Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster Full Show: 12/10/26

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The Muster Full Show: 12/10/26 · The Muster on Hokonui

0:06
Speaker 1: Good afternoon and welcome to the muster on Hakanui. My
0:09
Speaker 1: name's Andy Muir and this is Organised Chaos. But nonetheless,
0:13
Speaker 1: welcome along. The show is brought to you by Peter's
0:15
Speaker 1: Genetics on a blue sky filled afternoon down here in
0:19
Speaker 1: the deep south and a busy weekend at that as well. MPC,
0:24
Speaker 1: North Otago, no, they're Heartland. Let's try Otago. Who had
0:29
Speaker 1: in their bingo card at the start of the sporting
0:31
Speaker 1: year Northland playing Otago in the semi-final of the MPC?
0:36
Speaker 1: Canterbury Taranaki, that'll be an interesting game, but Northland, I mean,
0:41
Speaker 1: I'm team Northland for this. Let's see the underdogs go
0:43
Speaker 1: all the way, right? The All Blacks, dominant yet again
0:47
Speaker 1: over the Wallabies. And the Chiefs, this High Court decision
0:51
Speaker 1: is going there. The Chiefs in New Zealand rugby are
0:55
Speaker 1: adamant the PNG Chiefs in the NRL have to change
0:58
Speaker 1: their names. So grab the popcorn over that. And as well,
1:01
Speaker 1: a shout-out to everybody involved with the Te Anau Young
1:04
Speaker 1: Farmers Bar Cup held over the weekend, Harry Eiler and co.
1:08
Speaker 1: Fantastic event. Mark Gascoigne from FarmStrong was the speaker down
1:12
Speaker 1: from Cambridge for the occasion. And it was really, really
1:15
Speaker 1: cool to be a part of it, although it got
1:17
Speaker 1: a bit looser in the human backup later on. I mean,
1:20
Speaker 1: the use of some of those bouts was questionable, bordering
1:22
Speaker 1: on B & D more than anything. But, no, a
1:24
Speaker 1: really cool event and some great money raised for local events.
1:28
Speaker 1: Once again, congratulations to everybody involved. The music is The Bangles.
1:34
Speaker 1: The Bangles. Yes, it is. So this afternoon it's partly
1:48
Speaker 1: cloudy with breezy nor'westerlies at a high of 22. Currently
1:51
Speaker 1: we're on 21, so almost there. Tuesday, light rain developing
1:56
Speaker 1: in the afternoon with nor'westerlies, 7 and 19. Wednesday getting cooler.
2:01
Speaker 1: Rain developing with breezy south easterlies. 6 and 14. Thursday, well,
2:06
Speaker 1: this is a throwback to about two or three weeks ago.
2:09
Speaker 1: Rain with breezy South West leads 4 and 9, but
2:12
Speaker 1: luckily it's short-lived. Cloudy on Friday with South Westers forming
2:16
Speaker 1: 3 and 11. Clinton starts to suffer soil temperatures at 10.4.
2:23
Speaker 1: You think you can multitask sometimes, but it just doesn't
2:26
Speaker 1: work out that way. Anyway, Blocker will get us back
2:40
Speaker 1: on the straight and narrow. Blair Drysdale with the Sargent
2:42
Speaker 1: Amp Farming Roundup, mixed farming operation based at Balfour. Then
2:45
Speaker 1: Geoff Grant talking a bit of politics. And he asks
2:48
Speaker 1: the question, is fertiliser going to be the new fuel situation?
2:54
Speaker 1: Ben Durley has an interesting message as well regarding strops
3:00
Speaker 1: and what you do there. Do you use strops or
3:03
Speaker 1: sneak chains in your tractor? Interesting call there by Dills.
3:07
Speaker 1: Greg Erickson, our Canadian correspondent. He is another yarn, of course,
3:11
Speaker 1: formerly of Waimumu. And Andrew Walsh, our Twin Farm Genetics,
3:15
Speaker 1: a home of Tehran. He's in the tailing pen this afternoon,
3:17
Speaker 1: so we catch up with Snow and see how things
3:19
Speaker 1: are going. Better crank into it anyway. Blair Drysdale gets
3:23
Speaker 1: us underway.
3:24
Speaker 2: It's just another manic Monday. Wish you.
3:30
Speaker 1: Were gone. Blair Drysdale runs a mixed farming operation and
3:36
Speaker 1: joins us this afternoon in the Sargent Dam Farming Roundup.
3:38
Speaker 1: Thanks to Sargent Dam Stock Foods based here in Gore.
3:41
Speaker 1: We speak to various farmers from around the Southland region
3:45
Speaker 1: and South West Otago for that matter and just chew
3:47
Speaker 1: the fat. Blocker, good afternoon. Manic Monday by the Bengals.
3:50
Speaker 1: That's pretty much the state of play.
3:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're on point.
3:53
Speaker 4: Good afternoon.
3:54
Speaker 3: It is a manic Monday. Just turning wheels, burning diesel
3:57
Speaker 3: and getting ground ready to drill after the rain really.
4:01
Speaker 1: Well, the last time we caught up, you were close
4:03
Speaker 1: to putting in rice paddies. What's the state of play now?
4:07
Speaker 3: Well, without a word of lie, 200 metres from me,
4:10
Speaker 3: the irrigator is going tulips. So that sort of tells
4:12
Speaker 3: you the state of play in this neck of the woods.
4:14
Speaker 3: It's definitely dried up a lot. Ground conditions are pretty
4:17
Speaker 3: damn good now. Soil's working nicely. It's got a good
4:20
Speaker 3: temperature about it now. So, yeah, a lot of tulips
4:23
Speaker 3: are out in flower. The grass is growing. The wheat
4:25
Speaker 3: and barley's looking pretty stunning. Stock are happy. They've got
4:30
Speaker 3: sun on their backs. But, yeah, look, we've tailed on Saturday,
4:35
Speaker 3: everything apart from the late ones. The issues all go.
4:38
Speaker 3: Hoggets are lambing. More problems than the hoggets, not even
4:41
Speaker 3: having big lambs and having to pull a lot. So
4:45
Speaker 3: I tend to go around them twice each afternoon. It's
4:47
Speaker 3: a bit of a test. At our age, Andy tried
4:50
Speaker 3: to catch a hogget that's got no wall on it,
4:52
Speaker 3: I'll tell you.
4:52
Speaker 1: I was about to say, what's your patience like blocking
4:55
Speaker 1: chasing hoggets that you need to lamb? I don't think
4:57
Speaker 1: it would be too good.
4:59
Speaker 3: Oh, you've actually just got to, like I did in
5:02
Speaker 3: the electric side-by-side, they respond really well to that. The
5:04
Speaker 3: rest of them don't really care and pick the one
5:06
Speaker 3: out you need to lamb and run her to a
5:08
Speaker 3: fence and jump off and catch her. So you do
5:10
Speaker 3: have to tire them out a little bit because they're
5:14
Speaker 3: quite quick. So just tire them out a little bit
5:15
Speaker 3: along the fence line and lamb them. And then the
5:19
Speaker 3: good mothers, you poke that lamb back in front of
5:21
Speaker 3: them and, you know, rub it all over its nose
5:23
Speaker 3: and pull the leg through the jaw, and they're as
5:26
Speaker 3: happy as pigs and shit, and they get on with it.
5:28
Speaker 3: So great wee mums. A lot of them having twins,
5:31
Speaker 3: which I don't like in a hoggart. It tends to
5:34
Speaker 3: strip a lot of condition off the hoggart, and I've
5:36
Speaker 3: had trouble in the past. It's too loose to get
5:38
Speaker 3: in and lamb again, but they've got a heap of
5:40
Speaker 3: feed at their feet this year, too much really. But
5:43
Speaker 3: hopefully it helps keep the condition on them, they milk well.
5:46
Speaker 1: So you don't have a lambing dog, or that lambing
5:48
Speaker 1: dog's name is Blair?
5:51
Speaker 3: Yes, I am the lambing dog, and I'm not very
5:53
Speaker 3: quick anymore.
5:55
Speaker 1: What do you mean? You're built for speed, mate. We're
5:59
Speaker 1: all like that.
