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The Muster- Nigel Woodhead: Tailing and Tractor Work · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster as we look out over
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Main Street and there's blue sky in abundance.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Beautiful day here.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Nigel Woodhead, farming in South Otago between Balclutha and Milton.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon. The state of play. Do you have the
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: big yellow out?
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, afternoon. And excuse the background noise. There's a squirrel
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: flying over with a bucket underneath it, which means there's
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: a bit of your air about to go on somewhere,
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I'd say, by the look of it. Yep, beautiful, beautiful day.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: primo October spring day, so we'll take it. Great.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Are you drying out there compared to where you're at,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: given we've had a bit of good weather recently? I
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: suppose that's a straightforward answer, is it?
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, we're probably looking about as good,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: if you look over the farm, looking as good as
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: we need to be, really, considering how things were a
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: month ago. So, no, no, we're ticking along pretty good.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: We Covers are starting to come back. There's actually a
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: wee bit of grass starting to lift in front of
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: yews or underneath yews and lambs that are set stock.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: We were just talking off air. I'm shuffling some hoggets
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: with their lambs at foot around at the moment because
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I must have cocked my mass up or something. They
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: ended up getting set stock a bit lighter than what
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: they would usually be set stock at. So there's a
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: bit of feed underneath them. So we'll just tighten the
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: old hoggets up a wee bit. and then bring some
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: ewes onto the hoggart block just to give them a
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: bit more space as well. So just a bit of
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: shuffling around to try and make sure we look after
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: some pasture quality and keep everything adequately fed, yeah.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: What are your gateways like?
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Oh, some of them are like trying to drive over
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: the moon, driving through all the rut, especially... Like, just the... Oh,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: there's one laneway. We actually just finished the fencing in
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the winter, actually, and we haven't got rock down on
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: the laneway yet, and we had a paddock of Swedes
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: out down there. We'd taken baleage and hay through the winter,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: so the track was up and down that laneway a
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: fair bit in the wintertime, and, yeah, it's a bit
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: of a bombsite, and it's the main access to one
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: part of the farm, so... Yeah, but it's getting close
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: to being dry enough now. We'll probably stick the grub
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: or rotospike on and give everything a bit of a
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: knock around and flatten them back out again. But the
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: worst thing you can do is flatten all your ruts
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: out and then have an inch of rain and then
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: they turn back into ruts and soup again. So it's
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: got to get the timing right.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Geordie, you spoke yesterday of over 500 mils for August
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and September, which is a lot of precipitation, anyone's language.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I suppose you guys, you had a lot of rain,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: but not those figures?
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, nowhere near 500. I actually haven't sat down and
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: toted with that. But, I mean, they got to a stage,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: if I'm honest, where whether it was 50 mils or 500,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: the fact that we were getting some moisture every day
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: just meant it stayed wet. Like, you know, we were
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: saturated at the start and then there's more rain on top. Yeah,
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: I just, like I say, we were that wet and
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: it was raining that off and went, like I say,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: whether it was 50 or 100 or 500, it probably
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: wasn't a whole lot in it because once it got
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: saturated and muddy, it just, yeah, it was muddy and
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: it was saturated and it was what it was. So, no,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: we're nowhere near that sort of total. Yeah, that's a
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: whole lot of rain, man, and it just makes life
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: makes life difficult, all right.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Tractor work and tailing, the obvious. When do you hope
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to get the tailing gates up and running?
