April 3, 2026 • 40 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Simon Lee, Hunter McGregor, Jen Corkran, Sir Ian Taylor, and Shane Jones.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The best of the country with Robbobank.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agri business experience.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Grow with Rabbobank. She goos to you got me.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Sens present, maybe I can catch you around Giday and
good morning New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
I'm Jamie McKay. This is the best of the country.
It is brought to you, he said, losing his voice
by Rabobank. We're growing a better New Zealand together here
on news Talk said this is the best bits of
our weekday show twelve to one on a Saturday morning,
just for your long Easter weekend pleasure hopefully. So we're
going to kick off the show today with Simon Lee.
This guy has the best farming job in the land.
(00:57):
More about him and just a tick. Hunter McGregor is
our guy in Shanghai. Caught up with them. We talked
about fuel, fruit, pork, beef and forestry and how they're
getting on in China with the Middle East crisis. Jen
Corkran's from Rabobank senior animal protein analysts talking about the
prospects for red meat and we've got a real treat
for you for your long Easter weekend. Saren Taylor and
(01:21):
Martua Shane Jones going head to head on the Country.
It's all on the Best of the Country, brought to
you by Rabobank.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The best of the Country with Rabobank.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Grow with Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
I think our next guest on the Country has the
best job, certainly the best farming job in New Zealand.
I enjoyed his company on Friday at the Federated Farmer's
High Country Field Day at Glenary Station. Simon Lee joins
us the manager, Simon, do you wake up every morning
and pinch yourself with how lucky you are having job?
(02:00):
You have? Good afternoon, Thanks Jamie for having me on.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
No, well I do.
Speaker 6 (02:06):
Actually, yeah, it's a brilliant part of the world to
be farming, and it's a great place to farm and
a good family in board to be involved with as well.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Well.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Let's have a look at Glenairy Station. Sixty eight thousand
hectares was although someone reckoned it might be closer to
seventy thousand sheep, beef and deer. You've got all land
classes there, You've got highly fertile river flats, you've got
rolling low finishing country, you've got some higher country, and
then you've got a big paddock out the back, which
is what more than thirty thousand hectares? Do you graze
(02:36):
that one?
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Not currently at the moment. Well, there is a few
sheep out there, but no, we're only just touched at
the corners.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, So talk to me about how you got to
get this job, because I think Glenary Station is is
it the largest privately owned farm in the country. If
it's not, it's close to it.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Yeah, No, it's a private are the largest privately owned
And so what I come from end up Hill Station,
which I managed for eighteen years in Chevy at North Canbury.
And in that time there I sort of oversee the
station and two other properties and had about sort of
nine staff over that area. And the opportunity to you know,
(03:18):
apply for the role that Glenary come up, and it's
one that you know, I took with both arms and
don't regret it at all.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Was there a Q halfway around the wallshed to get
the job?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Well, I'm not too sure.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
I never really asked, but I imagine it would have
been well subscribed for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Did you watch Country Calendar last night because Jeff Farm
I know the farm well down on Southland on the
Clinton Matara back Road. An old mate of mine used
to run it. It's owned by the Salvation Army. They're
training young farm and cadets all be it on a
smaller scale than Glenary. But you're like doing a very
similar thing yourself at Glenary.
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Yeah, that's right. No, I did watch an episode it
was it was really good.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Really enjoyed it.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Well, probably more so because you know those those young
ones coming through and you need you to see the
pride and their dogs and how they had come through.
And yes, we are like here, we've got nine to
ten shepherds here and we do it on the same
sort of yes regime. And we've got g few students
as well, and so no, it's good.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yeah, it's growing future farmer students. What I did notice
about your staff you seem to have a high proportion
or pleasantly surprising proportion of young females who want to
be And I know, I was just reading a dog
Top Trilling story this morning about how the women are
taking over there.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
Yeah, they are like in our stock team, it'll behalf
would be would be would be females, yep, and they're
good too at their job.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
One of your the hardest parts of your job, because
getting up and driving around or riding around that station
would be the great part of it. But you've got
a big staff. How do you manage that?
Speaker 6 (04:56):
Yeah, so I manage that with me being the g manager,
and I've got four stock managers that sit under me
as a flat line management structure, and then I've got
a NAGG manager, so I directly deal with them a
week by week, day of to day, and then the
shepherds sit under the air. And then the sheepherds are
(05:17):
on a rotation between all those stock stock management areas
and they're back around the same spot within a month.
And yeah, so I like to get it well planned out,
have everyone and you know where they are by Friday
or Saturday the week before, so everyone knows what they're
doing on a Monday, and we have Monday meetings so
we can look at that sort of higher level you
(05:39):
know sort of stuff, maybe go a few kill sheets
or you know, talk about what's coming up in the future.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Do you get any time on the dog whistle or
is all your time on the keyboard these days.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
I do a fear of an Edmond. And you know,
part of my job is to look for the opportunities
and threats of this business, and that is my job
and to run it and you know, run all the
budgets and everything, so and I'm ultimately responsible for all
of that. So yeah, the dog was always you're quite tucked.
(06:12):
And you know, I like my dogs are a tourists really,
but I do like to use my dogs, you know,
so but I do. Yeah, I just tried to trying
to allocate the time between the office and out in
the panic.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Even though it was a Federated Farmer's High Country field day,
we spent some time on some beautiful river flat, high fertility,
high quality pastures. You had a high performance beef finishing
unit down there using holter.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Yes, yeah, that's that's in you and I should have.
So we're five months in and we've got it on
trading stairs at the moment, so they're eighteen month old stuff.
We've already killed a couple of unit loads. But the
holder has been introduced in there for cell grazing, for
partial management, backfencing, you know, more dry meatter regrowth. You know,
(07:00):
these multiple things that we're learning about at a stage.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
So yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
One of the questions I asked you at the field
day I had the good pleasure to be the MC
was had you ever thought of chucking a dairy unit
on that some of that low lying country? And I'm
sure you could if you wanted to. But you thought
about that for about one minute, did you?
Speaker 8 (07:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Yeah, we have we should have strategize them and we
you know, talk about all the opportunities Blue Sky thinking
of of the w Pinckney Glenary business and it was
talking about a long time ago when south and went
through all that conversion. If you went, if you talked
to John Tavendale, the current chairman, so they did talk
about it, you know, yeah, but not on the radar.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Another question that was asked of you from the floor
or from the paddock. You've got sheep, beef and deer,
and someone asked you which is the most profitable stock
unit and the answer was interesting. You said it was
the Dare operation, even though the prices of the others
are very good at the moment, and that's because it's
a low input system.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
Yep, low input system. And look at the even of
this fire each a year the sheep will probably come
out on top. But as long as a four year
ever since I've been here, the deer would be as
far as inputs and you just need income out of that,
out of that unit or that lifetop class would be Yeah,
come out on top, definitely.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Is this a job for.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Life for you?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
What where could you possibly go from Glenary Station that
would be better?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Simon l Yeah, Well.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
I'm here for a long time and to get to
the stage when you know you're still able and your
and your and your you know, your minds still able
and yeah, and obviously you're not in the way of
an opportunity of someone else in the you know, in
the in the future. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Well, you along with Federated Farmers put on a magnificent
field day and as beautiful as your farm is, and
I can't get over what a stunning operation it is.
It's not without challenges. Just a final comment from you,
because we had a really good discussion about pests, namely
in the case of Glenarreya, because some of your neighboring
stations are having some real issues with wilding pines and conaface.
(09:02):
That is one of the real issues, isn't it For
high country farms in this country.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Yep, that is, and that's one of the things on
our radar. And I think someone said in the conversation,
I want to be Matt Taylor. He said, Simon may
think he hasn't got a problem yet, but he will.
And you're right, because we've already found the Wildings pines
and that's a new subject for us and a new
task and a new budget item, and we've got to
(09:29):
absolutely rip it and make sure that they don't get
away on us.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Simon Lee, manager of Glara, you're living the dream. Thanks
for your company on Friday. Really enjoyed my day out.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
No, thank you, Jamie was great. I enjoyed the company
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
The best of the country with Rubbo Back. Choose the
bank with one hundred and twenty years global agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Grow with Rubbo Back.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
He's our guy in Shanghai, a ki We selling red
meat and venison to the Chinese. His name is Hunter McGregor. Hunter.
