Jamie Mackay’s November Outlook: A Glimpse into the Agrarian Crystal Ball 

A wise old farmer once told me there’s only one thing more useful than a good farm accountant. And that’s a good heading dog!

I’ll come back to that.

Gidday, I’m Jamie Mackay, and for better or for worse, I’m your new +MORE Group Brand Ambassador! Some of you might know a little bit about me because I host the rural radio show, The Country, on Newstalk ZB. Some of you will be wondering who the hell is this bloke and what are his credentials to be a brand ambassador for the +MORE Group?

Well, let me tell you a bit about my background and, as fate would have it, my long association with the +MORE Group.

I was born, bred and raised on a Riversdale sheep and beef farm in Northern Southland, 20 minutes up the road from the metropolis of Gore.

Like most young lads of my age in the late 1960s, I wanted to be an All Black when I grew up. My boyhood heroes were Colin Meads, Brian Lochore, Ian Kirkpatrick and Earle Kirton. When, from an early age, genetics and selectors (without any real foresight) made it apparent that my dream was a pipedream, I had to set my sights on something else.

I was always good at numbers and accounting in school, so if I wasn’t going to be Colin Meads, I may as well be a Ron Brierley (OK, maybe not such a good choice!). So, with the absolute encouragement of my farmer father, who had himself left school at 14 to help on the farm during World War II, it was off to Otago University to get a commerce degree.

He said I was too “clever” to be a farmer, which, sadly, was the thinking of the day. Thankfully, these days we are encouraging our best and brightest to consider a career in agriculture.

I never got that commerce degree finished because, sadly, my father suffered an untimely death when I was in my first year at varsity. So, it was back to run the family farm for me and my younger brother. He was a musterer at the time with no academic inclination. He would eventually attain a doctorate in the history of Gallipoli. It’s funny where life takes you…

My career path was equally unlikely. A dozen years of sheep farming, with a year off to complete a Diploma in Agriculture at Lincoln College.

Then it was two of the most miserable years of my life spent as a house husband. My wife Penny worked, while I looked after two young kids, something I was an abject failure at.

One-third of a commerce degree and a Dip Ag didn’t really qualify me for much, so I bought myself a job when a mate and I purchased Gore-based radio station 4ZG from the Government of the day in 1994.

My journey (I detest that word) from those humble broadcasting beginnings to a nationwide rural radio show is another story for another day, another column.

But back to the present day.

My connection to the +MORE Group dates back a lifetime and still exists to this day. My father was a longtime client of the Malloch McClean office in Gore. When I went farming in the 1980s, I followed suit. These days, I’m involved in a dairy farming equity partnership in Western Southland, and Kylie Fisken from Malloch McClean +MORE’s Gore office is our accountant. I’ve gone full circle.

My brief over the next 12 months is to provide you with a monthly perspective of how I see rural NZ. Plus, I’m looking forward to hosting at least a couple of events, at both ends of the country, for the +MORE Group in the coming months.

So, how do I see the primary sector over the next 12 months and beyond? What do I see in my agrarian crystal ball?

I know accountants love numbers. See, I’m hard-wired just like you guys. So, if I were to offer a report card for the sector for November 2025, this is how it would read (out of 10):

• Red Meat – 9
• Kiwifruit – 8.5
• Dairy – 8
• Remaining Horticulture – 6.5
• Forestry (excluding carbon) – 4.5
• Arable – 3.5
• Wool – 3
• Viticulture – 3

As for the farm accountant v heading dog analogy. Why a heading dog and not a huntaway?

That’s because accountants are the heading dogs of the professional Ag-servicing sector. Gently guiding and steering you in the right direction.

Lawyers, on the other hand, are the huntaways of the canine farming fraternity. Loud, boisterous and often hard to control. They also cost a lot more to feed. Sometimes they’ll even devour an arm and a leg. Eating you up in bite-sized, six-minute increments!

That’s why I’ve aligned myself with an accounting business, rather than a law practice (but don’t tell that to my youngest son, who has just completed his law degree at Otago University).

I’m looking forward to the association.