May 5, 2026 • 9 mins
Peter Allan says that the growing season has seen him in good feed supply for the upcoming months, but does that optimism extend to politics?
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
This is the muster on Hakanui.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The music today is Billy Joel, specifically for our next guest,
Peter Rellen.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We haven't heard from Pete for a while.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He's been busy, but he's back on the year ways
and he's a massive fan of Billy Joel. Who wouldn't
be good afternoon, Pete.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah, good afternoon, Andy, and thanks for resurrecting that for me.
It's always good to hear Billy.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Billy's great. Hey, how things at Glenn. You are just
out of bow for a northern Southland.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
We're good, Yeah, almost a little oasis up here on
the top at our altitude. And it's just my favorite
time of the year. As I said to you off here,
just beautiful with all the autumn colors and all the
trees and tree lanes we got it quite picturesque and
seat levels and stock and everything. It's just it's a
(00:54):
pleasure to wake up in the morning. We've only just
started and it's probably as early as we normally do.
After forty eight years of deer farming, you pick up
a few tricks along the way, but deer are quite
different in their grazing habits. Andy to sheep and cattle,
and they're very much of browsed grazer. So instead of
(01:15):
the human side of the farmer, you know, feeding out
when he thinks that's necessitated, I put the early bales
of baillage into purpose built feeders and then the deer
will tell me whether they want it or not. So
we started that a week ago and some mobs have
decided that they want some and some have said no,
(01:36):
they've got plenty of grass, so that's a good way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So your grass kinds are looking pretty good.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, they are really good. And we still keep the
fawns on their mothers. So when you do that through mating,
it's no different to any other mating time of the
year where you try and get your body conditioned scores
up to a certain level. And when you've still got
the fawns drinking off mother, that's even more important to
keep you up to the three point five to four
(02:01):
on a body condition score scale of one to five.
And we've just done second drench for lung worm and
swapped over stags about the twenty twenty first of April,
so that's all been done. But animals are looking really
good and the outward indicator is the nice shiny coats
and just good condition at the moment.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So everything's sounding pretty raazy on the ranch.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Peat Well, it's just a nice time of the year
where you can take a breathe. Although in saying that, Andy,
we did some very late bailags. Were probably made more
baillage this year than we ever have done. But it
was such beautiful, you know, a healthy looking lettuce, salad, paddock, paddock,
and we yeah, it was about four types of clover
(02:47):
in it, and it was just too good to put
deer on. So we've made another couple of hundred bales
of baylors who were up to about a thousand bales
for the season, and we normally only feed out about
eight hundred and a calendar year. But the carryover that
I've got from last year that I've fed out now
we got thirty odd baillage feeders. As I've just said, no,
it's beautiful looking bailage and smells wonderful. So some of
(03:09):
the mobs are very much enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And it's like my dad to say, hey, in the
shed's money in the banks. So that's something for a
rainy day perhaps, yees.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, Like when I started death farming. We were still
feeding hay to Dear, but the utilization and that you know,
you can't put condition on deer. So we've gone all
bailage and it's brilliant. But look, I've seen death farmers
just recently putting silage on the ground and as soon
as you get animals walking on it and then you
get a bit of mud at the moment they didn't
get away with it. Not a problem. But I'm a
(03:41):
great believer in letting the deer. Telling me, but we're
getting ninety nine percent utilization by nice clean bailage and
beautiful clean grass, and yeah, we know it's probably the
driest and the nicest that the that the calendar year
is going to be for feeding out win to feed.
At the moment, it's a long long way ago that
September October can undo everything.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Really, Yeah, David Sevens and Warren Ross every time I
speak to them feed on the show regarding the Dear
situation at the moment with Venison and the likes, Venison's.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Looking really good.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
We all know about the ongoing concerns regarding velvets and
what are we seeing there for the next season.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Would you say, yeah, well, Now that we're into May,
most of the velvet is dealt with for the season,
probably by the end of March in to April, but
most of the buyers are probably going to.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Be dealing with what they bought this year, right through
the foes and products, because China bought ninety percent of it,
and you know, if you go back twenty years, it
was probably forty sixty. The Koreans used to buy most
of the first cut velvet, but through that COVID period,
the Korean side of it, they got very comfortable with
buying process velvet off China, and they've worked out that
(04:52):
it actually doesn't cost them a lot more So sixty
odd percent of what the Chinese buy from US they
trade back to Korea. It's an odd anomaly, but they're happy.
