November 14, 2025 • 44 mins
Andy Muir talks to Jamie King, Matt Ward, Laurie Margrain, Lyn Berry and Sarah Swinbourn.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Last night I had the strangers a very good morning
and welcome along to the best of the muster, a
collaboration of interviews we took our attention during a busy
week here at Hawk and Her EHQ. I'm Andymure thanks
for joining us. Starting off the hour by catching up
with Jamie King out of Lake Eroco. Jamie's talking about
the Alliance Door meets deal when he was pretty much
(00:26):
against us going through. However, he has changed his mind
to to a degree anyway, after meeting a couple of
key individuals a couple of weeks ago. Matt Ward farms
at Morton Mains and talks about the situation over in
his neck of the woods, especially after the big wins
of a couple of weeks ago, and also a cool
story he's got about an all Black at the moment
he's doing pretty well and how it correlates back to
(00:48):
Edendale Primary School. Laurie Margraine's on the program out of
Open Country. He is chairman, looking at the dairying situation
down here in the South from an Open country perspective,
of course, the bought MVM. How's en all going? Laurie
fills us in lin Berry's on the program talking all
about Boveya Tienne, what you need to know about it
and why is it going to affect methane especially in cattle.
(01:13):
And Sarah Swinburne in the Beef and Lambslot. Sarah is
farming up in Lawrence with her husband. She's gone through
a hell of a lot over the past few weeks
with the weather as she talks about today and just
says that, yeah, it's all about putting things in perspective, right,
So about further ado, we'll start the hour with Jamie King.
This says the best of the muster over Jamie King
(01:47):
of Lake Heroko starts us off and the Sergeant Dan
farming round up. Thanks of course, the Sashan Dan stock
foods here in Gore. Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Good mate, here a were going today?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah? Going pretty well? Thanks? But how's everything over around
Lake Heroco Way? How have you been over the past
couple of weeks with all this one that's been about?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Now we've survived the wind, we got off redly scott Free, Indy.
I think we've got the big buff record for Ordlands,
so I think it's sort of went over us and
around us. No, to be fair, the weak prior that
we got more damaged from the wind been so no,
it's scott free on that one mate. Yeah, and we're
only a couple of days without pairs, so very very lucky.
(02:28):
I have no idea how they got pair to us,
because we're still a long way from any weird it. Yeah, no,
I can't complain to be fair.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So do you not have anybody over over your way
without power? Still?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
No, not that I'm aware of, Andy. I think most
of western south and is all all back on and
the biggest bugby of the local to a temper there
it got sort of shut right down out of it
for a couple of days and didn't have no calms
and know nothing. So and that was a bit of
a bit of an interest on a few elderly in that.
But no, I scores out and there weren't.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So you say the wind was worse three weeks ago,
what was it exactly that you had?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I was this northwest as well? We had four five
trees come down, one took a pair out was year
and then that the gust that up to the rest
of the South and didn't really do anything. I was
anticipating a lot more.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You do hear a area is being shouted like you
are there. Obviously you talk about the buffer cord for Orland,
but just the way that it's come in certain places
and just gone whish there another areas. Yeah, more or
less left it alone and slightly done something wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh, absolutely mate. And it was th real. It actually
on the Thursday when it did blow. I was actually
an in the cargo for it. And when it blew,
and well, might you get a bit older and nothing
bothers you much, But I was to be fair skinned.
It was I didn't want to be in the caagle.
There was things flying through the air and trees coming down,
and I could have thought of a million other places
(03:53):
will turn to have been and floating around town. So
we sort of just packed up and waited it out
for a couple of years. And the gusts of the settle,
but it was still blue blue all afternoon.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
We're talking about sheets of iron flying around. What was
the situation?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yep? Yet No, we're part of one set of lights.
And a sheet of wine came tearing around the corner
and walked into side the truck and went under, and
there was branches and then there was some people that
hopefully going to breed mate outstand MdeR the trees, taking
obviously videos or what have you. And we're sort of
me and my good lady. We're having a bit of
a wager on it, but we won't talk about that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It's all about those lights.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well apparently so apparently so, but we'll leave it with them,
I spose.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So as far as groundwork and the likes tailing, tailing's
on the rearview mirror now.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Ah no, just sort of getting into it. And I
think Scoots and Hat they got one day under their
belts and containing Connery is a bit far behind. Just
with the weeat like we've been pretty suddenly weird. I
think we tipped two hundred and eighty five milli out
for October. Mate and ground where you're just starting to
chap away now it's just coming right, but we're definitely
(05:00):
not too soon. It's still pretty gluggy under some places.
But here, like last week, there was just a boomer
of a week. You know, we needed it. I'm not
sure what Mother Nats was up to. It feels like
we sort of had there. I'm looking towards to the
other day. Six months of autumn, two months of winter
and now we're into summer. So yeah, but the grass
(05:21):
is grad Eddie which is really nice. We're atty bit
of heat and I've got happy animals again, nothing sort
of you know hearings, just laying down and cruising so
that's easy. So just yeah, this going to the motions mate.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So you're running fall, Telly's compared to other seasons, where
do you think you're at?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well, we've had nearly what are we for? They said,
too eighty This is terrible to a mess on this
isn't it?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Forgive you?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, we're about about five eighty miler I think we
had for September October, mate, But of course we had
nothing over the winter, so I think we're well, we'll
probably wind up on par. But it just doesn't help
that it all comes at once, endy, are.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You trying to get the velvet and and everything else?
Stune at the moment to talk to Ward and us
the other day and they seemed to be a bit
of an elephant at the room in the room unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Ah, yeah, it's a bit of a tour at the moment. Mate. Look,
just you know toangue in cheeks are just sent sixteen
with draw heaps that works this morning the old boy
took over. And to be fair, those sixteen heaps are
probably going to be more than what my entire Velbert
Chick's going to be. Not that I'm gonna in a
big way of the velot there's one hundred and twenty
y or so, but ah yeah, it's a real cheery
(06:28):
one and I'm yeah, I'm feeling a bit for these ls,
is it? But it's all out of the control. There's
a bit of a few interesting things going on that scene.
But hopefully probably what we've just been through the red
mix sect and hopefully it gets a self alleviated one
thing with a deer industry, Andy and the Venice and
it can be arguably volatile, but it just fast as
it goes bad, it seems to come right again. So
(06:49):
I'm just going just crossed.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
On that one.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Well, Venison sedules looking pretty good. Contracts and the.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Likes yeah mate, and it's nice too. And the contracts
are out for twelve months many so you can budget
to that, you know, floating around that late ninees to
teen and to early teen some goys, you know, for
twelve months. You know, it fluctuates a bit within that,
but it's you can budget to that, Andy, and it's
more you know it. So it's great for twelve months aheat.
