The Country 11/03/25: Wayne Langford talks to Jamie Mackay

The President of Federated Farmers on his recent trip to Mongolia. Do their farmers have similar pressures around emissions profiles? Their cashmere industry? And where in the world was Winston when they crossed paths?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's start it with Wayne Yolo length and you only
live once. You've been in Mongolia with Winston tell us more.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Wayne, Yeah, Jamie, good to be here. And you're right,
you do only live once. And I got invited up
to Mongolia for a bit of a visit, and ma'am,
what an experience and what a pretty amazing place that
is up there.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I know a wee bit about Mongolia. I never been there,
been to child and China, which is next door. But
I know the Mongolian sharers have been coming over here.
In fact, I think Rabobank's been bringing them over for
the past few seasons, teaching them how to share on
a handpiece because they used to share their sheep and
goats with scissors. Did you get any of that? Did
you see any of that?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I didn't see any of that. And the mainarism was
because it was still negative twenty one degrees when I
landed at the Albata airport, so very very cold, and
most of the she had tucked up somewhere not wanting
to be shorn. But a classic example of how a
New Zealan can that can help out a country like
Mongolian and have a bit of a relationship there because

(01:02):
there are some some big games to be made in
their agricultural sector, a sector that is really not really
in competition with us, but something that we can help out.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
The world's keshmire comes from Mongolia, is a useful factoid
for you.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, we went to visit some of the leading keshmire
designers and processes there and that was a really interesting discussion. Interestingly,
they've got some of the same challenges that we do
around you know, the quality of their product, their missions profiles,
and also around some of these animal activist groups, you know,

(01:37):
getting into what they're doing. So they shared some of
their concerns there and we talked about how we could
help along the way as well.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Now, as I said, haven't been to Mongolia, I've seen
a few Rambo movies. Looks a fairly barren sort of country.
I would have thought they would have been basically lower missions.
They're not. Are they intensive agriculture, No, very.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Definite, not intensive agricolt to know, you know, still very nomadic.
You know, their grass really only growing for four to
five months of the year and the rest of the
time they remain quite tucked up and sheltered for the
rest of that time, and so we spent most of
our time around the capital city of Elmbarta, which is
pretty incredible to see just in itself. I mean, I

(02:21):
would have probably counted a hundred skyrise buildings going up
all at once. You know, it's in a real boom
vase and the country and the people are working out
how they keep up with it.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Really, how did you enjoy the Mongolian culture and.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Food, beautiful, friendly, friendly people, which was fantastic. I mean,
I think I think you normally see that across the world,
a lot less Russian than I thought, a much more
kind of an Asian type dynamic, you know, Toyota cars
and this sort of thing, and more Western type brands there.
The kind of the Russian side that stuck out was

(02:57):
really in their language and uh and uh and the
pronunciation of some things.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Every now and then a little of any names popped
into popped them into the conversation, which was which is
interesting to hear.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
What was Winston doing there?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Winston was on a bit of a road I think
was with as far foreign as uh had on, He'd
been to a number of countries, had been able to
Saardi raver into China, and then he came into Mongoli
to have some meetings theres as well, so I was
able to join him for dinner and then and then
as you mentioned, he got a horse at the end
of the day, which was was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
He didn't bring it home though that it's still over there, right.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
No, that's right now, left it over there. I think
it was released. I think Trump got one as well,
so it was released out into the fields with trumpsalls.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
The the PR department that Federated Farmers wanted me to
ask you about your visit to KFC.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Here. We yeah, Well, I do like to try international
delicacies around the world, and so I made sure I
visited the local KFC, which I'll report back was was good.
They dry, they're checking out a lot more over there.
Not it's greasy, which which I think is the only
going to work on a little bit. But it's half
the price of New Zealand and the dryer. It's my
feedback i'd give from me.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, let's stick with that dry theme. You're when you're
at home, which is hardly ever these days, to be honest,
when you're at home, you're you're a farmer. In the
Nelson region they're Golden Golden Bay, isn't it your farmer's right?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
So let me have a look at my drought map.
While I do that, I'm going to ask you how
are you getting on? Because a lot of the North
Islands officially in drought now, and I know that the
top part of the South Island is also getting dry.
How are you fearing?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, well, I don't want to really say this too loudly,
but we're having a bit of a bit of a
dream summer to be fair. Yeah, we had some pretty
lucky rains and it's kept the grass growing. I'm sureing
my way through a summer crop which I potentially probably
don't need to use at the moment. So I know
that's not what many of your listeners will probably want
to hear. It Acknowledge those that are in the drought

(05:03):
and some of the drut acknowledgements that the government's made
and the ability for that to open up the likes
of royal support, trust and some other the other help
from banking and that sort of thing that comes with it.
So yeah, it's certainly tough around some parts of the
country at the moment. Hoping that the days getting a
bit shorter and the knight's getting a bit cooler. That
ultimately will grab a bit of rain and we'll move

(05:25):
back on track in no time.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
What are you going to do with all your money
this year from your dairy farm? Ten dollars payout? News
yesterday that the earnings guidance has gone from well it's
gone from forty to sixty cents to fifty five to
seventy five cents and they pay sixty to eighty percent
for full year earnings. And I did some back of
the envelope maths on that one, yolo, So your full

(05:49):
dividend for the year could be anything from thirty three
to sixty cents. If it's at the top end of that,
that's a good top up on top of ten bucks considering.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Where we were there years ago. It's it's a it's
a massive turnaround and a credit to Miles and the
team around what they're doing. It's it's a he of
a result, and and probably not to the way that
they've done it. You know, they've they've gone about it
quiet land, just got on and got their business done
and focus focused on the small things one of the time.
So yeah, no, we certainly certainly won't be saying no

(06:21):
to that. I know missus linkord Is it's got her
hands on that already. So so yeah, that we'll be uh,
we'll be enjoying that. But most of all, permit.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Okay, there's the final question for you and done duck
for cover. As a Fonterra farmer, are you happy that
they're selling the consumer brands? Still a bit of controversy
around that.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, yeah, the way I describe it, it's, you know,
there's farmers out there that keep the old cow that
that you know, that was the old pit cow, and
they keep her along just kind of sentimental sake, and
you know, and and but less not as worried about
performance maybe. And then there's the other farm that that
you know culls a bit heavior earlier on and you know,

(07:00):
has all driven financially. And so there's the two sides
of the argument, on which side you want to sit in.
But you know, having you know, if we bring it
back to Mongolia, you know, we kind of think that
that all of our all of our product goes and
sits on the top shelf of a supermarket somewhere around
the world. And I don't necessarily know that that's the case.
You know, you know, Sorr, I know that's not the case.

(07:20):
You know, so much of our product now as in
the ingredient space, So you know, how much do we
continue to invest in those brands to keep them up
to scratch and to keep them competing with others. That's
that's the challenging conversation. So I was sitting on the fence,
but I'm certainly leaning one one way more than the other.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Now you've still got a bit of a pick it
up your backside at length at President Confederated Farmer is
always good to catch up on the country.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Always great cheer, Jamie