August 4, 2026 • 7 mins
Today’s farmer panel features the finest from Mid Canterbury - as we go dairy and deer farming with two social media darlings.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Craig Hickman, Duncan hum one is what do you call yourself? Dairyman?
Is your social media platform, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Craig is?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Indeed?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Now, who's the biggest social media darling out of you?
Or Duncan? Because he's in Z Farming Facebook?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Oh definitely definitely Dunk and he leaves me in the dust. No,
no problems at all, Dunk.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And how many you've got like one hundred and fifty
thousand followers or something like that.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Or is it grown? I don't try to say followers, actually, Jamie,
it's more of a community feel, so I don't think
anyone's necessarily following pass as such, but we're all kind
of going the same way together, I guess. So you know,
Facebook's about two hundred and something and Instagram's eighty something
as well.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So yeah, how smart were you to get in early
and get the domain name or whatever they call it?
NZ farming?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, I'd say right place for right time. I'd think,
when did you start that up? So Tyler started? He
go April twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So this is Tyler Firefield, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
That's right?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Is he still involved?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yep? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, So how many people of the useless trivia. How
many people are behind the nz Farming Facebook page with
a quarter of a million followers or a community?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, so Tyler and I believe or I don't really
talk to him each other much at all because he's
busy and I'm busy, and we just take away doing
the most of it. And then we've got Kate that
looks after our jobs website, and then just a few
other people that come and go as they see fit.
And yeah, we just but yeah, Tyler and I do
(01:40):
involk with it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Do you make money out of it?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh? We No. We generally try not to monetize it
too much. It's just more of do.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You realize with a following or a community that big,
you could flag it off to one of the big corporates,
make a fortune, Duncan.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Every man's got his price, I guess, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So it's for so well, well, there you go, Craig,
Craig Hickman, dairy farmer, dairy man. You could buy it
and put some of your videos up there.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I'm spending my Fonterra money on something else. Sorry, So no,
Duncans can have to keep running it for a while.
Longer yet.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Tell me about your social media following.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Oh look, I would do it for my own own
pure and annoyment. On people seem to like it and
follow on it started, I'll spilled over onto TikTok, and
now I'm doing a little bit of Instagram as well.
But it's just when I get the time. If something
pops into my head, I will I'll post it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So which one of these platforms do you need to be?
Across them all? I mean this Facebook, Twitter, Rex or whatever, Instagram?
What were the other ones you've ever mentioned? I don't
even bother with most of them, to be perfectly honest,
you'd spend your whole day just flipping from platform to platform.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, well Twitter. Twitter used to be the place to be,
but it's the whole landscape there's changed in recent years.
So I'm not nearly online as much as I used
to be. I say, just a couple of times a
week I'll pop up and post something or reply to something.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You won't have much time to post stuff at this
time of the dairy man because you'll be flat out carving.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
No, it's been a phenomenal start of the season. We've
got about two hundred and fifty and already and we're
only less than the week into calving. So it's the
weather is playing playing the game too. We missed most
of that bad whether the rest of the country seemed
to get We had promised minus three today and I
woke up to I think two or three degrees. We
had a bit of a cold southerly yesterday, but no snow,
(03:40):
no sleep, no rain. It is perfect, great utilization of
the grass, and the cows were all happy in doing
what they're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Were you happy with the global dairy trade auction results?
Steady as she goes?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh, I am happy any day that it doesn't go down,
and old and steady was perfect. We might a bit
of a bumpers as the northern hemisphere start slowing down
and we start ramping up hopefully.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, if I was to reinvent myself and reincarnate myself
as a farmer, duncan hum, I think I'd be like you.
