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The Muster- Simon Stokes: Simon Stokes: Environment Southland · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster thanks to environment southland we're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: catching up with simon stokes land sustainability manager at environment
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: southland g'day simon.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah g'day andy how are you today well.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: It's it just continues this weather cycle right Yeah, that's right.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: It's been the wettest winter for more than 45 years
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: from records, and it's just left the region soaked, really. And,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: you know, it is actually incredibly challenging at the moment,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I think. There is soil moisture levels across the province
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: are right up, from our data, right up well over 80%, 85%, 95% levels,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: which is just purely saturated soils. And soil temperature is
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: only just climbing above six degrees. So, you know, we're
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: averaging about eight degrees at the moment. So it's a
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: slow move into spring, basically, Andy.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: So what are you guys hearing from farmers?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I'd like to say they're all chirpy and enjoying themselves.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: And they have been at the Rural Support Brunch on
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Us events, which have been brilliant. And thanks to Rural
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Support for doing those. There's three left, actually, Andy, for
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: farmers to attend. And look, people are fairly positive about
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: how things are going, but the weather is starting to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: chip away at, I think, people keeping their spirits up.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Because it has been wet and damp and these brief
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: moments of sunshine is welcome, but it's not continuous, is it?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: So farmers, I think, yeah, they're keeping on going, but
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: that's about it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: So what's the advice to farmers, though, going through the spring?
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Interesting you talk about the Rural Support Trust and Brunch
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: on Us events. It's happening at Willowbank tomorrow, Waikāia on
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Thursday as well. So it's a great chance for people
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to get off farm and go and connect. But as
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: far as the spring, though, the on-farm situation, what's the advice?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I've got a little bit to get through here,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: but I have got some good advice for farmers today.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: The first thing I think is if they haven't done so,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: they need to sit down around the kitchen table with
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the team, maybe some of the consultants or other people
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: who help them, and do some planning and strategizing for
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: the next three to four months. Your focus is on feed.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Your focus is on whether you're going to be putting
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: new grasses in and getting your crops in and cultivating.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: If you're a dairy farming, you've got pond effluent management.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: You've got your FERT. to think about as well when
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: they're going to be the right time to get that
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: urea on. And then, of course, you've got the issues
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: of availability of contractors. So my first piece of advice
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: is that take a little bit of time out and
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: actually sit down and really nut out some good strategies
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: and planning perspective for the next three to four months.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: And on top of that, Andy, too, I think With
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the way that the soil moistures are at the moment
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: and the management of soils is to perhaps look to
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: be a little bit more flexible with what you were
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: planning to do this year with where you were going
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: to cultivate or where you were going to put that crop.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: And that's my second key point is to really, most
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: farmers will know their soils very, very well, but really
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: sit down and have a good think about which soils
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: and where, which soils and are going to cope with
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: those things I just mentioned with regards to pretty key
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: activities between now and Christmas. There may be soils within
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the farm that are going to be slightly drier or
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: less saturated at the moment that might be more useful
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: to be cultivated a bit earlier as we get into October,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: as opposed to that site that you might have been
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: looking at that is going to take a lot longer
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: to get soil moisture down to a really a good
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: level for cultivation. Because the problem is, Annie, is that
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: people will be wanting to crank into it, and the
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: thing is that while we can get our machinery in
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: there and get going, when the soil moistures allow it,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: you've still got the issue of how much impact you're
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: going to have on that soil with regards to turning
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: it over, breaking it down, and putting it into a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: nice environment for your crops to sow into. If it's
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: too wet, you could end up actually creating a lot
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: of clods or hard soil walls and stuff which are
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: basically becoming ineffective with regards to what you're trying to
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: grow and how you're growing it. So those are a
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: couple of key things. There's also a need to, particularly
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: for our dairy farming friends, is the irrigation ponds and
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: their management of effluent. What you really need to do
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: is be thinking carefully about Little and often, I think,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: would be the message.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Now, there are.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Sorry, mate, there's cultivation days that are coming up, though,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: isn't there?
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: What's the go around these?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those cultivation days, they're coming up on October the
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: 6th at Hedgehope Hall, starting at noon till 3, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: then on the 7th at Mossburn Hall, same time, noon
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: till 3. Both of those events, there's a free lunch there, too,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: And there'll be plenty of land sustainability staff on deck
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: with regards to providing advice. And those events also have
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the weatherman, Chris Brandolino, coming down to talk about things
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: with regards to El Nino and what it means for
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: us here in Southland in early October and onwards. So
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: those events are coming up to a bit like a
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: follow-up to the Brunch on Us events. So going back
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: to what I would suggest, Andy, is that farmers do
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: a bit of planning strategising. and if they need help
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: from Environment South and the land sustainability team, I've got
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: plenty of knowledge around a lot of the things I've
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: been talking about. Get them out on farm and get
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: onto our website and keep a track, keep looking at
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: that environmental data, particularly around soil moistures and soil temperatures.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Hey, good on you, Simon. Good to catch up.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Andy. See you later.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Simon Stokes of Environment Southland.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: So those days that are coming up, the cultivation days
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: with ES, go and RSVP on the Environment Southland website,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Facebook page as well.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: It will all be there too.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, from Thornberry Young Farmers, we're going
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: to catch up with Ollie Teal.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: You're listening to The Muster.