September 10, 2026 • 11 mins
Jamie Mackay has a chat after battling a does of Influenza A over the past month.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Country Crossover, brought to you by Bioactive Soils. Growing
together with healthy soils. Become a proactive farmer with Bioactive
Ag Fertiliser. Jamie Mackay joins us for The Country Crossover,
thanks to Bioactive Soils. He's been absent for a while,
but he's back in the hot seat. Welcome back, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, thank you. What do I call you? I am.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I am in the PM on the FM.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's good to be back. Three weeks of influenza A
for a man who famously never gets sick. It just
about bowled me over, Andy. I woke up in the
middle of the night one night and I was gasping
for air and I.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Had this horrible thought, is this how it ends? Surely not.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
But it's really knocked me and I'm not 100% yet,
but I'm getting there. And I have to keep reminding
myself it's not cancer, so you just battle on. And
I'm just thankful, to be perfectly honest, Andy, that I
wasn't or I'm not a farmer because I remember being
a young farmer, you might have a flu or be
a bit crook. But if it's lambing time, you just
get out there and do it and battle your way
(01:08):
through it. I physically couldn't have done that. And I
feel very, very sorry for any farmer or business person
or anyone for that matter who suffered through influenza A.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's quite brutal.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, well, good to have you back on deck, mate. Look,
the weather has been interesting. Well, not interesting, it's been concerning.
This El Nino flow that we're seeing is certainly kicking
into gear.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, it is, and this is playing exactly to script.
This is going to be the third, I think, terrible.
I hope I'm wrong here, Andy, but what are we now?
We're almost halfway through September, September the 11th, 9-11. We
might come back to that one. So this is playing
to script, isn't it? it's getting drier, although Canterbury got
(01:53):
a good rain and Marlborough got a good rain. They
were getting very dry recently. But for Southland, this is
just a shit of a spring. And I don't know,
my worry is that we're wet, wet, wet, wet, and
then we get to Labour weekend and it dries up,
especially in the drier parts of Southland, if you want,
(02:13):
northern Southland, and then we go dry. But September's obviously
an incredibly busy, important month. The dairy farmers are getting
into their second round. Sheep farmers are obviously lambing. If
you're not growing grass, some of that production you never
catch up on.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
On your show on Wednesday, Mark Delatour, boss of Open Country,
gave one of the more defining interviews that we're going
to hear on radio from a rural lens for a while.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It was really interesting. He was saving this one up.
He was meant to do it a couple of weeks ago,
but I was off crook. He said, I'll wait till
you get back. So he was all fired up and
he's really created quite a stir. And for those who
didn't hear it, I mean, the basic synopsis of it, Andy,
for you blokes from Belfort, that means summary.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I shouldn't say that, should I? You just did.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You always do.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I just did. I always do.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So it's friendly rivalry. But I mean, the guts of
it was he's saying, forget about Paris. forget about us
being blacklisted, if you want, by some of these markets.
He said there's plenty of demand. And he's talking, obviously,
wearing his dairy hat. I'm not sure the argument's quite
the same with the meat, but wearing his dairy hat,
(03:25):
he said there's plenty of markets that will take us
and we need to be out of Paris. And the
interesting thing about Paris, and I heard Bryce McKenzie talking
about this as well, it kind of, the rural communities
split on this is my take on it anyhow, Andy,
is split on Paris. Some people want us in, some
people want us out. And the other one, obviously, Labour
(03:47):
came out at the beginning of the week with their
ag emissions policy. They're not going to price ag emissions.
