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Best Of The Muster: 17/10/26 · The Muster on Hokonui

0:06
Speaker 1: A very good morning and welcome in to the Best
0:09
Speaker 1: of the Muster, a collaboration of interviews that took our
0:12
Speaker 1: attention during a rather busy week here at Hokanui HQ.
0:16
Speaker 2: Of course, it is brought to you by the Gopher.
0:19
Speaker 2: Great to have them on board.
0:20
Speaker 1: We're starting off the hour by catching up with Blair
0:22
Speaker 1: Drysdale with a mixed farming operation at Balfour there and
0:27
Speaker 1: Blocker talks about the season, how it's corrected itself. We've
0:29
Speaker 1: had quite a bit of sunshine over the past couple
0:32
Speaker 1: of weeks down here in Southland and it's certainly changed
0:35
Speaker 1: the mood. Greg Erickson, our Canadian correspondent, formerly of Titipu,
0:40
Speaker 1: talks about the harvest season over there. We actually caught
0:42
Speaker 1: him earlier on in the week, and it was Thanksgiving.
0:45
Speaker 1: So Canadian Thanksgiving is totally different to the U.S. version,
0:49
Speaker 1: and we just catch up to see how harvest is
0:51
Speaker 1: going and the mood of the Canadian public as well
0:53
Speaker 1: regarding agriculture.
0:56
Speaker 2: Matt Ward of.
0:57
Speaker 1: Morton Mains, getting through lambing, tailing and the like, still
1:01
Speaker 1: to get a tractor going, still pretty wet around there,
1:03
Speaker 1: but Matt's the same as Blocker, saying, yeah, we've had
1:06
Speaker 1: the past of September, but we're just looking forward to
1:10
Speaker 1: see how we can solidify our businesses and get all
1:12
Speaker 1: this work done as we look ahead. Julie Edwards of
1:16
Speaker 1: Shewell UK in our regular catch-up talks about all happenings
1:20
Speaker 1: over there in the rural sector, the prices, the relevance
1:23
Speaker 1: of wool and what is happening with diesel and fertiliser supply.
1:28
Speaker 1: And finally, Simon Quilty of Global Agrotrends looking at the
1:31
Speaker 1: red meat sector in New Zealand for the next 12 months.
1:35
Speaker 1: And Simon's pretty much on the money with his predictions
1:38
Speaker 1: and you'll be really fascinated to see what insights he
1:41
Speaker 1: has for the next 12 months for the sector. So
1:45
Speaker 1: without further ado, we'll start the best of the muster
1:47
Speaker 1: with Blair Drysdale.
1:48
Speaker 2: It's brought to you by the Gopher.
1:50
Speaker 1: Ain't nothing gonna break my.
1:55
Speaker 3: Time.
1:55
Speaker 4: Nobody's gonna slow me down.
1:58
Speaker 5: It's just another manic Monday.
2:00
Speaker 2: Wish it was done.
2:03
Speaker 1: Blair Drysdale runs a mixed farming operation and joins us
2:06
Speaker 1: this afternoon in the Sargent Dam Farming Roundup. Thanks to
2:09
Speaker 1: Sargent Dam Stock Foods based here in Gore. We speak
2:12
Speaker 1: to various farmers from around the Southland region and South
2:15
Speaker 1: West Otago for that matter and just chew the fat.
2:18
Speaker 2: Blocker, good afternoon. Manic Monday by the Bengals. That's pretty
2:21
Speaker 2: much a state of play.
2:22
Speaker 6: Yeah, you're on point.
2:23
Speaker 7: Good afternoon.
2:24
Speaker 6: It is a manic Monday. Just turning wheels, burning diesel
2:27
Speaker 6: and getting ground ready to drill after the rain really.
2:32
Speaker 1: Well, the last time we caught up, you were close
2:34
Speaker 1: to putting in rice paddies. What's the state of play now?
2:37
Speaker 6: Well, without a word of lie, 200 metres from me,
2:40
Speaker 6: the irrigator is going tulips. So that sort of tells
2:42
Speaker 6: you the state of play in this neck of the woods.
2:45
Speaker 6: It's definitely dried up a lot. Ground conditions are pretty
2:47
Speaker 6: damn good now. Saw is working nicely. It's got a
2:50
Speaker 6: good temperature about it now. So, yeah, a lot of
2:53
Speaker 6: tulips are out in flower. The grass is growing. The
2:55
Speaker 6: wheat and barley is looking bloody stunning. Stock are happy.
3:00
Speaker 6: They've got sun on their backs. But, yeah, look, we've
3:04
Speaker 6: failed on Saturday, everything apart from the late ones. The
3:07
Speaker 6: issues all go. Hoggets are lambing. More problems than the hoggets,
3:11
Speaker 6: not even having big lambs and having to pull a lot.
3:14
Speaker 6: So I had to go around them twice each afternoon.
3:16
Speaker 6: It's a bit of a test. At our age, Andy
3:20
Speaker 6: tried to catch a hogget that's got no wall on it,
3:22
Speaker 6: I'll tell you.
3:22
Speaker 1: I was about to say, what's your patience like blocking
3:25
Speaker 1: chasing hoggets that you need to lamb?
3:27
Speaker 2: I don't think it would be too good.
3:29
Speaker 6: Oh, you've actually just got to, like I did in
3:32
Speaker 6: the electric side-by-side, they respond really well to that. The
3:34
Speaker 6: rest of them don't really care and pick the one
3:37
Speaker 6: out you need to lamb and run her to a
3:38
Speaker 6: fence and jump off and catch her. So you do
3:40
Speaker 6: have to tire them out a little bit because they're
3:44
Speaker 6: quite quick. So just tire them out a little bit
3:46
Speaker 6: along the fence line and lamb them and then the
3:49
Speaker 6: good mothers, you poke that lamb back in front of
3:51
Speaker 6: them and, you know, rub it all over its nose
3:54
Speaker 6: and pull the leg through the jaw, and they're as
3:56
Speaker 6: happy as pigs and shit, and they just get on
3:58
Speaker 6: with it. So great wee mums. A lot of them
4:01
Speaker 6: having twins, which I don't like in a hoggart. It
4:03
Speaker 6: tends to strip a lot of condition off the hoggart,
4:05
Speaker 6: and I've had trouble in the past. It's two dudes
4:08
Speaker 6: sort of getting in lamb again, but they've got a
4:10
Speaker 6: heap of feed at their feet this year. Too much, really.
4:13
Speaker 6: But hopefully it helps keep the condition on them. They
4:15
Speaker 6: milk well.
4:16
Speaker 2: So you don't have a lambing dog, or that lambing
4:18
Speaker 2: dog's name is Blair?
4:20
Speaker 6: At lambing, yes, I am the lambing dog, and I'm
4:23
Speaker 6: not very quick anymore.
4:25
Speaker 2: What do you mean? You know, you're built for speed, mate.
4:29
Speaker 2: We're all like that.
4:30
Speaker 6: I might have been built for speed in my teens,
4:32
Speaker 6: but I'm not any longer. Body is not what it
4:35
Speaker 6: used to be.
4:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, join the club on that. So what's your grass doing?
4:39
Speaker 2: It'll be recovering now.
4:41
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, here in northern Southland, we were lucky
4:45
Speaker 6: compared to pretty much all the rest of Southland and
4:47
Speaker 6: western South Targa are. south of Targo, east of Targo
4:52
Speaker 6: on the coast there. So we missed a lot of
4:54
Speaker 6: that rain. So we never had, I've had no pasture damage.
4:57
Speaker 6: So we've been lucky in that respect in here. So yeah,
5:01
Speaker 6: things are growing rapidly now around here. So it's good.
5:05
Speaker 6: Plenty of grass in front of probably everything now.
5:09
Speaker 1: We're hearing of various rainfall figures for September, Blair. Any
5:13
Speaker 1: idea what you have for September.
5:14
Speaker 2: For the month?
