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The Muster- Dean Rabbidge: The Curse Of The Triplets · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Dean Ravage farms at Glenham, sheep and beef farmer, and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: joins us on this rather overcast, rainy-type afternoon here in
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the Deep South.
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  Speaker 2: G'day, Dean.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Afternoon, Andy.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: How's everything in your neck of the woods in mighty Glenham?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Uh, pretty busy, actually.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, lambing's all done and dusted. We're just waiting to
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: tail the hoggets. One heifer left to carve. Yeah, just
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: that silly time of year of trying to get grass in,
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  Speaker 3: fodder beet in, made some baleage over the weekend, and
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: we've also got the digger here doing a bit of
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: drainage on some crop ground that we want to get
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: back into grass as well. So, yeah, just as you
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: think there's starting to be a bit of a break
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: in the system, the next cycle of jobs... kicks into
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: gear in a hell of a hurry, really.
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  Speaker 4: It's crazy how we're talking about baleage and only a
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: matter of weeks ago we were looking for feed.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I know. It's more of a, yeah, a
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  Speaker 3: quality control thing, sort of a paddock. Just got to
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  Speaker 3: awareness it's pretty hard to, I find it, struggle to
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: maintain feed quality, especially with the hoggarts and lambings. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: made a light cut of baleage and it will recover
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: quite quickly and come away with some good feed for
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: the hoggarts and lambs. But, Yeah, the grass has come
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  Speaker 3: away quite quickly. Yeah, we've been buying a few store
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  Speaker 3: cattle as well to sort of compensate for what I
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: suspect will be a small reduction in lamb numbers as well. So, yeah,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: we're just trying to make the most of the opportunities available, really.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: So tailing tallies, you talk about a bit of a reduction,
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: but not as bad as you feared?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, no, it'll be probably what I suspected. I'm never
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: happy with tailing numbers anyway. even if it's a good year,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: so we'll just be even less happy this year. But
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: there'll be enough to balance the books at the end
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: of the day, so that's the main thing.
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  Speaker 4: It's a good year not to be having all these
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  Speaker 4: triplets like a lot of people are, though, dare I
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  Speaker 4: say it in that way.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, triplets, I hate them. I actively choose rams
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  Speaker 3: with no triplet history in their pedigree, so to speak,
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  Speaker 3: and there's been times I've even sold one-year triplet use
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  Speaker 3: at scanning. They've got no place here for me, I'm afraid.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Really?
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  Speaker 4: You're just that harsh about them? Have you got three lambs,
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: or dare I say, at quads, you're down to Ugonski?
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I have done in the past. If we
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: weren't trying to build new numbers, that would have happened
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: this year also. Yeah, I just don't seem to be
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: able to incorporate them into my system very well. So, yeah, no,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: I'd rather have two solid lambs than three average ones.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: So whereabouts are you for the start of November compared
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: to where you would be normally, or have you caught
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: up on stuff pretty good?
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: We're pretty much status quo, Andy. Yeah. We haven't really
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: started any significant groundwork yet. I'm going to sort of
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: wait for that soil temperature to become a bit more stable. And, yeah,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: like I said, we've been waiting on the digger to
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: tie up a few things, get some drainage in before
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: we start getting paddocks back into permanent pasture. But, you know,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: there's plenty of time. Still got well over a month
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: before we even contemplate getting Swedes in the ground. And, yeah,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: sort of an opportunist time getting beaten, hopefully this week too,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: which is a lot earlier than normal. It's just we
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: had a sacrifice paddock. We carved some heifers on this year.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: So it was sitting there pretty buggered. So we thought
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  Speaker 3: we'd take the opportunity and get it turned over and
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  Speaker 3: hopefully get some beaten quickly.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah. The electioneering cycle is amongst us this time next week.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: We may have a better idea of what's happening with
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: our government, or we might not. It depends, Dean. But
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: it's been a marathon, not a sprint, though, this whole
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: election cycle.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I'm a bit over it, to be honest,
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  Speaker 3: and I think a lot of people are. They can't
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: wait for next weekend just to get out and get
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  Speaker 3: the votes in. Yeah, I doubt we're going to hear
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  Speaker 3: what government we've got for a while. It's one of
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  Speaker 3: the downfalls or embarrassments about MMP. We could quite possibly
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  Speaker 3: end up with a minority party that's just scraped over
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  Speaker 3: the 5% threshold dictating who runs the country for the
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  Speaker 3: next three years. So that's just an unfortunate reality that
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: we're in at the moment.
