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Best Of The Muster: 19/09/26 · The Muster on Hokonui

0:08
Speaker 1: A very good morning and welcome into the Best of
0:10
Speaker 1: the Muster, a collaboration of interviews that took our attention
0:12
Speaker 1: during a busy week here at Hokanui HQ. My name's
0:16
Speaker 1: Andy Muir, thanks for joining us. We're starting off by
0:18
Speaker 1: heading up to Fiordland Basin. Andy Dennis, based at Manapōuri,
0:23
Speaker 1: catching up with him during lambing. He runs deer on
0:26
Speaker 1: his operation as well as beef cattle too. And Kakatao's
0:29
Speaker 1: is about the season to date. It's been an interesting September,
0:33
Speaker 1: as you'll know about weather-wise. But he seems to think
0:36
Speaker 1: that generally the basin is in good heart, leading into
0:39
Speaker 1: what are supposedly the growing months. Greg Erickson, a Canadian correspondent,
0:44
Speaker 1: joined us for a chat as he gets ready to
0:46
Speaker 1: get into another harvest over there. He's based in Millet
0:49
Speaker 1: in Canada, formerly of Waimumu. And Greg tells us about
0:53
Speaker 1: the mood of the nation over there regarding America and
0:57
Speaker 1: all these tariffs that President Trump's put on them. And
1:01
Speaker 1: we catch up with Greg just to see what's been
1:02
Speaker 1: happening as well. It's a pretty busy time and they
1:05
Speaker 1: work on pretty big scales over there in Canada. Grant
1:09
Speaker 1: does ask McMaster a close burn station. A Tuesday regular,
1:13
Speaker 1: but with a really important message this week, talking about TB.
1:18
Speaker 1: Disaster from his own experience just goes and tells us
1:22
Speaker 1: what it's like having to tolerate a cow going through
1:26
Speaker 1: and reacting to this, unfortunately. Julie Edwards, our Sharewell UK correspondent.
1:33
Speaker 1: Of course, Sharewell, Ella McCleary, catches up every couple of
1:36
Speaker 1: weeks here on the muster. We catch up with Julie
1:38
Speaker 1: in alternate weeks as well. And she says, they had
1:42
Speaker 1: the rain over there in the UK, but how is
1:44
Speaker 1: the mood of the farmers as such? And finally, James Edgar,
1:48
Speaker 1: based at Moa Flat. Talking about the season we're having,
1:51
Speaker 1: James looks at lambing. It's been interesting, to say the least,
1:56
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, yet again, as we've talked about.
1:59
Speaker 1: and some things that he does in September to alleviate
2:02
Speaker 1: the September pains. So without further ado, we'll start the
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Speaker 1: hour next with Andy Dennis. You're listening to The Best
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Speaker 1: of the Master.
2:15
Speaker 2: The Best of the Master Andy Dennis farms up at
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Speaker 2: Manapōuri and joins us in the Sgt Dan Farming Roundup
2:26
Speaker 2: where we go and catch up with different farmers in
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Speaker 2: various parts of the southern region every Monday here on
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Speaker 2: the muster.
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Speaker 1: And, of course, it's brought to you by Sgt Dan's
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Speaker 1: Stock Foods, based here in Gore. Kaka, good afternoon. How's
2:37
Speaker 1: the basin?
2:38
Speaker 3: Ah, the basin's... Yeah, the basin's just the basin in September. Yeah,
2:43
Speaker 3: it's just doing its usual, really. So, yeah, no, we're
2:46
Speaker 3: all right.
2:47
Speaker 1: Um.
2:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, last week was a lot better than the week before.
2:51
Speaker 3: The week before was really wet. We were sort of
2:54
Speaker 3: getting 15, 20 mils a day, and that was getting
2:56
Speaker 3: a bit hard on things. But, yeah, last week was OK.
2:59
Speaker 3: We were just getting a lot of wind with these
3:00
Speaker 3: sort of northerlies. But, yeah, it'll be what it'll be. Yeah.
3:04
Speaker 1: You don't like making comparisons in September, but how does
3:06
Speaker 1: this rank with the last two seasons at the same time?
3:10
Speaker 3: Oh, probably easier, I'd say. But I... Yeah, the middle
3:15
Speaker 3: of the week before last, I was starting to think, oh,
3:19
Speaker 3: not three, four in a row. But no, like, yeah,
3:23
Speaker 3: we had a lot of rain late August, early September
3:28
Speaker 3: for the last two seasons. So the last week's just
3:31
Speaker 3: been a bit of a blessing, really. Yeah, so no,
3:36
Speaker 3: we're tracking OK. It is what it is.
3:38
Speaker 1: Yeah. Things have dried out there a little bit then?
3:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, the wind's moving a bit of stuff out. Like,
3:44
Speaker 3: there's still whopping big puddles everywhere on work ground and everything.
3:48
Speaker 3: There'll be no panic heading tractors. But, yeah, it's just
3:51
Speaker 3: sort of good to have, you know, some nicer weather
3:55
Speaker 3: for lambing. Yeah.
3:56
Speaker 1: So how's the drop been so far?
3:59
Speaker 3: Pretty good. I'd say last week was great, so we've
4:02
Speaker 3: had a good run. I think there was a few
4:04
Speaker 3: guys that were a bit earlier. They probably got caught
4:06
Speaker 3: out with some weather, but... yeah I'd only really started
4:10
Speaker 3: when we had that sort of seven or eight days
4:12
Speaker 3: of rain and although it was warm it just sort
4:15
Speaker 3: of added quite a lot to the workload and then
4:18
Speaker 3: yeah it's been really good since so I've probably only
4:21
Speaker 3: got a week left in these BU's and then they'll
4:24
Speaker 3: be sort of shed out and the Romneys are only
4:27
Speaker 3: sort of getting on the get go really but they're
4:29
Speaker 3: pretty easy they are all younger sheep and seem to
4:33
Speaker 3: be able to do it and you've just got lambs
4:35
Speaker 3: that are a wee bit tougher than these stuff ticks
4:37
Speaker 3: so Usually by then, yeah, the end is near and
4:41
Speaker 3: you're just ticking your way around.
4:43
Speaker 1: Would you consider moving your lambing date based on the
4:46
Speaker 1: seasons being the way they've been or it's a case
4:48
Speaker 1: of it is what it is?
4:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, like when I sort of came here 12 or
4:54
Speaker 3: 14 years ago, whenever that was, everyone was later on
4:57
Speaker 3: the month and a lot of us progressive middle-aged farmers
5:04
Speaker 3: went earlier. And, yeah, it's probably not what's traditionally done
5:12
Speaker 3: up here, but, like, I've got to get hindsight stocked
5:15
Speaker 3: in October. There's sort of stairs on crop that need
5:17
Speaker 3: to come out. It's trying to keep your sort of
5:21
Speaker 3: lambing date, average lambing date, sort of a wee bit
5:24
Speaker 3: earlier so you can be moving stuff around in a
5:27
Speaker 3: mixed sort of livestock species farm. It's a bit different, but, yeah,
5:31
Speaker 3: I mean... In a perfect world, we'd all be back
5:33
Speaker 3: on the 20th of September, but, yeah, I think we've
5:37
Speaker 3: just sort of got to be... We've had to come forward,
5:39
Speaker 3: and that's how it is, to sort of put everything
5:41
Speaker 3: else on this farm.
5:43
Speaker 4: Yeah.
5:43
Speaker 1: Therefore, your farming synergy suggests you just stick to what
5:47
Speaker 1: you know.
5:47
Speaker 5: Yeah.
5:49
Speaker 3: Like, you know, that last week in August, every year,
5:53
Speaker 3: you have that lambing date discussion with yourself, and, you know, like... Yeah,
5:58
Speaker 3: it's always good to have a few different lambing dates.