5:16
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was over 200. I know that. We ran
5:19
Speaker 6: about the Running about 220, 230 off the top of
5:22
Speaker 6: my head. I don't really worry about keeping track of
5:25
Speaker 6: rainfall because it is what it is. You can't know
5:26
Speaker 6: anything about it, but it was around there somewhere. So, yeah,
5:30
Speaker 6: just damp enough for September again, but at least for
5:32
Speaker 6: October this year, we're not having a rinse and repeat
5:34
Speaker 6: of the last two years for October, which has continued
5:36
Speaker 6: to be wet right through to the end. So I
5:38
Speaker 6: think it's a little bit different in that respect. Yep,
5:40
Speaker 6: there's a bit of rain on Wednesday, Thursday, but as
5:43
Speaker 6: you and I were talking off here, there's parts of
5:45
Speaker 6: northern Southland that won't say no to rain at the moment. So, yeah.
5:49
Speaker 2: That's the irony of the situation.
5:51
Speaker 1: All these tractors heading, we're going drills and the likes
5:54
Speaker 1: at the quay on Friday afternoon, and they were enjoying
5:57
Speaker 1: the conditions, to be fair.
5:59
Speaker 6: Oh, and right from Riversdale, right through to that quay area,
6:01
Speaker 6: I mean, we're on lighter soil somewhere, some stony soils, and,
6:04
Speaker 6: you know, you need rain every 10 days at this
6:08
Speaker 6: time of the year, if not sooner.
6:10
Speaker 2: So are you.
6:11
Speaker 1: Whereabouts are you on the farming cycle, then? Have you
6:13
Speaker 1: caught up on your tractor work?
6:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, probably, actually.
6:17
Speaker 6: Ahead of the game really on track to work but
6:19
Speaker 6: while you're ahead you want to keep ahead so pretty
6:21
Speaker 6: happy with where we're at there. Just waiting on water troughs,
6:24
Speaker 6: cattle troughs to turn up to put a water scheme
6:26
Speaker 6: in the new block so once we get that done
6:28
Speaker 6: we can start ploughing some of it over and young
6:30
Speaker 6: grassing it. There's still a lot in front of me.
6:32
Speaker 6: There's 50 hectares of young grass to put in but
6:35
Speaker 6: it's probably going to wait until late October, early November
6:38
Speaker 6: before we get onto that too much. Getting everything else
6:41
Speaker 6: on the ground is a bit more important so someone's
6:44
Speaker 6: going to need to cut a soilage before we turn
6:46
Speaker 6: it over too so But it'll all get done. Things
6:49
Speaker 6: are progressing nicely. As long as we keep getting a
6:51
Speaker 6: bit of rain and a heap of heat, we'll be fine.
6:53
Speaker 1: The season is a marathon and not a sprint, but
6:56
Speaker 1: certainly in some parts of the region it's been a
6:58
Speaker 1: bit more forgiving than others.
6:59
Speaker 6: Definitely, and like I say, we were lucky it's a
7:03
Speaker 6: bit more forgiving. You know, and you feel for the
7:06
Speaker 6: guys down south. I mean, I know, you know, I've
7:08
Speaker 6: seen ewes and lambs and the poor buggers. You know, everything's, well,
7:12
Speaker 6: this was, you know, 10 days ago with Brown and,
7:14
Speaker 6: no grass at their feet, and, you know, they look
7:17
Speaker 6: pretty terrible. So hopefully everything's improved for all those guys,
7:19
Speaker 6: and the grass has moved a bit, and, you know,
7:22
Speaker 6: sun on the back helps those lambs a lot. So
7:24
Speaker 6: hopefully they keep getting rid of that.
7:27
Speaker 2: Hey, Blocker, what's your cell phone coverage like there?
7:29
Speaker 1: Do you need to stand on one leg and practice
7:31
Speaker 1: your ninja moves to get coverage, or what's the go?
7:33
Speaker 6: Well, I can still stand on one leg, but I'm
7:35
Speaker 6: not much of a ninja. But all in all, the
7:37
Speaker 6: cell phone coverage is, been shit for years but Jodie
7:41
Speaker 6: and I were just talking the other day I reckon
7:42
Speaker 6: it's been a little bit better in the last wee
7:44
Speaker 6: while like where I am now I couldn't have had
7:46
Speaker 6: a conversation with you even six months ago I don't
7:49
Speaker 6: feel so I think it's a little bit better I
7:51
Speaker 6: don't know why yeah there's that whole like we said
7:54
Speaker 6: about that whole wearable thing is it having an impact
7:56
Speaker 6: I don't know I just think rural areas largely get
8:00
Speaker 6: forgotten about but it all changes when you know everything's
8:03
Speaker 6: going to move to satellite sooner rather than later anyway
8:06
Speaker 6: so it won't really matter too much A.
8:09
Speaker 1: Federated Farmers Survey came out this morning saying since the
8:12
Speaker 1: 3G network was switched off in March this year, farmers
8:15
Speaker 1: have been even more frustrated with black spots and poor reception.
8:20
Speaker 1: The survey of nearly 650 cockies wasn't flashed. Over half
8:24
Speaker 1: of those farms have mobile coverage and less than half
8:26
Speaker 1: the property. A third of farmers said they had a
8:28
Speaker 1: place used to work on 3G but no longer. One
8:31
Speaker 1: in three farmers saying they can't rely on reaching triple
8:34
Speaker 1: one for most of their farm. And 8% said connecting
8:37
Speaker 1: to emergency services wasn't possible anywhere on the property. Just
8:40
Speaker 1: very quickly as well, 15% regards satellite to mobile as
8:44
Speaker 1: adequate solution for a cell tower, or that the vast
8:47
Speaker 1: majority of areas previously covered by 3G now have 4G
8:51
Speaker 1: or 5G network. But this one here, one farmer said
8:54
Speaker 1: they failed a WorkSafe audit because patchy coverage on their
8:57
Speaker 1: property meant they couldn't check on their staff every two hours.
9:01
Speaker 6: Oh, I can't say what I was going to say.
9:03
Speaker 6: That's ridiculous.
9:04
Speaker 2: I know, you just about had a bruise head.
9:07
Speaker 6: The big one in all that, Andy, is when you
9:08
Speaker 6: have to dial 111, and that's critical. And the only
9:11
Speaker 6: possibility is everyone carries an EPARV on them, and I
9:15
Speaker 6: know guys that do, because, A, they're on, you know,
9:18
Speaker 6: heli or roll of your country, and there's, you know,
9:20
Speaker 6: that rollover risk, so I know guys that do carry them.
9:23
Speaker 6: But in this You know, anyone that's on flat land
9:26
Speaker 6: that should be serviced by a cell phone network properly
9:29
Speaker 6: shouldn't have to go to that extent. And it's a worry.
9:32
Speaker 6: You know, I'm in that game with the polyphora, so
9:35
Speaker 6: it's a worry if you can't dole one by one.
9:38
Speaker 1: I made our politicians aware of it, and I think
9:41
Speaker 1: it all comes down to the telecommunication companies as such
9:45
Speaker 1: as to what they want to do.
9:46
Speaker 2: So ultimately it's out of the government's hands.
9:49
Speaker 6: It is, that's up to telcos, but that WorkSafe thing,
9:52
Speaker 6: that's absolutely bullshit. I mean, someone throwing up for that,
9:55
Speaker 6: that's absolute nonsense, failing a WorkSafe audit because it's something
9:58
Speaker 6: you have no control over. It's like failing because of
10:01
Speaker 6: the weather, for God's sake. It's absolutely ridiculous.
10:04
Speaker 1: It's like losing fuel on the last lap of a
10:06
Speaker 1: Bathurst race.
10:08
Speaker 5: Oh, don't.
10:10
Speaker 6: Oh, comical, but it's happened in the past. It'll happen again,
10:13
Speaker 6: but all they needed, they said for the last 20 laps,
10:15
Speaker 6: that they should have put another second of fuel in.
10:18
Speaker 6: And that's what happens. But Kostecki, what a race from him.
10:21
Speaker 6: I mean, that was brilliant. I didn't watch, or I
10:23
Speaker 6: watched the start, and then we did the stop work
10:25
Speaker 6: the afternoon, and we watched the last half of it. So, yeah,
10:30
Speaker 6: great race, full of entertainment, and only one safety car.
10:33
Speaker 6: Doesn't get much better.
