Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host recaps the 2026 Federated Farmers High Country Field Day

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Jamie Mackay: The Country host recaps the 2026 Federated Farmers High Country Field Day · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed Be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Jamie mckaye, hosts of the Countries of.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: The Inner Jamie Goda.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Heather, did none of the labor MPs turn up?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: No, after you naming and shaming them and embarrassing me, Heather, No,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: none of them turned up. Apparently there was a bit
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: of sickness in the caucus. This is of course, to
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the Federated Farmer's High Country Field Day last Friday, and
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  Speaker 2: what a cracking day it was too. At Glenary Station
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and eighty people. There a lot of high
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: country farmers, six or nearly a seventy thousand hectare farm
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: just up from Waikaia and northern Southland, spans over into
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  Speaker 2: Central Otago as well, and they've even got a thirty
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: one thousand hectare paddock out the back, although they don't
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: actually graze that at the moment, and so the FEDS
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: are not the Feds. Let me try that again. The
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: labor politicians never turned up. Andrew Hogart did, Mark Patterson did.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Act New Zealand first, both Associate Ministers of Agriculture, Mike
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  Speaker 2: Butterick was there. Penny Simmons and Joseph Mooney, the two
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  Speaker 2: local MPs, were there. But the idea of the field
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  Speaker 2: day was to get the opposition MPs along so they
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: could try and plead their case, especially when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to things like wilding pines. And this is a real
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  Speaker 2: issue on Glenary Station and a lot of high country
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  Speaker 2: stations around the country. The seed source of these these
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: are blowing like twenty kilometers the seeds over two or
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  Speaker 2: three mountain or not mountain hill ranges and are landing
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: on these properties and are growing wilding pines or conifers. Now,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I would have thought if you could get cattle on,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: you could better knock them over when they are I
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: don't know, knee height or something like that, but apparently
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the only way to get them is when they're young
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  Speaker 2: and just seedlings. You know, I'm talking ten to twenty centimeters,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and if cattle and sheep are hungry enough, they'll nip
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: them off. When the tree gets to knee height, it's
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: too late, so they reckon. If they let the marino
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  Speaker 2: weather's loose on some of this land that's not being
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: grazed at the moment, or use the whole to Collus.
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  Speaker 2: Because at Glenari they're using the wholter Collis for intensive
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  Speaker 2: beef operations. They could push the cattle basically into a
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  Speaker 2: condensed area and make them eat the wilding pines. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the owner of Glenary Station, David Pinckney, he's made a
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  Speaker 2: very sensible comment. He said politicians needed to consider whether
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  Speaker 2: the Conservation Act sufficiently allows for grazing on conservation the States.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: We've got an issue in this country. We're underfuneling wilding
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  Speaker 2: pines and they are taking over either what a simple solution.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Isn't it nutty that we don't try and do this.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I'd like to see it happen all right now silverfer
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and Farms, I was very happy to see this return
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: to profitability.
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  Speaker 2: You yeah, yeah, and it's a it's a good turnaround.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I'm using the after tax numbers. I was talking to
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Dan Bolton, the chief executive. He wanted to use the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: pre tax numbers, but I figure you're the best. One
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: is the after tax number. So net profit of twenty
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  Speaker 2: nine million, it's a fifty million dollar turnaround from the
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  Speaker 2: twenty one million dollar loss they made in twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 2: Remembering this result is for the twenty five calendar year,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: their revenue listen to this one. Their revenue has lifted
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: fifteen percent to just over three billion dollars. They are
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand's biggest meat company. But when you look at
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: that profit, heather twenty nine million on a three billion
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: dollar turnover. That's like a one percent profit on turnover.
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  Speaker 2: So it just goes to show you what a slim
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  Speaker 2: margin business the red meat industry is. So they operate
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Silver Firm Farms fourteen processing plants killing sheep, beef, and venison.
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  Speaker 2: Red meat prices were depressed in twenty three and twenty four,
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  Speaker 2: they came right last year. New Zealand's red meat exports
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  Speaker 2: nineteen percent higher in the calendar year twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: up to nearly twelve billion. Look this tighter supply and
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: higher procurement costs, and this pressure to run these plants
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: on a thin margin. But despite these challenges, Dan By,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: the chief executive of Silver Fern Farms, was very well,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: not very quietly confident might be a better description of
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: the prospects for the red meat industry into the twenty
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: six twenty seven season, which is the coming season. So
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: despite all the woes, in the world. At least we've
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: got that to look forward to. Inter national party cabinet reshuffle, oh.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Lord, and that too, Jamie, you're a political nerd. Thank
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: you very much, Jamie McKay, Holost of the Country. For
• 4:37
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• 4:40
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