January 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Rowena Duncum talks to Carlos Bagrie, Nadia Lim, Dan Steele, Mike Inglis, and Sir David Fagan.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckaye.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thanks to friends.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're specialist in John Deer construction equipment.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Missing you.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Since you lived, I'm missing you.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Welcome afternoon, New Zealand and Happy New Year. Welcome back
into the Country. Our first show for twenty twenty five.
I need to get used to saying that my name
is ruling a duncan filling in for Jamie McKay all
week while he spends another week on the golf course,
probably with mixted results.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Look, if you've managed to break away some time off farm,
I hope you have had a great break. If not,
I hope you've still enjoyed some time with friends and family.
One of the highlights for me, and we spoke about
this at the end of last year.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I was visiting Blue Ducks Station.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Will chat to owner Dan Steele very soon His dad,
Richard was in the New Year's on his list, which
is pretty exciting. So too where a couple of regulars
on the show, they will kick off the show actually
and just attack.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'll keep my powder dry on that one seat. It's
already eight past.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Twelve and I'm dropping into Jamie mckayisms, but I'll try
and keep those to a minimum. Today as well, Sir
David Fagan will join me to update conditions in the
king Country and also how the sharing season is going.
Mike English joining us by a Security New Zealand Commissioner
North the latest on the fruit fly situation, with news
(01:36):
of the discovery of the male oriental fruit fla in Auckland,
over the break on the Darals. Today pushing the show
out of our Dunedin Studios Executive producer Michelle Watt, first
time doing so, doing a great job already. It is
nine after twelve. You are with the Country. Listen, Food Country,
(02:00):
kicking off the Country. We're two of my favorite people
that we chant to regularly. Look, I always enjoy reading
the New Year's of the King's Birthday Honors to see
which agricultural awards have been passed out. So joining me
now are a couple of Owen zms. Yet they were
both awarded Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Congratulations guys, it is Carlos Bagri and Nadi Alum Happy
(02:24):
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, thank you so very much.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Thank you, Ena no worries. Look, ho found out first.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
We got an email and he rang me and said, oh,
you won't believe this, but I've just had this email.
I'm not sure if it's real or not. These has
been nominated for the New Year's Honors.
Speaker 6 (02:48):
I was like, oh, I was quite shocked.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Yeah, I was quite shocked too. And then I got
one several hours later.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
It's a period there where we were thinking only Carlos
got it. How I was going, how did this happened? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
How did that make you feel?
Speaker 6 (03:07):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (03:07):
I was through for Carlos, but it's amazing and putting
agriculture in the spotlight too as awesome.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
So Carlos, yours was for services to food and rural industries.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
What does it mean to you?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh, look, it means the world to me. Like I'm
not as a general of some I'm not really into
sort of awards like like this, but I have to
say getting it was quite humbling. It was one of
those scenarios where you go, while I was certainly not
expecting it, not in a million lifetimes expecting that, so
at looping out of the water, and I think we're
a wonderful award, not just so much fit Fanadia and myself,
(03:43):
but for the whole industry, I think it was just
this is really nice for agriculture to actually be chucked
it back into the spotlight.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah, that's how I feel every year when you look
through and you're like, yes, great, we need actually people
recognized for agriculture.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Otherwise they do.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Go to a lot of other industries, so are so
deserving that agriculture is also up there with them as well. Nadia,
what did your award mean to you?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Yeah, I was very surprised too, and I feel like
it was extra extra special because both of us got one.
I mean, Allis and I have been working together for
fifteen years, we've been together for twenty and you know,
I often get a lot of accolades and things that
Carlos has always been there in the background and has
always been equally part of what I do. So I
(04:30):
was just like really happy that we were both getting one,
and that's what's made it extra special. Yeah, and I
feel very very grateful to whoever it was that nominated
me and Carlos. It was the same person, I don't know,
or it's different people or yeah, it's really awesome. And
then gives you a chance to reflect back on your
(04:50):
career and I look back on it and I'm like, wow,
I've actually been involved in so many different parts of
the food industry and everything from health to and nutrition
to education and media and now farming and yeah, but
very awesome.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
It's very cool, and.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
That is part of it. You never find out who
actually was behind it.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah, no, out there and if they're listening, thank you
so much.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, that's so cool. Hey, look, how is Royal Barn
Station going?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Speaking of farming, We've had an incredible summer and so
far that we've had rain just about weekly, so we've
never had more feed. So the actual the farming operations
going as well as it possibly could. You know, we've
got some incredible lambs coming on. The chickens are laying well,
got some amazing cross amazing Yeah, of course, of course,
(05:46):
I'm you know, that's just watching all this the cereal crops,
especially the barley crossing my things and toes to get
a good harvest so we can make more swifty Yes,
that's all. It's all taking pretty nicely this season.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Absolutely. Carlos. What about the nuffield for you? You're a current
Nuffield scholar. You must be coming towards the end of that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, look, all the travels really behind me. Also, it's
time I earned my keeping and actually wrote my report.
So that's top of my list of things to do
this this year. In fact, I've made a little start
where I need to. I really need to spend some
time and knock that out.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah, that is a challenge, isn't it for all of
the Nuffield scholars. Is how to balance your actual day
to day job any other involvements can your neustfield as well?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I think it is. I think in my mind that
the biggest We've seen so much across the world, from
Africa through the UK into Europe and Americas, and I
just how do I condense what I've seen into short
little sun bites? So you know, what does that look like?
And that's you know, so much of what we saw
(06:53):
was big macroeconomic issues. It's wondering like what does future entail?
Like where does New Zealand go? And that's tough, it'
should be tough to write. So that's yeah, I've got
to take a little bit of time to think about
how I articulate that.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, good luck with that.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I do feel for you on that, but it is
an absolute privilege and you'll still enjoy the process.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But yeah, it is a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah. Look, it's been in a once in a lifetime
opportunity that the whole enough of experiences. It has shaped,
its shaped how I look at the world, and I
think it's shaped the way how I look at the future,
especially for agriculture.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, we'll come back to the future of agriculture actually
in a second, Nadia. The mckibbons partnership that you've recently
become involved with, how's that going really well?
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Thank you? Yeah, so that bit of background to that.
There used to be a school, a grocery store called
Rayward Fresh down in Queenstown. It was part of the
Food Stuft group. It's no longer part of Food Dust.
It's now independent and we've brought into that with the
previous owners. So yeah, now an independent of the market
(08:00):
and we've called it mckibbon after the founding farm of
Royal Bird Station. And it's going it's going great. We
had a fantastic Christmas and the feedback has been phenomenal.
People are loving that it's now independent again and because
we're independent, we can actually source more products direct from
growers and producers and you know, food artisans. So that's
(08:23):
been great. There's lots of new products and stuff going
in store, so really good so far, Really excited about
this year because we've got some ideas for how we
can kind of grow on it and make it an
even better service.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
That leads me into you know, the future and what
does twenty twenty five have in store for you?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Will start with you, Nadia.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Ooh, we're still getting used to it being twenty twenty five.
Actually at the moment, I'm just in survivor to be honest,
and just in survival mode with school holidays and taking
every day as that comes with the three kids at home,
you know, keeps you on your tie and you can't
plan too far ahead. But what have we got on?
(09:04):
People are probably wondering if we are doing another TV
shown another series of nutties farm at the moment where
we're not. But we feel like there's still so many
farming stories to be told, not just our not just
our farm organization, but other farms as well. So we
have kind of been brainstorming around that. There's just so
(09:26):
many things that we could so many concepts and things
that we could demonstrate to you know, the urban folk
around what goes on on farm and why things have
done a certain way, and you know, the ups and
downs and of the conundrums, and so we feel like
there's there's something in that. So we're just brainstorming that
at the moment, and you know how we could tell
(09:47):
those stories. So yeah, I mean watch the space.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I feel like the more connected and the more you
see in agriculture, the more you just want to tell
stories because, as you say, there's so much, so much
to be told. Yeah, Carlos, how about for you? What
does twenty twenty five have in store? And where do
you see agriculture going this year.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I'm recently optimistic in I think. I think that there's
some nice, nice winds of change happening. And I'll talk
about that from a commodity perspective. I see this year,
I see cereal prices lifting, I see dairy prices lifting.
