July 7, 2025 • 16 mins
Tune in as Matt and Simon Begley, local Area Manager, sit down with Frank Briant to delve into the story of the Briant Brothers’ operation in Patutahi, Gisborne. This episode highlights how the diverse 520ha operation, which consists of maize grain, Pioneer seed production maize, livestock, kiwifruit, grapes, citrus, squash, and popcorn, has weathered challenges and thrived through strategic diversification and family succession.
After parting ways with his brother after 42 years of farming together, Frank established a new operation with his three sons in 2012/13. The Briant Brothers’ partnership with Pioneer dates back to 1989/90, growing seed production maize. Frank shares insights into how their farming practices have evolved from traditional maize cribs to modern combines and precision agriculture. Frank discusses the family's resilience and the importance of diversification when Cyclone Gabrielle devastated their crops in 2022, and how they've recovered and thrived through modern techniques like strip tillage, achieving impressive maize grain yields averaging 18 tonnes per hectare this season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Rightio, welcome back to Feed for Thought.
My name's Matt Daly, and todayI've ventured to the East Coast
and joined my colleague, simonBegley.
Hey, simon, how are you Goodthanks, matt.
Thanks for joining us on theFeed for Thought podcast and
we're sitting at the kitchentable of Frank Bryant.
Thanks for having us, frank.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
No worries, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And the reason why we're here is your face and your
boy's face is actually on thefront cover of the grain
catalogue this year.
So nice little testimonial.
So we thought we'd delve intoit a little bit and get a little
bit more juice out of theorange, as per se.
So thanks for having us.
Like I said, you're welcome,thanks.
Can you just start off bytelling us a little bit about
(00:45):
the farm business as it standstoday, and then we might drag
back into history and kind ofwhere it all started.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, well, bryant Brothers is my company of myself
and three sons.
It was formed in 2013, or 12 or13, after I parted company with
my brother F and E Bryant, whohad been farming together for 42
years before that, so it was amatter of family succession,
(01:13):
really.
We split up our business intotwo operations and I've gone
with the boys doing this.
Nice.
We've been lucky enough to getsome decent-sized blocks of land
and be able to carry on growing, increasing what we actually
used to do.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
And so the land holding now like just on your
own farm property, becausethere's a bit of leased land as
well.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, the land owning what we own is approximately
270 hectares in this area wherewe are here.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So for the listeners.
Simon, we're in Gisborne, butwhere exactly are we Paratahi,
paratahi?
Yeah, so pretty fertile flats.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, it's the centre of yeah, 12km west of Gisborne
really.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
But yeah, as far as fertility it's good.
Heavy, strong country, be thebest, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And the make-up of the operation here, frank.
So we've obviously come on themaize front, but there's a few
other crops and animals involved.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yes, well, some of the property is a small block of
hill country where we run sheepand cattle, and there's a small
block of kiwi fruit.
There's a small block of kiwifruit, a block of grapes and
some citrus, and on the croppingfront we also do squash and
seed maize for Pioneer.
Yeah right, actually, popcornas well, which.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I forgot about.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
There's a fair list.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Just on that squash, frank.
You know you guys grow it, butyou've been marketing and
packing yourself for a while, soyou're not just getting told by
the pack house that it hasn'tpacked out well.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, we're shareholders in the Four Seasons
pack house, so we have a littlebit of insight into what
happens there.
But the marketing is not doneby us.
We sell it to Azora in Auckland, who export it to Japan or
Korea.
We're not really involved withthe marketing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And you mentioned that you grow seed maize for us,
frank, so how long have youbeen doing that?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh, it's ever since Pioneer came to Gisborne, which
I think was about 91, somewherearound there.
Simon, right, yeah, previouslywe grew decalb seed maize, or my
brother and I grew decalb seedmaize for dalgadies, or I think
they were called dalgadies inthose days and we got you across
to grow a bit of Pioneer stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well they stopped.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
They probably stopped about the same time as you guys
started.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And how has that changed over the years?