It's really easy numbers.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Imagine being able to do that with your lamb check.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Ah, it'd be too easy, mate, wouldn't that, wouldn't that? Hey?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, well nothing's easy, Jamie, but it might give you
a little bit more certainty as far as the numbers
that are coming in one.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Hundred percent you just miser everything. Hey, it'd be sort
of suppose, but the dairy farming model, wouldn't it. You know,
just month by month into the outside forecast and where
you go, just worry about ground grass.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Last time we spoke, and this hasn't been spoken about
for a few weeks and understandably so. But the Alliance
Group and Dawn meets, or the restructure of the Alliance
Group as such for Dawn Meats buying in is complete. Now.
You're a bit cynical of this beforehand, but you've changed
your thinking a little bit now after a conversation.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, mate. So we're sort of lucky enough to meet
the Nile there the day after and they have a
bit of a catch up and it was quite good.
So I come out of it feeling, Yeah, probably a
lot better than what we had done for six months
leaning into it. You know, on the upside, we can
sit here and pointed everything that's wrong with it, Andy.
And on that note, you remember they've just tipped two
(08:19):
hundred and seventy million into it, so they want to
return out of their money quite a stute businessman, which
is going to be good. Pretty a little bit more
fat taken out of the system. So yeah, look the
long and short of Handy turning seventy million dollars worth.
They want animals, they want meat. So I think for
definitely the short term anyway, it'll be really, really, probably
(08:43):
quite strong for a couple of years anyway. And there's
some many gritty on the ground stuff. We spoke about
what comparison to these systems and our systems and what
we do well versus what they're doing well. And some
of it was quite lightning, mate, through just water usage
and processing capability. And so arguably it's exciting. Yes, it's
not the way we wanted it to go, but I mean,
(09:06):
such as life, I believe in not looking back, mate,
So it'll be interesting. And like I said, and the
alliance door meat JV. It's not the elephant in the
room anymore because it's still be put to bed. But
we'll not put to bed, but just open another door
and will you shall wait and see you going forward.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well, arguably, if the alliance was nothing but a light
blanket in the middle of winter, dawn meets has come
through the heavy douvey on top of the bed.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Without a doubt, Mate, without a doubt. And you know
we will know how we got here and this was
probably basically the only option out the way in the
current climate. So I don't you know, I'm not But
on that note, mate, we've lost you know, we haven't
got a whole leave solely red meat own cooperative, which
I don't know, perhaps might be a good thing any
(09:51):
gain forward. You know. Sorry, we'll have anyone having an opinion,
but sometimes too many opinions aren't aren't ideal?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Good only Jamie always appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Hey, spot on, Thanks very much mate.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
This is the Muster Well, we aren't on our road
to know. We were on the road all the way
down to Morton, Mainz where we're catching up with Matt
Ward who's farming down that way. Matt, good afternoon, once again.
How's everything in more to Mainz, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Good a Andy, Yeah, everything's just ticking away. Not too
bad down here at the moment. The sun's been out,
the grass is ground, lambs have started to finally do again.
So now we've got nothing to complain about down here
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So ground conditions, we'll talk about the obvious shortly with
the weather, but overall, you're not too bad for November.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Na, we're not too bad now. Now. If you asked
me that ten days ago we were jig, we wouldn't
have even been treading what we were drowning you about
ten days ago. But we've had some good heat in
the last week or so and it's covers have started
to improve, and we ten meals of rain yesterday don't
really help anything. But I still haven't got any seed
in the ground, but Trek has been trying to do
(11:04):
a bit of work. And yeah, i'd say now the
ten days will be definitely over the hurdle.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We'll be looking pretty good.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'd say, Well, that's the difference of a little bit
of sunshine that changes the mood, right, Yeah, it does.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Hundred cent it does, and it's changed the mood of
everything a like the even kettle starts to round up
and lambs are rounded up, and they've got a good
color about them, and you we've definitely needed We can't.
We just needed to keep shining.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I reckon, So how did you fear in those ones?
A few weeks back we copped.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
A bit of a hiding, nothing like. Yeah, you look
around and it's a bit of a mess, but you
don't need to drive too far. As lucky us we are,
and know there's a lot of people were us off
than us. We're pretty lucky where we are. We're all
pretty much predominantly dairy around us. So power was on
pretty quick. We must have been a couple of days
later we had power back on. Yeah, a future like
(11:58):
quite a few trees down and but all all too
big for me to worry about. I chipped around a
few wee branches and stuff there to wait for a
contract during a couple of diggers to come in because
it's all above my pay grade. But they're making good
progress now, and a few logs that will be meld
and quite a lot of firewood and quite a few
that are just getting burnt. Just to tide it up
(12:19):
and forget a bit out of them, move on. But yeah,
got an uncle next door to me here, and he
copped a lot of the I reckon hit. The wind
actually slowed down after going through his place because Jesus
mess left a mess through him. So it's he's probably
borne quite a bit of the damage from me, which
lucky for me, not so lucky for him.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Now, you say there's a lot of dairy farmers around
where you are there as far as sheep farming, are
you like the odd one out where you're based?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Ah, year, we are.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
There's what are we on air road here?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
The we won two, three, four of us sheep farmers
and then everyone else around us is all dairy and
were just holding on, holding on to the well. You've
probably missed the jump.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But it's good.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
It does good productive land, Like it's good dairy farm land.
So it's good productive sheep and beef land grows good
grass and so you just got to make it, make
it produce.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
No, what you say is you've got different farming synergies
on your nic of the and your neck of the woods.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah, yeah, And they're all like two uncles with side
us and a couple of neighbors like they're all good
local farming families that have been here for generations, so
we're all.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Just yeah, all holding on.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
But it's all it does good land, so it all
works pretty pretty well.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, it's underasing you're talking. You talk for four about
knee jerk reactions about going and buying all this extra
gear when you're looking at the task as that that's
at hand. But it's just being so big and just
realistically how much you're going to achieve yourself, so to
take you much of an understanding of what was ahead
of you before you saw actually I just got to
(13:54):
take a step back.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Yeah, it was definitely driving around that next day looking
at all the messis didn't even I wouldn't have even
known where to start. But what you're right, it's taking
that step back and just thinking, like making it piece
by piece. I read on Facebook someone's saying about how
to eat an elephant, and you're not going to go
smack him over in the first bite, au, You've got
(14:17):
to just chip away, chip away. So I just sort
of started on my lane, making sure my access ways
were all clear, trying to get power back going, and
then a lot of the big stuff like yeah, way way,
above my pay grade. I looked a couple of mondays
ago I was waiting for a contract to the train enough.
