Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster Full Show: 24/09/26

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The Muster Full Show: 24/09/26 · The Muster on Hokonui

0:04
Speaker 1: Good afternoon and welcome to The Muster. Proudly brought to
0:07
Speaker 1: you by Peters Genetics. Andy Muir here until 2 o'clock.
0:10
Speaker 1: Thanks to your company. On a Thursday afternoon where we
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Speaker 1: see spits of rain falling. Who would have thought about that, eh? Nonetheless, it's, yeah,
0:21
Speaker 1: a continuation. Look, Phil Duncan on Weather Watch on the
0:23
Speaker 1: show tomorrow to look at the weather for the next
0:26
Speaker 1: seven days. But anyway, it's a busy old show, so
0:29
Speaker 1: we'll crank straight into it. The one and only Nickelback,
0:32
Speaker 1: Chad Kroger & Co. This is the tunes for your Thursday.
0:42
Speaker 2: Hōkanui' s five-day forecast with Twin Farm, Tehrom and Softex.
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Speaker 1: The proof is in the progeny. This afternoon, showers with
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Speaker 1: breezy nor'westerlies and a high of 12. Friday, morning showers
0:57
Speaker 1: with calm variable winds, 4 and 13. Saturday, cloudy with
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Speaker 1: breezy nor'westerlies, 4 and 17. Sunday, showers with breezy nor'westerlies,
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Speaker 1: 5 and 8. And on Monday, light rain and westerlies,
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Speaker 1: 7 and 9. Soil temperature is Clinton 8.2. Here we
1:14
Speaker 1: are at 5.8, Northern South and 7.5, Riverton 9.3, Te
1:18
Speaker 1: Arau 7.3, Titaroa 7, Winton 6.5, and Woodlands rocking in
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Speaker 1: at 7.5. We've got a wait in Mokorita to start
1:27
Speaker 1: the master this afternoon. As I get my paper, there
1:30
Speaker 1: it is. Matt McRae, catching up to see how things
1:34
Speaker 1: are going in the... in the September cycle. Dean Carson
1:38
Speaker 1: in the beef and lamb slot. He's a farm advisor,
1:40
Speaker 1: but he's talking about lambing dates. Henry Buckingham sparking a
1:43
Speaker 1: big conversation by the sounds of it last week regarding
1:46
Speaker 1: the stance he's taken with lambing for this year, putting
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Speaker 1: his main flock back into October. And Dean talks about
1:52
Speaker 1: what he thinks about this initiative as such. Harriet Bremner
1:58
Speaker 1: of Jericho Station at Manapouri has a chat. Tom O'Brien.
2:02
Speaker 1: Our Garston correspondent, just about Kings and Flyers season. We
2:06
Speaker 1: catch up with Tommy Tupper to see happenings up there
2:08
Speaker 1: in Garston anyway. And our resident sporting guru, Nathan Burden.
2:12
Speaker 1: An NPC revamp's on the cards. What does it mean
2:14
Speaker 1: for Southland? It'll be interesting how this unfolds. Now, David
2:19
Speaker 1: Morrison of PGG writes in, has a chat, talking these
2:23
Speaker 1: lamb prices. Jamie talked about it on The Country before,
2:25
Speaker 1: but Tegel just wishes to inform everybody that it was
2:28
Speaker 1: indeed his pen that sold for that. And coincidentally, I've
2:31
Speaker 1: just had a message in from the person who sold
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Speaker 1: these lambs as well. So certainly buoyant times, as far
2:38
Speaker 1: as the lamb price anyway. So you take your wins
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Speaker 1: on a Thursday. So without further ado, we'll crank into
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Speaker 1: the Yower next with Matt McRae. This is the muster
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Speaker 1: brought to you by Peters Genetics, 7 after 1. We're
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Speaker 1: away to Mokorita this afternoon to start the muster. Matt
3:04
Speaker 1: McRae farms that way in extensive sheep and beef operation.
3:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Matt.
3:10
Speaker 3: Afternoon, Andy.
3:10
Speaker 4: How are you?
3:11
Speaker 3: Good afternoon.
3:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, going very well, mate. Look, we're getting through September now.
3:15
Speaker 1: It's been a hell of a month for a lot
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Speaker 1: of people. What's the state of play where you are?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's too early to count down the hours to
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Speaker 3: the end of the month yet, but, yeah, no, we're
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Speaker 3: in the same boat as most of Southland and Mataga,
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Speaker 3: by the sound of it, just wet, wet, wet, wet,
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Speaker 3: and hopefully there'll be some light at the end of
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Speaker 3: the tunnel soon.
3:36
Speaker 1: Are you seeing any signs of growth? I mean, soil temperatures,
3:39
Speaker 1: all things considered, don't seem too bad. And the rain,
3:42
Speaker 1: it feels a bit warmer than, say, two, three weeks ago.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it comes and goes a wee bit. Like
3:49
Speaker 3: we were, for all the rain we'd had, we'd still
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Speaker 3: had growth. I think just when you get rain and
3:54
Speaker 3: wind and a few cold days, obviously the demand is
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Speaker 3: higher than what it would be on a sunny day.
4:00
Speaker 3: So they eat a wee bit more and trample a
4:02
Speaker 3: wee bit more. And certainly the stuff that have come
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Speaker 3: off crop are, reflecting that and looking around at some
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Speaker 3: of the dairy farms between here and Wyndham too, they're
4:12
Speaker 3: certainly feeling the effects of that in the second round.
4:14
Speaker 3: So I'd say it's certainly not as good as what
4:16
Speaker 3: it could be. The urine that we put on has worked.
4:19
Speaker 3: I'd hate to see what it would be like without that,
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Speaker 3: what our covers would be like, but you can see
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Speaker 3: strips in the paddock where they haven't got, so I
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Speaker 3: guess that's the sign it's working, isn't it?
4:29
Speaker 1: As far as your lambing beet, have you had to
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Speaker 1: change tack because of the conditions?
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Speaker 5: Not too much.
4:35
Speaker 3: Like... yeah, there's a few gateways and bits and pieces.
4:39
Speaker 3: We've got a, um, grass line out onto a new
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Speaker 3: block that has, um, yeah, it's got fairly cut up
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Speaker 3: and pretty hard to get a bike in and out
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Speaker 3: there after winter cropping out that way. So, yeah, I've
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Speaker 3: went and got a, um, drone and done a bit
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Speaker 3: of lambing with the drone to be fair, just to see, um,
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Speaker 3: when March draw used. So we'd been getting a few
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Speaker 3: casts at the start of lambing. So I probably navigated
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Speaker 3: a few hours driving around on the bike, tipping over
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Speaker 3: car sheet. But, um, Yeah, everyone's got their own system
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Speaker 3: for lambing, isn't it? But we don't deviate too much.
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Speaker 3: We want ewes in the long term that are doing
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Speaker 3: it themselves like everyone else. We try and breed by
5:16
Speaker 3: that mantra, but you've still got to know what's going
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Speaker 3: on all the time.
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Speaker 1: Brenton Howden, he talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Well,
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Speaker 1: before he got right into the guts of lambing, so
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Speaker 1: to speak, getting the drone out there in the mornings,
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Speaker 1: he reckoned a three-hour job turned into a 30-minute runaround.
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Speaker 1: He can go around and pick up the casts before
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Speaker 1: he got busy. So if you can get away with
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Speaker 1: it and you're not having the issues, you can see
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Speaker 1: the merit.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. And I did have a drone, but I got...
