Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster Full Show: 14/09/26

Transcript

The Muster Full Show: 14/09/26 · The Muster on Hokonui

0:05
Speaker 1: Good afternoon and welcome to the muster on Hokonui. Andy
0:09
Speaker 1: Muir here. And the show is brought to you by
0:11
Speaker 1: Peters Genetics. Welcome along to a mild afternoon in the
0:14
Speaker 1: deep south. We've got a couple of days of respite
0:16
Speaker 1: from this wet weather that's been experienced.
0:19
Speaker 2: We'll look at the weather shortly, but look, a big
0:21
Speaker 2: weekend in sport.
0:23
Speaker 1: Around the country, of course, New Zealand Warriors, they go
0:26
Speaker 1: again next week, not getting the right or earning the
0:29
Speaker 1: right to have a week off. So they're playing Newcastle
0:31
Speaker 1: at Eden Park on Sunday evening. We're going to talk
0:34
Speaker 1: to Joanne Kyle, a super fan of the Whas and
0:36
Speaker 1: Southland Stags fan as well, later on in the hour
0:39
Speaker 1: regarding the Warriors. But the Stags, great win yesterday over
0:42
Speaker 1: Bay of Plenty, perhaps living on some inspiration from the
0:46
Speaker 1: 1970s Southland team. They'd turned up there from throughout the decade,
0:50
Speaker 1: so we're down to Murray Heath and Co.
0:51
Speaker 2: It looked like everything went to plan as well.
0:55
Speaker 1: The All Blacks, missing out again, although I'm going to
0:58
Speaker 1: judge this team at the World Cup next year. There's
1:00
Speaker 1: a lot to like there. Green shoots, if you will,
1:03
Speaker 1: regarding it. Just need to sort that scrim out. And
1:06
Speaker 1: Liam Lawson, kind of flying under the radar, but flying
1:08
Speaker 1: on the racetrack, finishing 6th. at the Spanish Grand Prix
1:12
Speaker 1: that was held overnight too. It's interesting what's going to
1:15
Speaker 1: happen with Liam. A lot of commentators saying that he's
1:17
Speaker 1: not quick enough to go into Red Bull full-time, but
1:21
Speaker 1: you can only do what you can do. And finishing
1:22
Speaker 1: sixth is still no mean feat, right? It's better than
1:24
Speaker 1: you and I will ever do. Anyway, we'll crank into it.
1:27
Speaker 1: Simple Minds of the Tunes for a Monday.
1:32
Speaker 2: This afternoon, cloudy with breezy nor'westerlies and a high of 17. Tomorrow,
1:36
Speaker 2: partly cloudy with nor'westerlies forming, 7 and 18. Wednesday, it
1:38
Speaker 2: gets cooler, rain with light south westerlies, 3 and 9.
1:41
Speaker 1: Thursday, partly cloudy with breezy westerlies, 4 and 10. And
1:43
Speaker 1: on Friday, showers, 3 and 9. With breezy nor'westerlies, 4
2:01
Speaker 1: and 11 soil temperatures to hand. Clintons at 6.9, Harriets
2:04
Speaker 1: at 7.5, Northern South at 8.2, Riverton 9.7, Te Anau 7.9,
2:09
Speaker 1: Titaroa 8.2, Winton.
2:11
Speaker 2: And Woodlands at 8.1.
2:13
Speaker 1: So those soil temperatures are just saying, Big Yellow, where
2:16
Speaker 1: are ya?
2:17
Speaker 2: Andy Dennis gets.
2:18
Speaker 1: Us underway in the Sargent Dam Farming Roundup where he's
2:21
Speaker 1: based in the Fiordland Basin, just down in Manapōuri. Local
2:24
Speaker 1: MP for Invercargill, Penny Simmons, joins us for a regular catch-up.
2:28
Speaker 1: And Ben Dooley, sheep, beef and YouTube farmer based just
2:31
Speaker 1: out of Wyndham, talks about the situation on his farm
2:34
Speaker 1: as well and some news around the Federated Farmers Survey
2:37
Speaker 1: that's been released recently.
2:39
Speaker 2: Greg Erickson, formerly.
2:40
Speaker 1: Of Waimumi, these days based at Millet in Canada, where
2:43
Speaker 1: he's on an arable operation, contracting in the likes, joins us.
2:47
Speaker 2: And then Dwayne Kyle, like I say, super fan of
2:49
Speaker 2: the Warriors.
2:49
Speaker 1: He went up there with another local individual over the
2:52
Speaker 1: weekend and then he popped up at another sporting occasion
2:55
Speaker 1: last night.
2:55
Speaker 2: On the tally too.
2:56
Speaker 1: So he just tells us about the experience at Mount
2:59
Speaker 1: Smart Stadium, what it was like going there for the
3:01
Speaker 1: first time. And without further ado, we'll start the hour
3:04
Speaker 1: next with Andy Dennis.
3:06
Speaker 2: The Master, of course, brought to you by Petersonetics, time
3:08
Speaker 2: seven after one.
3:20
Speaker 1: Andy Dennis farms up at Manapōuri and joins us in
3:22
Speaker 1: the Sgt Dan Farming Roundup where we go and catch
3:25
Speaker 1: up with different farmers in various parts of the southern
3:28
Speaker 1: region every Monday here on the muster. And, of course,
3:31
Speaker 1: it's brought to you by Sgt Dan's Stock Foods based
3:33
Speaker 1: here in Gore.
3:34
Speaker 2: Kaka, good afternoon. How's the basin?
3:37
Speaker 3: Ah, the basin's... Yeah, the basin's just the basin in September. Yeah,
3:41
Speaker 3: it's just doing its usual, really. So, yeah, no, we're
3:45
Speaker 3: all right.
3:46
Speaker 4: Um.
3:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, last week was a lot better than the week before.
3:49
Speaker 3: The week before was really wet. We were sort of
3:52
Speaker 3: getting 15, 20 mils a day, and that was getting
3:55
Speaker 3: a bit hard on things. But, yeah, last week was OK.
3:57
Speaker 3: We were just getting a lot of wind with these
3:59
Speaker 3: sort of northerlies. But, yeah, no, it'll be what it'll be.
4:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. You don't like making comparisons in September, but how
4:05
Speaker 1: does this rank with the last two seasons at the
4:07
Speaker 1: same time?
4:09
Speaker 3: Oh, probably easier, I'd say. But I... Yeah, the middle
4:14
Speaker 3: of the week before last, I was starting to think, oh,
4:17
Speaker 3: not three, four in a row. But no, like, yeah,
4:22
Speaker 3: we had a lot of rain late August, early September
4:27
Speaker 3: for the last two seasons. So the last week's just
4:30
Speaker 3: been a bit of a blessing, really. Yeah, so no,
4:34
Speaker 3: we're tracking OK. It is what it is.
4:37
Speaker 5: Yeah.
4:37
Speaker 2: Things have dried out there a little bit then?
4:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, the wind's moving a bit of stuff out. Like,
4:43
Speaker 3: there's still whopping big puddles everywhere on work ground and everything.
4:46
Speaker 3: There'll be no panic to get in the tractors. But, yeah,
4:49
Speaker 3: it's just sort of good to have, you know, some
4:53
Speaker 3: nicer weather for lambing.
4:54
Speaker 6: Yeah.
4:55
Speaker 2: So how's the drop been so far?
4:58
Speaker 5: Pretty good.
4:58
Speaker 3: I'd say we're, yeah, last week was great. So we've
5:01
Speaker 3: had a good run. I think there was a few
5:03
Speaker 3: guys that were a bit earlier. They probably got caught
5:05
Speaker 3: out with some weather, but... So yeah, I'd only really
5:08
Speaker 3: started when we had that sort of seven or eight
5:10
Speaker 3: days of rain. And although it was warm, it just
5:13
Speaker 3: sort of added quite a lot to the workload. And then, yeah,
5:17
Speaker 3: it's been really good since. So I've probably only got
5:20
Speaker 3: a week left in these BU's and then they'll be
5:23
Speaker 3: sort of shed out. And the Romneys are only sort
5:26
Speaker 3: of getting on the get-go really, but they're pretty easy.