I looked at buying a big saw for myself and
I was like, geez, i'll use it and then I'll
(14:39):
just sit in the shed. And I hate swinging off
a chain through anyway, so it's easier just to wait.
And now that he's here, he's got a couple of
diggers going. Then it might cost me a weave it,
but it's a lot safer them doing it than me
doing it. And it leaves like I've still got track
to work to do and mobs to be shifting around
tailing to do. So it's yeah, taking just chip away
and it's there.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's there job with the profession.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
So that's yeah, one last thing I need to worry about.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And besides, a guy with your stature with size there, Matt,
you're probably quite handy on ANX as well. If I've
got a.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Real poor week four arm Andy, the ex is no
good for me either, But you're going to leave a
few logs for me and get a wood splitter in
and just chip away on it, so we should be
should be not too bad.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I love that analogy there, and it's one I've talked
about before. You don't need an elephant and big bites.
It's all about just going through and doing it in
little and little bites and eventually, piece by piece you
make your way through it. But it's a marathon, not
a sprint. And yeah, it's probably a great way to
look at the situation.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I think it's the same same goes for a lot
of things. Hey get a big snow dump and people
go rush out and they're feeding stock flat out and
running track us up and down. Then the snow is
going to mount. Like it's not a lot of people
going rush or a big fan of just taking a
step back and just waiting for waiting to see what's
actually going to happen and not rushing into rushing into
(16:07):
a lot of things giving it a bit of time
to think about it and work out a proper plan.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
So as far as wanning dates, when does that occur?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Around the tenth of December, it should be about a
ninety day old lamb roughly is what I work on.
So that'll be.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, that's the plan there.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Whether I normally last year I didn't, but normally try
get a cut out of my singles about that ten
days two weeks beforehand.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And that year.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Whether I do that again this year, time will tell.
But they like they're there. They'd just be interesting whether
they're waiting enough or not. But I'd say the way
the schedules sitting in the way the schedule hopefully will
be sitting by winning time, Yeah, be able to dip
in like dip into lambs quite a bit deeper and
try to get as many off mum as possible as
the plan.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
So drenching is that coming up?
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, that's coming up on going to start fick testing
mobs are using lambs in the next ten days or so,
and if they need a drench, I'll drinch for them.
If they don't, then hopefully I can push them right
through the weaning without without a drench. But yeah, time
will don't normally have to give them a pre ween
drinch just a couple of weeks before winning.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
They just finally mate. We talk about the ull Blacks one,
Damian McKenzie, you were telling me last time, oh fair
about quite a cool wee story. Actually you keeped them
out of a team once upon a time. Going to
a bit more detail. This is a good yarn I exposed.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I told you I knew, and I told you this
the other day that it would come back up to
bite me.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It's a great yarn.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
We were good cobbers back at eden Dale Primary, me
and Damien and used to play rep footy together. And
I've always had in my mind that I was first
five and he was second five, which for some reason,
you look at the size of me now, you'd wonder
how that ever happened. And then a few years ago
I caught up with Marty McKee, years older brother, and
he was telling me the same yarn, and I was like, shit,
(18:03):
I haven't gone through high school just dreaming of it.
It must have must have happened. But you look at
him now and you see how he's gone. And I'm
just a broken down lock from Edendale. So one's kicked
on and one's are.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, I'll hardly say broken down.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
My rugby boots aren't even allowed inside at the moment
Andy that I've been sitting out in the rain. They're
not even allowed near the house. So yeah, no, it's
good to see him going. Well. He's bloody good fowler
and good footballer, and I think he cemented a spot
there on the bench as an impact player, Like he's
a definition of an impact player. Coming on to change
a game the way he did in the weekend's bloody impressive.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
That is what you call a twenty five minute pocket rocket.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Yeah, yeah, recent And it'll be interest in this those
bit of talk about whether they start him this weekend.
But my opinion, he's made for the bench, like there's
no such thing as a reserve player anymore. Like they've
got to come on and make an impact. And the
way the bench has been working, I wouldn't really go
and change it too much if.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It was me.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And if anybody knows we d should be in the
back line, it's you met war because you kept them
out of a number ten position.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Mate.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Hey, always appreciate your time to enjoy the other.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, good man, Andy, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That says the Muster on Hakanui. Lurry Margraine is chair
of Open Country and catches up with us this afternoon.
Always good to have Open Country on the muster And
once again, Lorrie, good afternoon. Down here in the Deep South,
we finally have some blue sky. It's a thing of beauty.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Well, I guess that means you're not you're not inviting
any North Island provinces down to play rugby. I get
the impressure, you always dial up the ship weather, but
I'm pleased to hear it. I hear the same from
your farmers. It finally, finally, finally, we're going to get
a bit of a bit of a relief.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, as far as the rugby thing goes, it's called
home ground of Vantage Lorry but Albany. Obviously you've got
your pros and cons there as well, But let's talk
about open country. It's been a challenging month down here
in the Deep South. From your guys perspective, I suppose
how things be.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah, and it's been a very difficult month for the
for the suppliers down there. We've we've worked pretty aggressively
on on making making assistance available, transporting generators, getting trucks
out there to deliver deliver produce which they need to have.
I mean, we've done the best we possibly can. I
(20:42):
don't think with the benefit Hends, I don't think there's
more we could have done to prepare for what happened.
I was actually there on the Thursday and just got
out via Duneedin before the worst of the weather hit
for commit and so I'd like to think I have
(21:03):
some idea of how bad it was. And but we're
through it. I mean, you know what farmers are like.
This has happened before to some extent, it will happen again,
and they just get on with the job, and we're
always there to do whatever we can do to assist.
