Meet the farmer: Colin Hurst | EP 95

Who is Colin Hurst, the new president of Federated Farmers? How did he go from being the quiet kid at the back of the room to leading the country's largest farming advocacy organisation?

Colin joins the Federated Farmers Podcast to share his journey into farming and advocacy, what gets him fired up, the leadership style he wants to bring to the role, and his vision and priorities for the next three years.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hi everybody and welcome back to the Federated Farmers Podcast. Canterbury Farmer Colin Hurst has just been elected the new president of Federated Farmers, taking over from Wayne Langford after his excellent three years of leadership. So, who is the man now leading New Zealand's largest farming advocacy organization? How did a self-described quiet kid end up at the helm of Federated Farmers? And what does he hope to achieve over the next three years? Colin joins me on the Federated Farmers Podcast today, and I hope you enjoy this conversation. Colin, congratulations on becoming Federated Farmers' new president. It's actually been less than a week since you uh stepped into the role. Has it sunk in yet? And before we get into your plans, uh have you got any words you'd like to say to Wayne Langford as well?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Yeah, thanks, Ben. Uh yeah, really appreciate Wayne and all the work he's done over the last three years as president. Look, I started with Federated Farmers Board when Wayne came on. It's been an amazing journey, and I really relished his uh rise and his leadership um ability. Uh yeah, he's leaving the organization a complete peak for himself and uh really looking forward to see where Wayne might end up. So uh yeah, he's still young enough. And uh there'll be doors and opportunities open up all over the place and really um really love working with Wayne. What a guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Good man. How's the how's the past week been for you, Cole? A bit of a whirlwind?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Uh certainly a big whirlwind. Um yeah, I knew that knew the job was big, but it's just uh it's all the doors that are opening uh for Federated Farmers and our members via me taking this role. Look, I've had developed a significant network over my 30 odd years involved in pharma politics, and it it's just actually amazing um the amount of people reaching out that I've touched over that time. Um yeah, it's quite remarkable and overwhelming. Um yeah. Even had um the head of the Australian Farmers Union speaking out to me um yesterday with a letter. So they they've invited me over to come and speak to them. So so that's uh you know, we're going worldwide now.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

That's cool, Colin. Um hey, look, plenty of people in Canterbury, you know, and around the country know you well, of course, but some listeners won't. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, Colin? Where where are you farming? What does the operation look like and who's involved?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yeah, so this is a family farm. So I basically grew up on the farm. Um my parents came here in the early 60s, uh, grew up, and then um obviously went to primary school and then went on to boarding school um up in Timor. I think the the thing about that was sure we're only 30 minutes drive, but it's just uh the the buses are quite long, you know, it took well over an hour, and you know, I was involved in sporting that sort of all that sort of stuff um at high school. So, you know, just a normal farming kid who who loved to come home in the holidays and work on the farm, do all that sort of stuff. Um, yeah, that's sort of where I started. When I left high school, I uh didn't really know what I wanted to do. I've actually basically come to the farm, and my father and mother says, right, Colin, you've got to go and um earn a skill off farm. So, and I was always a sort of a practical sort of guy, um, you know, fixing things. So I ended up doing a welding apprenticeship in Timor. In fact, we um I worked for Andar or Ann and Darling, and they're the they're the engineering company that built wool scours. So I had a um I had lots of trips around the country installing and maintaining Wool Scouts. So sort of the uh wool's back in vogue. Um I'll tell you what, back then in and that was in the early 80s, uh, there was a lot of Wool Scouts around the country, but now there's only one or two, I think. So this is a bit of a story on the journey for wool on that one anyway. Um, yeah, so that's sort of a bit about me as far as um then I came back into the farming scene. Um, I did my apprenticeship and I basically finished that. And then there was a call um to come back to the farm. My father always employed people, so there was a bit of a change in staffing. And um, yeah, I stepped um stepped into the farming, and that was 1986. Um and we sort of ran smack straight into the uh tough old times of the 80s. So I was in my early 20s, um, but that was the start of '86. The neighbour's farm came up about that same time, and obviously a young person keen, enthusiastic. And my parents have always had a uh wanting to give young people an opportunity into land ownership at a young age. And gee, I was 21 and had my name on the title of a farm. Man, that was uh a great opportunity. Um lots of debt, and uh it was basically all debt. And um we really wondered if we'd done the right thing for quite a few years, actually. It was probably into the early 90s before we uh come out of the uh tough old times and certainly lived on virtually nothing. But but anyway, it's all turned out pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Just to backtrack a bit, Colin. So what what was your childhood like? You know, who who was around? Like, did you have a lot of um have you got a lot of siblings? Uh I know the Hearst name is pretty strong down in that part of the world. Did you have a lot of uncles and aunties around in that in the district as well?