5:29
Speaker 3: They are all younger sheep and seem to be able
5:32
Speaker 3: to do it. And you've just got lambs that are
5:34
Speaker 3: a wee bit tougher than these stuff ticks. So yeah.
5:36
Speaker 3: Usually by then, yeah, the end is near and you're
5:40
Speaker 3: just ticking your way around.
5:42
Speaker 1: Would you consider moving your lambing date based on the
5:44
Speaker 1: seasons being the way they've been or it's a case
5:47
Speaker 1: of it is what it is?
5:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, like when I sort of came here 12 or
5:53
Speaker 3: 14 years ago, whenever that was, everyone was later in
5:56
Speaker 3: the month and a lot of us progressive middle-aged farmers
6:02
Speaker 3: went earlier. And, yeah, it's probably not what's traditionally done
6:10
Speaker 3: up here, but, like, I've got to get hindsight stocked
6:14
Speaker 3: in October, these sort of stairs on crop that need
6:16
Speaker 3: to come out. It's trying to keep your sort of
6:20
Speaker 3: lambing date, average lambing date sort of a wee bit
6:23
Speaker 3: earlier so you can be moving stuff around in a
6:25
Speaker 3: mixed sort of livestock species farm. It's a bit different, but, yeah,
6:30
Speaker 3: I mean... In a perfect world, we'd all be back
6:32
Speaker 3: on the 20th of September, but, yeah, I think we've
6:35
Speaker 3: just sort of got to be... We've had to come forward,
6:38
Speaker 3: and that's how it is, to sort of fit everything
6:40
Speaker 3: else on this farm.
6:41
Speaker 7: Yeah.
6:42
Speaker 1: Therefore, your farming synergy suggests you just stick to what
6:45
Speaker 1: you know.
6:47
Speaker 5: Yeah.
6:48
Speaker 3: Like, you know, that last week in August, every year,
6:51
Speaker 3: you have that lambing date discussion with yourself, and, you know, like... Yeah,
6:57
Speaker 3: it's always good to have a few different lambing dates.
6:59
Speaker 3: So when you have rough stuff, you know, not everything's
7:02
Speaker 3: going at the same time. And, like, you know, we're
7:05
Speaker 3: sort of 3,400 sheep. So when it was sort of
7:09
Speaker 3: just me here, like, you couldn't get around the whole
7:11
Speaker 3: lot by yourself. So we went split lambing dates. So
7:14
Speaker 3: something's got to come early and something's sort of got
7:17
Speaker 3: to stay where it is. And then, yeah, the hoggets
7:19
Speaker 3: are always a bit later. But, no, yeah, I'm pretty
7:22
Speaker 3: happy where it is. If anything, you might shift it
7:24
Speaker 3: back five days on everything.
7:26
Speaker 8: But.
7:27
Speaker 3: weather would make any difference. It all just comes down
7:30
Speaker 3: to sort of the weather pattern at the time, isn't it?
7:33
Speaker 3: And you just hope you're always going to get something rough,
7:35
Speaker 3: but you just hope you get something good as well.
7:38
Speaker 2: How intensive on the lambing bed are you then with
7:40
Speaker 2: that amount of ewes?
7:44
Speaker 5: Oh, not.
7:45
Speaker 3: I don't get too carried away. I just worry about
7:47
Speaker 3: the 100%, really. The rest of it will take care
7:50
Speaker 3: of itself. So if I've taken a ewe right through
7:53
Speaker 3: to now, and I know there's a triplet In the
7:56
Speaker 3: next paddock I can grab, I'll grab and mother her on, but, yeah,
8:01
Speaker 3: that's about the limit, yeah. We seem to take a
8:05
Speaker 3: bit of weight off the ewes over winter now, and
8:07
Speaker 3: then they bounce back pretty good, so I don't sort
8:10
Speaker 3: of have a lot of casts, or I haven't had, well, no,
8:14
Speaker 3: I've had two bearings, yeah, so far out of 1,200 sheep,
8:17
Speaker 3: so that's pretty good. Yeah, so it is what it is.
8:22
Speaker 3: If you go too hard, you just cook yourself and,
8:24
Speaker 3: sort of weak, didn't it?
8:26
Speaker 5: So, and then, yeah, no.
8:29
Speaker 3: They should be able to land themselves these sheep, shouldn't
8:31
Speaker 3: they now?
8:31
Speaker 5: Yeah.
8:32
Speaker 1: No, the argument's there, but old habits die hard at
8:34
Speaker 1: the same time.
8:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think all those habits have died hard. I
8:39
Speaker 3: used to do lambing beaks for people when, well, before
8:42
Speaker 3: and after Lincoln and that, just sort of paying off
8:44
Speaker 3: student loans and we were marking twins and mothering up
8:47
Speaker 3: everything and mothering up twins and doing all sorts and, like,
8:50
Speaker 3: I don't know many people that go that gung-ho anymore. Um, Yeah,
8:54
Speaker 3: it seems like our sheep have certainly got better. And, yeah,
8:58
Speaker 3: they're better mums, and we don't have those sort of
9:00
Speaker 3: same issues. But, you know, when you're thinking, and you
9:03
Speaker 3: don't really want to think like this, but every lamb's
9:05
Speaker 3: worth $ 200, yeah, you sort of, it's not hard to
9:10
Speaker 3: put in a bit of extra effort. But, like I said,
9:12
Speaker 3: I just sort of worry about that 100%, and you
9:15
Speaker 3: hope the next sort of 40% or 50% sort of
9:17
Speaker 3: takes care of itself then. Yeah, if every ewe sort
9:21
Speaker 3: of rears a lamb that can... um then yeah the
9:24
Speaker 3: rest of it will be easy yeah.
9:27
Speaker 1: Now your deer and cattle on your farming operation how
9:30
Speaker 1: have they got through the winter.
9:31
Speaker 3: Ah they're real good yeah no we've we probably um
9:35
Speaker 3: we're just sort of putting in a bit more crop
9:37
Speaker 3: these days and um yeah the hinds have sort of
9:40
Speaker 3: got still got two weeks on swedes and then yeah
9:43
Speaker 3: some trade steers they're probably the same two weeks although
9:47
Speaker 3: they're getting pretty sick of it but um yeah, they'll
9:50
Speaker 3: come off and we'll be able to shed out by
9:52
Speaker 3: then and have a bit of grass in front of them,
9:54
Speaker 3: so that'll be good. So, no, they're ticking away. Yeah, no, everything.
10:00
Speaker 8: Good.
10:00
Speaker 3: I've got weaners all out on grass and I've got
10:02
Speaker 3: heaps in front of them and they're pinging along so
10:05
Speaker 3: that's good. Yeah, that's what you want because the sooner
10:08
Speaker 3: you can start moving a bit of deer out, a
10:10
Speaker 3: few weaners out as well, a few yearlings out, it
10:13
Speaker 3: sort of makes things easier done in October.
10:15
Speaker 5: Yeah.
10:16
Speaker 1: Do you move your cattle around and just set stock
10:19
Speaker 1: them into paddocks for, like, pasture control?
10:22
Speaker 3: Oh, there's obviously cows set stock with ewes at the moment, calving.
10:27
Speaker 3: And then, no, the stairs will probably come off and
10:30
Speaker 3: go in behind... um, yearling deer, following them along, um,
10:35
Speaker 3: or onto some young grass if, um, I've been able
10:38
Speaker 3: to create enough space, um, with using lambs, which that's
10:41
Speaker 3: sort of how it's looking at the moment, but nah, like,
10:44
Speaker 3: it's just, you know what September and October, like, it's,
10:47
Speaker 3: you just get through somehow, um, you start at plan
10:51
Speaker 3: A and end up at plan Z, and, um, by
10:54
Speaker 3: the end of it, there's grass growing in November, yeah, yeah.