Milk flows have bound to bounce back very strong. But
I look at the graphs now for the supplies into
(21:24):
the Tarra Valley and into our own planet at Aurarua,
and are strong that bounced back really really well. So
fingers crossed vengers cross, you're going to get some blue
skies for a week or two.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yet, so peak milk's beIN and gone.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yes, well, either bend and gone andy or we're at
it and you don't get much of a plateau. Strange enough,
down down in the Deep South, we get more of
a plateau in White Catto and Taranaki matter or two
with a milk hits. A peak plateau is off for
a few weeks, but matings in and done for many
(22:01):
of the regions. That takes a bit of the edge
off it. But yeah, we're not still growing, but the
supply is really good.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Now I'm a Tara Valley milk of course. Open Country
acquired this company not that long ago. How's that been?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, all good.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
We're very proud of the asset we've managed to require.
We please, we've got the asset, got the business of
the company at what we considered to be a good
fair value, but a good value for us. It's got
some attributes that we don't have at Avarua, and as
we get our head around how we maximize the value
(22:38):
from a bucket of milk by using those attributes at
Matara Valley, get a few more synergies in terms of
milk collection and milk delivery. There will be some changes
to the staffing and management structure at Patara Valley, but
it's all softly, softly, do the right thing by the business,
Andy and do the right thing in terms of being fair.
(23:00):
Tw anybody's affected by it. We're very, very pleased. In
thirty days, but we're very pleased.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So the acquisition has been well received by suppliers to
Open Country.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yes, one of the best of my knowledge. I've been
down and attended supply of meetings down south. I don't
detect any negativity. I mean, there are some supplies the
Matara Valley that have supplied ourselves historically, so they're well
known to us and we're well known to them. I
think our reputation is such these days that if they
(23:30):
have any uncertainties, they can lean across the fence and
talk to a neighbor and they get reassured. So so
far it's all positivity. And I must say the management
and staff at Matara Valley have always have also been
very supportive, very understanding. I can't fault them at all.
We're very impressed with the people.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Now. The supply of meetings you head down on the
south not that long ago, Laurie. How was the feelings?
How was the feeling at the meetings?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Oh, I mean extremely positive. I don't think there's any
negativity at all. There were questions about why this came
to pass a little bit, but I think they knew inherently.
The answer to that is that the Tara value wasn't
performing financially, and if you don't perform financially, then there's
going to be changed. But I don't detect any negativity.
(24:20):
I mean, we're not going to rock the boat all
the contractional obligations that they had. Any supplier had or
has the the Tara Valley will be honored, every one
of them, and in due course they have the opportunity
to transfer over to our contracts and or we'll be
approaching them to have to do the same.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
GEDDT results haven't been very positive over the past couple
of months, though. Does that mean we're going to see
a correction in the payout?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
That depends on if you refer to a correction. I
mean I regard corrections as something that are really significant
and substantial. When you get a correction in the market,
you can get a significant change. Certainly, the current trend
is trending downwards, it's not crashing downwards, so I don't
call it a major correction, but I do think I
(25:13):
do think there's logic in our periodic payment system. We've
paid ten to thirty eight on average for the milk
from first to June to the end of September. I
suspect that that may be the highest price milk for
any of our four payment periods. So the the tendency
is the GDT is taking the price the milk price
(25:36):
slightly down, whereas you might have been looking at just
north of ten or just north of ten. Now we're
probably looking in the high nines. I mean, if we
get another year in the mid to high nines following
a ten dollar a year just passed, that would be
a course for celebration. I mean, the market is the market,
andy and it varies. There are all sorts of factors
(25:58):
that go into the z and the ags in terms
of where the auction goes. But the overall international inventories
are not particularly high. Demand is a bit more sluggish
perhaps than we would like. There's a bit more hesitancy
in the buying front. Maybe one of the factors is
that they think these on milk curve is so strong
(26:18):
this year. But the fact is the world wants what
our farmers produce, and I think that the trend will
be the tent. The trend over the longer term. There
is nothing but positive.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, well, that's just a trend for the rural sector
in general. I suppose worry especially though from a daring perspective.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Oh for sure, I'm believing on the even on the
cold cow front, where you know as well as I wear,
maybe even better than I, every front that our dairy
farmers look at at the moment is positive and that
can only be good for this young economy. What we need,
of course is the need to get more more conversions
back underway. We need regional council's local government to follow
(26:59):
central governments mantra of cutting red dape tape, acting quicker,
acting more positively. If we can get we can get
more arable land being used for the most economically positive
outcome whilst having an eye of course on on the
environmental aspects. We can get that happening, then we've got
nothing but good news coming.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Good on your Lurie. Always appreciate your time on the Muster,
and by the way, congratulations on your North Harbor getting
the one at the end of the NPC. It was
well deserved. Here I say it, thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
It took a long time to get to that piece
and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
And Major Lynn Berry joins us this afternoon on the
muster once again. Good afternoon, Lynn. What sounds as though
you're out in the garden. You're putting them missing up
over the strawberries.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Go over the raspberries.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Raspberries.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Yeah, figured out how to do the strawberries. I've got
to patch. That's twelve meters by five meters, but they
just keep expanding everywhere. I mean, it's terrible, a.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Lot of problems to have.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
I know it's better than some of the Dutch Danish
farmers at the moment, but yeah, it's only minus Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Bovera ten, I think it's had pronounce it now. This
is all about methane reduction and cows. But there's a
lot of this to unravel.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
So there's a product on the market called Barbara ten.
It's not in the market here, it's in about thirty
five countries around the world have approved its use and
it's supposed to reduce the methane production from remin and
bacteria in our cattle are cows in this case by
(28:48):
thirty to It's really interesting that the research that I've
read about it, it says that it's at this stage
it's should only be fed to female luminance from their
first mating until culling, and the feedap which is terrible
(29:10):
for a DISFXIT person to say, doesn't recommend it on
other ruminants at this stage. Because the information and the
retrol results has seen, they can't calibrate out how much
it is, so that big all those letters is the
Panel on Additives and product products or Substances used in
Animal Feeds and it's a panel that reports back to
(29:33):
the European Food Safety Authority. So the product itself is
made up of three different only three different ingredients only
and excuse me if I can't pronounce the first one,
which is three nitro oxopropanol.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes, best direct, well done.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Excellent, silicon dioxide and propelene glycol.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
They shorten the three and the call it's down to threeps.