I'm hoping that the red meat schedule comes up a
little bit or at least, you know, I mean, it's
(10:32):
been tough for sheep farmers. I'm hoping that we see
some sort of least stabilization in the market, perhaps even
Wall being worth a little bit more this year, hopefully
things crossed.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Touch Woods, yeah, touch word.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I mean, gosh, it's such an incredible, incredible product. I mean,
I'm a massive advocate of Wall. I really do believe
in it. I just I do hope that we see
some sort of lift there. Actually, I think for me
on Rawburn, it's about value adding. So a lot of
what we do we grow a lot of crops obviously,
and we try best to sell that direct to the market,
(11:04):
and I suspect we'll see more farmers over the coming
years investing in that and also investing in agriturism. I
think that's probably a big shout out to agraturism opportunities really,
that sort of I guess follow that mandative of where
can you invest that it's going to generate a return
off your land outside of primary production. So for me personally,
(11:28):
I think I'm just going to continue driving Swifty that's
really launched last year and that's done really really well
in all the supermarkets, and so it's trying to get
that onto more premises, get more taps and more locations,
and keep driving the red meat side of the business too.
You know, we've expended our butchery, we've expended our avatar
on the farm and it's just again trying to do
(11:51):
the best we possibly can. How can we produce the
best food and build our own distribution channels?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah, find a question for you, buys. How you manage
to juggle so many commitments like that and you've got
so many fingers and so many pies.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
How do you do it all?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
No? Relations it out?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, we've got I think we've got a really good
scene and you know, we've got really good business partners.
You know, it's a lot of it just comes down
to as body, seriously just figure it out. But we're
figuring it out.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Oh fantastic. Well.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Congratulations Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Carlos
Beagri and Nadia Lamb, thank you so much for your
time and congratulations again.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Thank you very much for Rena. Thank you so much,
absolute pleasure.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
We are coming up twenty after twelve here on the country.
Michelle's got more of the list of people who are
involved in agriculture who were on it in New Years.
Up next the son of someone who's on that list.
We're off to Blue Ducks Station, about twenty south of
Tomu Denue, the middle of the Central North Island. Next
here on the country.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
Came I'm middle and maumakan some Ruda sitting down a
knuckle with a weekly ludes.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
You smell of whiskey burning down cavalry rude. Well, you know,
a farming operation is special when it's been featured on
Country Calendar three times, So I thought I finally better
check it out for myself. On the way home to
Wanganue for Christmas, swung into Blue Ducks Station for a
couple of nights. Joining me now is owner Dan Steel. Dan,
(13:37):
good afternoon and happy.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
New Year, thanks Rowena. Yeah, your happy New Year to
you too.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So much for your hospitality at Blue Ducks Station. It
is a slice of paradise there. I now understand like
you've been on Country Calendar three times.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Yeah, look, it's we love it out here, Rowan. It's
just so much too. It Ray. It's life in the bush,
which is obviously pretty beautiful if you like a bit
of mother nature and a bit of diversity, which we do,
and a great place to look after and have a
bit of fun, and you know, it's just we create
a business out here off the land, working in partnership
(14:17):
with the land that hopefully you can inspire a lot
of people and pass it on to our future generation
and an intergenerational place that they can call home. And yeah,
so it's we love it sharing it with people, so
please to show you around.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah, it was amazing how many people call past. Yes
you're isolated, but you're not even going to be lonely
on that place.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
No, they're right. You know, you get a lot of
people visiting from Auckland and one they're pretty surprised that
we've got places like this in the North Island, and
you know, and too they think, man, just how isolated
you are for the North Island. And often their comment is, yeah,
you get lonely, and I'm thinking, man, it's the opposite
out here. We get visitors all the time and a
(15:05):
lot of them are quite taken by the place, and
so they want to celebrate with a lovely glass of
wine or a nice whiskey, and being being too social
is more of a problem than you know, you're kidding lonely.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So yeah, because there's a lot of work to do.
It's not an easy property to farm. Look, this is
going to sound ridiculous, but one of the highlights for me,
Dan was moving some cattle, moving some balls around, and
swinging a few gates with you. I felt like I
was a farmer again for a few hours.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
Yeah. Look, yeah, there's always something to do. Let you say,
we've never run out of work, and it was good
for you turn when you did, because and that you're
who you are, Because I was just caught a little
bit short with a few extra jobs, as you saw,
and my stock manager just gone on a bit of
acc right, and so there's a few curve balls, and
(15:56):
so I needed to put you to work there. And
it's good being able to put the balls out and
do a bit of an interview and have a yarn
about changing the world all at the same time, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, absolutely, we set that world to right. So tell
you that. Another highlight for me was meeting.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Your mum Rachel and your dad Richard popping in for
a Kappa some of your mum's ginger biscuits, which were
top notch. The n to see Richard honored in the
New Year's List, picking up a King Service Medal for
services to the rural community. You guys must be very proud.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Yeah, look it's yeah, we are. We are. Look at
my parents started out in the seventies. I was a
little bit of dairy farming, sheer milking, building up into
the world and purchasing their first sixteen acres which was
their first farm. And they've just just kept on working
(16:51):
and being involved in the community and developing land and
planting trees, planting trees everywhere, and ever since the early
days my parents voice and you've got to you know,
they've always been involved in the community somehow, whether it's
you know, organizing sports days or fundraisers or raffles or
and you know, Belman has always been pretty heavy in
(17:13):
farming politics and right into iterated farmers. He's had a
long run of that and which has developed into you know,
really supporting the Rural Support Trust and getting that into
our district and making sure that farmers get a fair
say and if they are isolated and feeling left behind
in any way, he's there to support them, you know.
(17:34):
So he's had a long, long career of that and
and so his mum always been supportive. So when he's
away doing the political things, of course, mum has been
at home, raising us and looking after the farm. And
they just had a long, long career of it. And
it's nice to see that in the with the King's
Service Medal.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
And look he's also written five books. I've read the
first one and part way through the second as well.
Of many talents.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, well yeah, he's he may well be the
next Berry Crump. I don't know. Did you enjoy the
first one?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Right?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
I did?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
I did?
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, the intrigue and the mystery.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
Yeah, yes, yeah, And I suppose once you've seen the
place down here, you know, a lot of those stories
are sort of based on a fair bit of reality.
You know, there's been a lot of rat baggs living
out in the back country and in the Wanganui River
country and the bridge to nowhere. It's got a lot
of stories and a lot of intrigue, and there has
been those, you know, those people and stories created out here.
(18:34):
So my father's putting pen to paper and you know,
just talking about people we've met and things that have
gone on. And yeah, it's been good. People are really
enjoying the books. So yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And as we.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Mentioned, there's no shortage of people coming through the farm.
To provide inspiration. Look, I'm also really impressed by your
predator operation when I was there. I don't know whether
you'd call it a good night or a bad night,
depending on how you look at it, but your team
had leaned up five stoats on the road. Everywhere we
went we saw traps.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
Look, it's a big part of what we've been trying
to do here for twenty five years. My parents started out,
they instilled a bit of a lot of conservation into us,
with planning, lots of freeze and things. But I started
to realize, well, we've got blue ducks here, We've got
to look after them. How are we going to do that?
And so we've put a big trapping program and we're
(19:28):
essentially trying to run it as a big conservation project
and we run the businesses around that. So you've got
to have a good ecology if we want to have
a good economy. And I think the same is true
for New Zealand. We cannot do anything to the detriment
of New Zealand if we want to have a good
sustainable future. It's easy to save bloody hard to do,
(19:49):
but we're trying to make it part of our DNA.