10:58
Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say you're looking pretty optimistic
11:00
Speaker 2: then at the moment.
11:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you compare it to the last two years,
11:06
Speaker 3: like we're saying, we're in a better spot, I reckon. So, yeah,
11:11
Speaker 3: it'll just depend on the next wee while. Yeah, if
11:15
Speaker 3: these sort of fronts keep coming. But, no, I think
11:18
Speaker 3: the basin will be sort of coming through OK. Yeah,
11:22
Speaker 3: is my thoughts on it.
11:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. Just finally, Kaka, the All Blacks, they got beaten
11:28
Speaker 1: by the Box 3-1 in this series. Arguably the game
11:31
Speaker 1: yesterday was a bit more of a festival feel, but
11:33
Speaker 1: a lot of commentary around how we're tracking in the
11:35
Speaker 1: lead-up to the World Cup.
11:36
Speaker 2: What do you reckon?
11:38
Speaker 3: I reckon we're fine. It's just that the Springboks are
11:41
Speaker 3: just so strong at the moment. They are the world champions,
11:47
Speaker 3: and they showed it. in every game at every level. So, um, yeah,
11:51
Speaker 3: I don't have any answers for when we've got to
11:54
Speaker 3: play them again, but I think, um, I think this
11:57
Speaker 3: squad and this coach is good and I think they'll, um,
12:00
Speaker 3: I think they'll sort of deal with everyone else perfectly fine. Um, yeah,
12:04
Speaker 3: maybe the French will be strong again, but yeah, um,
12:08
Speaker 3: the Poms can always shock us, can't they? But yeah,
12:10
Speaker 3: we'll find out at the end of the year tour,
12:12
Speaker 3: but no, they're, um, you've got to take your hat
12:15
Speaker 3: off to the Springboks. There's not too many ways around them,
12:17
Speaker 3: that's for sure. Or through them, or under them, or
12:20
Speaker 3: over them.
12:21
Speaker 4: I really don't know.
12:24
Speaker 3: But, yeah, it's just how it is at the moment.
12:28
Speaker 3: We're not number one, and that's the go.
12:31
Speaker 5: Good on you, Kaki.
12:33
Speaker 2: I'll let you carry on. Always good to get your thoughts.
12:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, thanks, Andy.
12:36
Speaker 3: I hope everyone else is going all right, and there's
12:39
Speaker 3: a light at the end of the tunnel. So, very good. Cheers, guys.
12:42
Speaker 2: It's a beauty thing.
12:44
Speaker 1: Andy Dennis at Manapōuri in the Sgt Dan Farming Roundup.
12:48
Speaker 1: Thanks to Sgt Dan Stock Foods here in Gore.
12:51
Speaker 2: And for Kogel MP, Penny Simmons. Penny Simmons is up next.
12:54
Speaker 2: This is The Muster. Welcome back to the muster.
13:06
Speaker 1: Penny Simmons is MP from Vicargo, and she is the
13:09
Speaker 1: Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology. Penny, good afternoon. I
13:14
Speaker 1: haven't spoken to you for a while. I suppose there's
13:16
Speaker 1: been quite a bit going on up there at the Beehive.
13:18
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah.
13:19
Speaker 9: Look, it does feel like a while since we've talked,
13:21
Speaker 9: but yes, we're going to have a busy couple of weeks.
13:24
Speaker 9: We've got the last two sitting weeks of the term, so...
13:29
Speaker 9: It's going to be very busy as we seek to
13:32
Speaker 9: get a number of our pieces of legislation through that
13:35
Speaker 9: we need to before the end of the parliamentary term.
13:38
Speaker 9: But just coming off the back, so I'm in Wellington today,
13:41
Speaker 9: but just coming off the back of a recess week,
13:44
Speaker 9: and it's been wonderful to actually have most of the
13:48
Speaker 9: recess week in Southland. I don't normally get that, but
13:53
Speaker 9: I had a great week with constituents, opened on behalf
13:57
Speaker 9: of the Minister of Energy, Simeon Brown. opened the Kaiwera
14:01
Speaker 9: Downs Wind Farm, which was pretty incredible, to be inside
14:07
Speaker 9: one of the turbines. I was driving up to Telford
14:11
Speaker 9: the day before the opening to turn a sod there,
14:15
Speaker 9: and there's a wee story behind that. But as I
14:17
Speaker 9: was driving past, it was a beautiful, clear day, not
14:20
Speaker 9: a breath of wind, and not one turbine was moving. However,
14:24
Speaker 9: by the next day, it was moving. But yeah, headed
14:28
Speaker 9: up to Telford the day before that and did a
14:32
Speaker 9: sod turning for them up there. There's quite a bit
14:34
Speaker 9: of refurbishment being done. They have been given $ 2. 4 million
14:41
Speaker 9: to upgrade particularly the accommodation in Telford and it was
14:49
Speaker 9: great to see good numbers of domestic students there. also
14:53
Speaker 9: a handful of international students, so it's starting to pull
14:56
Speaker 9: in some international students there. A lot of the domestic
15:00
Speaker 9: students are from the North Island, a number from Northland
15:05
Speaker 9: and Auckland who aren't from farming families, so that's great
15:09
Speaker 9: to see, kids from towns getting interested and wanting to
15:14
Speaker 9: be involved in our farming sector, our rural sector. So Yeah,
15:19
Speaker 9: it was great to do a couple of those things
15:21
Speaker 9: and just be in amongst the local constituents a bit more.
15:25
Speaker 9: But a busy couple of weeks in front of us.
15:28
Speaker 9: There's a lot of legislation that we want to get finalised.
15:32
Speaker 9: And so, yeah, we'll have a busy old time in
15:37
Speaker 9: Parliament for the next couple of weeks.
15:39
Speaker 1: When does Parliament actually break up as such before the election?
15:44
Speaker 9: Yeah, so 24th, and then we have a six-week run
15:50
Speaker 9: up to the election. There'll still be Cabinet meetings, but
15:54
Speaker 9: they'll be done online, and ministers are still ministers through
16:00
Speaker 9: that period, so there's still a few things that we
16:03
Speaker 9: have to come up here to do as part of
16:06
Speaker 9: our ministerial obligations, but... Generally, for most days of most
16:13
Speaker 9: weeks running up to the election, we'll be in our
16:17
Speaker 9: electorate doing our very best to ensure that we get
16:22
Speaker 9: elected back in again. And so, yeah, I'm looking forward
16:25
Speaker 9: to having that time down in Southland.
16:28
Speaker 1: Telford, would you say it's in a good place? Of course,
16:30
Speaker 1: the SIT affiliation, which you're no stranger to?
16:34
Speaker 9: Yes, look, it is in a much better place. They've
16:37
Speaker 9: got work to do to bring it up to standard.
16:39
Speaker 9: It had pretty much been left when it was under
16:44
Speaker 9: Te Pūkenga, so they've got some work to do. They
16:47
Speaker 9: will put in a little bit more accommodation so that
16:51
Speaker 9: they can have up to 136 students, I think, and
16:55
Speaker 9: it needs to have that many, one, to ensure there's
16:59
Speaker 9: enough graduates coming out into the sector, but also to
17:04
Speaker 9: keep it viable. So, yeah, really pleased with the work
17:08
Speaker 9: that they are doing there.
17:09
Speaker 1: One thing about young people in agriculture, Country Calendar last
17:13
Speaker 1: night did an episode on fielding high school, which incorporates
17:17
Speaker 1: working farms into its curriculum. It was fantastic. And, you know,
17:21
Speaker 1: you've just got to look at the benefits of something
17:23
Speaker 1: like that. I'd love to see ag brought into more
17:25
Speaker 1: curriculums throughout the.
