Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster Full Show: 19/10/26

Transcript

The Muster Full Show: 19/10/26 · The Muster on Hokonui

0:03
Speaker 1: Good afternoon and welcome to the muster on Hokonui. Andy
0:07
Speaker 1: Muir here and the show is brought to you by
0:09
Speaker 1: Peters Genetics. Welcome to Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
0:14
Speaker 1: A massive one on the sporting front. We're going to
0:17
Speaker 1: go through and digest what occurred over the weekend with
0:20
Speaker 1: Logan Savory, the Southland Tribune, later in the hour. But
0:23
Speaker 1: on the All Blacks, that first half against the Wallabies.
0:26
Speaker 1: If you take the previous 40 minutes against the Wallabies
0:29
Speaker 1: that the ABs produced last week as well, dominant, dominant
0:33
Speaker 1: halves of rugby. And, I don't know, you think back
0:37
Speaker 1: to perfect All Blacks performances, and I'm reminiscing here, but
0:40
Speaker 1: 1996 at Athletic Park in the wet. and the Martin
0:43
Speaker 1: Justin Marshall and Jonah Lomri to the fore, and just
0:46
Speaker 1: they pulverised the Aussies that day, and it was a
0:48
Speaker 1: good Aussie side as well. But, yeah, the Wallabies, not
0:52
Speaker 1: really where they want to be a year out from
0:53
Speaker 1: the World Cup in their own backyard. They've got some
0:55
Speaker 1: good players coming over from league, but time will tell
0:58
Speaker 1: to see how they fare. Anyway, we carry on. The
1:01
Speaker 1: music today is Queen, Garth Shanks. You'll be happy.
1:05
Speaker 2: MUSIC PLAYS.
1:09
Speaker 1: Hakanui's five-day forecast with Twin Farm, Tehran and Softex. The
1:14
Speaker 1: proof is in the progeny. This afternoon, light rain developing
1:19
Speaker 1: with breezy westerlies and a high of 17. Tuesday, sunshine.
1:23
Speaker 1: That's what we like to hear with breezy westerlies, 9
1:26
Speaker 1: and 19. Wednesday, rinse and repeat. Sunny with breezy norwesterlies,
1:30
Speaker 1: 12 and 20. Thursday, cloudy with breezy westerlies, 9 and 19.
1:35
Speaker 1: And Friday, sunshine with breezy norwesterlies, 10 and 22. That's
1:39
Speaker 1: not bad. Soil temperatures, Clinton 10.4. Ditto hairy at northern
1:44
Speaker 1: south and 12. Riverton 12.4. Te Anau 11.4, Titiroa 12.1,
1:49
Speaker 1: Winton 11.5. Woodland's coming in at 10.8. Andy Dennis, farming
1:55
Speaker 1: at Matapori, starts us off in the Sgt Dan Farming Roundup.
1:58
Speaker 1: Riley Kennedy of Business Desk talking politics on a Monday
2:02
Speaker 1: as well. Quite a bit going on there. in the
2:05
Speaker 1: local landscape, if we're perfectly honest. Simon Hopcroft of Southland
2:09
Speaker 1: Rural Support Trust. Now, we've teamed up with the Rural
2:11
Speaker 1: Support Trust as we did last year. Simon's going to
2:15
Speaker 1: come on today and just give us a bit of
2:17
Speaker 1: an intro interview, I suppose, about the Rural Support Trust
2:20
Speaker 1: and what their function is down here, especially in the
2:23
Speaker 1: south with the weather we've experienced today. Then we're away
2:26
Speaker 1: to Braston, Tom O'Brien, our correspondent based up in Upper
2:31
Speaker 1: Northern Southland, and then, like I say, Sav from the
2:33
Speaker 1: Southland Tribune, looking at a big weekend of sport. The Northlands,
2:36
Speaker 1: honey far. What would they be paying at the tab
2:38
Speaker 1: at the start of the year to win the MPC?
2:41
Speaker 1: One game and we find out. Anyway, let's start the
2:44
Speaker 1: hour next with Andy Dennis. Seven after one. MUSIC Andy
2:59
Speaker 1: Dennis farms at Manapōuri and joins us in the Sgt
3:03
Speaker 1: Dan Farming Roundup. Thanks to Sgt Dan, Stock Foods is
3:05
Speaker 1: based here in Gore where we catch up with various
3:08
Speaker 1: farmers around the southern region and different operations. Kaka, good afternoon. Yeah, good.
3:13
Speaker 3: How's things? Everything's ticking away right over in Gore?
3:17
Speaker 1: It seems to be. I mean, we've got through September
3:20
Speaker 1: and October means onwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:24
Speaker 3: Oh, things must have come right for you. It sounded
3:27
Speaker 3: pretty awful there earlier on, but hopefully you've had the
3:30
Speaker 3: sort of, well, it must be 10 or 15 days
3:32
Speaker 3: of sun and a bit of wind to dry things
3:34
Speaker 3: out like we have up.
3:35
Speaker 1: Here, yeah. So you got through lambing okay? Is still
3:38
Speaker 1: the hoggets to go and it's knocked on the head
3:40
Speaker 1: for another year? Probably not the best phrase to use
3:42
Speaker 1: around lambing, but anyway.
3:44
Speaker 3: No, it's, yeah, the terminals, we tailed them last week.
3:49
Speaker 3: They did 140, so that's good to ram, and then... Yeah,
3:53
Speaker 3: that usually means we're going to be right. And, yeah,
3:55
Speaker 3: the mixed-age and tutus are done at the end of
3:57
Speaker 3: this week, and there seems to be plenty of lambs.
3:59
Speaker 3: So they had a pretty good run of it, actually,
4:01
Speaker 3: compared to the earlies. And, yeah, hoggets are just finishing off.
4:05
Speaker 3: We're sort of finding they were a bit later to
4:09
Speaker 3: the ram in the cycle, so there's still quite a
4:12
Speaker 3: lot to go, which is unusual for them. Usually they're
4:14
Speaker 3: a bit earlier. So there's a few there that have
4:17
Speaker 3: been on some pretty good feed for a bit longer than...
4:20
Speaker 3: intended and um yeah we're just pulling a few and
4:23
Speaker 3: bits and pieces so yeah but um hopefully yeah another
4:26
Speaker 3: week and they'll be done too so yeah we can
4:29
Speaker 3: start moving on with other jobs which we could yeah
4:31
Speaker 3: how's your feed looking there no we're looking pretty good
4:34
Speaker 3: looking really good compared to the last few where the
4:37
Speaker 3: springs were looking real good um no there's yeah there's
4:41
Speaker 3: a wee bit tight in spots just some of the
4:43
Speaker 3: paddocks got a wee bit down on covers but um Yeah,
4:46
Speaker 3: a few shuffles around, you can make things happen. So, yeah,
4:49
Speaker 3: it'll be good to get these sheep tailed up this weekend.
4:51
Speaker 3: We can do the same on this side and just
4:54
Speaker 3: create a bit more room or shut some paddocks up
4:56
Speaker 3: for bailage or, yeah, even take some stuff out for
5:00
Speaker 3: sweet ground a wee bit earlier, which will be nice. But, no,
5:03
Speaker 3: we're looking pretty good, really, yeah.
5:05
Speaker 1: Do you tail yourselves or get a gang in?
5:07
Speaker 3: A gang comes in, yeah. Carl Tomer comes up from Matara, so, yeah.
5:12
Speaker 3: Always good, good crew, and, yeah, it doesn't take long
5:15
Speaker 3: these days, but it sort of saves us a week,
5:18
Speaker 3: so I just work on that philosophy. It's a week
5:20
Speaker 3: doing track and work instead of a week doing tailing, yeah.
