Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster Full Show: 28/09/26

Transcript

The Muster Full Show: 28/09/26 · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon and welcome to the Masaron Hakanui. Andy Muir here.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: The show is brought to you by Peters Genetics. Welcome
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: along to a Monday. Big weekend in the sporting arena.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: My voice is actually a bit hoarse. I was yelling
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: at the TV last night watching Newcastle Knights beat Penrith
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Panthers in one of the all-time great finals of Rugby League.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: And yeah, apologies if it sounds a bit... under the weather,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: but it's for that very reason. But look, Stags, promising
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: signs yesterday, but only one game to go in their campaign.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: We talk a bit about this with Logan Savory later
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: on in the Yawa. Counties running the shield off Northland.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: So Hawke's Bay gets a chance to hold the shield
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: in the last round-robin challenge for the season.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: And my beloved AFL, the Freo Dockers.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: They went down to the Brisbane Lions, arguably one of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the best teams in AFL history. But nonetheless, look, you
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: heard Dean Ravage talking before to Jamie Mackay and the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: country regarding Southland Rural Support Trust. Various events are going on.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: This Wednesday at Dipton, they're having their Brunch on Us event.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: If you need to get in touch with Southland Rural
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Support Trust, 0800 787 254 is the number. Look, there's
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: a number of events that are going on through various things,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Beef and Lamb New Zealand as well, this Wednesday. Down
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: at Tokanui Rugby Club, they've got it getting underway there.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And on Wednesday and Thursday at Central Pirates too, we'll
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: get a time organised for you there.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: But, look, there's regional events as well.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Aotearoa having regional events at their transport depots in West Otago,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: for example. There's plenty going on in that space. So
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: feel free to send them through and we'll get them
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: over the airways because weather like this, it's a great
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: opportunity if you get the chance to go and have
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a yarn to somebody and connect. Because same old story,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: problems shared. As the problem halved, as we continue on
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: with the show, the music today is a scream... Well,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: not this is Screaming Jets. It's a song called Better.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: They're a group from Newcastle, based on the night. So
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I thought, why not go for some Aussie rock?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: This afternoon, Rayma Brisk-Westerly's at eight.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Tomorrow....
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Light rain with breezy westerlies, 3 and 10. The tide
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: is turning on Wednesday.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Sunshine.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I haven't wrote that word for a while. With breezy
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: north westerlies, 8 and 16.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Yee-haw. Thursday, cloudy with breezy north westerlies, 11 and 15.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And on Friday, some afternoon showers with.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Breezy north westerlies, 7 and 17.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Soil temperatures, Clinton, 7.9. Northern Southland, 8.1.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Riverton, 10.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Te Anau, 9. Excuse me.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Tinaroa, 8.7. Winton, 7.9 of Woodlands at 8.3. Jamie Cain
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: gets us underway. He is based at Lake Hiroko in
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the Sergeant Dan Farming Roundup.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Followed up by Geoff Grant.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: The start of the election campaign got underway proper yesterday, actually.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: So Geoff touches on that.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Ben Dooley, sheep and beef farmer based out of Wyndham
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: with some words of wisdom with the way the weather's been.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Logan Savory, like I say, out of the South End Tribune.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: The NZR, they need to do some cost-cutting regarding their...
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Their expenditure is such. But what does it mean for
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the Southland Stags going forward? And finally, the great man,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Alan McCleary of Shearwell New Zealand joins us. So without
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: further ado, we'll catch up with Jamie King. You're listening
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to The Muster, and it's brought to you by Peters Genetics.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Jamie King farms the Lake Hiroko and joins us in
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the Sergeant Dan Farming Roundup.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Thanks to Sergeant Dan's Stock Foods.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Based here in Gore, we catch up with various farmers
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: from around the southern region and see how things are
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: going on the farm.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Jamie.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: G'day, mate. What a tune for a Monday. I just
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: wish the sun was out, Andy, because I'd get really
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: motivated with something like that. But, yeah, hell of a good, hell.
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: Of a good.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Noise works.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: They're beasts on their own. The song is Hot Chilly Woman.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Just because it's got hot in the title, you're lacking
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a bit of hot weather, perhaps.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: No, definitely. Yeah, no, it's definitely not. Can't see much.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: It's a bit gloomy and murky again today, but it
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: looks to be improving. Hopefully get another bit of a
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: break towards the end of the week, mate. But yeah,
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: just like everybody else around the province, probably a little
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: bit damp underfoot. Yeah, I'm probably more getting frustrated thinking
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: of my to-do list and Mother Nature is just not
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: helping me along, to be fair. I'm still stuck in
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: winter mode, but however.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who you speak to from around the region, Jamie.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: The ground is just beyond wet. Over there, Lake Oroka
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to a temporary way where you're based, what's the situation?
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: What's it like?