17:26
Speaker 2: Schools in New Zealand.
17:28
Speaker 9: Yeah, so would I, and it is, and our vocational
17:32
Speaker 9: pathways change as it is. The agricultural sector did an
17:37
Speaker 9: unusual thing. They complained when it was part of the
17:41
Speaker 9: vocational pathways and wanted it part of the higher education qualification,
17:47
Speaker 9: which I think was a mistake because it really is
17:53
Speaker 9: that sub-degree level where we do need to have those
17:57
Speaker 9: young ones getting their qualifications so they actually go out
18:01
Speaker 9: on the farm. You tend, for those that go to
18:05
Speaker 9: degree level and above, they tend not to actually go
18:09
Speaker 9: on the farm. They go into research or they go
18:12
Speaker 9: into rural banks or they go into valuation or something
18:16
Speaker 9: like that. So, yeah, I was a bit disappointed in
18:18
Speaker 9: that push. But, look, we'll keep going with the trades academies,
18:24
Speaker 9: which gets those young people involved. interested in agriculture, the
18:28
Speaker 9: primary sector, and then keep really challenging to get them
18:33
Speaker 9: through Telford because it's such a good story comes out
18:38
Speaker 9: of Telford. They're residential. They come in. They're fully integrated.
18:43
Speaker 9: They have their dogs and there's a farm there. It's
18:45
Speaker 9: a 500 hectare farm. It's a huge property. So it's
18:51
Speaker 9: a great introduction, particularly for those kids who aren't off farms.
18:56
Speaker 2: Fast-track legislation.
18:57
Speaker 1: Is it fair to say the government's pushing too much
18:59
Speaker 1: through in too short a time frame, given that this
19:05
Speaker 1: term is about to come to an end?
19:07
Speaker 9: No, look, I don't think so. When you look at
19:09
Speaker 9: the fact that in terms of renewable energy, so solar
19:13
Speaker 9: and wind, we have put more through fast-track in the
19:17
Speaker 9: three years that we've been in government than the 10
19:21
Speaker 9: years prior to that. And we must get more energy.
19:25
Speaker 9: We must get that to push prices down to enable
19:29
Speaker 9: industries to stay and enable more industries to come here.
19:34
Speaker 9: So we've got to stop chasing our tail in terms
19:37
Speaker 9: of not having enough power. We must get... more generation
19:43
Speaker 9: of power so that we can have more industries here
19:47
Speaker 9: and we can put downward pressure on the price of power.
19:51
Speaker 1: But is it ignoring democracy the way that it goes
19:53
Speaker 1: through without proper consultation with the public?
19:56
Speaker 9: Yeah, look, it does have proper consultation, but it is restricted.
20:00
Speaker 8: Does it?
20:01
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's restricted to just around the neighbouring properties. What
20:06
Speaker 9: we had before with the RMA was that people in
20:10
Speaker 9: Auckland could be submitting and complaining about a development in Southland,
20:18
Speaker 9: and it was really... a lot of the non-government organisations,
20:25
Speaker 9: the environmental organisations that wanted to complain about everything. And
20:30
Speaker 9: so they had a right to be holding up processes
20:38
Speaker 9: for developments way outside of their geographic location. So we've
20:43
Speaker 9: put a stop to that. Yeah, sure, I'm getting a
20:47
Speaker 9: wee bit of pushback at the moment from a wind
20:51
Speaker 9: farm over in western Southland where they're saying it's too narrow,
20:57
Speaker 9: the boundary is too narrow for those that are being
21:00
Speaker 9: consulted on. But we had to put a line in
21:06
Speaker 9: the sand somewhere and we really had to put a
21:09
Speaker 9: stop to these people from outside of Southland or outside
21:12
Speaker 9: of a region being able to slow up processes in
21:16
Speaker 9: another region.
21:17
Speaker 2: Good on you, Penny. You're busy week ahead. Always appreciate
21:19
Speaker 2: your time.
21:20
Speaker 9: Lovely to talk.
21:21
Speaker 8: Bye, Andy.
21:23
Speaker 1: Penny Simmons, MP for Invercargill and Minister of Science, Innovation
21:28
Speaker 1: and Technology, which is pretty busy. Ben Dooley's up next.
21:32
Speaker 1: Farming just out of Wyndham. Sheep, beef and YouTube farmer.
21:35
Speaker 1: You're listening to The Muster.
21:40
Speaker 6: The Muster on the farm with Southland District Council working
21:43
Speaker 6: together for a better Southland.
21:49
Speaker 1: We're away to Wyndham this afternoon on the muster to
21:51
Speaker 1: catch up with Ben Dooley, sheep, beef and YouTube farmer.
21:54
Speaker 2: Dills, good afternoon. How are the trenches going?
21:58
Speaker 4: G'day, Andy. If someone could give me Mother Nature's address,
22:02
Speaker 4: I'd quite appreciate that, please, because I think someone needs
22:05
Speaker 4: to have a very stern word with her. But no,
22:08
Speaker 4: in all fairness, the last week, the last two weeks
22:10
Speaker 4: have been pretty bloody miserable, but there's a bit of
22:12
Speaker 4: a break in the weather right now and things are
22:14
Speaker 4: looking a lot better today than they were a couple
22:16
Speaker 4: of days ago, so... Yeah, it's just unbelievably wet.
22:21
Speaker 2: Wetter than this time last year, would you say?
22:24
Speaker 4: Date for date, I can't be sure. But right now,
22:27
Speaker 4: I'd say land numbers-wise, we're definitely in a worse position
22:29
Speaker 4: than last year. But I think last year, it was
22:31
Speaker 4: sort of that middle week of lambing where it really
22:33
Speaker 4: hit bad. So fingers crossed we can get an as
22:38
Speaker 4: good or better outcome than last year. But yeah, third
22:41
Speaker 4: year in a row, we're sort of scratching our heads
22:43
Speaker 4: as to what to do to try and change some outcomes.
22:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you do to change outcomes?
22:47
Speaker 1: I talked to Andy Dennis about it before, and he
22:50
Speaker 1: seemed to think with the way his farm worked, with
22:52
Speaker 1: the synergy with the cattle and the deer, he thought
22:55
Speaker 1: about going a couple of days earlier, but just sticking
22:57
Speaker 1: to the same date.
22:58
Speaker 2: What are you thinking?
23:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, so there's an old saying out there that doing
23:03
Speaker 4: the same thing over and over again and expecting a
23:05
Speaker 4: different result is the definition of insanity. And that does
23:09
Speaker 4: feel like it's ringing quite true right now, but then
23:12
Speaker 4: when you throw in the fact that we're working around
23:14
Speaker 4: weather five months out... I don't know that changing lambing
23:17
Speaker 4: dates is really a thing that we can look to
23:20
Speaker 4: to try and improve outcomes here, unless you thought you
23:24
Speaker 4: were sure feed. But, look, I've always been big on
23:27
Speaker 4: saying that my preparation for lambing next year starts once
23:32
Speaker 4: tailing's done. You know, by then we're looking at things,
23:34
Speaker 4: we're making decisions as to what we're going to do,
23:36
Speaker 4: new condition, covers, you know, moving forward plans for the season.
23:40
Speaker 4: It can all change very fast down here. But the
23:43
Speaker 4: time of year that you have the least effect on
23:45
Speaker 4: your outcomes at lambing is lambing time, in my opinion.
23:48
Speaker 4: And we did, you know, we had things pretty much
23:51
Speaker 4: as good as we could this year. The ewes are
23:52
Speaker 4: in as good a nick as they've ever been. Pasture
23:54
Speaker 4: covers were probably higher than they've ever been. We actually
23:57
Speaker 4: spread out early because we were just making a whole
23:59
Speaker 4: lot of mud on the grass paddocks that we were grazing.