10:34
Speaker 1: And Liam Lawson, too, doing everything he can to stay
10:36
Speaker 1: involved with racing balls in Formula One.
10:39
Speaker 2: He did a, he had double points over the weekend.
10:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, and look, He can't do any more to stay
10:44
Speaker 6: at F1. They really don't have many reasons to get
10:47
Speaker 6: rid of him. So it's going to be really interesting.
10:49
Speaker 6: The only reason they have to get rid of him
10:51
Speaker 6: is he doesn't bring a lot of money and sponsorship.
10:53
Speaker 6: So other than that, as a driver, I can't see
10:57
Speaker 6: how they can say no to him.
10:59
Speaker 2: Good on you, Block. I'll let you carry on.
11:00
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to this Hoggett Catching video coming out
11:03
Speaker 1: any time soon.
11:04
Speaker 6: I can't do the video and then chase him, I
11:06
Speaker 6: can assure you.
11:07
Speaker 2: Get a GoPro, stick it on your head.
11:10
Speaker 6: Oh, God, that'd be enough to topple me over, that
11:12
Speaker 6: wee bit of extra weight on top.
11:14
Speaker 2: Righto.
11:14
Speaker 5: Thanks, mate.
11:15
Speaker 6: Righto.
11:16
Speaker 8: Cheers.
11:18
Speaker 4: See you.
11:29
Speaker 2: Welcome back to The Muster.
11:30
Speaker 1: We're away over to Millerton, Canada now, catching up with
11:33
Speaker 1: Greg Erickson, our Canadian correspondent, formerly of Waimumu, and about
11:38
Speaker 1: to go and tuck into some Thanksgiving dinner.
11:41
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Greg.
11:43
Speaker 3: How are you doing, Andy?
11:45
Speaker 2: Pretty good. Canadian Thanksgiving. Of course, they do things different
11:48
Speaker 2: to America.
11:50
Speaker 3: Yes, yes.
11:51
Speaker 8: I'm not entirely sure why, but Canadian Thanksgiving is... second
11:56
Speaker 8: Monday in October as opposed to later in November. So
11:59
Speaker 8: basically all us farmers who still have crop on the
12:01
Speaker 8: ground have to shut down and have a family dinner,
12:05
Speaker 8: get all filled up and then go.
12:06
Speaker 3: Back at it the next day.
12:08
Speaker 1: So farmers aren't tempted to work through Thanksgiving if the
12:10
Speaker 1: crop needs done like you're in the middle of at
12:12
Speaker 1: the moment?
12:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, some do.
12:16
Speaker 8: We typically don't because we don't work Sundays, but sometimes.
12:20
Speaker 3: A lot of people do.
12:22
Speaker 8: I hear a lot of stories back in the day
12:23
Speaker 8: that folk would have Thanksgiving, like shut down the combines
12:27
Speaker 8: for an hour in the paddock and have Thanksgiving dinner
12:29
Speaker 8: there and then jump back in the combines and carry on.
12:33
Speaker 2: Well, it's a bugger of a time, to be honest, though,
12:35
Speaker 2: if you're doing your harvest.
12:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not perfect, is it?
12:40
Speaker 8: It's not. It works out this weekend because basically all
12:43
Speaker 8: of Alberta's had snow. So everyone, if you aren't finished,
12:46
Speaker 8: you're not combine anyway. So it works out quite well
12:48
Speaker 8: this weekend.
12:49
Speaker 1: So Thanksgiving, it's just like the turkey, the cranberry sauce,
12:53
Speaker 1: the whole nine yards?
12:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, the whole kit and caboodle.
12:56
Speaker 8: Yep, usually a pumpkin pie and everything with it too,
12:59
Speaker 8: and yep, just everyone celebrates everything autumn.
13:03
Speaker 1: I'll take your recommendation there. Like you say, you're just
13:05
Speaker 1: getting through harvest now.
13:07
Speaker 2: How's it been?
13:08
Speaker 3: Pretty good so far, yep, pretty good.
13:10
Speaker 8: This is the first day we've really shut, or first
13:12
Speaker 8: weekend we've really shut down for rain. We've had a
13:14
Speaker 8: couple of breakdowns, but it's been sort of 250, 350, Sorry,
13:20
Speaker 8: 250 or 350 acres a day, steady. The combine's been
13:23
Speaker 8: working good. The yields have been pretty steady, and, yeah,
13:26
Speaker 8: it's been going really well.
13:28
Speaker 1: Okay, you've had a bit of snow. How long will
13:30
Speaker 1: that shut you down for regardless?
13:33
Speaker 3: The snow was melting when it hit the ground.
13:35
Speaker 8: The soil temperature's still warm, so the snow's not even
13:38
Speaker 8: there now. So it's just a matter of waiting for
13:41
Speaker 8: everything to dry up again. Just get some wind and
13:43
Speaker 8: some sun. We'll be back at it probably Tuesday, Wednesday.
13:46
Speaker 2: What moisture content can you work to?
13:50
Speaker 3: Oh, it's the same everywhere.
13:52
Speaker 8: You've got to go for 14% basically in your crop.
13:57
Speaker 8: And then if it's anything high, they can blend it
13:59
Speaker 8: off in the elevators or you can get it dried.
14:01
Speaker 8: But most of the time, we have enough crop and
14:05
Speaker 8: enough crop to sell the elevators that we have a
14:11
Speaker 8: little bit of leverage and they take our wet stuff
14:13
Speaker 8: and blend it. So we can get by with usually
14:16
Speaker 8: 15 and a half. So we're combining till midnight most nights.
14:20
Speaker 2: What are the prices like?
14:21
Speaker 1: We spoke to you last time and I think it's
14:24
Speaker 1: like anywhere, they just seem to be all over the show.
14:26
Speaker 2: Have you got a bit more solidity with pricing?
14:29
Speaker 8: Yeah, so the price of wheat keeps going up somehow.
14:34
Speaker 8: So it's probably gone up 25% in the last three months.
14:39
Speaker 8: And then canola, if it's not stagnant, it's climbing. And
14:43
Speaker 8: barley is never great in terms of price. It's probably,
14:49
Speaker 8: sorry to use the bushel term, but it's around the
14:50
Speaker 8: $ 5 a bushel.
14:52
Speaker 2: No, you love a good bushel.
14:54
Speaker 3: Don't we ever. But the wheat's probably $ 10 or more.
14:57
Speaker 8: Like on the futures market, you can get it lined
15:00
Speaker 8: up for $ 10. And in canola, it's in the $ 15
15:03
Speaker 8: to $ 16 bracket.
15:05
Speaker 2: So you can use the futures market for your crop?
15:09
Speaker 8: You can line up prices on it, and if it hits,
15:13
Speaker 8: you can set your contracts for it. And if it strikes,
15:15
Speaker 8: then yes, you can. It's kind of like playing with
15:18
Speaker 8: the stock market.
15:20
Speaker 1: Because seeing the pricing rising over there and over here,
15:23
Speaker 1: I think it's been pretty stagnant. You'd like to think
15:26
Speaker 1: there's rosier times for the arable industry ahead, as you
15:28
Speaker 1: well know.
15:30
Speaker 8: Yeah, the arable industry is in a pretty good footing,
15:33
Speaker 8: I think. Everything is pretty decent. The only real issue
15:39
Speaker 8: I can see going forward is the price of inputs,
15:41
Speaker 8: like your diesel and your fertiliser. Those prices are so
15:44
Speaker 8: volatile at the moment, it's really hard to to do
15:48
Speaker 8: a solid budget that you can lean on.
15:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, you talk about fuel.
15:52
Speaker 1: Do you use, like, some red dye for agricultural fuel
15:55
Speaker 1: as such?
15:56
Speaker 2: Is that a thing in Canada?
15:58
Speaker 3: That is a thing, yes. Red dye is your non-text fuel.
16:02
Speaker 1: Because when I was in the UK and I put
16:04
Speaker 1: red dye in the boss's truck once and went for
16:06
Speaker 1: a cruise and I didn't realise that. I'd just arrived
16:09
Speaker 1: in the country and apparently it's in.