And yeah, so like when you were here, the stock
manager did come down the road. He was on acc
and he didn't have a walking stick, and he got
out and hobbled around on his walking stick because he'd
seen it was actually a family of ferrets on the road,
and he killed five of them with his walking stick. Yeah,
so that's what you saw the photos of and five
(20:11):
juvenile ferrets. He's still got them in the freezer and
his kids are going to take them to show and
tell and talk about dad walloping them with a on
the way home from the school prize giving year. But
it's part of our DNA. And so yeah, we've set
up the big trapping network. I've got no hope at
all of running it all myself, but I invite good
volunteers and then we've got a volunteering program we run
(20:33):
across the station by some RAIDI expats out of America
who now live in New Zealand. And then they really
helped me run the conservation project. Organize the volunteers, do
trapping days, open up old tracks and the bush, keep
the place moving forward. And it's working better and better.
You know, it's a bloody big job, this conservation row. Yeah,
(20:54):
you know, and you've got to tack it from all
sorts of angles. You know. One of our goals for
twenty five is to inspire more eat young people into
conservation because we're getting quite a lot of older people
with time on their hands getting involved, but we need
more young people in there. So we might, you know,
try and get the Duke of Edinburgh involved and get
them doing a few things and yeah, those sort of kids,
(21:15):
you know.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah, absolutely, they'd love it.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Look just quickly obviously, the ten course Dega Station meal
high up on the station was utterly phenomenal. The chef's table.
I can see how your chef Jack Cashmore there scooped
specialist Restaurant of the Year at the Cuisine Good Food
Awards a few months back, became a two hat restaurant
as well. I think his greatest feat though, Dan, is
(21:38):
that he got me to eat mushrooms. I've never done
that in my life.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
Look, look that's a pretty crazy Everyone comes down from
that restaurant and Fuzzy and you guys were crazy to
put that up there, but we're so pleased you did. Yeah,
so look at yeah it is it is. It is
pretty crazy and pretty wild, but you've got to do
crazy things and we'll please you enjoyed it. The mushrooms
(22:05):
are always one of my favorite courses because they are
a woodier mushroom which grows on native trees and there's
one of the things we harvest out of the rainforest
and they're pretty special, ain't So it's just one of
the many things. You know, You're we're trying to harvest
and grow and and forage for a lot of the
foods and give people a real experience of value adding
(22:28):
to New Zealand's environment, landscape, our food story, the whole works,
you know. So yeah, please you enjoyed it. That was
amazing great.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
I could have had ten courses just of the lamb
on its own. But anyway, I'm getting hungry thinking about it, Dan,
final question for you, Watson Store for twenty twenty five.
Where do you want to take Blue Ducks Station?
Speaker 6 (22:50):
Oh, twenty twenty five. I think it's it's got a
real feel of optimism and things are all coming sort of.
It seems like everything's lining up Rowena, So you know,
tourism has been coming right. We're getting a better class
of guests coming from overseas, Kiwei's are just starting to
come out of this recession. You know, farm prices, lamb
(23:14):
and beef and even wools on a little bit of
an upturn. Dairy's going well. So I think the economy
is going to have a bit of a revival in
twenty twenty five. And so we've got some Yeah, we've
certainly got some big plans. We're going to upgrade that
top of the world restaurant with some new cabins, inspire
some more people to get into conservation, add a little
bit more value to our wool, and have a really
(23:37):
good year.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, fantastic. I look forward to following along.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Dan Still, owner of Blue Ducks Station, Thanks so much
for your time, and congratulations again to your dad. Richard
awarded the King Service Medal for Services to Rural communities.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Go well, good as.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Thanks for Rowena.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Staff bus step bus to we are you welcome back
to the country. It is twenty five away from one already.
I'm planning my next trip back to Blue Ducks Station.
Amazing place. That story about squashing the ferrets with the
walking stick. That's the kind of characters you meet at
a place like this. Michelle Watt joins me. Good afternoon, Michelle,
(24:17):
Happy New Year.
Speaker 8 (24:18):
Good afternoon, Happy New.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Year, Row.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
I hope you had a great break.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Oh it was fantastic. Thank you in the sun shining
and Anita. Now I'm back at work, so that's even better.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Run.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I've heard it's been pretty wet down there. We won't
have time to catch up with Phil Duncan on the
show today from weather Watch duck Co dot m Z,
but we'll get a whip around the country with him
tomorrow time. Now, though more normal chit chat. Here's the
latest in rural news with Michelle.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
The country's world news with Cob Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawn Bower brand visit steel for dot Co
dot NZ for your local stockist.
Speaker 8 (24:51):
Yes, and earlier in the show, bro of course, you
had Carlos and Nadia on about their award over New
Year's He's a few more that in the rural sector
that I spied out in the list and the companion
of the New Zealand Order of Merit, we have doctor
Hyrinda Singh from Parmerston North for services to Food Science.
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Mister Robert
or Robin Campbell from Invercargo for services to farming and governance.
(25:15):
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Dr Keith,
Mister Keith Winton Rather from to Piroa Trenbroth and his
services to community, agriculture and education. King Service Medal for
mister Steele Richard Steele for services to the rural community,
Mister Graham Weber from Cambridge for services to local government
and farming governance. And Miss Phyllis Rosemary known as rose
(25:38):
Were from Auckland for services to cricket and horticulture. And
that is your rural news. We've got sports news with
you now.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Row Sport we're the.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
A FC key We to the bone since nineteen oh four.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
And also congratulations to a whole host of them. I
think there were three women from rural within New Zealand
who were also honored for decades worth of service. Absolutely
amazing and sport. The wildfire is devastating the wider Los
Angeles region have raised concerns and questions over the city's
suitability to host the twenty twenty eight Olympics. Manchester United
(26:11):
will host Leicester City in the fourth round of football's
FA Cup, and goalkeeper and Elite has left Ashton Villa
by mutual consent. The New Zealand International joined the club
in twenty twenty two and made twenty two appearances in
all competitions.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
That is your sports news.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Up next, we are off to talk about that pesky
fruit fly with Mike Inglis from MPI.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Next.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Before the end of the hour, Sir David Fagan talking
sharing here on the country. Well, it's the news the
horticulture sector dreads every summer the discovery of a fruit fly,
and ten days ago today a male oriental fruit fly
was found in a trap in Puppa Toy Toy, Auckland,
putting MPI and the industry on high alert. Joining us
(26:55):
with the latest is Biosecurity New Zealand Commissioner North Mike Inglis.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Good afternoon, Good afternoon, not the.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
News you were hoping to share with us in twenty
twenty five. But let's go back to the beginning. Why
is fruitfly such an issue?
Speaker 9 (27:10):
Yeah, fruit flies and various types of invasive fruit flies
there are a serious horticulture pest that feeds on and
spoils a wide range of fruit and vegetables, including some
of our significant export crops.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
So that's why we have our system in place.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
We want to make sure that we don't have these
invasive fruit flies in our country and that's why the
team responded so quickly alongside our industry partners and our
community partners. There is serious implications if it gets embedded
within New Zealand and that's certainly not what we want.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Kite Scott, chief executive of Hoarding zid AT, prized your
swift ection including in christ tripping and tasting in the area.
So cheecks of there are the one hundred and itighty
seven trips across Papatoi, Toy and Mangri haven't shown any others.
Is this still the case?
Speaker 9 (28:00):
It's still the case, So again, continue to check the traps.
We put additional traps in. We've put the controlled area
notice on for an initial period of two weeks and
again that's linked to the science and making sure in
terms of the population. So we continue to check those traps.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
And is today the only fine way.
Speaker 9 (28:17):
I've had is that single single fruit flye third of January.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Yeah, so what do those restrictions mind for growers?
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (28:26):
In terms of the individual zone A, it's mostly residential property,
so just again there is a restriction on them to
not be taking any fruit of vegetables out of that zone,
and then within the B zone, it's making sure there's
no homegrown vestables. So that's why our team have been
out and about. We've been at various markets over the weekend,
and again I do want to state the community response
(28:48):
has been magnificent and will continue to engage our community
partners and in our industry partners to make sure that
we continue to manage it.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
It is important we put.
