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The Muster- Ben Dooley: Southland Rural Support Trust · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Thanks to the Southland Rural Support Trust, we're catching up
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with different farmers from different operations around the South as
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: we look back at the previous couple of months and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: just sharing a few tips around mindset today. Ironically enough,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: it's all about the wind events that occurred 12 months ago.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Where has that time gone, I tell you? Anyway, Ben
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Dooley's catching up with us, a muster regular here. Sheep,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: beef and YouTube farmer at Mimihau, just out of Wyndham. G'day, Dules.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: G'day, Andy. How's it going?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty good. Look, straight off the bat, 12 months ago,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: what do you remember from the Wynd event?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Ironically, I've just ducked away from the tailing pen today. Well,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: we're making a start on that job. We were tailing
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: our pet lambs last year, the hand-reared ones, whatever you
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: want to call them, in the hay shed. And we
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: weren't having good progress, and we looked around and saw
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: the clouds coming, and I just said, get home now.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: So everyone dropped tools, I turned the gas bottle off,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: and we left. On the way down, like, it hit
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: like a wall. There was timber everywhere. We got the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: kids the hell out of the road, and as I
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: drove down, Sarah looked back, and there's a big oak
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: tree in our driveway, and I sort of had to
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: go under it, because if I went the other side,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: this big max, that would come at me. And about
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: two seconds after I drove under, a great big branch
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: come down. And yeah, we got to the house, shut
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the garage doors. And then I just went around. There
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: was a few bits of machinery I was a bit
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: worried about. Made sure everything was okay, all out in
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: the open. And yeah, got the hell home and hunkered
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: down until it was over. Yeah, she was a bit
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: of a, certainly the first time I'd ever experienced anything
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Well, it was short and sharp, 45 minutes or so.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: But the damage was done around the province or the region.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I'd say that the worst of it was
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: probably only five or ten minutes here. The absolute worst
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of it, and then it carried on. It did ease
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: off a bit after, as you say, about 45 minutes,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: but the timber that come down on this place was
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: just phenomenal, and we got lucky compared to a lot
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: of people. We had very minimal fence damage, no power
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: lines or anything around the farm hurt, but just the
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: macrocarpers around the place, just the small branches or the
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: medium-sized branches that come out of them, and some of
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: them flew 100 feet before they landed on the ground
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: sort of thing. So, yeah, she was big. Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, farming's got its challenges without relying on Mother Nature,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and we've had three springs in a row now where
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: it's been wet. It hasn't been a lot of fun.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: How have you found it yourself? Have you found it challenging?
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, if somebody would give me her address, I'd
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: go and take one for the team, I think, actually,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and end that problem, jokingly. But yeah, no, it has
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: been a challenge. We sort of look back and we go, man,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: are we just getting soft? Is this the way it's
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: always been? But you talk to previous generations and they say,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: you know, they might have had 80 year close to
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: being this bad, but certainly not three in a row.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: So it does get you down. And as a sheep
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: farmer right now, the first one was tough because prices
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: were poor. The last two have been tough knowing, you know,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: this was our time to shine, so to speak. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: it just takes the cream off the crop and we'll
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: still be all right. We're still financially going to get
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: through okay, but sheep farmers, we just get sick of battling.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: We're just forever battling along and we never seem to
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: be getting very far ahead in the last sort of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: 10 years. So yeah, it's certainly mentally it can be
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: a bit draining at times.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: You raise the issue around price this year though. That
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: is something to be celebrated. I mean, yes, there's been
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: losses but what you've got, you've got and ultimately it's
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: still going to be worth good coin.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. It is worth noting and just thinking maybe
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: it's not worth thinking about but There's no point ignoring
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: how much lost potential was there, but that is a
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: completely separate thing to the pricing. And the fact that
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: we have these amazing record high prices is absolutely awesome.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Absolutely stoked with everything that's happened to get to that point.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: You know, a lot of it's circumstantial, but there's been
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: a lot of work going to that too. So free
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: trade deals and marketing and everything is coming together as well.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: So definitely got to celebrate those wins.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: A lot of people say the message about getting off
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: farm when you can. I'm one of those people too.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But you're saying it yourself from the cold face. Actually
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: being there and getting off farm isn't easy.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Like, you know, I'm a big advocate. Buy the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: damn boat. Go and use the bloody thing. Some people
