Colin Meads’ jersey could be yours

The All Blacks returned from a tour in 1957 to play, and lose  11- 9,  against Canterbury.

The All Black No 8 in that game was Colin Meads. He’s put the jersey he wore  up for auction on the Farming Show with the money from the winning bid going to the Canterbury earthquake appeal.

Dick Taylor spoke about the idea on the Farming Show on Tuesday and Sir Colin added to the story yesterday.

Jamie Mackay opened bidding at $1,000 yesterday and it had got up to $2,700 when the show finished at midday.

If you want to bid: Text 5009.  Put FS [space] your bid, name and where you’re from.

UPDATE: the highest bid is now $5,000.

Farmy army moving mountains

When the country is hit by snow and floods,  town people often mobilise to help with the clean up.

The Farmy Army is returning many past favours by taking people power, tools and machinery to Christchurch to help with the earthquake recovery effort.

The student Volunteer Army is doing an amazing job of recruiting and mobilising volunteers to help in the city but many of the recruits aren’t used to the physical demands of the work.

Farmers have diggers and tractors to move the mountains of dirt and silt and are accustomed to the  heavy physical work which must be done where machinery can’t be used.

(RivettingKate Taylor has a photo here).

CRT and Federated Farmers are taking bus loads up from North Otago to join the recovery effort tomorrow.

North Otago Young Farmers has another way farmers can help. They are asking for donations of stock to be sold at the Waiareka sale on Monday with all proceeds going to the earthquake appeal.

Sometimes the gulf between rural and urban New Zealand seems unbridgeable but when it really counts, we are all there for each other.

It’s not just New Zealanders, either. Steve Wyn-Harris who flew down from Hawkes Bay to help found an American who had got airpoints from friends to fly to San Francisco then took out  a loan to fly to Auckland and flew south to join the recovery effort. Steve introduced him to Jamie MacKay on the Farming Show today.

Word of the week

Exhonerate.

Hat tip: Jim Hopkins on The Farming Show.

Backwards, forwards and sideways

Confused about what’s happening with the All Blacks?

Need to know more about rotating players and coaches?

Jim Hopkins has got the backwards, forwards and sideways sussed:

The forward coach is becoming the back coach, the back coach is going sideways to be the defensive coach, the defensive coach will be handling the attacks from the backs while the attack coach will be looking at the defence from the forwards . . .

Well it made sense when he  explained it all to Jamie McKay on the Farming Show.

More milestones

When I posted on today in history I missed a couple of milestones.

Fifty years ago today Mr Rural Radio, the host of the Farming Show, Jamie McKay was born.

Five years ago today goNZo Freakpower  was launched. That makes the man behind it, Will de Cleene, one of the grandfathers of New Zealand blogging.

If it weren’t for my gumboots . . .

Getting a new product on the news is advertising money can’t buy.

It doesn’t happen very often and when it does it is usually for something a lot more glamorous than gumboots.

But Skellerup has made the news with its new five-star Quatrro.

Gumboots haven’t changed much since they were first made in rubber in the 1850s. Improvement has been a long time coming but Jamie McKay has been singing the praises of the Quatrros on the Farming Show where he’s been giving them away.

Woollen felt lining and moulded inner soles inside, tapered cleats to release mud and anti skid zones on the soles are a big improvement on what’s been keeping feet free from muck for generations. No doubt those who wear them every day, especially the people who spend hours standing round dairy sheds, will appreciate the added comfort. They will be able to justify paying $165 for them too.

But I only use gumboots for the rare emergency appearance in the dairy shed, an occasional stint as junior in the sheep yards and gardening which means I’ll be sticking to the old faithfuls.

They still, as John Clarke, aka Fred Dagg sang, keep out the water and keep in the smell; and for the amount of use mine get, that’s all I really need from them.

Clark hints no more tax cuts

Helen Clark intimated to Jamie McKay in an interview on today’s Farming Show that there are unlikely to be any more tax cuts from Labour.

The interview will be on line here later.

And Bill English says  Clark’s promise of a pay jolt for teachers and Michael Cullen’s comments he’s beyond his comfort zone clearly put any future tax cuts from Labour in doubt.

