Rabobank Best of The Country - May 18, 2019

This week on The Best of The Country, Jamie Mackay caught up with Rabobank's Head of Business Development Hamish Midgley for an update on New Zealand's deer industry.

Richie McCaw:

The former All Black is in Dunedin as a guest speaker for Fonterra's My Connect 2019 conference. He visited The Country to talk a bit of farming, footy, and to request some Bon Jovi hits.

Miles Hurrell and John Monaghan:

Fonterra's CEO and Chairman take a break from the My Connect conference to talk about the co-op's sale of Tip Top to Froneri.

Shane Jones:

The Prince of the Provinces, Champion of the Regions, the Sonny Bill Williams of politics (aka Regional Economic Development Minister) Shane Jones says the Provincial Growth Fund is facing unfair scrutiny and is delivering to the regions that need it. We also quiz him on where he's going to plant these extra half billion trees over the next 10 years (we already plant 50 million per annum) and will he save the planet but decimate small rural communities in Godzone? And are farmers really moaners?

Hamish Midgley:

Rabobank's Head of Business Development previews tomorrow's NZ Deer Industry Conference where hot topics of discussion will be the 'social license to operate' , the nation's level of agricultural debt and why farming needs to get back to a yield story instead of relying on capital gain.

Katie Milne:

The President of Federated Farmers responds to Shane Jones' criticism by saying farmers are not moaners. We also look at the rural-urban divide caused by increased urbanisation and why farming only makes the mainstream media for bad news stories.