And I think almost everyone in agriculture is in unison
on that subject. So they are a couple of really
hot topics heading into the election. We've already seen the
likes of ACT and New Zealand First. Don't want a
(04:07):
bar of Paris. National want to stay in, want us
to stay in. Labour want us to stay in. God
knows what to party. Oh, well, the Greens, I don't
even know what they think about ag farming. I don't
think they think much about it at all.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
OK, Luxembourg wants to stay in. Winnie and Seymour want
to get out. How's that going to work out in
the coalition agreement then? Because this has got... Would it
become a bottom.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Line, perhaps? I'd say no. No, well, I mean, that's
just it.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I don't think it's going to become a bottom line
for either Seymour and... And Winston, you want to talk
about bottom lines? Bottom lines are things like, for Winston,
the age of eligibility for National Super. He will die
in the ditch on that one. And that's a very
important subject also for New Zealand. And it's an issue
(04:55):
that we've got to face going forward. So those are
bottom lines. Those are ones which would make Winston switch camps.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Evan, help us.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, based on that, these polls are all over the show,
one coming out earlier in the week saying that Labour's
well down, another one coming out a couple of days
later saying they're a bit up on that poll that
was released earlier in the week. But I think all
these polls that are coming out, I mean, the one
thing you're seeing is that the uncertainty about November is
(05:25):
that votes are still up for grabs.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, well, I think what you're finding is because Labour's
been so useless and listless when it comes to policy announcement.
They've had their capital gains and that's about it. And
I felt sorry for Jo Luxton in that Q &
A rural leaders debate. They should have fed her their
ag emissions pricing announcement because I think they released that
(05:49):
on the Monday or the Tuesday following that show, which
was broadcast on a Sunday. She was hung out to
dry in that rural leaders debate.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But look, I think Labour are paying the price.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
The Greens, whether you love them or loathe them, and
I loathe them, at least they're coming out with policy,
and they're picking up the slack, I'm sure, from the
Labour voters. For me, and this is rather simplistic, I
think that the Opportunity Party bubble has burst. People are
really starting to do some homework on this lot, and
(06:22):
they are flaky. But if they do manage, if they
do manage to get past that 5% threshold, and I
don't think they will, I hope they won't, a change
of government is on. But If they don't get past 5%,
I can't see a change of government happening.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Right, you're coming down to Invercargill this weekend. Murray Heath
on the show a couple of days ago. Great yarn
as well regarding the 1970s Southland rugby team. Having a
get-together this weekend, Dan. Southland be full-back from Riversdale's EMC.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, well, normally when it comes to EMCing, Andy....
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And I don't do that much these days, but I've
done a lot over the years, people phone you up
and say, would you like to emcee these awards or something?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
How much do you want?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
In my case, it all goes to the IHC Carfan
Rural Scheme these days, so I always put my hand
out quite a way, and no one's ever said no,
which is wonderful. So normally, someone rings you up and says,
would you like to emcee this event? You say yes,
and you agree on an amount.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
This was different.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I saw Murray Heath's Facebook post way back when he
first started talking about this and I just rang him
up and said, hey Murray, do you.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Want an MC?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I'm very, very cheap. How much will it cost me
to MC this event? Because look, Andy, a lot of
these guys, and this is from 1970 to 1980, so
it spans me being at primary school all through secondary
school and then my final years in that decade at university. And,
(07:57):
you know, some of these guys were absolute heroes of mine.
And I do give Balfour a bit of stick occasionally.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I love Balfour.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
But, you know, the hero from Balfour was Kenny Stewart,
who I was lucky enough to play against when he
was near the end of his rugby career. And then
he coached our northern senior sub-union rugby team for three
or four seasons. So I got to know him really well. But, gee,
he was a great player. And then you chuck in
(08:27):
Lester Rutledge. Brian McKechnie's another hero of mine. Who else
was an All Black in that lot? Bob Barber, Stephen Pokiri, and,
of course, Ash McGregor, who coached us.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I played against Ash, Andy.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I had one game for the Riversdale Seniors when I
was in the seventh form. Ash McGregor smashed me because
I thought I was the bee's knees, but I wasn't really.
