June 6, 2024 • 16 mins
The Country's Rowena Duncum brings you a brand-new Farmstrong-powered series. "Getting Through" looks at what it takes to recover from extreme weather events, by people who've been through it first-hand. In episode 9, Ro is joined by Wairarapa sheep and beef farmer Sam Johnston, whose propoerty was badly flooded by Cyclone Gabrielle. Sam shares what's kept him Farmstrong through the challenges.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live Well, Farm Well, the Farm Strong podcast powered by
the Country. Hello and welcome into another episode and our
Getting Through series in association with Farm Strong, looking at
what it takes to recover from adverse weather events from
people who have been there, done that, and have amazing
(00:20):
stories and amazing advice to share. My name is Rowena
Duncan from the Country. It is my pleasure to bring
this episode to you and for it, we are heading
to the Winded Upper. There we find Sam Johnston. Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello, yeah, goody. Here you going, Oh very.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, thank you. I think the more important question here though,
was how are you going?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh no, yeah, we're well as good as can be
at the moment. I mean yet we've had a cyclone
and yeah, bit of a drought after that, and we're
just here now, well mostly through the recovery of it,
but yeah, it's still a lot to do and yeah,
we're just taking it day by day really at the moment.
So florious morning here and yeah I'm on the phone,
Yeah talking to you.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's a great way of summing it up. Had a cyclone,
had a drought, but yeah, we're getting there, We're getting there.
Tell me about your farming operations, Sam, Where exactly are
you and what are you farming?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, so I live about half an hour east of
masterd and it's a place called Tanui, And yeah, we're
farming a sort of nine hundred hectare sheep and bee
farm that's got the hill like steep hill country, medium
hill country, and then a whole lot of flats. And yeah,
the cyclone sort of yeah, flooded all the flats and yeah,
we were lucky enough that we had hills that we
(01:31):
could get a less stock off. And yeah, we just
watched it bowl through. But yeah, we finished finished all
lms and you just have a breeding colhoun and try
yet the seasons allow we finish all the kettle. So
pretty simple. So yeah, I've been farming a few years now,
so I'm yeah, trying to make it as easy as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That's what I was just about to ask you. How
long have you been farming there? Is it a family,
generational farm or just you and your wife Sarah?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So yeah, right now it's just me and my wife Sarah. Yeah,
we've got three boys, so that's pretty cool. They're at
our local school. But yeah, we started probably we took
over from my father in two thousand and seven eight,
I think it was that me and my brother farmed.
So we Yeah, it was pretty cool. We were a
few years younger, and yeah, we hit it hard and
it was great, great funds. And a few years later
(02:16):
my brother sort of bailed out of farming, which was
all good, and so yeah, me and my wife took
it over. And yeah we've been here now for probably
twelve years by ourselves. Yeah, farming away. So yeah, not
awesome what's happened. But yeah, we're in a situation where
we taking control of a lot of the controllables and
now yeah, we're just dealing with the aftermath of the cyclone.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Really, Yeah, challenging time to also have taken over a
farm initially, you and your brother just before or just
as a global financial crisis was heading.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, it's actually a good point because yeah, when we
sat down with the accounting and yet did succession and
all of that, Me and my brother were younger, and
we we Yeah, I was learning about budgeting and all
of that, and so I put a budget in front
of it. Was really there was nothing sort of left
in the system, and it was after the global financial
(03:08):
economic what I didn't even understand that I was pretty young,
so that was cool because I just got stuck in
and got into work and then eventually things came right,
which is sort of hoping. Where we're at now is
that we've had a lot in the last couple of
years and hopefully we can weather the storm of what's
happening and just yeah, come out in a better situation.
And it's a lot simpler now too, because it's just
(03:30):
me and my wife and we've just got to hunk
it down and get on really, So talk me through.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
February fourteen, twenty twenty three cyclone Gabrielle arrives on the scene.
What exactly was it like for you on farm just
east of Marsterton.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, it was. I was actually in Wellington the night before,
the day before, so there were people that couldn't get
in from Auckland and that, so we knew it was coming.