We're going to talk about the first of the new
season fruit key We fruit and apples arriving onto Chinese shelves.
But before we do, I want to talk about fuel
pricing and fuel supply in China. How are you fearing
Bearing in mind you are and I'm talking about China.
(10:13):
You are a friend of Iran.
Speaker 9 (10:15):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Since we last talked, the prices
have gone up about quite a significant price increase we
while ago. But what they've done is they've capped the
price increase it should have. It's been twice as large
as what the price increase was. And what they actually
do is they have two very large state and oil
(10:37):
companies here and they use their balance sheets and pop
up funding through that to keep the price, especially of diesel,
not too high. Now, China has a hell of a
lot of easy electric car vehicles and big cities, the
smaller trucks that are delivering around the cities and also
turning into evs as well electric electric trucks. But if
(11:00):
you get out of the cities on the big roads,
all the big trucks are diesel. So the country here
still runs on diesel and will for the foreseeable future.
So you know that they're restricting how high that increases,
and they're funding that to keep the country moving. So
you know it's going to be a challenge for everyone,
and it's going to be a price challenge, but here
(11:21):
they've got some mechanism in place to protect the price
of diesel and not get it too high, so you know,
the country won't come to a groning hole. But it
doesn't seem to be any issues on the supply side
at the moment here, so which is good.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Talk to me about the first of the new season
apples and kiwi fruit heading into China.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Well, actually, yesterday the first seasons of the Zespri's kiwi
fruit arrived into a Shanghai port. They had a big,
big pr push and there'll be I'm sure there'll be
a big marketing push in the next few days. So look,
we would take a day or two for that stuff
to get onto the shelves around around Shanghai and then
pushing into other parts of the country. So looking forward
(12:01):
to getting my hands on some of this elusive red
kiwi frud. I'm pretty sure I'll have a bit more
of that, and then you know, apples have started to launch.
And I saw a really interesting thing the other day
posted I picked it up from the New Zealand government
that actually six out of the ten apples imported into
China are from New Zealand. So you know, then the
(12:24):
China produces a hell of a lot of apples, but
New Zealand apples I think just a little bit superior
good stuff.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Who would want to be a Chinese pig farmer at
the moment?
Speaker 9 (12:34):
Yeah, well, no, it's really interesting. Prior to COVID, the
Chinese pork price and the other protein prices like beef
and especially lamb were kind of linked, you know, with
the swine fever, prices of pork went up and then
lamb went through the roof. But now since COVID, they're
not linked at all. So you've got really strong demand
for beef. Beef prices are high obviously around the world,
(12:57):
included here. You got high price for lamb. But the
Chinese pork farmers are at a sixteen year low with
regards to pricing. You know, they're losing over forty dollars
ahead at least, and that's only going to increase as
costs increase. And the biggest reason is over supply and
weak demand. So you know, it's very tough for a
(13:20):
farmer here. A pig farmer here at the moment produce
a hell of a lot of pigs, so it's going
to be a bit of a drain on the economy,
and they reckon, it's going to take about six to
eight months before the supply and things returned back to balance.
But in the meantime, you know, there's some cheap pork
prices here, but it's off weak demand and there we
see that and what we do here. You know, restaurants
(13:43):
are a lot of strongs as they have been in
the past, and that's pushing through the renuit.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
And you reckon, New Zealand could benefit from Australians hitting
their beef quota because once they get past that quota
there's a fifty five percent terriff applied.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
Yeah. No, this year the Chinese brought in a beef
quite a system for a number of countries including New Zealand,
But Australians have just at fifty percent of their yearly
quota already. So we're three months in, so you know,
on the back end of this year there will be opportunities,
more opportunities for New Zealand beef, which we won't had
(14:21):
our quota at all. But you know, the end of
the day, at high end restaurants, grain fed beef is
not going to class replaced by grasshead beef, but there
will be opportunities for New Zealand beef companies here which
would be great.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
And a final fun fact, maybe this isn't good news
for our forestry industry. China added three point six million
hectares of new forest in twenty twenty five, bringing national
forest coverage rate to over twenty five percent. They'll be
becoming self sufficient in trees.
Speaker 9 (14:55):
Well, you know, a lot of it's reclaiming the Gobi deserts.
That's not probably PI radiator or trees, but you know,
China's had a big push of reforesting and regriaming the
place in twenty five percent is a big number. But
you know, the three point six million hecteds, it's about
twenty five percent of the size of the South Island,
(15:17):
So you know that's the her of a big area
in one year. So you know that they're pushing to
grow a few more trees here. But I don't think
it will affect the New Zealand forestry in the short
term because I don't see too many pinous radiator trees
around the countryside. So yeah, but it's good to see.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Okay, Hunter McGregor, thanks for your time from Shanghai. Go
and enjoy some new season Kiwi fruit and Kiwi apples.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Hi will thanks Jamie, the best of the country with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
She is a senior animal protein Analyst for Rabobank. No
One on that wonderful bank has a short title of
name is Jen Corkran Jen. Hopefully I'm going to talk
to Dan Bolton shortly about the silver Fern farms and
your result as we stare down the barrel and have
a dig into red meat on the show today. Look,
what's happening in the Middle East is causing us all
(16:13):
untold grief.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
At the moment?
Speaker 4 (16:15):
How is it affecting the red meat market or are
we relatively insulated, especially when it comes to the likes
of beef into the US.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Yes, Hi, Jamie, so great to hear lots of red
meat on the agenda for today. But yes, globally it
certainly feels like thanks on fire, don't it? And lots
of uncertainty. You know, if we look at red meat
and just the fundamentals of what's going on, things are
still pretty positive and I think you know, the time
for the sector to look to the positivity that we've
(16:45):
seen over the last twelve months. Understand some of those fundamentals,
but certainly the Middle East is causing uncertainty challenges with
all those f words fuel and fertilizer and freight. But
you know, if we look at what's going on with
the demand for our rid meets globally, still right now,
it's still very strong and we've seen still some really
(17:07):
good results in terms of those EVERAGEX book values to date.
What might happen in the second half of the year,
you know, we can discuss going forward, but right now
things are still looking positive. Still got good demand in
the United States in particular for that grinding beef, still
very very hot and they're certainly driving things from the
beef side.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Okay, well, let's have a look at lamb. The lamb
schedules have dropped a wee bit in recent times. Is
this just the normal seasonal changes as we see live
stock starting to flow in because I know a lot
of livestock has been held back because it's been a
good grass growing summer around New Zealand. Farmers have quite
rightly decided to put an extra quilo or two on
(17:46):
the lambs.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Right, Jamie, and I think that's exactly what's happened.
Speaker 8 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 7 (17:50):
So we've seen some really great just to covers across
New Zealand through January degree and into the start of
March as well. Now things have crisped off a little
bit a particularly in this last or a few weeks,
and now what we're seeing is that normal season or
supply starting to pick up, which needs for processes they've
been waiting for these lambs to come on. But so
(18:11):
far in the season since October the first, we are
down about five percent just last year in terms of
the number of lambs that have been processed. But we're
expecting to see slightly more lambs this year, so there's
certainly still plenty out there. I think, you know, good
on our producers who have decided to put a bit
more life weight on these lambs and take advantage of
that good pasture that's been growing. But what we normally
(18:33):
see when these lamps start to come on online is
that you know, the efficiencies pick up and the processing
end and they don't need to be offering the same money.
And we also know that they've perhaps held those prices
up firmly for some time now, and it's time for
them to start to drop as they will normally seasonally,
and I think that's exactly what's happening. Unfortunately, it's kind
of happening just at the same time as the Middle East.
(18:55):
At this stage, it's not caused by that. It's really
just this normal season or softening that we see in
the markets.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
You've mentioned their word fuel, freight, fertilizer on farm costs.
