July 28, 2026 • 7 mins
The Blenheim-based Resilient Farmer has travelled down the road to lend a helping hand on a flood-stricken Kaikoura dairy farm.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're off to Kaikura now. The Resilient farm has driven
down the road from Blenham where he's based these days.
Doug Avery, Doug, you're a good bugger. You're a real
good bugger, because we've been following the story of Adam mcmanaway.
Of course, Shane's son. He's been smashed, smashed worse than
any other farmer in the in the area with the floods.
(00:21):
You've dropped tools. I don't know what they've dropped tools,
you've dropped you've dropped something and headed down the road
to help him. Are you any use? Ah?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, that's that's probably the big question. How much use?
You know? I'm in an age now. When you pull
a throttle back, there's a bit of a roar and
a bit of smoke and not much happens. But I'd
have to say that, you know, like turn half weeks
out from that storm, and what a great guy, you know,
Adam and Antonia built a great dairy farm here. It's
(00:50):
a beautiful place on the back of it's got the
Manwa mcmanowey trait right across up and two weeks out
and it's just amazing what's being achieved, not only by Adam,
but by a whole heap of people, including Shane and
Adam's uncle and a whole lot of local people. What
(01:10):
a great community. And it was a privilege to go
down there and disco panic and flatten out of a
calf pen. I was never sure Jamie was good enough.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Now I think I was in Australia and Hamish Mackay
caught up with Adam when he was covering for me
and Adam I think told Hamish that it could be
nine months before he gets the farm back to square one.
Have we made any advance on that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, for sure. So right at the start when Shane
told me what was going on, I said to him,
once the water drops away and everything, things will be better.
So he's got a lot of country covered in rocks
and sand, which is pretty rough, but even a lot
of that grass is pushing through the sand. And because
he's such a damn good farmer, he already was in
(01:57):
a great position with pastures. It's a mean time of
the year because you're balancing the metabolic situation of your cows,
and you know, this morning, just the first thing he
got was a text from holding the same cow number
whatever hadn't shifted for a bit and he went out
there and one of his top cows was dead. But
(02:18):
he's amazing. He's absolutely amazing. He's been running on on
over the red line. And my talk with him was
about pulling the horizons and just accepting that maybe this
year we won't be perfect and looking after himself was
(02:39):
shoesy where I focused.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Doug, you mentioned Holter, are these virtual fencing tools that
are available now for farmers are a blessing when you
get events like this where a whole lot of fences
get wiped out.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, like in the heat of the storm. Adam was
actually able to manage the on paddas where there was water,
just taken his fences out every day, every day of
every week. I learned about another wonderful thing that that
tool brings to farming. Bottavary has just gotten new horizons
(03:16):
from that one toll, and Adam was so grateful. It
actually was kind of interesting because I arrived down there
at lunchtime on Monday and went straight into rating calf pens,
the wood chips and the calf pens. And when I
came back and the tongue was hanging out of it,
there was the whole to Lady Amy Chamberlain come to
tell Adam that he had won hold to Free for
(03:38):
a year and it couldn't have gone to a better person.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, that was part of the primo I think they
had at field Days. I don't know whether it was
coincidence or whatever, but he's certainly a very worthy winner.
He needs it.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
The point that she made is he didn't win on
the sympathy vote. He won because of the outstanding farming
that him and Antonia have been doing down there. And
I mean that's that's the credit and the worthiness of
the blog. He's a lovely human being and he carries
all those mcmanuway traits about perfection. I had to be
(04:13):
on my best behavior out there to keep even halfway
up to the bar.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Hey, there'll be lots of green tractors lined up on
the shed is the mcmanuay farm, four of them.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I was on an old girl that was done nine
and a half thousand hours, and she still sang away
nicely to me, pulling a massive, big set of discs
chopping up some fodder beet country that had been finished
and getting it ready for the next crop.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, you've done a lot more than nine and a
half thousand hours.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Oh, this thing still ran like the day it was
pulled out of the shed.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
No, I'm talking about you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Just when you pull by trottle back, Jamee, there's a
lot of smoke and a lot of noise and a
little bit of work.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, okay, Hey, just going up the road to where
you're farming. Are you some phrases running the outfit?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I take it that you're using halter on your hills
for your beef cattle.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Right, Yeah, We've got hold of wall to wall and
I'm calling it the best thing that the farm's ever
ever done in my whole life, the biggest step forward.