5:23
Speaker 1: So, like, to your contractor, how far behind the eight
5:25
Speaker 1: ball is he compared to other seasons?
5:28
Speaker 3: I think he's only three or four days, and, like,
5:31
Speaker 3: he was here 10 days ago. He could have even
5:33
Speaker 3: caught that up by now. Yeah, because I'd say he's
5:36
Speaker 3: had a pretty good run, whereas I think the last
5:38
Speaker 3: two years he could have been up to sort of
5:41
Speaker 3: you know, five or six, even 10 days behind where
5:44
Speaker 3: he usually was. Yeah. So, I think, I think a
5:49
Speaker 3: few round wind them and Matara and that just pushed
5:51
Speaker 3: them back 10 days just to let things dry out. And, and, yeah,
5:56
Speaker 3: just so the lambs weren't so bloody muddy and a
5:59
Speaker 3: bit tough on them. So I think he actually come
6:02
Speaker 3: and done us a wee bit earlier, went elsewhere and
6:04
Speaker 3: then went back and done them. So he would have
6:06
Speaker 3: had bigger lambs there, but, um, Yeah, it's no good
6:10
Speaker 3: tailing in the wet. You just knock stuff around, yeah.
6:13
Speaker 1: Have you had the tractor out yet?
6:15
Speaker 4: Yes, yep.
6:16
Speaker 3: We've been around and ripped everything that needs ripping, and
6:20
Speaker 3: we had the dish sign used on our first one,
6:22
Speaker 3: and I'm following up now. Yeah, we'll get the rest
6:24
Speaker 3: of the day in, and that'll be half of the
6:26
Speaker 3: sort of young grass dished up, which will be lovely. Yeah,
6:29
Speaker 3: it's a good feeling.
6:30
Speaker 1: How many acres or hectares have you got to work
6:32
Speaker 1: up then?
6:33
Speaker 3: Oh, we generally sort of 30 hectares of young grass,
6:36
Speaker 3: and then 30 hectares... Swedes to Kale second year, and
6:40
Speaker 3: then 30 hectares direct drilled into Swedes, so it's pretty straightforward.
6:46
Speaker 1: So by the sounds of it, everybody in the basins
6:48
Speaker 1: cope pretty good with the conditions?
6:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't sort of caught up too many, but
6:53
Speaker 3: I was jacking to a chap on the phone the
6:57
Speaker 3: other night, and he's sort of similar to me. He
7:00
Speaker 3: goes a bit earlier, and he got tight the same
7:04
Speaker 3: as me, sort of. early September, but now it's bounding away,
7:07
Speaker 3: and you said the same thing, it's a whole lot
7:10
Speaker 3: better than the last three, so no, I think most
7:13
Speaker 3: of us are through now, and yeah, just starting to
7:17
Speaker 3: crank into some stuff, and yeah, it's windy, and hopefully
7:21
Speaker 3: we sort of keep getting an inch a week or
7:23
Speaker 3: a rain a week. otherwise this sort of country can
7:26
Speaker 3: go dry but yeah I don't want to start talking
7:29
Speaker 3: about it at the moment let's just enjoy a fine
7:31
Speaker 3: run of weather and plenty of lambs bouncing around yeah With.
7:34
Speaker 1: The way the weather's been over the previous three lambings
7:38
Speaker 1: as such you're not tempted to change anything or it's
7:41
Speaker 1: a case of it is what it is and Mother
7:43
Speaker 1: Nature will be what.
7:44
Speaker 3: It'll be We're a mixed species on this farm so
7:48
Speaker 3: we just set stock last week and that was getting
7:51
Speaker 3: just late enough for us so We've sort of got
7:54
Speaker 3: a box using lambs up and create paddocks to set
7:57
Speaker 3: stock lines on and these stairs going round, these dairy
8:01
Speaker 3: heifers going round, these stags that sort of need cut,
8:05
Speaker 3: these other stuff. So you always need an earlier mob
8:09
Speaker 3: just to create space later on. But I like to
8:15
Speaker 3: have a bit of a gap in between and we
8:17
Speaker 3: put the mixed stage in Tudu's Ford Five days didn't
8:21
Speaker 3: really make a lot of difference, but I think I'd
8:23
Speaker 3: just go back just for management reasons, really, and whether
8:27
Speaker 3: the hoggets just pushing back five days would be sort
8:31
Speaker 3: of the only change. It's just sort of being able
8:35
Speaker 3: to get around everything when you need to be getting
8:36
Speaker 3: around everything more than anything.
8:39
Speaker 1: How'd the deer got through the season?
8:41
Speaker 3: Oh, no, no, real good. Yeah, no, sort of found
8:45
Speaker 3: the right combination of swedes and baleage and everything, and
8:48
Speaker 3: the hinds were great through the shed. They looked fantastic.
8:52
Speaker 3: yeah so no they're all spread out and it's always
8:55
Speaker 3: a bit of a worry when it's sort of good
8:57
Speaker 3: like this and you've grown a lot of grass you've
8:58
Speaker 3: got the seed stocking amount right just because if the
9:02
Speaker 3: cupboards get away yeah some of those forms can get
9:06
Speaker 3: big inside them but I think we'll be right and
9:09
Speaker 3: I'll just sort of poke a bit of cattle you
9:11
Speaker 3: know poke a bit of cattle in a paddock if
9:13
Speaker 3: we have to and take them out and just sort
9:14
Speaker 3: of juggle it around but yeah like it's a whole
9:17
Speaker 3: lot better having grass than not having anything isn't it
9:20
Speaker 3: so it's Small problems, small problems, yeah.
9:23
Speaker 1: A lot of talk around cell phone coverage. Speaking of
9:27
Speaker 1: the old yuppie phone up to your ear at the moment,
9:29
Speaker 1: what's it like around your neck of the woods? Do
9:31
Speaker 1: you struggle for coverage or a lot of dead spots?
9:34
Speaker 3: Well, if anyone was struggling for coverage in the basin,
9:37
Speaker 3: it wouldn't be me, because there's actually a Vodafone tower
9:40
Speaker 3: in the middle of the farm.
9:41
Speaker 1: Well, then there'd be something wrong, wouldn't there?
9:46
Speaker 3: What I have with cell phone people is they need
9:48
Speaker 3: to maintain the track a whole lot better than what
9:50
Speaker 3: they do at the new water table, because they keep
9:54
Speaker 3: trying to get contractors up there to do work on it. No,
9:56
Speaker 3: that track's not that good. No, no, it's funny enough
9:58
Speaker 3: it isn't. You actually need to spend a bit of
10:00
Speaker 3: money on a track to maintain stuff. So that's the
10:03
Speaker 3: only problem I have with them, the phone companies. But, yeah, no,
10:08
Speaker 3: we're pretty lucky.
10:08
Speaker 1: Where we are. The tower's on your farm.
10:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, the tower's on top of the hill. So, yeah,
10:14
Speaker 3: I'm looking straight up at the moment. Yeah, it's good.
10:18
Speaker 1: So they must have to do a lot of maintenance.
10:20
Speaker 1: Like you say, though, maintenance on the track, that's a no-brainer.
10:24
Speaker 1: It's on them.
10:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's their job to maintain it. Yeah, it's
10:29
Speaker 3: more health and safety. Like if guys are trying to
10:31
Speaker 3: get four drives up there and they can't, they slide
10:34
Speaker 3: in the ditches and all sorts of stuff. Well, there
10:37
Speaker 3: is no ditches at the moment. There's no water tables
10:39
Speaker 3: running down the track. So let's hope they slide that way.
10:43
Speaker 5: If they go the other way.