Are these more likely to be felt in the next
financial year rather than this one? Bearing in mind from
a farmer's point of view, a lot of the income
and a lot of the costs of producing this year
have already been locked and loaded into the system.
Speaker 7 (19:21):
That's right, Jamie. I think what we know right now
generally a lot of things we don't know, But I
think really important to remain positive and focus on what
we do know. And we know that right now there's
enough fertilizer in New Zealand for the autumn. The fuel
situation is still being talked through by the government regularly,
so we kind of know we were out there. But
(19:41):
the real watching point for us and our team at
the moment is going to be the second half of
twenty six And you know what that means that right
now where we are at, what can we do to
be resilient and control costs going forward because we know
that the pace of some of these things is likely
to rise, and you know that is challenging a lot
of what we do within the farmgate requires obviously even
(20:04):
fertilizer itself is going to be more extensive, but also
getting their foot on and of course the trucking and
everything out and the rest of the supply chain when
it comes to moving animals around. So lots of watching
points there. But certainly the second half of the year
I think is going to be actually more of a
worry than we were at right now.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Twenty twenty five, the story was Trump's tariffs. Twenty twenty
sixth the story is Trump's war. Goodness knows what he
will come up with in twenty twenty seven. Let's hope
he calms the farm awey bit and we can all
get down to business. Jen corkran out a Rabobank thanks
for your time today on the country.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
Thanks Jamie, the.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Best of the country with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
Agribusiness Experience Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Good Good morning, New Zealand and welcome back to the
Best of the Country. I'm Jamie Mackay.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
The show.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
It's brought to you over your long Easter weekend if
you're lucky enough to get one by Rabobank. We're growing
a better New Zealand together you Moon on Monday, Well,
Artemis too might be on the dark side of the
moon on Monday. Who knows up next? The highlight for
me last week a couple of heavyweights going head to
head on consecutive days, Saren Taylor and Martua Shane Jones
(21:24):
over the controversial gold mining in Central Otago and other
stuff as well. You're going to be entertained and informed
by these two to wrap the Best of the Country.
They just a plug for our wonderful sponsors Rabobank. They're
proud to support the upcoming Out the Gate Conference, the
biggest event on New Zealand's Red Meat calendar. The conference
(21:44):
will take place May nineteen to twenty one in Christchurch
and includes the Beef and Lamb Awards dinner on Wednesday,
the twentieth May. Tickets for Out the Gate and Awards
are now available at beeflamanz dot com. And just a
word of warning from Rabobank for you dairy out there.
You Fonterra farmer shareholders, You're going to get a payout
the capital payout from Fonterra. Rabobank's encouraging dairy farmers to
(22:08):
be alert to potential scam is attempting to take advantage
of your capital payout. You've worked hard for that, make
sure you keep it. Visit the rabobank website to learn
how to protect yourself from scams. Rabobank dot co dot nz.
Up next, Siren Taylor.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Clues to.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
The best of the country with Rabobank.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Grow with Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Matua Shane Jones, Resources Minister will be on the Country tomorrow.
I'm going to give him a bit of a rav
up because he's pulled out of a debate on a
controversial Otago gold mine amusing would be opponent Saren Taylor
who joins us on the country and en Or Syreen.
I'm quoting you here. You said I was looking forward
to stepping into the boxing ring with the crowing rooster
(22:58):
but it looks like he's lost his voice. You can't
often say that about Shane, you know.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
You cannot, can you? And you know the boxing ring references.
That's what he challenged me too. You know he's ready
to step into the boxing ring. He was a crowing
rooster or the big brown Dalmatian from Kataire Katya. You know,
so typical Shane Jones. But his latest, you know, his
final rejection was a video he posted in which he
(23:27):
quoted A. A. Milne and he quoted AA Milon from
a kid's part. But I just thought, just remind him
that A. Milon also wrote when he's a pooh And
I think what happened to Shane was when he thought
about this, he found that he was standing in a
whole heap of poop and figured, you know, he had
(23:49):
to get out. And I even suggested that, you know,
after his the step back he had to make on
the side of fisher fishery, the fishery decision that maybe
even his boss instant might have said, you find a
way out of this, because you're not going to do it.
I don't know you're going to ask him that tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I will ask him that tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Mind.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You see, there was always a point of difference between
you two because I was sort of involved on the
periphery of this debate. You wanted it live streamed. He
wanted it in a public venue. And he said to you,
you create a public space too. Will debate anyone anywhere,
but I won't be secreted, concealed in a windowless room
for the Otago media or for U Saren.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
So I checked that he didn't say that. What he
did was and sort of came out of nowhere. I
had no idea why he was getting involved, but he
challenged me to a debate anywhere in the South Island,
my choice, my location.
Speaker 9 (24:47):
That was it.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
So I did look at I did look at Tariff,
but you know the logistics of doing that and streaming it,
we're a bit a bit different called And then I thought, actually,
Dunedin is the home of the city built on gold.
We've got a studio in our building, not the ODT,
(25:09):
in our building where hopefully you'll come along next week
and see us streaming eight feeds out for the master's
golf from Deneed, so we know how to stream. And
I figured, actually, you'll get a much bigger audience if
we stream it free to anyone anywhere in the world,
and that was the offer that went to Shane. His
(25:30):
response was he would only have this debate. And I
don't know why I called it a debate if he
was able to agree on all of the questions beforehand
and when we debated, I wasn't allowed to change any
of them. And also ironically he said we had to
talk to each other with respect and no abusive names.
(25:52):
So I'm not quite sure what his point was.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
You're still determined to have this debate. Are you going
to have the debate with an animated AI characterture of
Shane Jones or a cardboard cutout? What's going to happen?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Yeah, well, I just thought, you know, I don't know
how many people you know, obviously Shane Jones. Now just
you know, if we're having a wordplay here, I just
want to be very clear that you'll notice I have
stopped using the word Martur, so it's Shane Jones, because
then Marie Martur is a term of respect and what
I've seen and heard from him in relationship to me,
(26:30):
what I have done, what I'm accused of doing, that
respect is gone. So from now on it's Shane Jones.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
He's accused you and some of your other Knighted mates,
Sir Graham Sidney, Sir sam Neil, He's accused you guys
of nimbiism. Does he have a fair criticism there?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
No, because first of all, you know he's done this,
he's bundled me up with you know, other people who
have their own legitimate concerns. I'm not for the first time.
I ran into Sir sam Neil at the Corru Club
about two weeks ago. That's the first time I've run
into him for thirty years. I don't know the last
(27:09):
time I talked to Sir Graham Sydney would have been
years ago as well. My point here was, as I
looked at this thing going on, this mine thing being
fast tracked, and I discovered that an end result of
this mine is what everything else aside. Would be a
tailing stand that held one hundred and thirty thousand tons
(27:32):
of arsenic on a hilltop in an earthquake zone, in
a seismic zone where we're expecting an earthquake had agree
eight in the next fifty years. Above at the headwaters
of the river the Lindus and the Clutha.
Speaker 10 (27:50):
All.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
My question was why are we fast tracking it? Because
if that earthquake hits and something happens to that, damn
everything downstream will be destroyed. There's one hundred and thirty
thousand tons of arsenic. Now, I might have something wrong,
but that's what a debate is about. I didn't get
to I didn't get to ask the questions.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Can I just finish on because you're a worldly wise man,
Saren Taylor Trump in the Middle East and how it's
affecting world trade and in your case, world travel because
your company travels right around the world to bring us
the graphics at wonderful events such as the Masters.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, it is interesting. I mean, the world's just gone
into a crazy place. And I mean I think it's
one of those things now where I remember in First
you know, the whole thing is alternative to truth that
came up and his first bird. Everything seems to be
an alternative truth. Now, so you've got no idea what's
(28:50):
going on except that it's having an enormous impact on everyone.
And just a little example of our travel, my son
Ben two weeks ago. It went to Melbourne for the
Formula one, then flew to India for three days for
meetings over there, and then to get to Florida for
the PGA champions Playoff Championship, he had to fly up
(29:13):
through Munich, around the top of the world and backdown again.