6:00
Speaker 3: So when you have rough stuff, you know, not everything's
6:03
Speaker 3: going at the same time. And, like, you know, we're
6:07
Speaker 3: sort of 3,400 sheep. So when it was sort of
6:11
Speaker 3: just me here, like, you couldn't get around the whole
6:12
Speaker 3: lot by yourself. So we went split lambing dates. So
6:15
Speaker 3: something's got to come early and something's sort of got
6:18
Speaker 3: to stay where it is. And then, yeah, the hoggets
6:20
Speaker 3: are always a bit later. But, no, yeah, I'm pretty
6:23
Speaker 3: happy where it is. If anything, you might shift it
6:26
Speaker 3: back five days on everything. weather would make any difference.
6:30
Speaker 3: It all just comes down to sort of the weather
6:32
Speaker 3: pattern at the time, isn't it? And you just hope
6:35
Speaker 3: you're always going to get something rough, but you just
6:37
Speaker 3: hope you get something good as well. Yeah.
6:40
Speaker 1: How intensive on the lambing bed are you then with
6:41
Speaker 1: that amount of ewes?
6:45
Speaker 3: Oh, not, I don't get too carried away. I just
6:48
Speaker 3: worry about the 100% really. The rest of it will
6:51
Speaker 3: take care of itself. So if I've taken a ewe
6:54
Speaker 3: right through to now and I know there's a triplet
6:57
Speaker 3: In the next paddock I can grab, I'll grab and
6:59
Speaker 3: mother her on, but, yeah, that's about the limit, yeah.
7:04
Speaker 3: We seem to take a bit of weight off the
7:07
Speaker 3: ewes over winter now, and then they bounce back pretty good,
7:10
Speaker 3: so I don't sort of have a lot of casts
7:12
Speaker 3: or I haven't had, well, no, I've had two bearings, yeah,
7:17
Speaker 3: so far out of 1,200 sheep, so that's pretty good. Yeah,
7:22
Speaker 3: so it is what it is. If you go too hard,
7:24
Speaker 3: you just cook yourself and, sort of weak, didn't it? So,
7:28
Speaker 3: and then, yeah, no. They should be able to land
7:31
Speaker 3: themselves these sheep, shouldn't they now?
7:33
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:33
Speaker 1: No, the argument's there, but old habits die hard at
7:36
Speaker 1: the same time.
7:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think all those habits have died hard. I
7:40
Speaker 3: used to do lambing beaks for people when, well, before
7:43
Speaker 3: and after Lincoln and that, just sort of paying off
7:45
Speaker 3: student loans and we were marking twins and mothering up
7:49
Speaker 3: everything and mothering up twins and doing all sorts and, like,
7:52
Speaker 3: I don't know many people that go that gung-ho anymore. Um, Yeah,
7:55
Speaker 3: it seems like our sheep have certainly got better. And, yeah,
7:59
Speaker 3: they're better mums, and we don't have those sort of
8:01
Speaker 3: same issues. But, you know, when you're thinking, and you
8:04
Speaker 3: don't really want to think like this, but every lamb's
8:06
Speaker 3: worth $ 200, yeah, you sort of, it's not hard to
8:11
Speaker 3: put in a bit of extra effort. But, like I said,
8:14
Speaker 3: I just sort of worry about that 100%, and you
8:17
Speaker 3: hope the next sort of 40% or 50% sort of
8:19
Speaker 3: takes care of itself then. Yeah, if every ewe sort
8:23
Speaker 3: of rears a lamb that can... um then yeah the
8:26
Speaker 3: rest of it will be easy yeah.
8:28
Speaker 1: Now your deer and cattle on your farming operation how
8:31
Speaker 1: have they got through the winter.
8:33
Speaker 3: Ah they're real good yeah no we've we probably um
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Speaker 3: we're just sort of putting in a bit more crop
8:38
Speaker 3: these days and um yeah the hinds have sort of
8:41
Speaker 3: got still got two weeks on swedes and then yeah
8:45
Speaker 3: some trade steers they're probably the same two weeks although
8:48
Speaker 3: they're getting pretty sick of it but um yeah, they'll
8:51
Speaker 3: come off and we'll be able to shed out by
8:54
Speaker 3: then and have a bit of grass in front of them,
8:56
Speaker 3: so that'll be good. So, no, they're ticking away. Yeah, no,
9:01
Speaker 3: everything's good. I've got weaners all out on grass, and
9:03
Speaker 3: I've got heaps in front of them, and they're pinging along,
9:06
Speaker 3: so that's good. Yeah, that's what you want, because the
9:09
Speaker 3: sooner you can start moving a bit of deer out,
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Speaker 3: a few weaners out as well, a few yearlings out,
9:15
Speaker 3: it sort of makes things easier done in October.
9:16
Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
9:18
Speaker 1: Do you move your cattle around and just stock them
9:20
Speaker 1: into paddocks for pasture control?
9:23
Speaker 3: Oh, there's obviously cows set stock with ewes at the moment, calving.
9:27
Speaker 3: And then, no, the steers will probably come off and
9:31
Speaker 3: go in behind... yearling deer following them along or onto
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Speaker 3: some young grass if I've been able to create enough
9:40
Speaker 3: space with using lambs which that's sort of how it's
9:44
Speaker 3: looking at the moment but nah like it's just you
9:47
Speaker 3: know what September and October like it's you just get
9:49
Speaker 3: through somehow you start at plan A and end up
9:53
Speaker 3: at plan Z and by the end of it there's
9:56
Speaker 3: grass growing in November yeah yeah I think.
10:00
Speaker 1: It's fair to say you're looking pretty optimistic then at
10:02
Speaker 1: the moment.
10:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you compare it to the last two years,
10:07
Speaker 3: like we're saying, we're in a better spot, I reckon. So, yeah,
10:12
Speaker 3: it'll just depend on the next wee while. Yeah, if
10:16
Speaker 3: these sort of fronts keep coming, but... No, I think
10:20
Speaker 3: the basin will be sort of coming through okay. Yeah,
10:24
Speaker 3: is my thoughts on it.
10:26
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:27
Speaker 1: Just finally, Kaka, the All Blacks, they got beaten by
10:30
Speaker 1: the Box 3-1 in this series. Arguably the game yesterday
10:32
Speaker 1: was a bit more of a festival feel, but a
10:34
Speaker 1: lot of commentary around how we're tracking in the lead-up
10:37
Speaker 1: to the World Cup. What do you reckon?
10:40
Speaker 3: I reckon we're fine. It's just that the Springboks are
10:42
Speaker 3: just so strong at the moment. They are the world champions.
10:48
Speaker 3: And they showed it in every game at every level. So, yeah,
10:53
Speaker 3: I don't have any answers for when we've got to
10:55
Speaker 3: play them again. But I think this squad and this
10:58
Speaker 3: coach is good. And I think they'll sort of deal
11:03
Speaker 3: with everyone else perfectly fine. Yeah, maybe the French will
11:07
Speaker 3: be strong again. But, yeah, the Poms can always shock us,
11:10
Speaker 3: can't they? But, yeah, we'll find out at the end
11:12
Speaker 3: of the year tour. But, no, they're... you've got to
11:16
Speaker 3: take your hat off to the Springboks. There's not too
11:18
Speaker 3: many ways around them, that's for sure. Or through them,
11:20
Speaker 3: or under them, or over them. I really don't know. But, yeah,
11:27
Speaker 3: it's just how it is at the moment. We're not
11:31
Speaker 3: number one, and that's the go. Good on you, Kaki.
11:34
Speaker 1: I'll let you carry on. Always good to get your thoughts.
11:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks, Andy. I hope everyone else in Slamming's going
11:39
Speaker 3: all right, and there's a light at the end of
11:41
Speaker 3: the tunnel, so... Very good. Cheers, guys.
