Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster- Matt McRae: Ripping Into The Work

Transcript

The Muster- Matt McRae: Ripping Into The Work · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Waylon Jennings. This interview is brought
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to you by Agri Centre South. Branches in Lawnville, Gore, Cromwell,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Milton and Ranfurly. Drop by your local Agri Centre South
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: branch today.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, it's not Waylon Jennings, but fortunately we do have
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Matt McRae based at Mocherita.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: G'day, Matt.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Afternoon Andy, how are you?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Can't complain.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yourself though, you'll be quite pleased to see the last
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: six weeks and nothing but a memory?
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got to have a reasonably short memory or
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: an extremely long one to remember the last good one,
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: isn't it? But yeah, either way, it's good to finally
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: turn the corner and get a few bit of heat
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: and a bit of grass growth. It's been quite good.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So how are ground conditions in Mokorita?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: That's still, like I was just talking yesterday, we're probably
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: ahead on track to work to this time last year,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: but like another 10 mils of rain a couple of
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: days ago slowed us down a wee bit. We haven't
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: got any seed in the ground yet. Just probably waiting
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: for the conditions to be a wee bit better. But, yeah,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: grass is certainly growing and, yeah, things are ticking along.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: So it's actually just started a few drops of rain
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: here this morning as well, which just settled the dust.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Well, a few people are saying, depending on where they're based,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: that a little bit of rain wouldn't go astray at
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the moment, but you're the opposite thinking, I suppose, where
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: you're based.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I actually enjoy the warm, settled weather, so
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: if anyone wants to swap more than open, that they
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: can come spend a day in Mokereta.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: So what's your rainfall tell you for the year so far?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I haven't actually looked. Yeah, it's good to... just walk
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: out the door with shorts and not a jacket on
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: at the moment. But, um, I know we've got about
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: 40 months for October and I think we just ticked
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: over 300 for September and 200 for August. Uh, it's, um,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: getting well up there. It's not far off what we
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: would average for the whole year now anyway. So, um, yeah,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: it's just, just enough. So yeah, a lot of averages
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: would mean we're in for a good, good couple of months,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: but yeah, we'll just take it as it comes. And
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: the grass is growing. The lambs are certainly appreciating a
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: bit of sunshine on their backs. And, um, Yeah, just
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: ticked through the routine for the next month.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: How did the tailing go? You didn't have to put
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: carpet down on the pens or anything?
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: No, it wasn't. It was probably some of the better
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: weather we've had for tailing, to be fair. We haven't
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: finished yet, but we get the last of the hoggets
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: due to stop tomorrow, so we'll get them shed out
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: and done with a few picks like the last hogget.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: in the next couple of weeks. But, yeah, the minute
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: went pretty good. Obviously, it's reasonably a big job with
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: the DNAing the stud lambs as they go down the chute. But, yeah,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: it's quite good. There's a lot of mixed results like
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: everyone around. There's some mobs up and some down. So
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: it's just probably dependent on the lambs in a fairly
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: short window. So it depends how many big storms they
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: had in the middle and the paddocks that they were in.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: But there's always room for improvement.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Your hoggart lambing, you've struck it right with the weather there, though.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been magic. Actually, it's been good therapy, I think,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: for after the September we had, going around in the
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: wet and rain to what a change it's been for
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: the hoggart. So, yeah, they started the start of October
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: and we lambed them for three weeks. They've been really
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: good and going around not having a lot of issues
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: in them and they're spitting out some good lambs. It'll
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: be interesting to see Well, where they are at, they
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: probably don't get much better runs than this in October,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: do you?