Speaker 9 (28:58):
The control area note and quickly. We know it's an imposition,
but again we're protecting a significant business and industry environment
here and most people have been absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah yeah, well together the horticulture industry a seven billion
mm industry, so it's not insignificant. Look where might this
fruitfly have come from?
Speaker 9 (29:20):
Like, well, again from our point of view, there is
a balance here in terms of making sure that there's
a range of measures in place for us. For when
I just to say there's twenty fruit fly species that
are considered to be serious pers so throughout our system
we've got strict import health standards. Any fruit and produce
coming from abroad, there's clear checks of imports and passengers
(29:41):
under luggage in New Zealand. Again there is a potential
that fruit flies can still be accidentally brought in five
passengers arriving from overseas or can arrive on imported fruit
and vestables. We continue to trace looking at what products
have come in and will continue to investigate that. The
focus has obviously been since the third the janney, making
sure we're responded to this and got the controls in place.
(30:03):
So's there's over eight seven and a half thousand traps
throughout New Zealand. The surveillance program is why we have it,
and again it shows the system is working here because
again it means that those traps in the clear and
so those traps have been done effectively. But will continue
to manage that and trace back to look intensa if
we can ever find in terms of the source.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, I mean to look this up before I chested mix.
So I'll just throw this one at you. How long
has it been since we last found a fruitfly in
New Zealand?
Speaker 9 (30:34):
Yeah, post border was twenty nineteen and again during that
time the residence of Devonport, Northcote and then Otara, although
they were different fruit flies a similar the similar fines
and the control notices were in place. So again that's
why we've got detailed operational plans. We've got really robust
engagement with our industry partners, we've got governance groups set
(30:57):
up and that's allowed us to have clear operational plan
in place that we've been able to implement extremely quickly.
So again that's been helpful. But twenty nineteen was the
worst one hiking.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Yeah, it doesn't feel like five to six years ago.
It feels a lot sooner than that. But no, it
means obviously everything is working and I hope you do
just manage to find this one fruit fly Biosecurity New
Zealand Commissioner North Mike Englis, appreciate your time there and
keep up.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
The good work.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
Sure, thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Wonder you fourtain away from one you are with the country.
It is back into the competitive sharing season. So David
Fagan joins us next here on the country.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Welcome back to the country.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
We're after King Country. Now there we find sharing legend
and farmer. So David Fagan, good afternoon, afternoon. How are
conditions in Takawiti and the King Country. Are you guys
getting dry?
Speaker 7 (32:00):
Yeah, it's changed a bit. We've we had a pretty
good sort of cult start start off spring and then
inundated with grass of course, and it's really turned dry
since Christmas and we haven't been getting the rain set
like the East Coast have been getting recently. And it's
actually quite quite dry now. It's getting tough, a lot
of feed going out on the dairy farm, and yeah,
(32:20):
it's we'll be needing rain very shortly to so that
we can continue on with a good season that we started.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
With the conversations I've been having with people around the country, David,
it's really isolated.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Oh very much. You know, you see in the weather
in the last couple of weeks what's happening over the
East Coast and you know this weekend they've got the
wire or she is on and just recently they made
a call yesterday. I think they've taken it out to
a wall. She had not because of the rain coming
this weekend, but because the showgrounds are just so wet
now to get trucks in that in and out so
really unfortunate. Because the shearing competition and all handling there
(32:56):
used to coincide with the rodeo at the groundse and
Wira and it was a great, great day out for
the community and that's really unfortunate for the community really,
but yeah, it is isolated. We could certainly do with
some around here though, for sure.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
When I was continuing on after Blue Duck on my
way to Wonganoi, I think all the sheds on State
Highway for Patapata Road were all for everyone doing main share.
It would have been through there. They've got through that, okay,
and now we're into the sharing season, the competitive season.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
That's right. And it's still busy in the sheds too.
Everyone's you know, this obviously would be the hottest time
of the year and the sheds, you know, everyone's getting
tortured with the heat, but they get used to it.
And yeah, of course all the competitions are coming up
starting this weekend. As I say, well, the big one
on Saturday and then it's a split between North South.
On Friday is the Lumpston Shares which is the New
(33:49):
Zealand four World Championships national title, and then Saturday is
Wilton at the AMP Show where the New Zealand Lamb
Sharing Championships are held. So two national titles up for
grad there for Ensharing and war Handling. I'm actually going
down this weekend. I'ven't been down to those two at
Lunston Winter since twenty fifteen when I was competing there,
so it'll be good to get back there and catch
(34:10):
up with everyone.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah, a decade on.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
How does it feel to be on the other side
if they conjure into judging or something.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Yeah, I'm doing a bit of judging you. I've been
judging for god, it must be twenty years now. But
obviously when I was competing, all I'd do is judge
in the mornings at the local shows in the junior,
intermediate and seniors and that, and then compete in the afternoon,
whereas now there's no competing of course, but I'm still
only judging the lower grades because we leave the open
to the other judges, particularly because the sun Jack is competing.
(34:40):
So yeah, I'll be watching that and judging in all
the lower grades. It'll be good to catch up with
every run anyway.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Yeah, absolutely, And of course there's the added excitement this year,
isn't it As we build into the World Champs and
Masterton next year. Everyone's still got one eye on that.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
Yeah, definitely, it seems that we were away yet mastered
and for the Golden Years World Championships twenty twenty six,
how do we pick our New Zealand team Back in August,
the shows and the committees and then National Committee have
got a circuit now which is pretty unique. There's eight
to nine competitions and the top qualifier after the end
(35:17):
of those that circuit will automatically be in the team
and then there will be a final at the Rangatiki
Sharing Sports at Martin in February. So yeah, one from
the circuit, one from a final, and the start of
that circuit starts at the Southern Chears and Gore in
February and then Golden Shears in March into March, New
(35:37):
Zealand Shiers and Tiquity, So there'll be three circuit competitions
as such at the end of this season, but ready
for that start of the circuit for World Championships, and
it's going to be highly contested and you know, for
the guys that are Angels that are competing for those spots,
what an honor would be to make the team and
representing country in your home home country.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
It's going to be good, absolutely, going to be amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I was fortunate enough pretty much because of you to
go to the last two World champs in France and Scotland,
because you planted the seed while I'd had a few
too many twoe'es one day that I should come along.
But it's going to add that extra level again since
twenty seventeen and then the cargo to have the world's
back on home soil here.
Speaker 7 (36:23):
Yeah, definitely, And I mean everyone knows the last few
World Championships after the car we had France and then
Scotland and you know, the Welship dominated there. The Kewis
have struggled a bit here and there. This is time
for our Keus to stand up again and get some
of those world titles back. And the Golden Cheers itself
is an iconic event and annually it's it's incredible and
(36:45):
exciting on its own right, but having the World Championships there,
they'll probably be close to thirty countries there in twenty
six and it's just going to be a festival of
sharing and culture and it's yeah, it's going to be
something else, it really is.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
I really can not wait. So David Fagan, Shearing legend
antiquity farmer. I really appreciate your time on the Country today.
Nice to catch up and enjoy those shares down south
this weekend.
Speaker 7 (37:10):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Yeah, and it's also worth noting obviously the Northern Hemisphere
World teams they'll be decided and this summer, so that'll
kind of be halfway through the year and we won't
decide ours until just before the World champ So yeah,
well know he'll be competing at that World champ to
Marsterton before the rest of before our team's named. We'll
(37:33):
wrap the show up next here on the Country. Well,
wrapping the Country, I've been having so much fun, I've
run myself out of time, But a quick shout out
to Sharon and Omer and Tikiwiti who did the best
road barbecue just before Christmas.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
They loved it. Catch you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Catch all the latest from the Land. It's the Country
podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to Brent starkest of the
leading agriculture brands.
