Latest / Best of Business / Hamish McKay: The Country spokesperson on whether the recent beef boom could continue

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Hamish McKay: The Country spokesperson on whether the recent beef boom could continue · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News talks'd be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Hamous Mackay, the Rural.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Report on Hither due to see.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Alan Drey of the Country is with us, Hallo, Hamish
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  Speaker 2: Hither and finds you. What are you doing in Wellingson?
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  Speaker 2: It's not very rural of you.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I just started having a couple of days at
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  Speaker 3: the Rural Institute of Rural Professionals conference. It's freezing down here,
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  Speaker 3: but probably not was cold. Hey. I like that mountain
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  Speaker 3: name by the way, Big Norm.
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  Speaker 2: You know what, that would have been better better. Big
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  Speaker 2: Norm would have been a better name than Mount Kirk,
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't it.
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  Speaker 3: I just remember that song that those guys wrote about
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  Speaker 3: a Big Norm, you know, Norm as a baby on
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  Speaker 3: our Christmas tree or ah, he was great. I like Norm,
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  Speaker 3: Big Norm would have been great.
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  Speaker 2: Listen while you're down there, you're talking to these guys
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  Speaker 2: right at the Institute of Rural Professionals. And have they
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  Speaker 2: raised some logistics concerns with you?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look at the heart of this, it's get this
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  Speaker 3: is a lack. We're going into some real big changes
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  Speaker 3: over the next twenty years. We can expect a fifty
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  Speaker 3: five percent increase in the freight on our roads in
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  Speaker 3: this country. Now, not only is that going to be
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  Speaker 3: a huge infrastructure issue, but also to cope with that,
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  Speaker 3: we need truck drivers. To the point it's such a
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  Speaker 3: big problem there are some calling for it to be
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  Speaker 3: a subject in schools. And I guess when you see
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  Speaker 3: these big sleeper units on Instagram, you know, basically those
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  Speaker 3: homes in a truck cab, well it looks pretty enticing.
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  Speaker 3: But look, in all seriousness, we need to be training
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  Speaker 3: up hundreds of truck drivers based on those sort of
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  Speaker 3: projections for the future, or at the very least sort
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  Speaker 3: out our rail options so we can keep a few
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  Speaker 3: trucks off the road that might help.
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  Speaker 2: Or what about we sought out also the ferry options.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the whole thing is a bit for shambles,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it. Listen, are you concerned that beef is not
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  Speaker 2: going to be going gangbusters in the near future?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I to a certain degree, I just think we've
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  Speaker 3: got to keep our feet a little bit on the ground.
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  Speaker 3: We're making a lot of money out on the position
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  Speaker 3: of the dollar against the US dollar, but there are
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  Speaker 3: things that are helping us in the US at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: which we'll keep it going for a little bit, well
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  Speaker 3: not a little bit. I actually think the medium to
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  Speaker 3: long term, the medium outlook is pretty good because we
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  Speaker 3: can't get enough. They can't get enough of our grinding
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  Speaker 3: beef which they use for our burgers. And recently they've
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  Speaker 3: had some big issues, not only drought, and of course
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  Speaker 3: they killed off a lot of cattle and they wanted
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  Speaker 3: to get their numbers up again. But they've got this thing,
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  Speaker 3: this terrible thing here. They're called screw worm, which they
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  Speaker 3: thought they'd eradicated in the sixties, right, and they're saying
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  Speaker 3: that that could be you know that thing, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's a flesh eating fly that sort of sort of
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  Speaker 3: goes for the abdomen area of body, and it affects cattle, sheep, dogs,
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  Speaker 3: enters any kind of wound. And they have got that
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  Speaker 3: is massive. That risk here they're trying to breed some
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  Speaker 3: kind of flying out of to eradicate their own type,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the ones that spread the screw unbelievable. So
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  Speaker 3: I think the beef outlook for a while while long
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  Speaker 3: as the US say strong and the other markets we
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  Speaker 3: go and do are strong, it's pretty good.
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  Speaker 2: I'm pleased to hear it. Hamish, thank you so much,
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  Speaker 2: mate and Joy Wellington stay warm. Hamish Mackay hosts of
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  Speaker 2: the Country.
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