6:00
Speaker 3: I might have been built for speed in my teens,
6:02
Speaker 3: but I'm not any longer. Body is not what it
6:05
Speaker 3: used to be.
6:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, join the club on that. So what's your grass doing?
6:08
Speaker 1: It'll be recovering now.
6:11
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, here in northern Southland, we were lucky
6:15
Speaker 3: compared to pretty much all the rest of Southland and
6:17
Speaker 3: western South Targa are. south of Targo, that's sort of
6:21
Speaker 3: east of Targo along the coast there. So we missed
6:23
Speaker 3: a lot of that rain. So we never had, I've
6:26
Speaker 3: had no pasture damage. So we've been lucky in that
6:29
Speaker 3: respect in here. So yeah, things are growing rapidly now
6:34
Speaker 3: around here. So it's good. Plenty of grass in front
6:36
Speaker 3: of probably everything now.
6:39
Speaker 1: We're hearing of various rainfall figures for September, Blair. Any
6:43
Speaker 1: idea what you had for September for the month?
6:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was over 200. I know that. We ran
6:49
Speaker 3: about the I'm running about 220, 230 off the top
6:52
Speaker 3: of my head. I don't really worry about keeping track
6:55
Speaker 3: of rainfall because it is what it is. You can't
6:56
Speaker 3: know anything about it, but it was around there somewhere. So, yeah,
7:00
Speaker 3: just damp enough for September again, but at least for
7:02
Speaker 3: October this year, we're not having a rinse and repeat
7:04
Speaker 3: of the last two years for October, which has continued
7:06
Speaker 3: to be wet right through to the end. So I
7:08
Speaker 3: think it's a little bit different in that respect. Yep,
7:10
Speaker 3: there's a bit of rain on Wednesday, Thursday, but as
7:13
Speaker 3: you and I are talking off here, there's parts of
7:15
Speaker 3: northern Southland that won't say no to rain at the moment. So, yeah.
7:19
Speaker 1: That's the irony of the situation. All these tractors heading,
7:22
Speaker 1: we're going drills and the likes at the quay on
7:25
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon, and they were enjoying the conditions, to be fair.
7:29
Speaker 3: Oh, and right from Riversdale, right through to that quay area,
7:31
Speaker 3: I mean, we're on lighter soil somewhere, some stony soils, and,
7:34
Speaker 3: you know, you need rain every 10 days at this
7:38
Speaker 3: time of the year, if not sooner.
7:40
Speaker 1: So are you... Whereabouts are you on the farming cycle, then?
7:43
Speaker 1: Have you caught up on your tractor work?
7:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably, actually. ahead of the game really on track
7:49
Speaker 3: to work but while you're ahead you want to keep
7:50
Speaker 3: ahead so pretty happy with where we're at there. Just
7:53
Speaker 3: waiting on water troughs, cattle troughs to turn up to
7:55
Speaker 3: put a water scheme in the new block so once
7:57
Speaker 3: we get that done we can start ploughing some of
7:59
Speaker 3: it over and young grassing it. There's still a lot
8:01
Speaker 3: in front of me. There's 50 hectares of young grass
8:04
Speaker 3: to put in but it's probably going to wait until
8:07
Speaker 3: late October, early November before we get on to that
8:09
Speaker 3: too much. Getting everything else on the ground is a
8:11
Speaker 3: bit more important so someone's going to need to cut
8:14
Speaker 3: a soilage before we turn it over too so But
8:17
Speaker 3: it'll all be done. Things are progressing nicely. As long
8:20
Speaker 3: as we keep getting a bit of rain and a
8:22
Speaker 3: heap of heat, we'll be fine.
8:23
Speaker 1: The season is a marathon and not a sprint, but
8:26
Speaker 1: certainly in some parts of the region, it's been a
8:28
Speaker 1: bit more forgiving than others.
8:31
Speaker 2: Oh, definitely.
8:31
Speaker 3: And like I say, we're lucky it's a bit more forgiving.
8:34
Speaker 3: You know, and you feel for the guys down south.
8:37
Speaker 3: I mean, I know, you know, I've seen ewes and
8:39
Speaker 3: lambs and the poor buggers. You know, everything's, well, this is,
8:42
Speaker 3: you know, 10 days ago with Brown and, no grass
8:45
Speaker 3: at their feet, and, you know, they look pretty terrible.
8:47
Speaker 3: So hopefully everything's improved for all those guys, and the
8:50
Speaker 3: grass has moved a bit, and, you know, sun on
8:52
Speaker 3: the back helps those lambs a lot. So hopefully they
8:55
Speaker 3: keep getting rid of that.
8:57
Speaker 1: Hey, Blocker, what's your cell phone coverage like there? Do
8:59
Speaker 1: you need to stand on one leg and practice your
9:01
Speaker 1: ninja moves to get coverage, or what's the go?
9:03
Speaker 3: Well, I can still stand on one leg, but I'm
9:05
Speaker 3: not much of a ninja. But all in all, the
9:07
Speaker 3: cell phone coverage is, been shit for years but Jodie
9:11
Speaker 3: and I were just talking the other day I reckon
9:12
Speaker 3: it's been a little bit better in the last wee
9:14
Speaker 3: while like where I am now I couldn't have had
9:16
Speaker 3: a conversation with you even six months ago I don't
9:19
Speaker 3: feel so I think it's a little bit better I
9:21
Speaker 3: don't know why yeah there's that whole like we said
9:24
Speaker 3: about that whole wearable thing is it having an impact
9:26
Speaker 3: I don't know I just think rural areas largely get
9:30
Speaker 3: forgotten about but it all changes when you know everything's
9:33
Speaker 3: going to move to satellite sooner rather than later anyway
9:36
Speaker 3: so it won't really matter too much A.
9:39
Speaker 1: Federated Farmers Survey came out this morning saying since the
9:42
Speaker 1: 3G network was switched off in March this year, farmers
9:45
Speaker 1: have been even more frustrated with black spots and poor reception.
9:50
Speaker 1: The survey of nearly 650 cockies wasn't flashed. Over half
9:54
Speaker 1: of those farms have mobile coverage and less than half
9:56
Speaker 1: the property. A third of farmers said they had a
9:58
Speaker 1: place used to work on 3G. 3G but no longer.
10:01
Speaker 1: One in three farmers saying they can't rely on reaching
10:03
Speaker 1: triple one for most of their farm. and 8% said
10:06
Speaker 1: connecting to emergency services wasn't possible anywhere on the property.
10:10
Speaker 1: Just very quickly as well, 15% regards satellite to mobile
10:14
Speaker 1: as adequate solution for a cell tower, with that the
10:17
Speaker 1: vast majority of areas previously covered by 3G now have
10:21
Speaker 1: 4G or 5G network. But this one here, one farmer
10:24
Speaker 1: said they failed a work-safe audit because patchy coverage on
10:27
Speaker 1: their property meant they couldn't check on their staff every
10:29
Speaker 1: two hours.
10:30
Speaker 3: Oh, for I can't say what I was going to say.
10:33
Speaker 3: That's ridiculous.
10:34
Speaker 1: I know, you just about had a bruised head.
10:37
Speaker 3: The big one in all that, Andy, is when you
10:38
Speaker 3: have to dial 111, and that's critical. And the only
10:41
Speaker 3: possibility is everyone carries an e-parab on them, and I
10:45
Speaker 3: know guys that do because, A, they're on heli or
10:49
Speaker 3: roll of your country, and there's that rollover risk, so
10:52
Speaker 3: I know guys that do carry them. But anyone that's
10:55
Speaker 3: on flat land that should be serviced by a cell
10:57
Speaker 3: phone network properly Shouldn't have to go to that extent.
11:00
Speaker 3: And it's a worry. I'm in that game with the polyphora,
11:05
Speaker 3: so it's a worry if you can't dole one by one.
11:08
Speaker 1: I made our politicians aware of it, and I think
11:11
Speaker 1: it all comes down to the telecommunication companies as such,
11:15
Speaker 1: as to what they want to do. So ultimately it's
11:17
Speaker 1: out of the government's hands.
