Hamish McKay will be a keynote speaker at the East Coast Farming Expo at the Wairoa racecourse in February.File picture
Hamish McKay is probably best known as one of the nation’s top sports journalists but he’s a real country lad at heart.
The award-winning journo is the keynote speaker at the East Coast Farming Expo Property Brokers Evening Muster and event organiser Sue Wilson said he will bring plenty of rural humour and straight talking to the popular two-day February event.
“After a few challenging years with restrictions and the cyclone, our team can’t wait for the 2024 Expo and the muster on Wednesday evening,” she said. “Our rural communities have dealt with a fair bit recently, and the 2024 Expo — being 12 months on from the Cyclone — is when we can reflect how far we have come since this time in 2023.
“It’s a chance to pat each other on the back and say ‘good job — well done’.”
Hamish was a “child” farmer of the immediate post-Rogernomics period, growing up on a sheep and beef farm.
“In those days you either made ends meet or you exited,” he said.
“Farming will always be unpredictable but I see the medium feature as a time when you see New Zealand really is the land of milk and honey, meat, wool fibre and even forestry.”
He’s still very much connected to the rural tapestry of Aotearoa New Zealand, heading to the Manawatu to milk cows at his sister’s dairy farm and as a senior contributor and host on the REX Rural Exchange Radio.
He’s happy to help bridge the rural-urban divide by asking those thought-provoking questions that both inform and educate urban listeners.
“Farming has never stood still. Every day there are learnings to be shared,” Hamish said.
“The Expo is a meeting of the minds . . . a chance to listen, discuss, challenge and get the very latest on all levels.”
Add that to the “critical” factor of time off farm, and he says it becomes a very important contributor to the industry.
Hamish has also been working alongside Hear4U who have become leaders in mental health and suicide prevention.
“They are not the system’s cup of tea but it works,” he says.
“The work they do is immense, and for little or no financial reward, but the number of lives they have changed is incredible.”
He said it was key that progress must be made across so many fronts. “We must learn more from the immediate past.”
“Why didn’t we plant more after 1938 and Bola? New Zealand should be leading the world when it comes to emissions, but at a timely pace and in an orderly fashion.”
Hamish is proudly a promoter of emission moderation and said it would be the entire country that benefits if that were the case.
“Or do we risk becoming a poverty-stricken nation with low emissions and even lower offshore earnings?
“We know the answer to that, just as we know the big nations will just laugh at us and pick up any production slack.”
He is looking forward to pulling his gummies on at the Expo and chatting to farmers.
“I was out of farming for 25 years before starting REX radio and in that time it was like farming had progressed 50 years.”
Hamish cut his teeth in journalism on radio before moving to TV3 for 20 years, and this year he and fellow REX host Rebecca Greaves won the 2023 New Zealand Ag Journalist and Communications Broadcast Journalist of the Year for their coverage of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Property Brokers general manager rural, Conrad Wilkshire says given the recent adverse climatic events the Expo becomes even more relevant.
“We have always seen value in local farmer-led industry events,” said Conrad. “The Expo has a great track record of attracting excellent speakers with relevant information for farming audiences.”
The Property Brokers Evening Muster is on Wednesday (February 21) at 6pm. Tickets are $20 and include canapes with a cash bar.
The popular mid-week, two-day Expo is a stellar gathering of speakers, presenters, exhibitors, advisors, innovators and more, and is a key event for East Coast sheep and beef farmers.
The East Coast Farming Expo runs from February 21-22 at the Wairoa Racecourse
More information and tickets: http://www.eastcoastexpo.co.nz/