And then I played a wee bit against him. and
then he came back as the Riversdale coach. And when
I moved to Gore, he was my next-door neighbour, and
I used to use his woolshed to shear my sheep.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Great bloke, Ash McGregor. Really unlucky.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
He went on that 78 tour to the UK, only
got three games. May have been a wee bit small
to be an All Black number eight, but my goodness,
when it came to Southland, he was a beast. And
when it came to club rugby, even though Ken Stewart
was a great All Black, I know who was the
better club rugby player, Ash McGregor, just dominated. And, of course,
(09:27):
it would be remiss of me not to mention Lester
Rutledge and, you know, what a great player he was
for Southland and what a great servant he was.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, the Stacks could do with a bit of that
calibre on Sunday, logic suggests. Hey, 9-11 as well, what
are your memories?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Well, I remember 9-11 quite well. Obviously, 2001, I was
down at Hokanui.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
For some reason, I'd scheduled to have that day off.
I was going to do, I think I was going
to get my sheep from the duck pond up in Riversdale,
bring them down and share them. I was giving myself
a day off. And then at about one in the morning,
one or two in the morning, I got a phone
call from Nick Jeffrey, who was working with us at
(10:12):
Hokanui at the time. And he said, hey, mate, you
better get up and turn your telly on because his
grandmother had just phoned him up and said, something's happening.
And I turned on the television at about 1 or
2 in the morning, whatever time it was, New Zealand time,
and was just transfixed. Obviously, the day off didn't happen.
(10:33):
It was surreal. And I was talking to Winston Peters
about this on yesterday's show, Andy. It's the biggest event
in world history, in my mind, since the Second World
War happened. It surpasses Bay of Pigs and the Cuban
Missile Crisis and all the crap that we've had between
(10:54):
1945 and now. I think it was a moment or
two moments or three moments if you catch the plane
that went into the Pentagon that absolutely changed the world.
It changed the way we live. It changed the way
we travel. It just changed the world full stop. You
could not write a script like that.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Good on you, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
We'll leave it there.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
All the best down at the The big gig for
the weekend and up the stags.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, go the stags.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And I know that they're going to be inspired by
some of those guys, some of those old Southland players
from the 70s are going to go in and give
them a bit of pep talk. And I think Southland
could get their season or reboot their season with a
good win over Bay of Plenty.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Jamie Mackay in the country crossover cheers to bioactive soils.
Phil Duncan's up next to give us a rundown on
the weather.
The Country Crossover, brought to you by Bioactive Soils. Growing
together with healthy soils. Become a proactive farmer with Bioactive
Ag Fertiliser. Jamie Mackay joins us for The Country Crossover,
thanks to Bioactive Soils. He's been absent for a while,
but he's back in the hot seat. Welcome back, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, thank you. What do I call you? I am.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I am in the PM on the FM.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's good to be back. Three weeks of influenza A
for a man who famously never gets sick. It just
about bowled me over, Andy. I woke up in the
middle of the night one night and I was gasping
for air and I.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Had this horrible thought, is this how it ends? Surely not.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
But it's really knocked me and I'm not 100% yet,
but I'm getting there. And I have to keep reminding
myself it's not cancer, so you just battle on. And
I'm just thankful, to be perfectly honest, Andy, that I
wasn't or I'm not a farmer because I remember being
a young farmer, you might have a flu or be
a bit crook. But if it's lambing time, you just
get out there and do it and battle your way
(01:08):
through it. I physically couldn't have done that. And I
feel very, very sorry for any farmer or business person
or anyone for that matter who suffered through influenza A.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's quite brutal.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, well, good to have you back on deck, mate. Look,
the weather has been interesting. Well, not interesting, it's been concerning.
This El Nino flow that we're seeing is certainly kicking
into gear.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, it is, and this is playing exactly to script.
This is going to be the third, I think, terrible.
I hope I'm wrong here, Andy, but what are we now?
We're almost halfway through September, September the 11th, 9-11. We
might come back to that one. So this is playing
to script, isn't it? it's getting drier, although Canterbury got
(01:53):
a good rain and Marlborough got a good rain. They
were getting very dry recently. But for Southland, this is
just a shit of a spring. And I don't know,
my worry is that we're wet, wet, wet, wet, and
then we get to Labour weekend and it dries up,
especially in the drier parts of Southland, if you want,
(02:13):
northern Southland, and then we go dry. But September's obviously
an incredibly busy, important month. The dairy farmers are getting
into their second round. Sheep farmers are obviously lambing. If
you're not growing grass, some of that production you never
catch up on.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
On your show on Wednesday, Mark Delatour, boss of Open Country,
gave one of the more defining interviews that we're going
to hear on radio from a rural lens for a while.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It was really interesting. He was saving this one up.