10:44
Speaker 3: That could get interesting, real interesting.
10:46
Speaker 1: But.
10:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's all part and parcel of it. Like anything,
10:51
Speaker 3: governments change, companies change, and policies change, and all of
10:56
Speaker 3: a sudden it's been a few years since the digger
10:57
Speaker 3: came down it, and you start having to make those
11:00
Speaker 3: interesting phone calls, I suppose.
11:02
Speaker 6: Yeah.
11:03
Speaker 1: Good on you, Kaka. We'll let you carry on with
11:05
Speaker 1: cutting up those worms. Appreciate your time, as always.
11:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we were jumping all over the show on
11:10
Speaker 3: this session, but, no.
11:11
Speaker 4: It was good.
11:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, get it all off my chest. So, no, it's good.
11:15
Speaker 3: And I hope everyone else's springs start to come right
11:17
Speaker 3: and be able to get some stuff on the ground soon.
11:20
Speaker 6: So, good on you.
11:21
Speaker 3: See you.
11:23
Speaker 1: Andy Kaka Dennis, based up at Manapōuri. Thanks to Sgt
11:26
Speaker 1: Dan's Stock Foods and the Sgt Dan Farming Roundup. Up next,
11:30
Speaker 1: Riley Kennedy of Business Desk, talking politics. The Muster Political
11:38
Speaker 1: Roundup brought to you by BioCharge. Feed your soil and
11:41
Speaker 1: grow stronger systems with BioCharge. Visit biocharge.co.nz Riley Kennedy of
11:50
Speaker 1: Business Desk joins us this afternoon. He is the 2026
11:54
Speaker 1: Rural Communicator of the Year, as voted this year at
11:58
Speaker 1: the National Field Days. Good afternoon, Riley. Last time we
12:00
Speaker 1: spoke to you, you were going to a bull sale
12:02
Speaker 1: in the middle of Auckland. How did it go?
12:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, that bull sale was quite interesting, actually. Something like,
12:10
Speaker 2: they're averaging about $ 8, 000 a head. Quite successful for Auckland Central.
12:15
Speaker 2: I'd imagine it would be a record if there was
12:17
Speaker 2: any other bull sales ever held here.
12:20
Speaker 1: Well, at least having a bull sale in the middle
12:22
Speaker 1: of Auckland gives a bit of credit to the Rimuera
12:24
Speaker 1: Tractor philosophy or theory.
12:26
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, it does.
12:28
Speaker 2: And I'm... That bullseye was about 10 minutes out of
12:31
Speaker 2: the CBD. Well, today I'm joining you from basically directly
12:35
Speaker 2: under the Skytower, so I've gone quite far in a
12:38
Speaker 2: short amount of time.
12:40
Speaker 1: Just quickly, cell coverage is a massive thing rarely at
12:42
Speaker 1: the moment. You're in the middle of Auckland itself. Coverage,
12:46
Speaker 1: do you have any issues like dead spots and that?
12:48
Speaker 1: Is that such a thing in the City of Sales?
12:50
Speaker 2: Well, actually, funnily enough, it is. I was just trying
12:53
Speaker 2: to call someone before inside the hotel at the moment,
12:57
Speaker 2: and it was completely dead and I had to walk outside.
12:59
Speaker 2: I don't know whether that's an issue just with the hotel,
13:02
Speaker 2: but occasionally, or it could just be my technological incompetence,
13:06
Speaker 2: to be fair, and I couldn't get a phone to go,
13:07
Speaker 2: but occasionally I do find myself in a dead spot.
13:10
Speaker 2: I know it's a massive issue in rural New Zealand
13:12
Speaker 2: and probably not so much here, but I do occasionally
13:15
Speaker 2: have to deal with it.
13:16
Speaker 1: Talking about dead spots, the lamb terror situation with the
13:20
Speaker 1: US and President Trump wanting to Put tariff on lamb
13:23
Speaker 1: coming into the country. Kate Eklund over there last week
13:26
Speaker 1: from Beef and Lamb pleading our case. Do you see
13:28
Speaker 1: a positive outcome out of this for New Zealand producers?
13:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, on a data point of view, it's a really
13:35
Speaker 2: tough sell for the American producers because their lamb price
13:39
Speaker 2: on a New Zealand dollar basis is double than what
13:41
Speaker 2: we're getting. And we're getting record prices, right? You're not
13:44
Speaker 2: hearing too many people complain about lamb prices. Well, they're
13:48
Speaker 2: getting $ 24 a kilo and we're getting $ 12.
13:49
Speaker 3: And so....
13:51
Speaker 2: If anything, we're actually helping their industry rather than hindering it.
13:56
Speaker 2: I would say that it's a whole lot of uncertainty
13:58
Speaker 2: and it's quite a big process they've got to go through.
14:00
Speaker 2: This report has to be back within a month, I think,
14:03
Speaker 2: after Friday's hearing. And then it's actually up to President
14:06
Speaker 2: Trump who makes the final call. So, I mean, it
14:10
Speaker 2: really depends on what he decides. The one good thing
14:14
Speaker 2: is that he'll probably make his decision, I think, maybe
14:18
Speaker 2: after the midterm elections. But Interestingly, he'd fallen out quite
14:23
Speaker 2: badly with the American cattle industry, and they're basically Republican voters, right?
14:27
Speaker 2: A bit like us falling out of bed with the
14:30
Speaker 2: current coalition. And so he's really annoyed them because he
14:33
Speaker 2: keeps bringing in cheap imported beef from low-cost producers like
14:39
Speaker 2: South America and stuff. So, I mean, who would know, really?
14:42
Speaker 2: But it all comes down to Trump.
14:44
Speaker 1: The American lamb industry stating that they don't like having
14:47
Speaker 1: to compete with New Zealand and Australia produce.
14:50
Speaker 2: Exactly, and that It's actually largely aimed at Australia. We
14:56
Speaker 2: have 25% of that volume that goes into the States.
15:00
Speaker 2: Australia is about 75%. I think New Zealand does, as
15:04
Speaker 2: an industry, looks quite nervous. I mean, I think even,
15:09
Speaker 2: you know, like Napkin Guy has admitted that New Zealand
15:11
Speaker 2: is nervous. The Australians have been up there prior to
15:14
Speaker 2: this deal trying to actually cut a deal by saying
15:16
Speaker 2: they'll try and get the superfunds. their super funds to
15:20
Speaker 2: invest in their meat industry.
15:21
Speaker 5: We haven't.
15:22
Speaker 2: That might be because we're in election mode and our
15:24
Speaker 2: Trade Minister and Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are busy
15:27
Speaker 2: doing a campaign for our votes. I think we're either
15:32
Speaker 2: going to be the beneficiary of Australia's efforts or we're
15:38
Speaker 2: not at all. It's very uncertain, but I think it's
15:43
Speaker 2: going to be an interesting outcome regardless.
15:45
Speaker 1: Is this a case of New Zealand just being tagged
15:47
Speaker 1: along with the Big Brother, Little Brother syndrome, courtesy of Australia?
15:51
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, your word's not mine. But, I mean,
15:54
Speaker 2: in any case, globally, we're so small, right? We're going
15:57
Speaker 2: to be tagged on to whatever happens globally. But kind of, yeah, basically.
16:07
Speaker 1: And to follow on from that as well, and this
16:09
Speaker 1: still fascinates me, Mark Delatour of Open Country a few
16:13
Speaker 1: weeks ago on The Country with Jamie Mackay stating openly
16:16
Speaker 1: that New Zealand should withdraw from the Paris Accord, which
16:19
Speaker 1: has gone against the grain. So the fact that Mark's
16:22
Speaker 1: still giving credence to this, do you think this would
16:24
Speaker 1: ever occur?
