The Country 25/08/25: Bruce Cameron talks to Jamie Mackay

A former Chair of Zespri talks faming and footy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wrapping the country. Bay of Plenty Special Bruce Cameron a
former chair of ZES, reformer Junior All Black Life, member
of the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union and board member
for the NZI. Are you, Bruce? Were you ever a
chair of Inns? Are you I've forgotten? Good afternoon by
the way?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
No, no, no, no, no, just just a mere board member.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Happy to be the board member for Tarrong. Where have
I heard that before?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Now?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, well, of course we heard it from Winston. We
had his loyal henchman on Friday night at Tapook. You
were there along with your cousin John John Cameron. What
did you make of old Shane Jones unleashed?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh yeah, well look Shane Shane, isn't he? You know?
Look it was a great night out and you know,
a good cause. I mean yeah, in this day and
age where you know, frankly it's bloment tough yecher out there,
isn't it for sports clubs of any of any sport
to be breaking even and you know, able to swim

(01:01):
their way through the issues of community sport these days?
I mean see, probably sports is an absolute outstanding example
of of you know, a commitment by you know, a
whole two or three generations of sports administratives have got
them into a position where they are now. You know,
they have the threehold properties that they have and you know,

(01:24):
just the community behind them as outstanding. Yeah, heads off
to them.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm sure as a former member of the New Zealand
Rugby Union, you'll be heading to Eden Park in a
couple of weeks time. You've been following rugby for about
as long, probably a wee bit longer than me, even Bruce.
That would be one of the worst All Black performances
I've seen. And I don't want to deflect from the
Permas who were fantastic, but we didn't fire a shot
in that second half.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, you know, I think you know, when you sort
of got your back to the wall like that. You know,
I'm sure the reflection will be on you know, looking
for the big Owen opportunity going forward, and you know
it'll just be a time of reflection for both management
and the players to understand, you know, what they need
to do better, you know, whether it be the build

(02:10):
up and or the game itself. And you know, I
don't think there were too many players that had a
bad game. There was some mistakes, no doubt about that,
but you know it just didn't come together on the day.
So you know, those are the sort of matches that
you know, I think bench mark and give the team

(02:31):
a really really good understanding of how sickle if you're
not onto it, how things can go. Hey, look at
the spring box two weeks ago losing to the Wallabies.
So you know, yeah, Auckland's going to be a real.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
I wounded All Black team is a very very dangerous
based on They've got a great record of bouncing back.
So goodness, that's going to be that game between the
Rugby World Cup finals. Hey, just to finish on Bruce,
Sorry I've cut you away, but short on time. You're
alarm scale farming operator. You've got you're involved in dairy
and keyw fruit. They're both good at the moment, which
one's the best?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Oh? Look, these are all just cycles that happen to be,
you know, on the up at the moment. I'm look,
you know, we we what we're doing farming is we
we make the best of these cycles and we pay
all our money back and getting our infrastructures up, you know,
up the speed. You know where we obviously you know

(03:28):
look at our equity. We're paying down debt. You know,
we know that there will be some dark clouds on
the horizon at some stage in the future. So you
don't look. You enjoy the times and you don't get
too carried away. Keep your seat on the ground as well.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Right, cut on your Bruce camera. We've got to make
hay while the sun shines.