He was meant to do it a couple of weeks ago,
but I was off crook. He said, I'll wait till
you get back. So he was all fired up and
he's really created quite a stir. And for those who
didn't hear it, I mean, the basic synopsis of it, Andy,
for you blokes from Belfort, that means summary.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I shouldn't say that, should I? You just did.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You always do.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I just did. I always do.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So it's friendly rivalry. But I mean, the guts of
it was he's saying, forget about Paris. forget about us
being blacklisted, if you want, by some of these markets.
He said there's plenty of demand. And he's talking, obviously,
wearing his dairy hat. I'm not sure the argument's quite
the same with the meat, but wearing his dairy hat,
(03:25):
he said there's plenty of markets that will take us
and we need to be out of Paris. And the
interesting thing about Paris, and I heard Bryce McKenzie talking
about this as well, it kind of, the rural communities
split on this is my take on it anyhow, Andy,
is split on Paris. Some people want us in, some
people want us out. And the other one, obviously, Labour
(03:47):
came out at the beginning of the week with their
ag emissions policy. They're not going to price ag emissions.
And I think almost everyone in agriculture is in unison
on that subject. So they are a couple of really
hot topics heading into the election. We've already seen the
likes of ACT and New Zealand First. Don't want a
(04:07):
bar of Paris. National want to stay in, want us
to stay in. Labour want us to stay in. God
knows what to party. Oh, well, the Greens, I don't
even know what they think about ag farming. I don't
think they think much about it at all.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
OK, Luxembourg wants to stay in. Winnie and Seymour want
to get out. How's that going to work out in
the coalition agreement then? Because this has got... Would it
become a bottom.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Line, perhaps? I'd say no. No, well, I mean, that's
just it.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I don't think it's going to become a bottom line
for either Seymour and... And Winston, you want to talk
about bottom lines? Bottom lines are things like, for Winston,
the age of eligibility for National Super. He will die
in the ditch on that one. And that's a very
important subject also for New Zealand. And it's an issue
(04:55):
that we've got to face going forward. So those are
bottom lines. Those are ones which would make Winston switch camps.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Evan, help us.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, based on that, these polls are all over the show,
one coming out earlier in the week saying that Labour's
well down, another one coming out a couple of days
later saying they're a bit up on that poll that
was released earlier in the week. But I think all
these polls that are coming out, I mean, the one
thing you're seeing is that the uncertainty about November is
(05:25):
that votes are still up for grabs.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, well, I think what you're finding is because Labour's
been so useless and listless when it comes to policy announcement.
They've had their capital gains and that's about it. And
I felt sorry for Jo Luxton in that Q &
A rural leaders debate. They should have fed her their
ag emissions pricing announcement because I think they released that
(05:49):
on the Monday or the Tuesday following that show, which
was broadcast on a Sunday. She was hung out to
dry in that rural leaders debate.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But look, I think Labour are paying the price.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
The Greens, whether you love them or loathe them, and
I loathe them, at least they're coming out with policy,
and they're picking up the slack, I'm sure, from the
Labour voters. For me, and this is rather simplistic, I
think that the Opportunity Party bubble has burst. People are
really starting to do some homework on this lot, and
(06:22):
they are flaky. But if they do manage, if they
do manage to get past that 5% threshold, and I
don't think they will, I hope they won't, a change
of government is on. But If they don't get past 5%,
I can't see a change of government happening.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Right, you're coming down to Invercargill this weekend. Murray Heath
on the show a couple of days ago. Great yarn
as well regarding the 1970s Southland rugby team. Having a
get-together this weekend, Dan. Southland be full-back from Riversdale's EMC.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, well, normally when it comes to EMCing, Andy....