The seed maze for yourselves.
Obviously, the hectaresprobably have grown in that
space.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, and I think when we first started growing,
we used to harvest it ourselves,grew it on three-foot rows in
those days, or 36-inch rows.
Certainly the decal was grownin there that way.
Yeah, um, no, probably wedidn't harvest, no, so so uh,
yeah, it's just that theoperations got bigger and the
(04:15):
machinery, especially thepioneer stuff, has got bigger
and better and flasher.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah um, but, and we've we've had a podcast in the
past with Duncan Grant, ourfield operations manager, who
probably floats through here abit.
But, simon, can you just run usreal quickly through how the
seed production system actuallyruns, so we come through and
plant it?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, so the likes of there'd be about a dozen
growers.
These guys will prep their ownland.
Some of them will have theirown planters, most of them will
have their own planters to plantthe female rows.
But, to start with, duncan willcome around and have a
conversation with these guys andget a feel of where their land
(04:58):
is, what's available, and thengive them some planting dates.
So, yeah, they'll do the femaleplanting.
Some of the guys have their ownmale planter and then we do
have a male planter just to helpout if we get behind, and then
they look after the crop fromthere weed control and then
(05:20):
we'll come and harvest.
Obviously we're Mark DeCoste isinvolved there with running the
harvesting side of things.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
A bit of detest along the way as well.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Detestling is obviously a big part of it.
We're using university studentsand that A lot of casual staff
that comes in Casual staff tocome through, but you don't
actually have any of thatmachinery yourself.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That all sits with Pioneer, doesn't it Frank?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
All the detestling stuff does, yeah.
The other thing that Simonperhaps didn't convey yourself,
that all sets the pioneer,doesn't it, frank?
All the detestling stuff does,yeah.
The other thing that Simonperhaps didn't convey was it's
got to be checked out forisolation from other crops as
well.
When Duncan is sorting out theareas, he'll look around to see
what's growing alongside, andisolation can be either by
(06:11):
distance or by time as wellgrowing alongside, and isolation
can be either by distance or bytime as well.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
So they can if you're running, uh, if you've got.
You've got commercial maizegrain here as well.
You've got popcorn, you said aswell.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So I'd say that's a fair old balancing act around
here, well, and also neighborscould have sweet corn as well.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So yeah, well, just on that, there's 5 000 hectares
I think the numbers were pulledtogether.
That's of maize, sweet corn Forlocal processor and seed maize.
So to plan, get the timingright For all of that, as you
mentioned, frank, the isolationis pretty critical.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Just want to go back to the family here.
Frank, you mentioned the boys.
They all play different partsin the business.
How's the business structureset up here?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, someone, said to me very recently you couldn't
have worked it out bloodybetter if you tried.
You've got a son who's anaccountant, one who's a diesel
mechanic and one who wants torun the stock operations.
So that's how it's kind ofevolved.
You just need a vet in yourmess room.
Best not to have sick animals.
(07:21):
Anyway, that's the logistics ofthe family Richard's a chartered
accountant and a partner in BDOin Gisborne Comes out here just
to keep an eye on us and show abit of interest.
Stuart runs all the croppingoperations and Hamish all the
livestock.
But they all can cross over andhelp each other out.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
We know Hamish spends a bit of time on the planter
from when the planting seasonstarts.
That's his job, which is apretty important part of the
equation.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Me.
I used to be useful but I'm notso useful these days, but I
still keep a close eye on thevineyard and the citrus,
probably.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And how have those crops kind of come into it?
Maze has kind of been acornerstone, should I say, of
the operation for a long time.
How has the business expandedinto those?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's just probably because the opportunity was
there and it looked like it wasa good idea to have eggs in a
lot of baskets.
It's been a pretty odd yearwhen something hasn't paid out
for you.
There might have been a bloody,poor year for scrapes, but the
maize was good.