16:26
Speaker 2: No, I don't think we would ever withdraw from it fully.
16:31
Speaker 2: I think, and the risk here is, I wrote about
16:35
Speaker 2: this maybe about 12 months ago, actually after the last election.
16:39
Speaker 2: I don't think it's perfect, but you can't say any
16:40
Speaker 2: agreement that we've ever signed up to is perfect. I
16:45
Speaker 2: don't think we should be the first mover in this.
16:49
Speaker 2: If everyone else follows, then of course, but yeah, the
16:57
Speaker 2: first mover advantage in this I don't think is a
17:01
Speaker 2: good call. But Mark likes to be very outspoken on
17:05
Speaker 2: various issues, and I suspect that benefits them trying to
17:11
Speaker 2: get farmers from their main competitor at Fonterra.
17:15
Speaker 1: The EU making noise as if New Zealand withdraws, and
17:18
Speaker 1: that'll impact on our free trade agreement.
17:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it would, but I'd also note that at
17:24
Speaker 2: last week's leaders' debate, the Herald's leaders debate, Chris Hipkins
17:29
Speaker 2: left the door open to even signing up to the EU,
17:31
Speaker 2: which I thought was totally bizarre and weird, and why
17:34
Speaker 2: would we do that? But, I mean, the EU, they're
17:38
Speaker 2: a highly regulated market. And, of course, it would affect
17:44
Speaker 2: our FTA. And that's something we've got to be very
17:46
Speaker 2: careful about. We don't want to lose access to markets
17:49
Speaker 2: by making a swift call like this.
17:51
Speaker 1: And just on that, Global Dairy Trade Auction occurring on
17:54
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning New Zealand time. What do you think is
17:57
Speaker 1: going to occur?
17:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is going to be an interesting one. I've
18:01
Speaker 2: seen the futures market for the milk prices north of that, well,
18:05
Speaker 2: was north of $ 10 last week. It'll be interesting come
18:11
Speaker 2: early December, Fonterra will have to report their first quarter results,
18:15
Speaker 2: which is largely when they update the milk price. I
18:18
Speaker 2: would imagine if it keeps heading in the right direction,
18:21
Speaker 2: they'll have to upgrade their milk price again. But, yeah,
18:25
Speaker 2: last two weeks ago, it was all sort of driven
18:28
Speaker 2: by the pounders and while the fats were a little bit.
18:32
Speaker 3: Softer.
18:33
Speaker 2: I would imagine we'll continue to see that trend as
18:36
Speaker 2: long as it heads in the right direction.
18:38
Speaker 1: Regarding this election campaign, we'll just touch on this. From
18:42
Speaker 1: a rural viewpoint, do you think New Zealand is going
18:44
Speaker 1: to be well served for the rural sector regardless of
18:47
Speaker 1: who's holding the portfolios in November?
18:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. I think the current coalition have done
18:55
Speaker 2: a good job. The Labour Party too, I was talking
18:58
Speaker 2: to someone this morning, they're actively engaged with the sector
19:02
Speaker 2: and the sector's actively engaged with them. I suspect they've
19:05
Speaker 2: learned their lesson of what happened three, six, nine years ago.
19:08
Speaker 2: But if the left was to form a coalition, most
19:13
Speaker 2: of the agriculture policy, I suspect, would be driven by
19:16
Speaker 2: their coalition partners, be that in the Greens or whatever
19:20
Speaker 2: they want to do with fertiliser and maybe the Opportunity
19:23
Speaker 2: Party and the Party Māori. I suspect the Labour Party
19:27
Speaker 2: will basically do almost nothing... when it comes to ag
19:31
Speaker 2: policy or nothing significant because they don't want to get
19:33
Speaker 2: scared like they did.
19:34
Speaker 3: Three years ago.
19:36
Speaker 1: Well, Daniel Ebb, I was reading this morning, he was
19:39
Speaker 1: a Nuffield scholar back in 2021.
19:40
Speaker 2: Yes, quite an interesting guy, actually. I saw him on
19:45
Speaker 2: Queen Street campaigning a couple of Sundays ago and I
19:47
Speaker 2: said to him, have you got nothing better to do
19:50
Speaker 2: than walk up and down Queen Street trying to get votes?
19:52
Speaker 2: Seems like my idea of hell, to be honest.
19:54
Speaker 1: Talking about hell or heaven, depending on what side of
19:57
Speaker 1: the coin you're on, your new train network, are you
19:59
Speaker 1: enjoying it? Do you use it?
20:01
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, I love the train network. CRL is brilliant.
20:05
Speaker 2: I'm actually standing outside one of the stations. There's... I mean,
20:10
Speaker 2: it's very nerdy and it's a very Auckland thing. I've
20:12
Speaker 2: described it as all it is is a train in
20:16
Speaker 2: a hole that's very efficient. And it's really not that exciting. But,
20:21
Speaker 2: I mean, I know it doesn't affect anyone outside of Auckland,
20:24
Speaker 2: but it does make Auckland a much more mature city.
20:27
Speaker 2: I mean, the train system here, quite frankly, was just
20:30
Speaker 2: a bit shit beforehand. Now it's very good. The other
20:33
Speaker 2: day I caught the train from our office down to
20:35
Speaker 2: lunch at Britomart and then I got the train back.
20:38
Speaker 2: I mean, I could have just walked, to be honest,
20:39
Speaker 2: but it was. It is a bit of a novelty factor.
20:43
Speaker 2: I mean, Auckland forever is going to have public transport issues,
20:46
Speaker 2: but this does go a long way to helping relieve those.
20:50
Speaker 1: I've never heard of Auckland being called mature before, but
20:53
Speaker 1: we'll leave it there, Riley. You've got a busy old
20:54
Speaker 1: day ahead of you. Thanks for your time, as always.
20:56
Speaker 2: Very busy old day. Kia kaha.
21:01
Speaker 1: Riley Kennedy of Business Desk. Simon Hopcroft is next. Listening
21:06
Speaker 1: to the muster. Pressure. Pushing down on me. Pressing down
21:14
Speaker 1: on you.
21:15
Speaker 3: No man has more.
21:17
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster. Simon Hotcroft is chair of
21:20
Speaker 1: the Southland Rural Support Trust and joins us next. Once again,
21:24
Speaker 1: we've teamed up with the Rural Support Trust just for
21:26
Speaker 1: various speakers from different farming operations talking about the situation
21:31
Speaker 1: that they've experienced over the past couple of months and
21:34
Speaker 1: just looking forward to just keeping a mindset and different
21:37
Speaker 1: things around having a toolbox available. G'day, Simon. Good to
21:41
Speaker 1: chat once again.
21:41
Speaker 6: How are you, Andy?
21:43
Speaker 3: Thank you.
21:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, sunshine makes a big difference for a lot
21:46
Speaker 1: of people. I'm pretty well myself. But on the workload
21:50
Speaker 1: at the moment, yes, it's dried up. Down south where
21:53
Speaker 1: you're based, it's still pretty damp, I understand. And it's
21:56
Speaker 1: about trying to put into perspective what we've faced while
22:00
Speaker 1: we look ahead.
22:02
Speaker 6: Yeah, for sure, Andy. We've had a great 15, 16
22:06
Speaker 6: days of weather, a couple of wee patches in between.