24:03
Speaker 4: And we had the feed available to do that. And
24:05
Speaker 4: that's been great because I've got 13 hectares right now
24:08
Speaker 4: that were some of the last grazed paddocks that I've
24:10
Speaker 4: actually had to destock. Yet we're still in that position where,
24:15
Speaker 4: you know, we could do with a bit more feed
24:16
Speaker 4: around right now. Things are just squeezed up a wee
24:18
Speaker 4: bit tight. And the ground is just that wet. The
24:22
Speaker 4: ewes are that upset, you know, the pinching that's going on.
24:26
Speaker 4: One ewe starts lambing, another comes over and, you know,
24:28
Speaker 4: they're walking around, around in circles. And next thing the
24:30
Speaker 4: lambs are born in mud. There's not really anything you
24:33
Speaker 4: can do to avoid that. The pinching normally does go
24:36
Speaker 4: away after the first few days of lambing, and our
24:38
Speaker 4: main ones are only sort of, what are we, day
24:41
Speaker 4: three or four today? It's sort of kicked off a
24:43
Speaker 4: wee bit early, so you might say day five. But yeah,
24:46
Speaker 4: there's not really a whole lot that you can do
24:51
Speaker 4: with quick effectiveness anyway to try and improve any outcomes.
24:55
Speaker 1: July can be notorious for being your wettest or your
24:58
Speaker 1: driest month, and it seemed to be the former.
25:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean, like I say, I normally work
25:04
Speaker 4: on the theory because I'm quite big on a hill
25:06
Speaker 4: with the use on swedes. They're heavy crops and we
25:10
Speaker 4: do waste a lot of feed if we just keep
25:12
Speaker 4: moving them on, you know, in really bad weather. So
25:14
Speaker 4: if there's going to be a really bad 24-hour period,
25:17
Speaker 4: I'll let them off onto a grass paddock and just
25:19
Speaker 4: let them spread out over a whole paddock. That paddock
25:21
Speaker 4: then doesn't get grazed for the rest of winter, just
25:25
Speaker 4: to give it a chance to recover, but... The only
25:27
Speaker 4: time that I really possibly had to do that was
25:30
Speaker 4: actually when the years were coming off the scanning anyway.
25:32
Speaker 4: And it wouldn't be unusual to do that three or
25:35
Speaker 4: four times in a winter. So June, July can't have
25:37
Speaker 4: been that bad. Like I say, it was just the
25:40
Speaker 4: sort of last bit of August. And our Swedes, because
25:43
Speaker 4: we started a week early this year, we started 23rd
25:45
Speaker 4: of May. They were all gone by, well, apart from
25:50
Speaker 4: the hoggets, they were all gone by the 17th of August.
25:52
Speaker 4: So we sort of missed that real bad weather on
25:54
Speaker 4: Swedes anyway.
25:55
Speaker 5: But.
25:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just that July was quite a good month.
26:00
Speaker 4: It's just that last half of August.
26:02
Speaker 2: Some good news coming out, though.
26:03
Speaker 1: The confidence survey released by Federated Farmers recently has over 72%
26:08
Speaker 1: of farmers making a profit deal. So last season certainly
26:12
Speaker 1: was appreciated. And there's no reason why this can't continue. Yeah, 100%.
26:16
Speaker 4: Our product is in demand. That is a definite upside.
26:20
Speaker 4: And I think that's what makes it. It's never easy
26:22
Speaker 4: in these situations, you know, going out there every day
26:24
Speaker 4: and doing it. But at least we're relatively confident that
26:28
Speaker 4: we will still be profitable and potentially quite profitable in
26:32
Speaker 4: these seasons. So it's, you know, Dan Ravage will love
26:35
Speaker 4: me saying this, there's that old saying, Southland will get
26:37
Speaker 4: you down, but it won't let you down. Well, it's bloody,
26:40
Speaker 4: that saying's been proven wrong the last three years. It
26:42
Speaker 4: definitely can let you down. The money that's been taken
26:46
Speaker 4: off the table is huge, but at the same time,
26:48
Speaker 4: the incomes still should look pretty healthy at the end
26:51
Speaker 4: of the year.
26:52
Speaker 7: So.
26:53
Speaker 4: Between that and the current government that we have in,
26:55
Speaker 4: although obviously there's some risk there with an election looming,
26:58
Speaker 4: I'm not surprised the farm of confidence is where it is.
27:01
Speaker 4: We've managed to progress a lot in the red tape
27:04
Speaker 4: area over the last three or two and a bit years,
27:06
Speaker 4: two and three quarter years. But yeah, still a lot
27:09
Speaker 4: of work there to happen, so still got to make
27:11
Speaker 4: it happen.
27:12
Speaker 1: Dills, before we wrap up, what's some words you've got
27:14
Speaker 1: to advise to people at this time of year when
27:17
Speaker 1: it is wetter? It might not be as bad as
27:19
Speaker 1: last year, but you're just thinking, bloody hell, here we
27:21
Speaker 1: go again.
27:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know if there's anything that makes it
27:25
Speaker 4: easy for people. I guess the only thing to remember
27:28
Speaker 4: is it's easier to look over the boundary fence and
27:31
Speaker 4: think the grass is greener on the other side. It's
27:33
Speaker 4: often not. Everyone's going through this. Everyone's got their own
27:36
Speaker 4: challenges in and amongst this sort of stuff. So, yeah,
27:40
Speaker 4: you're not alone. But you've just got to look, you know,
27:44
Speaker 4: for us, the end of lambing is only two weeks away,
27:46
Speaker 4: and we're looking forward to that already, which is a shame.
27:49
Speaker 8: But.
27:50
Speaker 4: just the way it is. But yeah, it's only another
27:52
Speaker 4: couple of weeks and then you've sort of got what
27:54
Speaker 4: you've got and you're getting into tailing and the rest
27:56
Speaker 4: of the season where it's a bit more, there's a
27:59
Speaker 4: bit more certainty about what's happening. So yeah, it's not nice,
28:04
Speaker 4: but everyone's going through it and we will come out
28:07
Speaker 4: the other side okay.
28:08
Speaker 2: Good on you, Dills. Always appreciate your time.
28:11
Speaker 4: Nah, cheers Andy.
28:13
Speaker 2: Ben Dooley.
28:14
Speaker 1: Now on that as well, the Southland Rural Support Trust.
28:17
Speaker 1: Their Brunch on Us events are happening this weekend at
28:21
Speaker 1: Tuatapri on Wednesday and at Mosburn on Thursday. Have a
28:25
Speaker 1: look at their social channels as well to get a
28:27
Speaker 1: bit of a chance to get off farm for a cuppa.
28:30
Speaker 2: And a snag of the likes. Up next, we're on
28:31
Speaker 2: our way to Canada to catch up with Greg Erickson. Oh,
28:36
Speaker 2: you look me.
28:37
Speaker 1: Up It's falling down, down Welcome back to the muster.
28:43
Speaker 1: We're away over to Canada now, Millet to be precise,
28:46
Speaker 1: where we catch up with Greg Erickson, formerly of Waimumu,
28:49
Speaker 1: and our Canadian correspondent.
28:50
Speaker 2: Good afternoon.
28:51
Speaker 6: How you doing, Andy?
28:53
Speaker 2: Pretty well. How's things over in your neck of the woods? Yeah,
28:57
Speaker 2: things are going pretty good.
28:58
Speaker 6: We're sort of looking towards harvest season now, so things are...
29:03
Speaker 6: There's light at the end of the season, the cropping tunnel,
29:06
Speaker 6: so we're sort of hoping to get the harvest in
29:11
Speaker 6: as quick as we can and settle down for the winter.
29:15
Speaker 1: So how's it been over the past four weeks?
29:17
Speaker 2: Pretty busy? Oh, it's been really busy.
29:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, really, really busy.
29:21
Speaker 6: We've had the silage season and that's been crazy busy.
