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The Muster-Peter Gardyne: Sorting Drenching Programmes · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This interview is brought to you by AgriCenter South, your
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: strength on the land. For farm machinery sales, service, parts
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and advice, see them in Gore, Cromwell, Lawnville or Milton.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Peter Gardine farms in Natdale and joins us once again
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: on this beautiful afternoon in the Deep South. G'day, Pete.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: There's another cracker down here, isn't it? After the September,
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  Speaker 2: it's all been long forgot by now, I reckon.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: So how are you coping out there? You'll have pretty
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: good feed levels, I'd imagine.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, stock are doing really well. It was a bit
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  Speaker 2: lean in September, but I've bounced back and I've bred
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  Speaker 2: to do that. And all our oats are up out
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  Speaker 2: of the ground, barley's up out of the ground, summer
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  Speaker 2: crops up out of the ground, and peas and beet
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  Speaker 2: are going in, hopefully before the weekend is the plan.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Lots of drenching on lamb, drenching on ewes for lambs
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  Speaker 1: and the likes. Is that coming up shortly for you guys?
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  Speaker 1: Do you do that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an interesting one. We've actually stopped that on
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  Speaker 2: some of our country. Where we get less rainfall and
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  Speaker 2: because of the breeding we've been doing, we've actually been
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  Speaker 2: able to stop drenching on mum for some of our stock.
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  Speaker 2: And it's actually led to an increase in weaning weights,
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  Speaker 2: which I don't know if that's a coincidence or not,
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  Speaker 2: but I do wonder whether not bringing them in and
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  Speaker 2: out and mismothering them is actually a good thing. But
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  Speaker 2: on the least ground where it's heavier country, we do
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  Speaker 2: drench on mum down there. So, yeah, it is. The
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  Speaker 2: only thing, if you don't drench on mum, you've got
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  Speaker 2: to mouth another at weaning, which is a busy job
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  Speaker 2: on a busy day. But, man, it's great not doing
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  Speaker 2: that anymore on some of our country.
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  Speaker 1: Drench resistance, is that something to consider?
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  Speaker 2: Drench resistance is something to consider, but for us it's
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  Speaker 2: actually just fecal egg counts, and if we don't have
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  Speaker 2: a need to do it, we just don't do it. And, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's great because you reduce potential drench resistance and you also...
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  Speaker 2: reduce cost and you reduce what everybody knows is a
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  Speaker 2: lot of work.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's a massive issue, and by the sounds of it,
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  Speaker 1: it's just getting worse too. So people trying to formulate
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  Speaker 1: a plan, if they found out last season that it
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  Speaker 1: was something to contemplate and trying to work with the
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  Speaker 1: dredge families as good as you can, it can get
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  Speaker 1: rather complicated, I suppose.
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  Speaker 2: And I know this is like, I'm going to sound
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  Speaker 2: like a silly stud breeder, But genetics is a big
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  Speaker 2: part to play on it, and even for us commercially,
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  Speaker 2: I started on this 20 years ago, becoming less drenched dependent,
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  Speaker 2: and I just strongly recommend everybody looks at that as
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  Speaker 2: an avenue in their system if they want to keep
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  Speaker 2: farming sheep into the future.
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  Speaker 1: Well, not that many years ago. You drenched every three weeks,
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  Speaker 1: every 21 days regardless.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a wee bit before my time, and
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  Speaker 2: I'm lucky that when I came home, we're on 28 days,
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  Speaker 2: four weeks, and I'm lucky I was brought up in
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  Speaker 2: a family that was pretty responsible around their drenching, and
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  Speaker 2: I really took to it pretty hard when I started
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  Speaker 2: 20 years ago to drenching less and not using out
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  Speaker 2: long-acting products. And, man, we've seen a huge, huge benefit
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  Speaker 2: from what we've done. But, you know, 20 years doesn't
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  Speaker 2: happen overnight.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. I remember you classifying me as an old farmer.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah yeah no judgment no judgment here but um
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  Speaker 2: yeah that's yeah and i think there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: things people can do on that front um if they've
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  Speaker 2: got light tutus just black tag the lightest ones in
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  Speaker 2: the autumn because that'll be a drench issue and just
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  Speaker 2: put them to a terminal ram and and same sort
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  Speaker 2: of thing don't use long acting drenches you don't need
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  Speaker 2: them um they're just a scam.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah you reckon there's no there's no truth behind what
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  Speaker 1: they're trying to achieve.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they can work in certain situations, but if you're
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  Speaker 2: in a situation where you need them, I'd actually say
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  Speaker 2: that your system's wrong. Part of an organisation I'm part of,
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  Speaker 2: we've dropped long-acting drenches on that farm this year because
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  Speaker 2: a farm has just taken over, and so far we've
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  Speaker 2: saved the property about $ 20, 000, and the results look pretty
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  Speaker 2: good so far.
