September 10, 2026 • 5 mins
Today’s farmer panel discusses the dairy season in Canterbury, putting Halter collars on cows, social media, lambing in Te Akau, KiwiSaver for Young Farmers, and farmers needing to understand the three-leaf stage of grazing management.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the country as we reflect on 9-11.
Just teeing up my next two guests, former young farmers
of the year, 2024, 2025, George Dodson, Hugh Jackson. And
I said to them, Ophir, how old are you guys?
And the reason I asked you that, and I'll start
with you, George, is because you probably don't remember where
(00:21):
you were and what you were doing when 9-11 happened.
Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. I definitely do not remember. I
was only a few months old when it happened, but
mum always tells me the story of how I was
sitting on her lap as a baby when it came
on TV. So, yeah, certainly they remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Well, Hugh, you won the Young Farmer of the Year
Grand Final the year after George. I take it you're
even younger than him?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
No, I'm a little bit older, 28 these days, yeah,
and George is 25.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, you're an old young farmer, Hugh.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, I'm just about, I'm not far off aging out.
31's the cutoff and it's approaching pretty quickly. But yeah,
it's all good. Can't stay young forever, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
No, no, you cannot. Rightio, let's start with, we'll go
back to you, George. You're dairy farming in Canterbury, Leaston.
Exciting day for you today. You were putting the halter
collars on the cows.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, Jamie, it's been a big last few days. It's
our third day of putting collars on cows. Today we
were a wee bit slow getting going but once we
found the rhythm we're away so we've collared just over
400 cows over the last few days so it's been
a big effort and excited to hook into using them.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
When do you start training them? Do you have to
wait until they've all got their collars on obviously?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah we kind of did the milking herd in two
different days so I waited until all of the milking
herd had their collars on to train them but as
soon as you have any mob with all the cows
having their collars on you're good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Hugh, you're excited about KiwiSaver for young farmers and I
think this is a good initiative from the government and
it's allowing young farmers to get access to basically buying
a house or even their first farm through KiwiSaver.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, it's really a good move and exciting from the
government to put this bill through and hopefully it eventuates
and comes into action but yeah, a good way for
and incentive for employees that are working on farms to
still be able to live on their farm accommodation but
buy a house.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
George, as I said, is dairy farming in Leaston and Canterbury.
You're a sheep and beef farmer in Te Arkell. I'm
assuming being that far north, is lambing finished yet?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, we're pretty much done. Most people around here
have hooked into docking or tailing well and truly, so
So yeah, it's all go.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So how's the lambing season treated you and how's the
climatic season treating you?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, really good so far, Jamie. Yeah, no, we're going good. Sorry,
just getting another call.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Put me off.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
No, we're going good. And plenty of grass around and
that's all in good order. Hopefully we continue to catch
some rain. with as our Nene expected and being on
the West Coast, hopefully, yeah, it's kind to us.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You want to touch on the need for farmers to
understand the three leaf stage. What are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, it's become clear and evident to me. I was
obviously fortunate enough to work for Dairy NZ a little
bit out of uni and then spend a little bit
of time dairy farming and sort of got it drummed
into me. But coming from that background and onto the,
sheep and beef side I was sort of quite surprised
(03:49):
when I did a little bit of digging and realised
that a lot of people that have been in the
industry a long time and looking after serious areas of
land not everyone has got that concept down pat around
the three leaf stage and trying to target our grazing
at the sort of two to three leaf stage and
the importance of that and how much benefit we can
(04:11):
get from such a simple basic concept so something that
such a low-hanging fruit that I still feel like as
an industry we can improve on and look to educate
everyone right from the top through to the bottom on
that concept.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Okay, Hugh, there you go. Forewarned is forearmed. Understand the
three-leaf concept when it comes to grazing management. George Dodson,
I know you're a bit of a social media star
in your spare time. Do you get a chance to
do any of that when you're flat out uh calving
and milking and putting collars on your cows.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah it's certainly been difficult the last month or so
been very busy on the farm and especially with putting
these collars on and stuff doing a lot of development
work on our family farm that was purchased just over
a year ago so that takes up a wee bit
of spare time as well but finding opportunities here and
there we've actually just started a new dairy farming podcast
not too long ago so that's also a a bit
(05:10):
of a project that we're working on. So, yeah, time's
probably in short supply at the moment.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, it is for all farmers at this time of
the year. Two young farmers of the year, Hugh Jackson
and George Dodson. Thanks for your time, guys.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
All good.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
See you later.
