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Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the weather impacting the South Island · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZB Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Jamie McKay, host of the Countries with Us, Hello, Jamie.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: I'd like to say good evening, Heather, but it hasn't
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: been for a lot of people.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: What's it like, how's it with you guys?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm based in Darnedan. There's a few trees over here.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: It got rather blustery just after midday or one or
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: two o'clock. Is the weather changed in Picago got hammered.
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  Speaker 3: We know all parts of the country have been hammered,
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  Speaker 3: but I think if you're looking for the worst affected
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  Speaker 3: from what I can see anyhow, it would probably be Canterbury,
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  Speaker 3: especially North Canterbury. Got a message from a farmer who
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: said he's been in the Muri basin today. That's covid
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  Speaker 3: and Era area in North Canterbury. His words, effing carnage.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Fifty pivots. These are the big pivot irrigators, blown over,
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  Speaker 3: trees and sheds gone everywhere. So it's going to take
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  Speaker 3: a lot of repairing. And you might remember a few
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  Speaker 3: years ago when they had a big wind in Canterbury.
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  Speaker 3: Those pivot irrigators, which cost hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions
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  Speaker 3: of dollars. They try and park them up into the
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  Speaker 3: wind when it's really strong, but it looks like that
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  Speaker 3: wasn't enough. A number of those have been damaged. And
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  Speaker 3: the irony of all the situation is they're going to
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  Speaker 3: need those pivot irrigators very shortly because this wind has
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  Speaker 3: not only been wickedly destructive, it's rarely starting to dry
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  Speaker 3: out the east coast of both islands.
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  Speaker 2: On the Synergizer has Rabobank said they quite like the
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  Speaker 2: look of it.
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  Speaker 3: What's a synergizer?
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  Speaker 2: The synergizer is the name of the cow, Jamie.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, is it? Well, I'm learning from you. You should
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  Speaker 3: just do the rural spot yourself. I assume we're talking
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: about the same Rabobank reports. Strategic moment for dairy beef
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand is that I love it the Synergizer. Well, look,
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  Speaker 3: we've got a big issue in this country in the
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  Speaker 3: dairy industry, and that is what to do with the
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  Speaker 3: bobby calfs. So what happens to the calves For people
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  Speaker 3: who are unaware, is that for a cow to produce milk,
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  Speaker 3: it has to get pregnant. It has to have a calf.
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  Speaker 3: The calfs are taken off the dairy cows at three
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  Speaker 3: to four days of age, and then the cows and milk.
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  Speaker 3: Now what happens to those calves, Well, about a quarter
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  Speaker 3: of them are retained as replacement dairy hiffers. The females
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  Speaker 3: about another quarter raised as dairy beef and they will
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  Speaker 3: be processed. I'm worried to use the word killed heather
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  Speaker 3: in these enlightened times, but they will be killed as
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  Speaker 3: beef animals in two to three years time. But that
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  Speaker 3: leaves the other half and they haven't got a very
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  Speaker 3: good future at all. Basically, they go to the meat
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  Speaker 3: works as bobby calves at four to five days old.
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  Speaker 3: That's feel And if that sounds barbaric, it's not as
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  Speaker 3: barbaric as they used to be because they used to
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  Speaker 3: just be disposed on farms. So look, I think if
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  Speaker 3: we're or the dairy industry should I say, has a
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  Speaker 3: social license to operate, and especially with the animal welfare
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  Speaker 3: cruelty side of all this, it will become important that
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  Speaker 3: every calf born is raised and serves a useful purpose.
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  Speaker 3: So I think that's where having more dairy beef pridet
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  Speaker 3: progeny from these dairy cows will be the answer. Because
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  Speaker 3: Rabobank had come out and said, at current market average
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  Speaker 3: prices for this season, rearing an additional six hundred thousand
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  Speaker 3: calves could unlock one point two billion dollars in value.
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  Speaker 3: And imagine if we had that here, that we could
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: pay the teachers more to learn about Palestine, and we
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  Speaker 3: could play the pay the hard working doctors and nurses
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  Speaker 3: a bit more. Goodness knows they deserve it.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: God on you. Jamie has always really loved talking to you.
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  Speaker 2: That's Jamie Mackay, who's the host of the Country.
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