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Yeah, definitely. My parents were um off a farming family, or they were both neighbours actually, um, way in Wairanga in the back of Waimati. So um both strong farming families. In fact, my mother's one of 14, so um that was the Bell family. Um, so I've got 54 cousins on my mother's side. So Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

That's making the hooper that's making the hoopers look like a small family.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

So I've got I've got a lot a lot of connections around the country, um, and they're mostly uh farming related, so from what one end of the country to the other, um, through my mother's side, and obviously my father's side as well. There were my father was one of five, and three of them were farming. Um, so I was sort of connected in there. Um, yeah, sort of nine cousins on my um on my father's side. So um and I'll bump into them all over the show. So it's kind of a cool little thing, you know, all the Christmas gatherings, yeah, you know, and certainly on the bow side, um yeah, well, there was um four boys and um ten girls. So obviously the um the the girls and this is my aunties, um most of them actually married into farming. So I've got um cousins um that are orchardists, um, dairy farmers, um, hill country farmers in the North Island, sort of all over the show. And um in fact, what one of my um cousins' sons is um Riley um in in the photo with uh Simon Cameron that uh has just been out in the press release. So it's those connections um and tentacles I've got within with and with our family that's uh yeah, it's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Gosh, in a country like New Zealand, with a family that big, you'd you'd know everyone.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Well, it's degrees of separation is a kind of cool little story. In fact, just um caught up with my auntie, that's my brother, uh my father's uh sister just yesterday, and um I hadn't seen them for a while, so I thought I'd do the rounds. And um one of the um young farmers is a relation uh for the young farmers of the year is a relation of mine. So his grandmother is my father's first cousin, and that's um the young lad Slee. So so I'm heading up to the young farmers uh grand final um this weekend. So um, yeah, another connection.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

That's great. That's great. And and you and you yourself, how many siblings have you got?

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Uh I got a younger brother and a younger sister. So um obviously um through the 80s, um I it was determined that I was going to be the farmer or come back and work on the farm. My brother, he went off to university and did an agricultural science degree. And then he ended up marrying uh well no, what my brother Morris did, he he in his third year at uh Lincoln University, he went off to Oregon State University, and um on his third year, so that he met his future wife there. Um so he's uh assimilated into the American uh system over there. So he he started his job with Cargills, which is one of the big multinational companies uh in the world in in 1990, and that's the only job he's ever had. So he's uh worked his way. He basically worked in off the street at the local grain elevator in Portland, and now he's in head office, he's big, some big high-powered executive, employs lots of people all around the world. Um, and yeah, and he yeah, we get to see him a couple times a year when he gets out to see us. So that's a poor cool little story. So my sister, um, yeah, Carolyn, she's a nurse, and um she's she's um traveled around the world a bit and settled in Christchurch. Um here, married to Terrence, and they've got three children, so we can see them from time to time. So family's kind of important to myself, um, and all the uh all the um cool things that go with that.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

And speaking of family, um, when did Janice come into the picture and talk a little to us a bit about um when you you know that that journey of building both a family and a business together?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Yeah, so we got married in 1988, um, obviously met a few years before, and uh Janice's uh parents were farming, um, but they had moved to town and she she started off farming in her early years um on the farm when she was five or six, and then they moved to town in Timor. Janice's father, Bill, was uh a freezing worker, and Janice's mother was a nurse as well. So that was uh our journey back in the late 80s. Uh as I said, it was a bit of a tough old time what we did, but uh um yeah, we we raised our three and um yeah, did all the things you normally do um with schools and school boards and uh and school camps and all that sort of stuff. So that's kind of busy old time. We supported our children as as best we could, uh, sports and all that type of thing. So yeah, just a normal sort of raw um background. It was kind of a cool time.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

You mentioned that you know the the 80s were obviously a brutal time. I mean, my folks bought their farm in 1984, probably the worst timing ever. But um, did you actually come close to walking away from farming at the time, or was that never actually a cons you know a serious option?

