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The Muster- Nigel Johnston: Tackling TB And Keeping It Under Control · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. This is the muster. We're away to Mabel Bush.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Couldn't think of that name before, but I finally spat
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: it out. Nigel Johnson, farming up that way. Good afternoon, Nige.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Very good. Thanks, Andy. Yep, one of the many bush
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: districts in Southland, but Mabel Bush just south of Hedgehog.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Where does the name Mabel Bush come from? Give us
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a geography lesson.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I believe it was one of the surveyors' wives' names.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: And that's why it's spelt Mabel. You may be E-L,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: as in a woman's name.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Interesting. This history that's associated with every area, and you
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: actually understand the meaning, and, yeah, it kind of makes sense.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm starting to feel like a local. We've been
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: here for 20 years now, and one of the more
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: difficult springs, but really only on a par with the
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: last couple of years.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: We know the situation at the moment. It's been pretty wet.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: We've got blue sky and some wind around... gore today.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: How have you been coping down there Nige?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to stay positive and in preparation for your
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: call I was just thinking how to keep this in perspective.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I was somewhat shocked with this data that came out
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: regarding rainfall with Environment Southland because honestly this has been
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: tough this spring but it doesn't feel as bad as
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the last couple of springs and I guess the real
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: challenge is what happens in the next couple of weeks here.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: So When I run my ruler over it, we've been
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: in much worse situations. When I was younger and less experienced,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: faster rounds, not as much milking quality supplement on hand,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: and lower covers at this time of the year. So
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I think we've managed that reasonably well. But in saying that,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it's tight. We're just over 2,000 cover on a 30-day round.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: So another week of sunshine would certainly brighten things up.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: What's been the primary difference then? You say it feels
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: different to the past two springs.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I think in terms of how we've managed the cover.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So we had a reasonable winter for growing grass. So
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: even if it was wetter, I think definitely soil temperatures
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: were warmer. So we started calving at about 2600 cover
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: against a budget of 2200. the issue we've got now
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: is that we're 2000 cover and I'd prefer to be
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: at least 21 preferably 2200 but the irony that I
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: see in all this is there have been some Septembers
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: where we've actually mown baleage off the dairy platform to
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: get down to this sort of cover just to maintain
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: grass quality so every season can be different and I
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: guess that's where I take more positivity from is we're
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: lucky we've been here a long time we've got some
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: really good records and and trend data, and we can
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: use that information to make good decisions. So one of
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: the other numbers I was just monitoring this morning, it
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: feels like we've had a lot of clinical mastitis in
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: the dairy herd. Our cell count's higher than it has
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: been for a while, but the actual numbers of clinical
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: mastitis are actually only about half of last year, so
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: it's really easy to focus on the negative when the
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: weather's against you, but if you take some time to...
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: get your head out of the mud as such, some
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: of these results are actually going quite well.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Now you're on a once-a-day milking system there. How's that
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: been in the last few weeks?
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Well, the problem is we've been once-a-day for so long
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: it feels normal. I guess tongue-in-cheek I could say the
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: real problem with being once-a-day already is there's nowhere left
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: to go. I do believe there was a guy that
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: tried milking every second day and it didn't go so
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: well for him. The true benefit of milking once a
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: day at this time of the year is that ability
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: to take pressure off cows. So we can, rather than
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: running them through the shed again, we can shift them
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: on to another feed and only milking once a day.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: And the other thing is we only milk in the daylight,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: so we don't start milking until 8 o'clock in the morning,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: which takes the pressure off people, which means we've got
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: more time to focus on cows and pasture and feed.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: It's a bit like we've talked on here before. I've
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: been playing squash down at Gorge Road, and it's the
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: same sort of challenge. We mix with like-minded people, share information,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: and it's a bit easier to keep your head, as
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I say, looking at the bright, shiny stuff rather than
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: getting stuck in the negativity.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what John Pemberton was saying before Nige was
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: that's a good outlet for you guys to go down
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: there for an hour, a couple of hours have a
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: couple of quiets and chew the fat then go home
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and just re-establish yourselves and think about tomorrow.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Speaking of trying to stay positive because it's like farming's
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: tough and this has been hard work and when I
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: say there's no one on farm before 8 o'clock I've
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: gone out at really oddball hours to shift cows on
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: in the middle of the night avoiding storms but Unfortunately,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: I've had life kept in perspective a bit. I just
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: had a friend us away in a car crash on
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: the weekend, which makes you realise you've got to maintain
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: your friendships and enjoy life on the way through. And
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: then I think I heard you on the radio last
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: week talking to Grant McMaster with his TV outbreak, which
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: is recently close to home for our system. We had
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: TV in the herd in 2011. And I think for
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: those listeners that didn't hear it, I'd search it up
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: on the podcast. It was for such a terrible, stressful
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: situation for him to go through, to come out with
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: such a positive outlook. And the wins that I took
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: from that is that this TB infection was identified in
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: a cull animal going through the meatworks. So our surveillance
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: systems work and work well. And with the testing, DNA
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: profiling and testing, and the time between tests and getting information,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: it can be a reasonably proactive stance to get a
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: good result for a farmer.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Well, firstly, Nige, condolences over your loss from that crash
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: over the weekend as well. That's just something that you
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: can't describe.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: No, and that's, as I say, I'll try and take
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the positive, is that... it keeps life in perspective for
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: the rest of us. But it's brutal on the way through,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: isn't it?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, mate. But on the TB side of it, like
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Disasters Yarn last week was very frank and upfront about
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the situation around TB. And as you say, it puts
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: things into perspective. And you know about this as good
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: as anybody, too. That's the thing.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's getting harder because it's such a success story.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, what have we done now to 22 herds
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: across the country? is there will still be TB outbreaks,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: because there is still TB in some wild animals that's
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: yet to be trapped and numbers suppressed to the right
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: levels in parts of the country. So, unfortunately, there will
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: still be farmers tied up in this, and it could
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: be really quite isolating, and that's why we're getting a
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: trial run for it in weather like this, isn't it?
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: My advice would be make sure you keep your networks broad,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: mixed with some good positive people, and... Keep your eye
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: on the price. When you analyse the data, we're running
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: some really exciting businesses that go pretty well financially and
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: environmentally and for the people involved. So, yeah, I'm just
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: trying to stay positive.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Now, when you talk about the season ahead, what really
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: excites you about that in the farming side of things?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, I went farming to make a profit. So that
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: obviously is easier as the milk price is higher. The challenge,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I guess, is controlling expenses. And for us watching system creep,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I quite like our system in terms of what it
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: enables us to do. But we always question whether we
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: should stick with it with the changing dynamics. One of
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: those for us is the profit that's been made on
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: board and feed. We haven't really participated in the last
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: couple of years. but maybe those dynamics are changing and
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I love that part of the business, analysing that, making
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: a decision and seeing it happen at a grassroots level.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Nigel Johnston and Mabel Bush, thanks very much for your
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: time on the muster once again. Keep on keeping on.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Nigel Johnston, farming at Mabel Bush. You're listening to The Muster.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Chris Wilson's up next with advanced agriculture. And before the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: end of the hour, Senior Sergeant Gary Eddington of the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Gore Police.