22:10
Speaker 6: But It has been sort of a period for everyone
22:13
Speaker 6: to be a bit more positive and get some action
22:16
Speaker 6: done on farm, which we're all sort of hands to
22:19
Speaker 6: the pump there and getting a bit achieved. So, no,
22:23
Speaker 6: that's been good. And then, yeah, just farmers making sure
22:29
Speaker 6: that they're also not getting too fatigued out there with
22:33
Speaker 6: catching up. And, yeah, that would be probably a wee
22:36
Speaker 6: message that we're sort of trying to reiterate as farmers
22:39
Speaker 6: plan wisely and make sure you're taking some breaks as
22:42
Speaker 6: well and then also just working your teams if you've
22:46
Speaker 6: got staff to making sure that they're getting some time
22:49
Speaker 6: off as well, yeah.
22:51
Speaker 1: So with the run of good weather, from a Rural
22:53
Speaker 1: Trust perspective I suppose, have you seen things a bit
22:57
Speaker 1: quieter at the end of the phone and that farmers
22:59
Speaker 1: just getting on with it at the moment?
23:02
Speaker 6: Yeah, as far as I'm aware Andy I think we
23:04
Speaker 6: saw sort of a bit of a peak period post
23:06
Speaker 6: sort of end of September into early October. And then
23:10
Speaker 6: once that sun came out, yeah, that sort of tapered
23:14
Speaker 6: off a wee bit, which has definitely helped everyone's morale.
23:18
Speaker 6: But yeah, I guess there's always just making sure we're
23:21
Speaker 6: looking out within the community for those that might need
23:24
Speaker 6: a wee bit of a hand or a guiding bit
23:26
Speaker 6: of a support. So it's been pretty quiet of late.
23:31
Speaker 1: And we're coming up to the anniversary of the wind
23:33
Speaker 1: events in the south. I think it was from the
23:35
Speaker 1: 21st of October, which is Wednesday. 365 days later, or
23:41
Speaker 1: just about, it's a different time and different challenges faced
23:45
Speaker 1: yet again.
23:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is, Andy, and it's a good point. So
23:48
Speaker 6: we went sort of into that October, and the winds
23:54
Speaker 6: were sort of getting a bit, more intense and then
23:58
Speaker 6: that day in particular was forecasted but not to that
24:01
Speaker 6: extent and I guess what it did surprise a lot
24:05
Speaker 6: was around you know basically lack of preparedness on a
24:10
Speaker 6: lot of farms in particular in the dairy sector with
24:15
Speaker 6: lack of generation capability on farms so I think it's
24:18
Speaker 6: sort of a bit of a reminder isn't it that
24:21
Speaker 6: those things can come out of nowhere and what have
24:24
Speaker 6: you done on farm to sort of help prepare for
24:29
Speaker 6: something similar or, dare I say it, something bigger. And,
24:33
Speaker 6: you know, that's something that as a Rural Support Trust
24:36
Speaker 6: we are looking into around where do we sort of
24:41
Speaker 6: play in this space around making sure that we can
24:46
Speaker 6: use our wider stakeholder network to make sure that farmers
24:50
Speaker 6: are preparing their businesses to be a bit more resilient
24:52
Speaker 6: and just having a few more tools in the shed
24:56
Speaker 6: or even in their tool belt to deal with some
24:59
Speaker 6: of these sort of adverse events that are coming a
25:02
Speaker 6: bit more frequent. And I guess that would, if everyone
25:06
Speaker 6: prepared a wee bit better and planned a wee bit better,
25:09
Speaker 6: then that would help overall just shift that whole curve.
25:12
Speaker 1: Are farmers starting to prepare better for these events? Have
25:15
Speaker 1: you noticed?
25:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, personally, yes, probably a wee bit more. It's nothing
25:21
Speaker 6: like going through something to actually realise that you're being
25:24
Speaker 6: caught short a couple of times of late, and that's
25:29
Speaker 6: of late meaning over the last two or three years,
25:31
Speaker 6: and you always go back to some of those messages
25:35
Speaker 6: that came through potentially from some of your previous generations
25:40
Speaker 6: around you know preparedness whether it be going into sort
25:43
Speaker 6: of dry periods or wet periods you know you can
25:46
Speaker 6: never have enough sort of inventory of feed and planning
25:49
Speaker 6: and approaches around setting up your business to be a
25:53
Speaker 6: wee bit more resilient but yeah I guess for practicality
25:57
Speaker 6: like sort of the wind last year we've definitely gone
26:00
Speaker 6: and prepared better for generation on farm for our business
26:05
Speaker 6: we managed to sneak through with what we had but
26:07
Speaker 6: you know even like for housing for um for staff
26:10
Speaker 6: etc just making sure we've finished all that sort of
26:13
Speaker 6: off to make sure that people have actually got um
26:16
Speaker 6: there's a well-being thing going on there a little like
26:18
Speaker 6: you know like making sure they've actually got a functioning
26:22
Speaker 6: um bit of electricity to to actually cook their meals
26:26
Speaker 6: and um you know have a hot shower etc so
26:29
Speaker 6: A lot of wee things to think about, but I
26:31
Speaker 6: think if everyone just shifted the needle a wee bit,
26:33
Speaker 6: that would help overall.
26:35
Speaker 1: Simon, as we kick off this campaign, it's probably a
26:38
Speaker 1: good chance for you to give a reminder about the
26:41
Speaker 1: Rural Support Trust and what it does.
26:44
Speaker 6: Yeah, I guess there's two main roles with the Rural
26:47
Speaker 6: Support Trust, and one of that's just our welfare role.
26:53
Speaker 6: base where we do our business as usual with the
26:56
Speaker 6: 0800 number and making sure we're being able to connect
26:59
Speaker 6: support for those in the community of need and then
27:03
Speaker 6: the second main function is really around response and recovery
27:08
Speaker 6: to the adverse event like we've just been talking about
27:11
Speaker 6: in the last few minutes so making sure we sort
27:17
Speaker 6: of the eyes and ears for the rural community around
27:21
Speaker 6: feeding back information to other organisations such as MPI through
27:26
Speaker 6: to central government, etc. But I guess the key function
27:31
Speaker 6: too is with that post-adverse event or during and post-adverse
27:36
Speaker 6: event is making sure people's rural communities, in particular that
27:41
Speaker 6: wellbeing side, is making sure we're looking out for those
27:45
Speaker 6: people in the communities, yeah.
27:46
Speaker 1: So with the spring being declared a medium adverse effect, Simon,
27:50
Speaker 1: this gives you guys the allocation of some funding from
27:54
Speaker 1: the government to do what you need to do for
27:56
Speaker 1: the community. Is that right?
27:58
Speaker 6: Yeah, in a way it's sort of a tricky one, Andy.
28:01
Speaker 6: So basically we can use some of that to help
28:04
Speaker 6: with our well-being cases that we're dealing with our people
28:11
Speaker 6: and also... being able to use that operational team to
28:17
Speaker 6: help coordinate our events, and then some proactive resilient building
28:26
Speaker 6: potential functions that we might have going forward to make
28:30
Speaker 6: sure that we're preparing our farmers and growers with some
28:36
Speaker 6: better information and understanding of how could they get through
28:39
Speaker 6: this better, I suppose.
28:41
Speaker 1: No, good on you, Simon. It's always good to catch
28:43
Speaker 1: up with yourself. Regarding Southlander Support Trust, 0800 787 254
28:47
Speaker 1: as well. A free confidential chat for anybody who wants
28:51
Speaker 1: to get in touch with the team. In this programme,
28:53
Speaker 1: we're going to run over the next couple of weeks
28:54
Speaker 1: just to different farmers and just get a different idea
28:58
Speaker 1: regarding mindset. Always good to catch up, mate.
29:00
Speaker 6: Thanks, Andy. Appreciate your support. Cheers.
