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The Muster- Henry Buckingham: Lambing Date Change · The Muster on Hokonui

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  Speaker 1: The Muster Events Diary, brought to you by Beef and
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  Speaker 1: Lamb New Zealand. Click beeflamnz.com. Henry Buckingham farms at Tokanui,
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  Speaker 1: and he's gone against the grain. He's lambing in October
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  Speaker 1: this year. He's joining us this afternoon to tell us
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  Speaker 1: why his mindset has changed around an October lambing all
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  Speaker 1: of a sudden. Henry, good afternoon. Good to chat once again.
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  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Andy.
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  Speaker 1: First and foremost, off the top of my head, why October?
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  Speaker 2: Well, two main reasons for slamming in October have been
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  Speaker 2: to increase feed covers and increase survivability. Yeah, they were
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  Speaker 2: the two main goals.
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  Speaker 1: Just because of the weather conditions, like you said yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: you kind of felt vindicated for the change, I suppose,
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  Speaker 1: or for the short term anyway?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I guess the last few years we've got...
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  Speaker 2: smashed in September and it sort of just rains all
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  Speaker 2: of September so I got sick of doing the same
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  Speaker 2: thing and expecting a different result.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Did it take much convincing to get it over
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  Speaker 1: the line regarding your farming operation to think yep I'm
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  Speaker 1: putting everything back a month?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah I guess there's a few changes in the system
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  Speaker 2: that I've had to do to make it work but
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  Speaker 2: I'm just seeing positives with those changes at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah I always wondered why the high country farmers lambed
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  Speaker 2: quite late. And the way I see it is they
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  Speaker 2: just get smashed by the weather. So I thought, why
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  Speaker 2: can't we do the same? We're quite an exposed property
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  Speaker 2: down here on the top of Fort Rose Hill, basically.
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  Speaker 2: And we don't have a lot of shelter, so we
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  Speaker 2: do get a lot of lamb losses and bad weather.
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  Speaker 1: As far as your farming operation, what's changed, especially regarding
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  Speaker 1: winter grazing, given you've gone out four weeks?
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  Speaker 2: In terms of winter grazing, not much. We still have
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  Speaker 2: this switch we wintered on, actually, at the same time,
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  Speaker 2: because we were a wee bit short of feed going
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  Speaker 2: into winter. But, yeah, in terms of everything else, we're
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  Speaker 2: just on breaks a wee bit longer now. and given
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  Speaker 2: the grass a bit more time to grow after winter
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  Speaker 2: before set stocking. So, yeah, it's been good so far.
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  Speaker 2: We're sitting on a good level of feed at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: which is nice considering how wet it's been.
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  Speaker 1: Are the ewes still on breaks at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the main ewes are the ones that are lambing
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  Speaker 2: in October. We've still got an early mob that are starting...
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  Speaker 2: in a couple of days' time. So they've just been
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  Speaker 2: set stocked at the start of this week. But, yeah, yep, no,
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  Speaker 2: ewes are still on breaks, and it's a bit testing
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  Speaker 2: with the, but, yeah, we're just sort of keeping them
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  Speaker 2: moving and with a lot of feed, that helps too.
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  Speaker 1: It must feel a bit bizarre not having to do
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  Speaker 1: much as far as shepherding in September, I suppose, though. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it does.
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  Speaker 2: So I've gone from doing two or three years now
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  Speaker 2: of starting late August with some earlys right through to
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  Speaker 2: hoggets and to the start of November. So it does
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  Speaker 2: feel very weird not getting into lambing until now, but
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  Speaker 2: also hoping it'll be over with a bit quicker, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: which would be nice.
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  Speaker 1: What's going to change in your farming operation heading into
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  Speaker 1: summer then, given that you're lambing when you are?
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  Speaker 2: Um, I guess our mean kill date's been pushed back
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  Speaker 2: a little bit. Um, and it already sort of has
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  Speaker 2: the last year or two anyway with, um, sort of
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  Speaker 2: market volatility not being as bad. Um, we've sort of
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  Speaker 2: hung on a bit. So this might exaggerate that a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more, pushing things back. But, um, we're also
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  Speaker 2: getting really nice autumns which are allowing us to push
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  Speaker 2: lambs into there. And, um, So yeah, it's sort of
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  Speaker 2: flowing onto the whole system. Everything's been pushed back slightly,
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  Speaker 2: but we're, yeah, filling heavier lambs for it.