SPEAKER_00 10:51

No, we my parents were in a reasonably strong financial position. Um, and we bought the farm, it was a neighbouring farm, and it there was a bit of a sad situation basically. The the farm had to walk off the farm, and um and obviously there was not much interest in farmland, and we just bought it at a at the going price at the time, but you know, it was it was obviously discounted. Um it's all it was really tough stuff, and um but I think the thing that clincher from me or our family was the high interest rates at that time. I think we were cracking up near 20%. And you know, that was relentless. Product prices were pretty poor. Um, you know, people think about hardship, but that was that was really hard and brutal. Um and thank goodness we haven't ever struck that again. You know, we don't want to either. So, yeah, we climbed out of that. Um, we managed to expand and purchase some neighboring plant farms around um over those few years um and then just sort of build built on that. So that was a it sort of had to um increase to to survive. And you know, it was my father and I basically uh farming away and then uh then we as we got bigger we employed a few extra staff and and went on that journey and um yeah to where we are today.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, I because I can imagine it was a a really difficult time, but if you were in a position to acquire more land, a really good time, right? Because I imagine prices were were pretty rock bottom.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah, well that's that's what happens when when the economy is is poor. Uh prices reflect that. And and it's all about and it's to do with interest rates as well. So it's all about the ability to pay back that um those interest rates, uh, the debt as you go. So the higher the interest rates, typically the lower the price of the land is. And it and at the moment we've got a uh interest rates where they are, um, and it looks like there's a potential uh a little bit uh well, not sure where it's going to go actually. Um the the OCR rate is due to come up, but I'm surprised it hasn't gone up yet. But anyway, it's uh it's good to to be down low where it is at the moment. So it's all really kind of useful.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

So that brings us up to today, Colin. Um talk to us a bit about the farming operation today. How much land have you got as a family? What are you farming across what sort of area?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, so we're farming um 700 hectares and it's a mixed arable farm. So what I mean by that is it's it's grains and seeds um and has a a component of livestock on there. And that was always the true mixed farm cropping type thing. That's it's probably pretty typical for Canterbury back in the day. Um essentially, when we started, it was a sheep farm with a little bit of crop. So, what I mean by that is it's most probably barley we grew. Um, and then through that time, and probably when we got through to the mid-80s or later 80s, we we were transitioning to more cropping. And then we, you know, wheat was a big portion and the small seeds. And what I mean by that is uh grass seed, you know, this is for the puff pastures and uh the turfs for the some of the lawns, um, clover, we grow red and white clover and plantain seed. We were one of the very first plantain growers, um, and that was in the late 90s. Uh, we started growing plantain seed, and there's quite a big journey with that. How we survived um with the cropping thing is we we um we increased our yields quite significantly. So there were some different varieties come out of Europe, um, different methods, um, timeliness of nitrogen. Um in fact before we doubled our yields um over a probably uh a 10-year period that sort of just um yeah, you basically kept us in survival. Well, we've made it kept us in business in reality. Um, and where we are today, um it's a bit of the doldrums in the cropping scene at the moment. But um but the really exciting news uh then is um we've managed to purchase a neighbouring dairy farm, and we just took over on the 2nd of June just uh just a month ago. So uh that's kind of exciting. And it's starting on our journey, the Hearst family's journey to get um the next generation involved in land ownership. So my son Nick and his partner Alice um have a 50% share in that um with Janice and I. And um, yeah, we'll see where that one goes. So um yeah. That's exciting.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Is that your first step into dairying?

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yes, uh we do do we we undertake dairy support. So that's um winter grazing for a neighbor. So we have his cows for the for um June and July, and we've been doing dairy support, that's young stock as well. So we we know a lot know a lot about livestock, so there's certainly a few extra things to learn um on that. And we've managed to secure uh a really good, competent contract milker. Um so yeah, that's Jamie Harris. So he he um Herald's from Taranaki. Um so yeah, so we're we're looking forward to it all.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

So in a time where arable farmers are going through a pretty tough time, uh is your thinking there that you'll actually be able to uh some of what you grow on the farm can then just feed into the dairy system and offset some of those costs?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah, still has to be um traded on a commercial basis, but there's significant uh synergies. Certainly the young stock um we will have here on our on our cropping farm. Um there'll be feed supplied, you know, both grain and silage. So just on the face of it, it looks the $500,000 um benefit, uh, which is pretty significant. Um so in in that, you know, we'll be cross backwards and forwards, but you know, I've got a ready customer or client now. So we can say that on both sides of the equation. That's um when we initially did the figures, we didn't consider that so much. And certainly through the negotiations, um actually opened my eyes or uh of what the opportunities are. So yeah, really quite excited to see how that's um gonna uh pan out.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

I'm probably getting a bit into the weeds or the or the herbage here, but how did you get into um plantain?

