TRANSCRIPT 🔗
00:00:10
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster. Mark Smith is General Manager of Milk Supply for Open Country and joins us this afternoon. G'day Mark, good to catch up again.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, good to talk Andy. Nice to be back on the show.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, how have things been over the last wee while? You guys have been just busy enough that time of year?
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always a busy time of year with farmers starting up. Yeah, look, we've got a little over 1,200 farms supplying us now, so that keeps us That keeps us pretty busy with the start of milk collection, particularly for the spring carbon guys.
00:00:47
Speaker 1: It must be coming up just on 12 months since you guys acquired Meraka and MVM. Would that be right?
00:00:55
Speaker 2: You've got a very, very good memory. You must be going back through your records. Yes, it's just a little over 12 months since those two businesses came into the fold. Look, they're performing really, really well. They're exceeding expectations. They've integrated excellently into the business. So, look, we're really pleased with how those two businesses are performing and how they fit into the wider Open Country group. So, look, we're pretty pleased with that. So 12 months down, yep, and looking forward. Things are looking really, really good, Andy.
00:01:28
Speaker 1: MVM in particular, the Open Country branding went up there not that long ago.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So yeah, it all comes under the fold now. Yeah, the site's looking good. Actually, we had an open day probably a couple of months ago where we had 200 or 300 farmers come along and we showed them through the site and they were very, very impressed with how the site looks. Look, Matara Valley is a really, really, really good site and it presents really, really well. So we're really pleased with that business.
00:01:59
Speaker 1: Well, I'm pleased my preparation hasn't gone unnoticed, Mark. We'll leave it at that. Now, just around the country, as far as milk flows, what are we seeing? Ground conditions?
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Oh, look, what are we seeing? Look, before I come on here, Randy, I had a quick couple of phone calls to a few of the milk supply managers in the region, and we're really finding it difficult to find something to complain about. So, look, if I talk about the Waikato region, Bay of Plenty, Taupo region that supplies our Waharoa and Horatū site and the Miraka site or the Mokai site. Like, you know, grass is growing, the maize is up, the cows are in good mate. Mating's going really, really, really well. Look, and we've just had... Well, look, to be honest, we did start to dry out a little bit here, but we had about 50 mils over the weekend. We had another 50 mils last night, and there's about 50 mils on the forecast today, so... In that region, that's going to push us through well into December. But those regions are going really, really well, and milk's flowing excellently. Whanganui, very, very similar. The Whanganui, Manawatu, Taranaki, also going well. Mazes up, plenty of tractors on the road, making silage. We head down to your neck of the woods, Southland Gore. The last couple of days were a little bit cooler, but we're two or three weeks into mating. Milk volumes are excellent. We've recovered really, really well from that sort of June, July, August, September period where we're... I'm preaching to the converted here, where it was very, very, very wet. Yeah, she's all looking real, real peachy, to be fair. A few farms coming to the market. There's a bit of activity there. It's actually a little bit... It's quite hot, actually, so... So, yes, no, can't complain, mate, can't complain thus far.
00:03:47
Speaker 1: As far as the market happenings, a lot of positives happening regarding protein, regarding the milk market at the moment, the GDT's been good, the pulse markets have been good. Mark, what are you guys seeing?
00:03:59
Speaker 2: Look, the payout is, look, we've just recently lifted our payout. We're just, I suppose, just a smidgen under $ 10 is our forecast as we stand today. There's strong global demand for milk protein. That's really supporting the powder values. We've seen the Chinese buyers rebuilding stocks. They've got a big concern over there around the ability to source some local product. So pricing's looking strong as we stand today towards the end of the season, which is always a positive to keep the payout high. Look, one of the things that came out of some discussions I've had in recent times is we're hearing over about 500,000 cows have been culled in China, so hence the need to source product from overseas. So, look, she's looking pretty positive. What keeps on coming up is that discussion around El Nino. Look, it'll be what it'll be, but that is... That is something that the markets are talking about at length and they continue to talk about it. But we'll see if it turns up or not.
00:05:08
Speaker 1: So overseas markets, there's still an insatiable appetite for New Zealand produce?
00:05:14
Speaker 2: Yep, that's what we're seeing, 100%.
00:05:17
Speaker 1: Rightio, we're not far away from Christmas. From a local perspective, open country lens I suppose, what have you guys got on the horizon before the fat man turns up?
00:05:26
Speaker 2: Look, there's a lot on the horizon. I mentioned farms on the market. So when an open country farm sells, we're always keen to retain the milk. So we do keep in strong contact with what's happening in the market. And then, of course, we've got our infamous Christmas functions. That's our opportunity to give back to our supplier base. So You know, with the recent acquisitions, I think we're up to 10 Christmas functions this season. So, look, Andy gets lucky. I like him, eh?
00:06:01
Speaker 1: You say these are infamous. Dare I ask why?
00:06:05
Speaker 2: Oh, look, it's great to have our suppliers come along. We have wonderful turnouts. You know, we probably have... Oh, across those functions, you know, 1,500 people come along to our Christmas functions, you know, and enjoy a meal and a wine or a beer with us. So we really enjoy putting them on and our supplier base really enjoy attending.
00:06:28
Speaker 1: Plus you give them some of that wonderful cheese as well to go home with.
00:06:30
Speaker 2: Oh, and there's always a bit of cheese and it even could be a little bit of butter as well this year, Andy.
00:06:37
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with that, Mark. Hey, always appreciate your time on the muster. We won't catch you again until after the festive season, but the team with Open Country, it's always good to catch up.
00:06:47
Speaker 2: Thanks, mate. Look forward to it. You have a very nice Christmas. A little bit too early to be talking about Christmas and the silly season, but if I don't talk to you beforehand, you have a good one.
00:06:58
Speaker 1: Mark Smith, General Manager of Milk Supply for Open Country. Mark's pretty much on the button there. Tom Sleaze up next, talking surfing for farmers.