Jamie Mackay: The Country host ahead of the Primary Industries Awards

This year’s Primary Industry New Zealand Award finalists have been announced.

The seventh annual awards are part of the two-day Primary Industry New Zealand (PINZ) Summit, at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre on June 24 and 25.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jamie mckaye, Host of the Country is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey, Jamie got Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, So we're handing out all these awards, right, We're
not handing them out, but we're going to talk about them.
You've got the Primary Industry's Awards coming up. Who's up
for Rural Hero?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well? This is kind of the Agrarian Oscars, the Bovine Bafters,
the air quine Emmys. I couldn't think of any alliteration
around Grammys. Maybe you could do that for me, Heather
while I'm going on about this. But yeah, this is
the seventh annual Primary Industry in New Zealand Awards and
they've named the finalists. The highlight of the two day
PINS summit taking place in the christ Church Convention Center

(00:36):
in late June. The movers and shakers in the primary industry. Look,
I just picked out a couple of categories with some
interesting entrance. The Rural Hero finalists are the late Chris Allen,
who died in a farm accident honor ash Burton Farm
last year. He grave gave great service to Federated farmers
and was a great bloke as well. Neil Bitup helped

(00:59):
set up the YKATT o'haiaki Corrimandel Rural Support Trust in
two thousand and four and twenty seventeen. He went on
to become the founding chair of the New Zealand Rural
Support Trust. This guy has given endless service and I
really love this story. The third finalist in the Rural
Hero Award category is a guy called n Jury who

(01:20):
for twenty years has been raising money for the Taranaki
Rescue helicopter by collecting batteries for recycling. When we get
to the Champion Award, my old school Saint Peter's College
in Gore and first fifteen rugby mate Jim Ward James
Ward is up for recognition. He runs New Zealand's biggest farm,
Molesworth's Station. Incidentally, his late father, Ron was an All

(01:44):
Black pre war who had the distinction of playing in
the Fords and the backs for the All Blacks. He's
up against ag research scientist doctor Robin Dines and David
Wheeler for that Champion Award. So all sorts of categories
up for great It's a great night out the rural
folk of New Zealand. The primary industry put on their

(02:04):
finest the penguin suits and everything and it's off the
christ Church.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
What about the Grassroots Grammys, says someone.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, well that's not bad. Actually I might use that
one with the Grammys. Well, I'll go with Grassroots. It
sounds it sounds a week bit better. But you can't
beat grass bed, grass fed meat. Spent a long day. Hey,
the other awards that are coming up, Heather are coming
up in the little town of Lawrence in South Otago
on Saturday night, Century Farm and Station Awards. Now, Lawrence

(02:35):
is famous for being where Gabriel's and Gabriel's Gully in
nineteen or eighteen sixty one they discovered gold. Population of
this little town swelled to over eleven thousand, and Dunedin
as a result became New Zealand's pre eminent city before
it was eclipsed by Auckland. So look, it's a beautiful
little town. Still got wonderful Victorian and Edwardian buildings and facades.

(02:58):
And what happens at the Century Farm and Station Awards
as farms that have been in the same family ownership
for one hundred years or more get recognized. This year
they're celebrating twenty one or awarding twenty one families. It'll
be fantastic. The idea came about from a guy called
Russell Brown who lives down the road in a place
called Waiterhuna. He came up with the ida. There After

(03:21):
him and his wife hosted some North American tourists from
Vermont who told them about their State Century Farm program,
which did exactly the same things. Eligible families stop me
when you want, Heather, submit narratives of their farm history
with photographs supporting documents, and then they're archived in the
Alexander Turnbull Library and Wellington. In a final shot from me, Heather,

(03:45):
the Mackay family was recognized in twenty eleven, and that's
Barry Soaper's grandfather who bought that farm way back in
nineteen ten.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Hey, thank you, Jamie, I appreciate that. Jamie McKay, Host
of the Country.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
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