SPEAKER_00 17:23

That was old Pine Gore Guinness back in the day, they developed it as a species and um to that made have benefits. And I think it was 1999, and um there was only had a few growers, and then and then I was probably the second generation of uh plantain seed growers, and there was because there was only two or three before that, and um yeah, so we grew our very first crop then, and uh there was a few mistakes um because it a lot of people didn't really know how to manage it. This is for sea production um and some of the different chemicals. Sometimes you you blew the crop out and you didn't actually get much of a result. But because we were one of the first, um, we always got looked after by pine gold Guinness, and we made sure that they uh looked after us and we continue to get that crop. And it and it's of course that's 25 or 26 years later, and um probably at five years ago, they actually worked out it's got these other benefits with um that's right, yeah, that's right. With locking up nitrogen. Um and it's uh in the the cows and whatnot urinate more, you know it's your ureatic, I think that's what it's called, and and therefore it um cycles the the urine through the through the cattle a lot more, therefore it sort of dilutes it and therefore it minimizes the nitrogen impact in the in the pastures. So yeah, I know all about that stuff. That's been an interesting journey in the the in the uh great support, and now it's um PGG written's um through the mergers and whatnot um uh looking after those uh plantain uh varieties and you know they're learning more and more about it. But the support of the good strong agronomic support uh for growing sea crops is super important from the um from the sea companies we that we it's like a partnership we're we're running. So uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Colin, before we get into um talking about federated farmers and your leadership style and things like that, um, I just want to take a few more minutes to get to know Colin Hearst. Um, if by some miracle it's a Friday evening and there's nothing farm related or federated farmers related that you have to do, what's Colin Hearst doing to unwind? Are you you got a beer in hand watching Clarkson's farm?

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Gee, when you go on these um away doing federated farm stuff and you're traveling and sleeping and away from home, yeah, yeah, I don't sleep that well, but by god, you're sort of stuffed by the time you get home to the end of the week. So yeah, certainly having a beer and and chilling out is probably my um big thing. And then uh yeah. And you can get a lot of stuff and done on the weekend to catch up on some of the farm jobs. I know it sounds a bit boring, but uh when you're when you're away a lot, um yeah, the phone doesn't ring on the weekend much, so no one can uh yeah, you can get you can get shut shit done basically. To catch up on a few things. But we're really lucky with a good uh good team on board on the farm. So yeah, everything's sort of trucking on. The the rest of the team is sort of um I try to get out there to meet the guys uh when they come to work um just 4 8 every morning and have a good chat, and then I'll head back to the office and uh deal with all the all the other stuff that's coming at me.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Do you and Janice ever take a holiday? You ever go over to Oregon or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Yeah, no, we're pretty keen travelers. So um try to get a like last year we had a trip in over to Europe. Um so that was pretty cool. Hadn't been there for a year or two. Uh the year two years ago, my um niece got married in America, so we and that was before the um leading up to the Trump election. So that that was pretty pretty interesting times. Uh by golly, it's polarizing the American politics. And so at my brother's um my niece's wedding, um, my brother's got a lot of a lot of friends, and as is um Colleen, my sister-in-law, um, and the rule around there is you don't talk about politics at politics at all, because Morrisman has got some real good Trump supporters, and Colleen's um bit pretty involved in the Democratic Party. So the rule is you don't talk politics, otherwise you end up having a bloody fight or something.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

So reminds me of when I went to Northern Ireland, Colin.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yeah, yeah, well Northern Ireland's a bit like that too. Yeah. Yeah, I've been there as well and seen that um one side of the street versus the other side of the street. So you just just roll with it. Um yeah, so we're pretty keen travelers, definitely. Um and we'll try and keep trying to keep that. So this year, obviously with the Feds election going on, I've sort of stuck close to home and uh yeah, we're working the polit Internal federal farms politics.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

So let's be honest though, when you're traveling, is there a fair component of that where you're still looking at farms and stock?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Oh yeah. There's always a farmer's farmer. And I try to get on farms when I do travel. Um, yeah, so just for example, last year we were in the UK um for a daughter was over there, so we had a a week with her. We did go to um Clarkson's farm. We went to the um the the the calf that that that they run there or the the farm shop, but we got there really early, so we're right at the front of the queue. Um but if you half an hour later, the queue was right out to the road. And then we went to um the new pub the Clarkson's got, so that was pretty cool. Um so my daughter's boyfriend, uh, he got a book, I think it's a couple weeks ahead. So he stayed up to midnight on uh on Sunday night to get to get the booking. So so because those bookings go pretty quick. Um that's in the bar for a meal, so yeah, so that's kind of cool. Cool to do that. Yeah, no, that love all that stuff. Um a lot of the history and heritage over there. Now that's one cool thing about this uh new dairy farm we bought. It's actually it's got historic buildings on it. So that that was an added bonus. Like they're they're not the top grade or they're the second grade down, but like they were they were built in the the homestead was built in the 1880s. It's a it's a large seven-bedroom home. You know, you can almost drive a uh vehicle down the down the hallway. And then and then it's got some um historical brick buildings, because it it was the old Quinn's brickworks, and they used to uh there's actually a quarry on the farm, and they used to uh make bricks, and the bricks have actually uh in Wimati at the at the the church there were made of um Quinn's bricks, and same with the Basilica and Timaru made of Quinn's bricks. So yeah, so that's my sort of a bit of a history buff on some of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

So that leads us into Federated Farmers. When did you first get involved? How did how did the organization come into your life, Colin?