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And I don't do that much these days, but I've
done a lot over the years, people phone you up
and say, would you like to emcee these awards or something?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
How much do you want?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
In my case, it all goes to the IHC Carfan
Rural Scheme these days, so I always put my hand
out quite a way, and no one's ever said no,
which is wonderful. So normally, someone rings you up and says,
would you like to emcee this event? You say yes,
and you agree on an amount.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
This was different.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I saw Murray Heath's Facebook post way back when he
first started talking about this and I just rang him
up and said, hey Murray, do you.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Want an MC?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I'm very, very cheap. How much will it cost me
to MC this event? Because look, Andy, a lot of
these guys, and this is from 1970 to 1980, so
it spans me being at primary school all through secondary
school and then my final years in that decade at university. And,
(07:57):
you know, some of these guys were absolute heroes of mine.
And I do give Balfour a bit of stick occasionally.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I love Balfour.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
But, you know, the hero from Balfour was Kenny Stewart,
who I was lucky enough to play against when he
was near the end of his rugby career. And then
he coached our northern senior sub-union rugby team for three
or four seasons. So I got to know him really well. But, gee,
he was a great player. And then you chuck in
(08:27):
Lester Rutledge. Brian McKechnie's another hero of mine. Who else
was an All Black in that lot? Bob Barber, Stephen Pokiri, and,
of course, Ash McGregor, who coached us.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I played against Ash, Andy.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I had one game for the Riversdale Seniors when I
was in the seventh form. Ash McGregor smashed me because
I thought I was the bee's knees, but I wasn't really.
And then I played a wee bit against him. and
then he came back as the Riversdale coach. And when
I moved to Gore, he was my next-door neighbour, and
I used to use his woolshed to shear my sheep.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Great bloke, Ash McGregor. Really unlucky.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
He went on that 78 tour to the UK, only
got three games. May have been a wee bit small
to be an All Black number eight, but my goodness,
when it came to Southland, he was a beast. And
when it came to club rugby, even though Ken Stewart
was a great All Black, I know who was the
better club rugby player, Ash McGregor, just dominated. And, of course,
(09:27):
it would be remiss of me not to mention Lester
Rutledge and, you know, what a great player he was
for Southland and what a great servant he was.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, the Stacks could do with a bit of that
calibre on Sunday, logic suggests. Hey, 9-11 as well, what
are your memories?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Well, I remember 9-11 quite well. Obviously, 2001, I was
down at Hokanui.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
For some reason, I'd scheduled to have that day off.
I was going to do, I think I was going
to get my sheep from the duck pond up in Riversdale,
bring them down and share them. I was giving myself
a day off. And then at about one in the morning,
one or two in the morning, I got a phone
call from Nick Jeffrey, who was working with us at
(10:12):
Hokanui at the time. And he said, hey, mate, you
better get up and turn your telly on because his
grandmother had just phoned him up and said, something's happening.
And I turned on the television at about 1 or
2 in the morning, whatever time it was, New Zealand time,
and was just transfixed. Obviously, the day off didn't happen.
(10:33):
It was surreal. And I was talking to Winston Peters
about this on yesterday's show, Andy. It's the biggest event
in world history, in my mind, since the Second World
War happened. It surpasses Bay of Pigs and the Cuban
Missile Crisis and all the crap that we've had between
(10:54):
1945 and now. I think it was a moment or
two moments or three moments if you catch the plane
that went into the Pentagon that absolutely changed the world.
It changed the way we live. It changed the way
we travel. It just changed the world full stop. You
could not write a script like that.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Good on you, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
We'll leave it there.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
All the best down at the The big gig for
the weekend and up the stags.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, go the stags.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And I know that they're going to be inspired by
some of those guys, some of those old Southland players
from the 70s are going to go in and give
them a bit of pep talk. And I think Southland
could get their season or reboot their season with a
good win over Bay of Plenty.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Jamie Mackay in the country crossover cheers to bioactive soils.
Phil Duncan's up next to give us a rundown on
the weather.
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