January 29, 2025 • 38 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Shane Jones, Jane Smith, Emma Higgins, Mark Leslie, and Chris Russell.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to Brent the starkest of
the leading agriculture brands.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Get ainy' Zealand. I'm Jamie McKay. Welcome to the Country.
It's brought to you by Brandt. This is a song
called Mexico, especially for our first guest, Shane Jones, the
Minister for digging it up and damning it up. He's
going to kick off the country, let him off the chain.
Jane Smith, North Otago Farmer award winning environmentalist Woke Banks.
(00:47):
I suspect Shane will have something to say about that Palmers.
Should we be selling it? There's another hot topic on
the show this week, and the other one is the
self shedding sheep. Yeah, the sheep you don't have to share?
Is this theth now for the wool industry? Emma Higgins
out of Rabobank. They've just released, in fact it's not
I don't think it's released until later today their latest
(01:08):
commodity outlook for twenty twenty five, and I'd have to
say it's very positive. The Reporter is titled all aces
an agg for twenty twenty five. To balance things up,
we thought we'd better get here. The other side of
the story from pamu SO chief executive Mark Leslie's on
the show, plus our Ossie correspondent Chris Russell. Of course Australia.
(01:30):
Australia celebrated Ossie Day on Sunday and they eat lamb
lots of it on Australia Day and National Lamb Days.
February fifteen. Can we take up the challenge and do likewise?
It's all on the country. Between now and or one o'clock,
Michelle will be in with rural news. We'll also update
the latest and sports news for you. Well, this was
(02:10):
going to be an exclusive for the Country, an interview
that was sent up ten days ago, but as usual,
the food chain takes precedents and my lunch was cut
by Mike Hosking this morning. But I've got to line
up in the queue and here I am Shane Jones
to kick off the country. Shane, you have got a
big mining announcement coming up tomorrow, but I want to
firstly carry on from where you left off with Mike
(02:32):
Hosking this morning on woke Banks de banking some fossil
fuel companies. I think it's the thin end end of
the wedge. Farmers are next.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Oh look, these are alien, foreign concepts imposed upon our
farming community by directors executives in the banking industry. They
are inflicting their luxury beliefs on god fearing Kiwi's trying
to run honest businesses. They live in sustainability units. They
(03:05):
seem to conceive of all these ideas through un connections
inversely related to our economic prospects. They've got to be
called out. They in my view, they should all be sacked.
The sooner that these sustainability units are dismissed from the banks,
the better the prospects for regional New Zealand without a
(03:25):
guts full of these work riddled virtue signaling people who
have no accountability. What citizen mandated them to dry? Companies
such as coal mining industries to bankruptcy?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, what are you going to do about it? You're
in power.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, the first thing that we're doing in New Zealand
first is proceeding with a private members bill and hopefully
I'll hire it win the hearts and minds of my
colleagues over. Every bank in New Zealand must operate within
the confines of a banking license. Those licenses should give
oscope for virtue signaling social engineering from banks to change
(04:08):
the economic fortunes of families and firms alike. It is
wrong and in my view, they have no authority to
distort or indeed molest our industries in regional New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, I note that when you were talking to Husking
this morning, the issue was raised of maybe Kiwibank taking
a different perspective on this, but even Kiwibank is railing
against funding some of these companies.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Well, I have received a message from the chief executive officer,
who I regard as a very formidable executive, asking me
to call him. And all I'm going to say to
the CEO is my staff took the information off the website. Now,
perhaps the website has been misconstrued by my staff, but
(04:58):
this is a great opportunity for Kiwi Bank to continue
to bank industries in New Zealand that create jobs and
generate export revenue. We don't need to swallow the climate
cultism coming from the United Nations. We need to generate
economic surplus every hour, every day, every week. And Kiwibank
(05:20):
is owned by the Crown New Zealand. First would certainly
have stood back from any capital rays to expand qEV
Bank if we had been told that they were going
to use that capital raise to drive legitimate businesses such
as coal mining, mining in general farmers out of existence
(05:41):
in order to meet these illusory targets to change the
weather in Mongolia. It's wrong, it's alien, and it's been
driven by these dangerous influences such as these idiots that
comprise the Green Party.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Well will come back to the make that can stand
off if we get time. Look as wokeness now as
we know it under threat from Trumpism, because you know,
you look at Jasinda Trudeau, Enlightenment and kindness is almost so.
Twenty twenty now has the world changed.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
The world is a far more robust, a far more
dynamic place than the juvenile, shallow, naive approach that Jasinda
and others talk that left New Zealand an estate of
financial penury. I think it's quite obnoxious the way which
(06:37):
she Sinda is parading around with a movie that she
was secretly making, most imposing COVID regulations upon every key
we family. No one knew that everything she did she
was doing it for a camera that her and her
people knew would one day be exploited to make a
movie about her life. That's why she can never come
(06:58):
back to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Well, we've got you and Instant to blame for that.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
No, you don't. We were thrown out of politics in
twenty twenty, and the COVID madness actually happened when all
your farmers wives voted for her.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I'm going back to twenty seventeen, but.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You can't hold us responsible for what happened in twenty twenty.
We were voted out.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, Jacinda wouldn't have been there in the first place
if you'd stuck with Bill English. But anyhow, we're relitigating
history here.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You're going backwards. You need to go forward.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
We need to go forwards. Well, so let's go forward
to tomorrow the big speech and why he obviously, and
why he it's going to be about mining. What are
you digging up and damming up? Now?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Obviously, the gold mine there exemplifies all of the skills,
the capacity, the machinery, the capitol that shows this is
a valuable industry. These are well paying jobs. Naturally, I'm
going to uphold the importance of guardrails, make suitable references
(08:01):
to Freddie the Frog. There'll be a bit of a
din I suppose around the security fence from these dope
growing knowles who don't want capitalism, who don't want our
economy to grow on the basis of minerals. But that's
part of being in the democracy. And the other thing
I'm going to remind you is tomorrow we have our
(08:24):
host of climate change oriented regulations that represent headways. We
cannot afford them. We run the risk of driving industrialization
for this indiscriminate climate regulatory approach, which is why the
Climate Change Commission is on thin ice. The last chap
(08:45):
is gone. Commissioners are the chap from down the South Island.
He's gone. Good riddance to him. Now. Unless we concede
and tighten up climate change regulations, the public is going
to reject them at the next election.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
How do you reckon? Ricardo Mendez? March will be marching
in protest tomorrow while you make your speech at why
he one will be another Mexican stand off.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I've got two words for him, eddieolsomgo.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Shane Jones, Adios, Thank you very much for your time
today in the country. Brilliant, isn't he bottle? That this
is the country. I'm Jamie McKay. He's Shane Jones, the
Minister of digging it up and damning it up. He'll
go head to head with those protesters tomorrow and why
he and it'll be worth the price of admission alone.
(09:34):
Send me a text. What do you reckon of the
Prince of the province? Is Muzz who can be a
slightly bitter and twisted Texter sometimes I love you, Muzz says.
I'm liking Shane Jones more and more and Peters. I
think they are resonating with kind of middle New Zealand.
What do you think Shane Jones up next? Another one
(09:55):
who resonates or does she? I think she does with
New Zealand farmers. She takes no prisoners. She's a bit
like Shane Jones. Award winning environmentalist North Otago farmer Jane
Smith woke Banks and should we be selling Parmu before
the end of the year. Emma Higgins has got a
great got a great news story out of Rabobank on
(10:16):
the really positive commodity outlook for New Zealand farming in
twenty twenty five. Mark Leslie, chief executive of Parmu, Should
we sell the place he reckons not and Chris Russell's
our assie correspondent.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Gen Crime.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Jane Smith is a North Otago farmer, of course, former
winner of the Balanced Farm Environment Awards. Jane, I know
you didn't catch all of what Shane Jones had to say,
but do you like his general message gooding Jamie.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Oh, he's it's just music to my ears. Will be
welcome at new Haven Farms anytime that year, Jamie, And
he gets away of saying what most of us are
thinking as well, and in terms of questioning their overseas
own banks. I loved when I just cooked something this
morning he said about, you know, the fact that they're
imposing their warped system of beliefs and called them corporate undertakers.