16:11
Speaker 2: There for years. Bill Hall, sorry if you got caught
16:13
Speaker 2: once upon a time.
16:15
Speaker 1: But, you know, back to the matter at hand, how
16:19
Speaker 1: subsidised is it? Because I think the US is allowing
16:22
Speaker 1: red dye to go onto the road as such.
16:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening in the US.
16:28
Speaker 8: So all it is is imagine you're... You buy fuel
16:32
Speaker 8: in New Zealand, diesel fuel, and then you buy road tax,
16:35
Speaker 8: your road user charges.
16:37
Speaker 3: It's basically the same thing except.
16:39
Speaker 8: Your road user charges are built into the price of
16:42
Speaker 8: your diesel at the pump. Whereas if you buy farm
16:45
Speaker 8: fuel or dyed fuel, then there is no road user charges, essentially.
16:51
Speaker 1: But the vehicles have to remain on the farm unless
16:54
Speaker 1: they've got permit plates or something, I'd imagine?
16:56
Speaker 8: Yes, so anything that you can register as a farm vehicle,
17:00
Speaker 8: depending on how big your farm is, you can have
17:02
Speaker 8: multiple vehicles or there's a limit to how much you spend. Yes,
17:07
Speaker 8: you get a little green sticker on your licence plate
17:10
Speaker 8: and then you are able to run your farm fuel
17:13
Speaker 8: everywhere you go.
17:14
Speaker 1: We're seeing good prices for red meat over here at
17:17
Speaker 1: the moment, Greg. Depending on who you speak to, the
17:20
Speaker 1: red meat schedule is going to remain above $ 10, but
17:23
Speaker 1: for lamb anyway. Over there in Canada, would you say
17:26
Speaker 1: the mood's still pretty good, though? You say it's good
17:28
Speaker 1: for arable. What about the other sectors?
17:29
Speaker 2: Any idea?
17:31
Speaker 8: So the beef sector usually sinks around September.
17:34
Speaker 3: It usually gets a little lower, a little weaker.
17:37
Speaker 8: It's bounced back up slightly, and it's looking really good.
17:41
Speaker 8: So it's probably going to.
17:42
Speaker 3: Peak, I don't know, January.
17:44
Speaker 8: It's usually when we send the calves to market.
17:48
Speaker 3: Or to the auction.
17:51
Speaker 8: So hopefully that remains true. But the price of steak
17:57
Speaker 8: at a grocery store is definitely higher.
18:00
Speaker 3: You can spend $ 88 a kilogram on porterhouse steak at
18:03
Speaker 3: Costco if you want.
18:05
Speaker 2: And that's Canadian?
18:06
Speaker 3: That's Canadian, yeah.
18:08
Speaker 2: Far out.
18:08
Speaker 1: That's a hell of an increase. Mind you, though, you
18:10
Speaker 1: have talked about these prices in the past. They're pretty
18:12
Speaker 1: big over there.
18:14
Speaker 3: They are pretty big, yes.
18:15
Speaker 4: Yep.
18:17
Speaker 8: And people buy them. I mean, if there was no
18:18
Speaker 8: market for that price, it would still be on the shelf.
18:21
Speaker 8: But they go, so people are still voting with their money,
18:25
Speaker 8: as they say.
18:26
Speaker 1: Is that an issue for the government over there, the
18:28
Speaker 1: cost of living, regarding the price of milk bread, et cetera?
18:31
Speaker 2: Or what's it like?
18:33
Speaker 8: It's not as much of a thing in Canada as
18:36
Speaker 8: I hear about in New Zealand.
18:38
Speaker 3: But it is still a thing.
18:40
Speaker 8: Like, if you are trying to... pay your mortgage and
18:45
Speaker 8: like all the taxes have gone up here or your
18:51
Speaker 8: oh so your stuff in the blank your money you
18:53
Speaker 8: pay the county and whatnot or the council for your
18:57
Speaker 8: taxes and then your electricity and fuel and everything has
19:02
Speaker 8: gone up and obviously the wages haven't matched it but
19:06
Speaker 8: so that's a thing food here isn't going up quite
19:08
Speaker 8: as high as everything sorry as fast as everything else
19:12
Speaker 8: so People aren't really focusing on that as much as
19:14
Speaker 8: they are on rates, et cetera, et cetera. So people
19:19
Speaker 8: aren't as vocal about it here.
19:22
Speaker 1: Greg, what's it like for rural connectivity over there? It's
19:24
Speaker 1: a real concern in New Zealand, as you know about,
19:27
Speaker 1: and it seems to be getting worse.
19:29
Speaker 2: Do you cope pretty well over there? Is the infrastructure sound?
19:34
Speaker 8: My house, I live four kilometres from a town on
19:38
Speaker 8: my five acres and 10 kilometres to another big town
19:41
Speaker 8: about the size of Gore.
19:42
Speaker 3: And if I didn't have Starlink, I would.
19:46
Speaker 8: Have be able to make phone calls etc and text
19:49
Speaker 8: but my cell phone service to trying to look on
19:51
Speaker 8: the internet would be very slow and it's the only
19:54
Speaker 8: real competitive option if you want somewhat fast internet the
19:59
Speaker 8: the service providers here for internet uh they leave a
20:03
Speaker 8: lot to be.
20:04
Speaker 2: Desired what's it like for cell coverage in general.
20:07
Speaker 3: Uh That's not great either. It used to be really good.
20:12
Speaker 8: It used to be really good, and you could go
20:14
Speaker 8: anywhere in Alberta, because I used to drive a truck,
20:16
Speaker 8: and you could go anywhere in Alberta, and you would
20:18
Speaker 8: be fine. And then it started getting worse and worse
20:20
Speaker 8: and worse, and then your phone calls would just drop,
20:22
Speaker 8: and all of a sudden they've just hung up on you.
20:25
Speaker 8: And then you call them back, and they didn't mean
20:26
Speaker 8: to hang up, and it would happen very frequently. So
20:30
Speaker 8: the coverage is very spotty.
20:33
Speaker 1: Sounds very similar to New Zealand, Greg. We'll let you
20:36
Speaker 1: carry on. Happy Thanksgiving. We'll catch up again.
20:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks, Andy. Good to.
20:43
Speaker 4: Chat.
20:44
Speaker 1: Matt Ward is based at Moreton Mains, farming down that way, actually,
20:48
Speaker 1: and catches up with us.
20:49
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Matt. We spoke to you about four weeks ago. Gee,
20:53
Speaker 2: it's a different scenario.
20:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, g'day, Andy. It's incredible, eh, how much we can
20:58
Speaker 4: turn around, or even in the space of 10 days,
21:01
Speaker 4: we're a completely different province now, aren't we? We won't...
21:05
Speaker 4: Can't dwell on the past months too much, but it's
21:09
Speaker 4: a pretty incredible space we're in right at the moment,
21:11
Speaker 4: isn't it?
21:11
Speaker 1: When we spoke to you last time, you were in lambing.
21:15
Speaker 1: It was rough weather. Shit timber, as it's been coined.
21:17
Speaker 1: It's hard to coin the phrase these days. But you've
21:20
Speaker 1: just got to look forward now, and the past 10
21:22
Speaker 1: to 12 days has just shown a lot of respite
21:24
Speaker 1: for the province.
21:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, it has. You look at the woodland pasture growth.
21:31
Speaker 4: Three weeks ago, we were behind the year-to-date pasture growth where... Now, like,
21:35
Speaker 4: give us a good couple of weeks of growth and
21:37
Speaker 4: we're well ahead of it all of a sudden. Just
21:42
Speaker 4: at home here, we've turned a massive corner. We went
21:44
Speaker 4: from being pretty tight looking for places to go to
21:47
Speaker 4: being like, oh, shit, we need to keep moving these
21:49
Speaker 4: ewe lambs around just to keep on top of everything
21:52
Speaker 4: coming away and spread a few cattle around just because
21:56
Speaker 4: it's just bolting. It's absolutely bolting out of the ground. So, no,
21:59
Speaker 4: we're in a pretty good space at the moment.
22:01
Speaker 1: As ridiculous as it sounds, are you having to monitor
22:03
Speaker 1: your grass quality now?