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's up here. I'd say we've had probably, we've
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: got an ES rain radar not too far at the
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: end of the valley, but we would have a bit
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: more than them. So I'd be picking probably 220, 230
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: mil for the last month. Well, we haven't finished September yet,
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: have we? But, yeah, sorry, what's that? Yeah, old school, eight,
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: nine inches, I suppose I've had. Yeah, to be fair,
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: the last two springs have been the same boat, Andy.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: To be fair, this one hasn't been quite as bad.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: We have had seen the sun the odd break. I
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: remember 2024, it was just, we had six weeks of
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: grey frigging days, and that was hard work. But everything's
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: plodding away. Animals are all looking good. I've given up.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Looking at the ground, I'm just looking at the animals
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: now and feeding accordingly, and they're all thumping along pretty well. But,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: like I say, covers are down low, and it'll take
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: a bit of catching up on.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: A lot of people talking about having the grass of
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: dairy farmers, but the ground is beyond saturation point. And
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the videos that I'm seeing have, you know, fantastic covers,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: but you can't get in the paddock.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: No, that's the thing, mate. South and down, utilisation is
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: just terrible. You know, some of these guys will be
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: down to... You know, you might have a cover of
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: three grand and, yeah, they might eat 20% of it
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: and stuff all the rest of it. So, yeah, it's interesting,
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: you know, perhaps we need to start looking at big
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: sheds for these spring belts. You know, I'm making more
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: of a mess now than I would have done all winter, mate,
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: to be fair. So, yeah, you know, do we push
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: dates back? Like, yeah, just.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: It's a definition of stupidity, mate, when we do the
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: same thing the same way every year and expect a
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: different result. So, you know, I encourage everyone to put
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: their thinking hats on. You know, it's miserable, but on
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: the top, you know, not neurobiopimistic, but probably pragmatic.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Pragmatic would be a good word for you, Jamie, yes.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like, you know, if you're not happy, fix it.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: We'll do something different. You know, I was telling someone
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: about doing something and it changed, but, you know. that
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: you've got to build a big wintering shed or something
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: for the summer or something, you know, I'm having to
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: poke around in some of those spaces at the moment
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: or adjusting stock classes again. I know I'm probably lucky
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: enough with the property we've got. I can sort of
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: be flexible in that. But, I mean, yeah, there's always
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: a way and there's always a different way to skin
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: a cat sometimes. So, you know, whether you ship some
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: of these lambing carving dates back or something, I don't know.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: Interesting one.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: How far through lambing are you?
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: Ah, probably he's getting well through now. He'll be two
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: thirds of the way through. And probably the main McStage
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: lawn they started about 10 days ago. That's out in
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: the hill, just doing their own thing. Yeah, and they're
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: all in really good nick going out there. There's not
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: a lot of cover now left, and there's a few
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: gullies and that for them to hide in. So they'll
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: still get left to their own devices. Probably there.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: And to be fair, the sheet covers on the flats aren't.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: Too bad on their engine room stuff. All the young
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: stock's thumping along pretty well. I'm just having to feed
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: a lot of supplement out to them just to keep
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: them going along with the fattening stock, but I've got
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: a pair of bailage up my sleeve, so that's not
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: a bad complaint to have. So, oh, yeah, it's miserable
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: and shitty, Andy, but it still could be worse, mate.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: So you're feeding that bailage out? You got places dry
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: enough for it to lie on the ground?
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, so I've got a few of these stud
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: cows sort of carving down the lowlands because I'm trying
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: to be the world's best stud farmer, mate, and tagging
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: away in DNA and everything at birth. So, but I'm
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: not too... It's hay and baleage and I'm just feeding
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: that through a wagon, so it gives the calves somewhere
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: to lie on and cows are happy in that too.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: I can fix the damaged pastures, that's why we've got
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: tractors and aerators and rollers and drills and that, mate,
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: but I can't afford to lose too many critters because
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: they are the tools in the toolbox, aren't they? They're
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: what make the money.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of interest around Henry Buckingham, who I
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: had on the programme a couple of weeks ago, regarding
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the changing of his main flock into early October. Realistically, Jamie,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: is this something you'd look at based on what we've
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: seen for the three previous lambings now?
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: Oh, 100%, mate. And it's been longer than three, mate.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: I'd encourage anyone to take a photo because we've got
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: short memories sometimes. I remember 2019, I was up to
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: my eyeballs. In 2018, I think I was trying to
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: feed some show cattle, and it was just an abomination
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: then too. So it's a lot longer than three years.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: I think we've just got short memories. Hugely so, mate.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: And we're getting better at autumn. I think I said
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: last time I spoke to you, we're not getting on
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: crop now until late June, the end of June, and
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: on grass. Historically, Andy, we used to be on it
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: in the first opening weekend of May. Yeah. We're getting
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: it at the other end, so perhaps we do just
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: shove everything back. It's only a calendar, mate. It's only
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: a date. Who says it's right and wrong? Perhaps we
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: need to start farming by Mother Nature, not farming by
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: the calendar.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Well, if the seasons are moving the way that they're anticipating,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and like you say, we've seen it over the previous
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: wee while now. I see the last three springs for
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: this time of year. You've gone back a bit further
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: just regarding the seasons as such, and all of a
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: sudden nothing is on the table. I mean, why would
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: you want to go out there when you know the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: weather's going to be basically an extended winter?
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's dead right. 100%, you know, you're setting yourself
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: up to fail, aren't you? So, you know, there's probably
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: some learnings and there'll be some deep thinking about it,
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: you know. Some days you think about putting it on
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: the market, mate, and then you go, well, I wouldn't
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: want an office job either. But, yeah, no, you just
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: plug along. And we've got school holidays now, so I've
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: got all the troops home giving me a hand, and
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: it's like a bit of a breath of fresh air too.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: They're all still excited.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: You know, it's an interesting time when you hear the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: word learnings from a farmer. Yeah.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: Every day is a learning day, Andy. Come on, mate.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Jamie McCoy, I await your input. Now, regarding.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Getting off farm and just catching up with others at
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the moment, what's something you do, Jamie? Is there anything
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you're doing to try and break the monotony of the
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: September cycle when it's like this? Yeah, mate.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: Well, most of it, I'm relatively social sometimes, so you
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: just sort of stick around. There's always jobs and people
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: I want to catch up with. I was talking to
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: a couple of guys yesterday just to measure up a
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: bit of what you said, D-Yard, so We caught up
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: with Amy Stafford and had a bit of a measure
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: up and just had a couple of beers with them
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: and then I'm going to shoot to a field day
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: hopefully on Wednesday to have a look at a composting
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: barn in an Aztec building just that's sort of aroused
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: my interest so we'll go and have a look at
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: that and just, yeah, I'm sort of in between cycles
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: with Cow's Carb and I've got number one daughter here
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: keeping an eye on things so I can afford just
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: to Go for a bit of a squiz round and
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: just get the plans together for the ideas because I
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: can't do much else, Andy. There's no tractor work being
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: done and there's only so much coffee a man can drink.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: OK, you're looking at a composting barn.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: It's not going to be a cheap exercise, but you
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: think the money is immaterial when it comes to the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: bigger picture, when you need to fortify your business?