29:25
Speaker 6: We've picked up a bunch of clients as we do
29:27
Speaker 6: a bunch of contracting and we've done two or three
29:32
Speaker 6: cuts of the lucerne for some hay silage and then
29:38
Speaker 6: we've done oh goodness knows how many thousands of acres
29:42
Speaker 6: of barley silage and then the corn silage started two
29:45
Speaker 6: days ago so that's going to be another four weeks
29:50
Speaker 6: of that and of course the combining kicks off well
29:53
Speaker 6: it started on Saturday as well so yeah she's hammered
29:56
Speaker 6: down for the next while.
29:58
Speaker 2: You grow quite a lot of lucerne over there.
30:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, they don't just grow grass for hay. They call
30:05
Speaker 6: it alfalfa. Everyone grows it here and it's all to
30:10
Speaker 6: do with the sugar levels because it's all fed as
30:13
Speaker 6: part of the feed mixture in their hay because it
30:15
Speaker 6: goes in with the barley and the corn, whatever their
30:18
Speaker 6: agronomist recommends. That's just one of the ingredients for the feed.
30:24
Speaker 2: How are the yields looking?
30:27
Speaker 6: Uh, pretty average actually for the for the looser and
30:30
Speaker 6: it's really average the we just had too much rain
30:33
Speaker 6: and not enough heat early on the sea in the
30:35
Speaker 6: summer so june was was just terrible there was just
30:38
Speaker 6: no heat and there was no rain in may so
30:41
Speaker 6: we just never had that that chance to take off
30:44
Speaker 6: so we've only really got two cuts of it this
30:45
Speaker 6: year there's been a couple of farmers that we've got
30:48
Speaker 6: three but it's short it's not much to it the
30:50
Speaker 6: barley is really good and the corn is actually surprisingly good.
30:54
Speaker 2: And then uh Sorry, you go.
30:57
Speaker 6: The crops themselves, like for combining, they're actually looking pretty smart,
31:02
Speaker 6: considering how much rain we had in June.
31:04
Speaker 1: We're hearing of a super El Nino over on our
31:07
Speaker 1: neck of the woods. Are you seeing anything like that there?
31:11
Speaker 2: Not as yet.
31:12
Speaker 6: They are predicting it's going to be a warmer autumn.
31:14
Speaker 6: And then maybe even a warmer winter, but those sorts
31:17
Speaker 6: of positive news from weathermen, you don't sort of hold
31:21
Speaker 6: your breath too much on.
31:22
Speaker 1: I suppose when you look at the cycle you're going through,
31:24
Speaker 1: you're getting out of summer into the autumn months as such.
31:27
Speaker 2: Has it been a warm summer?
31:31
Speaker 6: August was pretty warm. August was respectively warm, like it
31:34
Speaker 6: normally is. July was pretty decent, a little bit colder
31:38
Speaker 6: at the start, but June was just terrible.
31:40
Speaker 2: There was just no heat, no.
31:42
Speaker 3: No, nothing.
31:42
Speaker 6: It just rained constantly. So it kind of reminded me of.
31:45
Speaker 4: Southland, actually.
31:46
Speaker 6: But we had record levels of rain in June.
31:51
Speaker 5: So, yeah, we would get, which is.
31:54
Speaker 6: We would get, say, an inch one night, an inch
31:56
Speaker 6: the next night, and then a week later we'd get
31:58
Speaker 6: four inches, and that doesn't happen here.
32:02
Speaker 2: Do you get a lot of meadow hay made over there,
32:04
Speaker 2: baleage and the likes?
32:07
Speaker 6: Not really, no. People will make baleage out of, if it's...
32:11
Speaker 6: say Lucerne grass mix, but no one's making just straight grass.
32:16
Speaker 6: It's all got extra in it.
32:18
Speaker 2: So hay's still a big deal?
32:21
Speaker 6: Hay's huge, but all the hay here is also Lucerne.
32:25
Speaker 6: There is no straight grass hay.
32:28
Speaker 2: Is it a cost measure?
32:31
Speaker 6: I think so. I think it started off as trying
32:35
Speaker 6: to get the most out of every acre. And then
32:39
Speaker 6: I think it's sort of just become such a thing
32:41
Speaker 6: and such a popular thing that no one sows grass
32:45
Speaker 6: here really. It's all in, it all goes straight into
32:49
Speaker 6: lucerne or crops.
32:52
Speaker 1: Now you've got about 6,000 acres that needs combined. How
32:55
Speaker 1: many combines have you got going?
32:57
Speaker 6: We've got three. Three John Deere's and that means they're
33:01
Speaker 6: older but they will knock off 300 acres a day
33:07
Speaker 6: with all three combines. one big chaser bin and then
33:10
Speaker 6: we've got a great big elevator it takes most of
33:14
Speaker 6: our grain maybe 10 15 k's away from all our
33:18
Speaker 6: crops so we just truck it to there most of
33:21
Speaker 6: the time we don't have to store too much we
33:24
Speaker 6: store probably more than half of it but yeah we
33:27
Speaker 6: just uh get rid of it as quick as we
33:28
Speaker 6: can and then we bag the rest but we'll be
33:31
Speaker 6: looking at a good day's 300 acres a day and
33:34
Speaker 6: then when we get into the canola it'll be less
33:36
Speaker 6: because that's just a little slower.
33:38
Speaker 1: Now, you say it's a big chaser bin.
33:40
Speaker 2: What's the capacity? Ah, 2,000 bushels.
33:45
Speaker 1: OK, talk normal here. What are we talking as far
33:49
Speaker 1: as tonnes or whatever?
33:51
Speaker 6: OK, so if you put tonnes of wheat in it, well,
33:53
Speaker 6: say tonnes of barley, you'll stick easily 45 tonnes of
33:56
Speaker 6: barley in it. Tons of wheat, you're probably 55.
33:57
Speaker 2: So you've got some serious gear towing this, I'd imagine.
34:02
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, there's a 550 horsepower quad track in front
34:05
Speaker 6: of it.
34:07
Speaker 1: Has the weather ever determined the length of the harvest
34:10
Speaker 1: season over there?
34:12
Speaker 5: Oh, absolutely.
34:13
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
34:14
Speaker 6: So we typically, in this area, everyone would swath their
34:18
Speaker 6: canola down and put it in windrows and then pick
34:20
Speaker 6: it up with the pickup head or the combine. And
34:23
Speaker 6: this year, we are doing it all with the draper head,
34:27
Speaker 6: like the straight cuts or the honeybees, whatever. And if
34:32
Speaker 6: it snows before we've got to it, if it's a really, really.
34:36
Speaker 5: If it's a.
34:36
Speaker 6: Light, fluffy snow, it won't matter. If it's a really
34:40
Speaker 6: heavy snow, it'll flatten the canola and we'll be trying
34:43
Speaker 6: to get it back in May.
34:45
Speaker 1: Because a lot of people do harvest with snow on there,
34:47
Speaker 1: like you say, as long as it's a light fall,
34:49
Speaker 1: but they farm for it.
34:52
Speaker 5: Yes, yes.
34:53
Speaker 6: So if the canola is in a swath and it snows,
34:56
Speaker 6: you can still combine it. If it's flattened, it'd have
35:00
Speaker 6: a really hard time picking it off the ground. And
35:02
Speaker 6: especially when it's, if the snow, because typically once it
35:05
Speaker 6: snows here, It doesn't leave until spring and then you've
35:09
Speaker 6: got to get in there and you've got to combine
35:10
Speaker 6: it before you can prep the field and seed it.
35:12
Speaker 6: So it becomes a very big headache in May if
35:16
Speaker 6: you can't get it off in September or October.
35:19
Speaker 1: Canada as a whole, the economic mood of the community
35:22
Speaker 1: or of the country, how would it be?
35:25
Speaker 7: Horrible.
