The Country 17/02/25: Te Radar talks to Jamie Mackay

The voice behind the FMG Young Farmer of the Year reviews the Waikato Bay of Plenty regional final won by Hugh Jackson.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's the voice behind the FMG Young Farmer of the
Year contest as we count down to the big Grand
Final happening and in the cargo in early July. Well,
one man who will be heading back down south is
Hugh Jackson because a couple of years ago he represented
Otago Southland in the Grand Final. But he's going back

(00:20):
as the winner this time to Radar as the winner
of the Whybop like cat Obey a plenty. An impressive
young man.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
He look, he is very impressive. He was down there
in Otago Southland when they had a very strong club.
Sure the club was James Fox was there. It was
great ue. So he's very driven. He came third in
the Grand Final. He came back up to the family
farm on the coast out at Tiakau, so you know,
I guess west at a West. He helped with the

(00:49):
Grand Final. I think he was on the committee last
year to help organize that and he's come through and
look he really he dominated, particularly in the quiz. You know,
it's hard to tell during the day people are going
but as soon as we've got the clues, the very
first round photo I d round. He smashed out six
of the eight, and everyone's sort of sat there at
a little a ghas and went, wow, boy, he is

(01:11):
here to play. He's done a lot of work for
this and he's going to be a very strong contender.
Popular young guy from down there as well.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, twenty seven years of age radar. He's sort of
in the sweet spot, isn't he, You know, like the
three little beers in the porridge. Not too hot, not
too cold. He's been to a Grand Final, he's finished
third a couple of years ago. You would have to
think he's got a real start. As Chanson and the Cargo.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh look he has, as I say, finished third, helped
organized one last year. He knows what goes on with it,
but it's that mental game on the day, and actually
it's the preparation. And I got the feeling that he
had been doing a lot of preparation for this because
he knows what it's like. Second Stephen Brouns call in Rock.
He came second this time. I think he was second
last year as well. He's a great competitor. It would

(01:58):
have been an interesting conversation on the way home as
what Hailey was a competitor as well. She took out
the Agrisports Prize. She was one of the of the
four sort of section prizes that Hugh didn't when Stephen
got second. But you know, Hailey sort of Hailey beat
him in the in the Aggreskills, so that there would
have been a great chat on the way home. Hey,
And look it was a cracker of a regional two.

(02:21):
The hall was for you know what it's like, Jamie,
when you walk into a hall for an evening function
and the first thing you do is you have a
little listen and you listen to that hubbub where this
hall was a buzz with conversation, a lot of club members,
a lot of people were in the beautiful worrying of all.
So it was all in all great regional.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yew and Will Evans finished third. Now I caught up
with you after the first of the regional finals a
couple of weeks ago, Northern. Since then we've had Tara
Man or Taranaki Man what too? And I'm just going
off the top of my head here, Radar And it's
not that flash these days. But didn't we have a
nineteen year old.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Win that I think he was pretty young? Actually it
Cotuna Boy from memory, So it was hard to remember.
We've got so many winners every week, so yeah, you're
going to have a spread of ages across that. Interesting
this week in the FMG Junior we had two women's
teams take out the two spots from Northern, We had
two women's teams take out the spot from Tower Man.

(03:15):
And this week we finally got a couple of young
fellows in there to compete against a very strong competition
that's coming through in that junior section from those those
young women. And look they tested. It's not only the knowledge,
you know that they've got science and animals and various things.
They've got practical challenges there as well, So it's it
bodes well for the competition.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Well, the competition is something like five percent of the
entrance to share our female which is great. And Emma
Paul bless her, wonderful ambassador that she is for everything
she touches. She really did break the grass ceiling.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Look she did. And actually it's interesting someone made a
little comment, you know, it's great to have that, but
also a little daunting for some others because she she
did do so very well. But yeah, she was there
on Saturday with Chris and the kids, so that was
great to see her back and you know she pops
in and out and that's you know, that's the nature
of the competition. We saw her brother Tim was at

(04:08):
Northern he'd taken it out the year before and he's
actually on his way down to Otago southward. All the
best people go down there and various others, so there's
a huge number of people that come back through and
want to be a part of the competition.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
So off to East Coast next and that's the North
Island tied it up and then you take a bit
of a break and what three in a row in
the South Island three regions?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, we do. What have we got? We're about two
two and a half is not this weekend, not week
next weekend, the weekend after we're at down and Masterton
week off after that, and then we knock out the
three South Island ones weekend after weekend and then we
take a little break. So nice to be down in
the North Way, Canada. I'll tell you want to back
down on the way Cato again this week for the
Arts Bestival with my cookbookery show on the weekend, and

(04:50):
I'm hoping that it will have rained because the cordon
at the parents place. Stayed there any why, and I'll
tell you what. It looked a bit like Marlborough. It
was pretty dry down there. A little skiff of sort
of showers came through, barely settled the dust. So hopefully
that northway, that Wayketa Ridge get a bit of rain
this week.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Oh, I think the some forecast, which is good. And
that was a wonderful, shameless, unapologetic plug for your cookbook
tour too, so your mails will continue on in that vein.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Look, here's the thing. Things are a little bit tough
out there for people at the moment, and it's nice
to take comedy out and celebrate what it means to
be in New Zealand, particular for those food producers. The
cook book show. You don't have to like cockbooks. You
don't even have to like food, Jamie, as is evidenced
by many of the people who've written cookbooks. So it's
at the Hamilton Gardens and the sun will be shining,

(05:37):
and people haven't been to the gardens. It's a pretty
good chance. I think you pay, you take a price.
I don't think you need to pay then to get
into the gardens. And they are absolutely world class. So
get out. It's important, I think, particularly if it's a
bit dry and people are struggling and things aren't going
as well as they can. And we say this all
the time, get off the farm, Go find some friends,
Go go and have a go and have a meal,
Go do something, come to your show, take your mind

(05:58):
off things for a little while.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Well, I'm looking forward to catching up with you when
you head south to Dunedin. Andrew Lumston, also known as Radar,
the voice of the FMG Young Farmer Regional Contests. Of
course the Big Final coming up and in Bicago in July.
We look forward to East Coast and then the three
South Island regions will keep in touch.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Brilliant, Thank you, Jamie,