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure, mate. I've got some numbers written down,
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: but I'm just going to go through the exercise and
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: see what rolls out the bottom. Probably at a... $ 8,
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: $ 9 for a kilo of beef for us certainly does,
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: but I mean, who's going to say what's going to
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: happen then? But it's just nice to know. I doubt,
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm probably not going to go through much,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: but I just, it's an interesting concept. And I've put
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: my interest a couple of years ago, and what better
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: time to go and get excited and have a look
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: at one and see if it's something maybe in the
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: future or something, you know, and costumes and, yeah, from
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: the outside looking in, it looks like it's not a
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: silver bullet, but it might be a brass one. For
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: our situation, you know, not so much wintering, just over
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: six weeks over, calving, you know, chuck the cows in there.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: As they calve, they can get out on grass. I mean,
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't have 80 hectares of wrecked pasture. I could probably,
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: a few more years poking around, it's probably the easiest
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: way to maybe intensify our system a little bit, but
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: at a cost, obviously, mate. You know, I'm probably looking
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: between a mil or a mil and a half. But, yeah,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: we're not going to be doing anything but, But you've
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: got to go and have a look, Andy, because if
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: you don't know, there's no point in starting down that
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: track and realising it's a complete and utter waste of
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: money at the end.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with scratching the itch, Jamie King. Thanks for
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: your time. And next time we speak to you, you know,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: fingers crossed, there's going to be a better situation weather-wise,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: which I'm.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Sure it will.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, good on you, mate. And Godspeed, everyone. Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: We'll be short since Singlet in no time, mate, and
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: it should be unreal.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Jamie King of Lake Oroko in the Sgt Dan Farming Roundup.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Sgt Dan's Stock Foods in Gore. Coincidentally as well,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Ruddle Peaks Cafe, not far from Jamie at Blackmount. Beef
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and lamb spring shouts happening there on Thursday the 8th.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: They're getting underway coincidentally this week at Tokanui on the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: 30th at the rugby club and on the 1st at
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Central Pirates Rugby Club at Wilson Crossing. Jeff Grant's up next.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster on Hokonui. Geoff Grant chats
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: politics on a Monday, as we do weekly.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Geoff. There's a lot going on in the
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: political landscape.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And it all kicked off yesterday with the election campaigns proper.
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, theoretically, we had the launch of the two
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: major parties, Labour and National, although it's almost hard to
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: call them major parties these days when they're both polling
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: under 30%. It just is that we're going to see
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: quite an unusual outcome, I think, on the 7th of November.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Do you think top will get 5% or are they
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: inflated figures?
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: History has shown that minority parties tend to poll well
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: up until Election Day and then get slightly deflated. Green's
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: a good example. Get up around that 13%, 14%, then
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: end up at 10%. I think top will just probably
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: get over the five.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Chris Hopkins yesterday as well, using strong language in his
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: opening statement.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: So I was a bit bemused by this.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, look, ironically, I think in terms of where they're positioned,
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: they just seem to be in lacklustre getting to the
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: platform in terms of the election campaign. So it'll be
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: interesting to watch over the next six weeks what they
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: really drive hard around. I mean, the reality is we've
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: all now got every political party seems to have a
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: view about the supermarkets, that's for sure. But on some
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: of the other policy areas, it's still not clear. You know,
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: people's pockets are being hurt pretty strongly on a weekly basis.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: And so, you know, where's the first attack going to happen?
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: Obviously in groceries. And so that's why the supermarket became...
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: a prominent figure in terms of policy development from those
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: parties over the last few weeks.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Now, if Chris Hipkins was using strong language, Christopher Luxon
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: was using tax language, and just using cattle dog mentality,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: attacking Hipkins and these 10 tax policies that Kipley implemented,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: is this just what we're going to see?
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: Look, without any doubt, the big driver for National will
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: be how to split out you know, the big concerns
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: that the general public might have. And I'm not sure
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: that we all get up in the morning worrying about
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: our tax position. And I think they've got a bit
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: of a hard grind to try and rush home that
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: sort of view about future tax. Look, yes, capital gains
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: will have some impact in terms of people's thinking, because
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: it's not the initial capital gains, it's what they choose
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: to do further down the track and how big an
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: impact that would have on the economy. But I think overall,
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: the race between the two major ones is not going
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: to be, it's not going to open up. I don't
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: think that National will necessarily get a big jump on Labour.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: What about agriculture policy? What's really grabbing your interest here,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: or is anything?
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: So most political parties have lit out some policy. I've
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: noticed that ACT is probably the most comprehensive. National seems
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: to have dripped out stuff over a period since June.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: Greens have shown quite a blunt sort of attitude towards agriculture,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: which is not surprising, talking about a cap of 125
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: kilograms of nitrogen for dairy farms, having tougher regulations around
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: environmental aspects, you know, regenerative farming becoming a bit of
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: a play in the market again. So for that reason,
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: I think there is still more to come in the
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: agriculture policy area from the political parties. I don't think
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: New Zealand First has actually announced anything yet of any
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: material matter. And National seem to be relying on what
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: they've done rather than what they're going to do. But
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: ETS looks like it's off the table across all political
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: parties in terms of the agriculture sector, which is a
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: good thing.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a good thing.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: But what does it mean for the bigger picture regarding
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: this Paris Agreement?
