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The Muster- Grant McMaster: Council Bureaucracy Is Annoying · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Grant Disaster McMaster joins us once again. He farms on
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the edges, or the edge. Did that last week as well,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: at Lake Wakatipu in central Otago and joins us thanks
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to Batman and the team at Arby Rural. Good afternoon, Grant.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Andy. Good afternoon, everybody.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I suppose there's more than one edge to a lake,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: isn't there?
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's a good point.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Well, there's Jacket Edge. That's the place above the lake.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: There you go. There's two edges.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Things you didn't need to know on a Tuesday. What's happening, mate?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Are you getting this rain that we're experiencing?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we are a bit. Beautiful day yesterday. And then
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: last night, about 5 o'clock, it started to rain. And
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I think it had finished by about 11 o'clock, but
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: there was 36 mils in the gauge this morning to
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: go with the rest of the week. So we've had
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: 90 mils since we spoke on last Tuesday. But this morning,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: it was fine, sun was out, and I'm just coming
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: back from Oak Lake now, and there's snow gone around
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: the tops, and it's raining again, and the temperature's down
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: to five degrees. But the good news, the soil temperature
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: is up to six. So I wasn't even going to
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: look at it. I thought it'd be another thing to
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: depress me. But yeah, well, six is, yeah, it's better
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: than five that the air temperature is. And to be fair,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: things are greening up, but there's a little pick about,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: but it'll be gone in a couple of days if
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: this carries on.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: The soil temperatures down south, they're all in the 8
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and 9 degree bracket, bar one. So it just needs
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: some yellow.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does, and the few days that the sun
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: has come out, it's been quite nice, but the fire
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: is still going in the homestead, and when it's not on,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: it's still bloody cold. So, yeah, it's just cool enough, really,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: but lovely when the sun does come out and the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: days are longer, so I'll be right next weekend because
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: we'll get an extra hour of sunlight, won't we?
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I think consensus seems to be August was kinder last year, Grant.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: There was a bit of a grass-based... and sunshine ahead
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of us.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. And, you know, August was good for
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: us last year until the last few days of it.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: And that's when the proverbial hit the fan and it
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: didn't stop raining until the end of November. And it's
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: been a bit similar, but probably the month of August
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: wasn't quite as good as last year, so that would
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: be fair, yeah.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Now, we caught up with you a wee while ago
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: at scanning. You had an issue with dry tutu, so
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you're trying to decipher what's going on there. Any resolution?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Well, the resolution that I was hoping that the fact
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: that it might have been selenium didn't come to fruition.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: So we got the vet came out and those dry tutus,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: we blood tested 15 of them, 20, and... the results
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: came back that their iodine and selenium levels were well
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: above average. And so it's not selenium. I was sort
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: of hoping deep down it would have been. And, you know,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the magic selenium injection and all our troubles would be
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: behind us. But, no, it's a tricky old game, farming,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: isn't it? You know, the longer you do it, it
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: doesn't make any difference. It's something to trip you up
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: every now and again. So it's really... speaking to the
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: vet yesterday, and, yeah, we're just not too sure what
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: it is. But, yeah, we'll have to wait and see
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: what happens next year.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Is it a head scratcher, so there's nothing immediately that
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: comes to mind?