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckaye.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thanks to friends.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're specialist in John Deer construction equipment.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Missing you.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Since you lived, I'm missing you.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Welcome afternoon, New Zealand and Happy New Year. Welcome back
into the Country. Our first show for twenty twenty five.
I need to get used to saying that my name
is ruling a duncan filling in for Jamie McKay all
week while he spends another week on the golf course,
probably with mixted results.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Look, if you've managed to break away some time off farm,
I hope you have had a great break. If not,
I hope you've still enjoyed some time with friends and family.
One of the highlights for me, and we spoke about
this at the end of last year.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I was visiting Blue Ducks Station.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Will chat to owner Dan Steele very soon His dad,
Richard was in the New Year's on his list, which
is pretty exciting. So too where a couple of regulars
on the show, they will kick off the show actually
and just attack.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'll keep my powder dry on that one seat. It's
already eight past.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Twelve and I'm dropping into Jamie mckayisms, but I'll try
and keep those to a minimum. Today as well, Sir
David Fagan will join me to update conditions in the
king Country and also how the sharing season is going.
Mike English joining us by a Security New Zealand Commissioner
North the latest on the fruit fly situation, with news
(01:36):
of the discovery of the male oriental fruit fla in Auckland,
over the break on the Darals. Today pushing the show
out of our Dunedin Studios Executive producer Michelle Watt, first
time doing so, doing a great job already. It is
nine after twelve. You are with the Country. Listen, Food Country,
(02:00):
kicking off the Country. We're two of my favorite people
that we chant to regularly. Look, I always enjoy reading
the New Year's of the King's Birthday Honors to see
which agricultural awards have been passed out. So joining me
now are a couple of Owen zms. Yet they were
both awarded Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Congratulations guys, it is Carlos Bagri and Nadi Alum Happy
(02:24):
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, thank you so very much.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Thank you, Ena no worries. Look, ho found out first.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
We got an email and he rang me and said, oh,
you won't believe this, but I've just had this email.
I'm not sure if it's real or not. These has
been nominated for the New Year's Honors.
Speaker 6 (02:48):
I was like, oh, I was quite shocked.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Yeah, I was quite shocked too. And then I got
one several hours later.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
It's a period there where we were thinking only Carlos
got it. How I was going, how did this happened? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
How did that make you feel?
Speaker 6 (03:07):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (03:07):
I was through for Carlos, but it's amazing and putting
agriculture in the spotlight too as awesome.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
So Carlos, yours was for services to food and rural industries.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
What does it mean to you?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh, look, it means the world to me. Like I'm
not as a general of some I'm not really into
sort of awards like like this, but I have to
say getting it was quite humbling. It was one of
those scenarios where you go, while I was certainly not
expecting it, not in a million lifetimes expecting that, so
at looping out of the water, and I think we're
a wonderful award, not just so much fit Fanadia and myself,
(03:43):
but for the whole industry, I think it was just
this is really nice for agriculture to actually be chucked
it back into the spotlight.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah, that's how I feel every year when you look
through and you're like, yes, great, we need actually people
recognized for agriculture.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Otherwise they do.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Go to a lot of other industries, so are so
deserving that agriculture is also up there with them as well. Nadia,
what did your award mean to you?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Yeah, I was very surprised too, and I feel like
it was extra extra special because both of us got one.
I mean, Allis and I have been working together for
fifteen years, we've been together for twenty and you know,
I often get a lot of accolades and things that
Carlos has always been there in the background and has
always been equally part of what I do. So I
(04:30):
was just like really happy that we were both getting one,
and that's what's made it extra special. Yeah, and I
feel very very grateful to whoever it was that nominated
me and Carlos. It was the same person, I don't know,
or it's different people or yeah, it's really awesome. And
then gives you a chance to reflect back on your
(04:50):
career and I look back on it and I'm like, wow,
I've actually been involved in so many different parts of
the food industry and everything from health to and nutrition
to education and media and now farming and yeah, but
very awesome.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
It's very cool, and.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
That is part of it. You never find out who
actually was behind it.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah, no, out there and if they're listening, thank you
so much.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, that's so cool. Hey, look, how is Royal Barn
Station going?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Speaking of farming, We've had an incredible summer and so
far that we've had rain just about weekly, so we've
never had more feed. So the actual the farming operations
going as well as it possibly could. You know, we've
got some incredible lambs coming on. The chickens are laying well,
got some amazing cross amazing Yeah, of course, of course,
(05:46):
I'm you know, that's just watching all this the cereal crops,
especially the barley crossing my things and toes to get
a good harvest so we can make more swifty Yes,
that's all. It's all taking pretty nicely this season.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Absolutely. Carlos. What about the nuffield for you? You're a current
Nuffield scholar. You must be coming towards the end of that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, look, all the travels really behind me. Also, it's
time I earned my keeping and actually wrote my report.
So that's top of my list of things to do
this this year. In fact, I've made a little start
where I need to. I really need to spend some
time and knock that out.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah, that is a challenge, isn't it for all of
the Nuffield scholars. Is how to balance your actual day
to day job any other involvements can your neustfield as well?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I think it is. I think in my mind that
the biggest We've seen so much across the world, from
Africa through the UK into Europe and Americas, and I
just how do I condense what I've seen into short
little sun bites? So you know, what does that look like?
And that's you know, so much of what we saw
(06:53):
was big macroeconomic issues. It's wondering like what does future entail?
Like where does New Zealand go? And that's tough, it'
should be tough to write. So that's yeah, I've got
to take a little bit of time to think about
how I articulate that.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, good luck with that.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I do feel for you on that, but it is
an absolute privilege and you'll still enjoy the process.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But yeah, it is a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah. Look, it's been in a once in a lifetime
opportunity that the whole enough of experiences. It has shaped,
its shaped how I look at the world, and I
think it's shaped the way how I look at the future,
especially for agriculture.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, we'll come back to the future of agriculture actually
in a second, Nadia. The mckibbons partnership that you've recently
become involved with, how's that going really well?
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Thank you? Yeah, so that bit of background to that.
There used to be a school, a grocery store called
Rayward Fresh down in Queenstown. It was part of the
Food Stuft group. It's no longer part of Food Dust.
It's now independent and we've brought into that with the
previous owners. So yeah, now an independent of the market
(08:00):
and we've called it mckibbon after the founding farm of
Royal Bird Station. And it's going it's going great. We
had a fantastic Christmas and the feedback has been phenomenal.
People are loving that it's now independent again and because
we're independent, we can actually source more products direct from
growers and producers and you know, food artisans. So that's
(08:23):
been great. There's lots of new products and stuff going
in store, so really good so far, Really excited about
this year because we've got some ideas for how we
can kind of grow on it and make it an
even better service.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
That leads me into you know, the future and what
does twenty twenty five have in store for you?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Will start with you, Nadia.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Ooh, we're still getting used to it being twenty twenty five.
Actually at the moment, I'm just in survivor to be honest,
and just in survival mode with school holidays and taking
every day as that comes with the three kids at home,
you know, keeps you on your tie and you can't
plan too far ahead. But what have we got on?
(09:04):
People are probably wondering if we are doing another TV
shown another series of nutties farm at the moment where
we're not. But we feel like there's still so many
farming stories to be told, not just our not just
our farm organization, but other farms as well. So we
have kind of been brainstorming around that. There's just so
(09:26):
many things that we could so many concepts and things
that we could demonstrate to you know, the urban folk
around what goes on on farm and why things have
done a certain way, and you know, the ups and
downs and of the conundrums, and so we feel like
there's there's something in that. So we're just brainstorming that
at the moment, and you know how we could tell
(09:47):
those stories. So yeah, I mean watch the space.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I feel like the more connected and the more you
see in agriculture, the more you just want to tell
stories because, as you say, there's so much, so much
to be told. Yeah, Carlos, how about for you? What
does twenty twenty five have in store? And where do
you see agriculture going this year.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I'm recently optimistic in I think. I think that there's
some nice, nice winds of change happening. And I'll talk
about that from a commodity perspective. I see this year,
I see cereal prices lifting, I see dairy prices lifting.