And you know, this is going to have a huge
impact on how we do business now. And I guess
one of the things that was fortunate that came out
of COVID was we built a remote operation just in case,
you know, all the borders remain closed. I think we're
going to find now that we'll be doing more and
(29:33):
more remotely from Duneda because the cost of travel alone,
let alone the dangers of travel starting to get too high.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Yeah, a lot of things are happening in your animation research,
limited studios and to needn Apart from a debate with
the Martua, final question for you, are you heading to Augusta.
I've been lucky enough to be there once. I know
you're a regular attendee. Will you be inside the ropes?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
No, not this time. We've got we've got teams going over.
I've got a team's going over, but you're invited to
come and see because we will have the eight live
feeds running out of out of our studio in Dunedin,
so it really is worth coming to see and just
the number of things. You know, Jones is a couch.
Shane accused me of being anti jobs. You'll be able
(30:22):
to come and see some of the high value jobs
that we've created over thirty six years that you know,
really run against that. Creating jobs has always been really
important to me. And a guess another thing you could
ask and we called me anti mining. One of our
largest clients at Animation and Research is Rio Tinto and
(30:42):
we work with them at the Tilboro mines in Western Australia.
So you can it's very hard to kind of accuse
us of being anti jobs and anti mining. But you
are invited to seeing You were me to be coming
for the debate. Moderate you can come and watch the
golf instead.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Well, at least I'll turn up even if martuas Shane Jones,
the Prince of the Provinces doesn't. Siren Taylor, thanks as
always for your time.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Cave, Thank you the best of the country with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Here's the Prince of the province's Martua, Shane Jones Resources Ministry.
He's got a lot on his plate at the moment
with the fuel crisis. But Shane, it would be remissive
me not to start with where I finished on my
conversation with Saren Taylor yesterday. Why did you pull out
of the debate.
Speaker 8 (31:37):
I wanted a debate in front of one hundred two hundred,
three hundred five hundred people, not in some windowless room
on sir Ian Taylor's computer platform only recorded by the
local Otago media. Had we have had something in front
of the terrace activists, I would love to have stood
(31:59):
up to the plass, come up to the plate. But look,
I've learned a bit about three D in this experience.
He's slightly delusory. He really is, because he's not willing
to accept that his industry, which uses a lot of technology,
depends on critical minerals and rear earth minerals that are
often found in association with gold. And at the end,
(32:21):
I really couldn't be associated with a sort of hollow
event driven by vanity.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Let me just play a week clip of what he
said on yesterday's show. Hopefully you can hear this.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
If the number of things you know, Jones is a
cute James, accuse me of being anti jobs. Now you'll
be able to come and see some of the high
value jobs that we've created over thirty six years that
you know, really run against that. Creating jobs has always
been really important to me. And a guess the other
thing you could ask and he called me anti mining.
(32:54):
One of our largest clients at Animation and Research is
Rio Tinto and we were with them at October Minds
in Western Australia, so you can it's very hard to
kind of accuse of of being anti jobs and anti mining.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
What do you say to that, Shane, Well, he's finally
owned up to the hypocrisy in the stance that sir
Ian has taken. I've told you all along his firm
makes millions of dollars out of the mining industry in
New Zealand, the mining industry in Australia, and this specious
argument that he's been dragooned into by these elitist aging
(33:36):
people who want to pull up the escalator in Otago
and pull up the ladder and not give others a chance. Now,
I congratulate sir Ian for finally admitting that his industry
makes millions out of mining. I've been saying it all along.
It's just that he's been, in my view, be fuddled
and got involved in something he needs to reverse from.
(33:58):
He has no authority, no right, no status to interfere
with the gold mining application in OTARGI.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Well, he did offer to put it not only on
the Otago Daily Times, and I think you've had a
dig at the Otago media, the Otago Daily Times streaming platform,
also stuff which is nationwide. And if that's not enough, Actually,
I did go to your PR people, Shane and namely
your wonderful PR person Lucy, and I said, well, why
don't you and n just run the debate on my show.
(34:27):
I'll give you thirty eight minutes to sort it out.
Speaker 8 (34:30):
Yeah. So at the moment, I'm donkey deep and addressing
the fuel scarcity issues and I just don't have the
time any longer. Mate. The reality is I've already won
the debate in New Zealand about mining. Did Winston tell
you in the West Coast Winston?
Speaker 1 (34:48):
And I did Winston?
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Fine, A final question from me before we get onto
the field. Did Winston tell you to calm the farm.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
Sadly, from time to time he does observe, Shane, put
a stone on your tongue. He didn't quite like some
of the one element and the fisheries. But look, very briefly,
that's want people to bear in mind. Fisheries is a
shared resource and it has got very heated. I mean
too many of these activists, Matt Watson another they've had
(35:24):
too much carbonated water and they're full of gas and
they think that I want to destroy the fishing resource.
They're absolutely correct, But sadly there's a few toddlers up
in Auckland, like a bloke who organized the Gamma ha
haha protest over the Harbor Bridge. They've got to go
to the Select Committee and have their say and stop
throwing around these reckless, reckless threats. I'll give you credit, Shane,
(35:46):
that they're doing with the backbenches from the National Party.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
You're not afraid of a good backdown though, are you.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
Sadly, I've made a career out of perfecting the words
of an apology, but i just want everyone to bear
in mind that the fishing industries all throughout the chatterms
on the matter of the Chathams. I'm I'm very unhappy
with their leadership over there. They want me to give
them sixty five million dollars worth of our scampy quota
for the chatterms, but that's never going to happen now.
(36:14):
They will never, ever until they tidy up their own
institutional governments or of chathams, ever get any snap of
quota from the ground.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Let's just finish with you putting your Resources Minister's hat
back on, if indeed you've ever taken it off during
the course of this interview. Talk to me about the
fuel situation, because this is landed in your lap.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
Now we have a situation where we are importing inflation,
importing scarcity problems because of a war that New Zealand
had absolutely nothing to do with initiating. We do have
a system of statutory obligations that every fuel importer of
size must meet in New Zealand, and they are meeting them.
(36:57):
My only gripe with the fuel companies is that they've
got to stand up and consistently explain to keywi Is
where we do have small problems where they're running short
of fuel, it's not the issue that the fuel is
not in the country. They've got to sort their logistics out.
We are working with Nikola and we have now agreed
to fund up to one hundred million letters of new
(37:19):
storage through recommissioned tanks at Marston Point. Now something at
the Labor Party never got around to doing for three years.
I'm going to have it done within eight to ten weeks.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
You sound like Donald Trump and his war.
Speaker 8 (37:32):
Oh well, my leader is on his way to America,
and I shall leave all matters pertaining to the relationship
between our dear country and the United States of America
to a person with a higher pay greed than the
matua otherwise known as the ranguteera. Right, Honor will Winston Peters, Shane.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Jones, thanks for your time. If and when the Middle
East crisis ever ends, you and Sarah N. Taylor can
come on. I'll give you a whole show. You can
get the gloves off and go toe to toe on
the show.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
That's new enough for you, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (38:02):
Okay? I'll leave three in at the moment to his
keyboard to see you.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Mate.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
The best of the country with Robbobank, choose the bank
with one hundred and twenty years global agribusiness experience, grow
with Rubberbank.
Speaker 10 (38:14):
Clim me to the moon, let me play among the
Shane Jones, my tist, Shane Jones, the Prince of the
province is wrapping the best of the country.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Good morning, my name's Jamie McKay. Each and every Saturday morning,
the show is brought to you by Rabobank. We're growing
a better New Zealand together, Gonna leave you with old
blue eyes. Frank Sinatra for the crew of Artemis two
as they head to the dark side of the moon.
Catch you back, same time, same place, next Saturday morning.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Fill my heart with sign and let me sing forevermore.
Speaker 5 (38:53):
You are all eye long for all.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I worship and in other words, please be true.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
In other words, I love you.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Fill my heart with song, let me sing for ever more.
Speaker 10 (39:58):
You are all a long fall I worshiped head of door.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
In other words, please be true, or another word.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
In another word, I
Speaker 7 (40:24):
Loved you.