11:48
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster. We're way over to Canada now,
11:50
Speaker 1: Millet to be precise, where we catch up with Greg Erickson,
11:53
Speaker 1: formerly of Waimumu, and our Canadian correspondent. Good afternoon.
11:58
Speaker 6: How you doing, Andy?
11:59
Speaker 1: Pretty well. How's things over in your neck of the woods?
12:02
Speaker 6: Yeah, things are going pretty good. We're sort of looking
12:05
Speaker 6: towards harvest season now, so things are It's light at
12:10
Speaker 6: the end of the season, the cropping tunnel. So we're
12:14
Speaker 6: sort of hoping to get the harvest in as quick
12:17
Speaker 6: as we can and settle down for the winter.
12:21
Speaker 1: So how's it been over the past four weeks? Pretty busy?
12:23
Speaker 6: Oh, it's been really busy.
12:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, really, really busy.
12:26
Speaker 6: We've had the silage season and that's been crazy busy.
12:31
Speaker 6: We've picked up a bunch of clients because we do
12:33
Speaker 6: a bunch of contracting and we've done... two or three
12:38
Speaker 6: cuts of the lucerne for some hay silage. And then
12:44
Speaker 6: we've done, oh, goodness knows how many thousands of acres
12:48
Speaker 6: of barley silage. And then the corn silage started two
12:51
Speaker 6: days ago. So that's going to be another.
12:55
Speaker 3: Four weeks of that.
12:56
Speaker 6: And then, of course, the combining kicks off. Well, it
12:59
Speaker 6: started on Saturday as well. So, yeah, she's hammered down
13:02
Speaker 6: for the next while.
13:04
Speaker 1: You grow quite a lot of lucerne over there.
13:07
Speaker 6: Yeah, they don't just grow grass for hay. Well, they
13:10
Speaker 6: call it alfalfa, but it's all lucerne. Everyone grows it here,
13:14
Speaker 6: and it's all to do with the sugar levels because
13:18
Speaker 6: it's all fed as part of the feed mixture in
13:20
Speaker 6: their hay because it goes in with the barley and
13:22
Speaker 6: the corn, whatever their agronomist recommends. And yeah, that's just
13:27
Speaker 6: one of the ingredients for the feed.
13:30
Speaker 1: How are the yields looking?
13:33
Speaker 3: Pretty average.
13:35
Speaker 6: Actually, for the lucerne, it's really average. We just had
13:39
Speaker 6: too much rain and not enough heat early on in
13:41
Speaker 6: the summer. So June was just terrible. There was just
13:44
Speaker 6: no heat and there was no rain in May. So
13:47
Speaker 6: we just never had that chance to take off. So
13:50
Speaker 6: we've only really got two cuts of it this year.
13:52
Speaker 6: There's been a couple of farmers that we've got three,
13:54
Speaker 6: but it's short. It's not much to it. The barley
13:56
Speaker 6: is really good and the corn is actually surprisingly good. Sorry,
14:01
Speaker 6: you go. The crops themselves, like for combining, they're actually
14:06
Speaker 6: looking good. pretty smart considering how much rain we had
14:09
Speaker 6: in June.
14:10
Speaker 1: We're hearing of a super El Nino over in our
14:13
Speaker 1: neck of the woods are you seeing anything like that there?
14:17
Speaker 6: Not as yet they are predicting it's going to be
14:19
Speaker 6: a warmer autumn and then maybe even a warmer winter
14:22
Speaker 6: but those sorts of positive news from weathermen you don't
14:26
Speaker 6: sort of hold your breath too much on.
14:28
Speaker 1: I suppose when you look at the cycle you're going
14:30
Speaker 1: through you're getting out of summer into the autumn months
14:32
Speaker 1: as such has it been a warm summer?
14:36
Speaker 6: August was pretty warm. August was respectively warm, like it
14:40
Speaker 6: normally is. July was pretty decent, a little bit colder
14:44
Speaker 6: at the start, but June was just terrible. There was
14:46
Speaker 6: just no heat, no nothing. It just rained constantly. So
14:50
Speaker 6: it kind of reminded me of Southland, actually. But we
14:52
Speaker 6: had record levels of rain in June.
14:57
Speaker 7: So, yeah, we would get, which is.
15:00
Speaker 6: We would get, say, an inch one night, an inch
15:02
Speaker 6: the next night, and then a week later we would
15:04
Speaker 6: get four inches of rain. And that doesn't happen here.
15:08
Speaker 1: Do you get a lot of meadow hay made over there,
15:10
Speaker 1: baleage and the likes?
15:13
Speaker 3: Not really, no.
15:13
Speaker 6: People will make baleage out of, if it's, say, Lucerne
15:18
Speaker 6: grass mix, but no one's making just straight grass. It's
15:22
Speaker 6: all got extra in it.
15:24
Speaker 1: So hay's still a big deal?
15:26
Speaker 6: Hay's huge, but all the hay here is also Lucerne.
15:30
Speaker 6: There is no straight grass hay.
15:34
Speaker 1: Is it a cost measure? I think so.
15:37
Speaker 6: I think it started off as trying to get the
15:41
Speaker 6: most out of every acre. And then I think it's
15:46
Speaker 6: sort of just become such a thing, such a popular thing,
15:50
Speaker 6: that no one sows grass here, really. It all goes
15:54
Speaker 6: straight into lucerne or crops.
15:58
Speaker 1: Now, you've got about 6,000 acres that needs combined. How
16:01
Speaker 1: many combines have you got going?
16:03
Speaker 6: We've got three. uh three John Deere's and that mean
16:07
Speaker 6: they're older but they will knock off 300 acres a
16:11
Speaker 6: day per like uh with all three combines and one
16:15
Speaker 6: big chaser bin and then we've got a great big
16:17
Speaker 6: elevator it takes most of our grain maybe 10 15
16:22
Speaker 6: k's away from all our crops so we just truck
16:26
Speaker 6: it to there most of the time we don't have
16:27
Speaker 6: to store too much we store probably more than half
16:31
Speaker 6: of it but yeah we just uh get rid of
16:34
Speaker 6: it as quick as we can And then we bag
16:36
Speaker 6: the rest. But we'll be looking at a good day
16:39
Speaker 6: is 300 acres a day. And then when we get
16:41
Speaker 6: into the canola, it'll be less because that's just a
16:43
Speaker 6: little slower.
16:44
Speaker 1: Now, you say it's a big chaser bin. What's the capacity?
16:48
Speaker 2: Ah, 2,000 bushels.
16:51
Speaker 1: Okay, talk normal here. What are we talking as far
16:55
Speaker 1: as tonnes or whatever?
16:57
Speaker 6: Okay, so if you put tonnes of wheat in it, well,
16:59
Speaker 6: say tonnes of barley, you'll stick easily 45 tonnes of
17:01
Speaker 6: barley in it. Tonnes of wheat, you're probably 55 tonnes.
17:05
Speaker 1: So you've got some serious gear towing this, I'd imagine.
17:08
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah.
17:10
Speaker 6: There's a 550 horsepower quad track in front of it.
17:13
Speaker 1: Has the weather ever determined the length of the harvest
17:16
Speaker 1: season over there?
17:18
Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely.
17:19
Speaker 6: Absolutely. So we typically, in this area, everyone would swath
17:23
Speaker 6: their canola down and put it in windrows and then
17:26
Speaker 6: pick it up with the pick-up head of the combine.
17:29
Speaker 6: And this year we are doing it all with the
17:32
Speaker 6: draper head, like the.
17:34
Speaker 7: straight cuts or the.