5:44
Speaker 3: I've been talking to another couple of mates about it
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Speaker 3: that have got reasonably modern ones and... how technology's changed
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Speaker 3: with zooms and things like that too. So yeah, I
5:54
Speaker 3: went and upgraded mine after listening to Brenton the other
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Speaker 3: day and shit, it's been good too. Zoom on it,
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Speaker 3: I can get around the farm in a battery and
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Speaker 3: zoom in from 100 metres high without disturbing stock and
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Speaker 3: get a fairly good look. So yeah, it paid for
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Speaker 3: itself in cast use in the first few days and
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Speaker 3: you can get some pretty cool footage along the way too.
6:13
Speaker 3: So it is a good bit of technology and it
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Speaker 3: saves a bit, like the bikes and that take a
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Speaker 3: fair hiding. sliding around gateways and that, but I'm probably
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Speaker 3: lucky I don't tie a trailer or anything like that,
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Speaker 3: so I'm just going to pick up a few dead
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Speaker 3: lambs and cast ewes. But the drone's certainly paying for itself,
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Speaker 3: and I know a few that have gone down that
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Speaker 3: track too.
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Speaker 1: Have you changed your stocking rates due to the inclement weather?
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Speaker 3: I haven't yet. Yeah, we've still got cattle on crop,
6:43
Speaker 3: and like we always plan for a wet plan at
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Speaker 3: some stage, it's just... I don't know if we're up
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Speaker 3: to D or E, plan D or E yet, but yeah,
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Speaker 3: it is on my mind to look at alternate, like
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Speaker 3: what our next move is, if we do get another two,
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Speaker 3: three weeks like this. But I guess we're lucky, the
7:02
Speaker 3: state of our industry at the moment, that we know
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Speaker 3: it's profitable to feed the stock and we're going to
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Speaker 3: get good payback on it. So probably look at things
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Speaker 3: like nitrogen or, buying in feed, and we can do
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Speaker 3: that with being fully confident we'll make a return on it.
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Speaker 1: Have you encouraged your staff to do that and take
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Speaker 1: a bit of time off farm, given the conditions? I mean,
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Speaker 1: I'm hearing of a few guys, like on a Saturday,
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Speaker 1: for example, the weather was hideous, so he went and
7:30
Speaker 1: had a round of golf where the course was open,
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Speaker 1: just to take his mind off things for a couple
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Speaker 1: of hours.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
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Speaker 3: Like I say, we're probably a week away from finishing
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Speaker 3: what would be a first round in lambing and just
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Speaker 3: started vaccinating hoggarts. It'll go in a week's time too.
7:49
Speaker 3: It's just about rotating it, giving everyone a chance for
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Speaker 3: a break and that'll increase over the next few weeks.
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Speaker 3: Opportunities for a bit more time off, especially the way
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Speaker 3: the weather's locking, we're not going to be racing out
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Speaker 3: to start burning diesel down this end of the woods. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: we'll certainly get into that in the next weeks too,
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Speaker 3: but I guess in the thick of lambing, everyone likes
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Speaker 3: putting their shoulder to the wheel and doing what they can,
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Speaker 3: isn't it? Just being mindful of that.
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Speaker 1: So what are you changing around taving or groundwork for
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Speaker 1: this year, Matt? Just pretty much what we said before,
8:21
Speaker 1: a matter of just put things in perspective and play
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Speaker 1: it as it comes?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've tried. You always try and rip in and
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Speaker 3: get stuff done. I don't have a great track record
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Speaker 3: at getting tractors stuck, so I'll probably leave it that
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Speaker 3: extra day and wait for the conditions to be good
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Speaker 3: now and shift work stuff too I'd rather put stuff
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Speaker 3: on track during the day and I'd jump on it
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Speaker 3: at night first thing in the morning and just keep
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Speaker 3: it working around the clock a wee bit better but
8:53
Speaker 3: yeah and it's just being one for one so if
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Speaker 3: you're using other people or sharing gear everyone's in the
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Speaker 3: same boat so just communication and a plan and yeah
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Speaker 3: working through it like the weather's going to come and
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Speaker 3: go but generally we get it in sooner or later
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Speaker 3: so it's Yeah, it's just one of those things in
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Speaker 3: the spring. Like I say, last year we had about
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Speaker 3: 400 mils in September, October as well. So, yeah, the
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Speaker 3: way I'm looking at it at the moment, we're not
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Speaker 3: actually too different from the last few years and we've
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Speaker 3: still managed to get everything done by Christmas.
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Speaker 1: Any cattle left on breaks? And if so, what's the
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Speaker 1: plan when they come off?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I've got most of the dairy stock are
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Speaker 3: off now. And, yeah, part of the Angus are too.
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Speaker 3: So I've got two mobs of Angus left I've got.
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Speaker 3: About five days of fodder beet left in front of them.
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Speaker 3: And yeah, the plan is with them that they'll get
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Speaker 3: set stocked in amongst the ewes and lambs. My plan
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Speaker 3: was that the grass would have been growing in September
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Speaker 3: and they would have had a bit of grass to
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Speaker 3: get spread out in amongst the ewes and lambs. But
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Speaker 3: that plan hasn't eventuated yet, so they'll suck it up
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Speaker 3: for a wee bit. And, yeah, and when the grass comes,
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Speaker 3: we'll get them in a bit of rotation. So, yeah,
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Speaker 3: I'd ideally have a wee bit more for them to
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Speaker 3: get them through another week or two, but it's probably
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Speaker 3: been double-shifting them a wee bit to keep them going
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Speaker 3: and settled during the last month. And that's certainly... They're
10:19
Speaker 3: knocking it right, so it'll be interesting to see how.
10:20
Speaker 5: They play out.
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Speaker 1: Good on you, Matt. Always appreciate your time on the muster.
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Speaker 5: Very good, Andy.
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Speaker 3: Just thinking of everyone out there in the wet, and, yeah,
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Speaker 3: one day closer to a fine one.
10:32
Speaker 1: Matt McRae of Mocherita. By the way, Southland Rural Support Trust,
10:36
Speaker 1: they're doing their Brunch on Us events. Waikāia was today,
10:39
Speaker 1: I think next week's dipped in. 0800 787 254. Get
10:43
Speaker 1: in touch with the Southland Rural Support Trust. There's always
10:46
Speaker 1: somebody at the end of the line to have a
10:47
Speaker 1: chinwag with you if you need it. Dean Carson's up
10:50
Speaker 1: next on the Beef and Lamb Slot. The Muster Events Diary.
10:56
Speaker 1: Brought to you by Beef and Lamb New Zealand. Click beeflamnz.com.
11:04
Speaker 1: Dean Carson joins us in the Beef and Lamb Slot
11:07
Speaker 1: of Farm Advisor talking about the spring here in the south.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's the obvious, but it's certainly something for
11:14
Speaker 1: discussion on, I suppose. What's your plan heading into October? Dean,
11:18
Speaker 1: good afternoon. Good to catch up again.
11:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to be here, Andy. Thanks for having me.
11:24
Speaker 1: Right, straight off the bat, Dee, we've had the third
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Speaker 1: spring in a row that has been very, very wet
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Speaker 1: and how are farmers, how are they coping? What are
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Speaker 1: you seeing?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, a range of responses. I think some are taking
11:39
Speaker 2: it in their stride. They've almost been normalised to this now.
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Speaker 2: You know, they're kind of like, oh, it's just another
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Speaker 2: wet spring. I think that's probably the minority. A majority
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Speaker 2: are showing reasonably severe signs of stress. You know, the frustrated,
11:55
Speaker 2: they're tired, they're really unhappy and probably trying to find
12:02
Speaker 2: significant ways to change their farm systems. And a few
12:05
Speaker 2: are under really high levels of stress. I've seen a
12:09
Speaker 2: few farmers that are talking about selling blocks of land
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Speaker 2: and things like that. Probably the minority, but they're definitely
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Speaker 2: showing really high signs of stress.