We had all the warnings and yeah, where I live,
we get flood warnings, we get everything, so yeah, we
didn't know how big it was going to be. And
then with it hitting Hawk's Bay overnight I think it was,
(04:11):
and then it came through to us at about sort
of nine or ten o'clock in the morning, so I
had another couple of hours where I could go and
assess things. And then up came up came the river.
And previous floods we've had have happened overnight, so we
didn't actually see it all happening. So we yeah, we
just watched the water came up, we got all the
stock off, and then once it had crossed the rivers
(04:31):
and that we were pretty much stuck here and you
just had to watch what was happening. And yeah, with
all the warnings we've had in previous ones, this one
she was up and over and it was pretty massive,
like what it was massive and yeah, so it was
there was all sorts of emotions going on, like we
were all safe, the stock were all off, but we
we started thinking about friends out of houses and that
(04:51):
we but we didn't really have that much communication, so
it was yeah, it was something that just, yeah, happened.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
A yeah, so you mentioned that your flats were flooded.
What are we talking here? How much land? How many paddocks?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, so it was hard, like I'm not one, Like
it's just me and my wife now and I have
casual staff and everyone had like massive help, so I'm
not one to really get into the detail of what
it was, but roughly, I've got about one hundred and
fifty hectrees of flats. I think I had about forty
five paddocks with like a good water system through it,
and I think I was and then I've got a
river right through the farm, so I think I was
(05:27):
back down to about nine paddocks or blocks or but
obviously the electrics were down. It was just and that
time of the year, I finished all my lambs, so
I had, you know, lambs that were that side. It
was all and it just all turned into one really.
But yeah, that time of the year, the massive amount
of grass we had or we had grass, so it
was it was just weird. But obviously that's my engine room,
(05:50):
the old flats to finish my lambs and that so
I had to Yeah, weeks after that we had grass,
but it was just negli as.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah. Yeah, What did you do in terms of trying
to get stock off your farm? What was the immediate concern?
I guess once the flooding and the floodwaters had eventually subsided.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I suppose it was like I'm about five minutes from Tanui,
I'm in the like firebrick gates. I'm the controller of that.
So it was initially it was a lot of I
didn't realize it because we were in the heart of it,
in the wire ap type thing in Tanuis. There was
a lot of my friends trying to contact us because
they heard we'd been hit where you know, closer to town.
(06:33):
They only had fifty mils of rain or something, So
I didn't realize that it was just us in the
wire appetite thing in the Gabriel. So it was more
I knew the stock were all all right, like boundary fences.
It was because we had so much grass. It wasn't
like the stock went roaming and all of that. But
obviously stock turned up from other farms that had come
(06:54):
down the river in that. So initially it was we
got down to Nue and being in the fire brigade,
we got in and there was people's houses and stuff
like that. That was the main concern really.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, So it wasn't even your farm like you as
you say, you had grass, your stock was relatively contained.
It was trying to help others was your immediate concern.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, And it was making a bit of a plan,
Like I had friends that one, and I was amazed
about how many people reached out that I hadn't heard
from for so long, but it was they wanted to
come and help, and so dealing with what was going
on and then people coming to help, you're like you
didn't really know where to start. So for me, it
was actually just getting the stop, making sure, you know,
some needed a drench or I needed to get the
(07:35):
work done real fast. So rather than my friends coming
to help out with the flood recovery, it was more
around making sure my stock was all right because we
had so much grass that it was just checking on
that to then in time, as more help came, you
could start, you know, boundary fences real just start with
the stuff that was most important. Or our community really,
(07:56):
like the pub was flooded by our local school was
wiped out as well, so it was like there were
so many moving parts to it that you probably didn't
know really where to start. But yeah, it was it happened.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
What was the support like from the community. You mentioned
quite a lot of damage there. How did everyone kind
of come together to support each other?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, it probably took a couple of days for us
to be able to get access to tanuis so it
was pretty cool. I live on the what was it
the mastered inside of Tanui, so seeing all the machinery
and that trying to get through the slips and how
they just yeah, they were just opening up one lanes
or whatever so they could get through it. Once we
had that, then we could get a bit of communication.
