THE GOOD
The ‘we’ll miss you’ award:
Lain Jager, former boss of Zespri.
The award for breaking the glass ceiling:
Katie Milne as the new national president of Federated Farmers and doing a good job too.
Best ag event of the year:
It’s hard to go past the annual Ahuwhenua Trophy event with nearly 700 people attending this year.
Top shows:
Massey Uni’s Ag Students Awards, the Grasslands Association Conference and, of course, National Fieldays.
Good performers:
Toni Brendish, the new chief executive of Westland Milk Products for getting the co-op back in the black; Steven Carden, Landcorp’s boss, for showing the way with the state farmer’s PAMU brand; Richard Wyeth, chief executive of Miraka Dairy, for that company’s innovative incentive progamme to improve milk quality and sustainability outcomes; and Simon Gatenby, chief of Taylor Preston Meats, for getting sales of meat to Iran back on track.
Good work award:
DairyNZ and Zespri for excellent public relations services to their farmers and growers.
Great grab award:
Silver Fern Farms for nabbing former Zespri executive Simon Limmer as its new chief executive. One to watch.
Purveyors of good, insightful information:
KPMG for its Agribusiness Agenda and MPI for its Situation and Outlook Reports.
Good sorts award:
Feds and Rural Support Trust for helping farmers and others in adverse weather and other events, such as the M.bovis outbreak in South Canterbury.
THE BAD
The desperation award:
To the political genius in National who came up with the idea late in the election campaign of selling Landcorp farms – before even asking the SOE whether the idea would work. Hardly an election game-changer.
The broken GPS award:
The new Labour-led coalition government for the most U turns in a month. We are waiting to see how many more promises are broken.
The font-of-all-knowledge award:
Who else but Winston Peters could claim a reduction in the size of the coalition agreement by reducing the font size? Maybe a vacancy awaits him in the typing pool at Parliament.
Time-to-walk-the-talk award:
New Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor spent the last nine years doing a whole lot of whining and moaning from the sidelines. Now it’s his turn in the big job; let’s see how well he does.
The noisy empty vessel award:
First equals – Greenpeace, the Green Party and Fish and Game and the usual anti-farming PhD types. Let’s face it, these groups hate farming and will not be happy until all farming in NZ is shut down. Ignore them.
Woolly thinking award:
To the wool growers who voted down the wool levy a few years ago. Don’t you wish you had it now to promote your product?
The sore tongue award:
Fonterra’s uncritical shareholders council whose members seem to lick the rear-end of their beloved co-op no matter how poorly it performs – proving the council is more lapdog than watchdog.
THE UGLY
The Vladimir Putin award for democracy:
John Wilson and his fellow Fonterra directors for making sure that only their mates get elected to the board. Perhaps Winston’s push for a resumption of trade with Russia means they get out of butter and we get their politics.
The wedding of the year:
No not Harry and Meghan, but the rather odd couple of Princess Positivity Jacinda and Prince of the Smaller Font Winston. They look such a happy couple at the moment with the new queen doing all the talking and the dark prince smiling and twiddling his thumbs in the background. How long before it goes bad?
The ‘who invited you?’ award for unwelcome guests:
First equal – Mycoplasma bovis and myrtle rust.
The keep smiling award:
MPI for their continuing optimism that they have Mycoplasma bovis contained.
The not again award:
Fonterra for costing its shareholders heaps for getting it wrong with the botulism scare and then paying its chief executive Theo Spierings a king’s ransom for running the show.
Best quote:
Damien O’Connor, “We have a lot of leaders in the rural sector, but not much leadership.” But will it change? Probably not!