So when the cow I eat this as thep is
broken down into NPA and HPA. So all the research
shows that the three duft gets broken down really rapidly
and it's not found in plasma to one to two
(30:20):
hours post feeding of your animals. And according to all
the research that I've seen, the threep and NPA are
not found in milk or edible tissue. This has been
one of the issues with trials that one of the
dairy companies, are Alah in the UK, have been trialing
(30:42):
it on their dairy farms and it's been selling through
some of the supermarkets there. He's been quite a consumer
backlash about its youth and they worried about the fact
that it could be passed on, but according to trials,
it's not. The other thing is that some of the
(31:04):
inner trials at high doses, they have found a relationship
between high doses and rats with testicular toxicity.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Hell have a name for a band that isn't it.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
It could be a good part rock band, but not
too good for you, bloke though, because it reduces the
size of the testicles, it reduces the ani epiditomis at
lower sperm counts, and it can create poor sperm mobility.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Now it's supposed to reduce methane reduction by approximately thirty
percent and dairy cows and up to forty five percent
in beef cattle. They're saying as far as dosage, only
a quarter of a teaspoon of bo Via ten is
needed per cow per day and it starts to take
effect within thirty minutes. If these are all trials, though,
there is none of the set in concrete as far
(31:58):
as what the extra results are.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Okay, So the majority of the trials have been done
on individual cows or goat or rats or guinea pigs,
and what it has been as it hasn't been done
over like a whole herd situation or a whole farm
or in a large scale operation. There's not a heck
(32:21):
of a lot of information about the effect on milk production,
feed efficiency, milk solids, or any other gases that are omitted.
So it's really interesting the information that you read. There's
a good review out by Japanese organization that had some
(32:42):
really good information in it. But the big thing is
that it's supposed to be safe for your care. But
if you're a person who is actually handling these products,
maybe an grain facility or somewhere like Sergeant Dens where
they're putting it into a palette form so it goes
into the cows, then you have to wear protective gear,
(33:03):
eye protection, dust masks, imperviable gloves, and you have to
if you get it on yourself, you have to wash
it off really really quickly. So as far as for
human contact of the product, not ingesting it, there are
some issues with it as well.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
As far as New Zealand, though how realistic is it
for this being available? I see likes of Australia, the EU, Canada,
the US, et cetera. It's all available there, but realistically,
can we expect it on our shores.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I would, I mean not unless the government is going
to change the rules and make us all feed that
have our cows houses and barns and feed them a
controlled amount of feed each day, which we we can't
do when they go out into a paddock, you know.
And then we get the animal welfare groups jumping up
and down because we're industrial or farming. The thing is
(33:59):
too that there's it's only supposed to be used on
Some of the information I've seen is on your lactating cows.
It hasn't got it. It's not supposed to be used
for any other ruminant animals from the trial work that
I've seen. So it's quite interesting that the beef industry
is using it and their suggestions that it should could
be used on sheep and beef as well. Only for
(34:21):
and only for lactating animals, So you've only got a
certain amount of animal of cattle that can have the
product to get that thirty to forty five percent reduction.
So it's a bit it's a bit confusing some of
the information like can you use it in all your cattle?
(34:42):
In Denmark they are actually bringing it in next year
that it has to be used on forty percent of
all cattles.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Good luck with that, I'd say, Lynn, Hey, better leave
it there. Thanks to your time, interesting those always thank you.
Sarah Swinburne is part of the Beef and Lamb's Southern
Farmer Council. She is based near Lawrence and joins us
this afternoon. Sarah, good afternoon. How have you been.
Speaker 6 (35:15):
I have been well. Thank you, Andy. It's lovely to
join you on the show today. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, we always appreciate catching up because the words of
wisdom you've got regarding the workshops and the likes are
very relevant. But look, we're talking about the messaging today
based on the events over the last three weeks, and
we make no apology here on the muster. It's all
about looking ahead to what the future holds for you
in a work frame, right, because what's happened three weeks
(35:44):
ago has happened, but life still still has to continue
on the farm.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Absolutely, Andy, I mean.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Belittle what's happened.
Speaker 6 (35:55):
It's been very significant damage and across wide areas of
the disc. I know we've got lots of trees there,
lots of fences down, some fences are up where the
root balls has come over. We've got sensors six feet
in there and the other sideline flat, and she's to
go under one fence and over the other. And you go, well,
we'll fix that later, and it is fixable. Our family
(36:18):
is okay, our buildings are okay, our machinery is okay.
We are lucky. For those who have damaged buildings and
damaged machinery, are really really feel for them. But the
trees and fences and what, there's no rush, they will
they will get there. I know for us at home,
(36:39):
we probably initially had a bit of a splurge clearing
some easy trees, and it became very apparent that we
weren't going to get through all the trees. We didn't
have the skills, we didn't have the capacity, we didn't
have the machinery. And so after four or five days,
our focus very quickly turned back to actually what is
our priority? And first who was drenching lands and finishing paling,
(37:05):
And after that it then becomes well, where are our
paddocks we need to get sewn and younger, Let's clear
those and get those stockproofs. Where are our cropping paddocks,
Let's clear those and get those stockproof so that we
can get crops established. We've we've made some decisions about
what paddocks are going to go into the winter crop
this year. Some of our are going to take probably
(37:27):
close to a year to get back to being clear
and stockproof and getting permanent electricity running back out there,
so the easy choices don't crop those, and we've gone
back to strawing board and it's some different attcks. Taken
the easy option and changed our cropping rotation to to
paddocks that we can cultivate at the right time of
(37:48):
year and actually get stock. Out of staying calm and
remembering to prioritize what's brucial right now has been key
for us.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yes, well, it seems to be the key mess such today, Sarah,
yourself and your husband, you've taken a step back. You
looked at the situation situation that you've got, and you're
realizing it's a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
Absolutely, we've done the easy bits. We've got lots of
big blocks and they're going to take time, and there's
any further and there's no rush. We don't have the machinery,
we don't have the skill set to do it, we
will need help. We haven't decided what our approach is
(38:32):
going to be, whether we harvest them or where we
just push them into a pile and get rid of it.
We're working through gathering information to be able to make
the best informed decision on that. But indications have heard
are that it's going to take a year to clean
up all the plantation blocks that are down, so there
(38:52):
is no rush. It's meaty and it's not nice to
look at, but it's not causing us significant disruption to
our business. So we're just parking that well. We collect
our thoughts and get information to make the best long
term decision for us around those damaged blocks of trees.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
The analogy is used on the show over the last
couple of days that it's almost like eating an elephant,
and not on one big spurge, but actually just taking
little bites at a time, because there's no way on
how you'll get it all done in one hit.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
No, and you'll fry yourself physically and mentally if you
try to have it all done by next week or
whatever your time frame might be in your head. It's unfortunately,
it's going to be a long, slow recovery. And I
think I think the challenging part as time wears on
is going to be still looking at that damage on
(39:50):
your property, and it is going to be a mental
battle that you can't sit straight away and that it
is going to sit there for a while for some
people until contractors and machinery can around to it. And
that's that's going to be the hart, that is the
reminder that keeps looking at you. But I think we
need to accept that rather than panicking, and we need
(40:12):
to keep ourselves safe and just make it one step
at a time.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Sarah over at Lawrence or in South Otaga in particular,
it sounds as though there are areas that took on
a lot of severe damage. So the other thing is
talking to neighbors and everybody just from around the district
and realizing that you're not in this by yourself.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
One And I love this Lawrence Water Her community that
we that we live in here. I feel really fortunate.
