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The Muster- Sean Molloy: Pig Farming Correspondent · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This interview is brought to you by Agri Centre South.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Branches in Lawnville, Gore, Cromwell, Milton and Ranfurly.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Drop by your local Agri Centre South branch today. We're
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: away to Sheffield in Canterbury this afternoon on the muster.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Sean Malloy is our pig farming correspondent. He's on the
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: New Zealand pork board, that is, pork borg. Sound like
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the sweetest chef. G'day, Sean. I suppose the sweetest chef
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: out in meatballs. I wonder if they're pork balls.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: G'day, Andy. How you going? You get more pork balls
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: down you, that's the one.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Straight off the cuff, the pork industry on their social
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: media channels, they're really making a play for the market
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: at the moment, talking about the price of pork as
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: opposed to beef and lamb.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mate, we're struggling a wee bit out in the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: market and we sort of can't understand it with the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: cost pressures that people have been under and with inflation
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and just everything going up and, you know, petrol prices
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: being expensive. So we sort of said, hey, we need
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to really give us a bit of a nudge and just,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you know, wake people up to pork that it hey,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: it tastes good and it's really affordable and it's really
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: good quality and there's quite a price differential there at
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the moment and maybe we can provide a bit of
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: relief for people's back pocket and move a bit more
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: product and get a few more people eating a bit
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: more pork, which would make us really happy.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: But why has it taken so long for the pork
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: industry to realise that there is an opportunity here?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Things have been pretty good the last sort of three years,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and we've been able to get rid of product fairly comfortably,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I guess. So probably from our point of view, we've
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: probably just been on our hands a little bit, and
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: we just need to give ourselves a wee bit of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a slap and wake up and get out there and
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: compete a bit more.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: But because it's interesting on the social channels, just comparing
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: a couple of dishes, saying what's the difference here? One's beef,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the other one's pork, and there's a difference in the
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: price straight away. So obviously the price, you know, there's
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: still the money in the industry for New Zealand producers.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's been okay. We are, this coming sort
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: of season, grain prices are going to change a fair
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: bit with a heap of dairy conversions going on up here,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: you know, the sort of moratorium being off on that.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: There's been quite a change, so it's all coming out
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of arable land that's swapping. So yeah, I think grain
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: supply is going to get tighter. So we'll see a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: bit more cost pressure. So we need to, while we can,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: get people across there and think about our future because
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a little bit more expensive than
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: what's been. So there's potential that it might take a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: bit more fun out of the game because it's been
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: pretty good the last, like I say, three years.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Now, you're based up at Sheffield in Canterbury. You talk
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: about dairy conversions. Of course, they're back on the table
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: up there. Are they just happening here, there and everywhere?
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Is there another dairy explosion in Canterbury?
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's quite an explosion, but there's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: definitely a significant swing. There's a lot of places converting.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: You're going around, you're seeing sheds going up, you're seeing
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: bloody tracks going in. Yeah, I personally know four or
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: five people that have... converting their properties, going from cropping to,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: or mixed cropping to dairy.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: You can understand that given the way the market's been
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: for the arable sector too. It makes a lot of sense.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, you can't blame the guys for doing that.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: You've got to look to your future and say, we're
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: going to get good long-term sustainable returns off the property.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't really feel like arable's Doing that, that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: whole sector sort of needs a bit of a shake-up
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: in the way they do business too, I think.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Now, you do some arable on your farm as well.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Is this purely for yourselves or is it for the market?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: No, it's just for ourselves. But we've done a little
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: bit of stuff here and there, and waiting 12 or
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: 18 months to get your money after growing a crop
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: is pretty poor. I don't know anywhere else where you
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: do that. I think those sort of things have to change. But, yeah,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: we're fortunate. The vast majority of what we do just
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: goes back into the pigs. So, yeah, it makes it.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Easy for us. Last time we spoke to you, Sean,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: the price of land up there was something like $ 85, 000
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: or $ 90, 000 per hectare for farmland. Are we continuing to
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: see these prices? I mean, Canterbury's in a real boom.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure. I think that was some of
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the peaks of what we're seeing. I think probably neighbour stuff. But, yeah,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: it's definitely stepped up. I haven't really been across... anything
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: else that's been trading for a wee while, to be fair,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it's definitely taken a step up, for sure.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: What are your rates like up there? Have you seen
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: a big increase, given the way that we've seen an
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: explosion in towns and the likes, for example, Rolleston and Darfield,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the way they've exploded?
