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The Muster- Kylie Fisken: Malloch McClean +MORE · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Muster. Kylie Fisken and Mel McLean
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: bless more. Base Terran Gore joins us once again. G'day.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Seems like forever since I've seen you in here.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot's happened since though.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Quite a bit. How's things been anyway?
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: So yeah, spring. It's the time of the year when
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: farmers open their wallets and driving around the countryside it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: great to see freshly turned over ground. Well done to
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: those who burnt the midnight oil to get.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: That job done.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Of course, third wet spring in a row. My so-called
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: side hustle is obviously the family dairy farm and I
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: like to say that I manage the money. But when
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: it rains like that, there isn't much management involved. It
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: becomes a case of buy the feed, juggle the cash
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: flow and just get through.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Just do what you've got to do and things will
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: sort themselves out later on. Yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: I'd like to forget that the rain happened But I
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: can't and we shouldn't. So like I say, third tough spring.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: The funny thing about farmers, we're pretty good at moving on.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: The sun comes out, the grass starts growing, we get
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: on with it. Sometimes we even convince ourselves that last
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: year wasn't that bad until someone reminds us that it
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: was pretty rubbish too. So all the talk we're having
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: around the table now is about infrastructure issues.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Well, that's an important one, considering we've just gone past
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the 12-month anniversary of the winds too.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Indeed. You remind me of that day.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Well, you can't forget it, though.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: No, you can't. So around infrastructure, like 20 years ago,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: the number of calves that we used to have born
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: across that eight-week period are now arriving in three. So
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: we're asking a lot of our farms, and more than
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: ever before, In some places, we're already close to capacity
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: before the rain arrived. And I guess with money, or
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: at least equity floating around in our balance sheets, we
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: have opportunities to examine our farm weaknesses and the impact
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: across our animal, our human, and our financial health. So
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: whether it's lanes, drainage, storage, housing, or some other bottleneck,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: we need to make a plan. We need to prioritise it,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: we need to budget for it and if you do
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: that all before Christmas you'll have a much better chance
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: of getting tradies when you actually need them because we
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: all know if you ring a contractor in the middle
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: of a weather event you're probably about number 247 on
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: the list maybe.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: But that's the nature of the game unfortunately as well.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah it is.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of innovation going on out there in
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: our farming communities. Farmers are really good at sharing knowledge
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: so Once you've prioritised, found what it is that you
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: need to do, talk. Talk to everyone. Talk to people
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: that are doing different things because, yeah, that's how we
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: learn from each other.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: A lot of people considering composting barns and the likes
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: based on the season as well.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, you're nodding your head there, so you agree.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Get the conversation going.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: All I'm seeing is innovation. Get the conversations going. Lots
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: of people are doing lots of different things, feed pads, barns,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the whole lot. So it's a matter of finding your
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: pain points on the farm and then working out a
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: cost benefit strategy of what you could do and whether
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: it's financially viable. And like I say, putting first animals
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: and people.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: What about sheep farmers? Spring's going to be spring, I suppose,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: as well. You've just got to do what you can to.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: To get through.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: To get through.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, on that note, we've had a couple of alliance
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: contracts come across our desk lately in terms of the
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: terms and conditions to the alliance advance payment. Now, the
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: money is good. The advances are certainly attractive, but encourage
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: farmers to read the fine print carefully. Last season, I'm
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: going to remind you about last spring when the sun
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: didn't shine and there was no grass and our lambs
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: didn't get fat and we really struggled to meet our
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: commitments at the end of April to get our lambs
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: into Alliance. So, yeah, Mother Nature doesn't always respect their
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: plans and it can be a significant cost if supply
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: commitments aren't met. So there's a 12% interest charge plus
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: a penalty on top of that that they're saying if
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: you don't get your lambs in, that would be implemented.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Are you seeing anything but a seller's market at the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: moment regarding red meat?
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: No. No, not at all. Yeah, long may it continue.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And the fact we got $ 525 in Charlton there about
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: a month ago for a pen of lambs.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: And yes, it was a one-off, but.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Lawn villas cracked 500 upcountry. It seems to be pretty positive.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: And you're hearing a new season lambs, depending on where
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you're based, going for over 300 at the moment.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Is it making us nervous? Because reality is we do
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: have inflation on the other side of that. Remember, everything
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: we do uses fuel or some commodity. that is also
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: costing us extra. So we don't know where inflation is
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: going to land and what our margins are going to be.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: No, but it's the fact that you're actually getting a
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: reward for your product, I think.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: You're getting rewarded, but it is costing you money to
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: do it and costing you more money to do it
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: than it did before. I guess we've got an OCR
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: announcement today. I don't expect that to be a huge,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: huge movement.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: But yeah, in terms of that, definitely profitability pressure, but
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I think the profitability is still there.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Well, you pretty much summed it up, though, just regarding
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the Southland economy, Kylie. The fact that we are holding
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: our own and everything that's happening in this election cycle,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: love it or hate it, I mean, Southland just keeps cranking.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: That's the reality of the situation, right?
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: They can't really do much to hurt us because we
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: work really hard and we deserve to get paid for it.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: We can't control, at the end of the day, inflation.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: We can't control the wars overseas. We can't control the weather.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: But we can control how we respond. And farming... more
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: than ever has been about adapting, learning, and keeping an
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: eye on the next 10 years, just not the next
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: 10 weeks.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: It's a very good way to look at things, very
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: positive outlook.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Always.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Pragmatic. Pragmatic. That's a great word, eh?
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Isn't it indeed? You say the thesaurus out.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Thesaurus? Dinosaur? Maybe it's Google now.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: Is it Google now?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: No, it's all the top three inches. Don't worry about that.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Mail up a claim plus more. What's your deets?
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: You can flick us an email on hello at mmca.co.nz.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Give us a call here in the Gore office at
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: 03 208 5077 or in our Invercargill office, 03 214 4166.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Kylie.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Always good to catch up.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Andy.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Kylie Fisken of Mallet McLean Plus More. You're listening to
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: The Muster. Grant Butch is in studio next. Farm consultant.