11:19
Speaker 3: It is, that's up to telcos, but that WorkSafe thing,
11:22
Speaker 3: that's absolutely bullshit. I mean, someone throwing up for that,
11:24
Speaker 3: that's absolute nonsense, failing a WorkSafe audit because it's something
11:28
Speaker 3: you have no control over. It's like failing because of
11:31
Speaker 3: the weather, for God's sake. It's absolutely ridiculous.
11:34
Speaker 1: It's like losing fuel on the last lap of a
11:36
Speaker 1: Bathurst race.
11:38
Speaker 3: Oh, don't. Oh, comical, but it's happened in the past.
11:42
Speaker 3: It'll happen again, but all they needed, they said for
11:44
Speaker 3: the last 20 laps, that they should have put another
11:46
Speaker 3: second of fuel in. and that's what happens. But Kostecki,
11:49
Speaker 3: what a race from him. I mean, that was brilliant.
11:52
Speaker 3: I didn't watch, or I watched the start, and then
11:54
Speaker 3: we did the stop work the afternoon, and we watched
11:58
Speaker 3: the last half of it. So, yeah, great race, full
12:01
Speaker 3: of entertainment, and only one safety car. Doesn't get much better.
12:04
Speaker 1: And Liam Lawson, too, doing everything he can to stay
12:06
Speaker 1: involved with racing balls in Formula One. He did a,
12:10
Speaker 1: he had double points over the weekend.
12:11
Speaker 3: Double points, yeah, and look, He can't do any more
12:14
Speaker 3: to stay at F1. They really don't have many reasons
12:17
Speaker 3: to get rid of him. So it's going to be
12:18
Speaker 3: really interesting. The only reason they have to get rid
12:20
Speaker 3: of him is he doesn't bring a lot of money
12:22
Speaker 3: and sponsorship. So other than that, as a driver, I
12:26
Speaker 3: can't see how they can say no to him.
12:29
Speaker 1: Good on you, Blocker. We'll let you carry on. I'm
12:30
Speaker 1: looking forward to this Hoggett catching video coming out any
12:33
Speaker 1: time soon.
12:34
Speaker 3: Well, I can't do the video and then chase him,
12:36
Speaker 3: I can assure you.
12:37
Speaker 1: Get a GoPro, stick it on your head.
12:40
Speaker 3: Oh, God, it'd be enough to topple me over, that
12:42
Speaker 3: wee bit of extra weight on top.
12:44
Speaker 2: Righto.
12:44
Speaker 3: Thanks, mate.
12:45
Speaker 2: Righto. Cheers. See you.
12:48
Speaker 1: Blair Drysdale, Hoggart Lambing Shepherd extraordinaire up next. Not far
12:52
Speaker 1: away from Blair's Jeff Grant, we catch up, talk politics.
12:58
Speaker 1: The Muster Political Roundup brought to you by BioCharge. Feed
13:02
Speaker 1: your soil and grow stronger systems with BioCharge. Visit biocharge.co.nz.
13:10
Speaker 1: Jeff Grant joins us in this week's political roundup, thanks
13:14
Speaker 1: to BioCharge. Jeff, good afternoon. How's things?
13:19
Speaker 4: Good, thanks, Andy. And we march towards November the 7th
13:23
Speaker 4: as it comes around the corner. Not long to go.
13:26
Speaker 1: I think for a lot of people, though, looking at
13:27
Speaker 1: the political landscape, trying to make an informed decision and
13:31
Speaker 1: just being bombarded with messaging, when does fatigue kick in?
13:37
Speaker 4: Oh, look, I think this particular election's had a bit
13:40
Speaker 4: of a late start, and I think the interest is
13:43
Speaker 4: more around the polls and what that means in terms
13:47
Speaker 4: of the minor parties versus the two major parties. You know,
13:51
Speaker 4: this is the first time the two major parties collectively
13:54
Speaker 4: have been below 60% total vote predicted. But, look, that
13:59
Speaker 4: always changes. And so the direction tends to be the
14:04
Speaker 4: major parties strengthen a little bit, by election day and
14:08
Speaker 4: the minority parties weaken a little bit. But I would
14:12
Speaker 4: say this is the year of the minor parties.
14:14
Speaker 1: It's incredible to think that the two major parties have
14:17
Speaker 1: dipped below 30%, but at the same time we're being told, oh,
14:21
Speaker 1: not that many years ago, if you got 28%, you
14:23
Speaker 1: were out of government, even months ago, for goodness sake.
14:27
Speaker 1: But then you're just trying to line up the left
14:29
Speaker 1: or the right. Which one is going to come through?
14:31
Speaker 1: And I think it's fair to say this election's on
14:34
Speaker 1: a knife edge.
14:36
Speaker 4: Oh, look, it will be in the sense, you know,
14:39
Speaker 4: this is our first experience of three political parties in
14:42
Speaker 4: a coalition. I think there is a real possibility of
14:46
Speaker 4: four political parties in a coalition, either on the left
14:49
Speaker 4: or the right. That would happen if, I think, top
14:54
Speaker 4: got in ahead of a Māori party winning more than two.
14:58
Speaker 2: Or three seats.
15:00
Speaker 4: So that would make quite a change in terms of
15:03
Speaker 4: New Zealand political landscape.
15:05
Speaker 1: How have you found it so far, what you're hearing
15:08
Speaker 1: from both sides of the spectrum? I mean, to be honest,
15:11
Speaker 1: Labour's speaking a lot more farmer-friendly than what they have
15:14
Speaker 1: in the past.
15:17
Speaker 4: I think Labour's taken a much more pragmatic approach. I
15:19
Speaker 4: think it got hammered in the agriculture sector the last
15:22
Speaker 4: time around without any doubt. And so, you know, they've
15:27
Speaker 4: announced that they want to see more flexibility around land
15:30
Speaker 4: use for farmers. They want the ETS to be.
15:35
Speaker 4: Not on a pricing system, so that's good. And probably
15:39
Speaker 4: a little bit, they struggled a wee bit at the
15:42
Speaker 4: start with the capital gains tax, but I think they've
15:44
Speaker 4: been able to bring that back online. They're implying that
15:48
Speaker 4: small businesses and family farming operations won't be caught by
15:52
Speaker 4: the capital gains tax. So I think they've taken a
15:55
Speaker 4: more pragmatic attitude towards it. National, I mean, National hasn't
15:59
Speaker 4: announced a lot. You know, yesterday we had the water
16:02
Speaker 4: storage and sort of announcing around a fertiliser security of
16:07
Speaker 4: $ 10 million. I'm not quite sure how that works. You know,
16:11
Speaker 4: this is the party that promised us in coalition that
16:13
Speaker 4: they were going to get the RMA out the other
16:15
Speaker 4: side and change and it would have a dramatic effect
16:17
Speaker 4: and 50% less resource consents required and all, you know,
16:21
Speaker 4: getting the bureaucracy up. But I don't know. I'd say
16:24
Speaker 4: most farmers would say they still feel they're on the
16:27
Speaker 4: edge of a bureaucracy in terms of farming. just the
16:30
Speaker 4: same as they were three years ago. So National's got
16:33
Speaker 4: a wee bit to do to get.
16:35
Speaker 2: That across the line.
16:36
Speaker 4: I think that the reality is the more parties involved,
16:40
Speaker 4: the longer it'll take.
16:41
Speaker 1: Interesting, too. Speaking to Greg Erickson later in the hour,
16:44
Speaker 1: based over in Canada, talking about the fuel situation, that's something, though,
16:48
Speaker 1: that's pretty relevant to a lot of people just coming
16:51
Speaker 1: into the busy season as the ground gradually dries up.
16:55
Speaker 1: But fertiliser's going to be the big issue. You think
16:57
Speaker 1: fertiliser's a new fuel concern?
16:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, we're definitely seeing a situation where the supplies
17:05
Speaker 4: have been impacted quite dramatically around the world, predominantly by
17:11
Speaker 4: most straight being closed. But there was prior to this
17:19
Speaker 4: a natural demand increase for use of fertiliser around the world,
17:24
Speaker 4: increasing food production. And so on top of that, having...