In the year when we had Gabrielthe maize wasn't so flourished
(08:36):
because a lot of it got salt,but the grapes turned out well,
to be honest, funnily enough.
So you know something willusually come up trumps for you.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And just to take us through that Gabriel period.
Then did you lose crops, or isit?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
We certainly lost substantial areas of maize and
popcorn.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And on the back of that, have you changed any
practices, or where you'replanting, or how you're planting
, or has the land changed interms of silt deposit?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Strangely the silt has actually had a beneficiary
effect out at the AP station.
There We've grown really goodcrops this year for the first
time that it's actually had adecent growing season since, say
, clown Gabriel.
So the crops have been reallygood there this year and brought
the pH on all the property upand probably just a bit easier
(09:36):
to work.
Yeah, but there was really biglosses then from the popcorn and
the maize, which some of it washarvestable, but it was all
contaminated with silt and wasnot usable by Corsons for their
food grade.
Very gross.
It was shunted out of town forstock feed.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, yeah, just on that, to see the crops that
you've been able to get offthere this year, the good yield.
It's a credit to being able toknock the ground back into shape
after what it looked like, youknow, with the machinery going
through it after Gabriel.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah well certainly you wouldn't have realised that
you could do that in a couple ofyears at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, and any different cultivation techniques
.
What's the process in gettingsome of this back, because I
hear all these myths around howpeople got back in and did it.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
There was probably nothing fancy about what we did
to restore the land.
We just got back on and soon itwas dry enough to be able to do
something to it, put a ripperthrough and open it up and let
it breathe a bit, and then justdid normal groundwork when we
could.
But the previous year, theplanting season before Cyclone
(10:53):
Gabriel, we'd had a really wetspring right up to when we'd
normally planted.
By the end of September wehadn't done a thing.
In fact by Gisborne showtimemid-October we hadn't done
anything.
So Richard, my son, suggestedwe look at strip till oh yes.
And we went to the show, talkedstrip till with people in trade
(11:16):
and by labour weekend.
We had a strip till machinehere and we planted all of the
land out at Apun with a striptill that year.
Yeah, but unfortunately wenever had a chance to really
find out what its potential was,because Gabriel came and buried
it all.
He had something to say Inanswer to your earlier question
(11:37):
about changes, one of theproblems out there was the Tiara
River was totally, totallychoked with willows, which made
all the water spill out.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And a heap of money has been spent on that, cleaning
it out.
So it's now anticipated that inthe event of the same sort of
an event, it wouldn't be nearlyas bad as it was.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Good, and just picking up on the yield side of
things, I mean I come up herefrom the Manawou and hear about
these fantastic yields that youguys get on the east coast and
what.
What are we talking?
What kind of yields are youguys knocking down?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
oh, look, if you're sitting in the combine with tom
newman who does the harvesting,yeah, you see some good numbers
20, 21, but on on, you knowwe've been doing some averages
of 18, 18 tonne um, and how havethey changed over the years?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
frank?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
we've had 18s out there before and then we've had
three really low years and we'vegot back to 18 this year.
But I don't know how thatcompares to across the district,
but our average probably is 18out there this year.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Simon's always going to bump that number up anyway.
But if we go back in time, liketo when you first got into the
seed maize, what were yourcommercial crops of maize
looking like?
Then just paint the picture fora listener were they 12 tonne.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I was going to say 13 or 14, I was going to say yeah,
but remember that in those dayssomeone was going to cribs,
were we still cribbing?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
what was a crib?
I mean a little bit before mytime maybe, but what's a…?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Maze crib.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
How would you describe that?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Simon.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It's just a structure built in the paddock, mostly
built in the corner of the mazepaddock, with wooden floor, wire
netting sides and about 12 foothigh yeah right.
And you filled it up with cobsoff the harvest Full cobs, full
cobs Put a roof on it and leftit till the end of winter, when
the wind had blown through itand the rats had eaten a few of
it, a bit of it, and then wasshelled out with a sheller in
(13:39):
probably September, october, dry.