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Well, that was um an interesting journey. Probably starts back with my grandfather, or my great-grandfather, he was certainly involved in South Canberra Federated Farmers, but my grandfather, he was on the South Canberry executive way back in the day. And they they were farming at the back of Waimati and Wairanga, and they used to have monthly meetings in Timor. So he would call in um because we were our farmers halfway between my grandfather's and Timor. So he would call in on his way back from the monthly Federated Farmers meetings, and um always sort of, you know, I was a young, really young kid then, but it was sort of installed into me the um ethos of federated farmers way back then. And um I I actually will dig up the history on that a little bit more to understand exactly what positions my uh forebears held within Federated Farmers. So there's a bit of a um bit of a story there too, Ben. We'll try and delve into. And then my father was always involved in um, he was quite involved in obviously the local Federated Farmers, but and young farmers and debating, and and they won the young farmers debating uh thing uh way back in the day. Um but my father was quite involved in uh local body politics, and he ended up being the chair of the county council. That was before the 1989 mergers. Um, so I've grown up knowing about local body uh politics. Um yeah, so that's yeah been really kind of cool journey to it's sort of genetic, you were genetically um we just can't get away from our genetics, can't we? Can we? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Most Kiwi kids would not grow up steeped in local uh local body politics. Um it's not on most of our radars, so it's actually, I mean, I think it's pretty cool that you did.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yeah, so that yeah, that was pretty cool. And then um we had a local branch here down in Wimati, and uh the chair actually called the meeting, and I didn't actually go. Um I said, oh geez, I don't want to go to the Buddy Federal Farms meeting. But anyway, but anyway, they made me a delegate to the arable section in South Canterbury. Um so the chair rang me up a couple of days later and says, Oh, we'll put you on this um position, Colin. You don't have to go. But I thought, geez, this gave me the step and it gave me a um position, and and I never never looked back. Um so I went back to the uh at Y Media AGN the next year and they made me the vice chair. So and then the the following year they made me the chair. So um so that was a cool little story. But but as soon as I got a um elected position, that gave you the um sense that you belonged and wanted to give back. So yeah, then I got into um some of the yeah, uh gradually moving way up through the system. So and that would have been a good 30-odd years ago.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

So when you um I I heard you last Thursday describe yourself as, you know, once upon a time being the quiet kid at the back of the room. So how did you go from there to leading the show, you know, running the show? Was it like as you say, was it just a gradual building of confidence?

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Yeah, I think, yeah, definitely. Like, obviously, I'm super interested in the politics, all parts of it. Um, and then one of the cool things is my neighbour is quite involved with Federated Farmers, they would pick me up, said, Well, come on, we'll pick you up, Colin, we'll take you to the Federated Farmers meeting. You quite often you have the yarn on the way to the meeting, it's a meeting before the meeting, and then you you talk it and you sort of got, you know, you then you built up your confidence and got to know people a bit better, and then um, and then by golly, I was the person agitating the back of the room, asking all the questions and having a voice and building on that. So it was cool. And I think the thing about this, there's people out there um that never get a a chance to get involved from federated farmers um because they're just we don't have meetings like we do, used to do back in the day. And it's something I I need we need to try and work through because there's an excellent amount of talent, a lot of good talent out there. Um, people can sp speak for farmers. So we just got to try and work out how to bring people out. And you know, Young Farmers is a great organization, so how can we work better with lots of young farmers? I think the the rise of um you know social media and and um and virtual meetings is another thing. I'd like to explore how we can utilize virtual meetings more, um, something we could hold nationally and get people interested in some of the internal goings-on of what federated farmers gets involved with. So it surprises me uh the tentacles that Federated Farmers has, even me in my position, uh the things we touch. Yeah, it's quite incredible.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Colin, so if we think about the, you know, some of the key priorities for federated farmers today around um, you know, the spread of uh carbon forestry, um, infrastructure issues, this and that. If you think back to the 1990s or, you know, when you were early on in Federated Farmers, can you remember any of like the big issues that Federated Farmers was working on at the time? What were what were they advocating for farmers on?