(11:19):
I just thought that was a quote of the year.
And I certainly, you know, we've seen that the climate
change hysteria changing, and I hope our egg companies are
actually listening to that because they've gone with a fly
on that. And I loved how Shane said earlier this morning.
I heard him say that, you know, the only risk
is offending the luxury beliefs of directors in woke executives
and the fact that this falsehood is amversely related to
(11:42):
economic progress, which Jamie, is the one thing that we
need in.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
This country, absolutely, and we need the productivity driven from
the primary sector. Obviously he's getting stuck into the banks
who won't bank or are de banking fossil fuel companies.
But this, as I said to him, is the thin
end end of the wedge. You know, farmings next in
the line of sight if you want. We've already had
banks setting emissions targets and we have to we have
(12:08):
to rail against this, Jane.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I mean, the work is starting to choke, Jamie, and
really is because we are going broken. And you know,
you look at that zero net zero banking alliance that's
fallen a part of the seas. It's going to be
the same here you see jpm organ and black Rock,
et cetera pulling out of that's the weaponizing. The weather
is going to change, and you know that climate change
sort of trojan horses being pulled apart. And actually when
(12:32):
they're outing it up, they'll see it's actually enough hysteria
and headlines and nothing really to it. It's light on
fax and heaving on fiction, Jamie. So yeah, the tide
is turning.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Okay, now you've taken time out of a very busy day.
You and Hubby Blair are selling rams at the moment, Jane,
are you selling self shedding rams? Because if you do,
you could do what was done I think yesterday or
the day before twenty four and a half grand. Is
this the way of the future. Is the wall industry
dared off the back of lifting wall prices?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Oh, we're really proud of the wall that we produce,
really nice, well sought after pairing of wall Jamie's. We
actually make money out of the wall. But you know
again it's it's just part of the dual purpose scenario.
So our sheep mead wall here at six hundred meters
above sea level, got a long cold autumn, winter and spring,
and you know, we take the approach that if we're
(13:26):
going to produce wall, we do the very best job
of it possible. So and I guess you know all
those other factors that can go into what fifty years
of producing sheep here, So mel drench survival traits a
whole lot of things. So to me, it's are changing
breeds simply to save sharing costs makes no sensible. But
each to their own.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Jamie, Jane, we haven't got a great line, so I
need to wrap this, but I've got a couple of
questions to finish off for you. Palmus, should we sell it.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Jamie, Like any crown owner as set it should be
look they should be looking at the core principles about
why they own it. So Palmu should not be immune
to this. And you know again, the government have shone
consistently failed to understand farming anyway and implement the right
policies effects Palmu. You know again, they have been very
righteous perpetrator of climate hysteria themselves. So I think we
(14:15):
need to be looking at why there's textpayers were only
those farms. The only thing that would consume me is
who would buy them mega units now and it would
really consume me. But maybe some form of getting young
farmers in with some overseas investment as well, possibly, Jamie, it.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Needs to be looked at.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Absolutely. Will you be buying just into this book or
going to her movie?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
None of the above, Neither of the above, Jamie. I
think the world already has enough socialist handbooks. And I
know how this one finishes. It finishes with the author
saying she doesn't have enough fear in the tank, buggers
us overseas and leaves us with what one hundred and
four billion dollars a debt? Jamie, So not a great
ending and it won't be on my shelf any day's thing.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Hey, Jane Smith, thanks for taking time out of selling
some of those wonderful per and Dale rams at the
New Haven staf. Did I get it right? Shameless plug time.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Here exactly, Jamie Piran l Romdell, Paranel texels No looking
forward to another cover of tea with another farmer's sassoon.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Good on you. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Thanks Jamie, Marla, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Jane. Is she the female Shane Jones here on the country? Look,
you're loving Shane out there, go Shane. I'm sick of
the Greens. Well, probably a lot of us could say that,
couldn't they? That Ricardo Mendes March is an annoying little winger.
That's just my opinion. Anyhow, he has his supporters. Hellolujah, Shane.
(15:33):
I put my vote in. The text machine is moving
very quickly here, Michelle. I'm in trouble keeping the page
in one place. Hallelujah, Shane. I put my vote in
exactly the right spot last election. Obviously, this person voted
for Shane and Winnie. Very disappointed in the farmer's wives,
as Shane mentioned, who blindly gave a Dern the mandate
(15:56):
in twenty twenty a better understanding of MMP didn't need it,
I think, ladies. Oh and that's look at that. I
can see the Hackles just rising next to me. Now,
Shane did point out the farmers wives that voted or
party voted put it that way, party voted labor. In
twenty twenty, there was a huge swing in rural New
(16:17):
Zealand towards labor. Every electorate apart from EPSOM, which ironically
voted in an act MP Party voted labor. Now, Michelle
and I have had this debate. We might have it
when we do the rural news. A big part of
that rural swing was female voters. They liked Jacinda, so
you get what you vote for. Anyhow, Up next, what
are we doing? Up next? We might go to, Oh,
(16:40):
females are running the place today. Emma Higgins. She's just
co authored a really good report. This is going to
make you feel very positive about the future of farming.
She's up next super well, as promised, we've managed to
(17:11):
track it down. Emma Higgins, senior AG analyst for Rabobank
and a very creative writer. I'm going to come back
to that one, Emma. But you guys at Rabobank have
just released your twenty twenty five commodity outlock, and I
must say, the ducks are aligning. Everything's positive.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
The ducks are looking like they're aligned or a hand
of cards perhaps could be quite strong look and it
is a really good story to tell because lord knows,
it has been really challenging for our farmers out there
for the last couple of years, so we could do
with some really good news stories.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Well, you've singled out dairy, beef, sheep, venison, and kiwi fruit.
All of those five commodities are looking at very good prospects.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Yeah, they are, and I think that's really the ace
in the deck because ultimately we are seeing some stronger
pricing coming through, whether it's dairy and we're looking at
double digits already in terms of the forecast for the
current season, whether it's beef and seeing current levels being
significantly higher than what we'd normally see at this time
of the year, and even our sheep meet producers as
(18:20):
smiling a little bit more because we've obviously seen the
schedule pick up from where it's been in the doldrums
over the last couple of years, so a lot to
be quite positive about looking ahead across the course of
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Wall is lifting pleasingly, so it's still a long way
off where it needs to be, but we've got this
other phenomenon coming into playing hell, and that is the
advent of the self shedding sheep. Is the wool industry
still in trouble.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Look, that's a really good question because it's on everyone's
mind and it is great to see some relief come through.
But obviously, as we've seen a move away from some
producers into some of those more shedding type breeds will
pose the problem potentially as we move forward and start
to see that recovery lift a little bit more. I
think the really good news part when it comes to
(19:08):
sheep meat is that the ossie inventories have finally pulled
back in the right direction and that was the real
challenging piece that we saw for the last couple of years.
We're no longer seeing that flood of Australian product come through,
and that will help in terms of moving forward, and
also the inventory challenge here in New Zealand as well.
(19:30):
Less stop likely for New Zealand for the twenty twenty
five land crop.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
What are you guys at rabobanks saying about interest rates
and exchange rates?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah, these are the really big ones as well, right,
because everyone's looking at these when it comes to effects.