17:29
Speaker 4: The ability to actually get the product done and out
17:32
Speaker 4: into the market is getting harder. The pricing mechanism looks
17:37
Speaker 4: like it's going to continue on an upward trend generally
17:40
Speaker 4: rather than downward. But I think the bigger issue will
17:43
Speaker 4: be the physical supply. New Zealand looks pretty good at
17:47
Speaker 4: the moment, but it's a bit like the old count
17:49
Speaker 4: how many days of fuel you've got left. We're probably
17:51
Speaker 4: just going to start counting how many days of fertiliser
17:53
Speaker 4: we've got left.
17:54
Speaker 1: What's the big issue with fertiliser, Jeff? Just supply and
17:57
Speaker 1: getting it here?
17:59
Speaker 4: A combination of things. One, obviously, the humus straight. But
18:02
Speaker 4: the second is that the price of natural gas has
18:06
Speaker 4: gone up quite substantially internationally. It's a big user of
18:10
Speaker 4: producing synthetic fertilisers. It's had an impact on the cost.
18:14
Speaker 4: The second is that actual plants that are providing fertiliser
18:19
Speaker 4: or chemically producing Adapting fertilisers have been taken out, either
18:24
Speaker 4: in Russia or in the Middle East, and so the
18:27
Speaker 4: physical volume of supply is being restricted as well.
18:32
Speaker 1: But with the fuel situation and Trump agreeing with Putin
18:38
Speaker 1: for Russia to release fuel reserves to the US, this
18:42
Speaker 1: is going to continue to be an issue going forward.
18:44
Speaker 1: We don't see any immediate end to paying at the pump.
18:48
Speaker 4: So Trump is obviously, his administration is facing what they
18:52
Speaker 4: know as the midterm elections in mid-November. Fuel is a
18:58
Speaker 4: big issue, similar to here in New Zealand in terms
19:01
Speaker 4: of the whole cost of living. And I think that
19:05
Speaker 4: these announcements are all to pressure the market rather than
19:09
Speaker 4: physically change the market. The volumes they're talking out of
19:12
Speaker 4: Russia are so pathetic in terms of consumption by the U.S.,
19:18
Speaker 4: They're not going to materially change the price in the US.
19:20
Speaker 4: And Trump's just trying to shift the focus and say, well,
19:23
Speaker 4: it's not me and Iran causing all this problem. It's
19:28
Speaker 4: the fact that we've continued to have the Russian-Ukraine war
19:32
Speaker 4: going on. Well, I'm sorry, but I've got a funny
19:34
Speaker 4: feeling in the Middle East that the problem is on
19:36
Speaker 4: fuel price.
19:38
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump's trying to cover his backside as he
19:40
Speaker 1: heads into the midterms as well, which could see a
19:43
Speaker 1: change in power in Congress.
19:47
Speaker 4: Definitely within Congress, there's a pretty good chance. that the
19:51
Speaker 4: Democrats will topple the Republicans in the number of seats
19:55
Speaker 4: held in the midterm. I think it'll be a little
19:58
Speaker 4: bit harder in the Senate, but you do have this
20:00
Speaker 4: term commonly known halfway through a presidential cycle, and it's
20:06
Speaker 4: called a lame duck president, and then that's because they
20:10
Speaker 4: lose the majority in either the Senate or the Congress,
20:13
Speaker 4: and that's a risk definitely in Congress.
20:16
Speaker 1: Good on you, Geoff. Enjoy the afternoon.
20:19
Speaker 4: Well done. Catch you again, Andy.
20:23
Speaker 1: Geoff Grant. Ben Dooley's up next. This is The Muster.
20:46
Speaker 1: Ben Dooley joins us next. A Sheep, Beef and YouTube
20:49
Speaker 1: farmer based just out of Wyndham. Ben, good afternoon. Blue sky,
20:53
Speaker 1: it's good.
20:54
Speaker 2: G'day, Andy. Yep, no, it's good to see it for
20:56
Speaker 2: a change. We still haven't forgiven Mother Nature for the
21:00
Speaker 2: previous month, but we'll enjoy this while it's here.
21:02
Speaker 1: You guys down there have been pretty wet over the
21:05
Speaker 1: past six to eight weeks. We've had a lot of rain.
21:07
Speaker 1: What's the situation now?
21:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, so typical, typical, typical weather. The day we stopped
21:13
Speaker 2: the first cycle of lambing, the sun came out and
21:15
Speaker 2: it hasn't stopped shining since, which has been great, but
21:18
Speaker 2: would have been nice the previous three weeks. But, yeah,
21:20
Speaker 2: we're just sort of at a point now where we've
21:22
Speaker 2: dried out, things are looking better, and we're starting to
21:25
Speaker 2: sort of get a bit of a picture of where
21:26
Speaker 2: we think we'll be at, putting tailing off a bit
21:28
Speaker 2: just because shedding out was a bit later this year.
21:31
Speaker 2: But I've got 148 wet dries out. Two of them
21:35
Speaker 2: have since landed, so 146, which is good. Out of
21:39
Speaker 2: 2350 ewes, 146 isn't very good, and I expect there'll
21:43
Speaker 2: be another 40 to 50 to join that mob. So
21:46
Speaker 2: a lot of wet dries, and there'll be a lot
21:48
Speaker 2: of ones out there where there should be twos, so
21:51
Speaker 2: the effects will certainly be felt, but I was thinking
21:54
Speaker 2: a few of those days there that that number could
21:56
Speaker 2: be down there, double that, so we'll take that as
21:59
Speaker 2: a bit of a win. Yeah, so things won't be
22:02
Speaker 2: quite as bad as we thought. They'll still be Not ideal.
22:04
Speaker 2: Still a lot of wasted opportunity, you'd say, because of
22:06
Speaker 2: the weather. But we should still scrape through looking OK
22:10
Speaker 2: for the season. So, yeah.
22:12
Speaker 1: Well, that's the state of play and you won't be
22:13
Speaker 1: the only one in that boat deals given the way
22:16
Speaker 1: the weather's been.
22:17
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely not. No, I expect that to be relatively
22:20
Speaker 2: repeated over most of the province, to be fair. We
22:23
Speaker 2: sort of feel like we might have been a bit
22:24
Speaker 2: harder hit over here, but it's pretty easy to feel
22:26
Speaker 2: that when you're in it. I don't think anybody got
22:29
Speaker 2: off scot-free. So, yeah, just on that, I did hear
22:32
Speaker 2: someone on your show the other day a while ago
22:34
Speaker 2: talking about wet dries and killing wet dries because some
22:38
Speaker 2: ewes and paddocks had had live lambs and some hadn't.
22:41
Speaker 2: I'm going to go the other way. I'm going to
22:43
Speaker 2: go through ears pretty toughly, and I'll cull out anything
22:46
Speaker 2: that needs to go and anything that I think maybe
22:49
Speaker 2: should go. But, oh, man, in the worst days there,
22:53
Speaker 2: we had whole paddocks where nothing born for three days survived.
22:57
Speaker 2: They actually got to a point at one time where
22:58
Speaker 2: I shedded out about 40% of my maternal ewes halfway
23:02
Speaker 2: through lambing just to get those ewes out of those
23:06
Speaker 2: wet paddocks. So the lambs were born in drier paddocks.
23:09
Speaker 2: That also had pretty serious implications when you start talking
23:12
Speaker 2: 20 or 25 ewes to the heat bearing paddocks, but
23:15
Speaker 2: at least the lambs were alive when they hit the ground.
23:16
Speaker 2: So you've just got to be a bit reasonable and
23:19
Speaker 2: bear in mind that you could be throwing away some
23:21
Speaker 2: pretty bloody good ewes there that really have done nothing wrong. Yeah,
23:27
Speaker 2: and there may be other ewes on your farm somewhere
23:29
Speaker 2: else that are probably more deserving to go to the
23:31
Speaker 2: works than those ones that the only thing they did
23:34
Speaker 2: wrong was, yeah, you put them in that paddock. So
23:37
Speaker 2: just something for people to keep in mind. I'm not
23:39
Speaker 2: saying no one should be killing all their wet dries.
23:41
Speaker 2: The money is exceptional. But, yeah, if anyone's sort of
23:45
Speaker 2: thinking about it and thinking, oh, maybe it's not the
23:47
Speaker 2: right thing to do, just make your own decision. Don't
23:50
Speaker 2: worry about what other people are going to think of it.
