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The Muster- Warren Ross: Home Kill Tales · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Warren Ross farms at Waimumu and joins us this afternoon. G'day, Will.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: We haven't spoken for a wee while. How's things?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, afternoon, Andy. Yeah, not too bad, actually, Andy. Yeah,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: just wee bit wet underfoot at the moment, but yeah,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: everyone's in the same boat for that one.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Would that be the understatement of the year, just a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: wee bit wet?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, probably is just, yeah, probably is a wee
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: bit understatement, hey, but yeah, it's just killing a couple
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: of carobies this morning and actually, yeah, just, oh, it's just,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: just wet, yeah, it's just, making marks and black marks everywhere.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: But that's all right.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea what your rainfall's been for
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the month?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: No, it sort of gets to a point where you
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: give up looking at that. I think we had another
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: 18 mils last night, I think it was. So, yeah,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: it's just rather wet, really.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: So what's your focus at the moment? No tractor work's
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: being done? No, definitely not.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Certainly not. So, you know, yesterday I was just driving
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: across the work ground to pick up hay feeders off
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: and bits and pieces like that, and yesterday I was thinking, oh, maybe,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: maybe start... Oh, no, driving across the paddock, no, not
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: a chance in hell getting into a paddock today, so... No,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: it's just, yeah, not a great deal really. Just, well,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: we don't do lambing, of course.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Well, you do a lambing, but it's like about 10
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: ewes or so, isn't it?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I do have 10 sheep, so they have
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: just about finished lambing. So they sort of lamb themselves
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and look after themselves. So it's not a big job
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: for us.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I think they're pretty late this year. Normally they're
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: in June.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, normally they're in midwinter, eh? But it was a
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: wee bit late putting the ram out.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, management change.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure what happened there, but I
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: think my brother-in-law borrowed the ram, actually, is what happened,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I think, so... Good old Garth. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, no,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: so they're probably just about finished labbing now, so, yeah, yeah.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So your crops are well and truly finished now? You
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: got the deer on grass?
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yep, so, yeah, there's, yeah, they're all on
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: grass now anyhow, so crops are all done, and, yeah,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I think we might have 20 bales of bales left, so...
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I think they're going out the gate this week anyhow. So, yeah,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: it's just, you know, cruise mud really.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Are you having to feed any supplement out at the moment?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Well, we are feeding nuts out to the deer, sir.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: We do that every year anyhow, sir. But, yeah, it's
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: sort of wasting away, but, you know, being so wet.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: But we do have plenty of grass in front of
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: us anyhow, which is a bonus.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Well, if you've got the grass there, it's a good thing,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: but it's probably just a bit wet underfoot.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Correct, aye, and with the deer, you've just got to
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: keep moving them on. They turn and paddock to mud
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: pretty quick, so pretty much daily shifts, really. If you're
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: lucky enough, maybe two days, but, yeah, just keep moving
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: is the biggest thing.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So is that how you look at deer management? When
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: it's wet underfoot, you've just got to keep moving them daily,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: almost in a rotation?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, yeah, absolutely, aye. So the hinds are still
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: on a bit of fodder beat, whatever, but, yeah, the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: cattle and the wieners, they're just all... move around daily
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: pretty much, so paddock to paddock. So, yeah, it's just
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: a matter of, yeah, just keep moving them.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Now, the hinds on the photobead, what's the state of
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: play there? Ground conditions, how bad is it?
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, no, it's quite bad. Is that cool? They're
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: still a wee bit of photobead to eat, but, yeah,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: so they're getting a wee bit of baleage in photobead.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: So it's generally as a rule, you get a nice
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: day like yesterday and then it's okay. But, yeah, it's
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: just what it is really.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: You talk about doing homecook. There's nothing better than homecook,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: is there? There is absolutely nothing that can take away
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: a farmer's prerogative from doing your own meat.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, 100%, eh? Like this morning, the cattle beasts were
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: just minding their own business, and next minute they're on
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: the ground. There's no stress involved, and the meat's beautiful meat, eh?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: There's something about eating your own meat, eh? So, yeah, no,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: so we're busy doing that this morning, so, yeah.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: How heavy are the beasts?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Well, the first one was 277 on the hooks, so, yeah,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: reasonable size, so, yeah. Just a two-year-old, but, yeah, no.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: So we've been bigger than what I thought, actually, so, yeah, no,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: it's all good.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Was it temptation there to send them away to the works,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: get the money, and just go and buy from the butcher,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: or home kills, home kill?
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure. My sister in Christchurch was in
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the supermarket, and there was a slab of steak, for
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: like $ 260, I think it was, yeah, two weeks ago.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: And for maybe, it might have been four or five
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: kilo rib eye or something like that maybe. And yeah,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: it's quite pricey still to buy meat.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: But I would take you as somebody who probably has
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: a freezer full of mince from last time. Am I right?
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Well, possibly, yeah. Because we do get the odd bit
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: of deer.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I suppose.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so deer mince is actually very tasty as well,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: of course. Yeah, the freezer's always full.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not a bad way to be, but like you say,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: if you can harvest the animals yourself, then it's one
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: of the joys of being a farmer, I suppose, just
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: being able to eat the fruits of what you're growing.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%. We're quite lucky here. We've got the beef
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: and the deer and, of course, the handful of sheep
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: we have, so we're pretty lucky, really.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Now, you enjoy your fishing as well. You haven't had
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the boats out on the paddocks yet?
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Well, it's getting close to that, but no, I haven't, actually. No,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I haven't been out for a little while either, to
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: be fair. It's getting very close to me doing something,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: to be fair. I'm saying that the way they haven't
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: really allowed it to be there either, to be honest. Yeah,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I think Garth was away and they caught a nine-and-a-half-pounder glonky, actually,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago, actually. Nine-and-a-half-pounder? nine and a
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: half pound rainbow I think it was so yeah that's
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: a decent size for a waka pit yeah that's as
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: good as you'll get just about as to be fair
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: yeah I think they're busy getting it mounted I think
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: so yeah.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: So you're not tempted to go out and get a
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: feed of whitebait.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Well dad's been trying he's been down to the Aparima
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: a few times but it's yeah they've had a couple
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: of small very small feeds but it's yeah the river's
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: been quite high of course as well so it hasn't
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: been that favourable either so So, no, they're trying their
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: luck down there.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: And just finally, mate, the price of venison, too. Peter
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Allen talked about it last week. The schedule or the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: contracts that are out, how's it looking?
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's looking good, actually. We've got contracts signed up,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: and we're kind of killing a few deer now. And $ 11. 90, $ 80,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: $ 90 or something like that. So it's looking quite positive,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: and it's looking good for the future as well, actually. Yeah. And, yeah,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: as farmers, you always want more.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: You always want more, but that's still not to be
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: laughed at either.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, aye, sir. So it's sort of in line with
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: all the– it's in line with our other red meat,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: I guess. So, yeah, it's all positive.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Good on you, Will. We'll let you carry on.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Hopefully you get a bit of drying and get the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: iron horses out into the paddock sooner than later.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully we can, aye. Hopefully we can, aye, sir. Now,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: good as gold.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Warren Ross of Waimumu. Trying to negate the wet like
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: everybody else. You're listening to The Muster. Up next, Simon
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Stokes from Environment Southland. And before the end of the hour,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Ollie Teal from Young Farmers.