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  Speaker 4: How have you found politics over the last month? Do
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  Speaker 4: you engage in it or do you zone out because
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  Speaker 4: you find it.
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  Speaker 2: Just a bit of overkill?
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  Speaker 3: I think the reporting from mainstream media has been childish
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  Speaker 3: and pathetic, to be honest. They haven't really delved into
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  Speaker 3: the big issues behind the scenes and actually really dug
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: deep into parties' policies. They've been focused on soundbites and some, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: rather irrelevant things, just trying to create gotcha moments to
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: suit their narrative. So they've sort of really disengaged from
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: the whole process, really, and just Yeah, tried to get
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: on with it.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Do you sit down and watch the election coverage on
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  Speaker 4: TV on Saturday nights when it's on?
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it'll be on, but whether I pay too
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  Speaker 3: much attention to it is another thing, because like I said,
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  Speaker 3: I don't think we're going to get a result next weekend.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: It could be a while, but yeah, I think it's
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  Speaker 3: just a bit over it, to be honest, yeah.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not the only one. It's been a lot.
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  Speaker 4: It's like the Tour of Southland this week. It's not
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  Speaker 4: a one-day event. It's certainly longer than that. But, hey, Dean,
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: we're going to touch on this as well, the Southland
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Rural Support Trust. You're a trustee there. Their SBS Bank
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: Tour of Southland coffee shout is happening this week. Tomorrow
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: it's happening at Oropoki from 10 a.m.
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  Speaker 2: So, look, it's been a hell of a sprint.
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  Speaker 4: You're involved with the Rural Support Trust, but certainly some
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  Speaker 4: good stuff's been coming out of it from the organisation recently.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, unfortunately, it's been another spring where the Trust and
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: other groups around the province have had to facilitate some events, again,
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  Speaker 3: just to try and get people off farm and chew
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: the fat this spring. So, yeah, it's just another way...
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: sort of get out there, watch the Tour of the
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  Speaker 3: South and watch something a bit different I suppose and
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: have a coffee as well and yeah like I said
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: just get off farm for even if it's 10-15 minutes
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: it can be quite a good mental refresh for a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: The tour goes through Glenham doesn't it?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah it does go through Glenham, you quite often go
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: down to the end of the road here and watch them.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: It was past full of 30 seconds that you see
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  Speaker 3: them for but Yeah, no, it's quite a cool event
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  Speaker 3: and it's great to see it growing in numbers year
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  Speaker 3: on year and I think this is its 70th year
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: or edition, so something that stands to test Tom that
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: long is obviously doing something right.
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  Speaker 4: And considering this is the second time this year we've
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: had the event because of 12 months ago with those winds,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: and yeah, a lot of interest in it, as it
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  Speaker 4: always is, and the argument's there, people enjoy the tour
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: because of the challenges that the weather brings it, so
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: if you want to find that, come to Southland in November,
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: it's a given.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not just the conditions that they cycle in,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: I guess either. Southland's a pretty big and diverse province
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: when you start looking around, so the variations of terrain
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  Speaker 3: and and that's pretty awesome too. So great province to
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: have a good cycle racing, I guess.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, worst places for it, Dean. We'll let you carry on, mate.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Always good to catch up. Get all that cropping while
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: you can.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Yep, no, thanks, Andy.
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  Speaker 2: Dean Ravage. Based at Glenham, of course, Southland Rural Support Trust.
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  Speaker 4: If you need to talk, 0800 787 254. These events
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: happening over this week during the Tour of Southland. Oropuki, Mosburn,
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: Riverton and Woodlands as well. Tony Roberts is up next.