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: No, there's not. I mean, it's, you know, we spoke
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: about it before that, you know, I was so confident
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: that the user and the best, the 2D user in
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the best condition, I think they'd been going to the ramp.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: and the fact that I was really quite excited about
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: the scanning was they'd been tupped on green grass, because
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: the ram doesn't go out here until the 15th of May,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: and by that time you've got a bit of that
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: autumn-safe pasture, but it's getting frosted, and it's lost a
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: lot of its nutrition, but that's just the way it is,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: and you can't... lamb any earlier here because you'd have
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: nothing to eat whatsoever so you know there's always that
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: there's that toss up and and uh so this year
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: you know great autumn and uh sheep in good condition
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: uh and were tough and uh you know they were
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: on the uh flushed on on good tucker all the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: way through and you know even uh when the when
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: the ram was to go out they were still you
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: know the the feed quality was really good so uh
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: you know i thought you know the teaser rams got
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: them got them ready put the main artillery in and
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the two of these rams and away we go. But,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: you know, it was a bit like the Warriors the
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: other night. It was a bit disappointing.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, the situation in Wanaka regarding waste being carted out
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: to Lauda, it stinks, to coin a phrase.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, literally it does. It's... You know, it's quite ironic,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: isn't it? Now, I know that, you know, apparently this
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: waste from Wanaka used to be shipped down to the south,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: and I guess that would be to, I'm not too sure,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: but now we, you know, this is, the population's getting
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: bigger and bigger. I mean, I look at Queenstown, I
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: look at Wanaka, and now they're having to, the treated
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: human effluent from Wanaka and nearby Albertown is being trucked
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: to Lauder. which is 80 minutes' drive away. Now, Federated Farmers,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the Tago president, Anna Gillespie's on this, and say the
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: people at the Manukeri catchment are quite rightly upset about
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: what's happening. And this actually went through without being consented,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: which is non-notified. So there was no public hearing. And
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: they say in this article that the E. coli levels
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: are 6,500 times higher then Water New Zealand guidelines allow
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: for suitable discharge to the land. So it's quite important,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: that point. And you'll remember just a few years ago
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: that the Environment Minister, David Park, and the ORC, they
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: were slamming that catchment for farmers and taking extensive action
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: to improve the environment because they were saying that the
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: the Meneherikere River wasn't running the way it should be. And,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: you know, they take water out of there for irrigation.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: But it's a dry part of the country, and it's
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the coldest and probably the driest in New Zealand in
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: a lot of ways. And it's sort of the old
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: smacks of out of sight, out of mind. But it
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: doesn't sort of sit well, does it? And it's the
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: same with, you know, the waterways, whether it be the
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: lake here or the rivers. You know, the Clutha, you know,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: the Meneherikere goes into the Clutha. and all the hoo-ha
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: about our rivers being kept clean and pristine, if that
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: was a cattle beast or a cow even looking at
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the water, let alone a bloody dairy cow, it would
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: be the main feature on the news. So I think
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: we're needing farming as leading the economy again. I think
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: that it's certainly not a level playing field. Now, what
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the answer is, I'm not too sure because You know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: you look at the population increasing and a lot of
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: people are full of it too. And it's got to
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: go somewhere. I don't know what the answer is, but
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: it's a bit sneaky, you know, these non-consented consents being
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: given out. And the rainfall in that area is not
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: very much at all. So, you know, it's not going
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: to get washed away that much, you know, from leaching.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: No different to Wellington Council and the Moa Point scenario
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: earlier in the year as well. That was ridiculous.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and still no accountability for that.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: No.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: You know, if that was the poor old dairy farmer
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: or the sheep farmer or the dairy farmer that the
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: irrigator didn't turn off and it got into the creek, well,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: you know, they'd have the bloody police out. So, I
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: don't know. And it's not going to get any better
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: because the population's increasing, and land for farming is decreasing,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: so I don't know where it's going to go, but
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: they might be better to put their heads to find
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: out solutions for that instead of perhaps just worrying about
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: putting solar panels on bloody good farmland and wind farms everywhere.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Get back into a bit of hydro and let's get
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: things going again.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to stop you there because you're talking too
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: much bloody sense, Grant. Thanks for your time as always.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, it'll be the first time in my
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: life I've talked about Andy, but for those few listeners
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: we've got....
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Every now and then, Grant, you've got to back yourself, mate.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Someone's got to.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: No, you're right, Andy. That's the lie of the land
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: at the moment, but hopefully we'll get some this week
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: and for everywhere in the winter and the shitty springs
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: long behind us.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Grant McMaster, thanks to the team at RB Rural. Every
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Tuesday here on the muster, Don Morrison's up next, based
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: at Willowbank.