And yeah, the hall is down by Tanui as well,
(08:43):
which wasn't flooded, so that was sort of a base
that food got dropped off and then it got coordinated
and handed out and yeah, probably, And it's hard to know,
like as a new practice for these things, or we're
practicing now for the next event, but it's it's unknown
how people react to all of these things. And I
think in the end we did a pretty good job.
But everyone's affected in different ways. So you can sit
(09:06):
back now and be like, oh, we could have done
this better, could have done that. But there was a
lot of a lot of moving parts to it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, and instead of looking at that as a damn,
we actually could have done something better. Are you choosing
to look at that as a hey, we're going to
bank that for next time?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, for sure. I in nineteen ninety one, I was
like we had a big flood and it went through
the school. So I was a kid at the primary school.
So I was looking at it now as like the
parent and just a whole different way of looking at
at things really, and it's quite cool. It was cool
for me. I could see the kids didn't really know
what was going on, but it was just something different.
(09:41):
So they look quite excited and all that. But you
could see, you know, they had friends that their kids
had lost all their lego and so it was like
just everyone. I suppose everyone was dealing with it in
a different way. And I'm sure and that's what I
suppose our responsibility now with me being on the fire
brigade and there is as we've got a sort of
if it's another twenty years least hope it is, or
(10:02):
thirty or whenever it is, that we are actually better
prepared and we can help even more. Really. Yeah, yeah, What.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Were some of the biggest things that helped you to
stay farm strong in the immediate few days following Gabrielle.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, the rural support trusts were big on this and
I yeah, and farm strong like it was it's learning
about that or even just maybe it's where I'm at
now with my farming career, and that I don't know,
but it interests me. And you've got to start understanding
yourself so that you know when you need a break
(10:41):
with all of these things that maybe when I first
started farming, was I didn't need a break, whereas now
I really see that it is having and understanding yourself
like and your farm all of those things to be
able to make good decisions. Because yeah, if I don't
want to say these are coming again, but events like this,
whether it's the drought or whatever it seems to be,
(11:02):
they pop up all the time now and it's hard
to get your hit around all of this stuff. So
I think learning about that stuff and learning about yourself
is very important.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, what about support from others? And we've touched on
this quite a bit, you know, people checking and on you.
How important though was that for you?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah? It was? And that's what I've got a plug
for my wife here as and we talk about this
sort of stuff, which is not maybe people I don't
know if people talk to their wise, it's about talking
to the person that can really help. And that's what
I feel I had because we just kept coming back
to that getting back on the same page. And yeah,
(11:43):
so it's fine in that person. That helps when stressful
times like that and it's been a drag like yeah,
and now the dry that we've sort of had and
now the lack of grass and stuff, it's could feel
if you're not dealing with a day like it could
get on top of you real easy. And that's where
these farm strong things and talking about it helps.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, And because yeah, it isn't just the immediate aftermath.
But I'll look at this, just finally in two different ways.
When you are in that immediate aftermath and everything seems
a bit overwhelming, you can look at the devastation day
in day out. You can think about the people who
you can't quite get to yet. How do you deal
with everything seeming so overwhelming?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, I And again maybe it's the age I'm at now.
It's sort of like you've always almost got a I
didn't when I was younger, I did. You've got to
almost build this into your system, that things are going
to go wrong and that it's not. And that's the
weird thing with farming is what I'm fine light as
in what someone's doing next door might be different to you,
but how you deal with it. Yeah, so which gives
(12:51):
me the confidence that, you know, if you've got a
gut feeling on things to go with it, like go
with what what'll titch your box? Because yeah, it's you
get an to go next year because of the seasons
and everything like that. Yeah, I don't know, I answered that
one very well.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Well, no, no, I think you do, because it is
like it's a different kind of beast farming really when
you go into it knowing that not every year is
going to be a success.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, but I didn't. I didn't really know. I've only
just getting the idea around that now, which actually makes
me feel okay. Like every time you go into a paddock,
have a look at a sheet everything, it's just you
can't you can't pinpoint what it is. But just sometimes
the season's work and sometimes they don't.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What about now though, Like, as you mentioned, you've gone
from what is it frying pan? To fire, a cyclone
to drought? How do you keep staying positive and staying
strong now when there's been a few challenges one after
the other that long.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Term, Yeah, and with the cyclone, so that goes boom,
it happens, and then you've got to deal with it.