You know, you've seen it time and time again here
that communities pulled together. And you know, our Lions Club
went door to door knocking on people. People from the
fire brigade came around checking when we're real families. People
(40:57):
checked on their neighbors. You know, a stop had damage
or was struggling without power, they came and stayed at
someone else's place. It's just and that still goes on.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
It.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
I mean, we've got our power back and we're functioning
more like normal, but you will still have neighbors that
have bad days and rough days, and it's being there. No.
The day afterwards, we went tailing because we went, oh, well,
can't do much about it. The lands are going to
get bigger, the trees won't fall any further. Let's go
have a social day and discuss at all. And I
think that was great for everyone's mindset to go tailing
(41:31):
the next day because well, we didn't think there was
much else we could do that was more productive on
that day. So it's really important to stay together as
communities and his neighbors and friends and checking and as
the weeks and the months past.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
So how long were you without power for? There?
Speaker 6 (41:50):
We were thirteen days without power.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Andy, that's a long time.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (41:57):
It kind of felt pretty minor though, like there was
so much to do every day when you got up
that there wasn't really time to dwell on not having power.
You just had to change your routine. You had to
make sure there was always a pot of water on
the fire for doing dishes and having a cup of tea,
and making sure you had lots of pops on for
bath water in the evening, and you just cooked on
(42:18):
the barbecue and cooked on.
Speaker 5 (42:19):
The fire and harried on with life.
Speaker 6 (42:21):
It was I don't know, you didn't get a choice.
You just had to go with it, and it was
quite an adventure. You changed what you cooked and thankfully
we actually enjoyed cooking on our fire and have lots
of cast iron camp ovens, so I didn't find that
too challenging not having electricity. It just was what it was,
(42:42):
and you carried on.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
As far as workshops of beef and lamb, these are
coming up surely. Now we're hearing of chainsaw workshops like
some of Otago Rural Support trusts they're involved with these.
I believe there are some on the pipeline for Southland
as well. But workshops of beef and lamb, I dare
say it's a given there'll be things coming up.
Speaker 6 (43:00):
Up right, Yeah, Typically this is a very busy time
of year for farmers, but we have got some workshops
popping up that are really topical at the moment if
you're wanting to upskill, So jump on the events page
and have a look. Because across the region there's feeds
Smart and body condition scoring workshops coming up, there's growing
(43:22):
Great Lambs, and there is also worm Wise worm Wise
events coming up, so there's some really good opportunities to upskill,
broaden your knowledge, get out and do that socializing or
if you want something that's not as hard on, you.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
Know, testing the old brain out.
Speaker 6 (43:43):
There's also real Riders and Surfing for farmers, so they're
more around getting out, being actives, being involved in sports.
The Real Riders as mountain biking and obviously surfing for
farmers has been around for a while in surfing, so
they they are kicking off again starting in November around
the regions. So have a look at those because they're
great opportunities to get out a network and catch up
(44:04):
with farmers and sure you are.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Least matter how the strangers. Sarah Swimborne there wrapping up
the best of the muster. That's us over and dumber
for the morning. My name is Andy Mure. Thanks very
much for your company. Enjoy the weekend. If you're playing
sport all the best take this opportunity to get off
farm and go and connect with others. See you Monday.
Go to AB's
Last night I had the strangers a very good morning
and welcome along to the best of the muster, a
collaboration of interviews we took our attention during a busy
week here at Hawk and Her EHQ. I'm Andymure thanks
for joining us. Starting off the hour by catching up
with Jamie King out of Lake Eroco. Jamie's talking about
the Alliance Door meets deal when he was pretty much
(00:26):
against us going through. However, he has changed his mind
to to a degree anyway, after meeting a couple of
key individuals a couple of weeks ago. Matt Ward farms
at Morton Mains and talks about the situation over in
his neck of the woods, especially after the big wins
of a couple of weeks ago, and also a cool
story he's got about an all Black at the moment
he's doing pretty well and how it correlates back to
(00:48):
Edendale Primary School. Laurie Margraine's on the program out of
Open Country. He is chairman, looking at the dairying situation
down here in the South from an Open country perspective,
of course, the bought MVM. How's en all going? Laurie
fills us in lin Berry's on the program talking all
about Boveya Tienne, what you need to know about it
and why is it going to affect methane especially in cattle.
(01:13):
And Sarah Swinburne in the Beef and Lambslot. Sarah is
farming up in Lawrence with her husband. She's gone through
a hell of a lot over the past few weeks
with the weather as she talks about today and just
says that, yeah, it's all about putting things in perspective, right,
So about further ado, we'll start the hour with Jamie King.
This says the best of the muster over Jamie King
(01:47):
of Lake Heroko starts us off and the Sergeant Dan
farming round up. Thanks of course, the Sashan Dan stock
foods here in Gore. Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Good mate, here a were going today?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah? Going pretty well? Thanks? But how's everything over around
Lake Heroco Way? How have you been over the past
couple of weeks with all this one that's been about?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Now we've survived the wind, we got off redly scott Free, Indy.
I think we've got the big buff record for Ordlands,
so I think it's sort of went over us and
around us. No, to be fair, the weak prior that
we got more damaged from the wind been so no,
it's scott free on that one mate. Yeah, and we're
only a couple of days without pairs, so very very lucky.
(02:28):
I have no idea how they got pair to us,
because we're still a long way from any weird it. Yeah, no,
I can't complain to be fair.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So do you not have anybody over over your way
without power? Still?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
No, not that I'm aware of, Andy. I think most
of western south and is all all back on and
the biggest bugby of the local to a temper there
it got sort of shut right down out of it
for a couple of days and didn't have no calms
and know nothing. So and that was a bit of
a bit of an interest on a few elderly in that.