23:52
Speaker 2: Just do what you think's right.
23:54
Speaker 1: I think you're referring to Matt Ward, who was on
23:56
Speaker 1: the show a couple of weeks ago, and, yeah, he
23:58
Speaker 1: stood by what he thought was a way to look
24:00
Speaker 1: at his genetics, too. It was interesting. Not everybody will
24:03
Speaker 1: agree with it, but Matt said it worked for his system.
24:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely. People do what works for them, and I do agree.
24:12
Speaker 2: If that's what he wants to do, he should absolutely
24:13
Speaker 2: go for it and do that. But, yeah, I just
24:16
Speaker 2: know of a fair few people out there that might
24:17
Speaker 2: be thinking of keeping them and wondering whether it's a
24:20
Speaker 2: good idea or not. and like I say make that
24:23
Speaker 2: decision for yourself don't let what other people are saying
24:25
Speaker 2: or doing influence that decision if you think they're a
24:27
Speaker 2: good you and you think you want to give them
24:28
Speaker 2: another chance there is nothing wrong with doing that because
24:32
Speaker 2: from that genetic selection point of view like when everything's
24:35
Speaker 2: dying you're not you're not selecting anything you're you're just
24:39
Speaker 2: throwing good use away basically for quite good money a
24:41
Speaker 2: little bit but yeah when 50% are surviving you'd say
24:46
Speaker 2: there's a there's an avenue there to say, well, there's
24:48
Speaker 2: some pretty good genetics there. It could just be, though,
24:51
Speaker 2: that they land at the top of the paddock and
24:52
Speaker 2: one land at the bottom. If the ground wasn't so wet,
24:55
Speaker 2: the one at the bottom might have had a better
24:56
Speaker 2: chance of survival. But, yeah, when everything's dying, there's no
25:01
Speaker 2: selection pressure there at all. It's just, yeah, not giving
25:04
Speaker 2: them a chance, really.
25:05
Speaker 1: When you're hoping to tail then, saying you've delayed it,
25:08
Speaker 1: what's the date you've got in mind?
25:10
Speaker 2: Probably next week or the week after hopefully next week
25:14
Speaker 2: I've sort of got a hold of the contract a
25:16
Speaker 2: couple of other things going on and said we might
25:19
Speaker 2: be a wee bit late and I said I wouldn't
25:21
Speaker 2: be stressed if it was the last week of October
25:23
Speaker 2: but hopefully next week but yeah the following week will
25:26
Speaker 2: be fine as well so just whenever it happens.
25:28
Speaker 1: You're not a fan of snake chains?
25:31
Speaker 2: No now a bit of a caveat here we have
25:33
Speaker 2: snake chains and I do use snake chains to tow
25:37
Speaker 2: things out when they get stuck But, yeah, a few
25:41
Speaker 2: years ago I got a Snapchat from a mate in Australia,
25:43
Speaker 2: and he was very lucky he was in a Kett
25:45
Speaker 2: Challenger because their seats are very strongly built, apparently. Towing
25:49
Speaker 2: a truck out and, you know, a bit of pain
25:52
Speaker 2: going on the chain, I'll admit, but it broke at
25:54
Speaker 2: the truck end, and the back window exploded when the
25:57
Speaker 2: chain hit it, and if it had been six inches higher, yeah,
26:01
Speaker 2: we probably would have been going to his funerals. I
26:04
Speaker 2: just heard you make a comment about snake chain sales
26:06
Speaker 2: the other day, and I thought it's a good opportunity
26:08
Speaker 2: to pass on a bit of messaging around it. They're
26:11
Speaker 2: great things, as long as they're used within their means.
26:15
Speaker 2: And quite often, when people get heavy gear stuck, they
26:18
Speaker 2: get panicked and they get stroppy, and then all of
26:20
Speaker 2: a sudden you start using the chain as a snatch
26:23
Speaker 2: strap and pulling on it and jerking on it. And
26:26
Speaker 2: if I see anybody do that, I'm likely to go
26:28
Speaker 2: and take the chain off them and throw it in
26:30
Speaker 2: the bottom of a deep river somewhere.
26:32
Speaker 4: Yeah.
26:33
Speaker 2: Bit of messaging I'm quite keen to get out there.
26:35
Speaker 2: Like I say, we've got them, we use them, but
26:38
Speaker 2: when it comes time for you to replace your snake chain, please,
26:43
Speaker 2: I ask everybody to consider it. Go and buy yourself
26:47
Speaker 2: a strap, a nylon type, whatever they are, the straps
26:51
Speaker 2: that have a bit of stretch in them. Find out
26:54
Speaker 2: what the breaking strain is and get D shackles or
26:57
Speaker 2: whatever that have at least twice the breaking strain of
27:00
Speaker 2: the strap. and use that for towing in future, because
27:02
Speaker 2: that way you don't have heavy metal projectiles going through
27:06
Speaker 2: the air at the speed of sound trying to, yeah,
27:10
Speaker 2: kill you. There's far too many instances around the world
27:13
Speaker 2: where people have been seriously hurt or killed by chains breaking,
27:16
Speaker 2: and just with how things are out there at the moment,
27:19
Speaker 2: I thought it might be a good time to, yeah,
27:21
Speaker 2: put some messaging out there around, not that I'm usually
27:24
Speaker 2: a big advocate of health and safety type stuff, but
27:27
Speaker 2: in this situation, it's one of those things that, Yeah,
27:30
Speaker 2: have the right tools for the job. And I'm not
27:32
Speaker 2: saying everyone should rush out and buy one, throw your
27:34
Speaker 2: snake chains away. But when it gets to the point
27:36
Speaker 2: where you think you want to replace it, go and
27:38
Speaker 2: have a look at something a bit different.
27:40
Speaker 1: Well, the fact is, if you go to a cocky's
27:43
Speaker 1: yard and go into the tractor, nine times out of
27:46
Speaker 1: ten almost, you'll see a snake chain here because it's
27:48
Speaker 1: so portable.
27:49
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Convenient. But then the straps weigh half the amount.
27:53
Speaker 2: All the contractors these days seem to use straps. A
27:56
Speaker 2: lot of them have them tied around the front of
27:57
Speaker 2: the big tractors just waiting to go, especially the John
27:59
Speaker 2: Deere's because they need pulled out more. But, yeah, no,
28:02
Speaker 2: they just, yeah. The chains are still great for lifting
28:05
Speaker 2: and stuff like that, but when it comes to towing,
28:07
Speaker 2: especially if you think you might need to take a
28:09
Speaker 2: bit of a run-up, just leave the chains in the
28:11
Speaker 2: shed and get the right tool for the job.
28:13
Speaker 1: How many straps do you own?
28:16
Speaker 2: I've got probably four or five for full driving, but
28:19
Speaker 2: like I say, for the tractor side of things, we
28:20
Speaker 2: still have chains. But when we do go to replace them,
28:24
Speaker 2: we won't be buying more chains. Like I say, it's
28:26
Speaker 2: just one of those things that it's a huge risk.
28:30
Speaker 2: And if it all does go wrong, it doesn't usually
28:32
Speaker 2: result in a hospital visit. It's usually a whole lot
28:35
Speaker 2: worse than that. So, yeah.
28:37
Speaker 1: Wise messaging, Dills. Enjoy the afternoon.
28:40
Speaker 2: Cheers, Andy.
28:44
Speaker 1: Ben Dooley, sheep thief and YouTube farmer. And messaging around
28:48
Speaker 1: strops as well. Interesting, too. You talk about the breaking
28:51
Speaker 1: strain of a snake chain, and you do hear about
28:54
Speaker 1: it more often than not as well when it snaps
28:56
Speaker 1: and bang, glass goes everywhere. So strops, something to consider.
29:01
Speaker 1: Hopefully the paddocks dry out. You don't have to do that, right? Anyway,
29:04
Speaker 1: Greg Erickson's up next. Let's go over to Canada, catch
29:07
Speaker 1: up with our correspondent, formerly of Waimumu. Welcome back to
29:25
Speaker 1: The Muster. We're away over to Millerton, Canada now, catching
29:28
Speaker 1: up with Greg Erickson, our Canadian correspondent, formerly of Waimumu,
29:33
Speaker 1: and about to go and tuck into some Thanksgiving dinner.