12:21
Speaker 1: Normalising this weather pattern for September, though, and getting used
12:24
Speaker 1: to it. I mean, it never used to be like this.
12:27
Speaker 2: No, I'm not sure this is the new normal, though.
12:31
Speaker 2: You know, is this three years of unfortunate spring? I
12:36
Speaker 2: don't know. You know, normally when we do get changes
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Speaker 2: in weather, it's very slow and subtle. So, you know,
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Speaker 2: I don't think this is the new norm. I'm no
12:46
Speaker 2: great weather forecaster, but I don't think weather... Well, climate
12:50
Speaker 2: doesn't change that rapidly. It only changes slightly.
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Speaker 3: So, yeah, I do sort of.
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Speaker 2: Caution farmers not to make radical changes based on the
13:00
Speaker 2: last three years. I think it's a good idea to
13:03
Speaker 2: think about your system and try and figure out ways
13:06
Speaker 2: to make it more resilient and more robust to issues
13:09
Speaker 2: like this.
13:10
Speaker 3: But, yeah, I get a.
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Speaker 2: Little bit nervous about people, especially now when they're under
13:15
Speaker 2: sort of stress and emotional stress, making really big systems
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Speaker 2: changes to their farms.
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Speaker 1: Henry Buckingham on the show last week, and that's perked
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Speaker 1: a lot of interest, Dean, changing his lambing date to
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Speaker 1: the first week of October, and he won't be the
13:28
Speaker 1: first one.
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Speaker 2: No, no, yeah. Every second farmer's talking about that interview,
13:34
Speaker 2: to be honest.
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Speaker 1: But they're looking, like you say, they are looking at
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Speaker 1: changing their farming operation. They just want to negate that
13:40
Speaker 1: six-week September window.
13:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I guess if you do change to October,
13:47
Speaker 2: do we end up with three years of bad weather
13:49
Speaker 2: in October? We get these spring storms, there's a real
13:54
Speaker 2: chance that it's kind of a luck issue as to
13:59
Speaker 2: when those storms hit. We do have to remember why
14:04
Speaker 2: we set up our landing date to sort of that
14:07
Speaker 2: mid-September period. and that is that we try and match
14:12
Speaker 2: our feed supply with our feed demand. You know, typically,
14:17
Speaker 2: if we just do some real rough math, if you're
14:20
Speaker 2: stocking 10 years to the hectare, the twins and triplets,
14:24
Speaker 2: they're eating three kilos, you're demanding 30 kilos a day.
14:29
Speaker 2: And typically in mid-September, you know, it's usually providing 25,
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Speaker 2: 30 or thereabouts, around about the 15th or the 20th.
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Speaker 2: So that's what we try and do. We try and
14:40
Speaker 2: match that demand with the supply. What we've got at
14:43
Speaker 2: the moment is temperatures that are probably resulting in pasture
14:47
Speaker 2: growth rates more like 17, 18. And so pasture is
14:52
Speaker 2: on the decline. So yeah, what we're seeing is pasture
14:55
Speaker 2: covers falling. But I don't think every year this will happen.
15:01
Speaker 2: And there's a real chance that some years we'll end
15:03
Speaker 2: up with really good pasture growth rates in September. And
15:07
Speaker 2: in that scenario, there's a risk that we end up
15:10
Speaker 2: creating pasture quality issues later on if we push our
15:14
Speaker 2: lambing later. So yeah, we do need to remember why
15:18
Speaker 2: we go in mid-September. There is a reason for it.
15:22
Speaker 1: So how do we view the next six weeks, given
15:25
Speaker 1: the situation's been so wet and that we need peak
15:27
Speaker 1: milk out of use?
15:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, really good question. I'm tackling sort of the future
15:34
Speaker 2: a lot with clients at the moment. There was quite
15:37
Speaker 2: an interesting bit of research out of Woodlands done a
15:39
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, it was published in 2025, where
15:44
Speaker 2: they looked at whether urea worked in a sheep system.
15:49
Speaker 2: They put urea on and what it did was it
15:52
Speaker 2: lifted pasture covers in late September from around 1500 up
15:58
Speaker 2: to about 1800 by December, where on the control the
16:02
Speaker 2: pasture declined from around 1,500 down to 1,300, 1,400. You know,
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Speaker 2: quite normal. A lot of farmers will end up with
16:12
Speaker 2: 1,300 covers in October and into November. And the difference
16:16
Speaker 2: between those two systems was huge in terms of the
16:20
Speaker 2: weaning result. The block without urea had a 7% weaning
16:28
Speaker 2: off mum to the works. That's how many lambs went
16:31
Speaker 2: to the works, where the urea... that had the higher
16:36
Speaker 2: covers went to 23% off mum. So a very, very
16:41
Speaker 2: big difference between those two treatments. And the point is
16:45
Speaker 2: not urea is the solution, the be-all and end-all. It's
16:50
Speaker 2: that to maximize our weaning result, we probably need covers
16:54
Speaker 2: through October and November more like $ 1, 600, $ 1, 700 rather than
16:57
Speaker 2: $ 1, 300 and $ 1, 400. So what I'm keen to see farmers
17:03
Speaker 2: do is to start monitoring their pasture covers, you know,
17:06
Speaker 2: get the sword stick out and start getting a feel for.
17:09
Speaker 5: Where it's at.
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Speaker 2: And if you are finding that your covers are definitely
17:13
Speaker 2: going to be 12, you know, there's quite a few
17:16
Speaker 2: covers that are 1,000 at the moment. But if we
17:19
Speaker 2: find that into October they're not recovering and they're not
17:23
Speaker 2: getting up above 1,500 into that 1,600, 1,700 range, then
17:28
Speaker 2: we probably should start thinking about options like urea or
17:33
Speaker 2: other ways of reducing our demand on farm.
17:36
Speaker 1: Well, when you say demand on farm, you're talking about
17:39
Speaker 1: changing your stocking rate.
17:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, potentially, do I graze off? How can I get
17:47
Speaker 2: a bit more feed production on farm as well? So, yeah,
17:53
Speaker 2: some farmers have got cattle that they're exiting at the moment.
17:56
Speaker 2: They can just see that their demand is going to
17:58
Speaker 2: be pushed too low for too long into October. So
18:02
Speaker 2: there's all sorts of options, ways of reducing your demand
18:06
Speaker 2: or increasing your supply. So you really need to look
18:10
Speaker 2: at what those options are per farm. But essentially, I
18:15
Speaker 2: think we need to start targeting pasture covers of $ 1, 500,
18:19
Speaker 2: $ 1, 600 through October, November if we want to maximise our
18:23
Speaker 2: weaning results. And that's about trying to recover from the situation.
18:27
Speaker 2: How do we make the best out of what we've got?
18:30
Speaker 2: And yeah, as I say, I think the majority of
18:33
Speaker 2: my clients are looking at nitrogen at the moment and
18:35
Speaker 2: sort of saying, right, I might use a bit more
18:38
Speaker 2: once ground conditions allow.
18:40
Speaker 1: Well, the worst case scenario, I suppose, Dean, is the
18:42
Speaker 1: fact that the store market's pretty buoyant, although this could
18:45
Speaker 1: depend on Canterbury and how it goes through the summer.
18:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, that could be an option for some farmers. They
18:52
Speaker 2: store a few more at weaning time. It might not
18:57
Speaker 2: create a great, I'm talking about lambs, it might not
18:59
Speaker 2: create a great outcome through October, November. The store cattle
19:06
Speaker 2: market at the moment is pretty deflated. I'm trying to
19:10
Speaker 2: move a few cattle at the moment. They're quite hard
19:13
Speaker 2: to shift. I am hoping that once the weather improves
19:17
Speaker 2: a little bit, that market will get a bit easier.
19:21
Speaker 1: Good on you, Dean. Thanks for your time.
19:23
Speaker 2: Very good. Thanks, Andy.
19:25
Speaker 1: Dean Carson in the Beef and Lamb slot. Click beeflambnz.com
19:29
Speaker 1: slash events to receive the e-diary into your inbox every
19:32
Speaker 1: Friday morning. Harriet Bremner's up next. You're listening to The Muster.
19:50
Speaker 1: This is the muster on Hokonui. We're away to Jericho
19:53
Speaker 1: Station in Fjorda, not far from Manapōuri, where we catch
19:57
Speaker 1: up with Harriet Bremner. She is an author, she's a
20:01
Speaker 1: rural mental health advocate, and she's a previous winner of
20:04
Speaker 1: the Xander MacDonald Award. Harriet, good afternoon. How's everything over
20:09
Speaker 1: at Jericho Station? G'day, Andy.
20:12
Speaker 6: Well, I hate to say it, but it's just starting
20:14
Speaker 6: to rain again, just on the lambing beach. Didn't get
20:18
Speaker 6: as wet as what I have been lately. But, yeah, no, look,
20:23
Speaker 6: it's another spring on the horizon that we don't want
20:26
Speaker 6: to think. But for us personally, we've got a bit
20:29
Speaker 6: more feed than this last year. Don't have as many
20:33
Speaker 6: sheep to lamb on the flat, which is good for us. And, yeah,
20:38
Speaker 6: I'm just shuffling around some heifers and calves to find
20:41
Speaker 6: some feed for them.
20:43
Speaker 1: Did you change your dynamics after the previous two springs?
20:46
Speaker 1: Does that come into it, Harriet?
20:49
Speaker 6: Oh, look, probably the whole farming dynamic's changing all the
20:53
Speaker 6: time with our pasture renewal and all that kind of thing,
20:55
Speaker 6: but we do have more young stock cattle-wise on the
20:59
Speaker 6: flat now, so we haven't lambed the hoggets this year.
21:01
Speaker 6: I think I've said that to you previously, and we
21:05
Speaker 6: sold our terminal ewes and lambs at foot earlier in
21:08
Speaker 6: the year, so we've just got our two-doos.
21:10
Speaker 1: On the flat.
21:11
Speaker 6: Everything else is up on the hill, so... that makes
21:13
Speaker 6: that more manageable so really we're just focusing on pasture
21:16
Speaker 6: management for the young cattle stock at the moment and
21:20
Speaker 6: heifers nearly finished calving and yeah just got into lambing
21:23
Speaker 6: last week so just hoping that the weather gods can
21:26
Speaker 6: be a bit nicer to us moving forward maybe not
21:28
Speaker 6: given this weekend's forecast.
21:30
Speaker 1: Well actually heifer calving there no problems there everything's been
21:33
Speaker 1: as anticipated?
21:35
Speaker 6: Yeah no pretty good thank you we've pulled three out
21:39
Speaker 6: of the whole mob we actually put a hair of
21:43
Speaker 6: football over the heifers this year as well so yeah
21:47
Speaker 6: so it was the first time I've done that since
21:49
Speaker 6: I've been here but no they've been calving well and
21:52
Speaker 6: yeah not too much admin there which is good and
21:53
Speaker 6: they're all healthy and happy so yeah calves are a
21:57
Speaker 6: lot less admin than sheep aren't they?
21:59
Speaker 1: Do you enjoy working with cattle more just for that
22:02
Speaker 1: mere fact there, they're a lot less admin?
22:05
Speaker 6: Well look I enjoy both stock classes Andy but You know,
22:09
Speaker 6: the disheartening thing around sheep, I guess, is that every
22:12
Speaker 6: time they're in the yards, it's, you know, dagging or
22:14
Speaker 6: dipping or crutching or shearing or, you know, there's just,
22:19
Speaker 6: I guess it's felt in the last few years that
22:21
Speaker 6: there's so much work that we've done to our sheep
22:23
Speaker 6: and for not a lot of return, but this year
22:27
Speaker 6: is more positive. But then it's a hard one because
22:30
Speaker 6: I'm also extremely passionate about wool, as are a lot
22:33
Speaker 6: of farmers and this incredible product that we produce, but Yeah,
22:36
Speaker 6: you know, you get cattle in the yards and it
22:39
Speaker 6: sort of feels like the job's over and done with
22:41
Speaker 6: pretty quickly and there's not as much to it compared
22:45
Speaker 6: to when you've got 3,000 sheep in the sheep yards
22:47
Speaker 6: lined up to.
22:48
Speaker 7: Do X, Y, Z.
22:49
Speaker 1: Are you positive about the future of the animal? Or
22:53
Speaker 1: the fibre?
22:55
Speaker 6: Oh, look, I think hope keeps a lot of us
22:58
Speaker 6: ticking forward with them and I really like to think
23:01
Speaker 6: that wool is going to be recognised by the world
23:04
Speaker 6: as such a positive... fibre to be used in households
23:08
Speaker 6: and clothing and the like but we've just got this
23:11
Speaker 6: constant battle with the world as using products every day
23:15
Speaker 6: that have plastic and oils in them and it's very
23:17
Speaker 6: hard to compete with that and I think a lot
23:20
Speaker 6: of us don't realise how many things we use in
23:22
Speaker 6: a day that have those not so great things in
23:26
Speaker 6: them but wool has its place and we definitely have
23:29
Speaker 6: people out there that are supporting that side of the
23:32
Speaker 6: industry and buying those clothes and using the woolen carpet
23:36
Speaker 6: and insulation in our homes and things. So let's just
23:38
Speaker 6: hope that that continues to grow and we can keep
23:40
Speaker 6: sharing our story as farmers in the industry at the
23:43
Speaker 6: great job that we do at it over here in
23:46
Speaker 6: New Zealand. And yeah, just, I guess, hope that it
23:49
Speaker 6: continues to be on the up.
23:51
Speaker 1: Well, you've just answered that next question for me, Harriet.
23:53
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, do we need to
23:55
Speaker 1: sell the story of New Zealand wool better?
23:59
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, look, I think, You know, that's a positive
24:02
Speaker 6: thing that we can, you know, keep doing. If people
24:04
Speaker 6: are getting it from all sorts of angles, and it's
24:08
Speaker 6: everywhere that they look is this thing called wool, then
24:11
Speaker 6: you like to think that, yes, it is going to improve.
24:15
Speaker 6: But I don't know that we can rely on storytelling
24:22
Speaker 6: solely alone. But, you know, we might start to get
24:25
Speaker 6: out of my wheelhouse there, Andy, if we go global.
24:28
Speaker 7: Yeah.
24:29
Speaker 1: Well, going global is not always a bad thing, I suppose. Now,
24:32
Speaker 1: you're the 2023 Xander McDonald Award winner. Applications are opening
24:37
Speaker 1: up for this, and we caught up with you earlier
24:39
Speaker 1: on in the year when you were up at Christchurch
24:41
Speaker 1: at the announcement, and you just hear a lot of
24:43
Speaker 1: good things about this.