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: Look, I'm probably in the camp of saying you should
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: stay in the Paris Agreement. The reality for us is
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: that it has a bigger impact in terms of agriculture.
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: I think if political parties take the line of saying
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: we're not going to lead the world in this area,
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: I think we'll do some responsible stuff. But the reality is,
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: in terms of consumers, they don't really care about biodiversity
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: or water. The land, you know, the big thing is
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: climate change. And so, you know, our exporters are going
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: to probably lead the charge in this area rather than regulation.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: What about Joe Luxton, ex-spokesperson for Labour? I've talked about
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: this before and I'll say it again. I have yet
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to hear Joe Luxton say red meat sector and talking
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: about what it actually does for the economy or where
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: it's to that effect.
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, look, I think she's brought some freshness to Labour's
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: agriculture policy after, you know, Damien being there for some years. Again,
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: I take the view that you're probably going to see
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: more policy issues come out on agriculture over the next
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: six weeks, and so we'll be interested to see. But
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: an interesting point. There's a lot of focus on dairy,
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: a lot of focus on horticulture, but not necessarily on
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: the meat industry.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: And let's remember, this was the party of the last government.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: David Parker was telling the South that they were going
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to have everything sowed out in the next four weeks.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: And if they just had half a brain come down
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: and seen the South at the moment, they know that's
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: just not practical.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, look, in all of those sort of aspects around
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: the use of land and how it's dealt with, I
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: think we've constantly seen these proposals that, you know, people
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: on the land sort of look at it and say,
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: where are these people coming from?
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: But again, you know, even.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: from a nationalist perspective i don't think that they've moved
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: dramatically in the last three years in terms of agriculture
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: policy all of this stuff's come very late so we
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: still don't know what's required in terms of farm plans.
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: We're told that the Resource Management Act changes which passed
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: on the last week of their three years most of
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: that stuff won't come into effect until 27-28. We don't
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: know what the regulations are going to be like in
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: terms of the RMA but the important thing here will
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: be to deal with consenting because that is the biggest
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: cost that is imposed on all businesses and if we
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: can reduce the number of consents that have to be
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: notified and the number of consents that have to be
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: applied for by around 50%, I think that would be
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: a step in the right direction.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk about consenting, you talk about local governments
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: and the roles they've had regarding this, but look, there's
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of concern that this amalgamation chat has been
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: put on ice by the government, so this puts the
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: bigger question out there. Why the hell even start this
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: conversation and waste money?
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: Well, in fairness to the local government, Officials, I can
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: understand the frustration because you're forced to do something in
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: three months. And as you saw from the result of that,
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: those local authorities that had been doing some work for
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: some time seem to have been able to get some
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: semblance of order. But the reality is I don't think
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: there's any proposal that really is concrete. And now the
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: government's saying, oh, it's all on hold. It just seems
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: to be silly thinking policy making.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Is this just sheer arrogance from Bishop Watson Co which
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: is very flippant in their attitude towards local governance?
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: No, I think it was a lack of direction about
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: next step. I think they're really struggling as to what
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: to do next. What do you do? Do you take
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: a position on some local authorities where they're... Southend's a
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: good example. Got two options. I think the local government
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: commission's probably more likely to give us a solution than
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: the central government on this one.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: As Hannibal Smith once said, I love it when a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: plan comes together, but what that plan is exactly in
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: this instance, Jeff Grant, we're not too sure.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Always appreciate your time.
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: Cheers, Andy. Catch you again.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Jeff Grant and that local government, local governance issue.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Ben Dooley's up next.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Sheep Bee Farmer based just out of Wyndham. You're listening
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: to The Muster.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: The muster on the farm with Southland District Council working
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: together for a better Southland.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Ben Dooley farms at Wyndham, Sheep, Beef and YouTube Farmer
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and joins us once again. G'day Dills, it's wet around
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the province. We're your base here at Minnehau, just out
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of Wyndham. How's the situation?
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, knock, knock. much like everyone, I think everyone's going
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: through it. We do seem to be exceptionally hard hit
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: and it's easy to think we're the worst, but I
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: don't think we are. I think everyone's getting it pretty evenly.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: But yeah, no, that rain last night, that was me
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: getting up this morning going, well, I think we'll try
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: again next year. But God, I'm not driving around this morning.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Things weren't as bad as expected. About four or five
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: days ago, I shedded out of probably 40% of my
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: mixed-age maternal paddocks, we were, you know, half, two-thirds of
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: the way through because those paddocks were just so muddy underfoot.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: Lambs that were up and going were fine, but lambs
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: that had just been born were, well, most of them
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: weren't making it. So, yeah, sort of made a decision.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: We were down to numbers enough where it could be done,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: but that means that the other 60% of those paddocks
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: are now sort of, between 20 and 25 ewes per hectare.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: They're just better underfoot. But it is nice driving around
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: seeing those lambs get born alive and actually get up
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: and get going. But as everyone will be able to understand,
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: a week or two down the track, that's going to
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: have some other very serious implications when the feed runs out.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: So no, no, she's not good. I would almost go
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: as far as to say maybe not result-wise, but condition-wise,
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: this is probably just about worse than 2010.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I've seen the videos you put up there on your
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: social channels, and getting through gateways seems to be the
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: biggest issue for a lot of people, and especially when
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: it comes to shedding out, you just can't do it.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, 100%. Like, when I say shedding out, I
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: was only focusing on the ones that were still in land,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: so it was sort of easier to move them. If
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: I was trying to get weird dries out as well,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I would have been pulling my hair out. I would
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: have probably hit the bike down a gully somewhere. It
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: just wouldn't have happened. We, you know, we're bringing lambs home.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: We're rearing lambs in the shed. We're not doing any
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: mothering on because by the time you actually catch a ewe, well,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: for starters, you've upset the whole paddock.
