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The Muster- Murray Cockburn: Mainland Minerals · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster, Murray Coburn of Mainland Minerals
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: joins us in studio.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: On a hump day. G'day Murray.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: G'day Andy, how are you today mate?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah good, good. Yourself, how have things been?
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah pretty good really, we're just getting through this wetter
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: period after some lovely few days. It's pretty easy to
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: forget those good days isn't it? But no, we're going
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: well here, we've just been flat out getting ready for
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: spring and been kicking into the furt side of things
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: and particularly with the trucks, but more up through Central Otago,
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: and of course a bit of early stuff before it
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: got too wet, so yeah, no, going well.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: So your focus at the moment, just planning for spring?
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we're just getting out, you know, planning with clients,
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: getting the soil tests, making sure we're all up to date,
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: understanding what the issues are before we start putting FertRex together,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: because the last thing we're going to do is blindly
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: put together plans. We're always very detailed at mainland, understanding first,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: and then... putting together good sound recommendations that fit within budgets,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: and that's the key.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It would have been a good year, or it is
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a good year, to put on ferret too, if the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: price is the way they've been for stock.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Well, absolutely, although it is, there is a wee bit,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: it has been a bit niggly with nitrogen and sulphur
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: getting quite expensive. But other prices have held pretty good,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: but definitely the incomes for the farmers are much better
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: over the last couple of years, so that's been great. And, yeah,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: particularly sheep and beef, we're always getting... playing catch-up, which
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: has been great. And the dairy guys, just business as usual,
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: doing very well.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Supply chains, are you seeing issues there?
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've had a couple of issues, but we've managed
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: to get through it. We've managed to secure all our furt. So, no,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: it's just in the background it's tricky, but we've managed
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: to get through well and secure all our supplies.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: It's the middle of September, it's damp out there, calving
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and lambing are in full motion but like I said yesterday,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: talking to a couple of people, they took the opportunity
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: to put some furt on, it's just that time of year.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just there's a bit of pressure on feed at
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: the moment depending on which areas we're talking about but
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: like I was just looking at the rainfall side of it,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: we're double the average just in Gore here for August
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: and we're 50% more in June, July, so that late
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: June we got very wet. So, yeah, it's just that's
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: putting a bit of, you know, and, well, I suppose
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: we had good growth through the winter compared to normal,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: but with a wee bit warmer conditions. But now we're
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: getting on top of that feed. So it's just looking
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: at your feed with your head and then strategically getting
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: ahead of that feed. And we have things like the
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Ignite N where you've got some quick and slow release
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: nitrogen and sulphur. We've got to have fine particle fertiliser.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: We're putting the nitrogen as well if necessary. So just
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: looking at those options and considering what's the smartest way
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: to get that tucker ahead of you.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Do all cockies do soil testing? Is that a given?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't say it's a given. All mainland clients do. Yeah,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: it's amazing. You do come across guys that are just like, no,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I just put on my solids. But no, people, I
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: think particularly the younger generation coming through, see the value
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: in getting the soil tests and the very good farmers
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: see the value in soil tests and understanding different areas
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: of their place, whether they're doing cut and carry or
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: different soil types, understanding what the general properties of those
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: soils are and also looking at the physical and the
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: biological side of things as well to try to get
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: things so we're reusing nutrient smarter within the soil. So
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: we're trying to be Yeah, we're trying to look at
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: what I call the three spheres. So you've got your
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: chemical nutrient side of it, what's in the pantry, look
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: at the major nutrients and trace minerals. And then we're
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: looking at the biological, how well are those little guys
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: that are in there, how are they feeding through, activating
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: the existing locked up nutrient and getting that back to
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: the plant and up into the animal. And then physical
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: side of things, sort of compaction, aeration side of things,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: how to get the hold onto moisture longer in the
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: drier conditions. how do you let that moisture go when
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: it's wetter? So there's different ways to look at it there.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Fine particle as opposed to granular, what do people seem
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to prefer?