17:35
Speaker 6: Honeybees, whatever. And if it snows before we've got to it,
17:40
Speaker 6: if it's a really, really, if it's a light, fluffy snow,
17:44
Speaker 6: it won't matter. If it's a really heavy snow, it'll
17:47
Speaker 6: flatten the canola and we'll be trying to get it
17:49
Speaker 6: back in May.
17:51
Speaker 1: Because a lot of people do harvest with snow on there,
17:53
Speaker 1: like you say, as long as it's a light fall,
17:55
Speaker 1: but they farm for it. Yes, yes.
17:58
Speaker 6: So if the canola is in a swath and it snows,
18:02
Speaker 6: you can still combine it. If it's flattened, it'd have
18:05
Speaker 6: a really hard time picking it off the ground. And
18:08
Speaker 6: especially when it's, if the snow, because typically once it
18:11
Speaker 6: snows here, it doesn't leave until spring. And then you've
18:15
Speaker 6: got to get in there and you've got to combine
18:16
Speaker 6: it before you can prep the field and seed it.
18:18
Speaker 6: So it becomes a very big headache in May if
18:22
Speaker 6: you can't get it off in September or October.
18:25
Speaker 1: Canada as a whole, the economic mood of the community
18:28
Speaker 1: or of the country, how would it be?
18:31
Speaker 4: Horrible.
18:33
Speaker 6: We're not in a recession or anything. Just, well, Trump
18:37
Speaker 6: did a whole tariff thing again and he put on 50%
18:40
Speaker 6: tariffs on a whole bunch of things like steel and
18:42
Speaker 6: lumber and cars. So cars in Ontario, out east, are
18:47
Speaker 6: a huge thing because car parts will go across the
18:50
Speaker 6: border over there maybe six or seven times before they're
18:52
Speaker 6: put into a car for whatever reason. And then there's
18:57
Speaker 6: towns in BC and Quebec that... that are the lumber towns,
19:02
Speaker 6: like they are logging towns, and the whole town is
19:05
Speaker 6: there because of a mill. And because there's tariffs on it,
19:09
Speaker 6: now that whole town is suffering because the whole town
19:12
Speaker 6: is reliant on this mill.
19:14
Speaker 7: And so.
19:16
Speaker 6: In retaliation to these tariffs, Canada put tariffs back on
19:19
Speaker 6: the states, and equal value, so we didn't... I guess
19:23
Speaker 6: Canada didn't overstep. However, that got Trump into a tizzy,
19:28
Speaker 6: and then he... renamed a lake in Ontario, Lake Ontario,
19:32
Speaker 6: which borders.
19:33
Speaker 1: Lake America.
19:34
Speaker 6: He renamed that to Lake America. And it's just been
19:38
Speaker 6: this big whole thing, and we just want him to
19:40
Speaker 6: focus on someone else.
19:43
Speaker 1: So the midterm elections, if we see a change towards Democrats,
19:46
Speaker 1: will that mean much regarding tariffs?
19:49
Speaker 3: Probably not.
19:50
Speaker 6: I think all that will happen is the impeachment processes
19:54
Speaker 6: will start and we will be stuck trying to get
19:58
Speaker 6: his attention to take the tariffs off. And I don't
20:00
Speaker 6: think that'll happen. I think we'll be stuck with him
20:02
Speaker 6: for a while.
20:04
Speaker 1: Hey, good on you, Greg. Always appreciate your time. And
20:06
Speaker 1: next time, and when we do catch up next, hopefully
20:08
Speaker 1: that harvest is getting into the memory stage. Thanks as always.
20:12
Speaker 6: Sounds good. Thanks, Andy.
20:21
Speaker 1: Grant Disaster, McMaster Farms on the edges of, well, the
20:24
Speaker 1: edge anyway, of Lake Wakatipa, Closeburn Station, joins us once again.
20:28
Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Grant. The song's called Stuck Inside a Cloud.
20:32
Speaker 1: How much cloud have you got in the sky up
20:33
Speaker 1: there in central Otago?
20:34
Speaker 4: Oh, good afternoon, Andy. Good afternoon, everybody. A bit of
20:37
Speaker 4: cloud up high. It's normally up high, I suppose. But
20:41
Speaker 4: all the white stuff, the pilots will be able to
20:43
Speaker 4: tell you what it was. But it's 11 degrees here
20:46
Speaker 4: at the moment. We haven't had rain since we spoke
20:48
Speaker 4: last week. And, you know, the grass is growing a
20:52
Speaker 4: bit and things are drying out. Not as bad as
20:55
Speaker 4: our mates down in Southland. Feel for all you guys
20:58
Speaker 4: and girls down there. It's not an easy time, is it? But, yeah,
21:02
Speaker 4: the rain has stopped now. I think there's a bit
21:03
Speaker 4: more forecast tomorrow. But, yeah, it's certainly a good week
21:08
Speaker 4: with no rain and warm temperatures. Like, it was 17
21:11
Speaker 4: degrees yesterday and it's 11 degrees 11 now.
21:16
Speaker 1: Have you seen much regrowth on the hills?
21:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, there has been. And over at the hills, yes,
21:24
Speaker 4: they've got the heifers that have been feeding banners, those
21:28
Speaker 4: heifers that calved early. And so we got them out
21:31
Speaker 4: of their block and now they're on some nice grass
21:34
Speaker 4: that we've got growing over there. So it's always a
21:37
Speaker 4: bit more, you know, it's always a bit forward over there.
21:40
Speaker 4: And I think this is the last week for the
21:42
Speaker 4: hoggets on the crop. So that bit of the management
21:45
Speaker 4: plan's worked all right, Andy. The crop's been good. The
21:47
Speaker 4: hoggets are all right. the paddocks are coming away and
21:51
Speaker 4: the heifers are pleased to be on a bit of grass.
21:53
Speaker 1: Well, as Hannibal Smith of the A-Team once said, I
21:56
Speaker 1: love it when a plan comes together.
21:58
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah.
21:59
Speaker 4: What are you looking at, sucker?
22:01
Speaker 1: Siri, you've got a message today to share regarding tuberculosis
22:04
Speaker 1: and TB.
22:05
Speaker 7: Yeah, TB.
22:06
Speaker 4: I've just, you know, there's been quite a few articles
22:10
Speaker 4: of late in the Farmers Weekly and other magazines with the,
22:13
Speaker 4: you know, the threat of forestry and various... and wild
22:17
Speaker 4: deer and pigs becoming more prevalent, and possums, and, you know,
22:21
Speaker 4: the set of TV is always there, and there's been
22:23
Speaker 4: quite a few articles on it. But I can actually
22:26
Speaker 4: speak firsthand with TB, because back on the 10th of April,
22:31
Speaker 4: I'll never forget that date, I'd been up to the
22:35
Speaker 4: Mara dog trials, had a couple of runs there, thought
22:37
Speaker 4: I had a good day, and coming out of the gate,
22:39
Speaker 4: I got a call from Osprey, the head veterinarian there,
22:42
Speaker 4: Mr Kevin Crews, to say, um, we'd, uh, we'd sent, uh,
22:47
Speaker 4: cull cows. They went up to Koikuri, which is up
22:50
Speaker 4: in Greymouth, to be killed. And, uh, one went down
22:54
Speaker 4: the chute and they believed it was TB. So, uh,
22:56
Speaker 4: that makes, uh, every muscle in your body clench quite hard,
22:59
Speaker 4: I can tell you that. So, um, he said, look, it's, um,
23:04
Speaker 4: you know, this, this animal's gone down. It's got three
23:06
Speaker 4: lesions in it. Um, and, uh, Yeah, 99% sure it's TB,
23:11
Speaker 4: but we'll let you know next week when we get
23:13
Speaker 4: further tests done. So, you know, you say, what do
23:16
Speaker 4: you do? He said, well, don't do anything at the moment.