The best of the country with Robbobank.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agri business experience.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Grow with Rabbobank. She goos to you got me.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Sens present, maybe I can catch you around Giday and
good morning New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
I'm Jamie McKay. This is the best of the country.
It is brought to you, he said, losing his voice
by Rabobank. We're growing a better New Zealand together here
on news Talk said this is the best bits of
our weekday show twelve to one on a Saturday morning,
just for your long Easter weekend pleasure hopefully. So we're
going to kick off the show today with Simon Lee.
This guy has the best farming job in the land.
(00:57):
More about him and just a tick. Hunter McGregor is
our guy in Shanghai. Caught up with them. We talked
about fuel, fruit, pork, beef and forestry and how they're
getting on in China with the Middle East crisis. Jen
Corkran's from Rabobank senior animal protein analysts talking about the
prospects for red meat and we've got a real treat
for you for your long Easter weekend. Saren Taylor and
(01:21):
Martua Shane Jones going head to head on the Country.
It's all on the Best of the Country, brought to
you by Rabobank.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The best of the Country with Rabobank.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Grow with Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
I think our next guest on the Country has the
best job, certainly the best farming job in New Zealand.
I enjoyed his company on Friday at the Federated Farmer's
High Country Field Day at Glenary Station. Simon Lee joins
us the manager, Simon, do you wake up every morning
and pinch yourself with how lucky you are having job?
(02:00):
You have? Good afternoon, Thanks Jamie for having me on.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
No, well I do.
Speaker 6 (02:06):
Actually, yeah, it's a brilliant part of the world to
be farming, and it's a great place to farm and
a good family in board to be involved with as well.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Well.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Let's have a look at Glenairy Station. Sixty eight thousand
hectares was although someone reckoned it might be closer to
seventy thousand sheep, beef and deer. You've got all land
classes there, You've got highly fertile river flats, you've got
rolling low finishing country, you've got some higher country, and
then you've got a big paddock out the back, which
is what more than thirty thousand hectares? Do you graze
(02:36):
that one?
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Not currently at the moment. Well, there is a few
sheep out there, but no, we're only just touched at
the corners.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, So talk to me about how you got to
get this job, because I think Glenary Station is is
it the largest privately owned farm in the country. If
it's not, it's close to it.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Yeah, No, it's a private are the largest privately owned
And so what I come from end up Hill Station,
which I managed for eighteen years in Chevy at North Canbury.
And in that time there I sort of oversee the
station and two other properties and had about sort of
nine staff over that area. And the opportunity to you know,
(03:18):
apply for the role that Glenary come up, and it's
one that you know, I took with both arms and
don't regret it at all.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Was there a Q halfway around the wallshed to get
the job?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Well, I'm not too sure.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
I never really asked, but I imagine it would have
been well subscribed for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Did you watch Country Calendar last night because Jeff Farm
I know the farm well down on Southland on the
Clinton Matara back Road. An old mate of mine used
to run it. It's owned by the Salvation Army. They're
training young farm and cadets all be it on a
smaller scale than Glenary. But you're like doing a very
similar thing yourself at Glenary.
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Yeah, that's right. No, I did watch an episode it
was it was really good.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Really enjoyed it.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Well, probably more so because you know those those young
ones coming through and you need you to see the
pride and their dogs and how they had come through.
And yes, we are like here, we've got nine to
ten shepherds here and we do it on the same
sort of yes regime. And we've got g few students
as well, and so no, it's good.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yeah, it's growing future farmer students. What I did notice
about your staff you seem to have a high proportion
or pleasantly surprising proportion of young females who want to
be And I know, I was just reading a dog
Top Trilling story this morning about how the women are
taking over there.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
Yeah, they are like in our stock team, it'll behalf
would be would be would be females, yep, and they're
good too at their job.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
One of your the hardest parts of your job, because
getting up and driving around or riding around that station
would be the great part of it. But you've got
a big staff. How do you manage that?
Speaker 6 (04:56):
Yeah, so I manage that with me being the g manager,
and I've got four stock managers that sit under me
as a flat line management structure, and then I've got
a NAGG manager, so I directly deal with them a
week by week, day of to day, and then the
shepherds sit under the air. And then the sheepherds are
(05:17):
on a rotation between all those stock stock management areas
and they're back around the same spot within a month.
And yeah, so I like to get it well planned out,
have everyone and you know where they are by Friday
or Saturday the week before, so everyone knows what they're
doing on a Monday, and we have Monday meetings so
we can look at that sort of higher level you
(05:39):
know sort of stuff, maybe go a few kill sheets
or you know, talk about what's coming up in the future.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Do you get any time on the dog whistle or
is all your time on the keyboard these days.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
I do a fear of an Edmond. And you know,
part of my job is to look for the opportunities
and threats of this business, and that is my job
and to run it and you know, run all the
budgets and everything, so and I'm ultimately responsible for all
of that. So yeah, the dog was always you're quite tucked.
(06:12):
And you know, I like my dogs are a tourists really,
but I do like to use my dogs, you know,
so but I do. Yeah, I just tried to trying
to allocate the time between the office and out in
the panic.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Even though it was a Federated Farmer's High Country field day,
we spent some time on some beautiful river flat, high fertility,
high quality pastures. You had a high performance beef finishing
unit down there using holter.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Yes, yeah, that's that's in you and I should have.
So we're five months in and we've got it on
trading stairs at the moment, so they're eighteen month old stuff.
We've already killed a couple of unit loads. But the
holder has been introduced in there for cell grazing, for
partial management, backfencing, you know, more dry meatter regrowth. You know,
(07:00):
these multiple things that we're learning about at a stage.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
So yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
One of the questions I asked you at the field
day I had the good pleasure to be the MC
was had you ever thought of chucking a dairy unit
on that some of that low lying country? And I'm
sure you could if you wanted to. But you thought
about that for about one minute, did you?
Speaker 8 (07:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Yeah, we have we should have strategize them and we
you know, talk about all the opportunities Blue Sky thinking
of of the w Pinckney Glenary business and it was
talking about a long time ago when south and went
through all that conversion. If you went, if you talked
to John Tavendale, the current chairman, so they did talk
about it, you know, yeah, but not on the radar.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Another question that was asked of you from the floor
or from the paddock. You've got sheep, beef and deer,
and someone asked you which is the most profitable stock
unit and the answer was interesting. You said it was
the Dare operation, even though the prices of the others
are very good at the moment, and that's because it's
a low input system.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
Yep, low input system. And look at the even of
this fire each a year the sheep will probably come
out on top. But as long as a four year
ever since I've been here, the deer would be as
far as inputs and you just need income out of that,
out of that unit or that lifetop class would be Yeah,
come out on top, definitely.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Is this a job for.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Life for you?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
What where could you possibly go from Glenary Station that
would be better?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Simon l Yeah, Well.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
I'm here for a long time and to get to
the stage when you know you're still able and your
and your and your you know, your minds still able
and yeah, and obviously you're not in the way of
an opportunity of someone else in the you know, in
the in the future. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Well, you along with Federated Farmers put on a magnificent
field day and as beautiful as your farm is, and
I can't get over what a stunning operation it is.
It's not without challenges. Just a final comment from you,
because we had a really good discussion about pests, namely
in the case of Glenarreya, because some of your neighboring
stations are having some real issues with wilding pines and conaface.
(09:02):
That is one of the real issues, isn't it For
high country farms in this country.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Yep, that is, and that's one of the things on
our radar. And I think someone said in the conversation,
I want to be Matt Taylor. He said, Simon may
think he hasn't got a problem yet, but he will.
And you're right, because we've already found the Wildings pines
and that's a new subject for us and a new
task and a new budget item, and we've got to
(09:29):
absolutely rip it and make sure that they don't get
away on us.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Simon Lee, manager of Glara, you're living the dream. Thanks
for your company on Friday. Really enjoyed my day out.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
No, thank you, Jamie was great. I enjoyed the company
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
The best of the country with Rubbo Back. Choose the
bank with one hundred and twenty years global agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Grow with Rubbo Back.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
He's our guy in Shanghai, a ki We selling red
meat and venison to the Chinese. His name is Hunter McGregor. Hunter.