I'm hoping that the red meat schedule comes up a
little bit or at least, you know, I mean, it's
(10:32):
been tough for sheep farmers. I'm hoping that we see
some sort of least stabilization in the market, perhaps even
Wall being worth a little bit more this year, hopefully
things crossed.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Touch Woods, yeah, touch word.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I mean, gosh, it's such an incredible, incredible product. I mean,
I'm a massive advocate of Wall. I really do believe
in it. I just I do hope that we see
some sort of lift there. Actually, I think for me
on Rawburn, it's about value adding. So a lot of
what we do we grow a lot of crops obviously,
and we try best to sell that direct to the market,
(11:04):
and I suspect we'll see more farmers over the coming
years investing in that and also investing in agriturism. I
think that's probably a big shout out to agraturism opportunities really,
that sort of I guess follow that mandative of where
can you invest that it's going to generate a return
off your land outside of primary production. So for me personally,
(11:28):
I think I'm just going to continue driving Swifty that's
really launched last year and that's done really really well
in all the supermarkets, and so it's trying to get
that onto more premises, get more taps and more locations,
and keep driving the red meat side of the business too.
You know, we've expended our butchery, we've expended our avatar
on the farm and it's just again trying to do
(11:51):
the best we possibly can. How can we produce the
best food and build our own distribution channels?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah, find a question for you, buys. How you manage
to juggle so many commitments like that and you've got
so many fingers and so many pies.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
How do you do it all?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
No? Relations it out?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, we've got I think we've got a really good
scene and you know, we've got really good business partners.
You know, it's a lot of it just comes down
to as body, seriously just figure it out. But we're
figuring it out.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Oh fantastic. Well.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Congratulations Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Carlos
Beagri and Nadia Lamb, thank you so much for your
time and congratulations again.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Thank you very much for Rena. Thank you so much,
absolute pleasure.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
We are coming up twenty after twelve here on the country.
Michelle's got more of the list of people who are
involved in agriculture who were on it in New Years.
Up next the son of someone who's on that list.
We're off to Blue Ducks Station, about twenty south of
Tomu Denue, the middle of the Central North Island. Next
here on the country.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
Came I'm middle and maumakan some Ruda sitting down a
knuckle with a weekly ludes.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
You smell of whiskey burning down cavalry rude. Well, you know,
a farming operation is special when it's been featured on
Country Calendar three times, So I thought I finally better
check it out for myself. On the way home to
Wanganue for Christmas, swung into Blue Ducks Station for a
couple of nights. Joining me now is owner Dan Steel. Dan,
(13:37):
good afternoon and happy.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
New Year, thanks Rowena. Yeah, your happy New Year to
you too.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So much for your hospitality at Blue Ducks Station. It
is a slice of paradise there. I now understand like
you've been on Country Calendar three times.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Yeah, look, it's we love it out here, Rowan. It's
just so much too. It Ray. It's life in the bush,
which is obviously pretty beautiful if you like a bit
of mother nature and a bit of diversity, which we do,
and a great place to look after and have a
bit of fun, and you know, it's just we create
a business out here off the land, working in partnership
(14:17):
with the land that hopefully you can inspire a lot
of people and pass it on to our future generation
and an intergenerational place that they can call home. And yeah,
so it's we love it sharing it with people, so
please to show you around.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah, it was amazing how many people call past. Yes
you're isolated, but you're not even going to be lonely
on that place.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
No, they're right. You know, you get a lot of
people visiting from Auckland and one they're pretty surprised that
we've got places like this in the North Island, and
you know, and too they think, man, just how isolated
you are for the North Island. And often their comment is, yeah,
you get lonely, and I'm thinking, man, it's the opposite
out here. We get visitors all the time and a
(15:05):
lot of them are quite taken by the place, and
so they want to celebrate with a lovely glass of
wine or a nice whiskey, and being being too social
is more of a problem than you know, you're kidding lonely.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So yeah, because there's a lot of work to do.
It's not an easy property to farm. Look, this is
going to sound ridiculous, but one of the highlights for me,
Dan was moving some cattle, moving some balls around, and
swinging a few gates with you. I felt like I
was a farmer again for a few hours.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
Yeah. Look, yeah, there's always something to do. Let you say,
we've never run out of work, and it was good
for you turn when you did, because and that you're
who you are, Because I was just caught a little
bit short with a few extra jobs, as you saw,
and my stock manager just gone on a bit of
acc right, and so there's a few curve balls, and
(15:56):
so I needed to put you to work there. And
it's good being able to put the balls out and
do a bit of an interview and have a yarn
about changing the world all at the same time, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, absolutely, we set that world to right. So tell
you that. Another highlight for me was meeting.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Your mum Rachel and your dad Richard popping in for
a Kappa some of your mum's ginger biscuits, which were
top notch. The n to see Richard honored in the
New Year's List, picking up a King Service Medal for
services to the rural community. You guys must be very proud.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Yeah, look it's yeah, we are. We are. Look at
my parents started out in the seventies. I was a
little bit of dairy farming, sheer milking, building up into
the world and purchasing their first sixteen acres which was
their first farm. And they've just just kept on working
(16:51):
and being involved in the community and developing land and
planting trees, planting trees everywhere, and ever since the early
days my parents voice and you've got to you know,
they've always been involved in the community somehow, whether it's
you know, organizing sports days or fundraisers or raffles or
and you know, Belman has always been pretty heavy in
(17:13):
farming politics and right into iterated farmers. He's had a
long run of that and which has developed into you know,
really supporting the Rural Support Trust and getting that into
our district and making sure that farmers get a fair
say and if they are isolated and feeling left behind
in any way, he's there to support them, you know.
(17:34):
So he's had a long, long career of that and
and so his mum always been supportive. So when he's
away doing the political things, of course, mum has been
at home, raising us and looking after the farm. And
they just had a long, long career of it. And
it's nice to see that in the with the King's
Service Medal.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
And look he's also written five books. I've read the
first one and part way through the second as well.
Of many talents.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, well yeah, he's he may well be the
next Berry Crump. I don't know. Did you enjoy the
first one?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Right?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
I did?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
I did?
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, the intrigue and the mystery.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
Yeah, yes, yeah, And I suppose once you've seen the
place down here, you know, a lot of those stories
are sort of based on a fair bit of reality.
You know, there's been a lot of rat baggs living
out in the back country and in the Wanganui River
country and the bridge to nowhere. It's got a lot
of stories and a lot of intrigue, and there has
been those, you know, those people and stories created out here.
(18:34):
So my father's putting pen to paper and you know,
just talking about people we've met and things that have
gone on. And yeah, it's been good. People are really
enjoying the books. So yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And as we.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Mentioned, there's no shortage of people coming through the farm.
To provide inspiration. Look, I'm also really impressed by your
predator operation when I was there. I don't know whether
you'd call it a good night or a bad night,
depending on how you look at it, but your team
had leaned up five stoats on the road. Everywhere we
went we saw traps.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
Look, it's a big part of what we've been trying
to do here for twenty five years. My parents started out,
they instilled a bit of a lot of conservation into us,
with planning, lots of freeze and things. But I started
to realize, well, we've got blue ducks here, We've got
to look after them. How are we going to do that?
And so we've put a big trapping program and we're
(19:28):
essentially trying to run it as a big conservation project
and we run the businesses around that. So you've got
to have a good ecology if we want to have
a good economy. And I think the same is true
for New Zealand. We cannot do anything to the detriment
of New Zealand if we want to have a good
sustainable future. It's easy to save bloody hard to do,
(19:49):
but we're trying to make it part of our DNA.