23:18
Speaker 4: Just sit tight until we know what's happening. So that's
23:20
Speaker 4: been the theory. And I'd just like to say that,
23:22
Speaker 4: you know, Osprey have been really good to deal with
23:25
Speaker 4: because it's actually, it's a bit of a kick in
23:28
Speaker 4: the ass to be fair. And it's not a good feeling.
23:31
Speaker 4: You just, you know, until you know exactly what's happening,
23:35
Speaker 4: you think, wow. You know, how's this going to affect me,
23:38
Speaker 4: my neighbours? You know, that's one of the bigger things.
23:41
Speaker 4: So anyway, four or five days later, the tests were in,
23:46
Speaker 4: and he said, I'll be coming down to see you.
23:48
Speaker 4: So he brought him and an associate came down. I
23:52
Speaker 4: named them the Bomb Squad. They arrived at home, and
23:55
Speaker 4: with all the information, and obviously I had a lot
23:57
Speaker 4: of questions, you know, where did it come from, how's
23:59
Speaker 4: it got here? He said, you know, we'll be working
24:02
Speaker 4: on this for quite a few months, Grant. So he said, just,
24:04
Speaker 4: you know, one step at a time type thing. So,
24:07
Speaker 4: you know, we'd sold all our calves at the Omakau sales,
24:11
Speaker 4: so there was 125 calves had gone from Southland to
24:14
Speaker 4: South Canterbury, so they had to be all recalled and,
24:18
Speaker 4: or they had to be tested. My neighbours, you know,
24:21
Speaker 4: I rang them and said, look, this is what's happened.
24:23
Speaker 4: It's felt a bit like a bloody leper and a
24:26
Speaker 4: leper kind of need to be feared. And you feel
24:29
Speaker 4: guilty and all those things, not that it was anything
24:31
Speaker 4: you'd been out to do on purpose, so... Anyway, so
24:36
Speaker 4: what happened, all those calves were all, all the people
24:40
Speaker 4: that bought those, you know, as I said, from South Island,
24:44
Speaker 4: they were all contacted. Those calves were all bought in
24:47
Speaker 4: and tested. They were all clear. So then we'd get
24:52
Speaker 4: our cows in and test them. So tested them, there
24:57
Speaker 4: was 110 cows that were there because the ones over
24:59
Speaker 4: at the hills were separate cows. So we tested those
25:03
Speaker 4: and read them on the Friday and the three had
25:07
Speaker 4: come up with the positive, you know, the tail test.
25:12
Speaker 4: My TB man, he said that, he said, I think
25:17
Speaker 4: two of them will be okay, but one won't be. However,
25:20
Speaker 4: they bring in the, then the inspectors come in and
25:24
Speaker 4: I just shoot those three cows and they all top
25:27
Speaker 4: seed them. had to get a guy in with a
25:29
Speaker 4: digger to dig a hole because, you know, it's pretty,
25:31
Speaker 4: you know, things like that spreading. However, they went through
25:35
Speaker 4: them and autopsied them, and none of those cows actually
25:37
Speaker 4: had TB. So that was a start. Then the next
25:42
Speaker 4: step is you do a blood test. So the skin
25:45
Speaker 4: test is about 80% effective. The blood test is 100%.
25:48
Speaker 4: And I said, well, why don't you just do the
25:51
Speaker 4: blood test? First, you can't. You've got to give them
25:54
Speaker 4: under the skin test to get the antibodies going. I
25:56
Speaker 4: think they must put... sort of tuberculin in to get
26:00
Speaker 4: the reaction. So we did the blood test 10 days later,
26:05
Speaker 4: and cows come in again, scanned them, and only one
26:08
Speaker 4: cow was positive. Again, the hit squad come in, and
26:15
Speaker 4: that cow was slaughtered and autopsied, and nothing... She didn't
26:22
Speaker 4: have TB either. So basically... all our records, so remembering
26:29
Speaker 4: the calves are all done, there's also 850 close-burned cattle
26:34
Speaker 4: still alive, whether they're in feedlots or heifers that we
26:37
Speaker 4: sell each year to our buyers and just guys that
26:42
Speaker 4: still had stuff on board. So there was 850 cattle
26:45
Speaker 4: still within the country and so they were all tested
26:51
Speaker 4: and they all came back clear as well. So that
26:54
Speaker 4: was quite a That was a sigh of relief there.
26:58
Speaker 4: So you ask yourself, well, how come that one cow
27:01
Speaker 4: had TB, which she did, and it turned out she
27:05
Speaker 4: was infected, but she wasn't infectious. Now, we knew where
27:11
Speaker 4: that cow had come from, and she came here as
27:14
Speaker 4: a two-year-old. She'd been tested, but between there and three
27:19
Speaker 4: years later, she had the TB. So, yeah, pretty, well,
27:25
Speaker 4: sort of, scary times in a lot of ways because
27:29
Speaker 4: at one stage you think are we having to get
27:31
Speaker 4: rid of all our cows and those people that had
27:34
Speaker 4: mycoplasma or mycoplovis and the thought of foot and mouth
27:41
Speaker 4: you know a lot of people are worse off and
27:45
Speaker 4: I think the thing is that the TB the NAIT
27:49
Speaker 4: system works, it's been in since 2012 and as long
27:52
Speaker 4: as you've got all your information right and you do
27:55
Speaker 4: it and I stress to all you guys and girls
27:57
Speaker 4: out there, for God's sake, keep up with it because
28:01
Speaker 4: something like this comes and it just makes a big difference.
28:04
Speaker 4: So to have all that information there to go through
28:07
Speaker 4: and there's actually only 15 herds in the country at
28:10
Speaker 4: the moment that are TB infected. I said that I'd
28:13
Speaker 4: always wanted to be in a New Zealand 15 but
28:15
Speaker 4: not for TB. So as a result, the cows will be,
28:20
Speaker 4: we had a test the other day, that's all good.
28:22
Speaker 4: They'll be tested again when we mark the calves in December.
28:27
Speaker 4: And the cars will have to be tested before they
28:29
Speaker 4: are sold off farms. So that's, you know, that's been
28:34
Speaker 4: a pretty traumatic, funny experience. A lot of, well, you know,
28:38
Speaker 4: it's one of those things that you think you're guilty
28:42
Speaker 4: and just a hell of a feeling. But just a
28:45
Speaker 4: couple of things here. And from the 1st to the
28:50
Speaker 4: 7th of August, That's one week. There were 31,318 movements
28:56
Speaker 4: of cattle, you know, within the country. And so from
29:01
Speaker 4: January the 1st to the 30th of June, there were
29:05
Speaker 4: 2,602 farms across the country were tested for TB. These
29:10
Speaker 4: are areas that, you know, for the tests. And it completed,
29:13
Speaker 4: you know, it included 925,318 tests were done. So off that.
29:15
Speaker 4: 384,000 were dairy cows, beef cows were 508,000 and 32,000
29:26
Speaker 4: for deer. So it just shows you that it is
29:29
Speaker 4: working and it is thorough. And they work on the
29:34
Speaker 4: areas that have TB that they know of, the hot area,
29:37
Speaker 4: and they use algorithms. and all these fancy things to
29:42
Speaker 4: find out in areas that, you know, are just ticking
29:44
Speaker 4: along that they're pretty sure that they know what's going on.
29:48
Speaker 4: So hard to get your head around, but I can
29:50
Speaker 4: tell you I'm bloody grateful that our records are up
29:54
Speaker 4: to date and accurate and accurate. And, you know, we
29:58
Speaker 4: had Osprey there during the time, and as I said,
30:01
Speaker 4: you couldn't have wished for better people to work for
30:04
Speaker 4: than they work with, and all very understanding and just
30:07
Speaker 4: got the job done and sort of did the steps
30:10
Speaker 4: and put you at ease a bit more than you
30:12
Speaker 4: probably were.
