The Country 28/02/25: Mark Cameron talks to Jamie Mackay

The Act List MP is a dairy farmer from Ruawai (just down the road from Dargaville) and has lived and farmed in the Northland region for 30 years. Today he's on the ground on day two (of three) of the Northland Field Days.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the other end of the line. Act List MP
AG is the associate Eggle. I have to ask Mark
Cameron Northland to throw and through Mark, what's your official title?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good afternoon, by the way, I look my dream's got
a good afternoon. Good to talk to you as always,
Jamie the primary industry spokesperson for the AGG party. So yeah,
all things rural, from pine trees to fisheries to farming,
all things are arable. Yeah, that's me. I'm happy to
chat about all of them.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now you live in rural I just up the road
from you as Dargovia where you are today for the
Northland field days. Have you got a slice of heaven
there today? Weatherwise? You probably have and it's the last
thing you need.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, she's pretty balmy outside. I can tell you that,
Jamie is twenty five twenty six degrees. The cracks on
the ground and got pretty wide. And as I say
to my rural punters, getting the bat and out tied
them to your bump because you're going to disappear. It's
pretty dry fast track at the moment.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
You travel around a bit of the country and your
job as an egg MP or a rural MP look
a lot of the North Islands dry. I mean the
east coast faring better than the west coast, which is
a bit unusual. But I was looking at those scenes
on the network news of Taranaki last night. Gee it's dry.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, those four buggers and then you can see why
their lips are curbing down there right shot down the
island and near a plane the other day, and people
are really straighted on. There's not a lot of tucker
on hand. There's not a lot of tucker grant evidently,
if there's anything at all, and the hardest thing jam in.
It looks like the weather gods are not playing in
our favor. There's nothing on the horizon for a few

(01:37):
weeks yet, So yeah, it's going to be heard and
long water with many people.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, and to make things even worse. And I don't
want to be the harbinger of doom here, but it's
one thing. Running out of feed. You can buy in feed,
but gee, once you start running out of stockwater, you're
running out of moves on the.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Chessboard one hundred percent. And you know we always say
in water is king, and a lot of these guys
got open water sources, dams, et cetera. The aquifers are
the flow rates are slowing down, but it's the open
open water sources that really struggle. O evaporation rates now
are four and five miles a day, so you can
do them etal masks quickly if you aren't getting the rain.

(02:17):
These these poor baggers are as I right to point out,
and you've noted they're running out of stockhol water and
it's becoming a real problem.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
An absolute nightmare. On a brighter note, what's the mood
on the ground and dargavill for the Northland field.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Days bloody good mate, I tell you what. People are
pretty excited about the optimism in the industries across the board.
The red meat sector has got some club back to it,
you know when meat is actually worth something now when
they send a carcass away or a freezer, beest or whatever,
anything that you're setting off for the works is now

(02:51):
returning it fair old dividend. That the kerry sector of
course has held up, you know, big chunks of the
rural economy, so they're doing well and all are moving
about actually spending a bit of coin, which is great
to see for the regional economies up and down. Rural
New Zealand. So while it's tough, especially in the droughty
area so White, Sharon Necking and others, at least we're

(03:13):
actually rendering a fair amount of money for our product.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Mark, You'll be making more money off the dairy farm
than you're off farm.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And come this year, I've becoming your FIBs and lives.
If I said that wasn't the case. I go home
and there's a few there's a few pennies left, Jamie,
and there at night, and it's nice to see finally,
you know, the dairy industry is doing so marvelously well,
long may at last, and I know there's a few

(03:40):
smiles because of it. But the wider points is, Jamie,
it's helping that country, right, I mean, the dear little
country we live and has been through the economic dog drums,
and it's so nice to your rural New Zealand. So
I pulled up its trousers, went back to work and
it's sort of steering the economic ship in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Good on you, Marke Cameron well spoke and there he is.
Mark Cameron, Act List MP, A spokesperson for the ACT
Party