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  Speaker 1: So as we get into November proper, you'd say the
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  Speaker 1: positives are there. A lot of the positivity's returned after September.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a certain stock agent that you know
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  Speaker 2: quite well talking to me a couple of weeks ago,
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  Speaker 2: and he had a farmer complaining to him that it
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  Speaker 2: was already starting to get dry. And my response to
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  Speaker 2: him was, if the farmer's like that, man, I'd hate
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  Speaker 2: to be his wife. Like, there's a lot of positivity
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  Speaker 2: out there, and if you focus on the positive, it's
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  Speaker 2: pretty blimmin' awesome. Like I said, I've been in this
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  Speaker 2: career for 20 years, and this is probably the most
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  Speaker 2: fun that it's been for me so far.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a fair assessment, though. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of people get nervous mid-October onwards regarding rainfall, and especially
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  Speaker 1: from now on, Pete, any moisture they get, they take,
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  Speaker 1: because summer is an unknown quantity.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I know, but I'm in that, and we're in
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  Speaker 2: that boat ourselves. If anybody knows where the Pyramid Hill
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  Speaker 2: is on the east side of Riversdale, I mean, there's
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  Speaker 2: not too much drier than that around, and that's us.
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  Speaker 1: But.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we've just had a wet September, and if
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  Speaker 2: you're always focusing on the negatives, it's not good for
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  Speaker 2: your mindset, and it's not good for your, I suppose
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  Speaker 2: you'd call it, your mental well-being these days. And, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I think there's so many positives out there that you've
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  Speaker 2: just got to focus on the positives and what you
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  Speaker 2: can control. Man, I hate saying that, but it's just
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  Speaker 2: so true.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it's a saying that is controlling the controllables,
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  Speaker 1: and it sounds like a lot of rhetoric bollocks for
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  Speaker 1: what's of another saying, but it's pretty relevant.
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  Speaker 2: It is, and that's one of the things I'd say
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  Speaker 2: to people is, like, at the moment I'm at that
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  Speaker 2: clearing sale at Riversdale, and I don't have anything here
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  Speaker 2: I'm particularly worried about buying, but it's actually just good
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  Speaker 2: to get off the tractor and go and see some
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  Speaker 2: people and have some yarns and have a sausage on
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  Speaker 2: the barbecue and all that sort of thing. And, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I started the tractor at 5 o'clock this morning and
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  Speaker 2: I'll be sowing peas late into the night. So, like,
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  Speaker 2: I'm still getting work done, but I'm prioritising going and
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  Speaker 2: having a yarn with people I know and all that
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  Speaker 2: sort of thing. And I think that's important, especially if
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: you're working on your own.
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  Speaker 1: Are you not tempted to buy another bit of kit,
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  Speaker 1: just take it home on a whim? That's what clearing
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  Speaker 1: sales do.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's the wrong colour for me here, actually.
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  Speaker 2: Wrong colour for me here, but, no, we'll see what happens. But, yeah, no, we're...
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  Speaker 2: We'll see what happens, but no, just, I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: clearing sales, I'm not a, I don't go to every one,
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  Speaker 2: but if they're local and there hasn't been one for
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  Speaker 2: a while, I'm keen to go along and see some
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  Speaker 2: people and, yeah, have a change of scenery, eh?
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  Speaker 1: The greatest thing about the clearing sale, the most disturbing,
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  Speaker 1: is you go and spend $ 35 on a big bag
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  Speaker 1: of tools or a big box of bolts and that
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  Speaker 1: just for one bolt that you might use, say, in 2035.
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  Speaker 2: So our neighbour, who we've mentioned before on this one
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  Speaker 2: as well, he's a clearing sale classic. And when the
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  Speaker 2: McNab sale was on, he used to tell me that
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  Speaker 2: he'd buy the box with the thing he wanted and
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  Speaker 2: then repackage the rest of it and take it back
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  Speaker 2: to the McNab sale and then get rid of it again.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, so that is. I enjoy the theatre and
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  Speaker 2: the spectacle of a clearing sale too. It is a
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  Speaker 2: fun occasion.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. It's like the auctioneers. I mean, I'm speaking to
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  Speaker 1: Mick Withers shortly, who was involved with one of the
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  Speaker 1: organisers of the Young Auctioneer of the Year. And that's
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  Speaker 1: certainly an art form as well, and just watch them
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  Speaker 1: go about their work. It's one thing for these stockies,
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  Speaker 1: you know. You've got to be able to sell a product.
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  Speaker 2: And a good auctioneer can really sell stock for more,
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  Speaker 2: and they can really get the most out of the crowd.
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  Speaker 2: And it is very much an art form. And the
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  Speaker 2: good ones are just great to watch, eh?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Good on you, Pete. We'll let you carry
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  Speaker 1: on tyre-kicking. Don't go and buy an extra plough or anything.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, I'll try and just stick to the sausage
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  Speaker 2: in the paddy at lunchtime, eh?
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  Speaker 1: Peter Gardine of Napdal. Always good to catch up. Beautiful
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  Speaker 1: afternoon outside as well. Long may this weather continue. Just
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  Speaker 1: with the right amount of moisture. It's all we want
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: in Southland, right? Clare Thudenberg's up next from Beef and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Lab New Zealand. You are listening to The Muster. Next stop, Chateau.