30:14
Speaker 1: Good on you, Graham. I'd better leave it there, but
30:15
Speaker 1: good to see you're on the other side of it.
30:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, if anyone's still awake, just keep your tests going and... And,
30:22
Speaker 4: you know, the system's there, and when you need it,
30:25
Speaker 4: it certainly works. So, yeah, it's a bit better than
30:29
Speaker 4: it was, and we've still got most of our cattle.
30:31
Speaker 4: So that's, you know, that's a start.
30:47
Speaker 1: This is the muster on Hokonui. We're away over to
30:50
Speaker 1: the UK next to catch up with Julie Edwards out
30:52
Speaker 1: of Shewell, UK. Of course, we catch up with Ellen
30:55
Speaker 1: McCleary every month here on the programme and Julie as well,
30:59
Speaker 1: but where Shewell is based over there. Julie, good afternoon. Finally,
31:03
Speaker 1: it sounds as though you've had some rain. Happy days.
31:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, good afternoon, Andy. Yes, we have, and I'm pleased
31:10
Speaker 5: to report that, yeah, since we last spoke, we've had
31:13
Speaker 5: a decent amount of rain. It's still warm. So the
31:17
Speaker 5: grounds are greening up and, yeah, we've got a reasonable
31:20
Speaker 5: amount of grass growth now. It's amazing what can happen
31:22
Speaker 5: in a few weeks. So, yeah, complete change from when
31:26
Speaker 5: we last spoke, which is good news.
31:27
Speaker 1: The mood of the rural sector has changed as a
31:30
Speaker 1: result of that rain, I suppose?
31:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely. And particularly, you know, for the livestock sector,
31:36
Speaker 5: for those thinking about... flushing their ewes and putting the
31:41
Speaker 5: rams in, you know, this is just very timely now. So,
31:44
Speaker 5: you know, some nice, decent, fresh grass for them. It's ideal. So, yeah,
31:48
Speaker 5: I think, yeah, the mood is pretty good at the moment.
31:51
Speaker 5: Prices are up as well. So, yeah.
31:53
Speaker 1: Last time we spoke, I think you were saying, Julie,
31:55
Speaker 1: you had four heat waves, possibly a fifth that was
31:58
Speaker 1: on the horizon. But just having that hot, stifling weather,
32:01
Speaker 1: very un-UK-like.
32:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I might have said before, actually, we
32:07
Speaker 5: all get excited if it gets to about 20 degrees.
32:09
Speaker 5: That's our summer normally. But the fact, you know, we
32:12
Speaker 5: were in the 30s, mid-30s for quite some time. Yeah,
32:16
Speaker 5: we did have five heat waves. It was quite a
32:19
Speaker 5: phenomenon for us, I think. And, you know, we're just
32:22
Speaker 5: not really set up for it over here. So I
32:24
Speaker 5: think it took everybody by surprise. And the fact that
32:27
Speaker 5: it was so prolonged was a challenge for So, you know,
32:31
Speaker 5: certainly if that's something that we're going to see on
32:34
Speaker 5: a more frequent basis, then I think, you know, we're
32:36
Speaker 5: all going to have to think about how we do
32:38
Speaker 5: things moving forward.
32:39
Speaker 1: We're having a couple of days of sunshine, which is
32:42
Speaker 1: breaking away from the norm of our spring, which has
32:45
Speaker 1: been anything but settled. But the other thing, I suppose,
32:48
Speaker 1: is over there, the harvest season. Last time we spoke,
32:51
Speaker 1: a lot of concern around the fire risk and et cetera.
32:55
Speaker 1: How's that panned out?
32:56
Speaker 7: Yeah.
32:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, not so much. Well, nothing on the news now,
33:00
Speaker 5: but certainly at the time it was worrying. There were
33:03
Speaker 5: quite a few wildfires across the country. But I think
33:08
Speaker 5: now we've had the rain and I think, you know,
33:10
Speaker 5: the vast majority of farmers have harvested early as well.
33:13
Speaker 5: I think there were one or two people still at
33:15
Speaker 5: the moment getting maize in. But we're all, I think,
33:18
Speaker 5: well ahead of schedule. So, yeah, it's now just down
33:21
Speaker 5: to planting and and sorting out the ground and working that,
33:26
Speaker 5: which they're able to do now, now that we've had
33:27
Speaker 5: a decent drop of rain and the soil's still warm
33:29
Speaker 5: as well. So planting should be fairly successful.
33:33
Speaker 1: Now, a lot going on around the world as far
33:35
Speaker 1: as political stability. Over in the UK, Andy Burnham took
33:38
Speaker 1: over from Sir Keir Starmer not that long ago. Keir
33:41
Speaker 1: Starmer notoriously wanting to put on farm taxes more and more.
33:45
Speaker 1: Andy Burnham, how's he been received? Good.
33:50
Speaker 7: I would say.
33:50
Speaker 5: Reasonably well at the moment, but as with a lot
33:54
Speaker 5: of politicians, he's saying all the right things. It'll actually
33:58
Speaker 5: be the actions and the doing which will be the
34:00
Speaker 5: proof in the pudding, I think, in terms of what
34:03
Speaker 5: impact he has for the farming sector. And as you
34:07
Speaker 5: just mentioned, the inheritance tax, which I think has caused
34:12
Speaker 5: a tremendous amount of concern for farmers over here. could
34:17
Speaker 5: have huge ramifications for lots of farming businesses if they've
34:20
Speaker 5: suddenly got to find money to pay for huge tax
34:23
Speaker 5: bills um you know farm farms are notoriously asset rich
34:28
Speaker 5: and cash poor and i think what it has done
34:30
Speaker 5: actually though is really made made people start to think
34:33
Speaker 5: about having those discussions about succession planning which perhaps in
34:37
Speaker 5: the past hasn't been something on the forefront of people's
34:39
Speaker 5: minds but um it would be good if our prime
34:43
Speaker 5: minister andy burnham did um rescind or, I guess, change
34:48
Speaker 5: the legislation that was brought in by Keir Starmer. But
34:53
Speaker 5: we'll have to wait and see, I guess.
34:55
Speaker 1: One person who's been very well received around the world
34:58
Speaker 1: regarding the view of UK farming is Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson's farm,
35:03
Speaker 1: it's really brought agriculture into the spotlight. Oh, yes.
35:07
Speaker 5: He's probably done more for farming than probably most of
35:12
Speaker 5: the programmes that have ever been on television. And, you know,
35:15
Speaker 5: he's been... I think the thing that people like about
35:18
Speaker 5: him is just his honesty. And I think, you know,
35:22
Speaker 5: it's been a real insight when he sits down with
35:24
Speaker 5: his accountant, Charlie, and they talk about the profit or
35:28
Speaker 5: the loss that he's made. And the investment he's made
35:31
Speaker 5: in huge pieces of machinery have been, I think, quite
35:34
Speaker 5: astounding for people. They just hadn't realized the amount of
35:37
Speaker 5: money some of these machines cost. You know, and the
35:40
Speaker 5: hours worked and then, you know, the actual profit that's
35:43
Speaker 5: made at the end of it. I think people have
35:46
Speaker 5: been quite shocked. I mean, there's been some funny bits
35:48
Speaker 5: as well. I always remember when he bought some, he
35:52
Speaker 5: decided to buy some sheep and he let them out.
35:55
Speaker 5: And the first thing they all did was one by
35:57
Speaker 5: one jump over the fence. I think he was stood
36:01
Speaker 5: there and I think you could hear the expletive. So
36:04
Speaker 5: I think we've all been there both.
