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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks, that'd be yes.

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Speaker 2: I can't believe it's not. But I've been a funny

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Speaker 2: old week on that front, Hassen, And I can't say

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Speaker 2: I was blown away with surprise when Fontira came out

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Speaker 2: and said, you know what, No, actually, we're not gonna

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Speaker 2: lower our profits. We're not gonna cut our cloth so

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Speaker 2: that Kiwis can have slightly cheaper butter. But yeah, very

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Speaker 2: interesting to watch it all unfold. And watching it unfold

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Speaker 2: was tech commentator Oscar Howell, who has noted that Fontira

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Speaker 2: has an interesting little scheme, a little incentive program underway

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Speaker 2: at the moment for qualifying farmer shareholders, which basically means

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Speaker 2: that if they live up to various standards, they do

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Speaker 2: what they're supposed to do under the cooperative, they can

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Speaker 2: get fifteen hundred bucks a year as a subsidy to

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Speaker 2: invest on on farm technology or services. Get a Oscar,

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Speaker 2: what in a jack?

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Speaker 3: Thanks for having me?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for being with us. So what kind of

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Speaker 2: on farm tech are farmers using?

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Speaker 3: Well? Currently, the kind of big things are pieces of

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Speaker 3: tech that are going to make their life easier. Give

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Speaker 3: them better access to information help them make decisions quicker.

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Speaker 3: So you're looking at things like pasture management. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's apps and dashboards out there like aim of Farming,

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Speaker 3: which kind of you know, give them insights into pasture

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Speaker 3: growth deficits and surpluses. You've got things like on farmer

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Speaker 3: accountancy data and insights optimization, things like trev all the

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Speaker 3: way down to kind of how their animals are faring,

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Speaker 3: recording all of their animal data, that sort of thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And increasingly farmers in new seumds, especially dairy farmers,

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Speaker 2: are using like wearables for cows, right, and I think

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Speaker 2: of that amazing company Halter, which does the smart collars.

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Speaker 2: But you've got a survey here from twenty twenty three

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Speaker 2: done by a dairy and Z that I think shows

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Speaker 2: about eighteen percent of farmers are now using wearables on their.

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Speaker 3: Cout Yeah, and I mean that's translating to over eight

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Speaker 3: hundred thousand cows across the country. It's up from about

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Speaker 3: three percent and twenty eighteen, which, like you said that

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Speaker 3: they're effectively smart watchers for cows, and it gives farmers

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Speaker 3: insights into all of the different things happening inside their head.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, again, it just goes to show farmers of

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Speaker 3: really embracing technology to make their lives easier.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny because I think a lot of us

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Speaker 2: who aren't farmers still think, oh, well, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: all about just growing good grass. And sure they might

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Speaker 2: you know, check a couple of diodes in the ground

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Speaker 2: or whatever, get a bit of a reading, maybe they've

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Speaker 2: got a rain gauge or two that's been digitized. But

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Speaker 2: you know, what more can you really you know, improve

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Speaker 2: on the technology front on farms. But clearly, when it

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Speaker 2: comes to productivity, technology is making some big grounds.

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Speaker 3: Technology it's just making such an incredible difference in the

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Speaker 3: lives of farmers. You know, if they can make decisions quicker,

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Speaker 3: if they can be better informed when they make those decisions,

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Speaker 3: they can save so much time and so many resources

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Speaker 3: you know, in the process.

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Speaker 2: And I see that part of the substy has been

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Speaker 2: funded by Mars and Nestle too, which is intriguing given

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Speaker 2: they're the big kind of Fonterra buyers, right.

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Speaker 3: And I think that kind of comes down to what

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Speaker 3: they see as their corporate social responsibility, you know. Fonterra

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Speaker 3: New Zealand in general, we've got such a great reputation

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Speaker 3: around the world for how high quality it is. You know,

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Speaker 3: we're seen as this beautiful grass fed you know, animals

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Speaker 3: producing high quality milk. And I think, you know, companies

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Speaker 3: like Mars and Nessie are keen to kind of kick

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Speaker 3: in and help grow that image and obviously maintain that image.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, amazing for farmers, amazing for productivity and know what, Oscar,

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Speaker 2: My only concern I don't see how this makes my

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Speaker 2: butter and e cheaper.

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Speaker 3: Well, I know, I hate That's not my area of expertition.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair enough to Hey, thank you for

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Speaker 2: your time. We appreciate it. Ask her how in talking

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Speaker 2: tech for us this week. It is a really interesting

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Speaker 2: little scheme and amazing the extent to which farmers in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand are starting to use those wearables as well.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk z' B from nine am Saturday, or

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Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.