The drought is and that's the awful thing. Like it
was predicted, this drought, but the fact that it went
into an autumn drought is what they're like. So you're
forever making decisions and you know, I've had to make
decisions that I normally wouldn't but you've just got to
(14:16):
keep making decisions and yeah, yeah, just yeah. I've got
a budget in front of me now and it doesn't
look pretty, but I'm at least it's a number. It's
something to work towards, which makes me feel all right
today as I'm unloading wool off my trailer, like I'm
not worried about that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, Just final question for you, Sam, biggest piece of
advice you can give to anyone who's facing adversity in farming.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well, I'm just sitting here thinking now as in I'm
thinking about myself and what I can control and can't control.
And you know someone else that got hit from the cycling,
whether it's their house, whether it's their relationship, whether it's whatever.
It's get people around you that understand you, know you
and can help like farming and farming, and I'm learning
(15:06):
I'm getting in another ten years time, I'll probably think
differently again on it. But when I was younger, I
had way more energy, and like, I don't have that
energy now, So I've just got to look at things
a lot differently and hopefully I'm doing that. I'm still
here and yeah, it's tough, but then there's also yet
awesome days where you know it's dry out there now
you can get some work done, like the recovery that
(15:27):
we've been able to do, Like I've had a fencing
contractor here it's like, yes, it's been dry, but we've
been able to get some good work done which we
wouldn't have, Like, yeah, we had a very wet winter
last year and it was tough. So just know your
farm and know the people around you and keep smiling.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Great advice there, Sam Johnson winded up as Sheep and
Be Farmer. Really appreciate you joining me on this Farm
Strong podcast looking at what it takes to get through
adverse weather events. You've certainly had that to contend with
cyclone Gabrielle last year, so really appreciate you opening up
about your experiences, what you've learned, what can help others,
and taking time out of your day to chat to
(16:04):
me today. Appreciate it, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Thanks and yeah that's cool. I'll get back to work.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Good on you. Thanks so much, Sam Live Well, Farm
Well The farm Strong podcast powered by the Country
Live Well, Farm Well, the Farm Strong podcast powered by
the Country. Hello and welcome into another episode and our
Getting Through series in association with Farm Strong, looking at
what it takes to recover from adverse weather events from
people who have been there, done that, and have amazing
(00:20):
stories and amazing advice to share. My name is Rowena
Duncan from the Country. It is my pleasure to bring
this episode to you and for it, we are heading
to the Winded Upper. There we find Sam Johnston. Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello, yeah, goody. Here you going, Oh very.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, thank you. I think the more important question here though,
was how are you going?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh no, yeah, we're well as good as can be
at the moment. I mean yet we've had a cyclone
and yeah, bit of a drought after that, and we're
just here now, well mostly through the recovery of it,
but yeah, it's still a lot to do and yeah,
we're just taking it day by day really at the moment.
So florious morning here and yeah I'm on the phone,
Yeah talking to you.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's a great way of summing it up. Had a cyclone,
had a drought, but yeah, we're getting there, We're getting there.
Tell me about your farming operations, Sam, Where exactly are
you and what are you farming?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, so I live about half an hour east of
masterd and it's a place called Tanui, And yeah, we're
farming a sort of nine hundred hectare sheep and bee
farm that's got the hill like steep hill country, medium
hill country, and then a whole lot of flats. And yeah,
the cyclone sort of yeah, flooded all the flats and yeah,
we were lucky enough that we had hills that we
(01:31):
could get a less stock off. And yeah, we just
watched it bowl through. But yeah, we finished finished all
lms and you just have a breeding colhoun and try
yet the seasons allow we finish all the kettle. So
pretty simple. So yeah, I've been farming a few years now,
so I'm yeah, trying to make it as easy as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That's what I was just about to ask you. How
long have you been farming there? Is it a family,
generational farm or just you and your wife Sarah?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So yeah, right now it's just me and my wife Sarah. Yeah,
we've got three boys, so that's pretty cool. They're at
our local school. But yeah, we started probably we took
over from my father in two thousand and seven eight,
I think it was that me and my brother farmed.