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Well, way back then it was just survival, really. It was survival mode. And um the journey in uh through those times is is pretty significant in the lift in productivity. It's quite remarkable. I suppose I can speak the sheep industry, for example. We're obviously got a whole lot less sheep, but the the meat from those uh lambs is is is is still the same or growing, you know, for a whole lot less animals. So that's quite a remarkable journey there. And certainly for wheat growing, for example, that I know really well, you know, we've doubled our doubled our yields, and you know, that's in a significant increase in productivity. And it's about being smarter with the the usage of notch and fertilizer and that type of thing. You know, the dairy sector's done something similar about how well they manage and graze their pastures to increase the productivity. And I'm going to be learning the dairy sector a whole lot more um as we move through that journey. I think the other neat thing about um it's just interesting caught up with our farm consultant with dairy farming is uh measuring of the data and understanding uh per cow production per day. So in and if it and if it drops on average at the average drops, we need to be working out what's going on. So that's a big eye-opener for me coming from a different sector, the opportunities there. But yeah, it's just I think the key thing there, Ben, as far as that time, it's we've got had to get a lot smarter to keep keep pushing ahead, understanding all sorts of things um and pushing productivity where we can. And and obviously uh what's played out lately is um these these trade deals that we're getting as a country to open doors and open markets. And in fact, we won't be able to supply the markets um that we've got there now. Um so there'll be competition for New Zealand's uh high quality food that we produce. So yeah, it's gonna be interesting on that journey. And I think I'm predicting we're gonna have a really prosperous you know, period of at least 10 years for farming, just when I see all the um turmoil going around the world, uh the cost of energy, I know it's flipped up and down a bit, but that's gonna be generally rising. Um, and food production is super important.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

So despite all the volatility out there in the world and the fact that the arable sector is really struggling, you're confident overall for our agriculture sector?

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Yeah, I'm hugely confident. I've always been a really positive person and looking at the full glasses and all that type of stuff. But look, you've got to be. Farmers are inherently optimistic people. And I've learned it through the arable sector. Um one of my sort of talking points there was, you know, you minimize your stuff ups, you know, and bring the average up. So, because that's all that matters, the average return per hectare across everything. You've got to keep pushing for that. Um, you'll have the odd failure, but um, and we do an arable because we're we've got to deal with the weather um, you know, and and storms and hails, hail swung through Canterbury this last year and sort of hammered some of our farmers. Arable farms, there was pretty tough on some of them. But anyway, that's uh that's the way it rolls.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Are you as passionate? I know this is uh maybe a strange question, but are you as passionate about what's happening on the farm and improving your productivity and everything as you are about the off-farm side of things, the politics, the advocacy, like, or is one of them of grab you more?

SPEAKER_00 32:51

No, no, super. I'm right into everything. You know, this this is New Zealand's got still got significant potential. Look, I I I just see it. There's huge potential some of our hill country. If we can, you know, Holter, for example, if we can manage those um basically rotationally graze, um, graze those um hill country blocks, the ability to increase production is pretty significant. And this is about really well managed pastures. Um this is this is what our dairy farmers do. So utilising um the expertise that that is uh happening on dairy farms on some of these um, you know, extensive properties, um you know, it's bloody expensive to fend some of that country. So, and we can, you know, exclude some of our stock from some of those waterways and special places and the biodiversity opportunities we've got on some of our um Hill Ho Country just built on that, you know, that's a significant opportunity for um for the New Zealand farmers there. I think, yeah, just exploring how that might turn it into a significant opportunity, um, the how the biodiversity credit system is playing out and um as opposed to the the carbon farming for exotics. Yeah, so I think we'll see, I'll see a flip there. When you go to other countries, we we don't have the biodiversity. The other countries don't have the biodiversity that New Zealand does. And that's something that um we lead the world on. When you've got broad acre landscapes, you know, most of it's arable. You've got some, and most of the um the dairy farming is in in is housed, and you don't see the sheep out on pastures like we do in New Zealand. So I think it's the golden era of New Zealand egg. Um it's just getting into it.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

How do you think we extract more value out of that, you know, telling that story to the world?

SPEAKER_00 34:42

That's gonna be an exciting journey because you know certainly we we play on the um clean green and they're just building on that. And uh sure, we've got some um water quality issues, but from what I've seen um and know, I don't know any farmer that doesn't care about the environment. We might not necessarily understand it properly, but um and when the point when it's pointed out to our farmers, um, yeah, they they they will uh recognize the issue and deal with it, but quite often we don't know. But a lot of the uh water quality stuff is done through modeling and people don't always believe that. But I think one of the opportunities here for New Zealand farmers is to um get better water quality data and measurements um and and follow the trends. Uh you know, cities have got significant issues with water quality. Um, you know, I I hear the headlines that uh, you know, Wellington, for example, is spilling their sewage down the streets. Um if this was a farm and it and farmers do have cock-ups as well, you know, the farmer goes to court, gets a $20,000, $50,000 fine uh for a mistake. But what what happens to a city? And look, I'm not expecting um the city's to pay a fine basically back to itself. That's that's a bit nuts. You need to spend the money on building the infrastructure, but yeah, give us farmers a break. You know, sure if there's there's a few rat bag farmers out there, and I'm not condoning any of the behaviour there, but certainly if it's a genuine mistake, um, yeah, work with the farmers to try and get a get it sorted out.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Yeah, so you're talking about environment, environment and biodiversity. I know that that's a real passion for you. Are there any other particular issues that really drive you? You know, what gets you out of bed in the morning when it comes to advocacy?