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: Tailing, I spoke to the contractor about a week, 10
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: days ago, start of the month, and I told him
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to see him for a long time.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I said, go and do someone else for a while,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: but it sounds like he's in the area. He's got
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: a few jobs to do around here, and then he's
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: got to shoot back up inland from Dunedin for a
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: few days, and then he'll be back out late next week. So, Yeah,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: we're still a week away at least yet, which is fine.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: I reckon the last few years we've probably just been
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: early enough. So, yeah, it'll be good. We're sort of
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: usually around that 12th of October. I reckon it's just
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: early enough potentially. So, yeah, we'll probably be around the
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: 15th or something next week, which is good to get
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: some tails off. That'll be essential. We'll do everything apart
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: from the hoggets in one day, which is great. And
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: track to work. Haven't started yet, but I'm waiting on
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: a contractor to come. I'm a local fella to come
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: and plough all of the Swede and Fodderbeek ground, which
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: we don't usually do, but we just, you know, it
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: was that wet, we made that much of a mess
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: of it. If we were to put the grubber and
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: the rotospike in there, we'd just spend so much time
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: trying to beat down big hard lumps of, soil that,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: you know, that we're all soupy in the winter and
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: trying to beat them back down again, I reckon it's
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: better just to bury them and get some fresh topsoil
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: up on top of the ground to give us a
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: reasonable seedbed and it'll get all planted out in grass
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: in time and the grass roots will get that harder,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: lumpier stuff back into reasonable sort of soil structure in time,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: you know, it's the best thing for Of course, soil
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: structure is grass growing, and you can get some roots
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: into it, so that's what we'll do. So I'm waiting
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: on him. He'll be early next week, I think. Conditions
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: are good now for Matt, I reckon. There's a couple
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: of damp spots I might throw the grubber through in
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: the weekend, just open them up. He should get all
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: that ploughed, no problem at all, next week.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Just a massive shout-out to all the contractors out there,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: whether you're tailing or you're getting the tractors in the paddocks,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to be pretty full-on over the next few weeks, Nige.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And if it's anything to go by, a couple of
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: photos on social media yesterday, be prepared to have the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: sneak chain handy.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I might have seen those same photos, actually.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Mr Shallard.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Not naming names.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Not naming names. No, there's various ones around.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and, look, it's always just what happens this time
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: of year. We've all got jobs to do. Contractors have
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: got a list of farmers ringing them wanting jobs done,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: and so you start to push the boundaries when things
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: get a bit tight. But, yeah, no substitute for horsepower,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: so you just keep adding tractors on the front until
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: you get it out. But, yeah, look, we shouldn't have
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: to worry too much about that around here. But, yeah,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: definite shout-out to all the contractors who are under the
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: pump it's a busy time of year anyway without being
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: put back. Again, Hayden, who's coming to do this ploughing here,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: he said he usually likes to make a start on
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: his ploughing in September, just get the odd early leaf
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: paddock tipped over and just make a start, but he
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: hasn't turned a wheel yet. He hasn't done anything, so
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: everybody's behind. It's just life, and Like I said, 10
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: days ago when my tailing contractor rang and said, when
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: do you want to do some tailing? The idea of
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: a land cruiser and a tailing pen getting around the
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: farm just wasn't even anywhere near doable at the time,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: but you'd get around a piece of cake there now.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: You do quite a few calves there too as well.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Do budding and the likes must be coming up?
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the last of them will get debutted this afternoon.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: So we rear.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Well, traditionally we've read sort of 60-odd. We bumped it
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: up a bit last year, and then friends of ours
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: bought a lifestyle block this year that's got a big
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: set of covered yards on it. So we have filled
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: that with calves as well, so we're rearing about 140
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: in total. And, yeah, so the ones over at our
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: friend's place are getting debutted today, which are the later ones,
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: but they are looking an absolute picture. I'll tell you what,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: the calves are enjoying the warmth as well. you know,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: sun-filled shed, the calves just laying there in the sun,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: it's pretty awesome. So we'll get the last of them
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: debutted and yeah, probably, well, I think we've only got,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: what have we got, about 20, 22 or 23 still
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: on milk at our place, the rest of them are weaned.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Some of them are still in the shed just eating
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: pellets and straw. They'll go outside the next few days
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: and we've got a handful out in a nice sheltered paddock.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Must be.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: So yeah, that time of year.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Must be a pretty good lifestyle block if it's got
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: a set of covered yards on it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's actually the homestead and yard off a
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: farm that went to trees. Yeah, so it's either for
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: 12 or 14 hectares we'd better land and then they've
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: got a bigger set of covered yards than we do
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: on their 14 hectares. So we just sort of said
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: to them in the wintertime, would you be open to
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: filling your shed up with calves and they're doing the
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: feeding and everything um we just paid for everything got
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: all the sheets set up and then we'll pay them
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: per head for their for their time and labor and
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: the use of the sheet so it works well for
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: them um and it works well for us because it's
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: you know one thing we've wanted to rear more cars
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: for years but we just are really limited on sheet
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: space so um it's it's essentially given us shared space
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: that we don't have to build a big sheet ourselves here.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Who are your mates name give them a shout out.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, Kelly and Tyler, they're doing a bloody good job.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, their calves over there look an
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: absolute picture. They're big and round and glossy and looking epic.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: So they're doing a real good job, which is pretty
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: cool because it's the first time they've re-carved. Yeah, hopefully
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: it works for everybody. It's a bit of a trial
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: run this year, but if it keeps working, then we
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: might keep doing it in the future. Maybe even they
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: might get to a stage where they can raise some
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: calves themselves and sell them on the open market.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Nigel. Always a pleasure to catch up.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Enjoy the weekend.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Very good. Cheers, Andy. Hope all the listeners out there
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: are enjoying the sunshine and getting some jobs done. This
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: is what it should be like, eh?
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Nigel Woodhead in South Otago. catching up on a regular basis. Noise,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: good to catch up with noise. Yeah, just be careful
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: regarding those tractors in the paddocks as well. Sneak chains
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: are going to be a big ticket item at the
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: moment on Imagine.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Doug Avery's up next. You're listening to The Muster.