35:27
Speaker 6: We're not in a recession or anything. Trump did a
35:31
Speaker 6: whole tariff thing again and He put on 50% tariffs
35:34
Speaker 6: on a whole bunch of things like steel and lumber
35:38
Speaker 6: and cars. So cars in Ontario are a huge thing
35:42
Speaker 6: because car parts will go across the border over there
35:45
Speaker 6: maybe six or seven times before they're put into a
35:47
Speaker 6: car for whatever reason. And then there's towns in BC
35:52
Speaker 6: and Quebec that are the lumber towns. They are logging
35:57
Speaker 6: towns and the whole town is there because of a mill.
36:02
Speaker 6: And Because there's tariffs on it, now that whole town
36:05
Speaker 6: is suffering because the whole town is reliant on this mill.
36:08
Speaker 2: And so.
36:10
Speaker 6: In retaliation to these tariffs, Canada put tariffs back on
36:13
Speaker 6: the states and equal value. So we didn't, I guess
36:17
Speaker 6: Canada didn't overstep. However, that got Trump into a tizzy
36:22
Speaker 6: and then he renamed a lake in Ontario, Lake Ontario,
36:26
Speaker 6: which borders.
36:27
Speaker 2: Lake America.
36:28
Speaker 6: He renamed that to Lake America.
36:30
Speaker 7: Yeah.
36:31
Speaker 6: And it's just been this big whole thing, and we
36:34
Speaker 6: just want him to focus on someone else.
36:37
Speaker 1: So the midterm elections, if we see a change towards
36:39
Speaker 1: the Democrats, will that mean much regarding tariffs?
36:43
Speaker 6: Probably not. I think all that will happen is the
36:48
Speaker 6: impeachment processes will start, and we will be stuck trying
36:51
Speaker 6: to get his attention to take the tariffs off, and
36:54
Speaker 6: I don't think that'll happen. I think we'll be stuck
36:56
Speaker 6: with him for a while.
36:58
Speaker 1: Hey, just finally, Greg, good news. The Stags won the
37:01
Speaker 1: game of rugby yesterday. That's three in the year for
37:04
Speaker 1: the last 365 days. We've won two.
37:06
Speaker 2: For the season. It was a good one.
37:08
Speaker 6: That's fantastic. It's good news.
37:10
Speaker 1: Do you watch it all online on your social channels,
37:13
Speaker 1: or how do you get your fix?
37:15
Speaker 6: I keep it all on the highlights on the socials, yeah.
37:17
Speaker 6: That's the easiest way to do it, is get the 10,
37:19
Speaker 6: 15-minute highlight reels. It's the same with the All Blacks
37:23
Speaker 6: and the Warriors. It's hard to... Yesterday's game in Boston
37:27
Speaker 6: was a bit easier to watch, but typically when they're
37:31
Speaker 6: in play in New Zealand, the time zones are really inconvenient.
37:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, the game in Baltimore was an interesting one for
37:38
Speaker 1: a lot of people, but I suppose it's all baseball
37:41
Speaker 1: there and NBA cracking up and ice hockey season going
37:44
Speaker 1: into pre-season almost, is it?
37:47
Speaker 6: That's correct, yeah. So NFL just started. I think that
37:50
Speaker 6: was last weekend or this weekend. And then hockey starts...
37:55
Speaker 6: in a week or two the pre-seasons and then the
37:57
Speaker 6: NBA is kicking off soon and then the whole like
37:59
Speaker 6: if you want sports anywhere here you can find sports
38:03
Speaker 6: it's everywhere it's just trying to get somehow rugby is
38:06
Speaker 6: an obscure sport here so that's a little harder to.
38:08
Speaker 1: Find hey good on you Greg always appreciate your time
38:12
Speaker 1: and next time and when we do catch up next
38:14
Speaker 1: hopefully that harvest is getting into the memory stage thanks
38:17
Speaker 1: as always.
38:18
Speaker 2: Sounds good thanks Andy.
38:21
Speaker 1: Greg Erickson, formerly of Waimumi, these days based out of Millet.
38:25
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, we're talking the Stags. Joanne Kyle,
38:29
Speaker 1: but before we went to the Stags, went up to
38:31
Speaker 1: the Warriors with another individual from around here. You're listening
38:34
Speaker 1: to The Muster. Welcome back to the muster. It's been
38:43
Speaker 1: a big weekend of sport. The Warriors, unfortunately, losing to
38:47
Speaker 1: the Dolphins puts them into a qualifying final next weekend
38:52
Speaker 1: where if they lose this, then they're out for the year.
38:55
Speaker 1: Of course, Mal Smart looks an absolute picture on the TV.
38:58
Speaker 2: Dwayne Kyle catches up with us next.
39:00
Speaker 1: Now, along with his sparring partner, a wannabe real estate
39:04
Speaker 1: mogul based here in Gore, they went up there, seen
39:06
Speaker 1: the Waz, and then, of course, on the TV last night,
39:09
Speaker 1: Dwayne's head pops up in the middle of a terrace
39:11
Speaker 1: as he's watching the Stags do the number on the
39:13
Speaker 1: Bay of Plenty steamers. Suri, good afternoon. Mouthspart Stadium, going
39:17
Speaker 1: up there for the first time. Explain how you ended
39:19
Speaker 1: up there.
39:21
Speaker 8: Andy, you're welcome.
39:23
Speaker 7: Um, yeah, how I ended up there was that real
39:26
Speaker 7: estate old Jacob Coughlin gives me a phone call on
39:31
Speaker 7: Monday he's like oh are you keen to go up
39:35
Speaker 7: to Auckland I was like absolutely so he booked everything
39:40
Speaker 7: and we went up and unreal unreal man.
39:44
Speaker 1: So when you were booking things last minute like that, price-wise,
39:47
Speaker 1: did you manage to get flights that weren't too bad?
39:49
Speaker 1: Because it's pretty niggly getting up to Auckland.
39:53
Speaker 7: Well, you know how tight he is, and probably a
39:56
Speaker 7: lot of people do, so we wouldn't have gone if
39:58
Speaker 7: it was very cheap. And that made it easier, and
40:02
Speaker 7: I kind of thought the NRL were going to bump
40:04
Speaker 7: up the prices, but most of the Mount Smart tickets
40:07
Speaker 7: were super cheap as well, so she was right on
40:10
Speaker 7: the wallet, which made it way better too.
40:13
Speaker 1: Getting tickets as well, not an easy feat for a
40:16
Speaker 1: sold-out Mount Smart.
40:17
Speaker 2: How did you manage it?
40:20
Speaker 5: I didn't.
40:22
Speaker 7: But Jake did, and it was quite tough because, and
40:28
Speaker 7: even all the people on the lead groups and that.
40:31
Speaker 5: Scalping, scalping was a major.
40:34
Speaker 7: And you could see, like, a few empty seats around
40:37
Speaker 7: the stadium that scalpers obviously couldn't get their tickets for
40:41
Speaker 7: $ 1, 000 and stuff. So that made it tough, but no,
40:45
Speaker 7: we scored some and worth it.
40:50
Speaker 1: Okay, describe Mount Smart, go media Mount Smart to the
40:54
Speaker 1: uninitiated compared to say, I don't know, going to.
40:57
Speaker 2: Watch the Highlanders.
41:00
Speaker 5: Well, compared to the Landers, it was just the atmosphere.
41:04
Speaker 5: So you had all the bloody Islanders with their big
41:07
Speaker 5: drums singing along and then.
41:09
Speaker 7: I don't know half the words to what they were singing,
41:11
Speaker 7: but joined in and It was just.
41:14
Speaker 5: Atmosphere-wise, a lot better than Union. That was probably the most.
41:17
Speaker 7: I've been to, like, a few All Blacks games and stuff.
41:20
Speaker 5: That didn't compare.
41:21
Speaker 7: That was probably the funnest, like, crowd work. Oh, how
41:25
Speaker 7: do you explain it? But, yeah, just the atmosphere was
41:29
Speaker 7: way better.
41:31
Speaker 1: What about prices for buying beverages and the likes, food options?
