Jamie Mackay: The Country host on how the North Island weather could impacting farming communities

The North Island has been hit hard by record-breaking downpours over the last few days, and it's expected to leave an impact on the rural communities in those regions.  

Reports indicate livestock won't suffer too badly, but concerns have been raised over the roading damage, which will make it harder to move produce round the country. 

The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The rural report on hither duper see allan drive.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Might not work in the country, mind you. Jamie McKay's
with us now, hey, Jamie Goda, Ryan, how's the storm
will start there affecting rural New Zealand because it's been
very widespread.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Well, it's affecting all of well, it's going to say
certainly northern and eastern New Zealand. It's a shakra And
those scenes that are Mount Monganui, and I know you've
been talking about them, are truly truly horrific. Thoughts goes
out to the families and people are tied up in
that one. It is just goddamn awful. Look at the
storm update from a rural point of view. It's caused

(00:37):
heaps of damage, obviously rural and urban. In terms of livestock.
For instance, this forecast rain event, as big as it was,
was well forecast, so not much by why I have
livestock loss. They've all been able to move livestock to
higher ground. The real issue is obviously landslips. That's stating
the obvious flooding selting on low, low, low lying should

(01:01):
I say, an often very good horticulture land. Then there's
the infrastructure and roading damage and the real challenge of
getting fresh produce out of the likes of the Gisban region,
that is the vegetable and salad bowl of this country.
State Highway too from a Potoquy through to Gisbon is
out for months rather than weeks, we're told and at

(01:23):
the stage State Highway thirty five going around the top
round the East Cape is also out. So if you
want to get produce out of Gisbon at the moment
by road, you're going to have to go through the
middle of the North Island. And I know the keyw
fruit industry is very worried about this because they truck
a hell of a lot of keiwi fruit from the
Gisbone orchards to the Bay of Plenty pack houses and

(01:44):
obviously onto Port Taronga. So look, horrific damage, horrific rainfall
numbers in Northland seven hundred mills on. One farmer told
me since Sunday, that's like twice the annual rainfall of Alexandra.
Twice the annual rainfall of Alexandra in three or four days.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, it's a lot of rain now at long last,
cheap farmers making money from their wool.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, while it's all relative, yes, for many years, well
not for many years, certainly since COVID onward. It's cost
farmers to share their sheep they put. By the time
they pay the sharers and truck their wall off to
market or to the auction are they end up losing
money from their wall receipts. So prices have risen, and

(02:33):
we're talking mainly strong crossbead prices because they've been the
issue rather than the fine wall ones. They've risen thirty
percent in the past year. Full length flee selling at
five dollars thirty clean exporters can't get enough of it,
they're short. So it looks like the market will continue up.
The last time it was at this level was August

(02:53):
twenty sixteen, so that's ten years ago before sliding to
a real low five years ago and COVID in January
twenty twenty one of one sixty two cents clean, so
effectively we've seen a threefold increase in prices in the
last five years. That's good, Ryan, But if you go
back a bit further in time to the nineteen eighties,

(03:13):
when I was a very young farmer, we were getting
an excess of six dollars per kilogram clean compared to
five dollars of kilogram clean. Now, that was forty years ago,
so we've still got a wee bit of catching up
to do. Look, normally, when the prices get too high,
the Chinese pull the pin stop buying. But they can't
now because there's too much demand from Europe and India,

(03:36):
and the free trade agreement or free trade agreement with
India is only going to help things. Sheep numbers are
declining right around the world. In Australia and Britain. Analysts
analysis shows that since twenty fifteen, our wall clip has
fallen four percent a year. At that rate, our wall
clip will have hard From twenty fifteen to twenty thirty.

(03:58):
We did have an oversupply all out of the system now,
so onwards and upwards for the strong wall price not
before time. And the government did their bit back in
April of last year when they announced government buildings will
prefer the use of wool, which is positive for ongoing
domestic for the ongoing domestic market, which further supports the market,

(04:19):
which is good. So you know they're doing well. They're
still making a hell of a lot more money out
of lamb and mutton than they are at a wall.
But at least it's cash flow positive now right.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
I've got a Marino jumper and there's holes in the
front of it. And my parents in law, who are farmers, said,
with wool, well, marino wall, did you get short wool
and long wall depending on where it comes from on
the sheep, which I had no idea about, and so
some of it is more prone to boosting open getting
holes in than others. True.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, well, I don't know, like a hard up broadcast
a former farmer like me, Roy and I can't afford Marino.
I remember my mother when I was a kid growing
up on the farm, knitting new jerseys to wear to
skull out of strong crossbed wall. And I'll tell you what,
you couldn't wear those next to your skin. They were
as itchy as hell. But yeah, they took a bit
of wearing out and those were the days. You tell

(05:12):
the young people of today that and they won't believe
you're Ryan.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Jamie good talk as always. Jamie mckaye hosted The Country
Here on news Talks EB. For more from Hither Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to News Talks 'b from four
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