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The Muster- James Edgar: Onwards And Upwards · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: We're away to West Otago this afternoon on the muster,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Mower Flat to be precise, where we catch up with
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: James Edgar. Good afternoon, James. We spoke to you two
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: weeks ago. How good to finally see the sun today?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I sort of thought after the Last time we talked,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I probably had a bit of disappointment. But I sort
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: of thought, oh, well, you know, we just land for
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: that long. Maybe that was sort of the time we
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: were going to get it. It certainly hasn't stopped. I
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: think this spring for me would be probably the mentally hardest.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I farmed through 2010. That was more
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: like a sprint. It was a week, 10 days, and
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: you were just going, doing everything you could, really, and
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: you know and then you're absolutely buggered but then the
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: sort of sun come out and things didn't look as
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: bad but to be honest like this year it's probably
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: been six weeks of really hard slog and probably a
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: shout out from the sheep farmers I know those dairy
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: guys like they've been calving for a long time now
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and they haven't had a break either and no I'd
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: just say yeah she's been a been an absolutely terrible
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: spring this one for us the grass growth is probably
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: a problem going forward but Yeah, we'll sort of set
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: it up. Hopefully this weather's coming right because, to be fair,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: there's plenty of moisture in the soil, Andy. There's no
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: sign of a drought coming shortly.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: You were saying just before that you've had eight snowfalls
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in September. That's unbelievable.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've had eight. We probably always have a snowfall. Yeah,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: but that's a lot. And we haven't had the fine
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: days in between, like, I don't know, what have we had,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: about three days of sun in the whole of September?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: It's just been quite gloomy. I don't think our lamb
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: losses have been disastrous as opposed to some of those
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: other big weather events. It's just been so much wind
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: that's blown them over the gullies. And by the by,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I don't think our lamb drop will be massively different
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to what I'd expect. But the grass covers going forward
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: is going to be quite a problem there. Lambs are
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: very muddy, like I've had enough of sitting in mud
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: and wet all the time. Yeah, and then we've had
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: a little bit of black udder already showing up, tapinui,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: and there's definitely a few more lambs with like sore
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: feet and a few bits and pieces. But I will
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: say if we got 10 days of 17 degrees of
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: sun at the moment, it is amazing how the farm
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: turns around at this time of year. You know, even
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: when you drive around, you look at the lambs looking
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: good and you feel a hell of a lot better,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I know that.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I was just about to ask you that same question, James,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: how long to correct the situation as far as the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: soggy ground, because depending on where you are in the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: province and you're hearing various reports around rainfall being over
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: 250 mils for a month, well, that's not sustainable, regardless
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of soil temperature.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I think last September we were about 70 to
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: 80 mils, but it was just really cold, probably colder
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: than this year. And then this year here, we're heading
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: up to 200 mils for the month, so... For us,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: we have an average rainfall of 950, so whatever that is.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Almost a quarter of our rain, or heading towards a
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: quarter of our rain in one month. We're just not
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: really set up for that year. It's been so unusual.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: We've sort of had flooding, but I wouldn't say bad flooding.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: But it's just every single day it rains. I suppose
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: it's been good and bad, depending how you take it,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: but Yeah, the sun's come up now, Andy, so we're
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: just trying to flush the dunny, I suppose, of what
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: we've done so far. And the hoggets are just about
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to start, or just starting, tidy up up the hill.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: There's a few different things we'll do this year. We'll
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: definitely shed out our wet dries on the hill country
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: in another couple of weeks or 10 days. Just every
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: animal that's not eating grass, they'll disappear. so they don't
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: need to be there. We've got about 500 stock units
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: of cattle coming off Fodderbeak today, and then I've got
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: another 1,000 stock units coming off in about a week
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: or 10 days. So, yeah, we really need things to
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: start rattling now.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So the pressure's going to go on, given that the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: winter crops are all finished. Do you have a plan
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: B in place if needed?