22:06
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say that just yet, but I am very conscious.
22:10
Speaker 4: Like I know here, like at home here, like when
22:13
Speaker 4: it goes, it can really go. So we do keep
22:16
Speaker 4: everything moving around pretty quick. But I've got about 180
22:21
Speaker 4: R1 stairs spread out through everything. So trying to move
22:25
Speaker 4: my ewes and lambs along pretty quickly just to leave
22:27
Speaker 4: enough behind for the kettle that are set stocked. So
22:31
Speaker 4: it seems to work pretty well, but you're getting into– mid-November,
22:34
Speaker 4: then you're all of a sudden looking for more mouths
22:37
Speaker 4: on the ground just to try and keep quality under control.
22:41
Speaker 1: Of course, these are the stairs that have been in
22:42
Speaker 1: that famous wintering shed of yours.
22:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they've done pretty well. I have them out
22:49
Speaker 4: on Italian and Bailidge for the month of September, just
22:52
Speaker 4: while I'm lambing, and they chipped through that. They made
22:55
Speaker 4: a hurrah of a mess. Holy, they made a mess
22:57
Speaker 4: behind the wire, but it sort of worked out well
22:59
Speaker 4: just keeping them out of any lambing paddocks, so now
23:02
Speaker 4: they're set stocked and They just look for an excuse
23:04
Speaker 4: to grow away. They pump along pretty well from now on.
23:08
Speaker 2: How are your gateways looking?
23:11
Speaker 4: Average. We went from being that wet and you'd slide
23:17
Speaker 4: through a gateway in four-wheel drive to now they're that
23:19
Speaker 4: well rutted up that you almost need to slow down
23:22
Speaker 4: so you stop bouncing through them so quickly. But yeah,
23:25
Speaker 4: it's incredible how hard everything's got in the space. But
23:29
Speaker 4: I'll shoot around with a leveller and roller and just
23:31
Speaker 4: tidy a few gateways up and there'll be a bit
23:33
Speaker 4: of rock to go out. But they're all future issues.
23:37
Speaker 4: I'll worry about them when I get a bit of
23:38
Speaker 4: time up my sleeve.
23:39
Speaker 1: As far as the season goes, has this been the
23:41
Speaker 1: most schizophrenic that you've struck? Okay, we're not through it yet,
23:44
Speaker 1: and El Nino is a marathon, not a sprint. We've
23:47
Speaker 1: had that dodgy weather, but we've seen some really good
23:50
Speaker 1: weather over the past couple of weeks.
23:52
Speaker 2: Has it left you confused regarding spring?
23:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, spring in Southland, well, I'm no expert, Andy, but
24:00
Speaker 4: spring in Southland is always pretty changeable, isn't it? And
24:04
Speaker 4: when it goes from one extreme to another like it
24:07
Speaker 4: has at the moment, it is. it does confuse you
24:09
Speaker 4: a wee bit. It's pretty hard to plan for it.
24:12
Speaker 4: You look at the weather that's coming at the end
24:14
Speaker 4: of the week, there's a bit of rain in the forecast,
24:17
Speaker 4: so you've sort of got to make the most out
24:19
Speaker 4: of these good days while they're there, and yeah, just
24:23
Speaker 4: take the good with the bad. But out of anything,
24:25
Speaker 4: I think if we're going to get regular rainfall like
24:27
Speaker 4: we are, like I've been talking, and get the good
24:30
Speaker 4: hot days, we're in for a pretty good bump of season,
24:33
Speaker 4: hopefully grass growth-wise. So that's sort of what I'm trying
24:37
Speaker 4: to plan towards, put the past month in the back
24:40
Speaker 4: of your mind, can't do anything, can't change tailing results
24:43
Speaker 4: or anything like that, so plan for the next few months.
24:46
Speaker 4: If we're going to get a good, growthy season, then, yeah,
24:50
Speaker 4: that's what I'm sort of looking forward to now.
24:52
Speaker 1: So tailing's all done now, just the hoggets to do?
24:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, just, we tailed a couple of Sundays ago, so
24:59
Speaker 4: it's just the Boba Lake ewes, about 120 of them
25:01
Speaker 4: and the hoggets to go, so, yeah, it's, haven't set
25:05
Speaker 4: any records didn't expect to set any records uh so
25:09
Speaker 4: far through the pens being on what i have done
25:12
Speaker 4: for the last two years so it sort of sums
25:14
Speaker 4: up how average it's been but it is quite satisfying
25:18
Speaker 4: um the younger ewes haven't like they've been tailing better
25:22
Speaker 4: and better every year so it just goes to show
25:24
Speaker 4: like breeding program i've sort of got in place is
25:27
Speaker 4: working just trying to um trying to get the ewes
25:30
Speaker 4: to do it for themselves a lot better, trying to
25:33
Speaker 4: push that mothering ability into them and lamb survival into them, um,
25:36
Speaker 4: is paying dividends compared to the older ewes. Like, yeah,
25:39
Speaker 4: some of them are pretty rubbish to be fair. And
25:41
Speaker 4: if you are buying a few, one, about a 201
25:44
Speaker 4: year ewes every year, um, get them and lamb, get
25:47
Speaker 4: the lamb out of them and, uh, kill them at
25:49
Speaker 4: weaning time. And yeah, some of them have been a
25:51
Speaker 4: wee bit average too. So that sort of hurts the
25:54
Speaker 4: lambing percentage a wee bit, but they're, they're just trading
25:57
Speaker 4: stock at the end of the day. So, um, Quite
26:00
Speaker 4: a few of them were wet dries, and they've gone
26:02
Speaker 4: down to the yards and doubled their money in the
26:04
Speaker 4: few months that they've been here. So, yeah, definitely can't
26:06
Speaker 4: complain with them at the moment.
26:08
Speaker 1: Now, your criteria for your wet dries, we spoke last time,
26:12
Speaker 1: you were pretty cut and dried as to what stayed,
26:15
Speaker 1: and if anything had to be touched, it was gone.
26:18
Speaker 2: Has that affected your numbers at all?
26:21
Speaker 4: No, it doesn't, to be honest, Andy. No. I had
26:23
Speaker 4: a pretty good scanning in my hogget, so all of
26:26
Speaker 4: them will stay as replacements, even the wet-drys out of them.
26:30
Speaker 4: I'll put a black tag in there and they'll just
26:32
Speaker 4: go in my terminal flock. And then with those one-year-users
26:36
Speaker 4: that I buy in, they pretty much make up the numbers.
26:40
Speaker 4: If there's any holes in it, then I'll just go
26:41
Speaker 4: and buy a few extra of them. And they just
26:44
Speaker 4: fit my system pretty well. As soon as I came
26:47
Speaker 4: home here, I sort of had in my mind I
26:49
Speaker 4: don't want to carry... my full quota of ewes through
26:52
Speaker 4: the summer. The mulberry ewes are very good, very handy
26:56
Speaker 4: over the summer to keep on top of quality and
27:00
Speaker 4: tidy paddocks up. But there's no need for, well, I
27:04
Speaker 4: don't think there's no need for a place in Watermanes
27:06
Speaker 4: to be carrying 1600 ewes through the summer. It's just
27:08
Speaker 4: good feed going into them. So it's why you have
27:11
Speaker 4: a proportion of one year ewes each year that come
27:13
Speaker 4: in and go straight back out at weaning time and
27:15
Speaker 4: then it just leaves a bit of a hole. through
27:17
Speaker 4: the summer. So yeah, it seems to fit my system
27:20
Speaker 4: not too bad.
27:21
Speaker 1: So the trading system as such works pretty well for you,
27:24
Speaker 1: it's fair to say.
27:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, it does. That does. Like having those ewes go
27:28
Speaker 4: out at weaning time, then all of a sudden it
27:30
Speaker 4: frees up space for some store lambs. I've got, normally
27:35
Speaker 4: try buying a few store lambs each summer and got
27:38
Speaker 4: a couple hundred freezing bull calves at 100 kilos. They'll
27:41
Speaker 4: start turning up in, well I suppose in the next
27:44
Speaker 4: month or so. So it's just trying to But yeah,
27:47
Speaker 4: trying to get a system like it's placed like mine,
27:50
Speaker 4: I personally think should be a full finishing system, full
27:54
Speaker 4: trading system. But I'm quite passionate about my breeding ewes
27:58
Speaker 4: and trying to get them going. So yeah, that's why
28:02
Speaker 4: I've still got a flock running around. But ideally, it
28:05
Speaker 4: would become a finishing system.