Welcome back to the country as we reflect on 9-11.
Just teeing up my next two guests, former young farmers
of the year, 2024, 2025, George Dodson, Hugh Jackson. And
I said to them, Ophir, how old are you guys?
And the reason I asked you that, and I'll start
with you, George, is because you probably don't remember where
(00:21):
you were and what you were doing when 9-11 happened.
Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. I definitely do not remember. I
was only a few months old when it happened, but
mum always tells me the story of how I was
sitting on her lap as a baby when it came
on TV. So, yeah, certainly they remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Well, Hugh, you won the Young Farmer of the Year
Grand Final the year after George. I take it you're
even younger than him?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
No, I'm a little bit older, 28 these days, yeah,
and George is 25.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, you're an old young farmer, Hugh.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, I'm just about, I'm not far off aging out.
31's the cutoff and it's approaching pretty quickly. But yeah,
it's all good. Can't stay young forever, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
No, no, you cannot. Rightio, let's start with, we'll go
back to you, George. You're dairy farming in Canterbury, Leaston.
Exciting day for you today. You were putting the halter
collars on the cows.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, Jamie, it's been a big last few days. It's
our third day of putting collars on cows. Today we
were a wee bit slow getting going but once we
found the rhythm we're away so we've collared just over
400 cows over the last few days so it's been
a big effort and excited to hook into using them.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
When do you start training them? Do you have to
wait until they've all got their collars on obviously?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah we kind of did the milking herd in two
different days so I waited until all of the milking
herd had their collars on to train them but as
soon as you have any mob with all the cows
having their collars on you're good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Hugh, you're excited about KiwiSaver for young farmers and I
think this is a good initiative from the government and
it's allowing young farmers to get access to basically buying
a house or even their first farm through KiwiSaver.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, it's really a good move and exciting from the
government to put this bill through and hopefully it eventuates
and comes into action but yeah, a good way for
and incentive for employees that are working on farms to
still be able to live on their farm accommodation but
buy a house.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
George, as I said, is dairy farming in Leaston and Canterbury.
You're a sheep and beef farmer in Te Arkell. I'm
assuming being that far north, is lambing finished yet?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, we're pretty much done. Most people around here
have hooked into docking or tailing well and truly, so
So yeah, it's all go.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So how's the lambing season treated you and how's the
climatic season treating you?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, really good so far, Jamie. Yeah, no, we're going good. Sorry,
just getting another call.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Put me off.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
No, we're going good. And plenty of grass around and
that's all in good order. Hopefully we continue to catch
some rain. with as our Nene expected and being on
the West Coast, hopefully, yeah, it's kind to us.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You want to touch on the need for farmers to
understand the three leaf stage. What are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, it's become clear and evident to me. I was
obviously fortunate enough to work for Dairy NZ a little
bit out of uni and then spend a little bit
of time dairy farming and sort of got it drummed
into me. But coming from that background and onto the,
sheep and beef side I was sort of quite surprised
(03:49):
when I did a little bit of digging and realised
that a lot of people that have been in the
industry a long time and looking after serious areas of
land not everyone has got that concept down pat around
the three leaf stage and trying to target our grazing
at the sort of two to three leaf stage and
the importance of that and how much benefit we can
(04:11):
get from such a simple basic concept so something that
such a low-hanging fruit that I still feel like as
an industry we can improve on and look to educate
everyone right from the top through to the bottom on
that concept.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Okay, Hugh, there you go. Forewarned is forearmed. Understand the
three-leaf concept when it comes to grazing management. George Dodson,
I know you're a bit of a social media star
in your spare time. Do you get a chance to
do any of that when you're flat out uh calving
and milking and putting collars on your cows.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah it's certainly been difficult the last month or so
been very busy on the farm and especially with putting
these collars on and stuff doing a lot of development
work on our family farm that was purchased just over
a year ago so that takes up a wee bit
of spare time as well but finding opportunities here and
there we've actually just started a new dairy farming podcast
not too long ago so that's also a a bit
(05:10):
of a project that we're working on. So, yeah, time's
probably in short supply at the moment.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, it is for all farmers at this time of
the year. Two young farmers of the year, Hugh Jackson
and George Dodson. Thanks for your time, guys.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
All good.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
See you later.
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