Federated Farmers Podcast

He ditched the city for shearing sheds across New Zealand, a Mexican shearing gang in California, and managing a farm for a Lord in England. Eventually, Alan Chapman-Smith settled on the rugged west coast of Waikato to raise a family and make his living off the land.
In this episode, our host Ben sits down with his dad to hear the story of a life spent farming. Alan, known as 'Chappy', reflects on what drew him from Auckland to shearing and farming, what life was like for a farmer 50-odd years ago, surviving the upheaval of Rogernomics, how farming has changed, and why he eventually decided it was time to leave the land.
There’s a personal reason for this conversation, too. With Alan facing some health challenges, Ben wanted to capture his dad’s story for his own kids, and their kids, to hear one day.
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Want to know where the main parties stand on the issues that matter most to farmers and rural New Zealand? Hosted by Heather du Plessis-Allan at Mystery Creek, the Rural Issues Debate on 30 September brought together Todd McClay (National), Jo Luxton (Labour), Mark Patterson (NZ First), Andrew Hoggard (ACT) and Steve Abel (Green).
The 90-minute debate covered the future of the ETS, whole-farm forestry conversions, the India FTA, rural connectivity, taxation, on-farm solar, the Paris Agreement and much more, with plenty of robust debate along the way.


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East Coast farmer Blair Crawshaw has been using drones for eight years, putting them to work mustering stock, finding missing animals and pests, and checking for problems across his steep Motu farm, Tawa Hills Angus. In this episode, we get practical about how farmers can actually use a drone on farm — what it’s good for, what it can’t do, and what you need to know before buying one.
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When a friend asked Logan Wait to provide some meat for an event post-Covid, he realised there was a problem: he had the animals, but no easy way to get meat from the farm to the people who wanted it. That question led him to found Earth First, New Zealand’s first certified mobile abattoir of its kind. His big idea is simple: what if the meatworks came to the farm, instead of the animal going to the meatworks?
Logan joins us to talk about leaving a corporate job in Auckland, returning to the family farm and building a new way for farmers to process and sell their meat. His vision is for Kiwis to have easier, more affordable access to high-quality meat, while helping farmers keep more of the value rather than losing it along the supply chain.
Links

www.earthfirst.org.nz/contact
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South Canterbury farmer Lesley Roy has taken more than 1,500 wallabies and 40 pigs off her farm this year – but despite that huge effort, the numbers are barely changing. With pigs destroying pasture and eating lambs, and wallabies continually damaging fences and fowling paddocks, Lesley says pest control has become an endless battle. And her experience highlights a much bigger problem facing farmers across New Zealand.
In this episode, Lesley and Federated Farmers pest management spokesperson Richard Dawkins discuss the scale of the pest problem, why farmers feel like they’re fighting the same battle year after year, and what needs to change if New Zealand is serious about getting on top of it.

See the Federated Farmers 2026 Pest Survey Report
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