24:45
Speaker 6: Yeah, look, the award is one of those things that's
24:49
Speaker 6: very hard to put into words and explain the incredible
24:53
Speaker 6: outcomes that you get from being part of the Zanber
24:55
Speaker 6: McDonald family but what I would say to people is
24:58
Speaker 6: if you're sitting there wondering, you've gone onto the website,
25:00
Speaker 6: you're following social media, you're hearing advertisements about it and
25:04
Speaker 6: you're thinking about it, just do it because there is
25:08
Speaker 6: an age limit for applying for the award and I
25:12
Speaker 6: was one of those people that sat there and pondered
25:14
Speaker 6: it for quite some time and my mother-in-law actually was
25:17
Speaker 6: the one that gave me a wee shove and said
25:20
Speaker 6: just do it and I think, you know, sometimes you
25:23
Speaker 6: just need somebody to give you a push in the
25:25
Speaker 6: right direction. And if that can be me today for
25:27
Speaker 6: someone out there that's wondering, then please go ahead and apply.
25:30
Speaker 6: It opens up opportunities that you wouldn't dream of and
25:33
Speaker 6: connections with people that, you know, are just there to
25:38
Speaker 6: want to support young people in the industry and help
25:40
Speaker 6: them with their dreams, goals and aspirations. And, yeah, it's
25:44
Speaker 6: a very special award to be a part of. So
25:46
Speaker 6: anyone out there listening, please apply. Applications are opening in October.
25:51
Speaker 6: It's a great process to go through, even if you
25:54
Speaker 6: don't get through into the finalist list, just to reflect
25:57
Speaker 6: on where you're at and what your goals are and
25:59
Speaker 6: what you want to do next. It's a fantastic process
26:01
Speaker 6: to go through.
26:02
Speaker 1: And this is a great story too. You said so
26:04
Speaker 1: yourself about being backwards and coming forward and the rewards
26:08
Speaker 1: come to those who are actually prepared to put themselves
26:11
Speaker 1: out there.
26:13
Speaker 6: Yeah, and look, my motto in life is that if
26:16
Speaker 6: anything makes you a bit nervous or you think it's
26:18
Speaker 6: a bit scary, then it's probably something you definitely need
26:21
Speaker 6: to do. So it is hard to put yourself out there, but,
26:24
Speaker 6: you know, the rewards that you get from doing so
26:26
Speaker 6: are incredible, so definitely worth it.
26:29
Speaker 1: Good on you, Harriet. All the best on the lambing beat,
26:31
Speaker 1: the Savo.
26:32
Speaker 6: Cheers, Andy. Hopefully it's not too wet.
26:37
Speaker 1: Harriet Bremner of Jericho Station with some great words, too,
26:40
Speaker 1: regarding the Xander McDonald Award. Awards nominations opening up very shortly.
26:44
Speaker 1: This is the muster up next. We're away to Garston.
26:47
Speaker 1: Tom O'Brien, let's catch up. Welcome back to the muster.
27:05
Speaker 1: We're away up to Garston this afternoon and up in
27:08
Speaker 1: Northern South to catch up with Tom O'Brien, a correspondent
27:12
Speaker 1: up those ways. Good afternoon, Tommy Tupper.
27:15
Speaker 5: Oh, g'day, Andy. How are you going? Hey, listen, you
27:18
Speaker 5: were just playing Nickelback in the background there. Was that correct?
27:23
Speaker 1: Yes, I was.
27:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, listen, just before we came on here, I
27:28
Speaker 5: was listening to Chris Cornell. You know Chris Cornell of Soundgarden?
27:32
Speaker 1: Yes, the late Chris Cornell.
27:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
27:35
Speaker 5: So I listened to an acoustic version that he'd made
27:38
Speaker 5: of U2' s one, Metallica's one, and Harry Nelson's one, and
27:45
Speaker 5: he basically did his own acoustic mashup, and it was
27:49
Speaker 5: absolutely brilliant, and it just was a real reminder of
27:52
Speaker 5: what a massive loss to the world rock scene, you know,
27:57
Speaker 5: when Chris Cornell passed away. It was just like, man,
28:01
Speaker 5: he was... He was an absolute prodigy, that man.
28:03
Speaker 1: If there's anything the MTV generation taught us, it is
28:07
Speaker 1: that unplugged, which is having music in its rawest form
28:11
Speaker 1: with no electric guitars, basically a couple of, well, not
28:14
Speaker 1: electric guitars, but guitars, normal ones as such, and maybe
28:17
Speaker 1: a light set of drums, and it sets the scene.
28:20
Speaker 1: It's surreal to listen to sometimes in the right setting.
28:23
Speaker 5: Well, there's no auto-tune. There's no AI kind of fixing
28:27
Speaker 5: stuff up. It's very raw. I mean, I remember being
28:30
Speaker 5: in Dunedin one time and there was this guy called
28:33
Speaker 5: Paul Lubana Jones who's been around for years and years
28:36
Speaker 5: and toured around New Zealand, done churches and halls and
28:40
Speaker 5: pubs and gigs and all the rest of it. And
28:41
Speaker 5: I was at a gig in Dunedin and his guitar
28:44
Speaker 5: playing skills are out the gate, mate. His singing, he's
28:47
Speaker 5: cut to guitar playing skills and he was like jamming away,
28:49
Speaker 5: jamming away and he was going through the song. He
28:51
Speaker 5: was playing the guitar particularly full on, really, really rough
28:55
Speaker 5: as guts. And I saw one of his guitar strings
28:58
Speaker 5: go ping and like fly off the fretboard and sort
29:02
Speaker 5: of fly around and then hit the side of his guitar.
29:06
Speaker 5: And he didn't flinch. He did not flinch. He just
29:08
Speaker 5: kept going and just completely improvised and changed his tune
29:12
Speaker 5: quite literally. And, yeah, I just thought, wow, if that's
29:16
Speaker 5: not musicianship, I don't know what is. Just some of
29:19
Speaker 5: these people who are so talented. But, you know, sadly,
29:22
Speaker 5: as I say, someone like Chris Cornell, Yeah, I mean,
29:27
Speaker 5: I would have loved to have gone to a Soundgarden concert.
29:29
Speaker 5: That's probably one regret I've got in life is that
29:32
Speaker 5: I never went to that or Smashing Pumpkins, actually, when
29:34
Speaker 5: they came to Christchurch. But anyway, moving on.
29:37
Speaker 1: Now, your Dunedin days after going to school in Oamaru
29:40
Speaker 1: actually caught up with an old schoolmate the other day.
29:42
Speaker 1: He actually thought you became a priest.
29:45
Speaker 5: Oh, did he now? Well, you know, I'm a very
29:48
Speaker 5: priestly type of person, you know. I'm very devoid of
29:51
Speaker 5: sinful behaviour, Andy, so I'm not surprised that he would
29:55
Speaker 5: have thought that. You know, the amount of times that
29:57
Speaker 5: I've been to confession, I could probably count on my hand. And,
30:02
Speaker 5: you know, I amputated my fingers all except my thumb
30:05
Speaker 5: last week. So, you know, big thumbs up there. But no,
30:12
Speaker 5: big thumbs down. Didn't become a priest. Although, you know,
30:18
Speaker 5: I kind of have been living a priestly life. You know,
30:22
Speaker 5: I've been single for a while.
30:23
Speaker 7: So, yeah.
30:25
Speaker 1: Thomas O'Brien, single and ready to mingle. Put that on
30:30
Speaker 1: your profile, lad.
30:31
Speaker 7: Classic.
30:34
Speaker 1: Anyway, mate, look, the Kingston Flyer, you're the engineer there.
