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The Muster- Greg Erickson: Canadian Harvest Time · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Muster. We're away over to Millerton,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Canada now, catching up with Greg Erickson, our Canadian correspondent,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: formerly of Waimumu, and about to go and tuck into
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: some Thanksgiving dinner. Good afternoon, Greg.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: How you doing, Andy?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Pretty good. Canadian Thanksgiving. Of course they do things different
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to America. Yes, yes.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not entirely sure why, but Canadian Thanksgiving is second
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Monday in October as opposed to later in November. So
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: basically all us farmers who still have crop on the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: ground have to shut down and have a family dinner,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: get all filled up and then go back at it
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: the next day.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: So farmers aren't tempted to work through Thanksgiving if the
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: crop needs done like you're in the middle of at
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the moment?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, some do. We typically don't because we don't work Sundays,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: but sometimes a lot of people do. I hear a
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  Speaker 2: lot of stories back in the day that folk would
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: have Thanksgiving, like shut down the combines for an hour
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: in the paddock and have Thanksgiving dinner there and then
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: jump back in the combines and carry on.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's a bugger of a time, to be honest, though,
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  Speaker 1: if you're doing your harvest.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not perfect, is it? It's not. It works
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  Speaker 2: out this weekend because basically all of Alberta's had snow
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: So everyone, if you aren't finished, you're not combing anyway.
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  Speaker 2: So it works out quite well this weekend.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So Thanksgiving, it's just like the turkey, the cranberry sauce,
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  Speaker 1: the whole nine yards?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the whole kit and caboodle. Yep, usually a pumpkin
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: pie and everything with it too. And yep, just everyone
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  Speaker 2: celebrates everything autumn.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I'll take your recommendation there. Like you say, you're just
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: getting through harvest now. How's it been?
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  Speaker 2: Pretty good so far. Yep, pretty good. This is the
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  Speaker 2: first day we've really shut, or first weekend we've really
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: shut down for rain. They've had a couple of breakdowns,
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  Speaker 2: but it's been sort of 250, 350, I'm sorry, 250
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: or 350 acres a day, steady. The combine's been working good.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: The yields have been pretty steady, and yeah, it's been
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: going really well.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, you've had a bit of snow. How long will
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  Speaker 1: that shut you down for regardless?
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  Speaker 2: The snow was melting when it hit the ground. The
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  Speaker 2: soil temperature's still warm, so the snow's not even there now, so...
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  Speaker 2: It's just a matter of waiting for everything to dry
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: up again. Get some wind and some sun. We'll be
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: back at it probably Tuesday, Wednesday.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: What moisture content can you work to?
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's the same everywhere. You've got to go for 14%
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  Speaker 2: basically in your crop. And then if it's anything higher,
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  Speaker 2: they can blend it off in the elevators or you
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: can get it dried. But most of the time, we
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: have enough crop and enough crop to sell the elevators that...
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: we have a little bit of leverage and they take
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: our wet stuff and blend it. So we can get
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: by with usually 15 and a half. So we're combining
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: till midnight most nights.
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  Speaker 1: What are the prices like? We spoke to you last
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: time and I think it's like anywhere, they just seem
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to be all over the show. Have you got a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: bit more solidity with pricing?
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the price of wheat keeps going up somehow.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: So it's probably gone up 25% in the last three months.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And then canola is, if it's not stagnant, it's climbing.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: And barley is pretty, barley's never great in terms of price.
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  Speaker 2: It's probably, sorry to use the bushel term, but it's
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: around the $ 5 a bushel.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: No, you love a good bushel.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Don't we ever. But the wheat's probably $ 10 or more.
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  Speaker 2: Like on the futures market, you can get it lined
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  Speaker 2: up for $ 10. And in canola, it's in the $ 15
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  Speaker 2: to $ 16 bracket.
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  Speaker 1: So you can use the futures market for your crop?
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  Speaker 2: You can line up prices on it, and if it hits,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: you can set your contracts for it, and if it strikes,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: then yes, you can. It's kind of like playing with
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: the stock market.
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  Speaker 1: Because seeing the pricing rising over there and over here,
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  Speaker 1: I think it's been pretty stagnant. You'd like to think
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  Speaker 1: there's rosier times for the arable industry ahead, as you
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: well know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the arable industry is in a pretty good footing,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I think. Everything is pretty decent. The only real issue
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  Speaker 2: i can see going forward is the price of inputs
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  Speaker 2: like your diesel and your fertilizer the those prices are
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: so volatile at the moment it's really hard to to
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  Speaker 2: do a solid budget that you can lean on.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah you talk about fuel do you use like some
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  Speaker 1: red dye for agricultural fuel as such is that a
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  Speaker 1: thing in canada.
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  Speaker 2: That is the thing yes red dye is your non-text.
