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The Muster- Peter Gardyne: Getting The Tractors Out And About · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Peter Gardine farms in Napdale and joins us once again
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: on the muster. G'day Pete, there's a bit of rain
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: happening around the province today, dare I say it.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Did you need another little skiff?
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: We didn't need some rain. We do have some country
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: that we're putting into barley that does need some rain
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: to soften it up to cultivate it. But I think
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: we're all enjoying a quiet day and knocking off a
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: bit earlier last night off the tractors and been in
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: the office today tidying up some paperwork. So to be fair,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: I probably do need a day in the office to
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: catch up or else I'd be still burning diesel.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: How did September treat you at the end of it all?
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: We actually got on pretty well. We probably handle those
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: conditions better than some, but then we do risk the
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: dry in the summer a bit more than those people do.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I think we had about 150 mils of rain in September,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: so that's a heck of a lot for us, but
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: I realise a lot less than those further south. And
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: with survival, we've got on pretty well because it was
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: never cold, cold. I mean, there was snow quite a
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: lot of times, but it was, yeah, it was all right.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: And we've put a lot of work into the survival
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: side of things. And I think all those little incremental
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: gains that we've made, they pay off in a spring
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: like what we had.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Interesting your comment before, Pete, saying that you pay for
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it a bit more in summer.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: What do you mean by that?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: We can get pretty dry here. We're on stones and
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: we're 7, 80 mils of rain a year. So last summer, autumn,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: we got pretty dry. We were probably by the middle
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: of November, we were losing grass growth dry last year
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: and we had to wean some sheep early about the
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: 25th of November because we're running out of feed pretty fast.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: So yeah, homes, it's good when it's cold and damp
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: in the shoulders and then it goes off the boil.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: But then the ground we lease at Pokerau, it's really
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: the opposite. It was pretty muddy in the gateways there
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: with my lambing beet, but it does hang on very
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: well in the summer.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Have you tailed yet?
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Yep, yep. We've done some of it. The twin paddocks
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: are sort of coming through around that mid-180s and through
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: the tailing pen, so we're pretty happy with that. But
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: like I said, we've put a bit of work in
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: with genetics and that over the years, and I just
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: think all those wee things you do, they add up
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: in a more tougher spring.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: How are your covers looking now, bearing in mind that
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: things have dried out to what they were?
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Covers are looking pretty good. We actually brought a bit
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: of calf in the last 10 days. I would like
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: to have brought more, but we've also got a few
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: paddocks that we're going to rip up. And I think
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: that's one of the advantages of a mixed arable and
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: livestock system is Obviously we weren't doing much cultivation in
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: September so we were still able to graze, regrowth, forage
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: oats and stuff like that. When in a drier year
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: they would have been tipped off already. So that does
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: all help and we do also have a few paddocks
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: that are about to come out of fodder beaten for peas.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: So it probably allows us to have a slightly lower
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: stocking rate per hectare in September and then we squeeze
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: those sheep off in October once we start ripping up
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: those paddocks.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Burning diesel will be the name of your game at
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: the moment then?
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: We are burning a fair bit of diesel right now
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: and I had a bit of a shock when I
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: saw the invoice for Monday's fuel drop-off. Very good service
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: from the fuel company and no complaints about the company,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: but far out the invoice was large.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: What was it worth per litre?
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Because I filled up diesel this morning at Gore at
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: one of the South Suras as discount, eh?
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: $ 3. 02.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we're at 255 plus GST a litre
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: for diesel.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably about right, but it's just, it's an
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: expensive cost and it's been talked about a lot on
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: this show recently as well.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Fertiliser and fuel. Julie Edwards in.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: The UK used today initiating that they've got the same
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: issues that we do, so this very much is just
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: not a New Zealand problem.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: But then on the other side, we're killing stock for
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: really good money, so it's sort of an in and
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: out thing, so As long as the money stays up
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: on the income side, if it's up on the outgoing side,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: it's not the end of the world. It's just a
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: bit crazy if they go the wrong ways. So, yeah,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: like as much as it's high, I mean, you've got
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: to spend money to make money.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I suppose we just have to wait and see what
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a certain president in the US decides to do next
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: to try and get a bit of a soundbite.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Well, to be fair, what he does or what he's
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: going to do is well above my pay grade. But,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: you know, like I say, you know, we've sent some...
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: A handful of wet-dry ewes three weeks ago or so,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: or probably dry-drys and a handful of wet-drys, and they're
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: amazing money. We've seen some coal ram-lams the other day,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: and yeah, far out. It's better than we've ever had.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's definitely a pretty cool time to be
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: in the business.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: It's a perspective of what the prices are, and Jamie McKay,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: not that many years ago, used to go on about
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the $ 100 lamb being the pipe dream, and you look
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: at the way that things have gone with inflation, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: that's well and truly just down the stairwell now when
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: you look into the future.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Like our average price last year, and like I said,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: we got dry and we had to sell some lambs
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: in stores last season, and even with that taking into perspective,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: I think we were Very close to double the price
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: that we were two years before that on average, which
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: is pretty massive. Two years ago was not a very
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: fun year though.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: No, it's been a few years like that if we're honest.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So as far as the hoggart lambing, lambing's pretty much
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: on the wind down for a lot of people now.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: We started in mid-September.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: And, well, it used to be at home when it
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: got to Labour weekend, if there was a handful of
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: girls left, you put them behind the Hawthorne hedge and
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you're seeing them on the Monday and how they were faring.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And generally, they've tidied themselves up. It just gets towards
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that time of year again.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I will admit that I land the stud hoggarts,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: but I don't land the commercial hoggarts personally. The stock
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: manager and the shepherd do that. But they seem to
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: say that they're getting on pretty well, which is cool.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: But once again, you breed for it, and I think
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: a hoggart now is just so much more productive than
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: they were when I started my career, and I think
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: we've learned how to do things better than back then.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: So they're following through them pretty well. We do kick
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: on and lamb for quite a wee while because we
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: give the hoggarts two cycles at mating, so then we
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: kill all the ones that don't get in lamb, so
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: we do give them a good chance to get in lamb.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: But the late hoggarts all lamb at home, on the
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: home place, and Like I say, we just put them
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: in a holding paddock near the yards and it's not
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: hard to go out and have a look for one person.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Those later hoggarts though, they just don't seem to have
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: too many problems which is quite cool.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: So at the moment it's just taking a little bit
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of a back step for 24 hours while there's a
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: bit of moisture around? 100%.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Everybody's put a lot of work in with the stock
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: people over the September obviously and with the tractor boys
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: have been working pretty hard for the last week or
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: 10 days or so. Dates at the moment sort of,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: you know, slip my mind away a bit because, yeah,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: you sort of put a few hours in. So the
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: main thing is, yeah, take it chill, take it easy,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: and we'll get back into the track and stuff again
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: on Monday and, yeah, have a cruisy weekend is the idea.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: So I actually think this rain's amazing.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Pete. Always appreciate your thoughts.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Good to have you on.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Peak Ardine based out of Natdale. Enjoying a little bit
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of moisture. Hopefully where you are, you're appreciating this. Here
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: in Gore, it's just been drizzling. It was quite heavy
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: this morning, actually, when I was out for a walk.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: But nonetheless, the forecast is looking good. Into next week,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: up next on the muster, Anna Irwin and the Beef
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and Lamp Slot.