But no, I scores out and there weren't.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So you say the wind was worse three weeks ago,
what was it exactly that you had?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I was this northwest as well? We had four five
trees come down, one took a pair out was year
and then that the gust that up to the rest
of the South and didn't really do anything. I was
anticipating a lot more.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You do hear a area is being shouted like you
are there. Obviously you talk about the buffer cord for Orland,
but just the way that it's come in certain places
and just gone whish there another areas. Yeah, more or
less left it alone and slightly done something wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh, absolutely mate. And it was th real. It actually
on the Thursday when it did blow. I was actually
an in the cargo for it. And when it blew,
and well, might you get a bit older and nothing
bothers you much, But I was to be fair skinned.
It was I didn't want to be in the caagle.
There was things flying through the air and trees coming down,
and I could have thought of a million other places
(03:53):
will turn to have been and floating around town. So
we sort of just packed up and waited it out
for a couple of years. And the gusts of the settle,
but it was still blue blue all afternoon.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
We're talking about sheets of iron flying around. What was
the situation?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yep? Yet No, we're part of one set of lights.
And a sheet of wine came tearing around the corner
and walked into side the truck and went under, and
there was branches and then there was some people that
hopefully going to breed mate outstand MdeR the trees, taking
obviously videos or what have you. And we're sort of
me and my good lady. We're having a bit of
a wager on it, but we won't talk about that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It's all about those lights.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well apparently so apparently so, but we'll leave it with them,
I spose.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So as far as groundwork and the likes tailing, tailing's
on the rearview mirror now.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Ah no, just sort of getting into it. And I
think Scoots and Hat they got one day under their
belts and containing Connery is a bit far behind. Just
with the weeat like we've been pretty suddenly weird. I
think we tipped two hundred and eighty five milli out
for October. Mate and ground where you're just starting to
chap away now it's just coming right, but we're definitely
(05:00):
not too soon. It's still pretty gluggy under some places.
But here, like last week, there was just a boomer
of a week. You know, we needed it. I'm not
sure what Mother Nats was up to. It feels like
we sort of had there. I'm looking towards to the
other day. Six months of autumn, two months of winter
and now we're into summer. So yeah, but the grass
(05:21):
is grad Eddie which is really nice. We're atty bit
of heat and I've got happy animals again, nothing sort
of you know hearings, just laying down and cruising so
that's easy. So just yeah, this going to the motions mate.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So you're running fall, Telly's compared to other seasons, where
do you think you're at?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well, we've had nearly what are we for? They said,
too eighty This is terrible to a mess on this
isn't it?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Forgive you?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, we're about about five eighty miler I think we
had for September October, mate, But of course we had
nothing over the winter, so I think we're well, we'll
probably wind up on par. But it just doesn't help
that it all comes at once, endy, are.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You trying to get the velvet and and everything else?
Stune at the moment to talk to Ward and us
the other day and they seemed to be a bit
of an elephant at the room in the room unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Ah, yeah, it's a bit of a tour at the moment. Mate. Look,
just you know toangue in cheeks are just sent sixteen
with draw heaps that works this morning the old boy
took over. And to be fair, those sixteen heaps are
probably going to be more than what my entire Velbert
Chick's going to be. Not that I'm gonna in a
big way of the velot there's one hundred and twenty
y or so, but ah yeah, it's a real cheery
(06:28):
one and I'm yeah, I'm feeling a bit for these ls,
is it? But it's all out of the control. There's
a bit of a few interesting things going on that scene.
But hopefully probably what we've just been through the red
mix sect and hopefully it gets a self alleviated one
thing with a deer industry, Andy and the Venice and
it can be arguably volatile, but it just fast as
it goes bad, it seems to come right again. So
(06:49):
I'm just going just crossed.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
On that one.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Well, Venison sedules looking pretty good. Contracts and the.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Likes yeah mate, and it's nice too. And the contracts
are out for twelve months many so you can budget
to that, you know, floating around that late ninees to
teen and to early teen some goys, you know, for
twelve months. You know, it fluctuates a bit within that,
but it's you can budget to that, Andy, and it's
more you know it. So it's great for twelve months aheat.
It's really easy numbers.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Imagine being able to do that with your lamb check.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Ah, it'd be too easy, mate, wouldn't that, wouldn't that? Hey?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, well nothing's easy, Jamie, but it might give you
a little bit more certainty as far as the numbers
that are coming in one.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Hundred percent you just miser everything. Hey, it'd be sort
of suppose, but the dairy farming model, wouldn't it. You know,
just month by month into the outside forecast and where
you go, just worry about ground grass.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Last time we spoke, and this hasn't been spoken about
for a few weeks and understandably so. But the Alliance
Group and Dawn meets, or the restructure of the Alliance
Group as such for Dawn Meats buying in is complete. Now.
You're a bit cynical of this beforehand, but you've changed
your thinking a little bit now after a conversation.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, mate. So we're sort of lucky enough to meet
the Nile there the day after and they have a
bit of a catch up and it was quite good.
So I come out of it feeling, Yeah, probably a
lot better than what we had done for six months
leaning into it. You know, on the upside, we can
sit here and pointed everything that's wrong with it, Andy.
And on that note, you remember they've just tipped two
(08:19):
hundred and seventy million into it, so they want to
return out of their money quite a stute businessman, which
is going to be good. Pretty a little bit more
fat taken out of the system. So yeah, look the
long and short of Handy turning seventy million dollars worth.
They want animals, they want meat. So I think for
definitely the short term anyway, it'll be really, really, probably
(08:43):
quite strong for a couple of years anyway. And there's
some many gritty on the ground stuff. We spoke about
what comparison to these systems and our systems and what
we do well versus what they're doing well. And some
of it was quite lightning, mate, through just water usage
and processing capability. And so arguably it's exciting. Yes, it's
not the way we wanted it to go, but I mean,
(09:06):
such as life, I believe in not looking back, mate,
So it'll be interesting. And like I said, and the
alliance door meat JV. It's not the elephant in the
room anymore because it's still be put to bed. But
we'll not put to bed, but just open another door
and will you shall wait and see you going forward.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well, arguably, if the alliance was nothing but a light
blanket in the middle of winter, dawn meets has come
through the heavy douvey on top of the bed.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Without a doubt, Mate, without a doubt. And you know
we will know how we got here and this was
probably basically the only option out the way in the
current climate. So I don't you know, I'm not But
on that note, mate, we've lost you know, we haven't
got a whole leave solely red meat own cooperative, which
I don't know, perhaps might be a good thing any
(09:51):
gain forward. You know. Sorry, we'll have anyone having an opinion,
but sometimes too many opinions aren't aren't ideal?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Good only Jamie always appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Hey, spot on, Thanks very much mate.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
This is the Muster Well, we aren't on our road
to know. We were on the road all the way
down to Morton, Mainz where we're catching up with Matt
Ward who's farming down that way. Matt, good afternoon, once again.