30:37
Speaker 1: It's a pretty prestigious title. We've talked about the Flyer
30:40
Speaker 1: with you a lot because it's a part of southern folklore,
30:45
Speaker 1: but it's due to be up and running again. This
30:46
Speaker 1: is awesome. I love it.
30:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, mate, yeah, look, we're very excited at the Kingston Flyer.
30:52
Speaker 5: We spent the weekend just doing a bit of work there.
30:56
Speaker 5: Neville and Miles and Dave and myself did a bit
31:00
Speaker 5: of work on the engine. Neville was inside the firebox
31:04
Speaker 5: replacing pretty much all of the fire bars. We replaced
31:08
Speaker 5: some of the two major superheater tubes, which need replacing.
31:14
Speaker 5: We replaced the spark arrestor, did a bit of work
31:16
Speaker 5: on that. The main pressure gauge needs to be refitted.
31:22
Speaker 5: The engine's going to have a bit of a touch-up paint.
31:26
Speaker 5: So that'll be black paint. So that'll look really good
31:29
Speaker 5: against the bright brass, which will be shined up beautifully.
31:33
Speaker 5: The carriage is almost completely finished painting those. Got to
31:38
Speaker 5: replace some brake blocks on the engine as well. But
31:40
Speaker 5: we've got our first run on Tuesday, our chartered run
31:44
Speaker 5: on Tuesday. with Sir Edmund Hillary's son, Peter Hillary Trust.
31:53
Speaker 5: They quite regularly come through and do a run with us.
31:56
Speaker 5: So we're pretty excited. I always have a mixture of
31:58
Speaker 5: nerves and excitement when we have the start of the season,
32:01
Speaker 5: but look, we've got a great crew, really, really positive,
32:05
Speaker 5: good people on board, so to speak. So yeah, we're pumped, mate.
32:08
Speaker 7: We're ready.
32:09
Speaker 5: We're building up steam and we're ready to go.
32:11
Speaker 1: Do you put the dungarees on and look like one
32:14
Speaker 1: of these guys bootlegging moonshine in the south?
32:19
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know. It depends on the day, mate.
32:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, look, some of the guys, the engineers, they get
32:24
Speaker 5: right into it and it's full credit to them and
32:26
Speaker 5: it's probably a bit of a deficiency on my part
32:28
Speaker 5: because I'm not really consistent in that space. Sometimes I'll
32:31
Speaker 5: sort of turn up with looking a bit rough and
32:34
Speaker 5: ready and all the rest of it. But some of
32:37
Speaker 5: these guys, yeah, they do put in a much better effort.
32:39
Speaker 5: They've got the proper NZR train hat with the um
32:43
Speaker 5: you know with the uh with the old logo and
32:44
Speaker 5: emblem and they've got a tie i mean i've still
32:47
Speaker 5: got my tie but i hardly ever wear it because
32:49
Speaker 5: i find it a bit annoying wearing a tie um
32:51
Speaker 5: while you're trying to shovel coal and and uh do
32:54
Speaker 5: all that stuff but that's just my piss poor excuse
32:56
Speaker 5: i suppose um but yeah i mean you know yeah
33:00
Speaker 5: wearing wearing a pair of overalls helps because you know
33:03
Speaker 5: there's coal dust and grease and oil and everything everywhere
33:06
Speaker 5: but um but yeah it is part of the uniform
33:08
Speaker 5: and i have to admit like i'm going to put
33:09
Speaker 5: more of an effort into uh Having a bit of
33:12
Speaker 5: a better presentation in that space and there's an expectation
33:15
Speaker 5: that everybody, including the guards and anyone who works for
33:18
Speaker 5: the flyer, you know, presents themselves as well as the
33:21
Speaker 5: mechanics of the beautiful vintage icon that it is.
33:28
Speaker 1: And let's remember NZR is New Zealand Railways, not New
33:30
Speaker 1: Zealand Rugby. Correct.
33:33
Speaker 5: In this particular case, yes, correct.
33:35
Speaker 3: Yeah.
33:36
Speaker 5: Although bearing in mind that it's not New Zealand Railway
33:39
Speaker 5: or it's not New Zealand Government Railways that actually owns
33:42
Speaker 5: or runs the trains. It is a private consortium that
33:45
Speaker 5: owns it.
33:47
Speaker 1: So how many people are qualified to operate the Kingston Fly?
33:51
Speaker 1: You don't drive it, you steer it, I suppose. You're
33:53
Speaker 1: an operator.
33:54
Speaker 7: Yeah. Well, you are a driver as such.
33:56
Speaker 5: I mean, it kind of steers itself because you're on rails, right?
33:59
Speaker 5: So if you attempted to try to steer it, then, yeah,
34:03
Speaker 5: you'd probably come unstuck and be off the rails a bit. But, yeah,
34:09
Speaker 5: I guess the term is driving. But a lot of
34:12
Speaker 5: people sort of say, oh, you know, how hard is
34:14
Speaker 5: it to stoke the flyer? And it's like, well, no,
34:16
Speaker 5: that's not quite the right terminology.
34:18
Speaker 1: That's good.
34:19
Speaker 5: You stoke a boat and you fire a train. So
34:23
Speaker 5: you've got to be very, very particular about that.
34:27
Speaker 1: You could chuck that on your Tinder too, mate.
34:29
Speaker 5: No, I didn't. Oh, look, I deleted that app. That's
34:33
Speaker 5: like going to the casino. I'm playing really well. I'm
34:36
Speaker 5: losing every time, mate. Black or red, I'm always in
34:42
Speaker 5: the red when it comes to that crap. So, yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:48
Speaker 5: And then you go to play poker and, you know,
34:51
Speaker 5: I might as well just be the joker, you know. Like, oh, yeah,
34:53
Speaker 5: they didn't take that card out of the pack. Here
34:55
Speaker 5: comes the joker, you know. The king of hearts, he's
34:58
Speaker 5: somewhere else, clearly. But anyway, how many people are qualified
35:03
Speaker 5: to drive the Kingston flight? That's a very good question.
35:07
Speaker 5: I mean, you asked me this question about how many
35:09
Speaker 5: sleepers were on the track. And I think we said
35:11
Speaker 5: about 22,000. And I don't know if you've done the
35:14
Speaker 5: fact check or not, and I don't know when I'm
35:17
Speaker 5: going to get my coffee out of you. Next time
35:19
Speaker 5: when I come to Gore, I suppose, because I reckon
35:21
Speaker 5: I would have proved you wrong. But I'm going to
35:23
Speaker 5: take a wild stab in the dark that there's probably,
35:26
Speaker 5: I don't know, there's probably seven or eight people in
35:31
Speaker 5: the Otago, Southland area that are qualified to drive the flyer.
35:37
Speaker 5: It's a bit of a guess, yeah.
35:38
Speaker 1: How long does it take to get qualified then? I mean,
35:41
Speaker 1: you don't have to set a course or anything. It's
35:43
Speaker 1: just time on the saddle, I'd presume.