So there's no drying charges.
Bit of loss, bit of loss.
yeah, Wouldn't have beensubstantial but it was a cheap
way of drying and you know, whenwe were young it was the only
way.
Yeah, there was no dryers,there was no combines.
(14:00):
You know I've got photos of myold photo album taken with a box
brownie in the 1950s, of CousinDon Bryant harvesting maize and
cribbing.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So the practices have definitely changed around here,
and where do you kind of seethem, where do you see it going
with the boys now?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Well, we're working on a succession plan right now,
when I'll be doing nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
No, you're important in the background there.
Frank for diesel tanker anddelivery when things break down.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, yeah, no, I think we don't see ourselves
moving from here.
We're just like happy being alittle cog in the wheel here,
but eventually they'll probablydo their own.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Thing.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
But they're happy to work together for the short
foreseeable future.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
You say a small cog, but I think like you talked
about the 200-odd hectares thatare here, but there's a larger
amount of leased groundassociated with the business as
well, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So there's a fair bit of maize under you guys Well we
would have cropped 400 hectaresannually here, the biggest
block obviously at Opu Stationthere.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Which you're very lucky to have, nice block to
have, extremely lucky.
What is that?
A couple of hundred hectares inone block there?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Well, there's actually probably 250 hectares,
but some of it is in Lucerne now, so we don't have access to
that, but we're still cropping200 hectares.
Yeah, so we don't have accessto that, but we're still
cropping 200 hectares?
Speaker 1 (15:32):
And what kind of advice would you give to someone
you said, as theseopportunities came up, you took
them, but for other businesseslooking to go down these
pathways, what kind?
Of advice would you have?
For someone Talking aboutsomeone new coming in or just
someone who already, justsomeone that's already in the
game to some extent.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
But looking at these other opportunities out there,
you need to have a really goodlook at the prospects there,
because what can look reallygood one year will not
necessarily be the same.
We were just talking earlierabout the grape industry and I
would have loved four years agoto have planted more grapes.
(16:14):
At that point in time we couldhardly get pruners so we didn't
plant any more.
Now they're telling us in twoyears' time they want to buy
grapes from a lot of theGisborne growers because it's
just such an oversupply.
So you never quite know what'saround the corner in this
business here.
Kiwi fruit's been in highs andlows, Grapes are highs and lows.
(16:35):
Apples I don't know if they'rehigh or low at the moment.
It depends on who you talk to.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
But in general maize has been a big part of the
business.
That's fair to say.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, and, like I said before, it's something you
can take to the bank pretty muchAside.
That's fair to say, yeah, and,like I said before, it's
something you can take to thebank pretty much Aside from a
cyclone.
You're always going to get acrop out of it.
It might not be an 18-tonner,but it's going to be 13, 14, 15.
Even in a poor year, you'regoing to get figures like that.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And, as you mentioned , we're lucky to have opu but
growing on good, strong ground.
I think days are gone ofgrowing on that sort of 10,
11-tonne country, becausethere's just not the money in it
but good management.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, just the cost of production now is too high to
be growing 10 and 11-tonnecrops.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And competition for land has changed immensely.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what it is
this year with the vineyardsthat are being pulled out.
But you know, leader Brand isstill a big player in the lease
market with their vegetablecrops.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And Mace is still competitive when we start
talking about these other cropsas well.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
As long as you don't have to pay too high a lease for
it.
You know you couldn't competewith the Leader Brand lease
probably, but you know we'rehappy with where it's at.
Yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Well, frank.
Thanks very much for kind ofgiving us a good rundown of the
history of your operation here.
Simon, you know it well.
Have we missed anything alongthe way?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
No, not at all.
Look, these guys sort of setthe benchmark of how it's
supposed to be done.
You know, we know there'sthings to get up.
You know the basics that we'vegot to do and they do it
properly.
It's always a pleasure workingwith them.
