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The Muster- Andrew Welsh: Twin Farm Genetics · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster. Andrew Walsh out of Twin
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Farm Genetics, the home of Tehran, and sponsors of the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: five-day forecast here on Hakanui joins us once again. Snow,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: good afternoon. That background noise means only one thing. There's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a few tails being chopped off.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, afternoon, Andy. It's that time of year. Beautiful sunny
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: day here in Waimea Valley. We've had a few in
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a row now, which is really good.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: So, yeah.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Dusted off the tailing pen and the tailing chute and
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: we're into it.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: How far through tailing are you as such?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Another day, well, yeah, half a day tomorrow and we
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: should be all flats done and then have the hill
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and the hogget still to go.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: That's not bad going.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: No, it's pretty good. We've been chipping through just lately.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: We were doing hogget lambing and that for the last, well,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: it seems like it's quite a while, but probably, yeah,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: three weeks and Yeah, we've just been chipping through the
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: last 10 days, just doing sort of three or four
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: mobs a day, just chipping through them.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So after September being difficult, October's corrected itself to this point.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Are you sick of lambing yet, even though you've got
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the hog, it's still a few hundred left?
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, I always love seeing live lambs on the ground, Andy,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: but it is a bit of a struggle. You get
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: through the years, seem to be cruisies, other than the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: weather didn't quite cooperate, as everyone knows. We ended up
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: throwing a mills of rain for September up this year,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: which I know that's not much compared to other ones,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: but the ground was already so soaked and saturated before
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: we started with August. Yeah, the wee lambs are coming
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: through the chute. They've got mud balls on their bellies
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and purses and all that sort of thing, so they've
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: certainly been born into a wee snorkel and flippers on
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: at times where they've been born.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: So you had a lot of localised flooding around there
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in the middle of September as well to deal with?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did. Yeah, we had one day there that
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: come down, the rain just hit the hill, just got
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: a localised storm and come down. None of the road culverts,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: none of the farm culverts could handle it. It was
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: all just flowing over down tracks and into paddocks. Yeah,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: we moved a couple of miles back from the river,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: but nothing too major that we had to deal with.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Your numbers, how are your tallies looking? They'll be back
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: a bit, I suppose?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, similar to last year. We've just gone through and
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: just adding up some of the paddocks at the moment.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: So about that sort of twins are going through it,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: about that 175, which just down that sort of 10%
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to 12% of where they should be sitting. So just niggly,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: but still at the end of the day, it's not
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: super bad. Joint illness and infections, it'll come through later on.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I suspect it could be a bit of arthritis and that,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: which may have infections come through later on. But we'll
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: just have to play that by ear and see what happens.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Have you had any issues losing older lambs?
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: No, not yet touch wood. They've been really good. And
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the feed's finally coming away, which is good. We actually
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: probably handled it pretty good with putting that SOA on
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: in the middle of August. We sort of did that
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: to prepare for a dry in the summer more than anything,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: get a flush of feed now. But it worked fantastic
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: going through. You could really see the difference in the
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: parts of the farm that we'd done and parts that
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: we hadn't. It was just chalk and cheese. So all
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the stock had been fed really good. The lambs are
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: looking good in the pen coming through. So yeah, we'll
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: get the tails off them and they'll be on growing
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and look forward to seeing them at weaning time, I suppose,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and get them on the truck. As you know, this
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: is a key time of the year to get those
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: ewes really milking as good as you can. So you
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: can't do much with the season other than just try
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: your best you can to keep them as well fed
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: as you can. Get them out on those lanes and
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: areas that you haven't been able to feed them and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: just get them nibbling around those bits or just get
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: their paddocks come away. That's all you need to get
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: a bit of a rotation going.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Just on that hoggart lambing, has the drop been okay?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: It has so far. We had that a bit of
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: a borscht and go through our hoggarts, which probably took, yeah,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: we probably had about 80 hoggarts abort, which is just frustrating.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: It's taken the edge right off them. But other than that,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: they've actually been lambing down really well. Some days you
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: go out and you think, man, the lambs are getting
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a bit big, and then the next day they come
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: right again. So, yeah, we're really happy with how the
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: ones that have actually made it through in lamb are going.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Just frustrating. We went through all the effort to go
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: through and test to find out what it was and
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: everything come back negative. They couldn't find out and I
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: wasn't going to spend another $ 600 to retest again. So
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: just chalk it up to another learning lesson of those hoggets.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Just somehow, just something goes through and peace of mind
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: that hopefully they don't do it again as an older ewe.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Therefore they just stop randomly aborting. Is that just the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: state of play?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they do say that that is a thing in hoggets,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: that they'll just do it, but I suspect it was
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: something a bit more major than that this year, just
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: with how they were coming out. But, yeah, all we
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: can do is maybe freeze a couple and chuck them
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: in with the ewe lambs next year, or, yeah, we'll
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: probably keep those hoggets through that have aborted anyway. So
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: maybe we chuck some of those out with the ewe lambs,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: rising ewe lambs next year and see if they spread
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: it through before they get in lamb, maybe.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: One of the joys of this job is the background ambience.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: You've got the ewes and lambs in the pen there.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: How big's the pen? Give us a description.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Just a bit of a smaller one at the moment.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: We're sort of about halfway through it. So we've just
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: got our wee set of prattlies on the back. There's only,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: I think there's about 16 gates out one wing, and
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: then we use a couple of 14-foots just to build
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: up the wing on the other side, make sure it's safe.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: But last mob was 212 ewes and... I'd never actually
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: heard of final lambs, nearly 300 and some odd, but
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: there were a few singles in those. So, yeah, just
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: chipping through, doing what we can.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Likes to track the work. Have you turned over a
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: wheel in anger in the paddock yet?
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: I've been spraying flat out for the last sort of
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: three days just to get on top of that where
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: we've got the fine weather. And, yeah, we're all caught
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: up with that, just waiting to get a ground to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: dry out a wee bit more, actually, just to get
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: on and start breaking down, ready for some spring barley
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: and young grasses. But you're right, it's just around the corner.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Sure is, Snow. We'll let you carry on with it.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: It sounds like guns to the gunnel. Twin Farm Genetics,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the home of Tehran, sponsors of the five-day forecast on
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the muster, as well as Hokonui. We do appreciate your
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: ongoing support, and good luck in the tailing pen this afternoon.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: All right, cheers for that, Andy. A wee tip for
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: everyone out there doing your tailing. Chuck a wee bit
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: of carpet down your land pen. Just makes a huge difference.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Keep those lands up out of that mud, because the
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: ground condition is still a bit soft in places.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: That's a great tip. A lot of people use hay,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: but carpet, is that from your old man?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just something that we've sort of done the last
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: couple of years. Well, we've had to do it the
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: last couple of springs just to keep those lambs out
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: of the mud. And, oh, the lambs come through good
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: as gold. You can't even tell where the pen's been.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Great tips, Snow. All the best this afternoon. No worries.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Cheers, Andy.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Laugh out loud with Ag Proud. Because life on the
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: land can be a laughing matter.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Brought to us by Shearwell Data.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Working to help the livestock farmer. Just remember there's three
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: types of people in this world. Those that can count
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and those that can't. Just had a text come through
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: as well. Hi, Andy. Just wanted to let you know
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: that saying Greg Erickson is from Waimumu is like saying
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: you're from Riversdale. Tidapu and Waimumu, like Belfast and Riversdale,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: are close by, but not the same. Duly noted for
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: next time. I'm Andy Muir. The Must has brought to
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: you by Pettis Genetics. Enjoy the afternoon. It is an
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: absolute southern stunner. See you tomorrow.