We're going to talk about the first of the new
season fruit key We fruit and apples arriving onto Chinese shelves.
But before we do, I want to talk about fuel
pricing and fuel supply in China. How are you fearing
Bearing in mind you are and I'm talking about China.
(10:13):
You are a friend of Iran.
Speaker 9 (10:15):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Since we last talked, the prices
have gone up about quite a significant price increase we
while ago. But what they've done is they've capped the
price increase it should have. It's been twice as large
as what the price increase was. And what they actually
do is they have two very large state and oil
(10:37):
companies here and they use their balance sheets and pop
up funding through that to keep the price, especially of diesel,
not too high. Now, China has a hell of a
lot of easy electric car vehicles and big cities, the
smaller trucks that are delivering around the cities and also
turning into evs as well electric electric trucks. But if
(11:00):
you get out of the cities on the big roads,
all the big trucks are diesel. So the country here
still runs on diesel and will for the foreseeable future.
So you know that they're restricting how high that increases,
and they're funding that to keep the country moving. So
you know it's going to be a challenge for everyone,
and it's going to be a price challenge, but here
(11:21):
they've got some mechanism in place to protect the price
of diesel and not get it too high, so you know,
the country won't come to a groning hole. But it
doesn't seem to be any issues on the supply side
at the moment here, so which is good.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Talk to me about the first of the new season
apples and kiwi fruit heading into China.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Well, actually, yesterday the first seasons of the Zespri's kiwi
fruit arrived into a Shanghai port. They had a big,
big pr push and there'll be I'm sure there'll be
a big marketing push in the next few days. So look,
we would take a day or two for that stuff
to get onto the shelves around around Shanghai and then
pushing into other parts of the country. So looking forward
(12:01):
to getting my hands on some of this elusive red
kiwi frud. I'm pretty sure I'll have a bit more
of that, and then you know, apples have started to launch.
And I saw a really interesting thing the other day
posted I picked it up from the New Zealand government
that actually six out of the ten apples imported into
China are from New Zealand. So you know, then the
(12:24):
China produces a hell of a lot of apples, but
New Zealand apples I think just a little bit superior
good stuff.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Who would want to be a Chinese pig farmer at
the moment?
Speaker 9 (12:34):
Yeah, well, no, it's really interesting. Prior to COVID, the
Chinese pork price and the other protein prices like beef
and especially lamb were kind of linked, you know, with
the swine fever, prices of pork went up and then
lamb went through the roof. But now since COVID, they're
not linked at all. So you've got really strong demand
for beef. Beef prices are high obviously around the world,
(12:57):
included here. You got high price for lamb. But the
Chinese pork farmers are at a sixteen year low with
regards to pricing. You know, they're losing over forty dollars
ahead at least, and that's only going to increase as
costs increase. And the biggest reason is over supply and
weak demand. So you know, it's very tough for a
(13:20):
farmer here. A pig farmer here at the moment produce
a hell of a lot of pigs, so it's going
to be a bit of a drain on the economy,
and they reckon, it's going to take about six to
eight months before the supply and things returned back to balance.
But in the meantime, you know, there's some cheap pork
prices here, but it's off weak demand and there we
see that and what we do here. You know, restaurants
(13:43):
are a lot of strongs as they have been in
the past, and that's pushing through the renuit.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
And you reckon, New Zealand could benefit from Australians hitting
their beef quota because once they get past that quota
there's a fifty five percent terriff applied.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
Yeah. No, this year the Chinese brought in a beef
quite a system for a number of countries including New Zealand,
But Australians have just at fifty percent of their yearly
quota already. So we're three months in, so you know,
on the back end of this year there will be opportunities,
more opportunities for New Zealand beef, which we won't had
(14:21):
our quota at all. But you know, the end of
the day, at high end restaurants, grain fed beef is
not going to class replaced by grasshead beef, but there
will be opportunities for New Zealand beef companies here which
would be great.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
And a final fun fact, maybe this isn't good news
for our forestry industry. China added three point six million
hectares of new forest in twenty twenty five, bringing national
forest coverage rate to over twenty five percent. They'll be
becoming self sufficient in trees.
Speaker 9 (14:55):
Well, you know, a lot of it's reclaiming the Gobi deserts.
That's not probably PI radiator or trees, but you know,
China's had a big push of reforesting and regriaming the
place in twenty five percent is a big number. But
you know, the three point six million hecteds, it's about
twenty five percent of the size of the South Island,
(15:17):
So you know that's the her of a big area
in one year. So you know that they're pushing to
grow a few more trees here. But I don't think
it will affect the New Zealand forestry in the short
term because I don't see too many pinous radiator trees
around the countryside. So yeah, but it's good to see.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Okay, Hunter McGregor, thanks for your time from Shanghai. Go
and enjoy some new season Kiwi fruit and Kiwi apples.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Hi will thanks Jamie, the best of the country with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
She is a senior animal protein Analyst for Rabobank. No
One on that wonderful bank has a short title of
name is Jen Corkran Jen. Hopefully I'm going to talk
to Dan Bolton shortly about the silver Fern farms and
your result as we stare down the barrel and have
a dig into red meat on the show today. Look,
what's happening in the Middle East is causing us all
(16:13):
untold grief.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
At the moment?
Speaker 4 (16:15):
How is it affecting the red meat market or are
we relatively insulated, especially when it comes to the likes
of beef into the US.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Yes, Hi, Jamie, so great to hear lots of red
meat on the agenda for today. But yes, globally it
certainly feels like thanks on fire, don't it? And lots
of uncertainty. You know, if we look at red meat
and just the fundamentals of what's going on, things are
still pretty positive and I think you know, the time
for the sector to look to the positivity that we've
(16:45):
seen over the last twelve months. Understand some of those fundamentals,
but certainly the Middle East is causing uncertainty challenges with
all those f words fuel and fertilizer and freight. But
you know, if we look at what's going on with
the demand for our rid meets globally, still right now,
it's still very strong and we've seen still some really
(17:07):
good results in terms of those EVERAGEX book values to date.
What might happen in the second half of the year,
you know, we can discuss going forward, but right now
things are still looking positive. Still got good demand in
the United States in particular for that grinding beef, still
very very hot and they're certainly driving things from the
beef side.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Okay, well, let's have a look at lamb. The lamb
schedules have dropped a wee bit in recent times. Is
this just the normal seasonal changes as we see live
stock starting to flow in because I know a lot
of livestock has been held back because it's been a
good grass growing summer around New Zealand. Farmers have quite
rightly decided to put an extra quilo or two on
(17:46):
the lambs.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Right, Jamie, and I think that's exactly what's happened.
Speaker 8 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 7 (17:50):
So we've seen some really great just to covers across
New Zealand through January degree and into the start of
March as well. Now things have crisped off a little
bit a particularly in this last or a few weeks,
and now what we're seeing is that normal season or
supply starting to pick up, which needs for processes they've
been waiting for these lambs to come on. But so
(18:11):
far in the season since October the first, we are
down about five percent just last year in terms of
the number of lambs that have been processed. But we're
expecting to see slightly more lambs this year, so there's
certainly still plenty out there. I think, you know, good
on our producers who have decided to put a bit
more life weight on these lambs and take advantage of
that good pasture that's been growing. But what we normally
(18:33):
see when these lamps start to come on online is
that you know, the efficiencies pick up and the processing
end and they don't need to be offering the same money.
And we also know that they've perhaps held those prices
up firmly for some time now, and it's time for
them to start to drop as they will normally seasonally,
and I think that's exactly what's happening. Unfortunately, it's kind
of happening just at the same time as the Middle East.
(18:55):
At this stage, it's not caused by that. It's really
just this normal season or softening that we see in
the markets.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
You've mentioned their word fuel, freight, fertilizer on farm costs.
Are these more likely to be felt in the next
financial year rather than this one? Bearing in mind from
a farmer's point of view, a lot of the income
and a lot of the costs of producing this year
have already been locked and loaded into the system.