29:37
Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Greg.
29:38
Speaker 5: How are you doing, Andy?
29:40
Speaker 1: Pretty good. Canadian Thanksgiving. Of course, they do things different
29:44
Speaker 1: to America.
29:45
Speaker 5: Yes, yes.
29:46
Speaker 6: I'm not entirely sure why, but Canadian Thanksgiving is second
29:51
Speaker 6: Monday in October as opposed to later in November. So
29:55
Speaker 6: basically all us farmers who still have crop on the
29:57
Speaker 6: ground have to shut down and have a family dinner.
30:00
Speaker 5: Get all filled up and then go back at it
30:02
Speaker 5: the next day.
30:03
Speaker 1: So farmers aren't tempted to work through Thanksgiving if the
30:06
Speaker 1: crop needs done like you're in the middle of at
30:08
Speaker 1: the moment?
30:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, some do.
30:11
Speaker 6: We typically don't because we don't work Sundays, but sometimes
30:15
Speaker 6: a lot of people do. I hear a lot of
30:18
Speaker 6: stories back in the day that folk would have Thanksgiving,
30:21
Speaker 6: like shut down the combines for an hour in the
30:23
Speaker 6: paddock and have Thanksgiving dinner there and then jump back
30:26
Speaker 6: in the combines and carry on.
30:28
Speaker 1: Well, it's a bugger of a time, to be honest, though,
30:30
Speaker 1: if you're doing your harvest.
30:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not perfect, is it? It's not.
30:36
Speaker 6: It works out this weekend because basically all of Alberta's
30:39
Speaker 6: had snow, so everyone, if you aren't finished, you're not
30:41
Speaker 6: combing anyway, so it works out quite well this weekend.
30:44
Speaker 1: So Thanksgiving is just like the turkey, the cranberry sauce,
30:48
Speaker 1: the whole nine yards?
30:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, the whole kit and caboodle.
30:52
Speaker 6: Usually a pumpkin pie and everything with it too, and
30:54
Speaker 6: just everyone celebrates everything autumn.
30:58
Speaker 1: I'll take your recommendation there. Like you say, you're just
31:01
Speaker 1: getting through harvest now. How's it been?
31:04
Speaker 5: Pretty good so far, yeah, pretty good.
31:05
Speaker 6: This is the first day we've really shut, or first
31:07
Speaker 6: weekend we've really shut down for rain.
31:09
Speaker 5: We've had a couple of breakdowns.
31:10
Speaker 6: But it's been sort of 250, 350, I'm sorry, 250
31:16
Speaker 6: or 350 acres a day, steady. The combine's been working good.
31:19
Speaker 6: The yields have been pretty steady, and yeah, it's been
31:22
Speaker 6: going really well.
31:24
Speaker 1: Okay, you've had a bit of snow. How long will
31:25
Speaker 1: that shut you down for regardless?
31:28
Speaker 5: The snow was melting when it hit the ground.
31:30
Speaker 6: The soil temperature's still warm, so the snow's not even
31:34
Speaker 6: there now. So it's just a matter of waiting for
31:36
Speaker 6: everything to dry up again to get some wind and
31:38
Speaker 6: some sun.
31:39
Speaker 5: We'll be back at it probably Tuesday, Wednesday.
31:42
Speaker 1: What moisture content can you work to?
31:45
Speaker 5: Oh, it's the same everywhere.
31:47
Speaker 6: You've got to go for 14%, basically, in your crop.
31:52
Speaker 6: And then if it's anything higher, they can blend it
31:55
Speaker 6: off in the elevators or you can get it dried.
31:57
Speaker 5: But most of the time.
31:58
Speaker 6: We have enough crop and enough crop to sell the
32:04
Speaker 6: elevators that we have a little bit of leverage and
32:07
Speaker 6: they take our wet stuff and blend it. So we
32:10
Speaker 6: can get by with usually 15 and a half. So
32:13
Speaker 6: we're combining till midnight most nights.
32:16
Speaker 1: What are the prices like? We spoke to you last
32:18
Speaker 1: time and I think it's like anywhere. They just seem
32:20
Speaker 1: to be all over the show. Have you got a
32:21
Speaker 1: bit more solidity with pricing?
32:25
Speaker 4: Yeah.
32:26
Speaker 6: So the price of wheat keeps going up somehow. So, well,
32:30
Speaker 6: it's probably gone up 25% in the last three months.
32:34
Speaker 6: And then canola is, if it's not stagnant, it's climbing.
32:39
Speaker 6: And barley is pretty, barley is never great in terms
32:42
Speaker 6: of price. It's probably, sorry to use the bushel term,
32:45
Speaker 6: but it's around the $ 5 a bushel.
32:47
Speaker 1: No, you love a good bushel.
32:49
Speaker 5: Don't we ever. But the wheat's probably 10 or more.
32:53
Speaker 6: Like on the futures market, you can get it lined
32:56
Speaker 6: up for $ 10.
32:56
Speaker 4: $ 10.
32:57
Speaker 6: And then canola, it's in the 15 to 16 bracket.
33:01
Speaker 1: So you can use the futures market for your crop?
33:05
Speaker 6: You can line up prices on it, and if it hits,
33:08
Speaker 6: you can set your contracts for it, and if it strikes,
33:10
Speaker 6: then yes, you can. It's kind of like playing with
33:13
Speaker 6: the stock market.
33:15
Speaker 1: Because seeing the pricing rising over there and over here,
33:19
Speaker 1: I think it's been pretty stagnant. You'd like to think
33:21
Speaker 1: there's rosier times for the arable industry ahead, as you
33:24
Speaker 1: well know.
33:26
Speaker 6: Yeah, our industry is in a pretty good footing, I think.
33:29
Speaker 6: Everything is pretty decent. The only real issue I can
33:34
Speaker 6: see going forward is the price of inputs, like your
33:37
Speaker 6: diesel and your fertilizer. Those prices are so volatile at
33:40
Speaker 6: the moment, it's really hard to do a solid budget
33:44
Speaker 6: that you can lean on.
33:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk about fuel. Do you use, like, some
33:48
Speaker 1: red dye for agricultural fuel as such? Is that a
33:52
Speaker 1: thing in Canada?
33:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:53
Speaker 5: That is the thing, yes. Red dye is your non-taxed fuel.
33:57
Speaker 1: Because when I was in the UK and I put
33:59
Speaker 1: red dye in the boss's truck once and went for
34:01
Speaker 1: a cruise and I didn't realise that. I'd just arrived
34:04
Speaker 1: in the country and apparently it's in there for years.
34:07
Speaker 1: Bill Hall, sorry if you got caught once upon a time. But,
34:11
Speaker 1: you know, back to the matter at hand, how subsidised
34:15
Speaker 1: is it? Because I think the US is allowing red
34:18
Speaker 1: dye to go onto the road as such.
34:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening in the US.
34:23
Speaker 6: So all it is, is imagine you buy fuel in
34:27
Speaker 6: New Zealand, diesel fuel, and then you buy road tax,
34:31
Speaker 6: your road user charges.
34:32
Speaker 5: It's basically the same thing, except.
34:35
Speaker 6: Your road user charges are built into the price of
34:37
Speaker 6: your diesel at the pump. Whereas if you buy farm
34:40
Speaker 6: fuel or dyed fuel, then there is no road user charges, essentially.
34:45
Speaker 4: Okay.
34:47
Speaker 1: But the vehicles have to remain on the farm unless
34:49
Speaker 1: they've got permit plates or something, I'd imagine?
34:52
Speaker 6: Yes, you can get anything that you can register as
34:54
Speaker 6: a farm vehicle. Depending on how big your farm is,
34:57
Speaker 6: you can have multiple vehicles or there's a limit to
35:01
Speaker 6: how much you spend. Yes, you get a little green
35:04
Speaker 6: sticker on your licence plate and then you are able
35:06
Speaker 6: to run your farm fuel everywhere you go.
