Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster- Brenton Howden: Rotational Grazing On The Farm

Transcript

The Muster- Brenton Howden: Rotational Grazing On The Farm · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster. The musical theme today is
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: yacht rock. Yes, that is a category. You all know
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that song there, of course, Toto by Africa. As we
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: head over to Benmore to catch up with Brenton Howden,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: farming over that way. Just off the main drag there
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: as you're heading between Lumsden and Winton. G'day, Howdy.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: How you going, Andy?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Pretty good. Last time we spoke to you, it was
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the transitioning from the wet to the dry. How are
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: things going?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, September's a distant memory now, isn't it? It's certainly changed,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: hasn't it?
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So October's played ball, more or less, I think it's
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: fair to say. Yeah.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, October was very kind to us. It fixed
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: all the problems that September created, well, most of them anyway.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: So everything's corrected itself in the works since? You're coping
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: all right?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Not too bad. We're a wee bit behind where we
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: should be with getting stuff in. I've got, hopefully, a
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: plot of it going in tonight or tomorrow, and that's
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: probably about three weeks behind there, and Haven't got any
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: barley in the ground yet, so I'm quite well behind that,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: but that's probably next week's job. But I've got a
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: wee bit in the ground and going to do some
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: grass seed after I've finished talking to you and then
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: got a bit of leafy turnip in and a bit
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: more to do tomorrow, so we'll get there.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: You normally have your beet in probably in the middle
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: of October?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, normally about 15th, 20th of October. Yeah, well, two
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: years ago in 2024, we didn't get it into about now,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: and it's still a good enough crop. So, yeah, I
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: don't think there's a huge panic to get it in.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I just sort of normally get it in once it's ready,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: and if it's middle of October or if it's, yeah, now, it's, yeah,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's a huge difference in it.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: So how did the tailing go, the hoggets and the likes?
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Everything all sorted up now? That's just a distant memory too?
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Still tail the hoggets. I imagine Grant will be here
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: in another week or two, but, yeah, ewes are all
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: tidied up and Yeah, it worked out not too bad.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: We weren't too far behind. I was about 3 or 4% back,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: so I was pretty happy to be only that far back, yeah.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: That's pretty good going, though, if you're only that far behind,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: considering the conditions.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just paid credit for the work the Lambing
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Shepherd and myself put in. We put a lot of
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: hard work in there to keep stuff alive, and it
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: seems to have paid off so far. Still the odd
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: thing falling off now, but Probably no worse than other years.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: You know, we'd get those shoe drop-offs after tailing, but, yeah, no,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty stoked with how we managed to make it through.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: So, likes of your triplets, are you noticing a drop-off
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: in them at all as the season gets through, or
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: are they starting to wean themselves off mum a bit?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Well, I take one off all the triplets. I think
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: I only left one of them the first two or
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: three on, so everything else came off, and they're on
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a feeder. So, yeah, the triplets now are just pretty
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: much twins, and they're as big as everything else. Seems
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to work pretty well here to put them on a
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: feeder because you always have one drop off or two
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: drop off. So, yeah, it makes sense, I think.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: So how many pets did you end up with?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I think there's still 20 or 30 to tail, but
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I think it'll be about 150, 160.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: That's a few to feed as well, though, mind you,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: but the money's there. So if you put the effort in,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: you get the reward. Same old story, right?
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my mother puts a lot of hard work in
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: getting them up and going and getting them onto a
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: deal of our feeder. There's quite a lot of work.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: It's not as simple as throwing them in a pen
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: and there you go. It takes a bit of work,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: but I think it is well worth it. I think
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: my costings are right at around $ 140 to rear them.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: If we're going to get $ 200 lambs, it's better than
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: store lambs, isn't it?
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And wet dries are going for good money as well.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nah, they're all gone. That was, yeah, real good money. Yeah,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: you don't hesitate to keep them away, keep them away
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: and put the grass into something else.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know, what was the tops the other day?
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: About $ 300 or something for use?