Speaker 7 (19:21):
That's right, Jamie. I think what we know right now
generally a lot of things we don't know, But I
think really important to remain positive and focus on what
we do know. And we know that right now there's
enough fertilizer in New Zealand for the autumn. The fuel
situation is still being talked through by the government regularly,
so we kind of know we were out there. But
(19:41):
the real watching point for us and our team at
the moment is going to be the second half of
twenty six And you know what that means that right
now where we are at, what can we do to
be resilient and control costs going forward because we know
that the pace of some of these things is likely
to rise, and you know that is challenging a lot
of what we do within the farmgate requires obviously even
(20:04):
fertilizer itself is going to be more extensive, but also
getting their foot on and of course the trucking and
everything out and the rest of the supply chain when
it comes to moving animals around. So lots of watching
points there. But certainly the second half of the year
I think is going to be actually more of a
worry than we were at right now.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Twenty twenty five, the story was Trump's tariffs. Twenty twenty
sixth the story is Trump's war. Goodness knows what he
will come up with in twenty twenty seven. Let's hope
he calms the farm awey bit and we can all
get down to business. Jen corkran out a Rabobank thanks
for your time today on the country.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
Thanks Jamie, the.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Best of the country with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
Agribusiness Experience Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Good Good morning, New Zealand and welcome back to the
Best of the Country. I'm Jamie Mackay.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
The show.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
It's brought to you over your long Easter weekend if
you're lucky enough to get one by Rabobank. We're growing
a better New Zealand together you Moon on Monday, Well,
Artemis too might be on the dark side of the
moon on Monday. Who knows up next? The highlight for
me last week a couple of heavyweights going head to
head on consecutive days, Saren Taylor and Martua Shane Jones
(21:24):
over the controversial gold mining in Central Otago and other
stuff as well. You're going to be entertained and informed
by these two to wrap the Best of the Country.
They just a plug for our wonderful sponsors Rabobank. They're
proud to support the upcoming Out the Gate Conference, the
biggest event on New Zealand's Red Meat calendar. The conference
(21:44):
will take place May nineteen to twenty one in Christchurch
and includes the Beef and Lamb Awards dinner on Wednesday,
the twentieth May. Tickets for Out the Gate and Awards
are now available at beeflamanz dot com. And just a
word of warning from Rabobank for you dairy out there.
You Fonterra farmer shareholders, You're going to get a payout
the capital payout from Fonterra. Rabobank's encouraging dairy farmers to
(22:08):
be alert to potential scam is attempting to take advantage
of your capital payout. You've worked hard for that, make
sure you keep it. Visit the rabobank website to learn
how to protect yourself from scams. Rabobank dot co dot nz.
Up next, Siren Taylor.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Clues to.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
The best of the country with Rabobank.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Grow with Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Matua Shane Jones, Resources Minister will be on the Country tomorrow.
I'm going to give him a bit of a rav
up because he's pulled out of a debate on a
controversial Otago gold mine amusing would be opponent Saren Taylor
who joins us on the country and en Or Syreen.
I'm quoting you here. You said I was looking forward
to stepping into the boxing ring with the crowing rooster
(22:58):
but it looks like he's lost his voice. You can't
often say that about Shane, you know.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
You cannot, can you? And you know the boxing ring references.
That's what he challenged me too. You know he's ready
to step into the boxing ring. He was a crowing
rooster or the big brown Dalmatian from Kataire Katya. You know,
so typical Shane Jones. But his latest, you know, his
final rejection was a video he posted in which he
(23:27):
quoted A. A. Milne and he quoted AA Milon from
a kid's part. But I just thought, just remind him
that A. Milon also wrote when he's a pooh And
I think what happened to Shane was when he thought
about this, he found that he was standing in a
whole heap of poop and figured, you know, he had
(23:49):
to get out. And I even suggested that, you know,
after his the step back he had to make on
the side of fisher fishery, the fishery decision that maybe
even his boss instant might have said, you find a
way out of this, because you're not going to do it.
I don't know you're going to ask him that tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I will ask him that tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Mind.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You see, there was always a point of difference between
you two because I was sort of involved on the
periphery of this debate. You wanted it live streamed. He
wanted it in a public venue. And he said to you,
you create a public space too. Will debate anyone anywhere,
but I won't be secreted, concealed in a windowless room
for the Otago media or for U Saren.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
So I checked that he didn't say that. What he
did was and sort of came out of nowhere. I
had no idea why he was getting involved, but he
challenged me to a debate anywhere in the South Island,
my choice, my location.
Speaker 9 (24:47):
That was it.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
So I did look at I did look at Tariff,
but you know the logistics of doing that and streaming it,
we're a bit a bit different called And then I thought, actually,
Dunedin is the home of the city built on gold.
We've got a studio in our building, not the ODT,
(25:09):
in our building where hopefully you'll come along next week
and see us streaming eight feeds out for the master's
golf from Deneed, so we know how to stream. And
I figured, actually, you'll get a much bigger audience if
we stream it free to anyone anywhere in the world,
and that was the offer that went to Shane. His
(25:30):
response was he would only have this debate. And I
don't know why I called it a debate if he
was able to agree on all of the questions beforehand
and when we debated, I wasn't allowed to change any
of them. And also ironically he said we had to
talk to each other with respect and no abusive names.
(25:52):
So I'm not quite sure what his point was.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
You're still determined to have this debate. Are you going
to have the debate with an animated AI characterture of
Shane Jones or a cardboard cutout? What's going to happen?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Yeah, well, I just thought, you know, I don't know
how many people you know, obviously Shane Jones. Now just
you know, if we're having a wordplay here, I just
want to be very clear that you'll notice I have
stopped using the word Martur, so it's Shane Jones, because
then Marie Martur is a term of respect and what
I've seen and heard from him in relationship to me,
(26:30):
what I have done, what I'm accused of doing, that
respect is gone. So from now on it's Shane Jones.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
He's accused you and some of your other Knighted mates,
Sir Graham Sidney, Sir sam Neil, He's accused you guys
of nimbiism. Does he have a fair criticism there?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
No, because first of all, you know he's done this,
he's bundled me up with you know, other people who
have their own legitimate concerns. I'm not for the first time.
I ran into Sir sam Neil at the Corru Club
about two weeks ago. That's the first time I've run
into him for thirty years. I don't know the last
(27:09):
time I talked to Sir Graham Sydney would have been
years ago as well. My point here was, as I
looked at this thing going on, this mine thing being
fast tracked, and I discovered that an end result of
this mine is what everything else aside. Would be a
tailing stand that held one hundred and thirty thousand tons
(27:32):
of arsenic on a hilltop in an earthquake zone, in
a seismic zone where we're expecting an earthquake had agree
eight in the next fifty years. Above at the headwaters
of the river the Lindus and the Clutha.
Speaker 10 (27:50):
All.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
My question was why are we fast tracking it? Because
if that earthquake hits and something happens to that, damn
everything downstream will be destroyed. There's one hundred and thirty
thousand tons of arsenic. Now, I might have something wrong,
but that's what a debate is about. I didn't get
to I didn't get to ask the questions.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Can I just finish on because you're a worldly wise man,
Saren Taylor Trump in the Middle East and how it's
affecting world trade and in your case, world travel because
your company travels right around the world to bring us
the graphics at wonderful events such as the Masters.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, it is interesting. I mean, the world's just gone
into a crazy place. And I mean I think it's
one of those things now where I remember in First
you know, the whole thing is alternative to truth that
came up and his first bird. Everything seems to be
an alternative truth. Now, so you've got no idea what's
(28:50):
going on except that it's having an enormous impact on everyone.
And just a little example of our travel, my son
Ben two weeks ago. It went to Melbourne for the
Formula one, then flew to India for three days for
meetings over there, and then to get to Florida for
the PGA champions Playoff Championship, he had to fly up
(29:13):
through Munich, around the top of the world and backdown again.