35:09
Speaker 1: We're seeing good prices for red meat over here at
35:13
Speaker 1: the moment, Greg. Depending on who you speak to, the
35:16
Speaker 1: red meat schedule is going to remain above $ 10, but
35:18
Speaker 1: for lamb anyway. Over there in Canada, would you say
35:21
Speaker 1: the mood's still pretty good, though? You say it's good
35:23
Speaker 1: for arable. What about the other sectors? Any idea?
35:27
Speaker 5: So the beef sector usually sinks around September. It usually
35:30
Speaker 5: gets a little lower, a little weaker.
35:32
Speaker 6: It's bounced back up slightly, and it's looking really good.
35:36
Speaker 6: So it's probably.
35:37
Speaker 5: Going to peak, I don't know, January.
35:40
Speaker 6: It's usually when we send the calves to market.
35:43
Speaker 5: Or to the auction.
35:46
Speaker 6: So hopefully that remains true. But the price of steak
35:52
Speaker 6: at a grocery store is definitely higher.
35:55
Speaker 5: You can spend $ 88 a kilogram on porterhouse steak at
35:59
Speaker 5: Costco if you want.
36:00
Speaker 1: And that's Canadian?
36:02
Speaker 4: That's Canadian, yeah.
36:03
Speaker 1: Far out. That's a hell of an increase. Mind you, though,
36:06
Speaker 1: you have talked about these prices in the past. They're
36:07
Speaker 1: pretty big over there.
36:09
Speaker 5: They are pretty big, yes. Yep. And people buy them.
36:13
Speaker 5: I mean, if there was no market for that price,
36:15
Speaker 5: it would still be on the shelf.
36:16
Speaker 6: But they go, so people are still voting with their money,
36:20
Speaker 6: as they say.
36:21
Speaker 1: Is that an issue for the government over there, the
36:24
Speaker 1: cost of living, regarding the price of milk, bread, etc.?
36:27
Speaker 1: Or what's it like?
36:29
Speaker 6: It's not as much of a thing in Canada as
36:32
Speaker 6: I hear about in New Zealand. But it is still
36:34
Speaker 6: a thing. Like, if you are trying to... pay your
36:39
Speaker 6: mortgage and like all the taxes have.
36:41
Speaker 5: Gone up here.
36:43
Speaker 6: Your oh so your in the blank your money you
36:49
Speaker 6: pay the county and what not or the council for
36:51
Speaker 6: your taxes and then your electricity and fuel and everything
36:57
Speaker 6: has gone up and obviously the wages haven't matched it
37:00
Speaker 6: but so that's a thing food here isn't going up
37:03
Speaker 6: quite as high as everything sorry as fast as everything
37:07
Speaker 6: else so People aren't really focusing on that as much
37:10
Speaker 6: as they are on rates, et cetera, et cetera.
37:13
Speaker 5: So people aren't as vocal about it here.
37:17
Speaker 1: Greg, what's it like for rural connectivity over there? It's
37:20
Speaker 1: a real concern in New Zealand, as you know about,
37:22
Speaker 1: and it seems to be getting worse. Do you cope
37:24
Speaker 1: pretty well over there? Is the infrastructure sound?
37:30
Speaker 6: My house, I live four kilometres from a town on
37:33
Speaker 6: my five acres and 10 kilometres to another big town
37:36
Speaker 6: about the size of Gore.
37:38
Speaker 5: And if I didn't have.
37:39
Speaker 6: Starlink, I would be able to make phone calls, et cetera,
37:43
Speaker 6: and text, but my cell phone service to try and
37:46
Speaker 6: look on the internet would be very slow.
37:49
Speaker 5: And it's the only real competitive option if you want
37:53
Speaker 5: somewhat fast internet. The service providers here for internet, they
37:59
Speaker 5: leave a lot to be desired.
38:00
Speaker 1: What's it like for cell coverage in general?
38:05
Speaker 5: That's not great either. It used to be really good.
38:08
Speaker 6: It used to be really good, and you could go
38:10
Speaker 6: anywhere in Alberta because they used to drive truck, and
38:11
Speaker 6: you could go anywhere in Alberta, and you would be fine.
38:15
Speaker 6: And then it started getting worse and worse and worse,
38:16
Speaker 6: and then your phone calls would just drop, and all
38:18
Speaker 6: of a sudden they've just.
38:19
Speaker 4: Hung up on you.
38:20
Speaker 6: And then you call them back, and they didn't mean
38:22
Speaker 6: to hang up, and it would happen very frequently.
38:24
Speaker 5: So the coverage is very spotty.
38:29
Speaker 1: Sounds very similar to New Zealand, Greg. We'll let you
38:31
Speaker 1: carry on. Happy Thanksgiving. We'll catch up again.
38:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks, Andy. Good to chat.
38:38
Speaker 1: Greg Erickson, based over at Millet in Canada, of course,
38:41
Speaker 1: formerly of Waimumu. Up next on the muster, Andrew Welsh
38:46
Speaker 1: of Twin Farm Genetics.
38:48
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
38:56
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster. Andrew Walsh out of Twin
38:59
Speaker 1: Farm Genetics, the home of Tehran and sponsors of the
39:01
Speaker 1: five-day forecast here on Hakanui. Joins us once again, Snow.
39:06
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. That background noise means only one thing. There's
39:09
Speaker 1: a few tails being chopped off.
39:11
Speaker 7: Yeah, afternoon, Andy. It's that time of year. Beautiful sunny
39:14
Speaker 7: day here in Waimea Valley. We've had a few in
39:17
Speaker 7: a row now, which is really good. So, yeah, dusted
39:20
Speaker 7: off the tailing pen and the tailing chute and we're
39:22
Speaker 7: into it.
39:23
Speaker 1: How far through tailing are you as such?
39:25
Speaker 7: Uh another day well yeah half a day tomorrow and
39:29
Speaker 7: we should be all the flats done and then uh
39:31
Speaker 7: have the hill and the hogget still.
39:32
Speaker 1: To go that's not bad going no it's pretty good.
39:36
Speaker 7: We've been chipping through just lately we were doing hogget
39:38
Speaker 7: lambing and that for the last uh well it seems
39:40
Speaker 7: like it's quite a while but probably yeah three weeks
39:42
Speaker 7: and Yeah, we've just been chipping through the last 10 days,
39:45
Speaker 7: just doing sort of three or four mobs a day,
39:46
Speaker 7: just chipping through them.
39:47
Speaker 1: So after September being difficult, October's corrected itself to this point.
39:53
Speaker 1: Are you sick of lambing yet, even though you've got
39:55
Speaker 1: the hog, it's still a few hundred left?
39:57
Speaker 7: Oh, I always love seeing live lambs on the ground, Andy,
39:59
Speaker 7: but it is a bit of a struggle. You get
40:01
Speaker 7: through the years, seem to be cruisies, other than the
40:04
Speaker 7: weather didn't quite cooperate, as everyone knows. We ended up
40:08
Speaker 7: throwing a mills of rain for September up this year,
40:10
Speaker 7: which I know that's not much compared to other ones,
40:12
Speaker 7: but the ground was already so soaked and saturated before
40:15
Speaker 7: we started with August. Yeah, the wee lambs are coming
40:18
Speaker 7: through the chute. They've got mud balls on their bellies
40:20
Speaker 7: and purses and all that sort of thing, so they've
40:23
Speaker 7: certainly been born into a wee snorkel and flippers on
40:27
Speaker 7: at times where they've been born.
40:29
Speaker 1: So you had a lot of localised flooding around there
40:32
Speaker 1: in the middle of September as well to deal with?
40:34
Speaker 7: Yeah, we did. Yeah, we had one day there that
40:36
Speaker 7: come down the rain, just hit the hill, just got
40:38
Speaker 7: a localised storm and come down. None of the road culverts,
40:42
Speaker 7: none of the farm culverts could handle it. It was
40:44
Speaker 7: all just flowing over down tracks and into paddocks. Yeah,
40:47
Speaker 7: we moved a couple of miles back from the river,
40:49
Speaker 7: but nothing too major that we had to deal with.
40:51
Speaker 1: Your numbers, how are your tallies looking? They'll be back
40:54
Speaker 1: a bit, I suppose?
40:55
Speaker 7: Yeah, similar to last year. We've just gone through and
40:57
Speaker 7: just adding up some of the paddocks at the moment.
