The Country 03/11/25: Todd Clark talks to Jamie Mackay

Today, we find our Kentucky-based US farming correspondent at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, where he spent the weekend watching the All Blacks.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So here I was yesterday morning watching the rugbyfore my
Sins with Jeremy Rooks and Dunedin when I get a
text from another of my regular correspondents, in fact, my
Kentucky based US correspondent Todd Clark, who for his sins,
was at the game at Soldier Field in Chicago, watching
the All Blacks live for the first time. Todd, I

(00:21):
don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but
you couldn't have picked the worst game to watch. What
did you and your family make of it?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good day, Jamie. It was still big fun for us because,
as you said, it was our first Test match and
so we thought it was awesome. But the with no experience,
My wife and the boys had their girlfriends along too,
and so they were asking, is this what a normal
test match is like? And I said, oh, I hope not.

(00:48):
In there was a as you all know, there was
just a crazy amount of stoppage and sitting around waiting,
you know, three minutes end. It reminded me of American
foot ball to some degree.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, it did remind me of American football. In fact,
I was keeping a keen eye on it the first
three minutes of the game. Took I think eleven minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh, it seemed sitting in the stadium, it seemed like
it took twice as long as that it was. I
was worried we were going to go through a whole
test match and actually see him play for ten minutes.
It was. It was painful.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
It was absolutely painful. The last quarter Okay, salvaged the game,
but that first half would go down in history in
my mind as a longtime All Black fan and supporter
and watcher, as perhaps the worst forty minutes of rugby
I've ever seen. Anyhow, never mind, we'll move on from
that one now talking about Stoppag's Todd Clark. You're at
O'Hare Airport in Chicago, making your way home, huge airport,

(01:45):
and the stoppages are affecting you, not on the field
of play, but getting through security. And this is all
to do with Trump's shutdown.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Well it's a good Republican. I'm not going to let
you put it on Trump, but the Yeah, for over
thirty days, our government has been shut down, and one
of the things that's shut down through that is all
government employees and so the t s A are security
at the airports. It's my understanding that they're they're just
here sort of under their own goodwill. Uh. I guess

(02:19):
they expect to be paid for their as you said earlier,
for their sins once the government's opened back up. But
it's a it's a complete standoff at this point. It's
no end in sight, and we won't get into who
who's to blame. But not only that, but our usd A,

(02:40):
all of those things are are closed, and so so
anything on the farm that we needed to report or
go through the USDA, we're not able to because it's
they're not allowed to go to the office. And in
the USDA standpoint, the f.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
S A offices, now you is the as US Department
of Agriculture.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I assume yep, it is in one of the agencies
under that that I would work with as FSA Farm
Service Agency.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Okay, well, good luck getting home from Chicago to Lexington,
Kentucky where you based, Todd Clark. What's happening on the
farm at the moment, you're heading into your winter as
we head into our summer.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
That's correct. And finally, after a couple of months of
no rain, it started to rain again, and so at
this point it's fence building and cattle checking, and unfortunately
we're having to feed a little bit of hay already
due to the draft that we came out of this summer.
But cattle prices are hanging in there. But our president

(03:46):
tweeted a couple of things a couple of weeks ago,
talking about he was going to fix the cost of
beef in the supermarket, which caused the next day prices
to come down dramatically. But the supply is not there
regardless of his tweets, and so prices have rebounded since then.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I think I read Todd Clark that your beef numbers
are the lowest they've been since nineteen fifty eight. Obviously
you've had drought issues, but there must be other contributing factors.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
There is just a lack of profitability year on year
on end. And the other thing is the next generation
really doesn't want to do what we would call cowcass
and so if you don't have anyone doing that, you
can't produce the animals to finish eventually for me, and

(04:34):
that's going to have to change too. But there is
a little bit of an uptick. But with the prices
that we've had, you would expect enough tick or a
little bit of an interest in beef.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, I know from spending some time with you in
the States, you've got two strapping lads, or either of
them going farming.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
The oldest farms with me, and he loves cattle. So
for us, it's all good news if the president will
quit tweeting. But the middle one he's into insurance like
his mother, so that's good. It takes all different types
to make the world go around.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Well, if the president, if your president would stop tweeting,
it might do the world a favor. But anyhow, I
want to get political with you because you're a diet
in the wall a Republican. Todd Clark, thanks for some
of your time from ohir at Airport in Chicago, heading
home from the Rugby test. Safe travels, mate, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Go to the AVS.