We've seen the volatility already emerge for twenty twenty five. Look,
our view is that the New Zealand dollar is likely
to play the role of shop absorber for the economy
this year. We think that we're likely to around fifty
(20:00):
four cents middle of this year, maybe lifting slightly from there.
It will be helpful for export receipts, but the flip
side is that it is a double edged sword and
it can make it more challenging for any of those
US dollar price commodities in other regions that we ship to,
and also for our fertilizer prices as well, given that
(20:21):
we import a lot of that help.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
How much to interest rates drop this year?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Well, our viewers that we're likely to see another cart
in the ocr by another zero point five percentage points
in February, and we think we're sitting at by July
this year a rate of around two point two five percent.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Now on your report, I alluded to your creative writing.
I like what you've done here, Emma. Are you talking
about stacking the deck for twenty twenty five? There are
several potential draws, a very clever play on card play there. Okay,
so you talked about the coin of hearts interest rates.
We've covered that one off, the optimistic farm gate price settings.
We've covered that one off. The wild card re emerging
(21:06):
input cost pressure. And there's always two sides to the ledger,
and that's something we've got to keep an eye on.
But let's have a look at your first one, and
that is the trump card.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Mm hmm. Yeah, well there's no getting away from the
trump card this year, clearly. Now we've talked at lengths before, Jamie,
around you know, perhaps the trade duties or the tariffs
that might be imposed and how that might weigh on
global trade and economic growth. The uncertainty is really around
two things for kre we producers and exporters. It's around
(21:38):
access to markets, and it's around the impacts and the
flow and effects for the dollar. We've already talked about
our forecast, but no doubt it's going to be a
really wild ride because of the announcements that he may
or may not make in the coming weeks and months,
and then the impact that we'll have on our currency
as well. So there is no escaping the Trump card
(22:01):
this year. It'll just be how it gets played and
to what extent impacts on a sectors.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well spoken, Emma Higgins and well written too. This is
a wonderful report. It's going to be released later today.
All aces in agg for twenty twenty five. It's good
to have such a positive outlook. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Thanks so much, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Twenty six away from one you are with the country.
Lots of feedback coming in on Shane Jones, almost unanimously
in support. Also feedback on the farmers wives voting for Justin.
I'll come back to that one as well, but we've
got to keep the show moving. Mark Leslie from PALMU
chief executive defending Parmu's existence you would imagine, and Chris Russell,
(22:45):
Rosie correspondent. Before the end of the hour, welcome back
to the country. Twenty two way from one. Excuse me
just before we go to Rural News with Michelle. Remember
(23:05):
we're running a great promo with the team from Steelport.
We've got a cub Cadet Alex five four seven ride
on moa valued at six and ninety nine dollars to
give away. Just go to our website The Country dot
Co dot m Z to enter. If that's too tough
for you, text the keyword cub to five double O
nine and we'll send you a link to the entry.
While you're there on our website that is, check out
(23:27):
Rowena's video to see it in action. Brilliant moa. It's
got power, comfort control, and it has a thing called
in tallypower technology which digitally monitors and maintains maintains engine speed,
giving operators more available power to tackle heavy and wet
grass without bogging or slowing down. This competition is open
(23:50):
until when the end of next week. Yeah, and we'll
announce the winner on Monday, the third of February. More
about that one tomorrow. But has Rural News with Michelle.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
The Country's Rural News with Cold Cadets, New Zealand's leading
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dot nz for your local.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
Stoggist Fresh Produce, Giant TA and G Global is expanding
its operations in Canterbury, planting a new crop of premium apples.
The New Zealand NX listed company is converting which was
once a dairy farm into an apple orchard in mid
Canterbury at partner with New Zealand Superannuation Fund through its
Rural Investment manager Farm Right to plant the one hundred
(24:31):
and twenty five hectares of Jolly branded apples. While the
grower has already planted fifty five hectares of the premium
variety in Hawks Bay, it marks the first plantings at
a commercial scale in Canterbury.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
There you goes, Yeah, thanks Michelle. Rural What I was
going to say, dairy conversions back, not back, but going
to horticulture. Interesting. I wonder if we'll see more of
that good returns for both at the moment. So that
is your rural news. By the way, the cub Cadet
ride on, I just checked my script. Here we close
the play is the end of Sunday, February, the second
(25:04):
of this year, which is Sunday night, Yes, Sunday night,
ye okay, and we're going to announce the winner on Monday,
so you know, get in it's a great prize. That is,
as I say, rural news thatts have look at sport sport.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
We're the haf go Kiwi to the bone since nineteen.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Oh four and it's all about a couple of dames. Today,
New Zealand's most decorated paralympian has taken the plunge into retirement.
Famed swimming great Dames Sophie Pasco burst onto the international
scene at the Beijing Games in two thousand and eight
and exits having earned eleven Paramedic Paramedic Paralympic gold medals
(25:42):
and multiple world championship titles. What a champion she is
talking about? Champion Dames. Dame Lisa Carrington has hinted on
social media that she will paddle at a fifth Olympics
in twenty twenty eight, seeking to add to her eight
gold medals. Unbelievable and sid He looks set to stage
the final of the twenty twenty seven Men's Rugby World Cup,
(26:04):
twenty four years on from hosting England's sole title triumph.
We all remember Johnny Wilkinson, don't we from two thousand
and three? Up next, Mark Leslie defending the reason for
keeping Parmu the chief executives up next. Yeah, so it
(26:25):
has been one of the big discussion points this week
on the country Palmu to sell or not to sell.
Here's someone who's firmly in the not to sell camp
because he's the chief executive and he'd be out of
a job. Mark Leslie, Mark a good afternoon. What do
you make of all this talk? It's nothing new.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
You're going after, Jamie, And yes, as you say, it's
not the first time the conversation would behead And I
think for me that the focus retains or remains on
ensuring we run a profitable business.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
And as we've just been chatting and as you'd have
seen pre Christmas there, we're forecasting net operating profit of
sort of in the range of twenty five to forty
million dollars this year, probably towards the top end of
that given some positive performance and commodity return. To your
point about these asset sales, that's that's out of my hands.
(27:15):
My focus is on focusing on really running the business
as profitably and as efficiently as we can.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Well this year you might make a profit. Last year's
numbers and Will Wilson talked about these twenty six million
dollar loss, and that was aided and a bettered by
good returns for carbon credits. So off an asset base
of one point six billion dollars, it's still a poor performance.
Speaker 8 (27:37):
Yeah, I think that. My pushback and challenge on that,
Jamie has always been is that the operating profit, the
cash part of it, was twenty million dollars. What we
did last year was revalued a number of assets which
revalued down from a livestock values revalue down and some
land revalue down.
Speaker 9 (27:53):
So that was.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
The differential from a the net profit art attacks was
driven by that. This you, we're probably going to see
some of the reverse of that. So we'll see the
operating profit and circle forty million dollars and net profit
after tacks could be north of sixty million dollars. So
that's probably getting back to your challenge earlier on where
the business should be performing and continuing to perform well.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I've done some quick maths on this one. Say a
forty million dollar profit off an asset base of one
point six billion, that's a two and a half percent
return on equity. And while that's not great, it's probably
as good or better than a lot of sheep farmers
have perhaps done in past years, maybe this year they'll
do a wee bit better. As a cash strapped nation,
(28:37):
and we've got this one point six billion dollar asset
sitting there offering an average return at best. Is this
the best way to use the money?
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (28:48):
My argument would be yes, because I think there's a
few other areas in there, Jamie, that additional value there
is the equity growth piece and part of what also
we've been investing in the lights of the forestry and horticulture,
so there's likely many farmers there's the equity gains on
as well equally, and I will always challenge some of
the work that we do that adds value beyond our
(29:09):
farm gate, where we do around genetics we've been doing
now with lic around the silver stabilizers.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
As a dairy beef breed, the support we.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
Provide even with the farm i Q farmax digital tools
that we use as four eight hundred other farmers out
there that use it as well, the meath a testing facility.