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: You've probably put a.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: Bite down a gully. Yeah, you're lucky if you're still
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: standing on two feet and it's just that ridiculous underfoot.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: There's very little you can actually do out there to
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: achieve anything.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: So you've just had to change your whole lambing routine
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: based on ground conditions?
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we're not super intensive anyway when it
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: comes to a lambing bait. We try to just, you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: it's that whole conundrum between breeding an easy-care sheep on
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: ground that you want to do a lambing bait on
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: when it comes to time when you've got to, well,
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: you know, easy-care sheep don't like being driven around. We've
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: got to give them the opportunity to do it themselves.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Focus more on the things you can do. Like I say,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: that shooting out the other day, by getting those ewes
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: out of those paddocks, we sort of, you know... Improve
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: some outcomes a little bit there. Focusing, you know, if
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: a ewe needs land or whatever, you're going to do that.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Those wet, cold, hungry lambs, just pick them up and
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: bring them home. Don't try and do anything else with them.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: If a ewe's got one lamb on her in the paddock,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: I'm pretty happy right now. So, yeah, and you're definitely
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: only going around once a day. Just keeping an eye on,
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: like I say, those things that you can actually make
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: a difference on. If we went around twice a day,
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: we're just going to have twice as much mud at
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: the moment. So, yeah.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: As far as rainfall figures, it's pretty substantial. What have
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you got there?
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: I haven't been keeping records for a few years because
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: my electronic rain gauge broke and I'm too lazy to
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: do the basic one out every day. But I did
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: see Matt McRae put something up yesterday. I think they
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: were sitting at about, they might be a little bit
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: higher than us, but about 250 mils to the month.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: And there has to have been 20 mils, sorry, overnight
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: and this morning, and it's still going on too.
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: So.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, heading very fast for that 300 for the month,
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: which I think last year we were 350 for six
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: weeks from the start of September to mid-October. September to mid-October, sorry.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: And we thought that was ridiculous. Well, we're just about
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: going to get that within one month, the one month
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: we need to try and cooperate a little bit. So, yeah,
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm guessing it'll be a record. It's
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: certainly right up there.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: With the change of approach to your lambing due to
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the ground conditions, Dills, what are you doing to actually
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: keep yourself focused at the moment? I mean, it's all
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: well and good me sitting there saying to give little
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: bits of advice, but coming from guys actually out there
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: in the fields, it's got a bit more meaning.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just like I say, focusing on the things you
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: can do and not stressing. It's easy to say not
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: stressing when you're sitting there watching money go down.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: The drain, but.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: If you're stressing about things that you can't change, then
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: you're just going to wind up in a really bad spot.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: If you can't do anything about it, if you can't
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: improve that outcome, you just have to drive past, as
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: simple as that. So you go around the years in
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: the morning, there always seems to be something to do.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: The kids are home for school holidays now, so do
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: some stuff with them. Oh, we went out for tea
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: with some people the other night. It was good just
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: to get away. It's bloody hard to get off farm
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: at this time of year, especially during the day. And,
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: you know, it is a thing that's set off, just
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: get off farm. And it is bloody hard to do.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: So sometimes it's not practical, but you do have that option,
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: you know, go into the pub, catch up with a
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: few mates, give someone a ring, go see someone down
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: the road, just whatever. But, yeah, that and also just,
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: you know, trying to keep up on top of some
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: maintenance stuff. We've had a pretty big fencing project going
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: on here since sort of mid-August. So, well, I feel
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: like I'm being productive if we're going to do a
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: bit of that. We're just about finished now. But just
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: the last few things, like stapling on insulators and stuff
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: like that, doing the boards on the ends, just something
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: to keep your head straight to make it feel like
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: you're achieving something is, yeah, quite important because most of
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: us aren't the kind of people that just want to
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: sit down and do nothing, are we?
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, when you're going out and about, put some
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: headphones on as well.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: That's a really simplistic, basic thing, but I remember doing
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the lambing beat on the bike, and headphones were non-negotiable
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: for me. You just sat there and just stimulate your
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: mind while you're going around so you're not just having
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: to focus on what was in front of you.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, 100%. I've got the old bloody earbuds in the
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: whole time, podcasts or a bit of music or whatever
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: you want to listen to, find something you want to hear, and,
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: you know, that just... It sounds like not much, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: it sounds like it wouldn't make a difference, but those
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: of us that do it do understand that it does.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: Just a different perspective on things and something completely unrelated
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: to farming. Yeah, no, it can be quite good.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: So your track to work, the tailing, that'll get done?
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: It's just a matter of focusing on the now and
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: looking after yourself?
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it'll get done. I think it was a
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: couple of months ago you asked me about doing track
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: to work and if I go early, and I always said, look,
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: we do normally go early. but we go when conditions
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: are right. Well, yeah, that hasn't happened. and that won't
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: be happening for a wee while I don't think but
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: it'll happen when it does we've got a few things
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: on this year we've got a mate's wedding and another
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: 40th together in October and I've got school camp in
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Stewart Island in November squares in so there is a
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: bit of pressure on there but we've got to make
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: sure we go and do those things so yeah The
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: work will happen when the work happens. You can go away,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: come back, and it'll still.
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: Be there to do.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well said, Dills. We'll leave it there, mate. Always
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: good to catch up.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: Nah, bloody good, Andy.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Ben Dooley, sheep and beef farming. Sheep and beef farmer,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: that is. Just out of Wyndham. You're listening to The Mustard.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Change of tact next. Logan Savory out of the Southland Tribune.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: And then before the end.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Of the hour, Alan McCleary of Sheo New Zealand. This
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: is the muster on Hakanui.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Logan Savry joins us out of the Southland Tribune after
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: a big weekend in sports.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Sav, good afternoon.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of talk around the NPC or New
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Zealand rugby in general. And let's be honest, after watching
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: these events overseas and just transferring it back to what
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: compares in New Zealand outside of the All Blacks, and unfortunately,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: you can only draw a big blank.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon.
