The Country 01/04/25: John McOviney talks to Jamie Mackay

Waitomo sheep and beef farmer and the chief executive of Steelfort, chews the fat on the issues of the day.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
John mcaveni is a Waitomo sheep and beef farmer, also
the chief executive of Steel for great supporters of us
here on the country. John, be on your best behavior
today when you start talking about the Greens and to
party marry. But I'm not going to start with that
because I know you're ready to fire up on that one.
I want to start with a North Island farming conditions.
You live on the eighth fairway at that beautiful mountain

(00:22):
monganu We golf course. You drive across the Wakato region
to get to your Waitomo sheep and bee farm. Start
by telling me how bad is the white catto at
the moment.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I went over there last Friday. We had our
sort of quarterly meeting there on Saturday, and there's just
no tucker at all. It's got a little green sort
of tinge about it, which is really probably because of
the Jews that are happening at the moment, But there's
just no tucker on there at all. Some of the
paddocks are black. You know, I've got a my son

(00:55):
in law has got a Monsualta's got a exam over there,
and I called in there of you know, a week
or ten days ago and this has got nothing, absolutely nothing,
and you know they're feeding hay out and silas and
that sort of thing just to keep that they've dried
off already. And it's I don't think I've ever seen
them wakado like that. Usually, you know, they get those

(01:16):
sort of autumn rains and it sort of picks up
and then it starts to grow of it. Hopefully this week.
You know, they're talking about getting a reasonable amount of
rain on Wednesday, Tuesday, Friday, so I hope that comes
to fruition. So yeah, but I haven't seen no kado
like that either.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Oh well, here's hoping that the atmospheric river does its work,
but not all at once. Okay, Going a bit further
west than the White Caadow region over to where you are,
which is really what coastal King Country, I suppose, why home?
Oh how are you faring there?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's dry, but you know, we've had a little bit
of rain, Like when I was there a month ago,
we probably had fifty mills of rain out there, and
you know it's you know, we're short, and you know,
you'd like to see the calves and the lambs. I
suppose you call them a bit hard, but you know,
if we get anything like any rain, it'll just come
away again. And it's you know, the good thing about

(02:10):
it at the moment, of course, is the pricing. You know,
we're talking about lamb pricing at ten bucks of quilo.
Beef is going to be around eight fifty or thereabouts
in and they're talking about next year ten dollars fifty
pm in the next two years look fantastic, and it'll
be great for the country because at the end of
the day, it's a farming sector that's going to drag

(02:32):
this country out of the problems that it's gone absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
But a bit later this week we've got Liberation Day
from the Trumpster. We don't know what he's going to do.
That is the dark cloud on the horizon. Well, I
definitely hope you do get some rain. It's desperately needed.
So you talked about your prices. Have you sold you
won't have sold your autumn calves yet?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
No, No, in fact, we're not going to sell them.
I'm going to get rid of some of the bottom
end stuff, the small stuff that the you know when
we wean in May, but we're going to hang on
to them. I've dropped a few cows off. We've dropped
a bet one hundred and twenty one hundred and fifty
cows off the bottom, and we're going to carry on
with the Wieners. Instead of selling them in the Wiener market,

(03:13):
we're going to take them through until the spring market,
until October. So yeah, we'll have six hundred cards to sell.
So you know, you know, if we get the rain
and things look you know, like it should happen, we'll
be fine.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yep, Okay. Do you remember the good old days of
Rod Donald, co leader of the Green Party with Jeanette
Fitzsimon's He died in office in two thousand and five,
and I got to know him quite well because he
used to be a regular on my show, as was
James short John mcaviny. I just couldn't bring myself. I
did put in a request when Chloe took over as

(03:49):
leader or co leader of the Green Party to have
a slot, just to appear to be balanced, but I
couldn't talk to them. Now what a rabble.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Well, I look at this thing that Benjamin door Well
fiesco at the moment, and I say, how the hell
did we get people in parliament getting two hundred grand
a year like he's getting making decisions for the country.
I'll tell you I kissed the ground that when sim
Peters walks on at the moment, because you know, that

(04:20):
guy there is absolute disgrace and I can understand how
the Greens hold what they do. It's just, I mean,
people must be absolutely blind to see what's happening here.
And you know, I watched that going on TV last
night and I'm probably a bit of a dinosaur, Jamie.
You know, in terms of.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, just be careful here, I might get sue, John,
just be careful away you go to speak a power farm.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
I just look at the guy and say, you know,
how do we have people like that?

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, it's called diversity and inclusion and equity, John, give
it the times.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, okay, well, well maybe it's too late for me, Jamie.
Throughout your friend must be looking at it and saying,
thank god, I'm out of that bloody frack our that's
happening in that round building down there. He must be seeing,
thank god I'm out of there. Yeah, absolutely absolutely embarrassed.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
He was a good man, James, sure, a very good man.
All right, Just put on your steel fought hat for
a tick. How's business going. Are we seeing you know,
I hate to use the word green shoots, but is
the economy starting to recover? Are people starting to buy
lawn mowers and ride ons and everything you sell at
steel Fort?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Definitely? I mean, you know, while the Waycadow's dry, and
you know we've probably dry over here in the Bay planet,
not all the countries like that. You know, you go
to the Hawk's Bay and Gisbon and down south. I mean,
you know, I've got a couple of grandsons at Lincoln
the other day and you know, he says that it's
the green airs down there looks fantastic. So not all
the country is dry. And you know, at this stage,

(05:55):
you know, our our one of the year is the
fiscal year. So we started January February and we've just
finished March, and we were up about thirty percent on
last year. So I can't be unhappy about that.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right, I'll let you go, John mcaveney. I think we
got away with that and you didn't get me sued.
Good to check.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
It always good to talk to you.