It's coming in different ways, and it's well of the ways,
which absolutely delights to me. As the social component, the
fact that you don't have to put leadings on and
money coat to go out and shift the brakes in
(05:29):
the morning. You can do it from the kitchen and
the walks by the fire, A whole lot of things
like that. But we're getting it economically as well. Weaned
our calves over three hundred k because they are creat
feed all the way, so easy to creep feed with
it and benefit after ben.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So when you're talking about creep feeding. This is when
you're controlling where the cows can go, but the calves
can kind of free range and get the good feed.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah. So you know the old system. The cows and
the calves are going to a block and they all
eat well for the first few days, and then the
cars are beating a bit least than what they should be,
and then the cows are the scoff on the best
of that, and then you've got to leave them to
clean the block up. But your cars are going backwards.
And that those days have gone. At Bonnavy now the
cars are on the front foot all day. And we
(06:15):
weaned the cars are that placid. When we weaned them,
they were like like they've been bucket red.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
All right. Hey, yeah, Doug Avery, great to catch up again.
It's very important to catch up with old friends. We
lost one yesterday or on Monday, and Jim Hopkins. So
you just make sure you look after yourself and keep
blowing a bit of I don't know, it's going to
say white smoke instead of black smoke.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, this old boy's still got a lot of life
less than him yet I think, yeah, well that might
treat every day as though it's special.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, well, you don't get a name like the Resilient
Farmer unless you're resilient, I guess, Doug. Great to catch up.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Well, the young Adam that manaway is an excellent example
of resilience because he's been under the pump something shocking.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, well, good on you.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
He's an amazing human being.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Good on you. Thanks for helping out, Dug Avery there,
the Resilient Farmer
We're off to Kaikura now. The Resilient farm has driven
down the road from Blenham where he's based these days.
Doug Avery, Doug, you're a good bugger. You're a real
good bugger, because we've been following the story of Adam mcmanaway.
Of course, Shane's son. He's been smashed, smashed worse than
any other farmer in the in the area with the floods.
(00:21):
You've dropped tools. I don't know what they've dropped tools,
you've dropped you've dropped something and headed down the road
to help him. Are you any use? Ah?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, that's that's probably the big question. How much use?
You know? I'm in an age now. When you pull
a throttle back, there's a bit of a roar and
a bit of smoke and not much happens. But I'd
have to say that, you know, like turn half weeks
out from that storm, and what a great guy, you know,
Adam and Antonia built a great dairy farm here. It's
(00:50):
a beautiful place on the back of it's got the
Manwa mcmanowey trait right across up and two weeks out
and it's just amazing what's being achieved, not only by Adam,
but by a whole heap of people, including Shane and
Adam's uncle and a whole lot of local people. What
(01:10):
a great community. And it was a privilege to go
down there and disco panic and flatten out of a
calf pen. I was never sure Jamie was good enough.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Now I think I was in Australia and Hamish Mackay
caught up with Adam when he was covering for me
and Adam I think told Hamish that it could be
nine months before he gets the farm back to square one.
Have we made any advance on that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, for sure. So right at the start when Shane
told me what was going on, I said to him,
once the water drops away and everything, things will be better.