And yeah, so like when you were here, the stock
manager did come down the road. He was on acc
and he didn't have a walking stick, and he got
out and hobbled around on his walking stick because he'd
seen it was actually a family of ferrets on the road,
and he killed five of them with his walking stick. Yeah,
so that's what you saw the photos of and five
(20:11):
juvenile ferrets. He's still got them in the freezer and
his kids are going to take them to show and
tell and talk about dad walloping them with a on
the way home from the school prize giving year. But
it's part of our DNA. And so yeah, we've set
up the big trapping network. I've got no hope at
all of running it all myself, but I invite good
volunteers and then we've got a volunteering program we run
(20:33):
across the station by some RAIDI expats out of America
who now live in New Zealand. And then they really
helped me run the conservation project. Organize the volunteers, do
trapping days, open up old tracks and the bush, keep
the place moving forward. And it's working better and better.
You know, it's a bloody big job, this conservation row. Yeah,
(20:54):
you know, and you've got to tack it from all
sorts of angles. You know. One of our goals for
twenty five is to inspire more eat young people into
conservation because we're getting quite a lot of older people
with time on their hands getting involved, but we need
more young people in there. So we might, you know,
try and get the Duke of Edinburgh involved and get
them doing a few things and yeah, those sort of kids,
(21:15):
you know.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah, absolutely, they'd love it.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Look just quickly obviously, the ten course Dega Station meal
high up on the station was utterly phenomenal. The chef's table.
I can see how your chef Jack Cashmore there scooped
specialist Restaurant of the Year at the Cuisine Good Food
Awards a few months back, became a two hat restaurant
as well. I think his greatest feat though, Dan, is
(21:38):
that he got me to eat mushrooms. I've never done
that in my life.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
Look, look that's a pretty crazy Everyone comes down from
that restaurant and Fuzzy and you guys were crazy to
put that up there, but we're so pleased you did. Yeah,
so look at yeah it is it is. It is
pretty crazy and pretty wild, but you've got to do
crazy things and we'll please you enjoyed it. The mushrooms
(22:05):
are always one of my favorite courses because they are
a woodier mushroom which grows on native trees and there's
one of the things we harvest out of the rainforest
and they're pretty special, ain't So it's just one of
the many things. You know, You're we're trying to harvest
and grow and and forage for a lot of the
foods and give people a real experience of value adding
(22:28):
to New Zealand's environment, landscape, our food story, the whole works,
you know. So yeah, please you enjoyed it. That was
amazing great.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
I could have had ten courses just of the lamb
on its own. But anyway, I'm getting hungry thinking about it, Dan,
final question for you, Watson Store for twenty twenty five.
Where do you want to take Blue Ducks Station?
Speaker 6 (22:50):
Oh, twenty twenty five. I think it's it's got a
real feel of optimism and things are all coming sort of.
It seems like everything's lining up Rowena, So you know,
tourism has been coming right. We're getting a better class
of guests coming from overseas, Kiwei's are just starting to
come out of this recession. You know, farm prices, lamb
(23:14):
and beef and even wools on a little bit of
an upturn. Dairy's going well. So I think the economy
is going to have a bit of a revival in
twenty twenty five. And so we've got some Yeah, we've
certainly got some big plans. We're going to upgrade that
top of the world restaurant with some new cabins, inspire
some more people to get into conservation, add a little
bit more value to our wool, and have a really
(23:37):
good year.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, fantastic. I look forward to following along.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Dan Still, owner of Blue Ducks Station, Thanks so much
for your time, and congratulations again to your dad. Richard
awarded the King Service Medal for Services to Rural communities.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Go well, good as.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Thanks for Rowena.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Staff bus step bus to we are you welcome back
to the country. It is twenty five away from one already.
I'm planning my next trip back to Blue Ducks Station.
Amazing place. That story about squashing the ferrets with the
walking stick. That's the kind of characters you meet at
a place like this. Michelle Watt joins me. Good afternoon, Michelle,
(24:17):
Happy New Year.
Speaker 8 (24:18):
Good afternoon, Happy New.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Year, Row.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
I hope you had a great break.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Oh it was fantastic. Thank you in the sun shining
and Anita. Now I'm back at work, so that's even better.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Run.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I've heard it's been pretty wet down there. We won't
have time to catch up with Phil Duncan on the
show today from weather Watch duck Co dot m Z,
but we'll get a whip around the country with him
tomorrow time. Now, though more normal chit chat. Here's the
latest in rural news with Michelle.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
The country's world news with Cob Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawn Bower brand visit steel for dot Co
dot NZ for your local stockist.
Speaker 8 (24:51):
Yes, and earlier in the show, bro of course, you
had Carlos and Nadia on about their award over New
Year's He's a few more that in the rural sector
that I spied out in the list and the companion
of the New Zealand Order of Merit, we have doctor
Hyrinda Singh from Parmerston North for services to Food Science.
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Mister Robert
or Robin Campbell from Invercargo for services to farming and governance.
(25:15):
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Dr Keith,
Mister Keith Winton Rather from to Piroa Trenbroth and his
services to community, agriculture and education. King Service Medal for
mister Steele Richard Steele for services to the rural community,
Mister Graham Weber from Cambridge for services to local government
and farming governance. And Miss Phyllis Rosemary known as rose
(25:38):
Were from Auckland for services to cricket and horticulture. And
that is your rural news. We've got sports news with
you now.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Row Sport we're the.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
A FC key We to the bone since nineteen oh four.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
And also congratulations to a whole host of them. I
think there were three women from rural within New Zealand
who were also honored for decades worth of service. Absolutely
amazing and sport. The wildfire is devastating the wider Los
Angeles region have raised concerns and questions over the city's
suitability to host the twenty twenty eight Olympics. Manchester United
(26:11):
will host Leicester City in the fourth round of football's
FA Cup, and goalkeeper and Elite has left Ashton Villa
by mutual consent. The New Zealand International joined the club
in twenty twenty two and made twenty two appearances in
all competitions.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
That is your sports news.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Up next, we are off to talk about that pesky
fruit fly with Mike Inglis from MPI.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Next.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Before the end of the hour, Sir David Fagan talking
sharing here on the country. Well, it's the news the
horticulture sector dreads every summer the discovery of a fruit fly,
and ten days ago today a male oriental fruit fly
was found in a trap in Puppa Toy Toy, Auckland,
putting MPI and the industry on high alert. Joining us
(26:55):
with the latest is Biosecurity New Zealand Commissioner North Mike Inglis.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Good afternoon, Good afternoon, not the.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
News you were hoping to share with us in twenty
twenty five. But let's go back to the beginning. Why
is fruitfly such an issue?
Speaker 9 (27:10):
Yeah, fruit flies and various types of invasive fruit flies
there are a serious horticulture pest that feeds on and
spoils a wide range of fruit and vegetables, including some
of our significant export crops.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
So that's why we have our system in place.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
We want to make sure that we don't have these
invasive fruit flies in our country and that's why the
team responded so quickly alongside our industry partners and our
community partners. There is serious implications if it gets embedded
within New Zealand and that's certainly not what we want.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Kite Scott, chief executive of Hoarding zid AT, prized your
swift ection including in christ tripping and tasting in the area.
So cheecks of there are the one hundred and itighty
seven trips across Papatoi, Toy and Mangri haven't shown any others.
Is this still the case?
Speaker 9 (28:00):
It's still the case, So again, continue to check the traps.
We put additional traps in. We've put the controlled area
notice on for an initial period of two weeks and
again that's linked to the science and making sure in
terms of the population. So we continue to check those traps.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
And is today the only fine way.
Speaker 9 (28:17):
I've had is that single single fruit flye third of January.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Yeah, so what do those restrictions mind for growers?
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (28:26):
In terms of the individual zone A, it's mostly residential property,
so just again there is a restriction on them to
not be taking any fruit of vegetables out of that zone,
and then within the B zone, it's making sure there's
no homegrown vestables. So that's why our team have been
out and about. We've been at various markets over the weekend,
and again I do want to state the community response
(28:48):
has been magnificent and will continue to engage our community
partners and in our industry partners to make sure that
we continue to manage it.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
It is important we put.