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it comes back to that argument. I know I
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: was talking to Joseph one day about winter grazing, and
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the reality is... What a tool. We physically couldn't have
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: fed those stock units on grass in light of the
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: whole situation. Because I still think we've actually fed our
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: sheep reasonably well up to this point. So that's how
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: important it is to us to carry those stock units.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: And I know Joseph, he was talking about dropping. Well,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: he asked me when Chloe Swarbrick asked him why we
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: do it. I said, well, to handle the feed surpluses
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: that should theoretically come. Because we will need those stock
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: units Yeah, I'm not writing the season off just yet.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Sometimes on a sheep farm, you can actually have lowish covers.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Provided you grow away, you get a lot of clover
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: in the bottom and you can actually have better lambs
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: at weaning actually on the way through and there might
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: be a few less triplets running around. So it's all
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: about the kilos you sell out the gate. It's not
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: your lambing percentage through the tailing pen sometimes. So that's
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: how we're just mentally readjusting our year, I suppose. We'll
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: probably try and take some lambs bigger try and get
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: a weaning draft at that good money early on. I'm
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: pretty confident about the prices this year actually, which is great.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: You say it's been mentally taxing. How's it been on
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the staff? How have they coped?
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: I think by the by we've looked after each other
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: pretty well to be fair. There's been a lot of
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: videos going around and some of those days we have
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: a group chat and when you see a ewe tucked
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: up with her twins under a tussock bush and snowing
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: sideways but she's looking after them pretty amazing what those
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: sheep can do sometimes so we make sure we get
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: that on the chat and it's actually harder lambing on
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: flat country in my opinion because when it's all turning
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: to crap you're out there battling away and you can
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: really make a difference just by working hard but on
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: our hill country we just don't want bikes out there
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: in that weather where A, scaring all the sheep out
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: of shelter when they're blown over and B, it is
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: dangerous like You know, you have to, if you end
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: up having an accident on a motorbike, then that puts
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: you out for the next six months where you haven't
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: really done your farm justice, have you?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Based on the season we've had and the springs previously, James,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: has it got you thinking about your farming systems for
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: September and if you want to change anything?
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: That's a great question, Andy. I know there's been a
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: lot of talk about the lambing day. So interestingly, we've
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: been going the other way. So we were pulling it
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: forward earlier. Just trying to maximise covers going in, so
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: we're probably going on crop a bit earlier and then
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: trying to grow a bit more and then we bring
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: it forward. And the reason we bring it forward was
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: we found when we were lambing later and then we
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: were weaning everything after Christmas, the problem was after Christmas,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: because you've got all your ewes and all your lambs
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: stocked right up to that period, quite often you have
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: very low grass covers or just enough, 1200, 1400. And
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: then we found if you're heading straight into our traditionally
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: dry time, So you just didn't have the time to
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: grow the grass covers for your summer and set your
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: autumn up, if that makes sense to you. Yeah, so
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: it was catch 22, so we've been bringing it forward,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: and then now we wean probably two-thirds, or at least half,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: two-thirds of our sheep, even at mower flat before Christmas,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: sort of just that week before Christmas. And then that
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: just allows us, while there's still moisture in the soil,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: to get those ewes mobbed up, not eating grass, and
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: then quite often our lambs are going on a lot
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: of lamb fattening grass and then it just allows us
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: to grow a feed buffer for uh the summer and
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: the next autumn so this is something you've got to
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: watch if you're dragging it back all the time you
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: do run into uh later in the season you can
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: run into you know growing less grass i guess and
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: the other thing to be aware of is the grass
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: quality drops when you start going to seed as well
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: so um as i say even where we are now
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: if we actually got 10 days or a couple weeks
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: of just cranking weather like um the clover and the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: grass quality on the sheep farm would just be phenomenal.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Those are just a couple of things we've found. We've
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: actually found we've been getting probably more lambs away at
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: weaning before Christmas, just because that grass quality is still
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: better and the lambs are just more sappy, is what
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: they call it, but yeah, just fatter, because the ewes
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: are still milking a bit more and I suppose the
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: lambs are a little bit younger, but yeah, and the
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: grass quality is sort of a bit higher, so combination
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: of those reasons Andy so it's one thing with the
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: biological system I suppose you know in a farm you've
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: got to set it up to and everything you do
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: has got a consequence some other way doesn't.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: It good on you James thanks for your time great
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: to see the sun long may it last.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah fingers crossed Andy for about two weeks of 20
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: degrees because that's what I'm banking on.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: James Edgar of Moa Flat. This is the muster on Hokunui.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Up next, Penny Simmons, MP for Invercargill.