SPEAKER_00 36:33

One of the key things is uh getting, and this is being communicating to the um the general population of New Zealand, that along those similar sort of lines, farming or primary sector is 80% of New Zealand's exports. That's a big deal. What is keeping New Zealand going at the moment? It's ag. We've got nothing else. Sure, the tourism things uh is getting going well, but the primary sector is yeah, I need to say anymore, it just is driving. You know, if we didn't have ag, we'd be screwed as a country. Um, and just trying to, you know, country calendar, what a cool program is that. You know, more of that. There's there's farmers doing that stuff all over the country. And yeah, just getting a message, um, because at the end of the day, the politicians will listen to federated farmers to a degree, but it's the voters that really matter. And come election time, um, yeah. We want to um we want uh whoever's in power to have a good understanding of farming. And we're not here to stuff it up, but we're here to make the opportunities and uh and grow New Zealand as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Colin, you've stepped into the presidency at a pretty important time. You're speaking of the election there. Feds has just released its election platform uh ahead of that November election. Uh, and you know, that's our five-point plan for the for the next government. Is securing support for those policies your biggest priority over the next six to twelve months, or is there some other stuff on the radar?

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Uh no, that's definitely the key, Ben. That this will go, uh, we're gonna really push this even more. Uh, and then well, for me, it and for Federated Farmers, it it adds um another aspect with having a new president because it gets to tell that whole story again. It gets me in the doors of the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition, um, all the ministers. And um, yeah, don't underestimate how big a deal that is. Um, and as I said, everybody would, you know, my my inbox is um exploding and I'm slowly work working through my replies, but um yeah, it's it's been a whirlwind. Um, yeah, build on all that um existing work and build on the legacy of Wayne Langford is is the real key. Yeah, but it's but we're a team. We've got some amazing board members. It's it's great to have uh Sandra Faulkner on board as Vice, um, and who and I work as a great team, and having Chris Dylan, our new arable chair, he's a Southland farmer. Uh Carl Dean, uh leading the dairy section, Richard Dawkins leading the meat and wall section. Yeah, and then obviously Mark Hooper. Um, he he's my brains on the on the environment. So I looked after freshwater, um, and that was a big job, freshwater and environment, and Mark was looking after RM. But I've um I've had a good talk to Mark, and I'm gonna hand over to the freshwater portfolio to Mark. So that's a big work stream, and it just recognises Mark's uh seniority within Federated Farmers. Uh yeah, so yeah, we've got a pretty cool team. Um, yeah, we're just keen to get muck in and get going and do what's best for New Zealand as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

And of course, you've got another local guy on the board now, too, haven't you?

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Uh yes, yes, Greg Anderson. So Greg's uh yeah, geez, I had a lot to do with Greg, and it probably goes back probably 30 years as well. So when I um I'm not sure if Greg will remember this, um when I came back to the farm, I thought I'd do a bit more formal um um study in relation to to farming, and I did a farm management uh course at the local polytech, and uh went off to that, and of course, Greg, that's where we met Greg, because he was doing the same sort of thing. So that that goes back a while. And um, yeah, and I've always followed Greg through his uh farming journey, you know, we end up having a Hill Country Farm and then um yeah, and the journey with Greg and Federated Farmers as well. So I really have to have great to have Greg on board. Um, yeah, yeah, go South Canterbury.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Colin, more broadly, what sort of leader do you want to be? You know, how would you like members to describe your leadership style three years from now?

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Yeah, well Wayne has a significant uh social media style and he and he um deals and and connects in really well with that younger generation, and that's certainly um something that I want to build on. My aim is to connect out with the regions more. So I want to get it right around the country um and that's just uh certainly a focus and and get in and talk to the members. So that's building on the real bottom up or the grassroots feeling and sense from from our membership, um, and make sure on their voice, um, you know, speaking in with government and officials and that type of thing. And yeah, be conscious of that. So I'm a collaborative type of guy. So it's it's um if you don't always agree, um, talk around the issue and try and land on something. Uh and one thing I'm really proud of that I did down here in South Canterbury, and it and it goes back about 15 years, it was a in Canterbury, if I don't know if people remember, they had the commissioners in running the council, and they were uh ramming through a well, we had sub-regional plans. I know um regional councils have regional plans, but we did sub-regional, so that we we divided the regions up into 10. So we had the one happening in Wimati, and the local committee were about to sign off on it, and uh a few of us farmers, and I I was going along to the meetings all the time as the Fedora's farmers rep, and I couldn't get anyone too excited about it or interested in it. But I had a ring round, and Roger Small, one of the local um farmers here, the best call I've ever had, he rang me on a Saturday morning and said, gee, Colin, this I've read this, this is just rubbish what they're trying to do to us. And um, and it's that impetus that that kicked the whole thing off. And then um we actually ran a protest at the meeting. We got 80 farmers along, and um and everyone was a bit shocked um on the committee. And um, they decided they took us seriously, and they actually gave us more time to develop, um, they gave us another six months. And I actually ended up chairing the group, and it was a reference group in relation to nitrogen. And I chaired that group, and it was a collaborative thing, and essentially um the intense it was to do with the allocation of nitrogen. So the the intensive farmers, and they're mostly dairy farmers and and cropping farmers, and then the extensive sheep properties, and we sort of landed on a place that everybody could sort of live with, still a bit tough, but everybody could live with, and that may meant it was an enduring solution. So, as opposed to um either side, well, they all pushed, but to try and um land on a space that that one side lost or or the other side won. So um, so that's my style. Yeah, do the hard talk when you need to, circle the um the group to talk through the issue and and we on and I'm convinced we can land on it. And this is uh the discussion I want to to have with the environmental lobby, and certainly uh, you know, because I quite often think we talk past each other and and I Genuinely believe we all want the same thing. So that's my um my aims, Ben. So we'll see how we go.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