And you know, this is going to have a huge
impact on how we do business now. And I guess
one of the things that was fortunate that came out
of COVID was we built a remote operation just in case,
you know, all the borders remain closed. I think we're
going to find now that we'll be doing more and
(29:33):
more remotely from Duneda because the cost of travel alone,
let alone the dangers of travel starting to get too high.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Yeah, a lot of things are happening in your animation research,
limited studios and to needn Apart from a debate with
the Martua, final question for you, are you heading to Augusta.
I've been lucky enough to be there once. I know
you're a regular attendee. Will you be inside the ropes?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
No, not this time. We've got we've got teams going over.
I've got a team's going over, but you're invited to
come and see because we will have the eight live
feeds running out of out of our studio in Dunedin,
so it really is worth coming to see and just
the number of things. You know, Jones is a couch.
Shane accused me of being anti jobs. You'll be able
(30:22):
to come and see some of the high value jobs
that we've created over thirty six years that you know,
really run against that. Creating jobs has always been really
important to me. And a guess another thing you could
ask and we called me anti mining. One of our
largest clients at Animation and Research is Rio Tinto and
(30:42):
we work with them at the Tilboro mines in Western Australia.
So you can it's very hard to kind of accuse
us of being anti jobs and anti mining. But you
are invited to seeing You were me to be coming
for the debate. Moderate you can come and watch the
golf instead.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Well, at least I'll turn up even if martuas Shane Jones,
the Prince of the Provinces doesn't. Siren Taylor, thanks as
always for your time.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Cave, Thank you the best of the country with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Choose the bank with one hundred and twenty years global
agribusiness experience.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Here's the Prince of the province's Martua, Shane Jones Resources Ministry.
He's got a lot on his plate at the moment
with the fuel crisis. But Shane, it would be remissive
me not to start with where I finished on my
conversation with Saren Taylor yesterday. Why did you pull out
of the debate.
Speaker 8 (31:37):
I wanted a debate in front of one hundred two hundred,
three hundred five hundred people, not in some windowless room
on sir Ian Taylor's computer platform only recorded by the
local Otago media. Had we have had something in front
of the terrace activists, I would love to have stood
(31:59):
up to the plass, come up to the plate. But look,
I've learned a bit about three D in this experience.
He's slightly delusory. He really is, because he's not willing
to accept that his industry, which uses a lot of technology,
depends on critical minerals and rear earth minerals that are
often found in association with gold. And at the end,
(32:21):
I really couldn't be associated with a sort of hollow
event driven by vanity.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Let me just play a week clip of what he
said on yesterday's show. Hopefully you can hear this.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
If the number of things you know, Jones is a
cute James, accuse me of being anti jobs. Now you'll
be able to come and see some of the high
value jobs that we've created over thirty six years that
you know, really run against that. Creating jobs has always
been really important to me. And a guess the other
thing you could ask and he called me anti mining.
(32:54):
One of our largest clients at Animation and Research is
Rio Tinto and we were with them at October Minds
in Western Australia, so you can it's very hard to
kind of accuse of of being anti jobs and anti mining.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
What do you say to that, Shane, Well, he's finally
owned up to the hypocrisy in the stance that sir
Ian has taken. I've told you all along his firm
makes millions of dollars out of the mining industry in
New Zealand, the mining industry in Australia, and this specious
argument that he's been dragooned into by these elitist aging
(33:36):
people who want to pull up the escalator in Otago
and pull up the ladder and not give others a chance. Now,
I congratulate sir Ian for finally admitting that his industry
makes millions out of mining. I've been saying it all along.
It's just that he's been, in my view, be fuddled
and got involved in something he needs to reverse from.
(33:58):
He has no authority, no right, no status to interfere
with the gold mining application in OTARGI.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Well, he did offer to put it not only on
the Otago Daily Times, and I think you've had a
dig at the Otago media, the Otago Daily Times streaming platform,
also stuff which is nationwide. And if that's not enough, Actually,
I did go to your PR people, Shane and namely
your wonderful PR person Lucy, and I said, well, why
don't you and n just run the debate on my show.
(34:27):
I'll give you thirty eight minutes to sort it out.
Speaker 8 (34:30):
Yeah. So at the moment, I'm donkey deep and addressing
the fuel scarcity issues and I just don't have the
time any longer. Mate. The reality is I've already won
the debate in New Zealand about mining. Did Winston tell
you in the West Coast Winston?
Speaker 1 (34:48):
And I did Winston?
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Fine, A final question from me before we get onto
the field. Did Winston tell you to calm the farm.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
Sadly, from time to time he does observe, Shane, put
a stone on your tongue. He didn't quite like some
of the one element and the fisheries. But look, very briefly,
that's want people to bear in mind. Fisheries is a
shared resource and it has got very heated. I mean
too many of these activists, Matt Watson another they've had
(35:24):
too much carbonated water and they're full of gas and
they think that I want to destroy the fishing resource.
They're absolutely correct, But sadly there's a few toddlers up
in Auckland, like a bloke who organized the Gamma ha
haha protest over the Harbor Bridge. They've got to go
to the Select Committee and have their say and stop
throwing around these reckless, reckless threats. I'll give you credit, Shane,
(35:46):
that they're doing with the backbenches from the National Party.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
You're not afraid of a good backdown though, are you.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
Sadly, I've made a career out of perfecting the words
of an apology, but i just want everyone to bear
in mind that the fishing industries all throughout the chatterms
on the matter of the Chathams. I'm I'm very unhappy
with their leadership over there. They want me to give
them sixty five million dollars worth of our scampy quota
for the chatterms, but that's never going to happen now.
(36:14):
They will never, ever until they tidy up their own
institutional governments or of chathams, ever get any snap of
quota from the ground.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Let's just finish with you putting your Resources Minister's hat
back on, if indeed you've ever taken it off during
the course of this interview. Talk to me about the
fuel situation, because this is landed in your lap.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
Now we have a situation where we are importing inflation,
importing scarcity problems because of a war that New Zealand
had absolutely nothing to do with initiating. We do have
a system of statutory obligations that every fuel importer of
size must meet in New Zealand, and they are meeting them.
(36:57):
My only gripe with the fuel companies is that they've
got to stand up and consistently explain to keywi Is
where we do have small problems where they're running short
of fuel, it's not the issue that the fuel is
not in the country. They've got to sort their logistics out.
We are working with Nikola and we have now agreed
to fund up to one hundred million letters of new
(37:19):
storage through recommissioned tanks at Marston Point. Now something at
the Labor Party never got around to doing for three years.
I'm going to have it done within eight to ten weeks.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
You sound like Donald Trump and his war.
Speaker 8 (37:32):
Oh well, my leader is on his way to America,
and I shall leave all matters pertaining to the relationship
between our dear country and the United States of America
to a person with a higher pay greed than the
matua otherwise known as the ranguteera. Right, Honor will Winston Peters, Shane.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Jones, thanks for your time. If and when the Middle
East crisis ever ends, you and Sarah N. Taylor can
come on. I'll give you a whole show. You can
get the gloves off and go toe to toe on
the show.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
That's new enough for you, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (38:02):
Okay? I'll leave three in at the moment to his
keyboard to see you.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Mate.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
The best of the country with Robbobank, choose the bank
with one hundred and twenty years global agribusiness experience, grow
with Rubberbank.
Speaker 10 (38:14):
Clim me to the moon, let me play among the
Shane Jones, my tist, Shane Jones, the Prince of the
province is wrapping the best of the country.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Good morning, my name's Jamie McKay. Each and every Saturday morning,
the show is brought to you by Rabobank. We're growing
a better New Zealand together, Gonna leave you with old
blue eyes. Frank Sinatra for the crew of Artemis two
as they head to the dark side of the moon.
Catch you back, same time, same place, next Saturday morning.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Fill my heart with sign and let me sing forevermore.
Speaker 5 (38:53):
You are all eye long for all.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I worship and in other words, please be true.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
In other words, I love you.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Fill my heart with song, let me sing for ever more.
Speaker 10 (39:58):
You are all a long fall I worshiped head of door.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
In other words, please be true, or another word.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
In another word, I
Speaker 7 (40:24):
Loved you.
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