They're happy with it. But the Chinese, to their credit,
managed to take most of the extra volume of velvet
that was around this year. And yes, there's been massive
(05:16):
probably culing of velveting stags and again cutos to all
the processes for you know, accommodating that. I think that's
the best way to put it, because you've got to
get most of those cal velvet has done by about
the fifteenth of February before they start bossing each other around,
and now everybody's like, you can't kill stags right through
(05:37):
at the moment, Andy, and it's mostly just females and
some yellings. It's too early to be killing forms. So
therefore it's like any other the processes lamb and beef.
Your shugule starts tracking up as you get less animals,
and a lot of the Venison process will probably have
that July period where it's maintenance and staff are break
(06:02):
and your Venison schedules are tracking towards eleven and possibly
higher depending on what's happening internationally. And we all know
that freight can double overnight, so that's a little bit
prohibitive going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So Venison, like David reiterated a couple of weeks ago,
made eleven dollars fifty roundabouts, possibly for contracts.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Possibly, yeah, I mean the company we keil through a
mostly eastern seaboard of the US, and so far, so good.
But look, a day is a long time in politics.
You only need to look at the spikes in the
price of a barrel of oil or even even local
reverberations here through the pump and diesel prices. A day
is a long time, you know. Speaking of oil in
(06:45):
the Strait of her Moves. One thing that hasn't been
touched on is the amount of oil that's going to
be in that piece of sea, in that area in
the waters. That's not something that's spoken about much, but
it's probably going to end up one of the most
polluted straits on the planet.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We never heard of this strait till about two months ago,
if we're honest, But.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You look at all the refineries and even what Ukraine
are doing with Russia. Although the Russian port that they
blew up the other day used to belong to Ukraine,
so it's a bit of a double wharemme there? I
know I don't support any of what's been happening Andy,
but every now and then I actually take it a
little bit of pleasure in Ukraine getting one back over Russia.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
One thing that hasn't flown under the radar and has
just come out again in the last twenty four hours
is regarding amalgamations of local councils, like some environments south
On for example. Now your neighbor there, former Environment south
and counselor Peter McDonald's put himself forward for labor in
the south in electric What are your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Well, it's very interesting personally, and personally I'm very very disappointed,
but it certainly shows as true colors and if he's
been flying under the red label all this time, that's
been voted in by blue voters onto environments south and
that's extremely disappointing. So no, that's slightly frustrating, Andy, but
(08:04):
not a surprise to me.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But I mean, everybody political affiliation aside, they're going to
have their preference and what they want to do, and
not everybody in the rural sector I suppose is going
to vote for the government we currently have.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah. Look, I've never held back on my political allegiances Andy,
I haven't really voiced them too loudly either, but in
saying that a red Green coalition is not going to
be helpful for farming in any way manner of form.
So that's that's where I stand on.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's what's your gut feel for the election that he's
prepared to give an outcome or you just don't really
want to think about it at the stage a.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Lot of elections and I'm old enough, like I just
clicked over seventy recently, and I'm old enough to have
been through enough elections to know that they can can
be lost in won in the three or four weeks
prior to the election, and that's a crazy thing. I
know that it's a silly thing to be saying, but
it's quite real. You know, some people are and unfortunately,
(09:06):
the rural vote it's only less than fifteen percent of
the total vote, and a lot of people are just
brainwashed by an incredibly one sided media that have shown
their spots for the last twelve months or longer. And
that's quite frustrating down here. It's a real turn off
as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, rest assured there's no bias shown on the muster.