29:04
Speaker 1: Simon Hotcroft, chair of the Southland Rural Support Trust. That number,
29:08
Speaker 1: once again, 0800 787 254. And, yeah, look, we did
29:13
Speaker 1: this last year as well, and it was very well received.
29:16
Speaker 1: And we're doing it again this year too, based on
29:18
Speaker 1: the spring that we've endured. Tom O'Brien's up next. Oh,
29:25
Speaker 1: you're going to let it all hang out Fat bottom girls,
29:29
Speaker 1: you make the rocking world go round Welcome back to
29:35
Speaker 1: the muster, Fat Bottom Girls by Queen. The music today...
29:40
Speaker 1: Thomas O'Brien based up at Garston. Good afternoon, sir.
29:44
Speaker 5: Good afternoon, Andy.
29:46
Speaker 1: Queen, you used to have him on tape back in
29:48
Speaker 1: the day in the dorm at Form 6.
29:51
Speaker 5: I don't know anyone who didn't have bloody Queen on
29:53
Speaker 5: a cassette tape back in the day. I mean, yeah,
29:56
Speaker 5: they were a powerhouse monster band, weren't they? Yeah, I
29:59
Speaker 5: was listening to them. I was listening to a track
30:02
Speaker 5: on the way back down, The Invisible Man by Queen. Yeah,
30:05
Speaker 5: that was a bit of a banger as well. But, man,
30:07
Speaker 5: they had some hits, didn't they?
30:09
Speaker 1: Now, you had snow on the hills there when we
30:11
Speaker 1: spoke to you last time. Well, you were out there skiing.
30:14
Speaker 1: You had the dogs with you. You were probably rolling
30:15
Speaker 1: around in the stuff knowing you. You're the kind of
30:17
Speaker 1: guy I reckon's got a sauna.
30:20
Speaker 5: I'd love a sauna, mate.
30:21
Speaker 3: Jeez, I'd love a sauna.
30:22
Speaker 5: You know, there's a lot. That's the hot topic now,
30:25
Speaker 5: so to speak. Excuse the pun.
30:27
Speaker 1: No pun intended.
30:28
Speaker 5: No pun intended, but... Yeah, this ice bath thing and
30:31
Speaker 5: then saunering and all that sort of carry-on. The only
30:34
Speaker 5: thing I was doing yesterday morning around about this time
30:37
Speaker 5: or a little bit earlier was I jumped into the
30:40
Speaker 5: Sowerburn River in Padia Rara in central Otago just to
30:44
Speaker 5: clear the head a little bit after a friend's father's funeral. And,
30:48
Speaker 5: by God, that was cold. And I thought to myself, oh.
30:52
Speaker 5: What would I feel like right now? I thought a
30:54
Speaker 5: nice hot coffee and sauna. I'll tell you what. A
30:57
Speaker 5: lot of people are getting private saunas now, aren't they?
30:59
Speaker 5: You can buy them online, and they're reasonably priced, but
31:03
Speaker 5: it's just not within my wheelhouse right now. Truth be told,
31:06
Speaker 5: I'm almost to the point of where I'm getting sick
31:09
Speaker 5: of pushing my lawnmower around and mowing my large lawns,
31:12
Speaker 5: and I'm thinking, oh, maybe a ride-on mower would go
31:14
Speaker 5: all right. Anyway, it's on the wish list, Andy.
31:18
Speaker 1: Put a sheep on your lawn. It's cheaper and you
31:19
Speaker 1: get to eat it.
31:20
Speaker 5: Oh, there you go. There you go. Yeah, yeah. Just
31:23
Speaker 5: set up an electric fence around the deck and we'll
31:26
Speaker 5: be sorted. But the way things are, who would have thought, mate,
31:29
Speaker 5: the growth is just going out the gate now.
31:31
Speaker 1: I was just about to ask you, Tom, how are
31:33
Speaker 1: you looking up there for feed in your neck of
31:35
Speaker 1: the woods in upper northern Southwind?
31:37
Speaker 5: Well, it's green as green can be. And, yeah, there
31:41
Speaker 5: is a bit of bulk coming through in the paddocks now.
31:43
Speaker 5: And just as we all know, regardless of whether you're
31:46
Speaker 5: a or a bovine or an ovine or a trovine
31:49
Speaker 5: or a human or whatever, it's so good to see
31:52
Speaker 5: that big yellow ball up in the sky giving us
31:54
Speaker 5: some warmth, and that's exactly what stock needs at this
31:56
Speaker 5: time as well. Good to see paddocks well and truly
31:59
Speaker 5: being sawn out, and yeah, we've got a good bout
32:03
Speaker 5: of this weather for the next week or so, so yeah,
32:05
Speaker 5: there'll be a lot of stuff striking and getting a
32:08
Speaker 5: bit of a head start, which is great to see.
32:10
Speaker 1: Is there a few trovines cruising around Garston?
32:13
Speaker 5: Oh, there's plenty of tri-vines. Maybe tri-hards and tri-vines. And, yeah,
32:19
Speaker 5: a bit of everything around here, mate. Yeah, yeah.
32:22
Speaker 1: Everybody up there, though, pretty content at the moment. The
32:24
Speaker 1: weather's corrected itself. It's drying out. A lot of tailing
32:28
Speaker 1: gangs have been into it. Tractors are going. And the
32:31
Speaker 1: people you're talking to up there, Tom, what are they thinking?
32:34
Speaker 5: Oh, I think, you know, it's amazing. The human race
32:37
Speaker 5: is sort of, if we go down that track a
32:38
Speaker 5: little bit, you know, we are the only species who
32:41
Speaker 5: really does have the greatest ability to adapt over a
32:45
Speaker 5: very short period of time. And, you know, your fish
32:50
Speaker 5: and chips that you have and your newspaper that you've
32:53
Speaker 5: wrapped up, yeah, you do forget about it and it
32:54
Speaker 5: becomes your state news pretty quick. And especially when, you know,
32:58
Speaker 5: we've had times that's been a bit gloomy and, you know,
33:02
Speaker 5: we all know what the winter was like, especially for
33:04
Speaker 5: the guys and girls down south, and it was particularly
33:06
Speaker 5: harsh and hard and everything. But, look, you know, we
33:10
Speaker 5: move forward and, as I say, look, With just that
33:13
Speaker 5: extra bit of daylight length and warmth and the ground
33:16
Speaker 5: temperatures moving and getting a bit of vitamin D on
33:20
Speaker 5: your face, it makes a big difference. And onwards and upwards,
33:24
Speaker 5: and you just keep trucking on, and it's really good
33:26
Speaker 5: to see.
33:27
Speaker 1: Have you still got snow on the tops on your place?
33:30
Speaker 5: No, it all melted, pretty much melted yesterday. But as
33:34
Speaker 5: I said, I was in Paddy, well, I was in
33:36
Speaker 5: Ranford to get a mate's father's funeral, big, big funeral. Um,
33:40
Speaker 5: and it was very hot there. It was about 24,
33:43
Speaker 5: 25 degrees. Um, and I presume it was pretty hot
33:47
Speaker 5: here as well, but yeah, we had a, uh, I
33:49
Speaker 5: had some people up on the hill, uh, over the, uh,
33:52
Speaker 5: over the weekend and they were biking through and then
33:54
Speaker 5: they sent through some videos and photos of them going
33:56
Speaker 5: through the snow and staying at the mud hut and
33:58
Speaker 5: getting the outdoor bath going. And they had a blast.
34:01
Speaker 3: Yeah.
34:01
Speaker 5: They said it was, it was a really good, fun, unique, um,
34:04
Speaker 5: kind of experience. But, um, Yeah, the snow's gone. It's
34:07
Speaker 5: still up on the air mountains, and it'll be out
34:09
Speaker 5: there for a wee while yet. But, no, the snow
34:11
Speaker 5: can bugger off now, so as I'm concerned.
