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The Muster- Jon Pemberton: Keeping Fresh During Spring · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Take it easy, baby.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Make it last all night. She was. John Pemberton farms
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: at Brighton and joins us on the Sgt. Dan Farming Roundup.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: We're every Monday here on the muster. We catch up
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: with various farmers in different locations around the southern region. John, oh,
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: good afternoon. How's the state of play down at Brighton?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Oh. Probably don't have to state the obvious. I think
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: pretty much on par with what everyone else is feeling
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: around Southam, mate.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Well, you were talking off air some horrendous rainfall figures
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: for September.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're up to 144, something I mentioned,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and I had a look at the rain gauge then,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and I think that's semi-pessimistic too because I don't think
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I've got this rain gauge situated quite in.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: The right spot. Is it actually going to move it?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: So it's way more exposed. So, yeah, no, it's been...
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: It's been interesting, to say the least. Yeah, putting the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: water kicking around. Yeah, but, look, everybody's in the same boat,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: same challenges, and I think that rain on, I don't know,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: was it Saturday night or Friday night? I can't remember.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: It's a bit of a blur. It might be... Friday night, yeah.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Friday night, I think, yeah, that's sort of been a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: bit of a tick of the nuts for a few
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: people from what I'm hearing. But, you know, we're on
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the same boat. Most of us are on a second round.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: um there's still a bit of something floating around but
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you know another three weeks that might change um yeah
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you know mother nature gave us a heap of tucker
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: coming into the winter and um yeah obviously for good reason.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: What's your average rainfall there at brighton do you have
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: an understanding of what you're working on.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah we're surprisingly uh not as high as you'd think
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: we're sort of around 9 49 50 from memory um
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: not too dissimilar to gore um It's interesting, we can
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: have rain park at the top of the Brydon Hill
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: for a day and not come down to us. And
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: very similarly, you know, I'll be making baleage and there's
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: been thunder plumps at Matera and gutters overflowing and we're
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: sitting in the sunshine here. So, yeah, not as high
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: rainfall as what you'd expect, to be honest.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: As far as your feed situation, though, are you negating?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Things OK? Yeah, look, we had a luxury of having
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a heap of silage on hand because we had the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: conversion block last year. We didn't get consent to milk
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: off it until later in the season, so we were
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: actually banking feed. And obviously with the way the war
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and that was going, I was quite nervous about where
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: things were going to go for supplement feed. So I
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: was banking having to feed out a fair bit of
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: silage this year as it was. So that has played
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: into our favour. But, yeah, just a bit of drainage
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and stuff and trying to get on top of that.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Probably a wee bit late in the game and, yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: a little bit challenging trying to get cows through paddocks
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: where we put new lots of overflow and stuff, but
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that's just part and parcel of doing development and the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: fun and games of it, really.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Especially where you're situated, Jono. You've got a whole new
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: situation unfolding with a lot of R & Ms going on.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, it's been a big project. sort of
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: doing the last of it, we're hooking the last of
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: it at the moment actually, we're just trying to get
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: our panels up so we can get a loadout ramp
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: done in the final room in the shed. And then
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that's this project picked off and then yeah, we've got
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to sort of just tidy up a few fences and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: shift some troughs around and then we're pretty much done
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and dusted, all the regrassing stuff got done leading into this,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: so yeah, just protecting that's probably my biggest challenge at
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the moment, all this young grass we've got, sort of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: half the platform's under two years old so just uh
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: yeah managing that and um just yeah like everyone else
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: making making a plan for the week and then uh
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: rearranging that look we've been here before with these last
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: bloody springs and um yeah i know there's a fair
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: bit of anxiety out there amongst amongst people but um
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you know we got through some pretty tough ones and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: um yeah we'll do it again and um Just hopefully
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the summer's kind to us and hopefully the rain doesn't
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: just turn off. I'm expecting it to before Christmas, having
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: a wee pinch there, but you'd like to think our
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: January's reliable and some rain comes back, but who knows
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: with the way this weather pattern's going, what's going to happen.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Not much good for fishing anyway, I can tell you
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: that much.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Jono, that saying, pulling levers, is one that's become well
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: known in the farmer's vocabulary over the past two or
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: three years. What are you doing differently in that sense
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: to try and negate the season?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Not too dissimilar. I think just more around finding ways
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: of actually being a leader manager is probably the thing
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I've been sort of working with in the Yeah, it's
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: been a long stint as far as this conversion. So,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: you know, there hasn't been much time off at all
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: for the last six months. But just, you know, if
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the job can wait till tomorrow, I'm not out there
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: at six o'clock at night doing it. And, yeah, catching
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: up with mates and just keeping the conversations going. And
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: if you're having a crap day, you know, you can
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: even be sure that you'll ring a mate and he's
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: having a crap day too. So, yeah, that's probably the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: biggest thing. I think we're, you know, Southland dairy farmers...