So, yeah, just wish them bestfor the coming seasons excellent
(18:33):
it's.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's because of growers like you, frank, that
we've got a business like we do.
So we really appreciate whatyou do and thanks for joining us
on on the podcast, but also onthe catalog.
We appreciate your supportthank you.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
There's always pleasure dealing with with
pioneer.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Hey, excellent, all right, if you've liked it like
this episode or any of our otherepisodes.
Be sure to tune in again.
We'll be covering all thingsmaze, like and subscribe, and
we'll talk to you again soon.
Thanks very much.
Rightio, welcome back to Feed for Thought.
My name's Matt Daly, and todayI've ventured to the East Coast
and joined my colleague, simonBegley.
Hey, simon, how are you Goodthanks, matt.
Thanks for joining us on theFeed for Thought podcast and
we're sitting at the kitchentable of Frank Bryant.
Thanks for having us, frank.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
No worries, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And the reason why we're here is your face and your
boy's face is actually on thefront cover of the grain
catalogue this year.
So nice little testimonial.
So we thought we'd delve intoit a little bit and get a little
bit more juice out of theorange, as per se.
So thanks for having us.
Like I said, you're welcome,thanks.
Can you just start off bytelling us a little bit about
(00:45):
the farm business as it standstoday, and then we might drag
back into history and kind ofwhere it all started.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, well, bryant Brothers is my company of myself
and three sons.
It was formed in 2013, or 12 or13, after I parted company with
my brother F and E Bryant, whohad been farming together for 42
years before that, so it was amatter of family succession,
(01:13):
really.
We split up our business intotwo operations and I've gone
with the boys doing this.
Nice.
We've been lucky enough to getsome decent-sized blocks of land
and be able to carry on growing, increasing what we actually
used to do.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
And so the land holding now like just on your
own farm property, becausethere's a bit of leased land as
well.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, the land owning what we own is approximately
270 hectares in this area wherewe are here.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So for the listeners.
Simon, we're in Gisborne, butwhere exactly are we Paratahi,
paratahi?
Yeah, so pretty fertile flats.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, it's the centre of yeah, 12km west of Gisborne
really.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
But yeah, as far as fertility it's good.
Heavy, strong country, be thebest, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And the make-up of the operation here, frank.
So we've obviously come on themaize front, but there's a few
other crops and animals involved.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yes, well, some of the property is a small block of
hill country where we run sheepand cattle, and there's a small
block of kiwi fruit.
There's a small block of kiwifruit, a block of grapes and
some citrus, and on the croppingfront we also do squash and
seed maize for Pioneer.
Yeah right, actually, popcornas well, which.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I forgot about.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
There's a fair list.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Just on that squash, frank.
You know you guys grow it, butyou've been marketing and
packing yourself for a while, soyou're not just getting told by
the pack house that it hasn'tpacked out well.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, we're shareholders in the Four Seasons
pack house, so we have a littlebit of insight into what
happens there.
But the marketing is not doneby us.
We sell it to Azora in Auckland, who export it to Japan or
Korea.
We're not really involved withthe marketing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And you mentioned that you grow seed maize for us,
frank, so how long have youbeen doing that?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh, it's ever since Pioneer came to Gisborne, which
I think was about 91, somewherearound there.
Simon, right, yeah, previouslywe grew decalb seed maize, or my
brother and I grew decalb seedmaize for dalgadies, or I think
they were called dalgadies inthose days and we got you across
to grow a bit of Pioneer stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well they stopped.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
They probably stopped about the same time as you guys
started.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And how has that changed over the years?
The seed maze for yourselves.
Obviously, the hectaresprobably have grown in that
space.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, and I think when we first started growing,
we used to harvest it ourselves,grew it on three-foot rows in
those days, or 36-inch rows.
Certainly the decal was grownin there that way.
Yeah, um, no, probably wedidn't harvest, no, so so uh,
yeah, it's just that theoperations got bigger and the
(04:15):
machinery, especially thepioneer stuff, has got bigger
and better and flasher.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah um, but, and we've we've had a podcast in the
past with Duncan Grant, ourfield operations manager, who
probably floats through here abit.