So he's got a lot of country covered in rocks
and sand, which is pretty rough, but even a lot
of that grass is pushing through the sand. And because
he's such a damn good farmer, he already was in
(01:57):
a great position with pastures. It's a mean time of
the year because you're balancing the metabolic situation of your cows,
and you know, this morning, just the first thing he
got was a text from holding the same cow number
whatever hadn't shifted for a bit and he went out
there and one of his top cows was dead. But
(02:18):
he's amazing. He's absolutely amazing. He's been running on on
over the red line. And my talk with him was
about pulling the horizons and just accepting that maybe this
year we won't be perfect and looking after himself was
(02:39):
shoesy where I focused.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Doug, you mentioned Holter, are these virtual fencing tools that
are available now for farmers are a blessing when you
get events like this where a whole lot of fences
get wiped out.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, like in the heat of the storm. Adam was
actually able to manage the on paddas where there was water,
just taken his fences out every day, every day of
every week. I learned about another wonderful thing that that
tool brings to farming. Bottavary has just gotten new horizons
(03:16):
from that one toll, and Adam was so grateful. It
actually was kind of interesting because I arrived down there
at lunchtime on Monday and went straight into rating calf pens,
the wood chips and the calf pens. And when I
came back and the tongue was hanging out of it,
there was the whole to Lady Amy Chamberlain come to
tell Adam that he had won hold to Free for
(03:38):
a year and it couldn't have gone to a better person.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, that was part of the primo I think they
had at field Days. I don't know whether it was
coincidence or whatever, but he's certainly a very worthy winner.
He needs it.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
The point that she made is he didn't win on
the sympathy vote. He won because of the outstanding farming
that him and Antonia have been doing down there. And
I mean that's that's the credit and the worthiness of
the blog. He's a lovely human being and he carries
all those mcmanuway traits about perfection. I had to be
(04:13):
on my best behavior out there to keep even halfway
up to the bar.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Hey, there'll be lots of green tractors lined up on
the shed is the mcmanuay farm, four of them.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I was on an old girl that was done nine
and a half thousand hours, and she still sang away
nicely to me, pulling a massive, big set of discs
chopping up some fodder beet country that had been finished
and getting it ready for the next crop.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, you've done a lot more than nine and a
half thousand hours.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Oh, this thing still ran like the day it was
pulled out of the shed.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
No, I'm talking about you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Just when you pull by trottle back, Jamee, there's a
lot of smoke and a lot of noise and a
little bit of work.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, okay, Hey, just going up the road to where
you're farming. Are you some phrases running the outfit?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I take it that you're using halter on your hills
for your beef cattle.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Right, Yeah, We've got hold of wall to wall and
I'm calling it the best thing that the farm's ever
ever done in my whole life, the biggest step forward.
It's coming in different ways, and it's well of the ways,
which absolutely delights to me. As the social component, the
fact that you don't have to put leadings on and
money coat to go out and shift the brakes in
(05:29):
the morning. You can do it from the kitchen and
the walks by the fire, A whole lot of things
like that. But we're getting it economically as well. Weaned
our calves over three hundred k because they are creat
feed all the way, so easy to creep feed with
it and benefit after ben.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So when you're talking about creep feeding. This is when
you're controlling where the cows can go, but the calves
can kind of free range and get the good feed.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah. So you know the old system. The cows and
the calves are going to a block and they all
eat well for the first few days, and then the
cars are beating a bit least than what they should be,
and then the cows are the scoff on the best
of that, and then you've got to leave them to
clean the block up. But your cars are going backwards.
And that those days have gone. At Bonnavy now the
cars are on the front foot all day. And we
(06:15):
weaned the cars are that placid. When we weaned them,
they were like like they've been bucket red.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
All right. Hey, yeah, Doug Avery, great to catch up again.
It's very important to catch up with old friends. We
lost one yesterday or on Monday, and Jim Hopkins. So
you just make sure you look after yourself and keep
blowing a bit of I don't know, it's going to
say white smoke instead of black smoke.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, this old boy's still got a lot of life
less than him yet I think, yeah, well that might
treat every day as though it's special.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, well, you don't get a name like the Resilient
Farmer unless you're resilient, I guess, Doug. Great to catch up.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Well, the young Adam that manaway is an excellent example
of resilience because he's been under the pump something shocking.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, well, good on you.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
He's an amazing human being.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Good on you. Thanks for helping out, Dug Avery there,
the Resilient Farmer
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