34:13
Speaker 1: And the Kingston Flyer season is in full swing.
34:17
Speaker 5: Sure is, mate. Yeah, no, I was doing the fire
34:18
Speaker 5: truck for that on Friday, although we didn't really need
34:22
Speaker 5: the fire truck as much because that day was a
34:24
Speaker 5: bit grotty. But, yeah, no, it's going in full swing.
34:29
Speaker 5: It's looking great. Getting good patronage, getting good media coverage.
34:34
Speaker 5: And there's a genuine excitement from young and old, people locally,
34:38
Speaker 5: regionally and also internationally when they see that thing glistening
34:41
Speaker 5: in the sun as it's coming down the Fairlight Strait
34:44
Speaker 5: and those, talk about that green, green grass at home,
34:47
Speaker 5: those carriages are looking super, super green and super, super sharp.
34:50
Speaker 5: So yeah, it's going well.
34:53
Speaker 1: What do you mean fire truck? Are you like the
34:54
Speaker 1: fire officer as well?
34:57
Speaker 5: So we've got what's called a high rail vehicle, which
34:59
Speaker 5: is basically a fancy word for a For a small
35:02
Speaker 5: truck that you can, it's got hydraulic train wheels on it,
35:06
Speaker 5: steel wheels, so you basically just put a PTO on,
35:10
Speaker 5: power take-off on, and then you just pull a lever
35:12
Speaker 5: and then you've got these hydraulics which you can put
35:14
Speaker 5: the steel wheels back down onto the rails and lift
35:16
Speaker 5: the tyres off. And we've got like a tank, a
35:19
Speaker 5: water tank on the back and a pump. It's a
35:20
Speaker 5: very basic setup. And like a hose reel and fire
35:25
Speaker 5: hoses and stuff like that so that when the train
35:27
Speaker 5: is When, not if, but when it does light the
35:30
Speaker 5: odd fire on the side of the track, I can
35:33
Speaker 5: pull out and then just hopefully get it out in
35:36
Speaker 5: time before it gets away and the fire brigade have
35:39
Speaker 5: to be called. But we do that. It's mandatory now
35:42
Speaker 5: for pretty much every run we do now.
35:45
Speaker 1: How often would this occur? You've got to go and
35:47
Speaker 1: put the sparks out of Sparky.
35:50
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I was doing a firetruck run last week, actually,
35:54
Speaker 5: and there was one wee fire as we were pulling
35:56
Speaker 5: out of Kingston on the main curve, coming out of
35:57
Speaker 5: Captain's Curve.
35:58
Speaker 1: Oh, Jesus.
35:59
Speaker 5: There was a bit of a, in the long grass there,
36:02
Speaker 5: and it was quite dry, and I managed to, like,
36:04
Speaker 5: I'm literally only a couple of minutes behind the train,
36:07
Speaker 5: two to five minutes behind the train, so I can
36:09
Speaker 5: sort of linger back. Obviously, the smoke is a pretty
36:12
Speaker 5: good indicator of where the fire is, and I can
36:14
Speaker 5: jump out and and usually get on top of it
36:16
Speaker 5: pretty quickly. But, yeah, it really depends on, as you know,
36:20
Speaker 5: the conditions. If you get a hot, dry, northerly wind
36:22
Speaker 5: and it's dry as all hell, then, yeah, sometimes it
36:26
Speaker 5: can get away on you.
36:27
Speaker 1: Good on you, Tom. We'll leave it there. You enjoy
36:29
Speaker 1: your week.
36:31
Speaker 5: Thanks, Andy. Thanks, matey. Catch you later.
36:35
Speaker 1: Thomas O'Brien, based up at Garston. You're listening to The Mustard.
36:38
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, Logan Savory out of the Southland Tribune.
36:56
Speaker 1: Logan Savry of the Southland Tribune joins us once again. Sav,
37:00
Speaker 1: good afternoon. The hammer to full on the MPC this
37:02
Speaker 1: upcoming weekend. Northland against Canterbury in Christchurch. Northland, undoubtedly. This
37:09
Speaker 1: is the story of the season.
37:11
Speaker 4: Oh, it's an absolute fairy tale, isn't it? I think
37:15
Speaker 4: outside of those in Canterbury, I think everyone's probably on
37:19
Speaker 4: the Northland bandwagon at the moment. But what they've done
37:24
Speaker 4: for their region, winning the Ramfriley Shield and holding it
37:29
Speaker 4: for a wee bit, I think the fact that they
37:33
Speaker 4: lost the Shield and have kept performing is pretty impressive
37:37
Speaker 4: because there's normally... we've seen it in Southampton, there can
37:39
Speaker 4: be a bit of a hangover after losing a shield
37:43
Speaker 4: and they've just kept performing and their performance against what
37:47
Speaker 4: is a pretty quality Otago team, stacked with a lot
37:50
Speaker 4: of Super Rugby talent, was pretty impressive on Friday night,
37:54
Speaker 4: so you go to Taniwha.
37:55
Speaker 1: The last time they were in a final was probably
37:57
Speaker 1: against the Stags back in 96 in Div 2, would
37:59
Speaker 1: that be correct?
38:01
Speaker 4: It probably is actually, yeah. Certainly not making the big
38:06
Speaker 4: dance and I think Look, I absolutely love this year's
38:11
Speaker 4: MPC competition. It feels like anyone can beat anyone, and
38:16
Speaker 4: Northland has been the fairy tale story. And I think
38:20
Speaker 4: it also gives a lot of unions hope that actually
38:24
Speaker 4: if they get things right, they can be a force
38:27
Speaker 4: in the competition. We always talked about the lowest spending
38:31
Speaker 4: unions always going to struggle in the MPC competition. But
38:35
Speaker 4: here's Northland who is in that bracket and is now
38:38
Speaker 4: playing or one one away from winning the competition. So
38:42
Speaker 4: I think it gives a bit of hope too for
38:43
Speaker 4: other provinces.
38:44
Speaker 1: I wonder what Northland were paying at the tab at
38:46
Speaker 1: the start of the season.
38:49
Speaker 2: A lot.
38:50
Speaker 4: A lot I could have. Yeah, I mean, even just
38:53
Speaker 4: to make it this far into the final, I don't
38:56
Speaker 4: think anyone would have given them a shot.
38:58
Speaker 1: King Country winning the Meads Cup, Whanganui getting up in
39:01
Speaker 1: the Lahore Cup at the death, but King Country, this
39:04
Speaker 1: is the story as well. The Meads Cup going to
39:07
Speaker 1: the name of the going back where it belongs, arguably
39:10
Speaker 1: after the late, great Sir Colin Meads. This is cool.
39:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is absolutely cool. Yeah, that's another great competition. Actually,
39:19
Speaker 4: I spotted Joe Walsh running around for King Country, who
39:23
Speaker 4: Southland Rugby fans may know as a former Stags loosehead prop.
39:28
Speaker 5: But yeah, great.
39:29
Speaker 4: Obviously the, two South Island teams couldn't quite get it
39:33
Speaker 4: done there. But yeah, look, I think everyone will recognise
39:38
Speaker 4: the poignant moment that is of the Meads Cup going
39:41
Speaker 4: to King Country.
39:42
Speaker 1: And I always remember King Country back in the mid-90s.