35:45
Speaker 5: Well, it's a combination of practical and theory, Andy. So,
35:48
Speaker 5: I mean, back in my day, you know, when I
35:51
Speaker 5: sort of first started many, many years ago, I was
35:54
Speaker 5: fortunate enough when it was actually owned by New Zealand
35:57
Speaker 5: Government Railways to get the hours under the belt that
36:01
Speaker 5: I needed because it was full time. You know, it
36:03
Speaker 5: was going every day, pretty much every day, five days
36:05
Speaker 5: a week. up to three times a day. So you
36:08
Speaker 5: could really pump the hours out and you could really
36:10
Speaker 5: get the experience under that. In that time, it was
36:15
Speaker 5: under the guidance of the grandfather of steam trains, Russell
36:18
Speaker 5: Glenn Denning, rest in peace. So, you know, working alongside
36:25
Speaker 5: Russell and, you know, the likes of Keith and Neville
36:29
Speaker 5: Simpson and those guys in particular, Um, yeah, it's, it's a,
36:34
Speaker 5: it's a lot harder nowadays because you don't, you're not
36:36
Speaker 5: getting the same number of hours. Um, and there's, there's
36:40
Speaker 5: probably not the same, uh, amount of, or the same
36:46
Speaker 5: number of, of older experienced qualified people around who could
36:50
Speaker 5: give you the time, you know? Um, but yeah, it takes,
36:54
Speaker 5: it takes a couple of years. It usually takes a
36:56
Speaker 5: couple of years anyway.
36:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
36:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
36:58
Speaker 1: Good on you, Tom. We'll leave it there. Always appreciate
37:00
Speaker 1: your time and good luck for next week.
37:03
Speaker 5: Thank you very much, Andy. We'll see you on the
37:05
Speaker 5: steam train at some stage.
37:09
Speaker 1: Tom O'Brien. Train driving extraordinaire. You're listening to The Muster.
37:14
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, resident sporting guru Nathan Burden. What
37:16
Speaker 1: is happening with New Zealand rugby and its structure? Welcome
37:37
Speaker 1: back to the muster. Nickelback is amused today. The breakout
37:41
Speaker 1: hit from around late 2001, How You Remind Me. Our
37:46
Speaker 1: resident sporting guru joins us next, Nathan Bird, and good afternoon.
37:49
Speaker 1: That will bring back memories yet again at the shack.
37:53
Speaker 7: Much maligned, Nicolac, aren't they? Unfairly, unfairly maligned. Can we
37:59
Speaker 7: say that, Nicolac?
38:00
Speaker 1: You watched that Netflix documentary on them and it was weird.
38:03
Speaker 1: I looked forward to watching it, but I was disappointed.
38:06
Speaker 1: They more or less spent the entire two hours, whatever
38:09
Speaker 1: it was, saying, hey, guys, you're actually really good and
38:11
Speaker 1: we made a lot of money.
38:13
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, they rock out, don't they? And I
38:17
Speaker 7: guess they just got so big so fast that, you know,
38:19
Speaker 7: there's people out there that don't like that. And tall
38:23
Speaker 7: poppy syndrome kicked in, didn't they? But, yeah, I mean,
38:27
Speaker 7: you can't help but tap a toe, can you, once
38:30
Speaker 7: they get going.
38:31
Speaker 1: Perhaps Nickelback could lend the NDR some money or give
38:34
Speaker 1: the NDR some money and keep the NPC going.
38:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, they.
38:40
Speaker 7: it's not looking good for the NPC. I want to
38:42
Speaker 7: get too far ahead of ourselves, but, um, obviously this, uh,
38:46
Speaker 7: this massive meeting that's happening up in Wellington today, um,
38:49
Speaker 7: potentially as we speak with, uh, the future of, of
38:52
Speaker 7: men's rugby, um, in New Zealand, um, you know, to,
38:57
Speaker 7: to be in, in so many competing forces too. You've
39:00
Speaker 7: got the, you know, obviously the players association will have
39:02
Speaker 7: a view. You've got the provincial unions who have got
39:04
Speaker 7: a view. Um, super rugby is one of the cash cows, um,
39:09
Speaker 7: Cash cows and inverted commas, because it's also a bit
39:12
Speaker 7: of a loss maker as well. So many competing forces.
39:17
Speaker 7: The way the model works at the moment is that
39:20
Speaker 7: it doesn't work. New Zealand rugby is not sustainable. They're
39:24
Speaker 7: talking about $ 60 million losses over the next few years,
39:28
Speaker 7: and that's even when you throw in a... be a
39:30
Speaker 7: highly profitable British and Irish Lions series. So something's got
39:36
Speaker 7: to change, and as you say, the NPC is being
39:39
Speaker 7: talked about as one of those things that could change dramatically.
39:42
Speaker 1: So this could quite possibly be the last year we
39:45
Speaker 1: see the Stags?
39:47
Speaker 7: Yeah, there is a scenario where Southland is one of
39:50
Speaker 7: those unions that goes back into the... Goes.
39:54
Speaker 1: To Heartland, yeah.
39:55
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, into whatever that looks like going forward. And
39:59
Speaker 7: I guess, you know, if you look at the history
40:00
Speaker 7: of the MPC, 50 years, Southland's always been... We've been
40:05
Speaker 7: in this sort of uncomfortable position where we've just been...
40:07
Speaker 7: We are probably, or we have been, too good for
40:10
Speaker 7: second division. but we've struggled at first division and we're
40:15
Speaker 7: in this sort of weird purgatory in between those two competitions.
40:18
Speaker 7: So I guess one of those, you don't want to
40:21
Speaker 7: look into the crystal ball too much and get too
40:24
Speaker 7: doom and gloom about it, but I guess for all
40:27
Speaker 7: of those people who go, yes, it'd be fantastic to
40:30
Speaker 7: go back to amateur and you can go to the
40:33
Speaker 7: inner rugby park and watch the Stags win a few games.
40:37
Speaker 7: You've got to weigh that up against the fact that
40:40
Speaker 7: This is a professional sport now, and there's a pathway,
40:44
Speaker 7: and your Jimmy Taylors, your Jack Taylors, your Sean Willies,
40:48
Speaker 7: these sorts of guys, they will not hang around. They
40:53
Speaker 7: have to follow their dreams, and that won't be in
40:56
Speaker 7: a maroon jersey if this isn't a professional province.
41:00
Speaker 1: Is this just a tale of a tape? And realistically,
41:03
Speaker 1: there's going to be a few unions go down to Harland?
41:06
Speaker 1: I mean, dare I say it, Northland, if they beat
41:07
Speaker 1: counties at the weekend, they keep the log of wood.
41:09
Speaker 1: And if all this competition revamp goes through, it goes
41:12
Speaker 1: down with them.
41:14
Speaker 7: Yeah, I guess that's the irony of the situation, isn't it?
41:16
Speaker 7: We're focusing very heavily on the stories that we're being
41:19
Speaker 7: told on bolstering some of the major centres and, you know,
41:26
Speaker 7: You look at your Aucklands and your Wellingtons who are
41:28
Speaker 7: languishing towards the bottom of that MPC table. And at
41:33
Speaker 7: the same time, your Hawke's Bay, not so much the
41:35
Speaker 7: recent weeks, but definitely earlier in the season. And, I mean, Northland.
41:40
Speaker 7: Northland is the story of the MPC this year. And
41:46
Speaker 7: they would be in the same boat as us. They
41:47
Speaker 7: would be, you know, back into the amateur ranks if
41:53
Speaker 7: this did sort of play out so well. And from
41:57
Speaker 7: a personal perspective, I'm an NPC guy. I've never really
42:00
Speaker 7: been able to get on board with Super Rugby. I
42:02
Speaker 7: don't have a Super Rugby team. I don't have a
42:04
Speaker 7: great affinity with the competition. But it does create revenue.
42:10
Speaker 7: It creates a broadcasting deal. There's a lot of people
42:13
Speaker 7: whose livelihoods are tied up in coaching and managing and
42:17
Speaker 7: playing and the associated roles around these teams. It's a
42:22
Speaker 7: big industry, but something needs to be done to find
42:25
Speaker 7: a sustainable way forward.