But, simon, can you just run usreal quickly through how the
seed production system actuallyruns, so we come through and
plant it?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, so the likes of there'd be about a dozen
growers.
These guys will prep their ownland.
Some of them will have theirown planters, most of them will
have their own planters to plantthe female rows.
But, to start with, duncan willcome around and have a
conversation with these guys andget a feel of where their land
(04:58):
is, what's available, and thengive them some planting dates.
So, yeah, they'll do the femaleplanting.
Some of the guys have their ownmale planter and then we do
have a male planter just to helpout if we get behind, and then
they look after the crop fromthere weed control and then
(05:20):
we'll come and harvest.
Obviously we're Mark DeCoste isinvolved there with running the
harvesting side of things.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
A bit of detest along the way as well.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Detestling is obviously a big part of it.
We're using university studentsand that A lot of casual staff
that comes in Casual staff tocome through, but you don't
actually have any of thatmachinery yourself.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That all sits with Pioneer, doesn't it Frank?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
All the detestling stuff does, yeah.
The other thing that Simonperhaps didn't convey yourself,
that all sets the pioneer,doesn't it, frank?
All the detestling stuff does,yeah.
The other thing that Simonperhaps didn't convey was it's
got to be checked out forisolation from other crops as
well.
When Duncan is sorting out theareas, he'll look around to see
what's growing alongside, andisolation can be either by
(06:11):
distance or by time as wellgrowing alongside, and isolation
can be either by distance or bytime as well.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
So they can if you're running, uh, if you've got.
You've got commercial maizegrain here as well.
You've got popcorn, you said aswell.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So I'd say that's a fair old balancing act around
here, well, and also neighborscould have sweet corn as well.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So yeah, well, just on that, there's 5 000 hectares
I think the numbers were pulledtogether.
That's of maize, sweet corn Forlocal processor and seed maize.
So to plan, get the timingright For all of that, as you
mentioned, frank, the isolationis pretty critical.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Just want to go back to the family here.
Frank, you mentioned the boys.
They all play different partsin the business.
How's the business structureset up here?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, someone, said to me very recently you couldn't
have worked it out bloodybetter if you tried.
You've got a son who's anaccountant, one who's a diesel
mechanic and one who wants torun the stock operations.
So that's how it's kind ofevolved.
You just need a vet in yourmess room.
Best not to have sick animals.
(07:21):
Anyway, that's the logistics ofthe family Richard's a chartered
accountant and a partner in BDOin Gisborne Comes out here just
to keep an eye on us and show abit of interest.
Stuart runs all the croppingoperations and Hamish all the
livestock.
But they all can cross over andhelp each other out.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
We know Hamish spends a bit of time on the planter
from when the planting seasonstarts.
That's his job, which is apretty important part of the
equation.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Me.
I used to be useful but I'm notso useful these days, but I
still keep a close eye on thevineyard and the citrus,
probably.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And how have those crops kind of come into it?
Maze has kind of been acornerstone, should I say, of
the operation for a long time.
How has the business expandedinto those?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's just probably because the opportunity was
there and it looked like it wasa good idea to have eggs in a
lot of baskets.
It's been a pretty odd yearwhen something hasn't paid out
for you.
There might have been a bloody,poor year for scrapes, but the
maize was good.
In the year when we had Gabrielthe maize wasn't so flourished
(08:36):
because a lot of it got salt,but the grapes turned out well,
to be honest, funnily enough.
So you know something willusually come up trumps for you.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And just to take us through that Gabriel period.
Then did you lose crops, or isit?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
We certainly lost substantial areas of maize and
popcorn.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And on the back of that, have you changed any
practices, or where you'replanting, or how you're planting
, or has the land changed interms of silt deposit?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Strangely the silt has actually had a beneficiary
effect out at the AP station.