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah, afternoon, Andy.
• 31:06
  Speaker 7: I mean, yeah, you're right, and I think it often
• 31:09
  Speaker 7: comes back to the thing that we forget a lot
• 31:12
  Speaker 7: of the time, and that is that we're a country
• 31:14
  Speaker 7: of just over 5 million people and commercially trying to
• 31:19
  Speaker 7: make all these sports stack up at the moment. And
• 31:22
  Speaker 7: you look across the board, netball, rugby, cricket and the
• 31:25
  Speaker 7: domestic competition, it's hard going for these sports administrators to
• 31:30
  Speaker 7: make it work. And as you said, Andy, At the
• 31:33
  Speaker 7: same time, there's some pretty compelling products going on elsewhere. Obviously,
• 31:38
  Speaker 7: a great AFL final in the weekend and that NRL
• 31:41
  Speaker 7: game last night was just drama-filled, wasn't it? It was
• 31:45
  Speaker 7: really compelling. Yeah, and that's what people want to tune into.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: And what situation generally is the state of rugby in
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: New Zealand from what you're hearing or seeing?
• 31:57
  Speaker 7: Well, it's obviously been pretty well documented that the projecting...
• 32:03
  Speaker 7: losses over the next five years of $ 66 million, which
• 32:07
  Speaker 7: is a significant number. But they're looking at trimming about
• 32:12
  Speaker 7: $ 20 million a year out of their expenditure. So it's
• 32:16
  Speaker 7: about 5% to 7% of their expenditure. So, look, it's
• 32:21
  Speaker 7: not insurmountable. It can be done, but there's going to
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: have to be some decisions made across the board.
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: And I think, you know, often.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: You know, we.
• 32:32
  Speaker 7: Sort of see it from down here, because we're all
• 32:35
  Speaker 7: passionate about the MPC, or most of us are, that
• 32:38
  Speaker 7: this MPC always gets put under the spotlight. But I
• 32:41
  Speaker 7: think there is bigger problems or bigger issues across the
• 32:45
  Speaker 7: board looking to save money than just shining a spotlight
• 32:49
  Speaker 7: on the MPC. You know, right across the board, there
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: needs to be some fat trimmed. Or not just fat trimmed,
• 32:55
  Speaker 7: you know, there needs to be looking at other ways
• 32:58
  Speaker 7: to introduce more revenue. the Silver Lake deal and the
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: opportunities there that were supposed to increase revenue probably haven't come.
• 33:07
  Speaker 7: But yes, there's some tough decisions, but across the board,
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: not just around the MPC.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Well, actually, that Silver Lake money, for instance, did it
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: actually filter down to the provinces? And if so, where
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: did it go?
• 33:21
  Speaker 7: Well, part of the deal is every club in New
• 33:26
  Speaker 7: Zealand got effectively a handout, a payout, depending on their
• 33:31
  Speaker 7: number of players or number of members. There is now
• 33:35
  Speaker 7: a legacy fund in place, but, you know, look, it's
• 33:41
  Speaker 7: pretty minimal in the grand scheme of things. I think,
• 33:43
  Speaker 7: you know, the difficult nature is we're now selling up
• 33:47
  Speaker 7: to deal where we're handing over part of, when I
• 33:49
  Speaker 7: say we, New Zealand Rugby, are handing over part of
• 33:51
  Speaker 7: the commercial revenue each year to Silver Lake or Woolby.
• 33:59
  Speaker 7: and I guess you want a bit of return on
• 34:01
  Speaker 7: that investment, don't you?
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: We're always being told about the fans being part of
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the All Blacks, one of those ridiculous campaigns about using
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: blood and DNA in jerseys, for goodness sake. But ultimately,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I think it just leads to the bigger questions regarding
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: the viability of a lot of competitions going forward outside
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: of the All Blacks.
• 34:23
  Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely. I mean, the only thing at the moment,
• 34:25
  Speaker 7: when you strip it back, that is making the money
• 34:27
  Speaker 7: is the All Blacks. I think They generated $ 38 million
• 34:31
  Speaker 7: annual profits through their commercial. Obviously, they're a big player
• 34:36
  Speaker 7: on the global stage. They can make money, but it's
• 34:39
  Speaker 7: the only thing that is making money. I mean, you
• 34:41
  Speaker 7: look at Super Rugby Men's Competition lost $ 11 million. Super
• 34:45
  Speaker 7: Rugby of Piki, the women's comp, $ 8 million. The Black Ferns,
• 34:50
  Speaker 7: our top female women's team, $ 11 million losses. So those
• 34:56
  Speaker 7: door blocks are propping them up, but that can't carry
• 34:58
  Speaker 7: on forever.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: As far as the stags, where do we lie in
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the MPC? Hearing all these rumours or murmurings about proposals
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: that are going through, where does Southland stand in.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: All of this?
• 35:09
  Speaker 7: Well, we're definitely vulnerable if there was to be a
• 35:12
  Speaker 7: cut in team numbers. I mean, that's pretty obvious we
• 35:18
  Speaker 7: would be in a vulnerable position. But I think there
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: is an appetite from what I'm hearing anyway for the
• 35:25
  Speaker 7: MPC to remain. Where the changes may come may be
• 35:31
  Speaker 7: around some work between the Super Rugby organisations and their
• 35:37
  Speaker 7: provinces and their hometowns. So you're looking at Otago and
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: the Highlanders working closer together, you know, Waikato and the
• 35:44
  Speaker 7: Chiefs alike, to reduce some of the duplication that goes on.
• 35:49
  Speaker 7: And that's where some of the cost savings would come.