36:06
Speaker 1: Do you have the younger generation coming through wanting to
36:09
Speaker 1: be farmers? I mean, we had Country Calendar on here
36:11
Speaker 1: the other day, which is a programme that showcases rural,
36:14
Speaker 1: predominantly for an urban-lensed audience, but a school up in
36:18
Speaker 1: the North Island puts agriculture into the curriculum in a
36:21
Speaker 1: big way. Are you seeing that in the UK, the
36:23
Speaker 1: younger generation keen to get involved?
36:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, we are. We're starting to see more of that,
36:29
Speaker 5: and I think there are a lot of very good
36:31
Speaker 5: advocates for... Encouraging school children to go out on farm.
36:37
Speaker 5: You know, there are initiatives over here where, you know,
36:40
Speaker 5: you are encouraged to get people on farm. And some
36:45
Speaker 5: of these farms are seeing, you know, several thousand people
36:48
Speaker 5: turn up when they have an open day. And the
36:50
Speaker 5: local schools as well, they tend to adopt a local farm.
36:54
Speaker 5: And people are sort of doing some farm to fork
36:58
Speaker 5: initiatives where they're inviting school children out onto the farm.
37:02
Speaker 5: to see the animals, to actually understand how they're grown,
37:06
Speaker 5: you know, and the fact that they go into the
37:08
Speaker 5: food chain, but also the cereal side of things as well.
37:11
Speaker 5: So they're trying to engage people more with where their
37:14
Speaker 5: food comes from rather than, you know, I think the
37:17
Speaker 5: disconnect for a while was pretty extreme. And, you know,
37:21
Speaker 5: people just thought that food came from the supermarket. They
37:23
Speaker 5: had no idea where it was produced. So I think
37:27
Speaker 5: there's some big efforts going on and some big investment. And,
37:30
Speaker 5: you know, the fact that You guys have got it
37:33
Speaker 5: on the curriculum, and I think, you know, we need
37:36
Speaker 5: to follow suit over here as well.
37:38
Speaker 1: As far as Sherwell, Ella McCleary, the great man with
37:41
Speaker 1: his heatwave milk feeders at the moment, going gangbusters. How's
37:44
Speaker 1: everything been from your perspective?
37:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, very happy. As I think I've mentioned before, you know,
37:51
Speaker 5: we've got Alan in the South Island, Ben in the
37:54
Speaker 5: North Island, and Ray at Mosgill, who's handling all the
37:56
Speaker 5: phone calls and the orders. Um, you know, and we're
37:59
Speaker 5: seeing tremendous orders for ear tags coming in as well.
38:03
Speaker 5: So I guess the message to your listeners is, you know,
38:06
Speaker 5: if you're, if you're lambing now and you need tags,
38:08
Speaker 5: then give the guys a call. They can certainly help
38:10
Speaker 5: you out. Um, and I think you mentioned earlier when
38:12
Speaker 5: we were chatting off air, you know, people are saying,
38:15
Speaker 5: you know, they're getting there, you're having some triplets, you know,
38:17
Speaker 5: if you've got spare lambs, then, um, you need a
38:20
Speaker 5: heat wave. So get them on the heat wave. Cause
38:22
Speaker 5: you know, these animals are, you know, they're making good
38:25
Speaker 5: money now. So, um, We've got products there that can
38:30
Speaker 5: help them. So just let us know.
38:34
Speaker 1: Hey, good on you, Julie. We'll let you carry on.
38:36
Speaker 1: Always good to catch up on the muster and shear well.
38:38
Speaker 1: You guys keep doing what you're doing.
38:42
Speaker 5: Thank you, Andy. Lovely to talk to you.
38:44
Speaker 1: We're away to mow a flat this afternoon on the muster.
38:46
Speaker 1: James Edgar farms over that way. Sheep, beef and deer
38:50
Speaker 1: farmer as well. James, good afternoon. State of play. What's happening? Oh, no.
38:55
Speaker 7: I don't know if I'm emotionally ready to talk about today, actually, Andy.
38:59
Speaker 7: We had two absolutely.
39:00
Speaker 8: Magnificent days yesterday and the day before, and didn't that
39:04
Speaker 8: just put you a smile on your face? I don't
39:07
Speaker 8: know if I'm just quite ready to talk about this.
39:10
Speaker 8: I did actually laugh. I thought this date of play
39:14
Speaker 8: was well summed up by Scott Stuyven when he sent
39:17
Speaker 8: a Snapchat out, and he goes, I've heard about this
39:21
Speaker 8: mythical Jim Choo lambing. And then it sort of pans
39:25
Speaker 8: around to what everyone's dealing with currently, which I don't
39:28
Speaker 8: need to explain anymore.
39:29
Speaker 7: And he goes, oh, it won't be this year. She's
39:32
Speaker 7: a bit of a unicorn sort of occasion.
39:34
Speaker 8: And I thought to myself, yeah, no, it's certainly not
39:38
Speaker 8: a Gymshrew lambing, this one.
39:40
Speaker 1: How are you looking out there? That 48 hours of respite,
39:43
Speaker 1: did you see a bit of growth?
39:45
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, we've got a wee bit of grass growing.
39:50
Speaker 8: It was actually interesting when I was listening to Graham
39:55
Speaker 8: Butcher yesterday when they did the trial that he was
39:58
Speaker 8: talking about, because it is something you've got to think about.
40:01
Speaker 8: And they're talking 20 ewes to the hectare, and I'm thinking, geez,
40:05
Speaker 8: either the grass grew a lot more back then, or
40:07
Speaker 8: the sheep were certainly lighter, or the weaning weights were
40:10
Speaker 8: certainly down, I don't know.
40:11
Speaker 7: Or a combination of all.
40:12
Speaker 8: We've sort of been dropping our stocking rate the last
40:15
Speaker 8: few springs just to draw and feed those ewes for
40:18
Speaker 8: those six weeks when they're milking, and we just keep
40:21
Speaker 8: dropping it, and to be fair, it's like a dairy
40:27
Speaker 8: farm sort of country, and we've spread out 11 to
40:30
Speaker 8: the hectare, and to be fair, we've got grass at
40:33
Speaker 8: 11 to the hectare, but I wouldn't like to see
40:36
Speaker 8: the stocking rate, it probably should run. Yeah, we sort
40:39
Speaker 8: of dropped off, when I say dropped the stocking rate,
40:42
Speaker 8: I guess I'll switch it around and Put some more
40:45
Speaker 8: cattle on, so we've still got a lot of cattle
40:46
Speaker 8: on Fodderbeet at the moment.
40:48
Speaker 7: And then spread the ewes out a bit more far
40:50
Speaker 7: and wide.
40:52
Speaker 8: But yeah, I suppose when these cattle come off, we'll
40:55
Speaker 8: either have to box everything up or sell.
40:57
Speaker 7: Something or do what we can do. But anyway, it's.
41:02
Speaker 8: What's out there and I suppose it's just part of
41:03
Speaker 8: being a farmer. But yeah, it does get a bit testing.
41:06
Speaker 7: When you've got a year's hard work and you're.
41:08
Speaker 3: In the mud.
41:09
Speaker 8: I don't know that much.
41:10
Speaker 1: You'll be right in the guts of lambing too, I'd imagine.
41:13
Speaker 8: Yeah, we're sort of just about finished at Tapanui and
41:16
Speaker 8: then just starting up at Moa Flat.
41:18
Speaker 7: So, yeah, it's been wet. That's, yeah, what we say.
41:25
Speaker 7: We've had that snow early on. That was a bit frustrating.
41:28
Speaker 8: And, yeah, it looks like.
41:30
Speaker 7: There's not much in the forecast coming forward either. It
41:32
Speaker 7: looks like it's a continuation of this sort of weather. So, yeah,
41:37
Speaker 7: good old Southland.
41:39
Speaker 1: How far through? Well, what's your lamb drops like so far?