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  Speaker 1: So when do you hope to wean?
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  Speaker 2: We'll wean just after New Year, I think. We'll probably
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  Speaker 2: wean some early stuff pre-Christmas still, just to get on
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  Speaker 2: to some of the summer finishing crops. But yeah, we'll
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  Speaker 2: do the main lot after New Year, and we probably
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  Speaker 2: won't look at getting a lot away at weaning. with
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  Speaker 2: sort of chasing the heavier weights. I've been leaving, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: not taking as many off at leanings, and it hasn't
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  Speaker 2: really affected us. If we think that there's going to
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  Speaker 2: be a massive crash in the market, then it might change, but, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: at this stage, that's the thinking.
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  Speaker 1: What about sharing dates, Henry? Does that come into the
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  Speaker 1: equation at all?
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  Speaker 2: Yes and no. Some of our old girls... Yeah, they'll
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  Speaker 2: probably be shown still similar time, but we are sort
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  Speaker 2: of moving towards a Wiltshire cross, so there's a bit
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  Speaker 2: to think about there with sharing dates. They're probably not,
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  Speaker 2: so you probably don't need to rush in and share
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  Speaker 2: them so much. The younger years are sort of shooting
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  Speaker 2: a bit, so yeah.
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  Speaker 1: People you've talked to with the later lambing date, what's
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  Speaker 1: their initial reaction been? Because I was speaking to a
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  Speaker 1: guy yesterday and he's seeking the same thing. He's had
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  Speaker 1: a gut full of September.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone seems a bit shocked when I say how
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  Speaker 2: late I pushed it.
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  Speaker 1: What actually is your lambing date?
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  Speaker 2: The 5th of October for the May news and the
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  Speaker 2: Hoggets all at once. So it's going to be a
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  Speaker 2: bit of a workload then, but Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you'll arguably be a case study for a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people too. They'll be monitoring what you're doing very carefully.
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  Speaker 1: They might not say it, but trust me, they will
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  Speaker 1: because there may be mythic behind your logic here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yeah, like I say, I don't really know
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  Speaker 2: myself yet how it's going to play out, but I've
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  Speaker 2: got a bit of a plan and hopefully we can
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  Speaker 2: stick to it as close as possible.
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  Speaker 1: Like, if the weather was actually a bit drier, were
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  Speaker 1: you contemplating doing tractor work in September, then looking at October,
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  Speaker 1: just leaving it free for the lambing as such? Do
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  Speaker 1: things change in that department?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%. Yep. I always thought in the back of
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  Speaker 2: my mind there'll be an opportunity to get on the
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  Speaker 2: tractor in September if we do have a good one. But, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it hasn't looked even close yet. So, yeah, that'll still
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  Speaker 2: be pushed into the end of October as well. So... Yep,
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  Speaker 2: we'll be busy, busy, I'd say.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be really interesting, Henry, going forward, how
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  Speaker 1: it works for you, putting your lambing date back to
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  Speaker 1: early October. Look, thanks for your time this afternoon. And, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: go out there. What are you doing this afternoon, for example?
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  Speaker 1: What's on the agenda?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I've actually got a bit of hemlock to pull out, Andy.
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  Speaker 2: I found a bit there the other day and a
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  Speaker 2: couple of ewes got poisoned, so I'm off to sort
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  Speaker 2: that problem out. And then I'm heading in to pick
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  Speaker 2: up a Scottish girl that's going to come and help
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  Speaker 2: us with lambing. So bring in the reinforcements, I guess,
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  Speaker 2: for the higher workload.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Hey, good on you, Henry. All the best for
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  Speaker 1: lambing in October. Thanks for your time again.
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  Speaker 2: Righty. Thank you.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Henry Buckingham, lambing in early October. Graham Butcher. There you go.
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  Speaker 1: It's happening. Up next, we're going to Napdale. Pete Gardine.