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The Muster- Chris Dillon: Southland Federated Farmers · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This interview is brought to you by Agri Centre South.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Branches in Lawnville, Gore, Cromwell, Milton and Ranfurly. Drop by
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: your local Agri Centre South branch today.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Chris Dillon is President of South and Federated Farmers and
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: joins us this afternoon. CD, g'day. Last time I spoke
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: to you, you were in Australia or you're on your
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: way over to the airport to get there. You probably
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: wish you stayed there a bit longer.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't come back to very good weather, all right. No,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: not at all, Andy.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: What is the situation that you're hearing from the fed
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: side of the fence at the moment anyway? I mean,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a lot of people talking about eight inches of rain
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: so far for the month. We've still got a week
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: of September to go. Is there certain parts of the
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: region that are worse off than others?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Certain parts are worse off. Everyone's coped the rain, but
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: it's the soil types that... is causing the problem, and
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: it's just relentless. But we've been there before, and we've
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: got out the other side of it, so we just
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: do all what we can.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: How are people coping, given it's the middle of lambing
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: and calving's getting well through now, but feed reserves, feed levels,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: et cetera, are you hearing any sheep farmers just trying
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: to find a plan Z? No.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: In the northern parts, there's grass, but they are wasting
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a bit of it. It's the cows in the lower
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: part of the province that are really pugging the pastures,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: and it's difficult for them. And by all accounts, there's
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: small amounts of feed reserves around, but not huge. So
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: if you need to act early, I would say.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Have you had many farmers get in touch with yourself
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: or federated farmers expressing concern about the situation?
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Not directly to us, but... The Southern Executive's got a
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: fairly active chat, so we keep in touch with each
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: other and see what's going on around the different parts
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: of the province regularly, so we keep informed that way.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I think it's all about just pushing the messaging of
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: checking in with your neighbours and your mates, because the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: big thing to reiterate is that everybody's in the same
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: boat here.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Exactly, and the Royal Support Trust is running a few
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: events at the moment, and there's a few things. Just
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: get off farm and have a breath and realise that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: you're not the only one that's... tied up with the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: bad weather and we can't control the weather unfortunately.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Southland Rural Support Trust, just on that, their Brunch On
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Us event tomorrow at the Waikāia Hall at 11am. There's
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: another one next week, I think, in Dipton, but as well,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: around Edendale, there's a farmer's shout happening at Herbert's Yard
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: tomorrow at 11am, and as well, Cameron Contracting's Yard on
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: the 28th, which is next Monday at the same time,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: 11am as well, and they're just encouraging anybody to go along,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: have a drink, have something to eat and just chew
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: the fat. And, yeah, three times the charm, right?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dead right. Have a chat about it. Work through
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: it that way.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Like you say, there's nothing that really politicians of a
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: likes can get involved with in a situation like this
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: because it's just weather.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: It is just weather and we had high hopes because
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: we've had two bad springs, but to get a third one, well,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: we're either going to get used to them or we
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: have to change slightly what we do. But it's not
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: just one farming type. Everyone's caught up on this bad weather,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: so yeah, just work through it.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Well, you're a grain farmer based at Ard Lusser. What's
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: it like? How bad is it there?
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It's fairly wet. We got the first round of fertiliser
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: done last week when we had a window. We did
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: think some of the heavy ground was too wet to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: be getting on, but we did it anyway. And we're
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: glad we did because you'd be wanting to put a
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: life jacket on before you flew over it this week.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: It has got very wet. But the crops on the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: dry land have sparked up and they've grown quite well.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Well, the fur got washed in, I suppose.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one thing, yeah. It certainly didn't get volatilised.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's for sure. Changes to the RMA getting ratified
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: yesterday in Parliament.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's very good news. We've seen the Resource
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Management Act. I think it's close on 35 years it's been...
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: It was put in place to do a job, but
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: it has enabled a huge build-up of bureaucracy to stop
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you doing anything, and... that frustration has led to the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: current government putting in two new bills to replace it.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So we look forward to working through them in the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: next term.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: But all these RMA changes, they correlate to these plans
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: that we've seen heaped on the councils as well. So
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: it's been interesting times, especially here in Gore.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in every council. And as we said when we
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: spoke a few months back, with the council reform, it's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: done a bit backwards now. They may have needed to
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: be reformed before the council reformed. Now we have that,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and we can set a clear direction for how the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: councils operate going forward.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Right, we're not far out from the election, six weeks
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: or so. Is there a Meet the Candidates night coming up?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Mataga Feds is hosting a few of them, and
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: we're joining them on the 13th in Te Panui for
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a Southland Candidates one and two. The 15th of October
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: in Invercargill, we're hosting the Invercargill electorate one at the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Fed building, 7pm on the 15th of October.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: It's coming around quicker than not as well.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: It will come around quick, yeah. But no, it's good
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: to have a sort of informal chat and get a
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: chance to ask some questions of the candidates that we
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: have down here in the South.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: So just finally, Chris, just to reiterate what we talked
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: about earlier on, anybody who's seeking any issues, feel free
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: to get in touch with somebody from Feds or Rural
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Support Trust as well, 0800 787 254, because you've just
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: got to keep connecting at the moment.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: That's key to it, yep. Anyone showing them, just get
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a hold of someone there, yep.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Chris. Thanks for your time again.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Not a problem. Cheers. Cheers.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Chris Dillon, President of Southland Federated Farmers. Like we said before,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: the Brunch On Us event tomorrow at Waikāia at the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: hall at 11am and next week concluding. I think it's
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a dipton as well. And like I said too, Herbert's
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Yard having a shout in Edendale tomorrow at 11am. So
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: they're encouraging people to get off farm and go and
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: just have a chinwag for a wee bit because everybody's
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: in this together. Tom Shallard's up next out of Craig's
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Investment Partners.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Music