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: We need to catch up with Henry Buckingham because he's
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: timed it perfectly. You said off-air he should be the
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: new weatherman.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. You said get him on the show for
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: the yearly weather update. But, yeah, I'll catch up with
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: him next week at our summer council AGM. I said
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: to Claire yesterday he'll hate me for saying it, but
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: I reckon if he had a field day down there,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: he'd have... have half a Southland there for a look
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: and see how it's gone for them.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's good. It's just finding a system that
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: suits your farm and area. And like I say, we
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: choose to live in the second wettest gully in Southland,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: so just got to make the most of it. And, yeah,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: adapt our system to try and get the best out
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: of it. So, yeah, it's good. And we're just going
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: to match that pasture growth rate and lambing date in
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: the right spot. And, yeah, we had a beef and
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: lamb field day with Paul Kenyon yesterday. I think we
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: got him on the show. And, yeah, there's some good
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: timely reminders there about setting up for next year and
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: what we can tweak and do better.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: It's a positive space for the sector in general, though,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: that the price of red meat, it continues to stay
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: up there.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: It's not going down in a hurry, is it?
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: I'd like to think it's not. Yeah, we've had a
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: bit of a fundamental shift in the last couple of years.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: It's good and it just goes to show a lot
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: of those wee one percenters that you can do make
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: quite a substantial difference to your bottom line. So you
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: can get an extra one or two percent on your
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: lambing percentage or a few less dryers or wet dryers
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: or half a kilo on your lambs. It all stacks
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: up and makes quite a big difference. Yeah, it's cool
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: to step back occasionally and have a look at your
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: business and and what is achievable, and there's certainly a
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: few operators out there leading the way, so it's always
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: good to get off farm and learn something, even if
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: it's one or two things, off some good operators and
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: see what we can take back and improve what we've
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: got ourselves.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Based on that, what are you looking at budget-wise compared
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to last year?
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Very similar?
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: I'd be pretty similar. Pretty similar, like I've put it
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: in the bank, slightly lower for the bank budget, slightly
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: lower to see what it would be like based on
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: their predictions. But I don't see why it wouldn't be,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: at this stage, why it wouldn't be any less. Obviously,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: use will be up a wee bit with where they're
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: sitting at the moment. And wool will be up a
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: wee bit. We're an eight-month programme too, so hopefully we
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: catch a wee bit more of the current wool market. And, yeah, probably...
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: a few limbs or contracts about at the moment we'll
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: probably rip in and get a bit, try and secure
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: a bit of that as well. Yeah I've never been
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: one for sitting on wool and waiting for the price
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: to change so either if there's no contracts in advance
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: I'd just try and sell it on the day and
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: take the money and yeah I don't get into predicting
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: whether it's going to go up or down too much
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: but yeah there's a We've got a good contract for
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: lambs for over $ 7 for the next two years. It's
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: good to see a bit of positivity. That would be
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: up with the highest that it's been in my relatively
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: short farming career, but it certainly pays the bill to
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: come off and to take it off and probably takes
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: out the cost of crutching if you can get away
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: with it and get them shorn in January. So the lambs,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: like I said, There's no real clear science around whether
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: they do better or not, but I find in our
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: system they certainly do. The ones that aren't going to
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: be dead by mid-February, I'll get the wool off them
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: in January and it certainly makes it easier management-wise for
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: the rest of the year.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Is this one of your favourite times of year, Matt?
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: You've got the lambs tailed, bit of tractor work to do,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: you can cruise round and come to your senses in
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: a way.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly is. I quite like driving around the
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: sheep and So, yeah, you can spend a bit of
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: time reflecting and tweaking your system, getting it set up
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: for next year. But, yeah, it is a reasonably important
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: time of the year too to make sure things are
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: right and you head into that December, January period well prepared. So, yeah,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: I personally really enjoy it. I'm not a big tractor person,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: so I don't mind spending a wee bit of time
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: on the tractor. But after about three or four hours,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: I start getting itchy feet and would rather go and
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: just stop around the road. do something else but three.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Or four hours what do you like driving to Christchurch.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah it's not not too bad I think just think
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: of all the other stuff that can get done so
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: if I can give it to anyone else to sit
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: on the tractor it's not too bad but probably in
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: the evenings early in the mornings my favourite time to
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: be on it so.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah good on you Matt enjoy the afternoon always appreciate
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: your time on the.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Muster appreciate it cheers Andy cheers.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Matt McRae of Mocorita, all the M's. Tea for Texas
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: is the name of the song. Texas the theme today.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Waylon Jennings, of course.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Terada is up next.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Andrew Lumsden, you're listening to The Muster.