From the Lip: One hell of a ride

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If you're to believe the TAB odds, by the time you read this column, world champion shearer Rowland Smith will have cleaned up the 20-sheep Open final at the Golden Shears in Masterton.

Not even Sir David Fagan, at the height of his majestic shearing pomp and pageantry, could lay claim to such overwhelming favouritism to win the sport's most prestigious domestic title. At the time of writing the two-metre beanpole Smith was paying a paltry $1-40 to take out the Open title and repeat his feats of 2013 and 2014 (in 2015 he took a season out from competitive shearing).

You could also get the remarkable odds of $2-70 for any other shearer in the field to take out the Open title! At $1-05 for a top three finish, Smith was the closest thing to a sure bet you could find at the Golden Shears.

Another sure bet on the shearing scene is the new movie Mahana starring Temuera Morrison and directed by Lee Tamahori, both from Once Were Warriors fame. It is an evocative family drama based on Witi Ihimeara's novel Bulibasha. It's based in 1960s rural East Coast around two feuding Maori sheep-shearing families, the Mahanas and the Poatas, as they battle for supremacy in the shearing sheds and beyond.

Morrison and the equally impressive Jim Moriarty play the respective family patriarchs. Morrison's grandson, 14 year old Simeon Mahana, is the movie's central character as he tries to unravel the bitter feud and put an end to the family rivalry.

If you were shocked yet enthralled by the rawness and brutality of Jake the Muss in Warriors then you'll love Mahana. It's a wonderful depiction of an almost bygone era. Cinematically stunning, it's a snapshot of rural back-country New Zealand, 50 years ago, for the better and the worse.

Speaking of which, there's still eight months to go until America elects a new president but political junkies such as yours truly are totally engrossed in the process already. But if you think the US election is for train spotters and people with nothing better to do with their time than watch Fox News, then think again. The ramifications of a Donald Trump win could be far-reaching for New Zealand agriculture.

Last week, when I interviewed Massey University Vice Chancellor and former Labour Cabinet Minister Steve Maharey about the prospect of Trump being the leader of the Free World, he was clearly concerned, when he said:

"Trump is clearly a nationalist, protectionist kind of guy, literally shown by the fact he wants to build a real wall right along the border of Mexico. But more broadly, he's talking about an America that puts up barriers again, that protects its own economy and this is absolutely counter to the whole globalization trend of the last century. From New Zealand's point of view we've enjoyed some quite good friendships with the Bush and Obama administrations around opening up the world which was great for us. But if Trump gets in we're going to be working in a very different kind of environment which won't be so good for our farming interests".

Personally I think Trump is one part mad, one part genius. As a keen student of history I think this is the most fascinating American election since 1960 when a fresh-faced John F Kennedy faced off against the tricky Richard Nixon.

It's almost unfathomable that Trump could be elected. He has broken every electioneering rule known to mankind. It would be an absolute indictment of myopic, bible-belt, redneck, gun-toting Middle America if he were to get the keys to that large white house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Having said that, stranger things have happened, even though I can't think of any off the top of my head! Hillary Clinton is inextricably linked to Washington, Wall Street and big money. She is seen as disconnected to Middle America and Trump is scratching a conservative, anti-establishment, blue-collar, evangelical itch. Bizarrely, of the two, Trump appears the more authentic. Hillary also has skeletons rattling around in her inbox that could come back to haunt her if the FBI has its way.

Buckle in. This is going to be one hell of a ride and the Free World has a lot riding on it.