So I think to me, you've got to stack up
the total returns, the cash part, the equity part, and
that value that goes beyond the gate, the sort of
more industry good stuff to me, that becomes sort of
the total return that we're generating back to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Well, we go back to the old days, the good
old days, some would say, of the lands and survey blocks,
the ballot farms, getting young farmers on to farms. Is
that the role of parmu Landcorp anymore?
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (29:53):
Absolutely, and I think my challenge Jamie would be already
doing that. So we've got the apprenticeship scheme that we
do up and running, so that's positively bringing young people
into the sector. Then on the other end of it,
last year we've announced and we're just finalizing with the
first four share milkers, so moving to provide that pathway
(30:14):
from potentially an apprentice right through to sharemcking and then
for them to onto farm ownership. You could argue, yes,
some farms could be sold to enable a few people
to enter the industry, but actually that's probably one person
for that one farm. I'd argue that the sharmaking option
and providing ongoing ability for people to move through that
(30:35):
process is more valuable.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
One of the criticisms of palmer Landcorp has been go woke,
go broke, and a lot of that was directed. I
have to say your predecessor, not necessarily you, but have
you gone to woke.
Speaker 8 (30:50):
No, I don't think so. We're like everybody. We've really
focused on definitely in the last few years, really focused
on our farming performance, but equally some of the areas
that could be sewed around the woke piece, and we've
talked about it in the past of valuing nature or
some of the meat ain't testing that I think is
(31:10):
playing out that elements of that are going to be profitable.
You're not seeing them today, but going forward they will be.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Okay, PAMU Chief Executive Mark Leslie, Thanks for balancing the
argument here on the country. Appreciate your time now.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
Thanks Jannie. Always good to have different views on a
good discussion.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, and give you a pr Lady Kara a pat
on the back. She's relentless. She's relentless in a good way.
See you later, Thanks Abbie. Thanks Markets turn away or
coming up to turn away from one. Lots of feedback
coming in on PARMU and Shane Jones and the banks.
We'll try and get to some of it after the
break after we chat to Chris Russell. He's our guy
(31:54):
in OZ and I wonder how he celebrated Australia Day Sunday,
no doubt, with a bit of good key. We lamb,
Chris Russell, that'll get a bite from you.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
If you can buy that here. I don't think you
can actually, but we certainly had a fantastic Ossie Day.
I had a double fantastic Oussie day really if I
caught up with an old mate of mine I went
through UNI with haven't seen for forty years. He's had
a very successful career, including being CEO of Case New
Holland in Australia. But we had a fantastic day catching
(32:27):
up with that. It was almost like we never parted.
And then I had a wonderful day out on a
big cruiser on the water with one of my rich
friends who can still afford to run those sort of boats,
eating Ossie lamb. I must say the temperature forty five
degrees was pretty warm.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Jamie, you're too hot for a key with that one.
Chris Well, let's transition, as they say, from lamb to chicken.
You might have been eating a bit of lamb on
Ossie Day, and good on you for doing that. Hopefully
we follow suit here for New Zealand or our national
Lamb Day on February fifteen. But Ossie's are eating twice
the chicken or fifty years ago.
Speaker 9 (33:03):
Yes, and we can share more than fifty kilograms per
head of chicken meat. You know, that's a kilogram a
week roughly, which means, well, you know, we're having two
chicken based meals a year and interesting, about ten kilograms
more per person than your Kiwi's across the ditch there.
So we seem to be obsessed with chicken. Of course,
(33:25):
when I was a child, jamie chicken was a luxury.
Dad used to bring home a chicken or a duck
every maybe once a month, and Mum had roasted. But
in World War Two you could buy a pound of
steak for six months, so a kilo for ten for
effectively for twelve cents, and chicken was four times that.
And now, of course we've seen a reversal. We can
(33:47):
buy a chicken over here. Now I bought to chicken
thighs yesterday for seven dollars a kilo, and so it's
really moved from being a special occasion food to food
that people are eating all the time. We spend about
eight billion dollars a year on chicken meat Interestingly, Australians
(34:08):
eat about one point three percent of the world's global
production of chicken, which is about one hundred and three
million tons of chicken meat a year, and yet we're
only point three to five percent of the global population.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Ozzie Lobster's back on the menu for Chinese New Year.
Speaker 9 (34:24):
Yes, we've been waiting for this for a fee. All
of lobster Grass has said he'd been waiting for a
long time, and finally the bands were lifted before Christmas,
and we've seen the lobster prices here go up about
fifteen percent since that opened up. But the interesting thing
for lobster fishes is whether that's going to stay out there.
(34:46):
Typically it drops off again in February after Chinese New Year.
But we're making sun as hay while the sun shines,
and I think that we're all hoping that those growths
will be able to It's interesting over in New z Zilland,
where we were slumping down to as low as forty
five dollars a kilo for lobster, which was hardly worth
(35:07):
getting up to go and get the boat out to
pick it up. In New Zealand for exactly the same
lobster your fishermen were getting up to two hundred dollars
a kilo. I had no idea why that was the case,
but hopefully it's come back and hopefully that market will
continue to develop.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Probably because our lobster tastes better than yours. Bananas, banana
were your half key? Were you married to a key? Week?
Bananas were very much on the menu at the Aussie Open?
Che I and Jo would the Australian Open the year?
Chris Russell, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 9 (35:38):
It was a good game. We were obviously disappointed to
see demon all goa but it looks like it was.
He went out to a worthy, a worthy opponent, who
of course went on to win the whole tournament. But
one of the little sidelines of the tournament this year
from an agricultural perspective, is that the amount of bananas
that they're eating. The tournament actually provides about two one
(36:00):
hundred kilograms of bananas to the players every day. And
this is our advice from their nutritionness who say that
dietitians say that you can't beat the hunnable banana. Even
though we've got all these high energy drinks and all
the other things that you have, bananas who've got carbohydrates,
they've got fiber, they got magnesium and potassium to keep
(36:23):
mussel cramps at bay. And so they're the item of
choice if you like, over all the artificial supplements. So
good to hear that that's continuing to be the case.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yeah, I think it's the potassium to stop the cramps
very much so in that hot conditions at the Aussie Open.
Who else is running hot at the moment? Steve Smith,
he's a real Ossie battler. Ten thousand runs joints, Ponting,
Border and War and we give you OSSI's plenty of stick.
But when it comes to your crickets, they know how
to score runs. In fact, it's the one sport I
think you're better than us at. I'm not even going
(36:56):
to give you a chance to reply to that one.
Chris Russell, chat to.
Speaker 9 (36:59):
Your next look forward to it, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Good on you, Chris, just finishing with some of your feedback.
This is good selling. Palm who could start with putting
sheer milkers on their dairy farms. Agreed, and the government
should restart ten year of view and allow sensitive areas
to be QI two covenant and instead of given to
an already overburdened dock, as has happened in the past.
And that is from Ali Ludiman. A surprise surprise, she says, PS,
(37:25):
this farmer's wife did not vote for Ardin. That doesn't
surprise me at all. There, Ali, Look, we've got another one,
and can you please repeat the word to enter the
competition by text? It is cub c u b as
in cub cadet in o lion cub cub cub to
five double o nine and you can win the ride
(37:45):
on MOA the cub cadet maued. It's six one hundred
and ninety nine dollars. That's us done. Catch you tomorrow, Cat.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
You're the latest from the land. It's The Country Podcast
with Jamie McCain. Thanks to Brent your specialist in John
Dee Machinery.