42:26
Speaker 1: The Black Caps playing a T20 series against India starting
42:30
Speaker 1: next month, but these games won't be starting at 8
42:32
Speaker 1: o'clock at night just because India is such a behemoth
42:36
Speaker 1: in the cricketing economy.
42:38
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's going to test the old circadian rhythms, isn't it?
42:45
Speaker 7: We've got a real buffet of cricket coming up, five T20s,
42:48
Speaker 7: five one-dayers, And as you say, the time zones to
42:52
Speaker 7: fit into that massive Indian audience, you can't really argue
42:57
Speaker 7: with a billion people. So that is what it is.
43:00
Speaker 7: It's probably a little bit of a shame, I guess,
43:03
Speaker 7: for the youngsters who can't necessarily start until 11 o'clock
43:07
Speaker 7: to get through to the end of the game. But
43:09
Speaker 7: I'll tell you, there's a few of us old fellas
43:10
Speaker 7: that might be struggling to get through to the end
43:12
Speaker 7: of some of these games too.
43:13
Speaker 1: This went under the radar. India and Japan played a
43:17
Speaker 1: T20 game yesterday. It was reduced to five overs a side.
43:21
Speaker 1: India won the game by two runs, and by the
43:23
Speaker 1: sounds of it, they peer-pressured the umpire in the last
43:26
Speaker 1: over into reversing a wide call. So Japan very much
43:29
Speaker 1: could have and should have beaten India.
43:34
Speaker 7: Would you want to be the umpire who is standing
43:37
Speaker 7: in the middle making the call on Japan's beating the
43:41
Speaker 7: almighty Indian cricket team. That's a tough spot to be in.
43:45
Speaker 7: But I'm going away that Japan actually play cricket. This
43:48
Speaker 7: is probably the first that I'm even hearing about this.
43:51
Speaker 7: This is a nation we associate a lot more closely
43:55
Speaker 7: with baseball, I guess.
43:57
Speaker 1: From that perspective.
43:58
Speaker 7: Yeah, so it's amazing. It's amazing to me that they
44:02
Speaker 7: actually play cricket. And they must have a reasonably handy
44:05
Speaker 7: sort of team by the sounds of it.
44:07
Speaker 1: Have you got your Warriors jersey all pressed away safely
44:10
Speaker 1: for next season? Because it's our year next year, right?
44:13
Speaker 7: It has to be, hasn't it? Yeah. To be honest,
44:18
Speaker 7: I don't buy into the you've got to lose one
44:20
Speaker 7: to win one.
44:22
Speaker 5: Sort of philosophy.
44:22
Speaker 7: I think definitely the more times you put yourself in
44:27
Speaker 7: the fight, you give yourself a better chance of getting close,
44:31
Speaker 7: if not winning that sort of ever-elusive NRL title. But
44:36
Speaker 7: You know, it was a bit of an anticlimactic end
44:40
Speaker 7: to the season to lose both of those playoff games.
44:43
Speaker 7: I think that by the time we got there, I
44:45
Speaker 7: think the Warriors were sort of papering over some cracks
44:48
Speaker 7: in terms of some key players being injured. I'm guessing
44:52
Speaker 7: there were some injuries we didn't even know about in
44:54
Speaker 7: that squad. They just sort of seemed to run out
44:56
Speaker 7: of puff in those last two games. I don't think
45:01
Speaker 7: it should take away from what was a fantastically consistent season.
45:05
Speaker 7: Consistency is not a word you always associate with the Warriors.
45:08
Speaker 7: I think they put in terms of a body of
45:10
Speaker 7: work in 2026, they were very good. And if they
45:15
Speaker 7: can probably just add in a couple of more names,
45:18
Speaker 7: a couple of other players across Tasman, I think they
45:22
Speaker 7: could put a team that will be right in the
45:24
Speaker 7: mix again next year.
45:26
Speaker 1: Good on you, Nathan. You can help me with this
45:27
Speaker 1: today too, you lucky thing. Just stand by. Nathan, how
45:31
Speaker 1: many elephants can you fit in a mini? I don't know, mate.
45:36
Speaker 3: Four. Two in the front, two in the back.
45:38
Speaker 1: But how do you know when there's eight elephants at church?
45:42
Speaker 1: I don't know. Because there's two minis parked outside. It
45:57
Speaker 1: registered eventually.
46:00
Speaker 7: Good on you, mate.
46:00
Speaker 1: Obviously, it left you stunned. We'll leave it there. Good
46:03
Speaker 1: on you, mate.
46:04
Speaker 7: Lovely. Thanks, mate.
46:07
Speaker 1: Send in jokes. Jamie King, not a problem. I'm Andy Muir.
46:11
Speaker 1: The Must is brought to you by Peter's Genetics. Potty's
46:13
Speaker 1: going up shortly. See you tomorrow, 1 o'clock.
46:18
Speaker 3: Hey, well, all right, sir, here we go there, and
46:19
Speaker 3: what are they going to give for?
46:22
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, so we get stock selling action courtesy of
46:24
Speaker 1: PGG Wrightson from the Charlton sale yards. Dave Morrison was
46:28
Speaker 1: there to give us a rundown on prices. G'day, Teagle,
46:30
Speaker 1: how did we go?
46:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, afternoon, Andy. Yeah, look, very good, very good today.
46:35
Speaker 4: Saw some record prices there today. Just up the lambs, Andy,
46:41
Speaker 4: the very best of the lambs, 500 to 525.
46:45
Speaker 1: Very, very big lambs. How heavy are those lambs going, 525, Tegel?
46:51
Speaker 4: Oh, they'll be killing 40 k's plus, Andy. Yeah, beautiful lambs, yep.
46:56
Speaker 1: Awesome.
46:57
Speaker 7: Into the medium.
46:58
Speaker 4: Lambs, the medium lambs, just good with the lambs, sort
47:01
Speaker 4: of anywhere from sort of 250 to 280. With the
47:04
Speaker 4: lighter of the prime lambs, just around that sort of
47:06
Speaker 4: early 200. So yeah, very good sale there today. And
47:09
Speaker 4: like I said, we've probably seen those prices for a long,
47:11
Speaker 4: long time, if not ever. U's, yeah, very strong on
47:15
Speaker 4: the U's again today. Big heavy U's, 300 plus. Medium U's,
47:20
Speaker 4: sort of 250 to 290 with the light condition U's
47:24
Speaker 4: selling very, very well at anywhere from sort of 170
47:28
Speaker 4: to 190. That is light, light U's. Handful of store
47:33
Speaker 4: lambs in today. Not a lot of interest in those now. Obviously,
47:36
Speaker 4: well on. So those very light lambs are, you know,
47:39
Speaker 4: sort of $ 85, $ 90 tops now. And the better of
47:42
Speaker 4: the store lambs are $ 140 to $ 150. But like I said, very,
47:46
Speaker 4: very limited demand there now. Obviously, just cutting their teeth
47:48
Speaker 4: in the near future. Local trade rams, sort of $ 110
47:53
Speaker 4: to $ 120, $ 130. And that wraps it up, Andy.
47:57
Speaker 1: Bull sales coming up.
47:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, just like to mention one sale in particular, two
48:02
Speaker 4: weeks today, the Canes bull sale with some very, very
48:06
Speaker 4: good yearling Hereford bulls there, all tested, definitely very good.
48:11
Speaker 4: And as we all know, the demand for Hereford cross
48:13
Speaker 4: calves this year, four-day old stuff to rear was very
48:18
Speaker 4: strong and limited numbers. So you get on to Canes,
48:21
Speaker 4: it's an important night today, and buy some very good
48:26
Speaker 4: Ford Hereford bulls.
48:29
Speaker 1: Had to buy a plane