The Country 29/01/26: David Birkett talks to Jamie Mackay

The Federated Farmers arable chairman, who grows wheat, barley and vegetable seeds in Leeston, just south of Christchurch, said growers should be harvesting but are sitting on their hands as Canterbury has suffered another tough harvesting season. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You might have seen this bloke on the news a
few days ago. He's Federated Farmer's Arable Chair David Burkett.
Now he grows wheat, barley, vegetable seeds and less than
just south of Christchurch and growers. As we've discussed this
week on the country, especially in Canterbury, arable farmers are
having a hell of a time of it and David
I was talking to an arable farming mate of mine

(00:22):
the other day down in south and Old Blair Block
of Drysdale who got out of sheep because he hated
dagging them. He was back buying self shedding sheep at
a sheepsal because he reckoned he could make more money
out of sheep than arable farming. Tough times.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, no, look, thanks for having a sign, Jamie. Yeah,
there's tough times. At the moment. We're seeing some really
good pricing in the red meat and dairy sectors, but
we haven't seen that in the arable and so that's
sort of that's the overarching challenge we have. But then
we've also had these few weather events that have come
through and we were looking pretty good through the until

(01:00):
about early December. Crops are all looking good, and then
we've through December, we've had a series of hail storms
through Canterbury and then since about Christmas it's been raining
for the last month or so and that started to
cause some deterioration and crops and we're starting to see
a bit of sprout and certain crops, which obviously means

(01:22):
we lose that seed from those crops as well. So yeah,
it's interesting times and I think a lot of arable
farmers like Blocker are looking at at crops or income
that is not affected by the weather so much, and
livestock certainly is one of those where a lot of
that crops are affected by the weather, but we can

(01:42):
also integrate livestock into our system quite nicely, and you
know that's a little bit more of an income that
isn't affected by these sorts of rain events inhale events.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well, doctor Robin Dines was on the show yesterday from
ag Research. I'm sure you're well aware of her because
she's been involved in far as well well, and she
was saying the beauty of the sheep and cattle beast
as they turned their bum to the wind and just
tough it out and then they're away again. Producing protein.
One weather event can obviously wipe out an arable or

(02:13):
a horticulture crop.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, exactly. So you know, it's always been a riskier industry.
I guess arible and horticultural to the same degree. And
I think you'll find that farmers will start to think
about it, how can we change their land use and
maybe have another other sources of income that are more
resilient and aren't affected by these sorts of reign events.
So yeah, I think there'll be a lot of hard

(02:37):
thinking from arable farmers as to how they can build
more resilience into their farming systems, and some of that
will be land usee change. We've seen a number of
arable guys go to derry this year, and I wouldn't
be surprised if we see a few more head that
direction after this summer as well.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Dr Robin Dines was actually quoting you. She done used
you as a case study about building climate resilience into
your farming operation.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, there's a lot of things you can do. So
the range of crops we grow, we actually I use
beans as an example. We actually grow three types of
beans and they're all at different stages during the year,
so they're not all vulnerable at the same time, and
that's what's good about the news and undearable systems. We
do have a wide range of crops in our system

(03:25):
and they are at different stages during the year, and
so that is one way in building a resistance or
resilience in that you can hopefully not all your crops
are susceptible at the same time, but as we get
close to the harvest like so that at the moment
you know, most of the crops do come due at
the same time. So this period now between sort of

(03:45):
December and March is probably the most vulnerable time that
we have in the arable industry.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
David Burkett with US Federated Farmer's Arable Chair out of
Canterbury having a real tough time there with the weather.
Can our good February traditionally the best month savor bacon.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, Look, the losses were seen so far have been
in particular crops were seen quite a bit of sprout
and clover seed, rye grass. There there's a lot of
rye grass on the ground. But if we got some
good weather now we would we would get a lot
of that in and there's a little bit of sprout
and some grain, but mainly in the more vulnerable crops

(04:22):
like rye corn and treti carley. So yeah, look, if
it came right from now on and the weather forecast
is looking better, you know we can and a lot
of farmers can dry crops as well. So as soon
as the erbal farmer gets an opportunity to get that
crop off the paddock, he will be getting in a
and into drying sheds or silos and then moving on

(04:44):
to the next crop. Because the challenge we've also got
is that a lot of the crops are going to
be ready at the same time. We've this weather has
brought the harvest window in quite tight, so yeah, it's
going to be a busy February in March and Canterbury.
But if yeah, look, if the we became right now,
there's still a reasonably good crop out there and hopefully

(05:05):
we can get the most most of them.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Well, I hope mother Nature plays ball. David Burkett, Federated
Farmers Arable Chair, Thanks for your time.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Thanks Jamie,