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I suppose horses for courses.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is horses for courses. Look, if you've got
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: the rough rule of thumb that I use is if
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: you've got decent phosphorus levels sort of in the OK
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: to high levels, and if you haven't got very low potassium,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: like it's cut and carry areas, then they're great for
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: the fine particle side of it to refine and get
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: your soils functioning better and also to get your animals
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: performing better on top, so more meat weight out the
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: gate or more milk in the vat. But if you've
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: got particularly low phosphorus levels, then it's a granular situation.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: If you're doing cropping, it's a granular situation. But when
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: it comes to young grasses, mixed-age pastures, then the fine
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: particle fertiliser has many more benefits with the biological side
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: of it, getting things cycling better, getting your soil structure,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: aeration side of it going better long term, and helps
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: with the dry, hold on longer, and helps let more
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: moisture go, helps with the animal health on top as well.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: There's many, many benefits of the fine particle, but they
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: work together. So it's the granular and the fine particle together,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: that's where I found the gold. long-term, not just fine
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: particle only or not just granular only. It's the two
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: that work really well together.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: As far as cultivation, it won't be this week for sure,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: but it won't be too far away as well.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: What do people need to keep in the back of
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: their minds?
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, cultivation is get your soil testing done so
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: you know what you're dealing with. What are the limiting factors?
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: What do you need to try to lift through that
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: cycle before you go back into young grass? How are
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: you going to get better crops, more yield? So you're
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: looking at the.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Phosphorus, potassium, your boron side of things, your nitrogen feeding
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: it on the way through. There can be other things
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: like some manganese and magnesium side of things, depending on
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: what your soils are like. You want to make sure
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: that you're looking at your aeration side of it as
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: well if you've got compaction issues, particularly your dairy farmer
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: side of things or heavy animals on top. So just
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: get your drainage side of it. sort of soil soil
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: science 101 is is make sure that you've got uh
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: paddocks well drained get your mold plowing done if you
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: can if you've got that sort of soil get your
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: aeration done uh put your overflow in if you can
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: get it get get the moisture out of it and
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: uh and and then get the furt right get your
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: good good um good agronomy on top and and you'll
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: be racing and.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: You've got a couple of recent additions to your.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Team yeah yeah so we got um and i think
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: i might have spoken about last time but uh We've
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: got James Merchant, who you'll see poking around. He's based
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: out of Belfour there, and he's a good operator over
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: many years working on a farm out, managing a farm
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: out at Belfour. And so he's got his training wheels
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: on at the moment, but he's got a hell of
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: a lot of good experience to help. I'm helping him out.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: And then we've got Becky Rickard, who's up in Central Otago,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: based out of Little Valley Station, back of Alexandra there.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: And so she's stepping into Gavin Keith's shoes up there
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: and he's helping her out at the moment. So, yeah,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: you'll see a couple of faces out there. Got some
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: new mainland utes around you'll see as well. They're looking
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: pretty sharp. And then we're also trying to get our
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: new website up and going, so you'll see that soon
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: as well, and our socials are going pretty good too.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: You're mugs all over Facebook at the moment.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, no, well, that's one of these things you've
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: got to do, Andy. It's probably not my cup of tea,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: but it's the way of the world, isn't it?
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: It comes across really well, though. Give yourself a bit
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: of credit there.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we're doing it. We're doing it, and it
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: seems to be going pretty good. So, no, it's incredible
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: how far your sort of reach can be, not just
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: throughout southern Italia, but, I mean, it just seems to
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: be going further. So it's sort of creating a life
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: of its own. It's quite amazing.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: All right, Mainland Minerals, Murray, how do people get in touch?
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Best way is probably just the website with mainlandminerals.com. or
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: on the socials, of course. And if you want to
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: get on the old phone, the 03 208 3004.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Murray. Thanks for joining us.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Good on you, Andy. Thank you.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Murray Coburn of Mainland Minerals. Great to catch up with
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the team, as we do. You're on the muster up next.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Stags coach Scott Ede after that big win at the
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: weekend against BOP.