of either of them. Up next,
we've got a bit of a treat for you. We're
going to talk about robotic tractors and electric tractors and
hybrid tractors and are they a thing? Mike Casey, if
(27:46):
you're listening in central Otago, you're going to enjoy Chevorn Lynch.
She's up next with a name like a Chevorn Lynch.
You would have to swear. Our next guest on the
country is Irish, believe it or not. She is Scottish.
And when she's not Scottish, she's the director of sales
precision Technology for Brent and Chavon and Lynch. Today we're
(28:10):
going to talk about robotic tractors, and I know that
we've got GPS smart tractors. You'd barely have to do anything,
maybe turn them at the end of the at the
end of the row. How far away off getting a
tractor that you can pre program and send out to
plow a paddock. Good afternoon, by the way.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
Oh good afternoon to you, Jamie, thank you for having me.
And yet I think for New Zealand we will probably
see this in our market in twenty thirty, possibly before
and for testing in country. But John Deere are one
hundred percent focused on working towards autonomy. They are testing
(28:48):
this in North America now, and it's all the technology
that is in the tractors today combined and with a
bank of cameras and a few extra sensors. It's not
paying the sky sort of stuff. So yeah, we will
see this within the next ten years.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Well, I spent a lot of time on tractors, driving
tractors in my youth, and I was a farmer for
ten or twelve years, so I certainly now my WIY
around a tractor. But a couple of years ago chavellne
I went to film a video, a promotional video about
a tractor. In the blog said start it up and
lift the back it up. I couldn't even figure out
how to start it up. I mean, they lack spaceships.
(29:25):
Will you need to be a rocket scientist to drive
these new tractors?
Speaker 7 (29:30):
No, I don't take me to be a rocket scientist
to drive these new tractors, and I think that's one
of John Deere's things is making sure that we've got
people who can't operate these machines there. Obviously there's a
labor shortage of qualified and people who know their way
around machines, so it's making things easier for the operators. However,
(29:50):
what we do need to do is we need to
get our customers aware of the technology that's in the
machines now and our digital tools and get them using
it so that they are aware of it when autonomy
does come.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Well, we're talking about robotic tractors and we've got a
mite up in Central Otago who's got a fully electric tractor,
albeit on flat ground on a cherry orchard. But how
far away away or will the technology ever be there
for a fully electric tractor? And I look at some
of those big that big machinery a use for cropping
(30:20):
in like West Australia, and that will that ever be
run by battery powered tractors.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
I don't think we will see a large horse power
tractor fully electric. Just be down to the logistics of it,
so they need to be pulling and implement carrying the
size of the machine as a battery, So smaller horsepower
tractors for your orchard and your high value crop tractors. Yes,
but I don't see a fully electric machine in the
large horse power tractors.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Well, I'm driving a hybrid use at the moment. What
about a hybrid tractor possibility.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
If you have a look at John Deere's sustainability report,
they are looking at cleaner fuels hydrogen in electric, so
they're not putting their all their eggs in one basket
with electrification, which I think is a smart move because
they've got different requirements for different markets and different horse
powers and different markets. So yeah, hybrid absolutely could be
(31:15):
one of those possibilities.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
We know here in New Zealand that farming has been
a bit of a tough gig for the past couple
of years and that trector ciles have been muted probably
away bit on the norm, but they're always very cyclical.
How are Australian farmers going by comparison.
Speaker 7 (31:32):
In a similar way. We've probably seen the market come
back from the last couple of years that we've seen
similar to New Zealand. However, if you take away the
COVID years, it is kind of returning to that normal level.
Interest is definitely still there. If customers are not purchasing machines,
what they are looking to do is upgrade their technology.
So it's yes, there is still a market out there.
(31:55):
It might not be for machinery at the moment, it
might be for the technology instead.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Now you're not only an expert in the field of
robotic tractors. You also apply around with golf courses. I
do too, but not very successfully. But you're not talking
about playing, You're talking about drowns. How does that fit
into your job?
Speaker 7 (32:13):
Absolutely? I might be from the just south of the
home of golf, but I know nothing about actually playing golf.
So John Deere is using the the precision technology that
we've used in the bag space for the past ten
to fifteen years and now in a golf space. So
with the GPS Progator and some of our fairway moors,
(32:33):
GPS auto track and section control spraying, so not putting
out too much product on a course, no need for
four markers anymore, being able to map the course with
a drawn put it into John Deere operations center, and
they know how big their courses obviously most supers will
know that already. But there's so much more technology that
(32:56):
we can start implementing in the golf space with our
golf courses across New Zealand, and the interest and uptick
from certain courses already has been fantastic.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Well, I know your mowers are very sought after. Chevorne
Lynch from Brand, Thank you very much for your time today.