28:08
Speaker 1: Based on the spring we've seen, you're not tempted to
28:10
Speaker 1: move your lambing dates?
28:13
Speaker 2: I've been, yes.
28:15
Speaker 4: I have been thinking about if I'd done anything, I'd
28:17
Speaker 4: probably push it back 10 days. And that is solely,
28:21
Speaker 4: when you look at the woodlands pasture growth and like
28:24
Speaker 4: that for a second week in September, like we're still average.
28:27
Speaker 4: Like I still, I think if I push my lambing
28:30
Speaker 4: date even to the 10th of September, got those ewes
28:35
Speaker 4: hitting their peak milk just as that flush of grass
28:38
Speaker 4: is coming through, it would pay dividends. Like I really
28:41
Speaker 4: don't think we'd see a difference at weaning time, even
28:46
Speaker 4: lambing 10 days later, just because that grass is having
28:49
Speaker 4: peaked milk perfectly. So yeah, I would consider it. And yeah,
28:57
Speaker 4: I possibly will do. I wouldn't be around the weather
28:59
Speaker 4: or anything, because if we get a really good September,
29:02
Speaker 4: I don't think you'll hear me complaining about having too
29:05
Speaker 4: much grass, Andy. So yeah, I am definitely considering it.
29:08
Speaker 1: So how far through would your hoggets be?
29:11
Speaker 4: I just started shedding them out this morning. So they
29:15
Speaker 4: got the ram for 23 days. So if my maths
29:17
Speaker 4: is right, it should be Friday. Yeah, this Friday coming
29:21
Speaker 4: should be when the ram came out. So, yeah, I
29:25
Speaker 4: suppose there'll be the odd lamb over the weekend and
29:27
Speaker 4: then they'll be then pretty much tidied up.
29:30
Speaker 1: So you've hit October, labour weekend's not that far away.
29:34
Speaker 1: Are you in a position that you can kind of
29:36
Speaker 1: just kick back a little bit on weekends now or
29:39
Speaker 1: the tractor working?
29:40
Speaker 2: The likes takes precedence?
29:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it's even this weekend just been, to be fair,
29:45
Speaker 4: the Hoggarts, well, they look after, we had rugby cabaret
29:48
Speaker 4: on Saturday night, so Hoggarts looked after themselves on Sunday morning,
29:51
Speaker 4: and we, yeah, we're in a space now where everything's
29:55
Speaker 4: still got everything to do, like track to work and stuff,
29:57
Speaker 4: but Try to prioritise that over the weekend and spend
30:00
Speaker 4: a bit of time with the family on the weekend. Yeah,
30:05
Speaker 4: but there's always stuff to be done, to be fair.
30:08
Speaker 4: We should definitely ease the workload up from now on, hopefully.
30:12
Speaker 2: The farm work is never done, Matt. Always appreciate your time.
30:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you very much for that, Andy. We'll talk
30:16
Speaker 4: to you next time.
30:29
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster as we head over to
30:31
Speaker 1: the UK and catch up with Julie Edwards of Shearwell UK.
30:35
Speaker 1: Now we catch up with Alan McCleary, monthly here on
30:38
Speaker 1: the muster. Well, Julie's based on the other side of
30:40
Speaker 1: the world.
30:41
Speaker 2: The parent company of Shearwell. Good afternoon. Great to catch
30:44
Speaker 2: up once again.
30:46
Speaker 5: Good afternoon, Andy. Nice to talk to you.
30:49
Speaker 1: Last time we spoke to you, it was a very
30:51
Speaker 1: un-English problem having to deal with heat waves.
30:54
Speaker 2: Have you settled into autumn weather yet?
30:58
Speaker 5: Yes, we're getting there, although it's still above average, I think,
31:01
Speaker 5: in terms of temperature. We've had a little bit of rain,
31:04
Speaker 5: but our local reservoir is still very low. We are
31:09
Speaker 5: only 21% full this time of year, and normally we're
31:14
Speaker 5: a lot higher than that. So we're going to need
31:16
Speaker 5: an awful lot of rain to get it to where
31:18
Speaker 5: it needs to be to sustain us. And we really
31:21
Speaker 5: haven't had any significant grass growth since we last spoke, actually. So, yeah,
31:26
Speaker 5: it's certainly had an impact. And, you know, I was
31:30
Speaker 5: reading something yesterday and it said that we had the
31:33
Speaker 5: driest summer since 1884. So, you know, it's significant in
31:38
Speaker 5: terms of the impact that it's had on the landscape.
31:42
Speaker 2: So how's the rural sector coped with the conditions?
31:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, obviously, I think all the animals are
31:49
Speaker 5: performing a lot better now. It's cooler now. You know,
31:53
Speaker 5: and I think at the moment, you know, farmers are
31:55
Speaker 5: pretty optimistic. Prices are good for livestock. The challenge obviously
32:00
Speaker 5: comes in the form of input costs. So things like
32:03
Speaker 5: fertilizer and fuel are escalating on a daily basis, which is,
32:08
Speaker 5: you know, very hard for farmers to then plan because,
32:10
Speaker 5: you know, it doesn't seem to settle at all. And
32:14
Speaker 5: while the ongoing conflicts can continue, it's going to have
32:17
Speaker 5: an impact on farming and The government has just had
32:22
Speaker 5: an open letter sent to it. 180 organisations have signed
32:25
Speaker 5: a letter to the government saying that food security has
32:30
Speaker 5: to be a key consideration in light of what's going
32:34
Speaker 5: on currently around the world and the impact that it's
32:36
Speaker 5: having on the food supply chain, particularly with things like
32:39
Speaker 5: fertiliser and fuel costs for farmers. So, yeah, it's significant.
32:46
Speaker 5: We're just coming to the end of political party conference season. So,
32:51
Speaker 5: you know, everybody's making lots of promises and pledges. And,
32:55
Speaker 5: you know, and certainly the rural sector has had quite
32:58
Speaker 5: a lot of mentions in terms of, you know, if
33:00
Speaker 5: the Conservatives get back into power, they're going to cut
33:03
Speaker 5: things like inheritance tax, which is great news. And they're
33:06
Speaker 5: going to cut red tape and they're going to get
33:08
Speaker 5: rid of some of these other government quangos. But it's
33:13
Speaker 5: easy words. We need to see that put into action
33:15
Speaker 5: if it's going to happen.
33:16
Speaker 2: Government quangos. Interesting. What does that mean?
33:19
Speaker 5: So organizations like the Environment Agency, Natural England, all of
33:25
Speaker 5: the organizations that maybe have some legislative inputs or impacts
33:31
Speaker 5: on particularly for things like farming. So the Environment Agency
33:35
Speaker 5: and Natural England have an impact on how food is
33:38
Speaker 5: produced and how farms are managed over.
33:40
Speaker 1: Here in the U.K., It sounds as though you've got
33:42
Speaker 1: the same issues as New Zealand farmers, fuel issues, fertiliser
33:46
Speaker 1: comes under the equation as well.
33:48
Speaker 2: How are you faring?
33:50
Speaker 5: Well, I think the challenge obviously is just the extremely
33:52
Speaker 5: high prices that farmers are having to pay for fertiliser
33:56
Speaker 5: and just the instability in the market and whether or
34:00
Speaker 5: not it's actually going to be available. The key ingredients
34:04
Speaker 5: that go into different types of fertilisers, are we going
34:07
Speaker 5: to be able to source them at the right time?
34:09
Speaker 5: and obviously be able to apply them to the ground
34:11
Speaker 5: to actually be able to grow crops is the challenge
34:14
Speaker 5: at the moment because of the uncertain times that we
34:18
Speaker 5: are facing with what's going on in the Straits of Hormuz,
34:24
Speaker 5: with Russia and Ukraine. It all has huge impacts and
34:29
Speaker 5: obviously has a financial impact on farming businesses, but also
34:32
Speaker 5: the supply chain sector as well.