Peter Allen, good, great to chat once again.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, thank you, Andy, Peter Allen of Glenure.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Read to chat. We haven't caught old pet for a while.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Up next to Derry and Z James Burrows
This is the muster on Hakanui.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The music today is Billy Joel, specifically for our next guest,
Peter Rellen.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We haven't heard from Pete for a while.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He's been busy, but he's back on the year ways
and he's a massive fan of Billy Joel. Who wouldn't
be good afternoon, Pete.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah, good afternoon, Andy, and thanks for resurrecting that for me.
It's always good to hear Billy.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Billy's great. Hey, how things at Glenn. You are just
out of bow for a northern Southland.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
We're good, Yeah, almost a little oasis up here on
the top at our altitude. And it's just my favorite
time of the year. As I said to you off here,
just beautiful with all the autumn colors and all the
trees and tree lanes we got it quite picturesque and
seat levels and stock and everything. It's just it's a
(00:54):
pleasure to wake up in the morning. We've only just
started and it's probably as early as we normally do.
After forty eight years of deer farming, you pick up
a few tricks along the way, but deer are quite
different in their grazing habits. Andy to sheep and cattle,
and they're very much of browsed grazer. So instead of
(01:15):
the human side of the farmer, you know, feeding out
when he thinks that's necessitated, I put the early bales
of baillage into purpose built feeders and then the deer
will tell me whether they want it or not. So
we started that a week ago and some mobs have
decided that they want some and some have said no,
(01:36):
they've got plenty of grass, so that's a good way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So your grass kinds are looking pretty good.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, they are really good. And we still keep the
fawns on their mothers. So when you do that through mating,
it's no different to any other mating time of the
year where you try and get your body conditioned scores
up to a certain level. And when you've still got
the fawns drinking off mother, that's even more important to
keep you up to the three point five to four
(02:01):
on a body condition score scale of one to five.
And we've just done second drench for lung worm and
swapped over stags about the twenty twenty first of April,
so that's all been done. But animals are looking really
good and the outward indicator is the nice shiny coats
and just good condition at the moment.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So everything's sounding pretty raazy on the ranch.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Peat Well, it's just a nice time of the year
where you can take a breathe. Although in saying that, Andy,
we did some very late bailags. Were probably made more
baillage this year than we ever have done. But it
was such beautiful, you know, a healthy looking lettuce, salad, paddock, paddock,
and we yeah, it was about four types of clover
(02:47):
in it, and it was just too good to put
deer on. So we've made another couple of hundred bales
of baylors who were up to about a thousand bales
for the season, and we normally only feed out about
eight hundred and a calendar year. But the carryover that
I've got from last year that I've fed out now
we got thirty odd baillage feeders. As I've just said, no,
it's beautiful looking bailage and smells wonderful. So some of
(03:09):
the mobs are very much enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And it's like my dad to say, hey, in the
shed's money in the banks. So that's something for a
rainy day perhaps, yees.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, Like when I started death farming. We were still
feeding hay to Dear, but the utilization and that you know,
you can't put condition on deer. So we've gone all
bailage and it's brilliant. But look, I've seen death farmers
just recently putting silage on the ground and as soon
as you get animals walking on it and then you
get a bit of mud at the moment they didn't
get away with it. Not a problem. But I'm a
(03:41):
great believer in letting the deer. Telling me, but we're
getting ninety nine percent utilization by nice clean bailage and
beautiful clean grass, and yeah, we know it's probably the
driest and the nicest that the that the calendar year
is going to be for feeding out win to feed.
At the moment, it's a long long way ago that
September October can undo everything.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Really, Yeah, David Sevens and Warren Ross every time I
speak to them feed on the show regarding the Dear
situation at the moment with Venison and the likes, Venison's.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Looking really good.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
We all know about the ongoing concerns regarding velvets and
what are we seeing there for the next season.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Would you say, yeah, well, Now that we're into May,
most of the velvet is dealt with for the season,
probably by the end of March in to April, but
most of the buyers are probably going to.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Be dealing with what they bought this year, right through
the foes and products, because China bought ninety percent of it,
and you know, if you go back twenty years, it
was probably forty sixty. The Koreans used to buy most
of the first cut velvet, but through that COVID period,
the Korean side of it, they got very comfortable with
buying process velvet off China, and they've worked out that
(04:52):
it actually doesn't cost them a lot more So sixty
odd percent of what the Chinese buy from US they
trade back to Korea. It's an odd anomaly, but they're happy.