I'd be a deer farmer, because then I wouldn't have
to bother about all the hard yards around, carving and
lambing like the poor old dairy and sheep farmers. Do
you guys get it easy?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I wouldn't say we get it easy, but definitely this
time of the year. Well, believe it or not. Today
I'm actually just setting up the rate to rake up
some silids to bail. But no, it's definitely not without
its challenges. But I guess in terms of weather resilience,
if we got to fut of snow tomorrow, it wouldn't
really matter, whereas if we were carving or something like that,
(04:47):
then you would be up to our elbows and not
having a good time. So yeah, everything's got its everything's
got its place. But wouldn't mind that milk check at
the moment though, So the dairy guys definitely deserve what
they Yet I.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Think what is Venison and Velvet like at the moment.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I don't know about Velvet for the coming season, but
it's probably not going to be great as what we're
planning on and Venison pretty happy with our contracts that
we've got for the year in place. We're looking north
for twelve bucks at the moment coming into spring, so
that's good. I would like to like it to go
(05:27):
up a bit more, but yeah, twelve bucks is pretty decent.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Really, Yeah, not to be sniffed at anything else. You
do want to add Before I bid you farewell and
let you carry on with your social media endeavors, I'll
tell you.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
We'll be talking about venison prices. Deep prices is showing
those signs and flowing. People are contracting one hundred kilo
white faced carves out there in the South Island for
eight hundred dollars, up up from seven to fifty last year,
So beef prices for those people to make any money,
beef prices need to continue to climb. Great for me
selling four day old caves.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, well it's Do you think dairy beef will be
the ultimate solution for the Bobby Calf issue?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well, half of our beef comes from dairy beef anyway,
So I mean, if we put every single Bobby Calf
on read for beef, that would wipe out our beef farmers. Well,
it would replace our beef farmers. So I'm sure they're
a happy medium. And I've gone from in the path
sending six hundred bobbycalves to sending few of them three hundred,
(06:28):
So we're trending in the right direction. And with prices
like they are, and the when the price is fall
and nobody wants to read them, what do you do
with them?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Then? Well, there you go. Okay, we found out from
that yarn that the inn zied Farming Facebook page is
up for sale for a corporate and that you two
like White handsOn in the nineties. See boys, there we
go dunk and hum in zed Farming facebook page. They
do do a very good job. And Craig Hickman dairy Man,
(07:00):
you can follow him on social media as well.
Craig Hickman, Duncan hum one is what do you call yourself? Dairyman?
Is your social media platform, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Craig is?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Indeed?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Now, who's the biggest social media darling out of you?
Or Duncan? Because he's in Z Farming Facebook?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Oh definitely definitely Dunk and he leaves me in the dust. No,
no problems at all, Dunk.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And how many you've got like one hundred and fifty
thousand followers or something like that.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Or is it grown? I don't try to say followers, actually, Jamie,
it's more of a community feel, so I don't think
anyone's necessarily following pass as such, but we're all kind
of going the same way together, I guess. So you know,
Facebook's about two hundred and something and Instagram's eighty something
as well.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So yeah, how smart were you to get in early
and get the domain name or whatever they call it?
NZ farming?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, I'd say right place for right time. I'd think,
when did you start that up? So Tyler started? He
go April twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So this is Tyler Firefield, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
That's right?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Is he still involved?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yep? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, So how many people of the useless trivia. How
many people are behind the nz Farming Facebook page with
a quarter of a million followers or a community?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, so Tyler and I believe or I don't really
talk to him each other much at all because he's
busy and I'm busy, and we just take away doing
the most of it. And then we've got Kate that
looks after our jobs website, and then just a few
other people that come and go as they see fit.
And yeah, we just but yeah, Tyler and I do
(01:40):
involk with it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Do you make money out of it?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh? We No. We generally try not to monetize it
too much. It's just more of do.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You realize with a following or a community that big,
you could flag it off to one of the big corporates,
make a fortune, Duncan.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Every man's got his price, I guess, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So it's for so well, well, there you go, Craig,
Craig Hickman, dairy farmer, dairy man. You could buy it
and put some of your videos up there.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I'm spending my Fonterra money on something else. Sorry, So no,
Duncans can have to keep running it for a while.