So we Yeah, it was pretty cool. We were a
few years younger, and yeah, we hit it hard and
it was great, great funds. And a few years later
(02:16):
my brother sort of bailed out of farming, which was
all good, and so yeah, me and my wife took
it over. And yeah we've been here now for probably
twelve years by ourselves. Yeah, farming away. So yeah, not
awesome what's happened. But yeah, we're in a situation where
we taking control of a lot of the controllables and
now yeah, we're just dealing with the aftermath of the cyclone.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Really, Yeah, challenging time to also have taken over a
farm initially, you and your brother just before or just
as a global financial crisis was heading.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, it's actually a good point because yeah, when we
sat down with the accounting and yet did succession and
all of that, Me and my brother were younger, and
we we Yeah, I was learning about budgeting and all
of that, and so I put a budget in front
of it. Was really there was nothing sort of left
in the system, and it was after the global financial
(03:08):
economic what I didn't even understand that I was pretty young,
so that was cool because I just got stuck in
and got into work and then eventually things came right,
which is sort of hoping. Where we're at now is
that we've had a lot in the last couple of
years and hopefully we can weather the storm of what's
happening and just yeah, come out in a better situation.
And it's a lot simpler now too, because it's just
(03:30):
me and my wife and we've just got to hunk
it down and get on really, So talk me through.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
February fourteen, twenty twenty three cyclone Gabrielle arrives on the scene.
What exactly was it like for you on farm just
east of Marsterton.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, it was. I was actually in Wellington the night before,
the day before, so there were people that couldn't get
in from Auckland and that, so we knew it was coming.
We had all the warnings and yeah, where I live,
we get flood warnings, we get everything, so yeah, we
didn't know how big it was going to be. And
then with it hitting Hawk's Bay overnight I think it was,
(04:11):
and then it came through to us at about sort
of nine or ten o'clock in the morning, so I
had another couple of hours where I could go and
assess things. And then up came up came the river.
And previous floods we've had have happened overnight, so we
didn't actually see it all happening. So we yeah, we
just watched the water came up, we got all the
stock off, and then once it had crossed the rivers
(04:31):
and that we were pretty much stuck here and you
just had to watch what was happening. And yeah, with
all the warnings we've had in previous ones, this one
she was up and over and it was pretty massive,
like what it was massive and yeah, so it was
there was all sorts of emotions going on, like we
were all safe, the stock were all off, but we
we started thinking about friends out of houses and that
(04:51):
we but we didn't really have that much communication, so
it was yeah, it was something that just, yeah, happened.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
A yeah, so you mentioned that your flats were flooded.
What are we talking here? How much land? How many paddocks?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, so it was hard, like I'm not one, Like
it's just me and my wife now and I have
casual staff and everyone had like massive help, so I'm
not one to really get into the detail of what
it was, but roughly, I've got about one hundred and
fifty hectrees of flats. I think I had about forty
five paddocks with like a good water system through it,
and I think I was and then I've got a
river right through the farm, so I think I was
(05:27):
back down to about nine paddocks or blocks or but
obviously the electrics were down. It was just and that
time of the year, I finished all my lambs, so
I had, you know, lambs that were that side. It
was all and it just all turned into one really.
But yeah, that time of the year, the massive amount
of grass we had or we had grass, so it
was it was just weird. But obviously that's my engine room,
(05:50):
the old flats to finish my lambs and that so
I had to Yeah, weeks after that we had grass,
but it was just negli as.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah. Yeah, What did you do in terms of trying
to get stock off your farm? What was the immediate concern?
I guess once the flooding and the floodwaters had eventually subsided.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I suppose it was like I'm about five minutes from Tanui,
I'm in the like firebrick gates. I'm the controller of that.
So it was initially it was a lot of I
didn't realize it because we were in the heart of it,
in the wire ap type thing in Tanuis. There was
a lot of my friends trying to contact us because
they heard we'd been hit where you know, closer to town.