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think we were just a wee bit
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: off that, but yeah, it's real good money and it's
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: good because it needs to.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Be like that. Now, an important part of your workforce
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: there as such, or technology-wise, you had the drone out
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: just at the start of lambing. Do you get to
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the stage now that you get the drone out and
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: about and use it a wee bit to save yourself
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: a bit of time, or it's got its place where
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: you need to use it?
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: It's where you need to use it. I had it
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: out a week ago. I just wanted to count hoggets
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: in each paddock just to get my balance right now
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: that they're finished, so I used it that day to
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: count what was in each paddock, so it was quite
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: handy for that. Someone had suggested taking a photo and
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: getting AI to count them all for me, but I
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: chipped away and counted them, and it worked quite good
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: for that. But other than that, I haven't had out
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: for anything just yet. I'm sure there'll be some jobs
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: pop up that'll be handy for.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: It sounds ridiculous and obscene, but that's pretty much the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: way that we're looking now, is using AI for doing
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: things like that. So I suppose if it's to your benefit,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: all power.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, at the end of the day, that's all
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: just tools, and it's how you use them. They're no
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: different to a hammer or a saw or... You know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: it's how you use it. It's all, you know, if
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: you can find a way for it to benefit your system,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: it's well worth using.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: And you're a fan of mob stocking as well with
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the ewes and lambs.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Yep. So, yeah, I bang three or four mobs together
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: for tailing, and then on they just stay in their mobs, and, yeah,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: they move around those few paddocks. Yeah, moved on every three, four,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: five days, been outside the paddock, and, yeah, I think
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: everything's got around an 18-day lap So, yeah, it gets
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: that grass growing back up and you've got your chicories
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: and your plantains in there. It gives them all a
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: chance to sprout back up and, yeah, works out well.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: The lambs seem to get used to getting moved then,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: so come weaning time they're a lot easier to move
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: through gateways and whatnot.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Is that the main reason for doing it, just to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: control the feed?
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so, I think. I know I get
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: a lot more away off mum just from getting that
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: fresh tucker every few days and getting a fresh new pick.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: I think it really benefits the growth rates and everything.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: So when are you hoping to wean?
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Normally around that second week of December. Get in there,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: do it over two days and it's pretty simple. I
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: normally work it out to the drench the week after.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Just drafting and then wean and she's all done.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: No drenching on mum beforehand? Well, you'll be doing that shortly,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: if you were, I suppose.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll probably look at that. Maybe not next week,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: week after. I'm going to do that. It normally takes
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: about two or three days, yeah.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Hey, the ABs over there, they've got Scotland. The irony
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of playing at Murrayfield is it's New Zealand rugby's home
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: away from home. We've never lost to them. We've drawn
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a couple of times. But, yeah, they're looking not too bad.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: They're starting to come together a bit better, I reckon.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they are, aren't they? Those tests against Australia just
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: showed how good we are. Yeah, we might have lost
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: that series in South Africa, but I think we've learned
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: a lot from it and we'll grow a lot from it.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: You look at the guys we've got out injured and
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: we've got the second or third-ranked guys in there now
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and they're performing as good as those top guys. They're
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: going to have a bit of a headache next year
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: when they've got to select the 33-man squad for the
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: World Cup. There's going to be some top blokes missing out,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: aren't they?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Well, you think back to Scott Robertson, he always talked
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: about a three-deep philosophy, three players to go into each position.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: And like Sir Ethan DeGroote incumbent Lou said at the moment,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: he might have a bit of a battle on his
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: hands by the sounds of it.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I've still got Tamati Williams to come back yet. Yeah.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: They're definitely going to be nipping at Ethan's heels, so
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: he's going to have to keep performing, isn't he?
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Let's be honest, as long as we beat the Poms,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: we'll be happy.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Hey, good on you, Howdy. We'll let you crank the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: iron horse back out and let you get back into it, mate.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Always good to catch up.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Cheers, Andy. Thank you.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Brendan Howden over at Benmore. You're listening to The Muster.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Before the end of the hour, our resident sporting guru,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Nathan Burden, following the Tour of Southland, but up next,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Mick Withers, talking about the young auctioneer of the year competition.