• 35:53
  Speaker 7: What that would mean, Otago being more closely aligned with
• 35:56
  Speaker 7: the Hogs, I don't know. And then there's also the
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: private element to some of the Super Rugby teams being
• 36:04
  Speaker 7: privatised and how that works with the unions. But I
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: get the feeling there's an appetite because they need to
• 36:11
  Speaker 7: make sure that the pathways are still pretty strong in
• 36:14
  Speaker 7: New Zealand rugby. And MPC has been identified as playing
• 36:18
  Speaker 7: a pretty key role in that. So I would like
• 36:21
  Speaker 7: to think that... 14 teams would remain and we would
• 36:27
  Speaker 7: be safe in that regard. But as you said, look,
• 36:30
  Speaker 7: if there was any trimming of teams, then we would
• 36:33
  Speaker 7: probably come under the spotlight.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting you talk about it in that way
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: because the Hurricanes are lighting themselves a Wellington rugby who
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: are winless. They're going to be bottom of the MPC
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: this year. and especially being a super rugby power, they
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: only won the competition two years ago for Pete's sake,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: and look where they've gone. So there's your first example
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of where things can go bad.
• 36:54
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and ironically, I think the MPC is, in terms
• 36:58
  Speaker 7: of a competition and the fact that you don't really
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: know who's going to win each game every week, I
• 37:04
  Speaker 7: think it's almost the best it's been. It's been a
• 37:06
  Speaker 7: great competition this year in terms of that. And I mean,
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: the MPC... I think can at times be a better
• 37:13
  Speaker 7: watch than the test rugby because, look, the fences aren't
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: quite as good. There's fatigue comes into the game and
• 37:21
  Speaker 7: it's a bit more open sometimes. And there seems to
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: be less TMO involvement in the NPC rugby. But, yeah,
• 37:30
  Speaker 7: you look at Wellington, Auckland, these powerhouse unions, provinces traditionally...
• 37:39
  Speaker 7: and not exactly blitzing at the moment.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: The Heartland Championship is like basketball scores, like 45-43 being
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: the end results in some instances, but you can actually
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: identify with the rugby.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: But look, what about the Stagzo?
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, another admirable loss on Saturday, but the key word
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: there is loss.
• 38:02
  Speaker 7: Yeah, that's right.
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: I mean, you never want to be.
• 38:06
  Speaker 7: accepting losses. It was an opportunity to go up there
• 38:10
  Speaker 7: and upset Canterbury. But I did think there was improvement,
• 38:14
  Speaker 7: probably particularly around the intent and the effort. The accuracy
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: is still missing a little bit, particularly with the line-out.
• 38:22
  Speaker 7: There was just some key areas in attack where they
• 38:27
  Speaker 7: had opportunities attacking line-outs that went wrong. That may have
• 38:32
  Speaker 7: been a difference, but The reality is they were still
• 38:35
  Speaker 7: in the fight with five, six minutes to go. A
• 38:39
  Speaker 7: lot of the away games this season, or all of
• 38:41
  Speaker 7: the away games, apart from Manawatu, the game was gone
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: midway through the second half. So I think what we've
• 38:50
  Speaker 7: seen is the importance that Samisi Tupou-Tailoa brought to that team,
• 38:56
  Speaker 7: just as energy intent, as physicality at the breakdown. And
• 39:00
  Speaker 7: we thought we were missing him. throughout those first eight games,
• 39:03
  Speaker 7: I think it highlighted how much we were missing him.
• 39:06
  Speaker 7: He was huge. And there's some other guys that stepped
• 39:08
  Speaker 7: up around him. I thought Jack Sexton, the loose-head prop,
• 39:10
  Speaker 7: was outstanding. Just need a bit of consistency in the
• 39:15
  Speaker 7: team and putting those sort of performances out there more regularly, obviously,
• 39:21
  Speaker 7: preferably with wins.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Sam.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Always appreciate your time and keep up the tremendous work
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: with the Southland Tribune.
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: Brilliant.
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: Thanks, Andy.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Logan Savory out of the Southland Tribune. Ellen McCleary of
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Shearwell New Zealand's up next to wrap up. MUSIC This
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: is the muster on Hokanui. Alan McCleary of Shearwell New
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Zealand joins us once again.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: G'day, Alan. Your neck of the woods.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I'd say the situation is the same as everybody else.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: It's just pretty darn wet.
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah, I haven't used much sunscreen this month, mate.
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: It had to be waterproof stuff.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Well, there's a saving, I suppose.
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, no, she looks... Yeah, it is. It's been... It's
• 40:16
  Speaker 6: been the wettest it's been here for many years, but
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: it's just, yeah, I don't know which paddock to wreck next, mate.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Your farm is based down near the Catlins. What's it like?
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Is it probably as damp as what you've seen it?
• 40:29
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It hasn't been this wet
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: for probably 10 or 12 years.
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: It's here.
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: I don't know how you describe it, mate. It's like
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: a big sponge. It's just wet as.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Well, if you're a duck, you're probably happy, but that's
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: Oh, well, look, it'll all come right eventually, I suppose,
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: but it's just hanging in there until we get there, innit?
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: That's pretty tough, but you've just got to hang in and,
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: you know, we're a day closer every day, aren't we?
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely we are, mate.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Now, Shewell, New Zealand, tagging options, they'll be coming up
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: sooner than later, believe it or not, probably not today
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: or tomorrow, but in the next wee while, how's things been?
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: Or is it just a quiet season for you guys?
• 41:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, no, no, we've been full ball. I think last
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: time I was on, we were still full ball with
• 41:18
  Speaker 6: the stud guys. That's just tapered off now. They've ordered
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: all their tags. I've actually been out and done a
• 41:28
  Speaker 6: couple of half days tailing and tagging, so that's sort
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: of got me out of the rut a wee bit.