39:45
Speaker 1: They were like the Stags. They were up or they
39:47
Speaker 1: were down, there or thereabouts. And in 95, when Southland
39:51
Speaker 1: almost stayed up there, but a guy called Michael Blank
39:53
Speaker 1: kicked a penalty to take us down. I know I
39:56
Speaker 1: can hear you wincing. It's still almost raw when you
39:58
Speaker 1: think about it. And all of a sudden, that's when
40:01
Speaker 1: Southland went up in 96, 97, promotion and relegation, and
40:03
Speaker 1: they got rid of.
40:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, that.
40:07
Speaker 4: That game.
40:08
Speaker 1: That stirs emotions.
40:09
Speaker 4: It does, actually. That was the most deflated I've ever
40:13
Speaker 4: been after watching a sports event, I reckon. And I
40:16
Speaker 4: remember being at a speaking event, actually in Gore, and
40:20
Speaker 4: Colin Meeks was speaking, and someone in the crowd asked
40:26
Speaker 4: a question about Southland losing a lot of their talent
40:31
Speaker 4: to elsewhere, and he said, well, Tribe of King Country,
40:35
Speaker 4: we were first division side at one point, and now
40:38
Speaker 4: everyone's leaving. So that was a real change of fortunes
40:43
Speaker 4: for them, wasn't it? But yeah, I mean, it's great.
40:47
Speaker 4: They found their niche, obviously, in that Heartland competition. They're
40:50
Speaker 4: still a passion there, whether it's Premier, Provincial Rugby, or
40:55
Speaker 4: in the media or the Hall Cup, the passion's still there.
40:58
Speaker 1: And how good does that King Country jersey look as well? Now,
41:01
Speaker 1: the Silver Ferns got the chocolates over the diamonds yesterday,
41:04
Speaker 1: but the bigger question remains regarding New Zealand netball and
41:08
Speaker 1: the competition replacing the ANZ Premiership for next season. From
41:12
Speaker 1: a Southern perspective, where do we sit here?
41:17
Speaker 4: Well, there's not a lot. I think that's the story
41:19
Speaker 4: at the moment. There is not a lot going. I mean,
41:22
Speaker 4: I'm sure behind the scenes there is, but there is
41:25
Speaker 4: not a lot of confirmation as to what what is next. Obviously,
41:29
Speaker 4: as you said, real bright moment yesterday for the sport
41:32
Speaker 4: of netball and what was a very commanding victory over Australia.
41:39
Speaker 4: But on the domestic front, yeah, not a lot of
41:41
Speaker 4: news at this stage and that is the story at
41:43
Speaker 4: the moment. We're inching closer towards the end of the
41:45
Speaker 4: year and when traditionally teams would crank up around signings
41:52
Speaker 4: and planning and everything and there's a bit of a
41:56
Speaker 4: bit of a gap there where we don't really know
41:59
Speaker 4: what's going on.
42:00
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're overseas, you're earning good coin and
42:02
Speaker 1: you're happy in your environment, what was a one-year sabbatical
42:06
Speaker 1: is going to turn into two. If you're happy in
42:08
Speaker 1: your surroundings, I mean, you're not going to be over
42:11
Speaker 1: there forever, but you might as well embrace it. And
42:13
Speaker 1: this will be the issue that Netball New Zealand's got
42:15
Speaker 1: getting players back.
42:17
Speaker 6: Oh, absolutely.
42:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you're dead right. I mean, at the
42:19
Speaker 4: end of the day, if you're if you're getting paid
42:21
Speaker 4: more elsewhere and living in a place, experiencing a different
42:25
Speaker 4: place that you quite enjoy, then it would be hard
42:28
Speaker 4: to pull them back. And that is going to be
42:30
Speaker 4: the next problem for New Zealand netball when it comes
42:34
Speaker 4: time when they can get a new professional competition up
42:37
Speaker 4: and running, luring these players back. I guess there'll be
42:41
Speaker 4: a bit of a rebuild where they bring some young
42:43
Speaker 4: players through and hope just to latch onto those and
42:46
Speaker 4: retain them. I guess that's probably... probably the hope, but
42:49
Speaker 4: there's a lot of water to go under that budge
42:51
Speaker 4: before they even get to that point of being able to, um,
42:53
Speaker 4: you know, to start rebuilding.
42:56
Speaker 1: One story last night, that was the Whitefords losing to Australia,
43:00
Speaker 1: but taking them to the death, only losing by two
43:02
Speaker 1: wickets with, say, eight balls up their sleeve, but I
43:06
Speaker 1: think the fact they took Australia so deep was a
43:08
Speaker 1: really positive, um, sign.
43:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, Australia is the benchmark
43:15
Speaker 4: in women's cricket, isn't it? Um, So, yeah, that is
43:18
Speaker 4: great to hear. There's been a fair bit of change
43:21
Speaker 4: around that, what firms set up, both in terms of
43:25
Speaker 4: coaching and senior players. So encouraging. Yeah, and I think
43:33
Speaker 4: any time we can push Australia and hopefully we can
43:36
Speaker 4: get some victories over them was a nice one.
43:39
Speaker 1: OK, Sav, local club cricket getting underway in a couple
43:42
Speaker 1: of weeks. I mean, the tennis competition on Saturday is
43:45
Speaker 1: dead and buried. There's one happening throughout northern Southland, I understand.
43:49
Speaker 1: But that's just the nature of the beast, and we
43:50
Speaker 1: talk about this time and again, the issues with the
43:53
Speaker 1: winter codes, but the summer codes aren't immune either.
43:55
Speaker 6: No, absolutely not.
43:58
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, across all sports, it's difficult. You know,
44:02
Speaker 4: cricket has... Well, we all know cricket's got its challenges
44:05
Speaker 4: right across the board, like we talked about netball's domestic competition.
44:09
Speaker 4: But right down to the grassroots, it is a challenge.
44:13
Speaker 4: I've got to do a little bit of digging to
44:15
Speaker 4: see where things are at ahead of the club season. But,
44:19
Speaker 4: you know, if I talk from the past, there has
44:22
Speaker 4: been a bit of a drop, I would say, in
44:25
Speaker 4: high school playing numbers. And that is eventually going to
44:28
Speaker 4: flow into, probably already is flowing into, making it tougher
44:32
Speaker 4: for senior clubs to put teams out on a sad day.
44:35
Speaker 6: So.
44:37
Speaker 4: Cricket is a sport that's dear to my heart so
44:40
Speaker 4: I hope that there can be a bit of a
44:42
Speaker 4: revival there but it is challenging in a world where
44:47
Speaker 4: it's hard to get people committing to long form competitions.
44:53
Speaker 1: A great message as well for anybody who wants to
44:55
Speaker 1: participate in summer sport by all means it does exist
44:58
Speaker 1: just go and look it up online as such Some
45:02
Speaker 1: of my Best mates, actually.
45:04
Speaker 4: Many of my best mates have come from spending many
45:07
Speaker 4: of said days playing cricket with them. They'll be memories
45:12
Speaker 4: I forever cherish. Beats sitting at home on a said day.
45:18
Speaker 1: Good on you, Sav. Keep up the great work of
45:20
Speaker 1: the Tribune. Always appreciate your thoughts.
45:22
Speaker 4: Thanks, Andy.
45:26
Speaker 5: Laugh out loud with Ag Proud, cos life on the
45:29
Speaker 5: land can be a laughing matter.
45:32
Speaker 1: Brought to us by Shearwell Data, working to help the
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Speaker 1: livestock farmer. The rule is always I before E, except
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45:42
Speaker 1: foreign neighbour called Keith. One day they call your name
45:48
Speaker 1: That's us out of here for the afternoon. The podcast
45:50
Speaker 1: will be up shortly, thanks to iHeartRadio. I'm Andy Muir.
45:53
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45:56
Speaker 1: Enjoy the afternoon. See you tomorrow, 1 o'clock.