That's good. I think that example you gave that does tell us a lot about you and your way of um getting things done. Yeah, so thanks for sharing that. It's really good. When your term comes to an end, Colin, um, and I even just started, so we shouldn't be talking about the end, but um, what what does success look like? What do you hope your legacy will be?

SPEAKER_00 44:27

So I'm really hot on this is having a farming system that it's not having all this bureau bureaucracy and box sticking and form filling. Yeah, because I genuinely believe the farmers want to do the right thing, but they're caught off and we're caught off and not sure how to or what to, as opposed to the it's like the um the enforcement team rocking up and saying, you've done this wrong, we're gonna give you a fine or something like that. But it's more about coming, looking around the farm, and a fresh set of eyes is always good in in this help help our farmers what to do, because they just want to know what to do half the time. They just want to follow the rules. Probably it's probably as simple as that. Um they don't like and they will believe it and buy into it as long as there's sensible rules. Uh resource consents are a classic, you know, because quite often you can't do it yourself, so you need to employ a professional, you know, so or someone that's a good wordsmith. Farmers, you know, they're practical people and they're not paper writing people. Yeah, I've had a bit to do with resource consents because we we got quite a number of them on my farm, but if we can somehow um merge into this new farm planning system that um that we're working with the government on, um and it's more more um nuanced to the farm as opposed to one price fits all one size fits all. So, yeah, obviously I'm handing that over to Mark Hooper, that all that that stuff like that, but I'll be keeping a close eye on Mark.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

So you're saying a big goal of yours is to try and leave farming in a place where it's just much clearer. Farmers know what they're doing, they know when they have to do it, rather than at the moment where there's just so many different rules that overlap and there's duplication and it's confusing as heck, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Yeah, just I think the key phrase is, you know, just let farms get on with farming. You know, f Federo farms can help with some of the um anyway. I'm just trying to explore what opportunities might be in that space. You know, catchment communities are are a significant opportunity uh for our farmers. So I think, and this is about working collaborative within the catchment, work out where the water quality issues are. And this is about goes back to my earlier comment about measuring um having good data. And if you understand where what the spikes are, where it's happening, you can normally go and deal with it as opposed to some modeled model thing that people don't always believe.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Colin, let's just wrap up with a quick fly around. What's your favorite place on the farm?

SPEAKER_00 46:54

We've got a really cool spot up on the farm. So as you drive along State Highway One, you look at our farm and you just see sort of rolling country, but you get up on top of the rolling stuff, and we can actually view Mount Cook from our farm. It looks up through McKenzie Pass. It's such a cool view, you know. Um that's quite a few kilometers away. It's probably about 150 kilometres away, and it's just it sticks out there. Uh pretty impressed. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

What's your favourite egg event of the year?

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Oh, Phil Days, no question about it. That's um that's New Zealand's number one, and I've been going every year for the last five or six years, so yeah. Roast beef or lamb? Uh roast lamb. Can't get past it.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

Colin, I really enjoyed that conversation. Thank you. It was really, really good to get to know you a bit better, and I think genuinely farmers listening to this will know you better now as a result of that. Um, thank you so much just for telling us a bit about yourself. Congratulations again on becoming the president of Feds and just wish you all the best for the next three years. I can tell you itching to roll your sleeves up and get stuck in.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yep, thanks, Ben. Great, cool.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. If you've enjoyed it and you'd like to hear more, subscribe to the Federated Farmers Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts so that you get notified when our new episodes drop. And if you have any feedback or podcast suggestions, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us a line podcast at fedfarm.org.nz. That's podcast at fedfarm.org.nz. Catch you next time.