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  Speaker 1: Fuel Because when I was in the UK and I
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: put red dye in the boss's truck once and went
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: for a cruise and I didn't realise that. I'd just
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: arrived in the country and apparently it's in there for years.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Bill Hall, sorry if you got caught once upon a time. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, back to the matter at hand, how subsidised
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: is it? Because I think the US is allowing red
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  Speaker 1: dye to go onto the road as such.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening in the US. So
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  Speaker 2: all it is is imagine you're... You buy fuel in
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: New Zealand, diesel fuel, and then you buy road tax,
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  Speaker 2: your road user charges. It's basically the same thing except
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: your road user charges are built into the price of
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  Speaker 2: your diesel at the pump. Whereas if you buy farm
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  Speaker 2: fuel or dyed fuel, then there is no road user charges, essentially.
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  Speaker 1: But the vehicles have to remain on the farm unless
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  Speaker 1: they've got permit plates or something, I'd imagine?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so anything that you can register as a farm vehicle,
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  Speaker 2: depending on how big your farm is, you can have
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  Speaker 2: multiple vehicles or there's a limit to how much you spend. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: you get a little green sticker on your licence plate
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  Speaker 2: and then you are able to run your farm fuel
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: everywhere you go.
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  Speaker 1: We're seeing good prices for red meat over here at
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the moment, Greg. Depending on who you speak to, the
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  Speaker 1: red meat schedule is going to remain above $ 10, but
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: for lamb anyway. Over there in Canada, would you say
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the mood's still pretty good, though? You say it's good
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: for arable. What about the other sectors? Any idea?
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: So the beef sector usually sinks around September. It usually
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: gets a little lower, a little weaker. It's bounced back
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: up slightly, and it's looking really good. So it's probably
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: going to peak, I don't know, January. It's usually when
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: we send the calves to market. or to the auction.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: So hopefully that remains true. But the price of steak
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: at a grocery store is definitely higher. You can spend
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: $ 88 a kilogram on porterhouse steak at Costco if you want.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: And that's Canadian?
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: That's Canadian, yeah.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Far out. That's a hell of an increase. Mind you, though,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: you have talked about these prices in the past. They're
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: pretty big over there.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: They are pretty big, yes. Yep. And people buy them.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if there was no market for that price,
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  Speaker 2: it would still be on the shelf. But they go,
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  Speaker 2: so people are still voting with their money, as they say.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Is that an issue for the government over there, the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: cost of living, regarding the price of milk bread, et cetera?
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  Speaker 1: Or what's it like?
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: It's not as much of a thing in Canada as
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I hear about in New Zealand. But it is still
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: a thing. Like, if you are trying to... pay your
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: mortgage and like all the taxes have gone up here
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: your oh so your in the blank your money you
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: pay the county and what not or the council for
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: your taxes and then your electricity and fuel and everything
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  Speaker 2: has gone up and obviously the wages haven't matched it
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  Speaker 2: but so that's a thing food isn't going up quite
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  Speaker 2: as high as everything sorry as fast as everything else
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  Speaker 2: so People aren't really focusing on that as much as
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: they are on rates, et cetera, et cetera. So people
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: aren't as vocal about it here.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Greg, what's it like for rural connectivity over there? It's
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  Speaker 1: a real concern in New Zealand, as you know about,
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  Speaker 1: and it seems to be getting worse. Do you cope
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  Speaker 1: pretty well over there? Is the infrastructure sound?
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  Speaker 2: My house, I live four kilometres from a town on
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  Speaker 2: my five acres and 10 kilometres to another big town
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  Speaker 2: about the size of Gore. And if I didn't have Starlink,
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  Speaker 2: I would be able to make phone calls, et cetera,
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  Speaker 2: and text, but my cell phone service, trying to look
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: on the internet, would be very slow. And it's the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: only real competitive option if you want somewhat fast internet.
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  Speaker 2: The service providers here for internet, they leave a lot
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  Speaker 2: to be desired.
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  Speaker 1: What's it like for cell coverage in general?
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  Speaker 2: That's not great either. It used to be really good.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: It used to be really good, and you could go
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  Speaker 2: anywhere in Alberta because I used to drive a truck,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: and you could go anywhere in Alberta, and you would
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: be fine. And then it started getting worse and worse
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: and worse, and then your phone calls would just drop,
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  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden they've just hung up on you.
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  Speaker 2: And then you call them back, and they didn't mean
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: to hang up, and it would happen very frequently. So
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  Speaker 2: the coverage is very spotty.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Sounds very similar to New Zealand, Greg. We'll let you
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: carry on. Happy Thanksgiving. We'll catch up again.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, Andy. Good to chat.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Greg Erickson, based over at Millet in Canada, of course,
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  Speaker 1: formerly of Waimumu. Up next on the muster, Andrew Welsh
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: of Twin Farm Genetics.