FULL SHOW - 21st May 2026

CountryWide Connect - Full Show Summary At 12:48pm we finish the show with Matt Smith from Lone Star Farms, fresh off winning the Rabobank People Development Award at the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards, discussing how a large-scale corporate farming business can still maintain family farm culture, the importance of staff development, and how genetics and AI are helping future-proof beef farming in tough Central Otago conditions. At 12:33pm we head to our Bayleys Real Estate segment with Ben Turner from Bayleys Canterbury, discussing what is continuing to drive Canterbury dairy land values, who is still buying, and where confidence currently sits in the rural property market. At 12:18pm Ivan Lawrie from FAR joins us to discuss the surprising reality that roughly 75 percent of New Zealand’s bread wheat is imported, the launch of the NZ Grown Grains certification mark, and why consumers may need to start asking where their toast actually comes from. At 12:05pm we catch up with Hamish Best from Conscious Valley, fresh off winning the PGG Wrightson Market Leader Award at the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards, discussing premium direct-to-consumer meat marketing, drought resilience, lucerne development and farming just minutes from Wellington city. At 12pm we have the Farmlands Rural News update. At 11:48am Corina Jordan from the Game Animal Council joins us to discuss Game Changer NZ, the new initiative helping hunters, processors and foodbanks work together to get wild game meat onto the tables of Kiwi families facing food insecurity. At 11:33am Jack Taggart joins us after dominating the Aorangi FMG Young Farmer regional final, discussing Grand Final preparation, modern dairy farming, irrigation technology and the changing skillset needed for the next generation of young farmers. At 11:18am we play our pre-recorded interview with Mike Butterick discussing his new Organics portfolio, Crown land reform, carbon forestry and balancing productive farming with environmental expectations and export branding. And at 11:05am we open the show with Chris Gourley from Fern Energy discussing diesel prices surging beyond $4 a litre, panic buying, pressure on rural fuel logistics and what farmers should expect heading into winter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.