There We've grown really goodcrops this year for the first
time that it's actually had adecent growing season since, say
, clown Gabriel.
So the crops have been reallygood there this year and brought
the pH on all the property upand probably just a bit easier
(09:36):
to work.
Yeah, but there was really biglosses then from the popcorn and
the maize, which some of it washarvestable, but it was all
contaminated with silt and wasnot usable by Corsons for their
food grade.
Very gross.
It was shunted out of town forstock feed.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, yeah, just on that, to see the crops that
you've been able to get offthere this year, the good yield.
It's a credit to being able toknock the ground back into shape
after what it looked like, youknow, with the machinery going
through it after Gabriel.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah well certainly you wouldn't have realised that
you could do that in a couple ofyears at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, and any different cultivation techniques
.
What's the process in gettingsome of this back, because I
hear all these myths around howpeople got back in and did it.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
There was probably nothing fancy about what we did
to restore the land.
We just got back on and soon itwas dry enough to be able to do
something to it, put a ripperthrough and open it up and let
it breathe a bit, and then justdid normal groundwork when we
could.
But the previous year, theplanting season before Cyclone
(10:53):
Gabriel, we'd had a really wetspring right up to when we'd
normally planted.
By the end of September wehadn't done a thing.
In fact by Gisborne showtimemid-October we hadn't done
anything.
So Richard, my son, suggestedwe look at strip till oh yes.
And we went to the show, talkedstrip till with people in trade
(11:16):
and by labour weekend.
We had a strip till machinehere and we planted all of the
land out at Apun with a striptill that year.
Yeah, but unfortunately wenever had a chance to really
find out what its potential was,because Gabriel came and buried
it all.
He had something to say Inanswer to your earlier question
(11:37):
about changes, one of theproblems out there was the Tiara
River was totally, totallychoked with willows, which made
all the water spill out.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And a heap of money has been spent on that, cleaning
it out.
So it's now anticipated that inthe event of the same sort of
an event, it wouldn't be nearlyas bad as it was.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Good, and just picking up on the yield side of
things, I mean I come up herefrom the Manawou and hear about
these fantastic yields that youguys get on the east coast and
what.
What are we talking?
What kind of yields are youguys knocking down?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
oh, look, if you're sitting in the combine with tom
newman who does the harvesting,yeah, you see some good numbers
20, 21, but on on, you knowwe've been doing some averages
of 18, 18 tonne um, and how havethey changed over the years?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
frank?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
we've had 18s out there before and then we've had
three really low years and we'vegot back to 18 this year.
But I don't know how thatcompares to across the district,
but our average probably is 18out there this year.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Simon's always going to bump that number up anyway.
But if we go back in time, liketo when you first got into the
seed maize, what were yourcommercial crops of maize
looking like?
Then just paint the picture fora listener were they 12 tonne.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I was going to say 13 or 14, I was going to say yeah,
but remember that in those dayssomeone was going to cribs,
were we still cribbing?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
what was a crib?
I mean a little bit before mytime maybe, but what's a…?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Maze crib.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
How would you describe that?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Simon.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It's just a structure built in the paddock, mostly
built in the corner of the mazepaddock, with wooden floor, wire
netting sides and about 12 foothigh yeah right.
And you filled it up with cobsoff the harvest Full cobs, full
cobs Put a roof on it and leftit till the end of winter, when
the wind had blown through itand the rats had eaten a few of
it, a bit of it, and then wasshelled out with a sheller in
(13:39):
probably September, october, dry.
So there's no drying charges.
Bit of loss, bit of loss.
yeah, Wouldn't have beensubstantial but it was a cheap
way of drying and you know, whenwe were young it was the only
way.
Yeah, there was no dryers,there was no combines.
(14:00):
You know I've got photos of myold photo album taken with a box
brownie in the 1950s, of CousinDon Bryant harvesting maize and
cribbing.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So the practices have definitely changed around here,
and where do you kind of seethem, where do you see it going
with the boys now?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Well, we're working on a succession plan right now,
when I'll be doing nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
No, you're important in the background there.