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: would say we do far too much of it. I'd
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: say we don't do enough. But, yeah, just at times
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: like this, you know, we are actually on tomorrow heading
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: up to Ranfurly to a mate's 40th, provided everything goes
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: well today. and that will be the first labour weekend
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: in a long time, since I was a kid probably,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: that I've actually been off farm. Because it is a
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: time of year where it's bloody hard to get away.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: You've got to make the most of those opportunities sometimes,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: depending on your system, but certainly here. If the weather's
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: good and there's groundwork not done, well, that's happening. Or
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: if tailing's not done, like now, that's happening. That's taken
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: absolute priority. And then when you've got the grunt work done,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: you can get away, but you know, I look at
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the forecast for next week and I go, man, if
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: there's something that needs done today, we're doing it because
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: next week's not looking very pleasant. And it just does
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: make it a bit challenging sometimes to get away. And
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: sometimes you hear that messaging of, oh, you've just got
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: to get off farm. It's like, sometimes people saying that
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: who do a lot of it, and by all means,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I take my hat off to them, but they're not
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: living the same reality that those of us are, that,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: you know, we don't have staff, we don't have someone
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to leave the farm with when we go away for
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: a week or something like that. It's... We're here. We're
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: largely on our own here. We've got friends that would
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: do it for us, absolutely, but we can't just drop
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: tools and go because we're feeling a bit off. We've
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: got to get the stuff done, and then when the
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: work is done, we make the most of it.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Do you think it's a case of having to change
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: that reality, perhaps, or it is what it is?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: In our reality or in their reality?
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Either or.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: It's certainly something we're conscious of, and it's certainly something
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: we're trying to reduce our spring workload. But everything you
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: look at, it's like, well, if we take that out
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: of the picture, this is what we lose. And we're
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: just making that decision that we're happy to carry, not
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: quite to carry on this way, but we're happy to
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: put that effort in the spring and make the most
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: of it in the rest of the year. That's just
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the decision we've made and we're happy with it. You know,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: winter's another one. You can find people to come look
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: after your farm in winter if they're available. and that's
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: sometimes not a bad thing to do, and we're doing that.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: But winter, it can be hard enough to get away
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: from your farm over winter if you're a bit particular
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: about how things are done. We've got a young guy
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: who did some work for us this year, and he
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: was bang on the money, so that was great. But, yeah,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: it's a whole lot easier when you don't have those obligations,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: you know, looking after young stock and everything else. Once
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: weaning's happened, once everything else has happened, you get into
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: summer and autumn, and let's be honest, autumn's a nice
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: time to get away too. So, yeah.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Dills, you've got a big following on social media. How
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: much does communication to mates and the likes play a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: part in your life?
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: You've got Snapchat and stuff like that hugely. I spend
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: far too much time on Snapchat probably. There's probably six
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: or seven guys that I'm messaging most days. Yeah, it's
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: a great way to just keep talking to people and
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: just keep in touch and just realise the challenges everyone
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: else has and that you're not alone and that's a
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: part of it. Most of it's just talking crap and
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: having fun. But, no, it certainly does play a big
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: part in it.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Like you say, you're hoping to get a little bit
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: of a break over the weekend?
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep, head up. We'll see what time we get
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: away on Saturday or tomorrow. It'll be probably about lunchtime.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Party starts at 3pm at the Wedderburn pub, so that
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: should be good. And we'll just see how fast we
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: come back on Sunday. It could be one of those
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: ones where we might not be too good Sunday morning,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: so it might take a while, but... Yeah, we will
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: get back when we're back and 24 hours or so
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: off farm and not thinking about it and that should
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: be bloody good.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Ben. Enjoy the weekend.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Cheers, Andy.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Ben Dooley, talking about mindset and he's dead right too.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Being told to get off farm and go and do
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: something isn't that easy sometimes. So it's about looking at
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that balance, about looking at ways that you can just
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: sit there and think, yeah, I'll actually... I'm going to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: go and do this instead of do something. Do something
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: that makes you happy. That's what it boils down to.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Of course, the Southland Rural Support Trust, 0800 787 254
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: for a free confidential chat. Michelle, what's up next in
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the Country Crossover?