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we're seeing a heap of pressure come on that,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and the other one is the water swapping these, separating
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: out these water entities now. We've just been getting a
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: few bills coming through for the farm and for rental properties,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and it's sort of like, well, this is a little
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: bit worrying where this might be going. So we just
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: have to keep a monitor on that and I hope
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: they don't get too carried away with it.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: So just regarding the pork industry and pricing there, we've
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: spoken about this before, but yourself as a producer, are
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: you happy with returns? I suppose you're never happy, but
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: are you content?
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're reasonably content, but like I was saying just before,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of headwinds coming with price rises and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Building anything now is really, really expensive. And of course,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: you know, Aaron's on a countdown for our farrowing accommodation
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and a couple of other bits and pieces. So yeah,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: talking around some other guys that are trying to do
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: stuff at the moment, they're all sort of eyes are
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: watering a little bit at the cost of building now.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: It's just, it's really, really sort of got away. So,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: you know, you look at it and think, it doesn't
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: even feel like it's quite economical, but So, yeah, we
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: are content, but, yeah, there's some headwinds there that we're
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: going to have to contend with.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: What's on farm inflation like for a pig farmer in Canterbury, Sean?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not too bad. Stuff's still rising, though, eh? Bits
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: and pieces here and there, 5%, 6%. So that sort
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: of stuff's still a little bit worrying. But, you know,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: a bit of that is also linked back to what's
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: going on in Iran, with Iran and the US. So.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Products that are made and require the petrochemical industry to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: a large extent to produce the goods. So the input
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: costs have all gone up and some of the shipping
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: stuff still at different times, depending on what's going on
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: over there, things bounce around a fair bit. So yeah,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: we haven't sort of settled. I'm guessing that's going to
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: go on for quite some time yet until something gets
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: resolved there.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Are you seeing younger people wanting to be involved with
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: the pork industry as such?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we still do, but I think it's a bit
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: of a challenge there. We're quite a small industry, so
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: it's just trying to raise your flag and certainly people
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: have quite a different perception of pig farming to what
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: actually goes on. People have a dirty, stinky job where
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: you're just throwing a bucket of scraps across to a
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: whole lot of hungry pigs where it's quite different to that.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: There's a heap of technology, the buildings and and the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: gear we use is quite sophisticated. There's a hell of
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a lot more to it, and it's a lot more
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: scientific than anybody would imagine, I believe.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Is there concern in the industry about a possible change
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: of government and what this would mean for pork farming regulations?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah, that's a real concern. I'm hoping
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: that we don't have much of a change to the government,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: just maybe a shuffle of the who's got how many
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: seats and what that wee power balance is amongst the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: main one. But, yeah, who knows what's really going to
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: happen here, eh?
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Sure. We've had an absolute dog of a season down
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: here for September anyway in Southland. What's your growing season
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: been like up there?
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've been pretty good, eh? We've sort of had steady...
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: We've had a lot of winds, which we haven't had
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: for probably three years. But we keep getting regular dollops
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of rain. Just when you think the wind's sort of
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: going to dry it out, we get... 20, 30 mil
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of rain, and we just had snow on the weekend,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: which is getting fairly late in the season for that now. But, yeah,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: we're pretty good. Things are starting to kick away here now.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: There's contractors that have been bailing stuff up, which is
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: pretty early on for that. So, yeah, we're in pretty
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: good shape really at the minute.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: We've got a good forecast for the rest of the
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: week down here in the deep south shore, and we'll
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: take that. Always appreciate your time on the muster.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Andy. Cheers, mate. All the best.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Sean Malloy, pig farmer based at Sheffield up in Canterbury.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: You're listening to The Muster. Up next, from Young Farmers,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: we're catching up with Emma Wilson.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: MUSIC