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: But yeah, no, no, we've had another record month. It's
• 41:39
  Speaker 6: just full on. The heat waves have been... We've actually
• 41:42
  Speaker 6: sold quite a few of them this month again, just,
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: I suppose, because of that bloody weather. A few lambs
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: just not going to make it otherwise. So they seem
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: to be going really well. People are happy with them. So, yeah,
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: I've seen some pretty good setups. Some pretty happy lambs,
• 41:56
  Speaker 6: to be fair.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Whereabouts were you tailing?
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: I was back in, one of them was down at
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: your old stomping ground, mate, down in Riversdale.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm Belfort.
• 42:07
  Speaker 6: And Belfort, well, you know, Riversdale, Belfort.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: Hang on, hang on, don't go down that avenue, pal.
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: I can spit from one to the other.
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: Crikey.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: The stud work for you guys is a big deal,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: isn't it? Not you yourself personally, but for the company.
• 42:23
  Speaker 6: Hey, look, I only just got over the bruising from
• 42:26
  Speaker 6: the last time we got in for trouble with my wife. Crikey.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: That was self-inflicted. It wasn't me.
• 42:34
  Speaker 6: But no, no, we have. We've got a lot of studs.
• 42:36
  Speaker 6: The last count I had, I think we had something like...
• 42:40
  Speaker 6: 50-odd studs in the South Island sheep studs, plus the
• 42:42
  Speaker 6: cattle ones. But, yeah, so it's pretty full-on getting all their...
• 42:47
  Speaker 6: There's a short window between their scanning and getting the
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: tags ordered and them start lambing. So, yeah, no, it
• 42:54
  Speaker 6: keeps Ray pretty busy. He's been pretty flat out.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Things just tick away with Shearwell at the moment. That's
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: what it comes down to. It is.
• 43:01
  Speaker 6: We just have a wee bit of a quiet spell
• 43:02
  Speaker 6: here for a couple of weeks, and then it'll be
• 43:04
  Speaker 6: on again. But we have got a bit of exciting news, though, Andy.
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: We've been doing our NAIT tag trials, Barton trials, and
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: we've just been approved. So that'll give farmers another option
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: to order NAIT tags. We can't quite sell them yet.
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: There's still a wee bit of nitty gritty to be
• 43:23
  Speaker 6: done between Osprey and Sherwell on the details. But the
• 43:28
  Speaker 6: biggest thing is our retention on our trials and them reading.
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: Their readability is past the flying colours.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Well, that's exciting news. That's something you guys have been
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: working on.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: For a while.
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: It has, you know, it is. It's a long process,
• 43:41
  Speaker 6: the trials, pretty strict. But, you know, we've got them
• 43:45
  Speaker 6: done and we've passed. It's probably one of the first
• 43:48
  Speaker 6: tests I've ever passed before Andy, if it's really truthful.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: You would have done Scope, sir, and UE and all
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: that kind of jazz?
• 43:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I might have passed a couple of
• 43:58
  Speaker 6: sharing school tests, I think, but I think that might
• 44:01
  Speaker 6: have been about my limit.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: You know, it's better than nothing.
• 44:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, they gave me certificates in those days. So,
• 44:06
  Speaker 6: you know, I haven't got them hanging on the wall, though.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Well, they hand out certificates for participation, so you'll probably
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: be pleased you did it when you did.
• 44:15
  Speaker 6: Oh, blow my bubble, buddy. No, look, the NAIC tag thing,
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: it's a big thing. And with three companies now providing,
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: that should help quite a bit with the turnaround period
• 44:28
  Speaker 6: on it. So, yeah, pretty excited about that.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: So when are you hoping to have this out in
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: the public arena as such, Al?
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: Oh, mate, we don't know. You know, all the details,
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: I don't know how long it'll take, but I'm picking
• 44:44
  Speaker 6: it'll be weeks, you know, so we should be in
• 44:47
  Speaker 6: time for calf marking. I'll keep you posted.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be the best way to look at it.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Mate, we'll leave it there because you've got a bit
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: going on today with your.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: With your own beat and the likes.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: But I'd like to share, Al, when the times come
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: clearer and people want to get in touch with yourself
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: or Ray, what's the numbers?
• 45:06
  Speaker 6: My number's 027-232-4488. And Ray is 0800-799-89. And we're always
• 45:17
  Speaker 6: there somewhere.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Al. And you get to listen to this,
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: you lucky devil. Stand by.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: OK.
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: Laugh out loud with Ag Proud, because life on the
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: land can be a laughing matter.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Brought to us by Shearwell Data, working to help the
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: livestock farmer. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were going camping.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes woke Watson
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: up and said, Watson, look up at the sky and
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: tell me what you see. Watson replied, I see millions
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: and millions of stars. Holmes says, and what do you
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: deduce from that? Watson replied, well, if there are a
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: million of stars and even a few of those have planets,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: it is quite likely there are some planets like Earth
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: out there. And if there are a few planets like
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Earth out there, there might also be life. And Holmes said, Watson,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: you knob, It means someone stole our tent.
• 46:10
  Speaker 6: Oh, he got that one.
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: I got that one way earlier on.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Give the man a hand.
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: Hey, good on you, Al.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: Shareware New Zealand sponsoring Laugh Out Loud. Thanks for your time, mate.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: We'll catch up again.
• 46:24
  Speaker 6: You too.
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: Thanks, guys.
• 46:25
  Speaker 6: Catch yous later.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Alan McLeary of Shareware New Zealand wrapping up the muster.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: Podcast will be going up shortly.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: I'm Andy Muir.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: The show, of course, is brought to you by Peters Genetics.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Stay dry out there. See you tomorrow, 1 o'clock. And
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: searching just keeps it moving.