(06:33):
They only had fifty mils of rain or something, So
I didn't realize that it was just us in the
wire appetite thing in the Gabriel. So it was more
I knew the stock were all all right, like boundary fences.
It was because we had so much grass. It wasn't
like the stock went roaming and all of that. But
obviously stock turned up from other farms that had come
(06:54):
down the river in that. So initially it was we
got down to Nue and being in the fire brigade,
we got in and there was people's houses and stuff
like that. That was the main concern really.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, So it wasn't even your farm like you as
you say, you had grass, your stock was relatively contained.
It was trying to help others was your immediate concern.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, And it was making a bit of a plan,
Like I had friends that one, and I was amazed
about how many people reached out that I hadn't heard
from for so long, but it was they wanted to
come and help, and so dealing with what was going
on and then people coming to help, you're like you
didn't really know where to start. So for me, it
was actually just getting the stop, making sure, you know,
some needed a drench or I needed to get the
(07:35):
work done real fast. So rather than my friends coming
to help out with the flood recovery, it was more
around making sure my stock was all right because we
had so much grass that it was just checking on
that to then in time, as more help came, you
could start, you know, boundary fences real just start with
the stuff that was most important. Or our community really,
(07:56):
like the pub was flooded by our local school was
wiped out as well, so it was like there were
so many moving parts to it that you probably didn't
know really where to start. But yeah, it was it happened.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
What was the support like from the community. You mentioned
quite a lot of damage there. How did everyone kind
of come together to support each other?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, it probably took a couple of days for us
to be able to get access to tanuis so it
was pretty cool. I live on the what was it
the mastered inside of Tanui, so seeing all the machinery
and that trying to get through the slips and how
they just yeah, they were just opening up one lanes
or whatever so they could get through it. Once we
had that, then we could get a bit of communication.
And yeah, the hall is down by Tanui as well,
(08:43):
which wasn't flooded, so that was sort of a base
that food got dropped off and then it got coordinated
and handed out and yeah, probably, And it's hard to know,
like as a new practice for these things, or we're
practicing now for the next event, but it's it's unknown
how people react to all of these things. And I
think in the end we did a pretty good job.
But everyone's affected in different ways. So you can sit
(09:06):
back now and be like, oh, we could have done
this better, could have done that. But there was a
lot of a lot of moving parts to it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, and instead of looking at that as a damn,
we actually could have done something better. Are you choosing
to look at that as a hey, we're going to
bank that for next time?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, for sure. I in nineteen ninety one, I was
like we had a big flood and it went through
the school. So I was a kid at the primary school.
So I was looking at it now as like the
parent and just a whole different way of looking at
at things really, and it's quite cool. It was cool
for me. I could see the kids didn't really know
what was going on, but it was just something different.
(09:41):
So they look quite excited and all that. But you
could see, you know, they had friends that their kids
had lost all their lego and so it was like
just everyone. I suppose everyone was dealing with it in
a different way. And I'm sure and that's what I
suppose our responsibility now with me being on the fire
brigade and there is as we've got a sort of
if it's another twenty years least hope it is, or
(10:02):
thirty or whenever it is, that we are actually better
prepared and we can help even more. Really. Yeah, yeah, What.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Were some of the biggest things that helped you to
stay farm strong in the immediate few days following Gabrielle.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, the rural support trusts were big on this and
I yeah, and farm strong like it was it's learning
about that or even just maybe it's where I'm at
now with my farming career, and that I don't know,
but it interests me. And you've got to start understanding
yourself so that you know when you need a break
(10:41):
with all of these things that maybe when I first
started farming, was I didn't need a break, whereas now
I really see that it is having and understanding yourself
like and your farm all of those things to be
able to make good decisions. Because yeah, if I don't
want to say these are coming again, but events like this,
whether it's the drought or whatever it seems to be,
(11:02):
they pop up all the time now and it's hard
to get your hit around all of this stuff. So
I think learning about that stuff and learning about yourself
is very important.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, what about support from others? And we've touched on
this quite a bit, you know, people checking and on you.