41:34
Speaker 1: Was it better than, say, going to an All Blacks test,
41:37
Speaker 1: or is it just what it is, captive market?
41:41
Speaker 5: Oh, that was tough.
41:42
Speaker 7: It was about 54 bucks a round, and yeah, we
41:45
Speaker 7: got a few rounds. Yeah, 54 for four was the
41:50
Speaker 7: price of the old stubbies, but you're only there for
41:54
Speaker 7: a couple of times.
41:56
Speaker 5: Well, I'd say I will be, so no, we hooked
41:59
Speaker 5: that man. It was bloody good.
42:01
Speaker 1: So arriving at the stadium itself, was it a kind
42:04
Speaker 1: of one of those grab you in life moments, having
42:08
Speaker 1: been a Warriors fan for a long time?
42:11
Speaker 5: Yes.
42:11
Speaker 7: Like, I'd been in Christchurch, but now when you're at
42:15
Speaker 7: the home of Buddy's DeWars, it's just different.
42:18
Speaker 5: Everyone's so inviting.
42:20
Speaker 7: Even the Dolphins fans, like, obviously everyone's giving everyone sticks, but,
42:24
Speaker 7: you know, it was, everyone was inviting, and it just was,
42:28
Speaker 7: I reckon all the instruments that everyone had and the chahoo,
42:31
Speaker 7: and I haven't heard a proper chahoo. I've heard bloody
42:34
Speaker 7: Josh Campbell try to do one after he scores a try,
42:37
Speaker 7: but it's different.
42:38
Speaker 4: It's different.
42:39
Speaker 2: It's a welcoming stadium, like not intimidating or anything?
42:43
Speaker 5: Absolutely, yeah. And security, they're very welcoming. Well, lack of,
42:49
Speaker 5: to be fair. Probably shouldn't say that. But, yeah, they're
42:52
Speaker 5: just like, no, off you go. Just don't be stupid
42:54
Speaker 5: and follow the rules.
42:56
Speaker 4: And it's all good, eh?
42:57
Speaker 2: What about the game itself?
42:59
Speaker 1: Was it disappointment at the end or just a realisation
43:01
Speaker 1: they lost on the day to a better team?
43:05
Speaker 5: Wow, how good's Herbie? Barnworth, yeah. how that seemed to
43:09
Speaker 5: be the only chat in the stand. And it's like,
43:12
Speaker 5: I don't know if they.
43:13
Speaker 7: Got tired or if they gave up, but, yeah, so
43:16
Speaker 7: we were a lot more quiet in the second half.
43:19
Speaker 5: I'll give them that.
43:21
Speaker 8: But, nah, even when we were losing, there was still
43:25
Speaker 8: all the bloody chahooing, drums, and we knew we'd lost it,
43:32
Speaker 8: but it didn't really change the.
43:33
Speaker 7: Morale, eh?
43:34
Speaker 1: Just watching Chanel Harris-Tavita's kicking game. You could say it's solid,
43:40
Speaker 1: but it's not match-defining. Do you think Luke Metcalf needs
43:44
Speaker 1: to come back in?
43:45
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
43:46
Speaker 7: And that's what we were talking about was you could
43:49
Speaker 7: see they were just all way too short. And when
43:53
Speaker 7: we would get it back, we were just in no
43:54
Speaker 7: position to– I'm not a sports.
43:56
Speaker 5: Analyst, by the way, but this is just what I
43:57
Speaker 5: was thinking.
43:58
Speaker 2: You sounded very credible.
44:00
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, we're in no.
44:03
Speaker 7: Attacking position even once we got that kick back and
44:06
Speaker 7: love Chanel, but he didn't have the greatest. He had
44:09
Speaker 7: a good game, I think, but just that boot wasn't
44:13
Speaker 7: his best friend on Saturday.
44:15
Speaker 2: Okay, so you get back to Invercargill. Obviously, you managed
44:18
Speaker 2: to get away.
44:19
Speaker 1: I've seen a bit on the socials about you being
44:21
Speaker 1: over the seven kilos to get on the plane. You
44:23
Speaker 1: managed to negate that. But then, lo and behold, you're
44:25
Speaker 1: on the terrace yesterday watching the stags. I mean, you're
44:28
Speaker 1: pretty much a diehard for the stags, though. You're there
44:30
Speaker 1: week in, week out. You're one of these hardcores.
44:33
Speaker 7: Wee correction for us. That wasn't me that had over
44:36
Speaker 7: seven kgs. I was, I think, about 659, and it
44:39
Speaker 7: was fine. But, yeah, no, week in, week.
44:43
Speaker 5: Out, no. When they lose, it doesn't matter.
44:47
Speaker 7: We've got the best fan base by far because I
44:51
Speaker 7: wouldn't say I'm a super fan because there's about 500
44:53
Speaker 7: other people doing it with me too.
44:56
Speaker 5: So it's bloody good. But that game, how good are they?
45:01
Speaker 1: Well, when you're a Southland supporter, the winds are few
45:04
Speaker 1: and far between at the moment. But the atmosphere, it's raining,
45:07
Speaker 1: it's cold, it's springtime for God's sake, and they're doing
45:12
Speaker 1: the number on the opposition on a Sunday evening. You
45:15
Speaker 1: must have felt pretty chuffed. And just put the weekend
45:17
Speaker 1: into context.
45:19
Speaker 7: Oh, well, I didn't have much of a voice for
45:22
Speaker 7: the bloody Stags, but I made the most of it.
45:25
Speaker 5: I used it all the night before, but nah. How
45:28
Speaker 5: good is it going to be, though? Yeah. that, yeah,
45:33
Speaker 5: rate him highly.
45:35
Speaker 7: The atmosphere was obviously not as good as it was
45:39
Speaker 7: because there was about 20,000 of.
45:40
Speaker 5: These people, but the terraces, no matter how few or
45:48
Speaker 5: a lot there are, it's always just going to be
45:50
Speaker 5: a good time.
45:51
Speaker 2: And Woody Kirkwood had an outstanding return as well.
45:55
Speaker 7: I heard that he was pretty nervous about coming back,
45:57
Speaker 7: but you wouldn't think so.
45:59
Speaker 8: He played unreal, man.
46:02
Speaker 2: Righto, sorry, we'd better leave it there. Thanks for your time.
46:05
Speaker 1: Are you not contemplating going back up to Eden Park
46:07
Speaker 1: on Sunday to watch against the Knights?
46:09
Speaker 2: That's you one and done?
46:11
Speaker 7: Well, we had flights, but we booked them on the
46:17
Speaker 7: way home, and we booked them for fly-up Saturday, come
46:21
Speaker 7: home Sunday, and then, yeah, just got announced that Sunday game,
46:25
Speaker 7: so that kind of put a spanner in the works.
46:28
Speaker 1: Oh, well, that's the life and times of a sports fan,
46:31
Speaker 1: Gerard and Kyle. Thanks for your time, and Antlers Up.
46:34
Speaker 5: All right, Antlers Up.
46:35
Speaker 7: Cheers, Andy.
46:35
Speaker 5: Cheers, mate.
46:37
Speaker 2: Don't you laugh.
46:39
Speaker 1: Out loud with Ag Proud, because life on the land
46:42
Speaker 1: can be a laughing matter. Brought to us by Shearwell Data,
46:46
Speaker 1: working to help the livestock farmer. A genie granted me
46:49
Speaker 1: one wish, so I said, I just want to be happy.
46:53
Speaker 1: Now I'm living in a cottage with six dwarves and
46:55
Speaker 1: working in a mine. Alrighty, that's us over in Dunmouth
47:01
Speaker 1: for the afternoon. Don't forget the podcast's going up shortly.
47:04
Speaker 1: Cheers to iHeartRadio.
47:05
Speaker 2: I'm Andy Muir. The show's brought to you by Peters Genetics.
47:08
Speaker 2: Enjoy the afternoon. See you tomorrow.