Longer yet.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Tell me about your social media following.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Oh look, I would do it for my own own
pure and annoyment. On people seem to like it and
follow on it started, I'll spilled over onto TikTok, and
now I'm doing a little bit of Instagram as well.
But it's just when I get the time. If something
pops into my head, I will I'll post it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So which one of these platforms do you need to be?
Across them all? I mean this Facebook, Twitter, Rex or whatever, Instagram?
What were the other ones you've ever mentioned? I don't
even bother with most of them, to be perfectly honest,
you'd spend your whole day just flipping from platform to platform.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, well Twitter. Twitter used to be the place to be,
but it's the whole landscape there's changed in recent years.
So I'm not nearly online as much as I used
to be. I say, just a couple of times a
week I'll pop up and post something or reply to something.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You won't have much time to post stuff at this
time of the dairy man because you'll be flat out carving.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
No, it's been a phenomenal start of the season. We've
got about two hundred and fifty and already and we're
only less than the week into calving. So it's the
weather is playing playing the game too. We missed most
of that bad whether the rest of the country seemed
to get We had promised minus three today and I
woke up to I think two or three degrees. We
had a bit of a cold southerly yesterday, but no snow,
(03:40):
no sleep, no rain. It is perfect, great utilization of
the grass, and the cows were all happy in doing
what they're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Were you happy with the global dairy trade auction results?
Steady as she goes?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh, I am happy any day that it doesn't go down,
and old and steady was perfect. We might a bit
of a bumpers as the northern hemisphere start slowing down
and we start ramping up hopefully.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, if I was to reinvent myself and reincarnate myself
as a farmer, duncan hum, I think I'd be like you.
I'd be a deer farmer, because then I wouldn't have
to bother about all the hard yards around, carving and
lambing like the poor old dairy and sheep farmers. Do
you guys get it easy?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I wouldn't say we get it easy, but definitely this
time of the year. Well, believe it or not. Today
I'm actually just setting up the rate to rake up
some silids to bail. But no, it's definitely not without
its challenges. But I guess in terms of weather resilience,
if we got to fut of snow tomorrow, it wouldn't
really matter, whereas if we were carving or something like that,
(04:47):
then you would be up to our elbows and not
having a good time. So yeah, everything's got its everything's
got its place. But wouldn't mind that milk check at
the moment though, So the dairy guys definitely deserve what
they Yet I.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Think what is Venison and Velvet like at the moment.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I don't know about Velvet for the coming season, but
it's probably not going to be great as what we're
planning on and Venison pretty happy with our contracts that
we've got for the year in place. We're looking north
for twelve bucks at the moment coming into spring, so
that's good. I would like to like it to go
(05:27):
up a bit more, but yeah, twelve bucks is pretty decent.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Really, Yeah, not to be sniffed at anything else. You
do want to add Before I bid you farewell and
let you carry on with your social media endeavors, I'll
tell you.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
We'll be talking about venison prices. Deep prices is showing
those signs and flowing. People are contracting one hundred kilo
white faced carves out there in the South Island for
eight hundred dollars, up up from seven to fifty last year,
So beef prices for those people to make any money,
beef prices need to continue to climb. Great for me
selling four day old caves.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, well it's Do you think dairy beef will be
the ultimate solution for the Bobby Calf issue?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well, half of our beef comes from dairy beef anyway,
So I mean, if we put every single Bobby Calf
on read for beef, that would wipe out our beef farmers. Well,
it would replace our beef farmers. So I'm sure they're
a happy medium. And I've gone from in the path
sending six hundred bobbycalves to sending few of them three hundred,
(06:28):
So we're trending in the right direction. And with prices
like they are, and the when the price is fall
and nobody wants to read them, what do you do
with them?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Then? Well, there you go. Okay, we found out from
that yarn that the inn zied Farming Facebook page is
up for sale for a corporate and that you two
like White handsOn in the nineties. See boys, there we
go dunk and hum in zed Farming facebook page. They
do do a very good job. And Craig Hickman dairy Man,
(07:00):
you can follow him on social media as well.
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