34:35
Speaker 1: Your fuel price is over $ 4 New Zealand a litre.
34:38
Speaker 1: Even equated back, it's still pretty dear for what you're
34:41
Speaker 1: used to. But I mean, are farmers able to get
34:44
Speaker 1: a supply of fuel going forward, perhaps like America? They're
34:47
Speaker 1: allowing red dye fuel to go on the roads.
34:51
Speaker 5: It hasn't been sanctioned yet. But I think if things
34:55
Speaker 5: continue the way they are, we may see that happen.
34:57
Speaker 5: But no, not at the moment. But certainly people are
35:00
Speaker 5: having to plan ahead. But I think, you know, they
35:02
Speaker 5: are getting quite a shock when they're phoning out to
35:04
Speaker 5: get quotes for their fuel. It's quite a challenge.
35:08
Speaker 1: The mood of the sector after a dry summer, though,
35:11
Speaker 1: is there a bit of fear heading into the winter months?
35:13
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds very similar to New Zealand six
35:15
Speaker 1: months ago.
35:15
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, you know, given everything that's going on,
35:19
Speaker 5: there is, I would say, a mood of confidence. You know,
35:25
Speaker 5: things like prices for cattle and for sheep are very good, so.
35:31
Speaker 5: With store cattle, steers and heifers, anything between 12 and
35:34
Speaker 5: 24 months, you know, the really good stuff is making
35:38
Speaker 5: sort of over £ 2, 000 a head. That's 12 to 24-month
35:40
Speaker 5: steers and heifers. Anything from £ 1, 500 to £ 2, 400 a head.
35:42
Speaker 5: Stuckled calves between 8 and 11 months, you know, they're
35:44
Speaker 5: up around £ 1, 800. And prime steers, you know, they're... they're
35:58
Speaker 5: well over 360 pence a kilo. So, you know, good prices.
36:02
Speaker 5: Prime lambs are 331 pence plus a kilo. Coal ewes
36:08
Speaker 5: are still selling well. And breeding stock, you know, there's
36:11
Speaker 5: still a keen interest in them and actually even stronger
36:16
Speaker 5: than last year in terms of price and people wanting
36:19
Speaker 5: to buy them. So the breeding sales this autumn have
36:22
Speaker 5: gone really well for people.
36:24
Speaker 2: Is there such a thing as a wool market.
36:26
Speaker 6: In the UK?
36:28
Speaker 5: Yeah, we do have a wool market, yeah. Yeah, the
36:31
Speaker 5: wool board. I think there are a number of other
36:34
Speaker 5: buyers as well now, but the British Wool Marketing Board
36:37
Speaker 5: is still here.
36:39
Speaker 1: It's pretty much a by-product for a lot of people.
36:41
Speaker 1: I was over there, jeez, 25 years ago now, and
36:45
Speaker 1: more or less just got dumped.
36:46
Speaker 2: In the hole.
36:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's certainly there hasn't really been any value attached
36:52
Speaker 5: to wool, which is shameful, really, given, you know, all
36:56
Speaker 5: of the properties that wool provides. I don't think people
36:59
Speaker 5: have really valued it in the way that it should
37:01
Speaker 5: have been valued. You know, I can always remember my
37:04
Speaker 5: dad saying that, you know, the wool check paid for
37:07
Speaker 5: the shearing plus a bit more, whereas now it's rising again,
37:11
Speaker 5: but it still doesn't cover, you know, it's minimal amount
37:15
Speaker 5: of money that we get for our wool. But, you know,
37:19
Speaker 5: they are, the World Marketing Board are raising their game
37:24
Speaker 5: in terms of the marketing and promotion that they're doing with,
37:27
Speaker 5: you know, products, things like clothing, working with fashion designers.
37:32
Speaker 5: You know, it's going into making duvets and carpets and
37:36
Speaker 5: stuff like that. So, you know, it's. I think there's
37:38
Speaker 5: a big push because people do recognise the benefits of
37:41
Speaker 5: the fact that it's a natural product. You know, it's
37:45
Speaker 5: much better than a synthetic product, but I think it's
37:47
Speaker 5: still got a lot of work to do to build
37:50
Speaker 5: its provenance and prominence back in the market.
37:52
Speaker 2: And how's everything going with Shearwell over there?
37:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, very good. Yeah, in terms of sales in the UK,
38:00
Speaker 5: obviously it's been a busy time with the slaughter tax,
38:04
Speaker 5: for lambs and also with calving now we're selling a
38:07
Speaker 5: lot of tags for the cows and the calves that
38:10
Speaker 5: are coming through um the guys in new zealand so
38:14
Speaker 5: ray ben and al are doing a phenomenal job as
38:17
Speaker 5: always so it would be remiss of me not to
38:19
Speaker 5: mention them um you know they they're having a cracking
38:22
Speaker 5: time that obviously have had with the sale of sheep
38:25
Speaker 5: tags but obviously as well with the cattle tags that
38:27
Speaker 5: we sell so the one piece s tags um they
38:31
Speaker 5: they seem to be um increasing in popularity, but also
38:34
Speaker 5: our boss tags, the two-piece tag for cattle. The guys
38:38
Speaker 5: are selling an increasing amount of those. So, yeah, they're
38:40
Speaker 5: doing a great job and working hard as always. So, yeah,
38:44
Speaker 5: a big thanks to them and to everybody that's buying them, really.
38:47
Speaker 5: So thank you.
38:49
Speaker 2: The cattle tags have been a welcome addition.
38:51
Speaker 7: Yes.
38:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely. And I think, you know, Shewell, I guess,
38:56
Speaker 5: has been known for its sheep tags, probably not so
38:58
Speaker 5: much for its cattle tags. But, you know, we have
39:00
Speaker 5: a good product. And very much like the sheep tags,
39:03
Speaker 5: you know, they are a good quality product and we
39:06
Speaker 5: do them in a range of colours. And I think
39:08
Speaker 5: they're well positioned in terms of price. So, yes, if
39:11
Speaker 5: people do want more information, then don't hesitate to get
39:14
Speaker 5: in contact with the guys and they'll be able to
39:17
Speaker 5: help you.
39:18
Speaker 2: Good on you, Julie. Always good to catch up.
39:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, likewise, Andy. Lovely talking to you.
39:35
Speaker 1: Simon Quilty of Global Ag Trends gets us underway this
39:39
Speaker 1: afternoon on the muster. A few of you were up
39:42
Speaker 1: at the Beef and Lamb Out the Gate conference recently.
39:44
Speaker 1: Simon spoke there. We've spoken to him previously on the show,
39:48
Speaker 1: just trying to get an indication of what the red
39:50
Speaker 1: meat pricing is going to do for the season.
39:53
Speaker 2: Simon, good afternoon. A lot of buoyancy around pricing in
39:57
Speaker 2: the red meat sector at the moment. What's your take?
40:00
Speaker 7: Yeah, Andy, I think the momentum continues from when we
40:04
Speaker 7: caught up earlier in this year, March, April, but also
40:08
Speaker 7: when I was in New Zealand the week before last
40:11
Speaker 7: and the message is that this continues. If I was
40:16
Speaker 7: to best describe where we're heading on lamb, the word
40:20
Speaker 7: rinse or the words rinse and repeat, Andy, is what
40:25
Speaker 7: I like to say. is that next year is going
40:29
Speaker 7: to be very, very similar to this year in terms
40:31
Speaker 7: of how buoyant prices are.
40:34
Speaker 1: Is this due to the global situation and people wanting
40:36
Speaker 1: red meat?
40:37
Speaker 7: I think it's a combination of supply and demand that
40:42
Speaker 7: supply out of Australia, Andy, next year is going to
40:47
Speaker 7: be very, very tight. I see the lamb kill going
40:51
Speaker 7: below $ 20 million for the first time in probably a
40:55
Speaker 7: decade or more And also, you know, there's no real
41:00
Speaker 7: signs of rebuild within New Zealand. You know, your breeding
41:04
Speaker 7: new numbers are down 1.9%. The mutton kill is down
41:11
Speaker 7: a fraction of 0.8% for the season. But overall, there's
41:15
Speaker 7: no clear message that numbers are building. And with tight
41:19
Speaker 7: Australian supplies, tight New Zealand supplies, it points to higher
41:24
Speaker 7: prices with good demand.