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: have always sort of been reasonably capable of managing these situations.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: You look at the shed feeding systems that are going
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: on now and feed pads and such like, and, you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: people are being proactive when they can get a window,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: getting nitrogen on, you know, not being silly about it,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: but getting a window where they can get it on,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: they're getting choppers booked in and getting that done. So, yeah,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's more about... How do you manage yourself
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: so that when you're not on farm, it's not ruining
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: that time at home either? Because I think that's where
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: it challenges for a lot of the stuff is you
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: go home and the crap on the farm can follow
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you on the door sometimes.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: What about staff? How are they handling a situation like
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: this where it's another wet season?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, you've just got to manage it. We run
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: a five-on-two off system this year. We're overstaffed just because
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: we knew we had projects happening. So we've got the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: luxury of plenty of labour. But going forward, you know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: there won't be the situation next season. But, yeah, it's
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: just about having some nice, simple systems, I think, is
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the key. And, you know, we just make sure staff
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: are getting a good amount of time off during the day.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: So a minimum of two hours during the day they
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: take off, if not up to four. And so we're
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: not doing much more than nine hours a day maximum
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: type thing. So for me, it's just more about.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: You know, just saying to staff, look, go home, get warm.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I'll see you in a couple of hours. And, you know,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: just we changed a few things around the shed. We
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: actually tried doing the cloths in the afternoon when the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: thick of it. And that was to allow engineers and
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: stuff to get back in the shed and catch up
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: on the job. So you hadn't quite got done while
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: they started carving. And then we actually stuck with that programme.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: It worked quite well, actually, because it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: You know, people come back after lunch reasonably fresh to
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: deal with the, um, the fresh cows, especially the heifers.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: So I found that worked a lot better for temperament
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of staff and animals in the shed. So we might
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: carry on with that program. We're doing colostrums straight after
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: lunch before the, the milk is, um, going forward, um,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: next season, because yeah, I think it seemed to, um,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the staff seemed quite happy, uh, to, to do it
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: that way. So yeah, it's just those wee things that you,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you learn and tweak your systems, just be adaptable, I suppose. And, um,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: You know, look for, you know, talk to mates who
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: are doing stuff. You know, that's where I get most
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of my ideas is pinching off mates who are already
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: doing it.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: And, of course, you've got the world-famous Gorge Road Squash
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Club to look forward to tonight, along with one of
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: our other correspondents coming up very shortly on the show.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and, look, that's been real pivotal, that stuff. Look, key,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: that stuff. That's the stuff where you, you know.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Dare I say, you don't want to go home and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: complain to your wife about how the day's gone, but
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: you do want to discuss the issues, and sometimes that's
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: a group you can go down and have a yarn,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: and they'll throw you. They would approach the problem, and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: quite often it's a solution right there for you. So, yeah,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the old squash club, it's certainly more about the rack
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and ball. Good on you, John. I'll leave it there.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: We'll catch up again.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: All the best. Cheers, Andy. See you, mate.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: John Pemberton of Brydon and the Sgt Dan Farming Roundup. Thanks,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: of course, to Sgt Dan's Stock Foods here in Gore.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Eric Roy's up next talking politics. You're listening to The Muster.