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay thanks to Brent the starkest of
the leading agriculture brands.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Get ainy' Zealand. I'm Jamie McKay. Welcome to the Country.
It's brought to you by Brandt. This is a song
called Mexico, especially for our first guest, Shane Jones, the
Minister for digging it up and damning it up. He's
going to kick off the country, let him off the chain.
Jane Smith, North Otago Farmer award winning environmentalist Woke Banks.
(00:47):
I suspect Shane will have something to say about that Palmers.
Should we be selling it? There's another hot topic on
the show this week, and the other one is the
self shedding sheep. Yeah, the sheep you don't have to share?
Is this theth now for the wool industry? Emma Higgins
out of Rabobank. They've just released, in fact it's not
I don't think it's released until later today their latest
(01:08):
commodity outlook for twenty twenty five, and I'd have to
say it's very positive. The Reporter is titled all aces
an agg for twenty twenty five. To balance things up,
we thought we'd better get here. The other side of
the story from pamu SO chief executive Mark Leslie's on
the show, plus our Ossie correspondent Chris Russell. Of course Australia.
(01:30):
Australia celebrated Ossie Day on Sunday and they eat lamb
lots of it on Australia Day and National Lamb Days.
February fifteen. Can we take up the challenge and do likewise?
It's all on the country. Between now and or one o'clock,
Michelle will be in with rural news. We'll also update
the latest and sports news for you. Well, this was
(02:10):
going to be an exclusive for the Country, an interview
that was sent up ten days ago, but as usual,
the food chain takes precedents and my lunch was cut
by Mike Hosking this morning. But I've got to line
up in the queue and here I am Shane Jones
to kick off the country. Shane, you have got a
big mining announcement coming up tomorrow, but I want to
firstly carry on from where you left off with Mike
(02:32):
Hosking this morning on woke Banks de banking some fossil
fuel companies. I think it's the thin end end of
the wedge. Farmers are next.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Oh look, these are alien, foreign concepts imposed upon our
farming community by directors executives in the banking industry. They
are inflicting their luxury beliefs on god fearing Kiwi's trying
to run honest businesses. They live in sustainability units. They
(03:05):
seem to conceive of all these ideas through un connections
inversely related to our economic prospects. They've got to be
called out. They in my view, they should all be sacked.
The sooner that these sustainability units are dismissed from the banks,
the better the prospects for regional New Zealand without a
(03:25):
guts full of these work riddled virtue signaling people who
have no accountability. What citizen mandated them to dry? Companies
such as coal mining industries to bankruptcy?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, what are you going to do about it? You're
in power.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, the first thing that we're doing in New Zealand
first is proceeding with a private members bill and hopefully
I'll hire it win the hearts and minds of my
colleagues over. Every bank in New Zealand must operate within
the confines of a banking license. Those licenses should give
oscope for virtue signaling social engineering from banks to change
(04:08):
the economic fortunes of families and firms alike. It is
wrong and in my view, they have no authority to
distort or indeed molest our industries in regional New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, I note that when you were talking to Husking
this morning, the issue was raised of maybe Kiwibank taking
a different perspective on this, but even Kiwibank is railing
against funding some of these companies.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Well, I have received a message from the chief executive officer,
who I regard as a very formidable executive, asking me
to call him. And all I'm going to say to
the CEO is my staff took the information off the website. Now,
perhaps the website has been misconstrued by my staff, but
(04:58):
this is a great opportunity for Kiwi Bank to continue
to bank industries in New Zealand that create jobs and
generate export revenue. We don't need to swallow the climate
cultism coming from the United Nations. We need to generate
economic surplus every hour, every day, every week. And Kiwibank
(05:20):
is owned by the Crown New Zealand. First would certainly
have stood back from any capital rays to expand qEV
Bank if we had been told that they were going
to use that capital raise to drive legitimate businesses such
as coal mining, mining in general farmers out of existence
(05:41):
in order to meet these illusory targets to change the
weather in Mongolia. It's wrong, it's alien, and it's been
driven by these dangerous influences such as these idiots that
comprise the Green Party.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Well will come back to the make that can stand
off if we get time. Look as wokeness now as
we know it under threat from Trumpism, because you know,
you look at Jasinda Trudeau, Enlightenment and kindness is almost so.
Twenty twenty now has the world changed.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
The world is a far more robust, a far more
dynamic place than the juvenile, shallow, naive approach that Jasinda
and others talk that left New Zealand an estate of
financial penury. I think it's quite obnoxious the way which
(06:37):
she Sinda is parading around with a movie that she
was secretly making, most imposing COVID regulations upon every key
we family. No one knew that everything she did she
was doing it for a camera that her and her
people knew would one day be exploited to make a
movie about her life. That's why she can never come
(06:58):
back to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Well, we've got you and Instant to blame for that.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
No, you don't. We were thrown out of politics in
twenty twenty, and the COVID madness actually happened when all
your farmers wives voted for her.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I'm going back to twenty seventeen, but.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You can't hold us responsible for what happened in twenty twenty.
We were voted out.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, Jacinda wouldn't have been there in the first place
if you'd stuck with Bill English. But anyhow, we're relitigating
history here.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You're going backwards. You need to go forward.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
We need to go forwards. Well, so let's go forward
to tomorrow the big speech and why he obviously, and
why he it's going to be about mining. What are
you digging up and damming up? Now?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Obviously, the gold mine there exemplifies all of the skills,
the capacity, the machinery, the capitol that shows this is
a valuable industry. These are well paying jobs. Naturally, I'm
going to uphold the importance of guardrails, make suitable references
(08:01):
to Freddie the Frog. There'll be a bit of a
din I suppose around the security fence from these dope
growing knowles who don't want capitalism, who don't want our
economy to grow on the basis of minerals. But that's
part of being in the democracy. And the other thing
I'm going to remind you is tomorrow we have our
(08:24):
host of climate change oriented regulations that represent headways. We
cannot afford them. We run the risk of driving industrialization
for this indiscriminate climate regulatory approach, which is why the
Climate Change Commission is on thin ice. The last chap
(08:45):
is gone. Commissioners are the chap from down the South Island.
He's gone. Good riddance to him. Now. Unless we concede
and tighten up climate change regulations, the public is going
to reject them at the next election.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
How do you reckon? Ricardo Mendez? March will be marching
in protest tomorrow while you make your speech at why
he one will be another Mexican stand off.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I've got two words for him, eddieolsomgo.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Shane Jones, Adios, Thank you very much for your time
today in the country. Brilliant, isn't he bottle? That this
is the country. I'm Jamie McKay. He's Shane Jones, the
Minister of digging it up and damning it up. He'll
go head to head with those protesters tomorrow and why
he and it'll be worth the price of admission alone.
(09:34):
Send me a text. What do you reckon of the
Prince of the province? Is Muzz who can be a
slightly bitter and twisted Texter sometimes I love you, Muzz says.
I'm liking Shane Jones more and more and Peters. I
think they are resonating with kind of middle New Zealand.
What do you think Shane Jones up next? Another one
(09:55):
who resonates or does she? I think she does with
New Zealand farmers. She takes no prisoners. She's a bit
like Shane Jones. Award winning environmentalist North Otago farmer Jane
Smith woke Banks and should we be selling Parmu before
the end of the year. Emma Higgins has got a
great got a great news story out of Rabobank on
(10:16):
the really positive commodity outlook for New Zealand farming in
twenty twenty five. Mark Leslie, chief executive of Parmu, Should
we sell the place he reckons not and Chris Russell's
our assie correspondent.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Gen Crime.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Jane Smith is a North Otago farmer, of course, former
winner of the Balanced Farm Environment Awards. Jane, I know
you didn't catch all of what Shane Jones had to say,
but do you like his general message gooding Jamie.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Oh, he's it's just music to my ears. Will be
welcome at new Haven Farms anytime that year, Jamie, And
he gets away of saying what most of us are
thinking as well, and in terms of questioning their overseas
own banks. I loved when I just cooked something this
morning he said about, you know, the fact that they're
imposing their warped system of beliefs and called them corporate undertakers.