Frank for diesel tanker anddelivery when things break down.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, yeah, no, I think we don't see ourselves
moving from here.
We're just like happy being alittle cog in the wheel here,
but eventually they'll probablydo their own.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Thing.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
But they're happy to work together for the short
foreseeable future.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
You say a small cog, but I think like you talked
about the 200-odd hectares thatare here, but there's a larger
amount of leased groundassociated with the business as
well, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So there's a fair bit of maize under you guys Well we
would have cropped 400 hectaresannually here, the biggest
block obviously at Opu Stationthere.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Which you're very lucky to have, nice block to
have, extremely lucky.
What is that?
A couple of hundred hectares inone block there?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Well, there's actually probably 250 hectares,
but some of it is in Lucerne now, so we don't have access to
that, but we're still cropping200 hectares.
Yeah, so we don't have accessto that, but we're still
cropping 200 hectares?
Speaker 1 (15:32):
And what kind of advice would you give to someone
you said, as theseopportunities came up, you took
them, but for other businesseslooking to go down these
pathways, what kind?
Of advice would you have?
For someone Talking aboutsomeone new coming in or just
someone who already, justsomeone that's already in the
game to some extent.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
But looking at these other opportunities out there,
you need to have a really goodlook at the prospects there,
because what can look reallygood one year will not
necessarily be the same.
We were just talking earlierabout the grape industry and I
would have loved four years agoto have planted more grapes.
(16:14):
At that point in time we couldhardly get pruners so we didn't
plant any more.
Now they're telling us in twoyears' time they want to buy
grapes from a lot of theGisborne growers because it's
just such an oversupply.
So you never quite know what'saround the corner in this
business here.
Kiwi fruit's been in highs andlows, Grapes are highs and lows.
(16:35):
Apples I don't know if they'rehigh or low at the moment.
It depends on who you talk to.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
But in general maize has been a big part of the
business.
That's fair to say.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, and, like I said before, it's something you
can take to the bank pretty muchAside.
That's fair to say, yeah, and,like I said before, it's
something you can take to thebank pretty much Aside from a
cyclone.
You're always going to get acrop out of it.
It might not be an 18-tonner,but it's going to be 13, 14, 15.
Even in a poor year, you'regoing to get figures like that.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And, as you mentioned , we're lucky to have opu but
growing on good, strong ground.
I think days are gone ofgrowing on that sort of 10,
11-tonne country, becausethere's just not the money in it
but good management.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, just the cost of production now is too high to
be growing 10 and 11-tonnecrops.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And competition for land has changed immensely.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what it is
this year with the vineyardsthat are being pulled out.
But you know, leader Brand isstill a big player in the lease
market with their vegetablecrops.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And Mace is still competitive when we start
talking about these other cropsas well.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
As long as you don't have to pay too high a lease for
it.
You know you couldn't competewith the Leader Brand lease
probably, but you know we'rehappy with where it's at.
Yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Well, frank.
Thanks very much for kind ofgiving us a good rundown of the
history of your operation here.
Simon, you know it well.
Have we missed anything alongthe way?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
No, not at all.
Look, these guys sort of setthe benchmark of how it's
supposed to be done.
You know, we know there'sthings to get up.
You know the basics that we'vegot to do and they do it
properly.
It's always a pleasure workingwith them.
So, yeah, just wish them bestfor the coming seasons excellent
(18:33):
it's.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's because of growers like you, frank, that
we've got a business like we do.
So we really appreciate whatyou do and thanks for joining us
on on the podcast, but also onthe catalog.
We appreciate your supportthank you.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
There's always pleasure dealing with with
pioneer.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Hey, excellent, all right, if you've liked it like
this episode or any of our otherepisodes.
Be sure to tune in again.
We'll be covering all thingsmaze, like and subscribe, and
we'll talk to you again soon.
Thanks very much.
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