How important though was that for you?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah? It was? And that's what I've got a plug
for my wife here as and we talk about this
sort of stuff, which is not maybe people I don't
know if people talk to their wise, it's about talking
to the person that can really help. And that's what
I feel I had because we just kept coming back
to that getting back on the same page. And yeah,
(11:43):
so it's fine in that person. That helps when stressful
times like that and it's been a drag like yeah,
and now the dry that we've sort of had and
now the lack of grass and stuff, it's could feel
if you're not dealing with a day like it could
get on top of you real easy. And that's where
these farm strong things and talking about it helps.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, And because yeah, it isn't just the immediate aftermath.
But I'll look at this, just finally in two different ways.
When you are in that immediate aftermath and everything seems
a bit overwhelming, you can look at the devastation day
in day out. You can think about the people who
you can't quite get to yet. How do you deal
with everything seeming so overwhelming?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, I And again maybe it's the age I'm at now.
It's sort of like you've always almost got a I
didn't when I was younger, I did. You've got to
almost build this into your system, that things are going
to go wrong and that it's not. And that's the
weird thing with farming is what I'm fine light as
in what someone's doing next door might be different to you,
but how you deal with it. Yeah, so which gives
(12:51):
me the confidence that, you know, if you've got a
gut feeling on things to go with it, like go
with what what'll titch your box? Because yeah, it's you
get an to go next year because of the seasons
and everything like that. Yeah, I don't know, I answered that
one very well.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Well, no, no, I think you do, because it is
like it's a different kind of beast farming really when
you go into it knowing that not every year is
going to be a success.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, but I didn't. I didn't really know. I've only
just getting the idea around that now, which actually makes
me feel okay. Like every time you go into a paddock,
have a look at a sheet everything, it's just you
can't you can't pinpoint what it is. But just sometimes
the season's work and sometimes they don't.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What about now though, Like, as you mentioned, you've gone
from what is it frying pan? To fire, a cyclone
to drought? How do you keep staying positive and staying
strong now when there's been a few challenges one after
the other that long.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Term, Yeah, and with the cyclone, so that goes boom,
it happens, and then you've got to deal with it.
The drought is and that's the awful thing. Like it
was predicted, this drought, but the fact that it went
into an autumn drought is what they're like. So you're
forever making decisions and you know, I've had to make
decisions that I normally wouldn't but you've just got to
(14:16):
keep making decisions and yeah, yeah, just yeah. I've got
a budget in front of me now and it doesn't
look pretty, but I'm at least it's a number. It's
something to work towards, which makes me feel all right
today as I'm unloading wool off my trailer, like I'm
not worried about that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, Just final question for you, Sam, biggest piece of
advice you can give to anyone who's facing adversity in farming.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well, I'm just sitting here thinking now as in I'm
thinking about myself and what I can control and can't control.
And you know someone else that got hit from the cycling,
whether it's their house, whether it's their relationship, whether it's whatever.
It's get people around you that understand you, know you
and can help like farming and farming, and I'm learning
(15:06):
I'm getting in another ten years time, I'll probably think
differently again on it. But when I was younger, I
had way more energy, and like, I don't have that
energy now, So I've just got to look at things
a lot differently and hopefully I'm doing that. I'm still
here and yeah, it's tough, but then there's also yet
awesome days where you know it's dry out there now
you can get some work done, like the recovery that
(15:27):
we've been able to do, Like I've had a fencing
contractor here it's like, yes, it's been dry, but we've
been able to get some good work done which we
wouldn't have, Like, yeah, we had a very wet winter
last year and it was tough. So just know your
farm and know the people around you and keep smiling.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Great advice there, Sam Johnson winded up as Sheep and
Be Farmer. Really appreciate you joining me on this Farm
Strong podcast looking at what it takes to get through
adverse weather events. You've certainly had that to contend with
cyclone Gabrielle last year, so really appreciate you opening up
about your experiences, what you've learned, what can help others,
and taking time out of your day to chat to
(16:04):
me today. Appreciate it, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Thanks and yeah that's cool. I'll get back to work.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Good on you. Thanks so much, Sam Live Well, Farm
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