40:59
Speaker 7: So about that sort of twins are going through it,
41:02
Speaker 7: about that 175, which just down that sort of 10%
41:06
Speaker 7: to 12% of where they should be sitting. So just niggly,
41:09
Speaker 7: but still at the end of the day, it's not
41:11
Speaker 7: super bad. Joint illness and infections, it'll come through later on.
41:15
Speaker 7: I suspect it could be a bit of arthritis and that,
41:17
Speaker 7: if naval infections come through later on. But we'll just
41:20
Speaker 7: have to play that by ear and see what happens.
41:22
Speaker 1: Have you had any issues losing older lambs?
41:25
Speaker 7: No, not yet touch wood. They've been really good. And
41:28
Speaker 7: the feed's finally coming away, which is good. We actually
41:31
Speaker 7: probably handled it pretty good with putting that SOA on
41:33
Speaker 7: in the middle of August. We sort of did that
41:37
Speaker 7: to prepare for a dry in the summer more than anything,
41:39
Speaker 7: get a flush of feed now. But it worked fantastic
41:42
Speaker 7: going through. You could really see the difference in the
41:43
Speaker 7: parts of the farm that we'd done and parts that
41:46
Speaker 7: we hadn't. It was just chalk and cheese. So all
41:48
Speaker 7: the stock had been fed really good. The lambs are
41:50
Speaker 7: looking good in the pen coming through. So yeah, we'll
41:53
Speaker 7: get the tails off them and they'll be on growing
41:55
Speaker 7: and look forward to seeing them at weaning time, I suppose,
41:57
Speaker 7: and get them on the truck. As you know, this
41:59
Speaker 7: is a key time of the year to get those
42:01
Speaker 7: ewes really milking as good as you can. So you
42:04
Speaker 7: can't do much with the season other than just try
42:07
Speaker 7: your best you can to keep them as well fed
42:09
Speaker 7: as you can. Get them out on those lanes and
42:11
Speaker 7: areas that you haven't been able to feed them and
42:14
Speaker 7: just get them nibbling around those bits or just get
42:17
Speaker 7: their paddocks come away when we need to get a
42:19
Speaker 7: bit of a rotation going.
42:21
Speaker 1: Just on that hoggart lambing, has the drop been okay?
42:24
Speaker 7: It has so far. We had that a bit of
42:26
Speaker 7: a borscht and go through our hoggarts, which probably took, yeah,
42:29
Speaker 7: we probably had about 80 hoggarts abort, which is just frustrating.
42:32
Speaker 7: It's taken the edge right off them. But other than that,
42:35
Speaker 7: they've actually been lambing down really well. Some days you
42:38
Speaker 7: go out and you think, man, the lambs are getting
42:39
Speaker 7: a bit big, and then the next day they come
42:41
Speaker 7: right again. So, yeah, we're really happy with how the
42:45
Speaker 7: ones that have actually made it through in lamb are going.
42:47
Speaker 7: Just frustrating. We went through all the effort to go
42:49
Speaker 7: through and test to find out what it was and
42:52
Speaker 7: everything come back negative. They couldn't find out and I
42:54
Speaker 7: wasn't going to spend another $ 600 to retest again. So
42:57
Speaker 7: just chalk it up to another learning lesson of those hoggets.
43:00
Speaker 7: Just somehow something goes through and peace of mind that
43:04
Speaker 7: hopefully they don't do it again as an older ewe.
43:06
Speaker 1: Therefore they just stop randomly aborting. Is that just the
43:08
Speaker 1: state of play?
43:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, they do say that that is a thing in hoggets,
43:13
Speaker 7: that they'll just do it, but I suspect it was
43:15
Speaker 7: something a bit more major than that this year, just
43:17
Speaker 7: with how they were coming out. But, yeah, all we
43:22
Speaker 7: can do is maybe freeze a couple and chuck them
43:24
Speaker 7: in with the ewe lambs next year, or, yeah, we'll
43:27
Speaker 7: probably keep those hoggets through that have aborted anyway. So
43:30
Speaker 7: maybe we chuck some of those out with the ewe lambs,
43:32
Speaker 7: rising ewe lambs next year, and see if they spread
43:35
Speaker 7: it through before they get in lamb, maybe.
43:39
Speaker 1: One of the joys of this job is the background ambience.
43:43
Speaker 1: You've got the ewes and lambs in the pen there.
43:45
Speaker 1: How big's the pen? Give us a description.
43:48
Speaker 7: Just a bit of a smaller one at the moment.
43:49
Speaker 7: We're sort of about halfway through it. So we've just
43:51
Speaker 7: got our wee set of prattlies on the back. There's only, oh,
43:55
Speaker 7: I think there's about 16 gates out one wing, and
43:57
Speaker 7: then we use a couple of 14 foots just to
43:58
Speaker 7: build up the wing on the other side and make
43:59
Speaker 7: sure it's safe. But last mob.
44:01
Speaker 4: Was 212 ewes and....
44:05
Speaker 7: I'd never actually heard a final lamb tally, 300 and
44:08
Speaker 7: some odd, but there were a few singles in those. So, yeah,
44:11
Speaker 7: just chipping through, doing what we can.
44:14
Speaker 1: Likes to track the work. Have you turned over a
44:16
Speaker 1: wheel in anger in the paddock yet?
44:18
Speaker 7: I've been spraying flat out for the last sort of
44:20
Speaker 7: three days just to get on top of that where
44:22
Speaker 7: we've got the fine weather. And, yeah, we're all caught
44:25
Speaker 7: up with that, just waiting to get a ground to
44:27
Speaker 7: dry out a wee bit more, actually, just to get
44:29
Speaker 7: on and start breaking down, ready for some spring barley
44:31
Speaker 7: and young grasses. But you're right, it's just around the corner.
44:35
Speaker 1: Sure is, Snow. We'll let you carry on with it.
44:38
Speaker 1: It sounds like guns to the gunnel. Twin Farm Genetics,
44:41
Speaker 1: the home of Tehran, sponsors of the five-day forecast on
44:43
Speaker 1: the muster, as well as Hokonui. We do appreciate your
44:46
Speaker 1: ongoing support, and good luck in the tailing pen this afternoon.
44:49
Speaker 7: All right, cheers for that, Andy. A wee tip for
44:51
Speaker 7: everyone out there doing your tailing. Chuck a wee bit
44:53
Speaker 7: of carpet down your land pen. Just makes a huge difference.
44:55
Speaker 7: Keep those lands up out of that mud, because the
44:57
Speaker 7: ground condition is still a bit soft and blazy.
45:00
Speaker 1: That's a great tip. A lot of people use hay,
45:02
Speaker 1: but carpet, is that from your old man?
45:05
Speaker 7: Yeah, just something that we've sort of done the last
45:07
Speaker 7: couple of years. Well, we've had to do it the
45:08
Speaker 7: last couple of springs just to keep those lambs out
45:10
Speaker 7: of the mud. And, oh, the lambs come through good
45:13
Speaker 7: as gold. You can't even tell where the pen's been.
45:16
Speaker 1: Great tips, Snow. All the best this afternoon.
45:19
Speaker 2: No worries.
45:19
Speaker 5: Cheers, Andy.
45:22
Speaker 1: Laugh out loud with Ag Proud. Because life on the
45:26
Speaker 1: land can be a laughing matter. Brought to us by
45:29
Speaker 1: Shearwell Data. Working to help the livestock farmer. Just remember
45:33
Speaker 1: there's three types of people in this world. Those that
45:36
Speaker 1: can count and those that can't. Just had a text
45:42
Speaker 1: come through as well. Hi, Andy. Just wanted to let
45:44
Speaker 1: you know that saying Greg Erickson is from Waimumu is
45:47
Speaker 1: like saying you're from Riversdale. Tidapu and Waimumu, like Belfast
45:51
Speaker 1: and Riversdale, are close by, but not the same. Duly
45:54
Speaker 1: noted for next time. I'm Andy Muir. The Must has
45:56
Speaker 1: brought to you by Penis Genetics. Enjoy the afternoon. It
45:59
Speaker 1: is an absolute southern stunner. See you tomorrow.