(11:19):
I just thought that was a quote of the year.
And I certainly, you know, we've seen that the climate
change hysteria changing, and I hope our egg companies are
actually listening to that because they've gone with a fly
on that. And I loved how Shane said earlier this morning.
I heard him say that, you know, the only risk
is offending the luxury beliefs of directors in woke executives
and the fact that this falsehood is amversely related to
(11:42):
economic progress, which Jamie, is the one thing that we
need in.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
This country, absolutely, and we need the productivity driven from
the primary sector. Obviously he's getting stuck into the banks
who won't bank or are de banking fossil fuel companies.
But this, as I said to him, is the thin
end end of the wedge. You know, farmings next in
the line of sight if you want. We've already had
banks setting emissions targets and we have to we have
(12:08):
to rail against this, Jane.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I mean, the work is starting to choke, Jamie, and
really is because we are going broken. And you know,
you look at that zero net zero banking alliance that's
fallen a part of the seas. It's going to be
the same here you see jpm organ and black Rock,
et cetera pulling out of that's the weaponizing. The weather
is going to change, and you know that climate change
sort of trojan horses being pulled apart. And actually when
(12:32):
they're outing it up, they'll see it's actually enough hysteria
and headlines and nothing really to it. It's light on
fax and heaving on fiction, Jamie. So yeah, the tide
is turning.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Okay, now you've taken time out of a very busy day.
You and Hubby Blair are selling rams at the moment, Jane,
are you selling self shedding rams? Because if you do,
you could do what was done I think yesterday or
the day before twenty four and a half grand. Is
this the way of the future. Is the wall industry
dared off the back of lifting wall prices?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Oh, we're really proud of the wall that we produce,
really nice, well sought after pairing of wall Jamie's. We
actually make money out of the wall. But you know
again it's it's just part of the dual purpose scenario.
So our sheep mead wall here at six hundred meters
above sea level, got a long cold autumn, winter and spring,
and you know, we take the approach that if we're
(13:26):
going to produce wall, we do the very best job
of it possible. So and I guess you know all
those other factors that can go into what fifty years
of producing sheep here, So mel drench survival traits a
whole lot of things. So to me, it's are changing
breeds simply to save sharing costs makes no sensible. But
each to their own.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Jamie, Jane, we haven't got a great line, so I
need to wrap this, but I've got a couple of
questions to finish off for you. Palmus, should we sell it.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Jamie, Like any crown owner as set it should be
look they should be looking at the core principles about
why they own it. So Palmu should not be immune
to this. And you know again, the government have shone
consistently failed to understand farming anyway and implement the right
policies effects Palmu. You know again, they have been very
righteous perpetrator of climate hysteria themselves. So I think we
(14:15):
need to be looking at why there's textpayers were only
those farms. The only thing that would consume me is
who would buy them mega units now and it would
really consume me. But maybe some form of getting young
farmers in with some overseas investment as well, possibly, Jamie, it.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Needs to be looked at.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Absolutely. Will you be buying just into this book or
going to her movie?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
None of the above, Neither of the above, Jamie. I
think the world already has enough socialist handbooks. And I
know how this one finishes. It finishes with the author
saying she doesn't have enough fear in the tank, buggers
us overseas and leaves us with what one hundred and
four billion dollars a debt? Jamie, So not a great
ending and it won't be on my shelf any day's thing.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Hey, Jane Smith, thanks for taking time out of selling
some of those wonderful per and Dale rams at the
New Haven staf. Did I get it right? Shameless plug time.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Here exactly, Jamie Piran l Romdell, Paranel texels No looking
forward to another cover of tea with another farmer's sassoon.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Good on you. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Thanks Jamie, Marla, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Jane. Is she the female Shane Jones here on the country? Look,
you're loving Shane out there, go Shane. I'm sick of
the Greens. Well, probably a lot of us could say that,
couldn't they? That Ricardo Mendes March is an annoying little winger.
That's just my opinion. Anyhow, he has his supporters. Hellolujah, Shane.
(15:33):
I put my vote in. The text machine is moving
very quickly here, Michelle. I'm in trouble keeping the page
in one place. Hallelujah, Shane. I put my vote in
exactly the right spot last election. Obviously, this person voted
for Shane and Winnie. Very disappointed in the farmer's wives,
as Shane mentioned, who blindly gave a Dern the mandate
(15:56):
in twenty twenty a better understanding of MMP didn't need it,
I think, ladies. Oh and that's look at that. I
can see the Hackles just rising next to me. Now,
Shane did point out the farmers wives that voted or
party voted put it that way, party voted labor. In
twenty twenty, there was a huge swing in rural New
(16:17):
Zealand towards labor. Every electorate apart from EPSOM, which ironically
voted in an act MP Party voted labor. Now, Michelle
and I have had this debate. We might have it
when we do the rural news. A big part of
that rural swing was female voters. They liked Jacinda, so
you get what you vote for. Anyhow, Up next, what
are we doing? Up next? We might go to, Oh,
(16:40):
females are running the place today. Emma Higgins. She's just
co authored a really good report. This is going to
make you feel very positive about the future of farming.
She's up next super well, as promised, we've managed to
(17:11):
track it down. Emma Higgins, senior AG analyst for Rabobank
and a very creative writer. I'm going to come back
to that one, Emma. But you guys at Rabobank have
just released your twenty twenty five commodity outlock, and I
must say, the ducks are aligning. Everything's positive.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
The ducks are looking like they're aligned or a hand
of cards perhaps could be quite strong look and it
is a really good story to tell because lord knows,
it has been really challenging for our farmers out there
for the last couple of years, so we could do
with some really good news stories.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Well, you've singled out dairy, beef, sheep, venison, and kiwi fruit.
All of those five commodities are looking at very good prospects.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Yeah, they are, and I think that's really the ace
in the deck because ultimately we are seeing some stronger
pricing coming through, whether it's dairy and we're looking at
double digits already in terms of the forecast for the
current season, whether it's beef and seeing current levels being
significantly higher than what we'd normally see at this time
of the year, and even our sheep meet producers as
(18:20):
smiling a little bit more because we've obviously seen the
schedule pick up from where it's been in the doldrums
over the last couple of years, so a lot to
be quite positive about looking ahead across the course of
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Wall is lifting pleasingly, so it's still a long way
off where it needs to be, but we've got this
other phenomenon coming into playing hell, and that is the
advent of the self shedding sheep. Is the wool industry
still in trouble.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Look, that's a really good question because it's on everyone's
mind and it is great to see some relief come through.
But obviously, as we've seen a move away from some
producers into some of those more shedding type breeds will
pose the problem potentially as we move forward and start
to see that recovery lift a little bit more. I
think the really good news part when it comes to
(19:08):
sheep meat is that the ossie inventories have finally pulled
back in the right direction and that was the real
challenging piece that we saw for the last couple of years.
We're no longer seeing that flood of Australian product come through,
and that will help in terms of moving forward, and
also the inventory challenge here in New Zealand as well.
(19:30):
Less stop likely for New Zealand for the twenty twenty
five land crop.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
What are you guys at rabobanks saying about interest rates
and exchange rates?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah, these are the really big ones as well, right,
because everyone's looking at these when it comes to effects.