Speaker 9 (28:58):
The control area note and quickly. We know it's an imposition,
but again we're protecting a significant business and industry environment
here and most people have been absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah yeah, well together the horticulture industry a seven billion
mm industry, so it's not insignificant. Look where might this
fruitfly have come from?
Speaker 9 (29:20):
Like, well, again from our point of view, there is
a balance here in terms of making sure that there's
a range of measures in place for us. For when
I just to say there's twenty fruit fly species that
are considered to be serious pers so throughout our system
we've got strict import health standards. Any fruit and produce
coming from abroad, there's clear checks of imports and passengers
(29:41):
under luggage in New Zealand. Again there is a potential
that fruit flies can still be accidentally brought in five
passengers arriving from overseas or can arrive on imported fruit
and vestables. We continue to trace looking at what products
have come in and will continue to investigate that. The
focus has obviously been since the third the janney, making
sure we're responded to this and got the controls in place.
(30:03):
So's there's over eight seven and a half thousand traps
throughout New Zealand. The surveillance program is why we have it,
and again it shows the system is working here because
again it means that those traps in the clear and
so those traps have been done effectively. But will continue
to manage that and trace back to look intensa if
we can ever find in terms of the source.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, I mean to look this up before I chested mix.
So I'll just throw this one at you. How long
has it been since we last found a fruitfly in
New Zealand?
Speaker 9 (30:34):
Yeah, post border was twenty nineteen and again during that
time the residence of Devonport, Northcote and then Otara, although
they were different fruit flies a similar the similar fines
and the control notices were in place. So again that's
why we've got detailed operational plans. We've got really robust
engagement with our industry partners, we've got governance groups set
(30:57):
up and that's allowed us to have clear operational plan
in place that we've been able to implement extremely quickly.
So again that's been helpful. But twenty nineteen was the
worst one hiking.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Yeah, it doesn't feel like five to six years ago.
It feels a lot sooner than that. But no, it
means obviously everything is working and I hope you do
just manage to find this one fruit fly Biosecurity New
Zealand Commissioner North Mike Englis, appreciate your time there and
keep up.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
The good work.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
Sure, thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Wonder you fourtain away from one you are with the country.
It is back into the competitive sharing season. So David
Fagan joins us next here on the country.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Welcome back to the country.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
We're after King Country. Now there we find sharing legend
and farmer. So David Fagan, good afternoon, afternoon. How are
conditions in Takawiti and the King Country. Are you guys
getting dry?
Speaker 7 (32:00):
Yeah, it's changed a bit. We've we had a pretty
good sort of cult start start off spring and then
inundated with grass of course, and it's really turned dry
since Christmas and we haven't been getting the rain set
like the East Coast have been getting recently. And it's
actually quite quite dry now. It's getting tough, a lot
of feed going out on the dairy farm, and yeah,
(32:20):
it's we'll be needing rain very shortly to so that
we can continue on with a good season that we started.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
With the conversations I've been having with people around the country, David,
it's really isolated.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Oh very much. You know, you see in the weather
in the last couple of weeks what's happening over the
East Coast and you know this weekend they've got the
wire or she is on and just recently they made
a call yesterday. I think they've taken it out to
a wall. She had not because of the rain coming
this weekend, but because the showgrounds are just so wet
now to get trucks in that in and out so
really unfortunate. Because the shearing competition and all handling there
(32:56):
used to coincide with the rodeo at the groundse and
Wira and it was a great, great day out for
the community and that's really unfortunate for the community really,
but yeah, it is isolated. We could certainly do with
some around here though, for sure.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
When I was continuing on after Blue Duck on my
way to Wonganoi, I think all the sheds on State
Highway for Patapata Road were all for everyone doing main share.
It would have been through there. They've got through that, okay,
and now we're into the sharing season, the competitive season.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
That's right. And it's still busy in the sheds too.
Everyone's you know, this obviously would be the hottest time
of the year and the sheds, you know, everyone's getting
tortured with the heat, but they get used to it.
And yeah, of course all the competitions are coming up
starting this weekend. As I say, well, the big one
on Saturday and then it's a split between North South.
On Friday is the Lumpston Shares which is the New
(33:49):
Zealand four World Championships national title, and then Saturday is
Wilton at the AMP Show where the New Zealand Lamb
Sharing Championships are held. So two national titles up for
grad there for Ensharing and war Handling. I'm actually going
down this weekend. I'ven't been down to those two at
Lunston Winter since twenty fifteen when I was competing there,
so it'll be good to get back there and catch
(34:10):
up with everyone.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah, a decade on.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
How does it feel to be on the other side
if they conjure into judging or something.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Yeah, I'm doing a bit of judging you. I've been
judging for god, it must be twenty years now. But
obviously when I was competing, all I'd do is judge
in the mornings at the local shows in the junior,
intermediate and seniors and that, and then compete in the afternoon,
whereas now there's no competing of course, but I'm still
only judging the lower grades because we leave the open
to the other judges, particularly because the sun Jack is competing.
(34:40):
So yeah, I'll be watching that and judging in all
the lower grades. It'll be good to catch up with
every run anyway.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Yeah, absolutely, And of course there's the added excitement this year,
isn't it As we build into the World Champs and
Masterton next year. Everyone's still got one eye on that.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
Yeah, definitely, it seems that we were away yet mastered
and for the Golden Years World Championships twenty twenty six,
how do we pick our New Zealand team Back in August,
the shows and the committees and then National Committee have
got a circuit now which is pretty unique. There's eight
to nine competitions and the top qualifier after the end
(35:17):
of those that circuit will automatically be in the team
and then there will be a final at the Rangatiki
Sharing Sports at Martin in February. So yeah, one from
the circuit, one from a final, and the start of
that circuit starts at the Southern Chears and Gore in
February and then Golden Shears in March into March, New
(35:37):
Zealand Shiers and Tiquity, So there'll be three circuit competitions
as such at the end of this season, but ready
for that start of the circuit for World Championships, and
it's going to be highly contested and you know, for
the guys that are Angels that are competing for those spots,
what an honor would be to make the team and
representing country in your home home country.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
It's going to be good, absolutely, going to be amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I was fortunate enough pretty much because of you to
go to the last two World champs in France and Scotland,
because you planted the seed while I'd had a few
too many twoe'es one day that I should come along.
But it's going to add that extra level again since
twenty seventeen and then the cargo to have the world's
back on home soil here.
Speaker 7 (36:23):
Yeah, definitely, And I mean everyone knows the last few
World Championships after the car we had France and then
Scotland and you know, the Welship dominated there. The Kewis
have struggled a bit here and there. This is time
for our Keus to stand up again and get some
of those world titles back. And the Golden Cheers itself
is an iconic event and annually it's it's incredible and
(36:45):
exciting on its own right, but having the World Championships there,
they'll probably be close to thirty countries there in twenty
six and it's just going to be a festival of
sharing and culture and it's yeah, it's going to be
something else, it really is.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
I really can not wait. So David Fagan, Shearing legend
antiquity farmer. I really appreciate your time on the Country today.
Nice to catch up and enjoy those shares down south
this weekend.
Speaker 7 (37:10):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Yeah, and it's also worth noting obviously the Northern Hemisphere
World teams they'll be decided and this summer, so that'll
kind of be halfway through the year and we won't
decide ours until just before the World champ So yeah,
well know he'll be competing at that World champ to
Marsterton before the rest of before our team's named. We'll
(37:33):
wrap the show up next here on the Country. Well,
wrapping the Country, I've been having so much fun, I've
run myself out of time, But a quick shout out
to Sharon and Omer and Tikiwiti who did the best
road barbecue just before Christmas.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
They loved it. Catch you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Catch all the latest from the Land. It's the Country
podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to Brent starkest of the
leading agriculture brands.
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