They're happy with it. But the Chinese, to their credit,
managed to take most of the extra volume of velvet
that was around this year. And yes, there's been massive
(05:16):
probably culing of velveting stags and again cutos to all
the processes for you know, accommodating that. I think that's
the best way to put it, because you've got to
get most of those cal velvet has done by about
the fifteenth of February before they start bossing each other around,
and now everybody's like, you can't kill stags right through
(05:37):
at the moment, Andy, and it's mostly just females and
some yellings. It's too early to be killing forms. So
therefore it's like any other the processes lamb and beef.
Your shugule starts tracking up as you get less animals,
and a lot of the Venison process will probably have
that July period where it's maintenance and staff are break
(06:02):
and your Venison schedules are tracking towards eleven and possibly
higher depending on what's happening internationally. And we all know
that freight can double overnight, so that's a little bit
prohibitive going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So Venison, like David reiterated a couple of weeks ago,
made eleven dollars fifty roundabouts, possibly for contracts.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Possibly, yeah, I mean the company we keil through a
mostly eastern seaboard of the US, and so far, so good.
But look, a day is a long time in politics.
You only need to look at the spikes in the
price of a barrel of oil or even even local
reverberations here through the pump and diesel prices. A day
is a long time, you know. Speaking of oil in
(06:45):
the Strait of her Moves. One thing that hasn't been
touched on is the amount of oil that's going to
be in that piece of sea, in that area in
the waters. That's not something that's spoken about much, but
it's probably going to end up one of the most
polluted straits on the planet.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We never heard of this strait till about two months ago,
if we're honest, But.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You look at all the refineries and even what Ukraine
are doing with Russia. Although the Russian port that they
blew up the other day used to belong to Ukraine,
so it's a bit of a double wharemme there? I
know I don't support any of what's been happening Andy,
but every now and then I actually take it a
little bit of pleasure in Ukraine getting one back over Russia.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
One thing that hasn't flown under the radar and has
just come out again in the last twenty four hours
is regarding amalgamations of local councils, like some environments south
On for example. Now your neighbor there, former Environment south
and counselor Peter McDonald's put himself forward for labor in
the south in electric What are your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Well, it's very interesting personally, and personally I'm very very disappointed,
but it certainly shows as true colors and if he's
been flying under the red label all this time, that's
been voted in by blue voters onto environments south and
that's extremely disappointing. So no, that's slightly frustrating, Andy, but
(08:04):
not a surprise to me.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But I mean, everybody political affiliation aside, they're going to
have their preference and what they want to do, and
not everybody in the rural sector I suppose is going
to vote for the government we currently have.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah. Look, I've never held back on my political allegiances Andy,
I haven't really voiced them too loudly either, but in
saying that a red Green coalition is not going to
be helpful for farming in any way manner of form.
So that's that's where I stand on.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's what's your gut feel for the election that he's
prepared to give an outcome or you just don't really
want to think about it at the stage a.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Lot of elections and I'm old enough, like I just
clicked over seventy recently, and I'm old enough to have
been through enough elections to know that they can can
be lost in won in the three or four weeks
prior to the election, and that's a crazy thing. I
know that it's a silly thing to be saying, but
it's quite real. You know, some people are and unfortunately,
(09:06):
the rural vote it's only less than fifteen percent of
the total vote, and a lot of people are just
brainwashed by an incredibly one sided media that have shown
their spots for the last twelve months or longer. And
that's quite frustrating down here. It's a real turn off
as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, rest assured there's no bias shown on the muster.
Peter Allen, good, great to chat once again.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, thank you, Andy, Peter Allen of Glenure.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Read to chat. We haven't caught old pet for a while.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Up next to Derry and Z James Burrows
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