We've seen the volatility already emerge for twenty twenty five. Look,
our view is that the New Zealand dollar is likely
to play the role of shop absorber for the economy
this year. We think that we're likely to around fifty
(20:00):
four cents middle of this year, maybe lifting slightly from there.
It will be helpful for export receipts, but the flip
side is that it is a double edged sword and
it can make it more challenging for any of those
US dollar price commodities in other regions that we ship to,
and also for our fertilizer prices as well, given that
(20:21):
we import a lot of that help.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
How much to interest rates drop this year?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Well, our viewers that we're likely to see another cart
in the ocr by another zero point five percentage points
in February, and we think we're sitting at by July
this year a rate of around two point two five percent.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Now on your report, I alluded to your creative writing.
I like what you've done here, Emma. Are you talking
about stacking the deck for twenty twenty five? There are
several potential draws, a very clever play on card play there. Okay,
so you talked about the coin of hearts interest rates.
We've covered that one off, the optimistic farm gate price settings.
We've covered that one off. The wild card re emerging
(21:06):
input cost pressure. And there's always two sides to the ledger,
and that's something we've got to keep an eye on.
But let's have a look at your first one, and
that is the trump card.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Mm hmm. Yeah, well there's no getting away from the
trump card this year, clearly. Now we've talked at lengths before, Jamie,
around you know, perhaps the trade duties or the tariffs
that might be imposed and how that might weigh on
global trade and economic growth. The uncertainty is really around
two things for kre we producers and exporters. It's around
(21:38):
access to markets, and it's around the impacts and the
flow and effects for the dollar. We've already talked about
our forecast, but no doubt it's going to be a
really wild ride because of the announcements that he may
or may not make in the coming weeks and months,
and then the impact that we'll have on our currency
as well. So there is no escaping the Trump card
(22:01):
this year. It'll just be how it gets played and
to what extent impacts on a sectors.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well spoken, Emma Higgins and well written too. This is
a wonderful report. It's going to be released later today.
All aces in agg for twenty twenty five. It's good
to have such a positive outlook. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Thanks so much, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Twenty six away from one you are with the country.
Lots of feedback coming in on Shane Jones, almost unanimously
in support. Also feedback on the farmers wives voting for Justin.
I'll come back to that one as well, but we've
got to keep the show moving. Mark Leslie from PALMU
chief executive defending Parmu's existence you would imagine, and Chris Russell,
(22:45):
Rosie correspondent. Before the end of the hour, welcome back
to the country. Twenty two way from one. Excuse me
just before we go to Rural News with Michelle. Remember
(23:05):
we're running a great promo with the team from Steelport.
We've got a cub Cadet Alex five four seven ride
on moa valued at six and ninety nine dollars to
give away. Just go to our website The Country dot
Co dot m Z to enter. If that's too tough
for you, text the keyword cub to five double O
nine and we'll send you a link to the entry.
While you're there on our website that is, check out
(23:27):
Rowena's video to see it in action. Brilliant moa. It's
got power, comfort control, and it has a thing called
in tallypower technology which digitally monitors and maintains maintains engine speed,
giving operators more available power to tackle heavy and wet
grass without bogging or slowing down. This competition is open
(23:50):
until when the end of next week. Yeah, and we'll
announce the winner on Monday, the third of February. More
about that one tomorrow. But has Rural News with Michelle.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
The Country's Rural News with Cold Cadets, New Zealand's leading
right on lawn bower brand. Visit steel Ford dot Co
dot nz for your local.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
Stoggist Fresh Produce, Giant TA and G Global is expanding
its operations in Canterbury, planting a new crop of premium apples.
The New Zealand NX listed company is converting which was
once a dairy farm into an apple orchard in mid
Canterbury at partner with New Zealand Superannuation Fund through its
Rural Investment manager Farm Right to plant the one hundred
(24:31):
and twenty five hectares of Jolly branded apples. While the
grower has already planted fifty five hectares of the premium
variety in Hawks Bay, it marks the first plantings at
a commercial scale in Canterbury.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
There you goes, Yeah, thanks Michelle. Rural What I was
going to say, dairy conversions back, not back, but going
to horticulture. Interesting. I wonder if we'll see more of
that good returns for both at the moment. So that
is your rural news. By the way, the cub Cadet
ride on, I just checked my script. Here we close
the play is the end of Sunday, February, the second
(25:04):
of this year, which is Sunday night, Yes, Sunday night,
ye okay, and we're going to announce the winner on Monday,
so you know, get in it's a great prize. That is,
as I say, rural news thatts have look at sport sport.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
We're the haf go Kiwi to the bone since nineteen.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Oh four and it's all about a couple of dames. Today,
New Zealand's most decorated paralympian has taken the plunge into retirement.
Famed swimming great Dames Sophie Pasco burst onto the international
scene at the Beijing Games in two thousand and eight
and exits having earned eleven Paramedic Paramedic Paralympic gold medals
(25:42):
and multiple world championship titles. What a champion she is
talking about? Champion Dames. Dame Lisa Carrington has hinted on
social media that she will paddle at a fifth Olympics
in twenty twenty eight, seeking to add to her eight
gold medals. Unbelievable and sid He looks set to stage
the final of the twenty twenty seven Men's Rugby World Cup,
(26:04):
twenty four years on from hosting England's sole title triumph.
We all remember Johnny Wilkinson, don't we from two thousand
and three? Up next, Mark Leslie defending the reason for
keeping Parmu the chief executives up next. Yeah, so it
(26:25):
has been one of the big discussion points this week
on the country Palmu to sell or not to sell.
Here's someone who's firmly in the not to sell camp
because he's the chief executive and he'd be out of
a job. Mark Leslie, Mark a good afternoon. What do
you make of all this talk? It's nothing new.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
You're going after, Jamie, And yes, as you say, it's
not the first time the conversation would behead And I
think for me that the focus retains or remains on
ensuring we run a profitable business.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
And as we've just been chatting and as you'd have
seen pre Christmas there, we're forecasting net operating profit of
sort of in the range of twenty five to forty
million dollars this year, probably towards the top end of
that given some positive performance and commodity return. To your
point about these asset sales, that's that's out of my hands.
(27:15):
My focus is on focusing on really running the business
as profitably and as efficiently as we can.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Well this year you might make a profit. Last year's
numbers and Will Wilson talked about these twenty six million
dollar loss, and that was aided and a bettered by
good returns for carbon credits. So off an asset base
of one point six billion dollars, it's still a poor performance.
Speaker 8 (27:37):
Yeah, I think that. My pushback and challenge on that,
Jamie has always been is that the operating profit, the
cash part of it, was twenty million dollars. What we
did last year was revalued a number of assets which
revalued down from a livestock values revalue down and some
land revalue down.
Speaker 9 (27:53):
So that was.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
The differential from a the net profit art attacks was
driven by that. This you, we're probably going to see
some of the reverse of that. So we'll see the
operating profit and circle forty million dollars and net profit
after tacks could be north of sixty million dollars. So
that's probably getting back to your challenge earlier on where
the business should be performing and continuing to perform well.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I've done some quick maths on this one. Say a
forty million dollar profit off an asset base of one
point six billion, that's a two and a half percent
return on equity. And while that's not great, it's probably
as good or better than a lot of sheep farmers
have perhaps done in past years, maybe this year they'll
do a wee bit better. As a cash strapped nation,
(28:37):
and we've got this one point six billion dollar asset
sitting there offering an average return at best. Is this
the best way to use the money?
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (28:48):
My argument would be yes, because I think there's a
few other areas in there, Jamie, that additional value there
is the equity growth piece and part of what also
we've been investing in the lights of the forestry and horticulture,
so there's likely many farmers there's the equity gains on
as well equally, and I will always challenge some of
the work that we do that adds value beyond our
(29:09):
farm gate, where we do around genetics we've been doing
now with lic around the silver stabilizers.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
As a dairy beef breed, the support we.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
Provide even with the farm i Q farmax digital tools
that we use as four eight hundred other farmers out
there that use it as well, the meath a testing facility.