Love the accent even if it's not Irish. Thanks for
your time nor worries.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
Thank you Jimmy for having.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
My pleasure, Chevorn. Love that accent. Actually, we're talking about
getting an Irish agg journalist on the show in the
next few days as well. Can't beat those accents up. Next,
we're going to wrap it with the Director General of MPI.
His name is Ray Smith. Always enjoyed chatting to this
(33:43):
man on the country and that's because he's got a
pretty important job in our country. He's the Director General
of MPI, Ray Smith. Ray, here's a starter for you.
You've got reduced staff numbers like every government department. Are
our border is still safe. You're not going to drop
the ball on us.
Speaker 8 (33:59):
Are you, Jamie. No, We're in a really good place
on biosecurity. We never touched the front line of that
part of our operation and we were fully staffed here,
but look there's always plenty happening in that bio security space.
We've got this tomato virus, the brown rugos fruit virus
that's in Australia, and we do import some tomatoes from Australia,
(34:21):
particularly out of Queensland, so we put a temporary pause
on importation of tomatoes just while we work with our
colleagues in Australia to make sure that there's no risk
of any importation coming here. So we're pretty confident that
the Queensland government will sort out their part and then
we might be able to resume that trade. But that's
a good example of where we act quickly when we
know there's a problem.
Speaker 9 (34:41):
Now.
Speaker 8 (34:42):
The other thing is we've had a group from industry,
from the poultry industry along with the MPI, stuff and
our Chief Victory Officer in the UK went on a
joint visit to have a look at how they've handled
the avian influenza, the highly pathogenic one that we haven't
got in New Zealand yet, but of course we're all
always worried about it turning up on our shores, so
(35:02):
that was a really good joint visit to make sure
we can look after the poultry industry in Jamie. I
should really touch on em bogus just to say, you know,
we haven't had a case since April. We're in spring now,
this is the time when if anything's going to pop up,
it might pop out of the woodwork. But you know,
so far, so good. So let's let's just keep up
that good work on farm and then always buy security
practices and keep it out.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Well, maybe there's a bit to celebrate around m bovus.
No other country has eliminated it. When do we finally
become free of M bovus? Is there a time period?
Is it a bit like cancer you've got to survive
five years to be free of it?
Speaker 8 (35:36):
Very similar to that. Actually, I think if we can
stay free for four years, we basically can make that declaration.
So we've got a little ways to go, and that
just makes sure we get right through the tail of
it and ensure that there's nothing less.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Now, I've seen some headlines, not necessarily good ones over
the winter around animal welfare, especially the wintering of livestock.
Do we have an issue?
Speaker 8 (36:00):
Well, look, there has been some high profile cases recently,
and if I put it in context, Jamie. We received
two and a half thousand complaints of poor animal welfare
practice a year, and you know what we do is
we get in and we work alongside farmers and owners
of animals first to try and put things right. And
I would just say to anyone that's listening, and look,
a lot of farmers report, you know, neighboring farms with
(36:22):
their concerned if you're worried about someone that's got poor
practices or they might be struggling to get things organized
on your farm, if they give us a yell, our
animal Welfare inspectors we're on farm support team, will get
out there first and try to put it right with them.
That's our model. We always try to kind of clean
this up and get things in the right place and
help people out. But sadly, you know, there's always some
(36:43):
cases we have to take forward with where the harm
is serious and it's not only damaging to the animals,
but to our reputation as a country it as a
trading nation. So look, we took thirty seven cases through
the prosecution in the last year, and there's been a
couple of high profile ones this year where some of
that winter in practice hasn't quite been right and people
(37:03):
haven't acted in the way that we'd have wanted. But again,
can I put it in context to see our overall
program of proactive visits has found that farmers across the
country have done a really good job of making sure
that they've got their animals in the good state where
there's plenty of water available to them and good feed
and places for them to lie down. So overall we're
doing well. There's always a few applesy that we just
(37:24):
got to kind of go and sort out.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
I must make the observation as a Southlander through and
through and driving a lot around that province, the winter
grazing management and techniques have improved markedly over the last
ten or fifteen years. So well done to those farmers.
Okay Raysmith, Director General of MPI, keep on keeping our
borders safe. Thanks for your time, Thanks very much, sir
(37:48):
ray Smith. Doctor Raysmith, I think he's doctor Raysmith wrapping
the country. Director General of MPI, just a text and
here looking at ROI return on investment, I was actually
looking at return on equity as just politics of NB
creating competition reduces cost and improved service. Much more positive
than your surprising bolt of Marxism, Jamie, Well, where's the competition, Texter. Anyhow,
(38:13):
it's been a good day. You enjoy the rest of yours.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Catch you're the latest from the land.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
It's the Country Podcast with Jamie McGue Thanks to Brent,
your specialist in John Dre machinery
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