Mr English says National has long been an advocate of placing more trust in taxpayers to make more decisions with their own money.”Let’s not kid ourselves. Despite the begrudging election year tax cuts, Labour thinks it can spend taxes better than taxpayers. If Dr Cullen is really outside his comfort zone, it’ll be Labour’s future tax cuts that are first to get the chop.”

Mr English says National will have an ongoing programme of personal tax cuts. It will be a responsible programme, and a transparent programme.

“National will build on the tax cuts due to kick in tomorrow. We will treat them as the first tranche in our tax-cut programme. That will be followed by another tranche of tax reductions on 1 April 2009, and further tranches in 2010 and 2011.

“We will be disciplined with the taxes that New Zealanders pay, and will make more effective use of existing spending, with a clear focus on the delivery of frontline services.

“The same cannot be said of Dr Cullen, who has been a fair weather Finance Minister. He has spent the windfall gains from the commodity boom, but failed to future-proof economic growth.”

 

Given my blue bias it’s not surprising I’ve never bought into the National as Labour-lite theory and there can be no clearer difference between the two parties than their attitudes to the public purse.

National treats taxpayers’ money with respect and its policies will create economic growth from which more social services can be afforded.

By contrast Labour has no repsect for taxpayers’ money and its policies focus on redistributing it than in economic growth.

UPDATE: The Farming Show interview is now on line. In it Jamie McKay asks if Labour can afford its tax cuts and the  answer from Helen Clark is:

Obviously they’re costed on the best information we had back before the budget was signed off so they proceed . . . but whether it would be prudent to go any further than that is obviously a judgement for the electorate.  We think we went to the outer edge of what we could do for folk when we made the decision for the budget.

Peters in contempt of parliament?

Radio NZ reports that Winston Peters is demanding an apology from the NZ Herald over its reports that Owen Glen made a donation to NZ First and that Glen’s PR advisor Steve Fisher says he can’t confirm any of the allegations.

Speaking about the issue on The Farming Show (should be on line later today) MP Eric Roy said he recalled that Winston Peters had been questioned about the donations in parlaiment and denied the party had received them.

If the alleagations in the Herald are correct and Peters did deny them in the house then he would be in contempt of parliament.

Allomes win Sharemilker of Year

When you’re overseas it is a little disconcerting to realise how little New Zealand features in other countries’ media. Tonight I’m feeling the same way about rural news in our own media.

 The Sharemilker of the Year competition took place at the weekend. Had I not been listening to the Farming Show at lunchtime and heard Jamie McKay interviewing Ben Allomes, who with his wife Nicky, won the national title I wouldn’t have known anything about it.

 Ben aged 30 is National President of Young farmers and a two-time finalist in the National bank Young Farmer contest. He and Nicky have purchased their first farm, 50% share milk 400 cows on one farm, 250 cows on another and lease a 140 hectare beef block. They also have three children aged 4, 2 and nine months.

 

A Dominion profile   (published when they won the regional final in March) explains how they wrote down their goals.

One was to have $1 million in assets in 10 years. “We wrote it down but we didn’t tell anyone,” he says. “We didn’t want to hear other people’s negative views. But seeing it in print made us believe it was possible.”

 

Later, they attended a Dexcel strategic management course and wrote a new mission statement: “To have a happy healthy family and a low-stress sustainable farming business providing freedom and security.” They were both 22.

By dint of heard work they are well on their way to achieving their goals and their story is one which ought to appeal to town and country alike.

While they are proud of their achievements, they don’t want people to get the impression it has all come easy. “We’ve had to work hard and make sacrifices,” Mrs Allomes says.

“While other people our age were spending their money on their social lives, travelling overseas and buying flash cars, we were staying at home and putting aside every penny. We could spend up now, but that will come later. We think we can make better use of our money on the farm for now.”

“We want to enjoy our time with our kids now,” Mr Allomes says. “That’s the beauty of working on a farm; it’s your home as well as your workplace. And we want our children to be brought up knowing what hard work is all about; that money has to be earned, not taken for granted.”

The full awards list is here.