So I think to me, you've got to stack up
the total returns, the cash part, the equity part, and
that value that goes beyond the gate, the sort of
more industry good stuff to me, that becomes sort of
the total return that we're generating back to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Well, we go back to the old days, the good
old days, some would say, of the lands and survey blocks,
the ballot farms, getting young farmers on to farms. Is
that the role of parmu Landcorp anymore?
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (29:53):
Absolutely, and I think my challenge Jamie would be already
doing that. So we've got the apprenticeship scheme that we
do up and running, so that's positively bringing young people
into the sector. Then on the other end of it,
last year we've announced and we're just finalizing with the
first four share milkers, so moving to provide that pathway
(30:14):
from potentially an apprentice right through to sharemcking and then
for them to onto farm ownership. You could argue, yes,
some farms could be sold to enable a few people
to enter the industry, but actually that's probably one person
for that one farm. I'd argue that the sharmaking option
and providing ongoing ability for people to move through that
(30:35):
process is more valuable.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
One of the criticisms of palmer Landcorp has been go woke,
go broke, and a lot of that was directed. I
have to say your predecessor, not necessarily you, but have
you gone to woke.
Speaker 8 (30:50):
No, I don't think so. We're like everybody. We've really
focused on definitely in the last few years, really focused
on our farming performance, but equally some of the areas
that could be sewed around the woke piece, and we've
talked about it in the past of valuing nature or
some of the meat ain't testing that I think is
(31:10):
playing out that elements of that are going to be profitable.
You're not seeing them today, but going forward they will be.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Okay, PAMU Chief Executive Mark Leslie, Thanks for balancing the
argument here on the country. Appreciate your time now.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
Thanks Jannie. Always good to have different views on a
good discussion.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, and give you a pr Lady Kara a pat
on the back. She's relentless. She's relentless in a good way.
See you later, Thanks Abbie. Thanks Markets turn away or
coming up to turn away from one. Lots of feedback
coming in on PARMU and Shane Jones and the banks.
We'll try and get to some of it after the
break after we chat to Chris Russell. He's our guy
(31:54):
in OZ and I wonder how he celebrated Australia Day Sunday,
no doubt, with a bit of good key. We lamb,
Chris Russell, that'll get a bite from you.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
If you can buy that here. I don't think you
can actually, but we certainly had a fantastic Ossie Day.
I had a double fantastic Oussie day really if I
caught up with an old mate of mine I went
through UNI with haven't seen for forty years. He's had
a very successful career, including being CEO of Case New
Holland in Australia. But we had a fantastic day catching
(32:27):
up with that. It was almost like we never parted.
And then I had a wonderful day out on a
big cruiser on the water with one of my rich
friends who can still afford to run those sort of boats,
eating Ossie lamb. I must say the temperature forty five
degrees was pretty warm.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Jamie, you're too hot for a key with that one.
Chris Well, let's transition, as they say, from lamb to chicken.
You might have been eating a bit of lamb on
Ossie Day, and good on you for doing that. Hopefully
we follow suit here for New Zealand or our national
Lamb Day on February fifteen. But Ossie's are eating twice
the chicken or fifty years ago.
Speaker 9 (33:03):
Yes, and we can share more than fifty kilograms per
head of chicken meat. You know, that's a kilogram a
week roughly, which means, well, you know, we're having two
chicken based meals a year and interesting, about ten kilograms
more per person than your Kiwi's across the ditch there.
So we seem to be obsessed with chicken. Of course,
(33:25):
when I was a child, jamie chicken was a luxury.
Dad used to bring home a chicken or a duck
every maybe once a month, and Mum had roasted. But
in World War Two you could buy a pound of
steak for six months, so a kilo for ten for
effectively for twelve cents, and chicken was four times that.
And now, of course we've seen a reversal. We can
(33:47):
buy a chicken over here. Now I bought to chicken
thighs yesterday for seven dollars a kilo, and so it's
really moved from being a special occasion food to food
that people are eating all the time. We spend about
eight billion dollars a year on chicken meat Interestingly, Australians
(34:08):
eat about one point three percent of the world's global
production of chicken, which is about one hundred and three
million tons of chicken meat a year, and yet we're
only point three to five percent of the global population.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Ozzie Lobster's back on the menu for Chinese New Year.
Speaker 9 (34:24):
Yes, we've been waiting for this for a fee. All
of lobster Grass has said he'd been waiting for a
long time, and finally the bands were lifted before Christmas,
and we've seen the lobster prices here go up about
fifteen percent since that opened up. But the interesting thing
for lobster fishes is whether that's going to stay out there.
(34:46):
Typically it drops off again in February after Chinese New Year.
But we're making sun as hay while the sun shines,
and I think that we're all hoping that those growths
will be able to It's interesting over in New z Zilland,
where we were slumping down to as low as forty
five dollars a kilo for lobster, which was hardly worth
(35:07):
getting up to go and get the boat out to
pick it up. In New Zealand for exactly the same
lobster your fishermen were getting up to two hundred dollars
a kilo. I had no idea why that was the case,
but hopefully it's come back and hopefully that market will
continue to develop.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Probably because our lobster tastes better than yours. Bananas, banana
were your half key? Were you married to a key? Week?
Bananas were very much on the menu at the Aussie Open?
Che I and Jo would the Australian Open the year?
Chris Russell, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 9 (35:38):
It was a good game. We were obviously disappointed to
see demon all goa but it looks like it was.
He went out to a worthy, a worthy opponent, who
of course went on to win the whole tournament. But
one of the little sidelines of the tournament this year
from an agricultural perspective, is that the amount of bananas
that they're eating. The tournament actually provides about two one
(36:00):
hundred kilograms of bananas to the players every day. And
this is our advice from their nutritionness who say that
dietitians say that you can't beat the hunnable banana. Even
though we've got all these high energy drinks and all
the other things that you have, bananas who've got carbohydrates,
they've got fiber, they got magnesium and potassium to keep
(36:23):
mussel cramps at bay. And so they're the item of
choice if you like, over all the artificial supplements. So
good to hear that that's continuing to be the case.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yeah, I think it's the potassium to stop the cramps
very much so in that hot conditions at the Aussie Open.
Who else is running hot at the moment? Steve Smith,
he's a real Ossie battler. Ten thousand runs joints, Ponting,
Border and War and we give you OSSI's plenty of stick.
But when it comes to your crickets, they know how
to score runs. In fact, it's the one sport I
think you're better than us at. I'm not even going
(36:56):
to give you a chance to reply to that one.
Chris Russell, chat to.
Speaker 9 (36:59):
Your next look forward to it, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Good on you, Chris, just finishing with some of your feedback.
This is good selling. Palm who could start with putting
sheer milkers on their dairy farms. Agreed, and the government
should restart ten year of view and allow sensitive areas
to be QI two covenant and instead of given to
an already overburdened dock, as has happened in the past.
And that is from Ali Ludiman. A surprise surprise, she says, PS,
(37:25):
this farmer's wife did not vote for Ardin. That doesn't
surprise me at all. There, Ali, Look, we've got another one,
and can you please repeat the word to enter the
competition by text? It is cub c u b as
in cub cadet in o lion cub cub cub to
five double o nine and you can win the ride
(37:45):
on MOA the cub cadet maued. It's six one hundred
and ninety nine dollars. That's us done. Catch you tomorrow, Cat.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
You're the latest from the land. It's The Country Podcast
with Jamie McCain. Thanks to Brent your specialist in John
Dee Machinery.
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