41:45
Speaker 8: Just a lambing when we were down at Tapanui to
41:47
Speaker 8: be fair. It wasn't that pretty, that snow event in
41:53
Speaker 8: those couple of days of rain early on.
41:55
Speaker 7: We lost a lot there. I don't think there's going
42:00
Speaker 7: to be any records in Southland this year, put.
42:02
Speaker 3: It that way.
42:03
Speaker 1: So as far as the cattle, how long have they
42:06
Speaker 1: got left on the winter crops, I suppose? Like Peter
42:08
Speaker 1: Allen before explaining, there's a different ball game they can
42:11
Speaker 1: stay on for quite a long time. As far as
42:12
Speaker 1: the cattle, when are they due to come off?
42:15
Speaker 8: It's about a month, which probably comes back to sort
42:22
Speaker 8: of a topic there.
42:25
Speaker 7: So we were actually seriously laughing because we were like, oh, geez,
42:28
Speaker 7: how many years of this sort of poor weather when
42:32
Speaker 7: do you put a shed in and then start lambing inside?
42:34
Speaker 7: And we were, you know, just sort of laughing about it.
42:37
Speaker 8: You know, but we reckon it would cost about $ 2
42:40
Speaker 8: million to put enough ewes inside down here to make
42:43
Speaker 8: it worth doing, because obviously, you know, you don't want
42:47
Speaker 8: to just be a hobby farmer. So about $ 2 million
42:50
Speaker 8: to put there. And I was thinking, well, if Chloe
42:53
Speaker 8: and a few of these activists get rid of the
42:55
Speaker 8: winter grazing, the only way.
42:57
Speaker 7: You could probably.
42:59
Speaker 8: handle the stocking rates, basically feed padding them or putting
43:01
Speaker 8: all your cattle and sheep inside for the winter. And
43:05
Speaker 8: then I was thinking to myself, well, what does that
43:06
Speaker 8: do to food production?
43:07
Speaker 7: And I know.
43:08
Speaker 8: That, you know, sort of got quite expensive to eat
43:13
Speaker 8: meat and protein and stuff at the moment. But I
43:16
Speaker 8: was working out, I reckon the food price would have
43:18
Speaker 8: to go up about a third and that.
43:20
Speaker 7: Would make it viable.
43:21
Speaker 8: Just because you'd be basically increasing the capital value of
43:24
Speaker 8: your farms by about a third by the time you
43:27
Speaker 8: put all these sheds in and then cut all the
43:29
Speaker 8: feed and then drag it all inside, like those sort
43:31
Speaker 8: of intensive theory systems. Yeah, so I reckon the lamb
43:35
Speaker 8: price would have to go up a third if we
43:37
Speaker 8: wanted to get rid of intensive winter grazing and, yeah,
43:41
Speaker 8: go inside and do all that stuff.
43:43
Speaker 1: Okay, so what do you do? We talk about mechanisms
43:45
Speaker 1: when you're on the lambing beat and when the weather's
43:47
Speaker 1: a bit like this. Is there anything you do for
43:49
Speaker 1: the team or yourself just to take your mind off
43:52
Speaker 1: things when you're on the lambing beat, just something just basic?
43:56
Speaker 8: So we probably rely, especially this time of year when
43:59
Speaker 8: everyone's out and about by themselves a lot, we do
44:02
Speaker 8: a lot on, we have a messenger group chat for
44:04
Speaker 8: the farms. And, yeah, it's probably not so much the
44:08
Speaker 8: bad things, but, you know, when you have a wee
44:10
Speaker 8: wind or there's a nice, you know, set of twins
44:13
Speaker 8: underneath a tussock or something, yeah, we try and get
44:16
Speaker 8: those out onto our group thing because a problem shared
44:19
Speaker 8: is a problem halved. And I know a lot of guys,
44:22
Speaker 8: even that are by themselves, they've sort of got a
44:24
Speaker 8: group that they Snapchat and stuff like that. I think
44:25
Speaker 8: that's important that you keep, you know, putting those things
44:29
Speaker 8: up there in any wee winds. And I know the
44:31
Speaker 8: guys at the moment, we're carving up on the hill,
44:34
Speaker 8: so we're getting all the fresh calves all get put
44:37
Speaker 8: on the messenger. And, you know, it's quite an exciting
44:39
Speaker 8: time of the year as a farmer.
44:40
Speaker 7: Because it is all your hard work.
44:41
Speaker 8: And, yeah, it's nice to put it on there and
44:43
Speaker 8: know that everyone's having a look. It keeps you motivated too.
44:47
Speaker 1: For all the keyboard warriors and BS that goes on
44:50
Speaker 1: computers and handheld devices these days, there is an avenue
44:54
Speaker 1: where we can see some positives.
44:57
Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely. I went through those snowstorms in whatever they were, 2010. Yeah.
45:02
Speaker 8: Sort of the cell phone technology, of course, it was
45:05
Speaker 8: just a completely different world. But, you know, like, it
45:08
Speaker 8: was isolating. You know, you're out on the beach there
45:11
Speaker 8: by yourself and you go home and have tea and
45:13
Speaker 8: you bug it and come back out and do the
45:16
Speaker 8: same thing the next day and.
45:18
Speaker 7: It is pretty cool with, you know, you can put.
45:20
Speaker 8: A bit of a video up or easy to ring
45:23
Speaker 8: someone or, you know, you can have a comment back again.
45:27
Speaker 8: And I think that's a nice thing when you're rurally
45:29
Speaker 8: and you're in this crap that we're in.
45:32
Speaker 1: At the moment.
45:33
Speaker 7: You know, it's nice to be able to send the
45:35
Speaker 7: thing there. I know I've had a.
45:37
Speaker 8: Few mates, you know, send you a video of their
45:40
Speaker 8: lane that's just completely covered in water and, you know,
45:42
Speaker 8: absolute disaster.
45:43
Speaker 7: And I don't know, sometimes you.
45:46
Speaker 8: have a bit of a laugh, you know what I mean,
45:47
Speaker 8: like something a bit facetious in there and, you know,
45:50
Speaker 8: it just makes you feel a bit better, doesn't it,
45:52
Speaker 8: when you can share what you're dealing with. And there's
45:55
Speaker 8: always different scales to everyone's problem, isn't there? I mean,
45:57
Speaker 8: I'm sure the All Blacks are probably at the moment
45:59
Speaker 8: having a bit of a debrief after a 3-1 loss
46:01
Speaker 8: to South Africa and probably getting bullied by them a bit,
46:04
Speaker 8: you know, so sheep farming's a bit the same or
46:07
Speaker 8: dairy farming, like.
46:08
Speaker 7: When you get after Christmas or something.
46:10
Speaker 8: You know, when you sit down and you've got a
46:11
Speaker 8: bit of a quiet moment, you know, you can always
46:14
Speaker 8: work Work on how you're going to get better, but
46:16
Speaker 8: while you're in it, you've just got to keep battling
46:18
Speaker 8: through it, don't you?
46:20
Speaker 1: Good on you, James. All the best this afternoon.
46:23
Speaker 7: Cheers, Andy.
46:23
Speaker 8: Yeah, and hope everyone keeps going and make sure you
46:27
Speaker 8: stop for a cup of tea and stuff. You've just
46:29
Speaker 8: got to keep your body good so you can keep saving.
46:32
Speaker 7: The animals, really.
46:38
Speaker 1: James Eckerd there of Moa Flat with some wise words.
46:42
Speaker 1: That's us over in Dunworth. You've been listening to the
46:44
Speaker 1: best of the muster. My name's Andy Muir. Remember, anything
46:47
Speaker 1: you want to go back and listen to is available
46:49
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio. Enjoy the weekend. Up Staggs tomorrow playing Taranaki.
46:55
Speaker 1: And I'll catch you Monday 1 o'clock right here on Hokonui.