41:26
Speaker 1: Okay, Simon, based on that, what can we expect for
41:29
Speaker 1: a kilo of lamb this season?
41:32
Speaker 7: Well, I think, Andy, the highs at $ 12. 50 may have
41:37
Speaker 7: come in, but I've got the trading range going between
41:43
Speaker 7: really $ 10. 90 to $ 11 to $ 12.
41:44
Speaker 3: 50.
41:44
Speaker 7: The thing I'm watching closely, Andy, is... the findings that
41:55
Speaker 7: are to be handed down in November on this inquiry
41:59
Speaker 7: into tariffs on lamb in North America. So they're looking
42:05
Speaker 7: at whether damage has been done to the U.S. domestic industry.
42:10
Speaker 7: This has been done by the USTR, which is the U.S.
42:15
Speaker 7: Trade Representative, and they've put together a recommendation to the U.S.
42:21
Speaker 7: International Trade Commission. If that's not a mouthful, I don't
42:24
Speaker 7: know what is. And Andy, those findings, they're doing a
42:30
Speaker 7: study at the moment. They're getting interested parties to give
42:35
Speaker 7: testimony to that to prove whether there's been serious injury
42:41
Speaker 7: or not to the U.S. domestic lamb industry over the
42:44
Speaker 7: last two to three years. Andy, the clear answer is no.
42:49
Speaker 7: Imported has not damaged it. But in this current environment
42:53
Speaker 7: under the Trump administration, you and I can't guarantee anything.
42:59
Speaker 7: So they are pushing hard, the American Sheep Industry Association
43:04
Speaker 7: and ARCAF, for a 30% tariff. So we'll find out
43:09
Speaker 7: in a month's time whether that comes to fruition. I
43:13
Speaker 7: hope not. If it does, it may dampen some of
43:16
Speaker 7: the pricing we're talking about.
43:19
Speaker 2: Will we be able to absorb this tariff from the US?
43:23
Speaker 7: So here's my experience of these type of things in
43:27
Speaker 7: the past. And Andy, I'm a meat trader of 35 years. So,
43:32
Speaker 7: you know, it's probably based on experience that I speak here.
43:38
Speaker 7: But what happens normally is that when supply is tight,
43:43
Speaker 7: as it is, we tend to be able to pass
43:46
Speaker 7: these costs forward. to the importer and consumer in America.
43:51
Speaker 7: But once numbers start to appear in Australia and New Zealand,
43:58
Speaker 7: these costs get passed back. And so the producer eventually
44:03
Speaker 7: wears it. So I think in 2027, the numbers will
44:10
Speaker 7: still be tight. I'm probably concerned about 2028, 2029, when
44:16
Speaker 7: the numbers start to eventually pick up in supply from
44:19
Speaker 7: both countries, and that's when, if this tariff is in place,
44:24
Speaker 7: it starts to have an impact on pricing.
44:27
Speaker 2: Let's look at cattle.
44:29
Speaker 1: Now, over in the US at the moment, the screwworm
44:31
Speaker 1: situation's occurring in Texas. Tariff-free quotas have been introduced by
44:37
Speaker 1: President Trump.
44:38
Speaker 2: How's this going to affect New Zealand beef?
44:41
Speaker 4: Sure.
44:42
Speaker 7: So let's start with the New World screwworms. So the
44:45
Speaker 7: border has been opened between Mexico and the U.S. at
44:50
Speaker 7: Douglas is the port of entry. And it's pretty small.
44:56
Speaker 7: They've got one, you might say, port open. The amount
45:02
Speaker 7: coming through is about 0.3% of production influencing in America.
45:10
Speaker 7: When the borders are normally open, Mexico supplies about 5%
45:15
Speaker 7: of US production overall. Best case scenario that some of
45:20
Speaker 7: the borders open this year and next, it's about 2%
45:24
Speaker 7: we're estimating at global agri-trends. Andy, I'm not worried about 2%.
45:30
Speaker 7: I think that it's very manageable and the influence on
45:35
Speaker 7: pricing for imported beef will be minimal. So, On the
45:41
Speaker 7: screwworm front, I think the concern about the given access
45:48
Speaker 7: of 300,000 tons by President Trump for a 90-day window
45:56
Speaker 7: is probably.
45:57
Speaker 4: A bigger deal.
45:59
Speaker 7: So just for what it's worth, let's reiterate, this was
46:02
Speaker 7: put in place in August in which Donald Trump announced
46:07
Speaker 7: 300,000 tons of out-of-quota tariff would be enabled to come in.
46:13
Speaker 7: So that would be for September, October, November. In his wording, Andy,
46:19
Speaker 7: if I could just repeat it, this beef will be
46:22
Speaker 7: sold at 25% below current prices. This deal will reduce
46:29
Speaker 7: prices for Americans while giving space for our great American
46:34
Speaker 7: beef herd to grow again. So, Andy, on so many levels,
46:39
Speaker 7: this is wrong. it will not enable the beef herd
46:44
Speaker 7: to grow. This actually saw prices for both cattle and
46:49
Speaker 7: boxed beef in America fall, not enough to the 25%,
46:55
Speaker 7: but if you're going to grow that herd again in America, Andy,
46:58
Speaker 7: you need higher cattle prices, not lower cattle prices. And
47:03
Speaker 7: the ability to measure that this will be 25% below market,
47:08
Speaker 7: current market price as well, That just doesn't exist, the
47:13
Speaker 7: ability to do that. So, Andy, I think that the
47:18
Speaker 7: president introduced this as a knee-jerk reaction. I don't think
47:24
Speaker 7: it works. But what's going to happen is during that
47:29
Speaker 7: three-month period, there will be an increase of Brazilian beef
47:34
Speaker 7: because they're the only ones that had the ability to
47:37
Speaker 7: respond to this.
47:39
Speaker 5: Paraguay.
47:40
Speaker 7: to a lesser extent. But our estimates are that we'll
47:45
Speaker 7: probably see an additional 130,000 tons come into America from
47:53
Speaker 7: Brazil over that three-month window. So that has lowered imported prices,
48:00
Speaker 7: but not by 25%, nowhere near it. And we've now
48:05
Speaker 7: seen those prices stabilise And I'm expecting that we'll start
48:10
Speaker 7: to see prices actually improve moving forward. So, Andy, there
48:16
Speaker 7: is a concern. I think the worst is over. I
48:20
Speaker 7: think that it's a short-term fix. I think there'll be
48:25
Speaker 7: some pushback, particularly if the mid-term November elections don't go
48:31
Speaker 7: Donald Trump's way.
48:34
Speaker 2: So where do you see the price of beef in
48:35
Speaker 2: New Zealand going to?
48:39
Speaker 7: Andy, I like where it's heading. And to be honest,
48:42
Speaker 7: I see steer prices moving higher. So if we go
48:46
Speaker 7: back to our forecast that we started our chat on,
48:51
Speaker 7: you know, I was at 9.50 and my forecast had
48:56
Speaker 7: for the middle of next year to go to 10.50. Andy,
49:01
Speaker 7: I think New Zealand will do that. So I see
49:05
Speaker 7: prices peaking in May, June next year. at about $ 10. 50
49:11
Speaker 7: in New Zealand. That, I think, will be the high
49:16
Speaker 7: over the next few years. We start to pull back
49:19
Speaker 7: from there. nothing too dramatic. But, Andy, no, there's still,
49:25
Speaker 7: I think, a little bit more upside to be had
49:27
Speaker 7: in this market.
49:33
Speaker 1: Simon Quilty there, sharing the good news around the red
49:36
Speaker 1: meat sector.
49:37
Speaker 2: That's us over in Dunworth.
49:39
Speaker 1: I'm Andy Muir, the best of the mustard proudly brought
49:41
Speaker 1: to you by the Gopher. Enjoy your weekend and we'll
49:44
Speaker 1: see you Monday at one o'clock.