How's everything in more to Mainz, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Good a Andy, Yeah, everything's just ticking away. Not too
bad down here at the moment. The sun's been out,
the grass is ground, lambs have started to finally do again.
So now we've got nothing to complain about down here
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So ground conditions, we'll talk about the obvious shortly with
the weather, but overall, you're not too bad for November.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Na, we're not too bad now. Now. If you asked
me that ten days ago we were jig, we wouldn't
have even been treading what we were drowning you about
ten days ago. But we've had some good heat in
the last week or so and it's covers have started
to improve, and we ten meals of rain yesterday don't
really help anything. But I still haven't got any seed
in the ground, but Trek has been trying to do
(11:04):
a bit of work. And yeah, i'd say now the
ten days will be definitely over the hurdle.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We'll be looking pretty good.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'd say, Well, that's the difference of a little bit
of sunshine that changes the mood, right, Yeah, it does.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Hundred cent it does, and it's changed the mood of
everything a like the even kettle starts to round up
and lambs are rounded up, and they've got a good
color about them, and you we've definitely needed We can't.
We just needed to keep shining.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I reckon, So how did you fear in those ones?
A few weeks back we copped.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
A bit of a hiding, nothing like. Yeah, you look
around and it's a bit of a mess, but you
don't need to drive too far. As lucky us we are,
and know there's a lot of people were us off
than us. We're pretty lucky where we are. We're all
pretty much predominantly dairy around us. So power was on
pretty quick. We must have been a couple of days
later we had power back on. Yeah, a future like
(11:58):
quite a few trees down and but all all too
big for me to worry about. I chipped around a
few wee branches and stuff there to wait for a
contract during a couple of diggers to come in because
it's all above my pay grade. But they're making good
progress now, and a few logs that will be meld
and quite a lot of firewood and quite a few
that are just getting burnt. Just to tide it up
(12:19):
and forget a bit out of them, move on. But yeah,
got an uncle next door to me here, and he
copped a lot of the I reckon hit. The wind
actually slowed down after going through his place because Jesus
mess left a mess through him. So it's he's probably
borne quite a bit of the damage from me, which
lucky for me, not so lucky for him.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Now, you say there's a lot of dairy farmers around
where you are there as far as sheep farming, are
you like the odd one out where you're based?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Ah, year, we are.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
There's what are we on air road here?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
The we won two, three, four of us sheep farmers
and then everyone else around us is all dairy and
were just holding on, holding on to the well. You've
probably missed the jump.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But it's good.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
It does good productive land, Like it's good dairy farm land.
So it's good productive sheep and beef land grows good
grass and so you just got to make it, make
it produce.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
No, what you say is you've got different farming synergies
on your nic of the and your neck of the woods.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah, yeah, And they're all like two uncles with side
us and a couple of neighbors like they're all good
local farming families that have been here for generations, so
we're all.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Just yeah, all holding on.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
But it's all it does good land, so it all
works pretty pretty well.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, it's underasing you're talking. You talk for four about
knee jerk reactions about going and buying all this extra
gear when you're looking at the task as that that's
at hand. But it's just being so big and just
realistically how much you're going to achieve yourself, so to
take you much of an understanding of what was ahead
of you before you saw actually I just got to
(13:54):
take a step back.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Yeah, it was definitely driving around that next day looking
at all the messis didn't even I wouldn't have even
known where to start. But what you're right, it's taking
that step back and just thinking, like making it piece
by piece. I read on Facebook someone's saying about how
to eat an elephant, and you're not going to go
smack him over in the first bite, au, You've got
(14:17):
to just chip away, chip away. So I just sort
of started on my lane, making sure my access ways
were all clear, trying to get power back going, and
then a lot of the big stuff like yeah, way way,
above my pay grade. I looked a couple of mondays
ago I was waiting for a contract to the train enough.
I looked at buying a big saw for myself and
I was like, geez, i'll use it and then I'll
(14:39):
just sit in the shed. And I hate swinging off
a chain through anyway, so it's easier just to wait.
And now that he's here, he's got a couple of
diggers going. Then it might cost me a weave it,
but it's a lot safer them doing it than me
doing it. And it leaves like I've still got track
to work to do and mobs to be shifting around
tailing to do. So it's yeah, taking just chip away
and it's there.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's there job with the profession.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
So that's yeah, one last thing I need to worry about.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And besides, a guy with your stature with size there, Matt,
you're probably quite handy on ANX as well. If I've
got a.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Real poor week four arm Andy, the ex is no
good for me either, But you're going to leave a
few logs for me and get a wood splitter in
and just chip away on it, so we should be
should be not too bad.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I love that analogy there, and it's one I've talked
about before. You don't need an elephant and big bites.
It's all about just going through and doing it in
little and little bites and eventually, piece by piece you
make your way through it. But it's a marathon, not
a sprint. And yeah, it's probably a great way to
look at the situation.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I think it's the same same goes for a lot
of things. Hey get a big snow dump and people
go rush out and they're feeding stock flat out and
running track us up and down. Then the snow is
going to mount. Like it's not a lot of people
going rush or a big fan of just taking a
step back and just waiting for waiting to see what's
actually going to happen and not rushing into rushing into
(16:07):
a lot of things giving it a bit of time
to think about it and work out a proper plan.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
So as far as wanning dates, when does that occur?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Around the tenth of December, it should be about a
ninety day old lamb roughly is what I work on.
So that'll be.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, that's the plan there.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Whether I normally last year I didn't, but normally try
get a cut out of my singles about that ten
days two weeks beforehand.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And that year.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Whether I do that again this year, time will tell.
But they like they're there. They'd just be interesting whether
they're waiting enough or not. But I'd say the way
the schedules sitting in the way the schedule hopefully will
be sitting by winning time, Yeah, be able to dip
in like dip into lambs quite a bit deeper and
try to get as many off mum as possible as
the plan.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
So drenching is that coming up?
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, that's coming up on going to start fick testing
mobs are using lambs in the next ten days or so,
and if they need a drench, I'll drinch for them.
If they don't, then hopefully I can push them right
through the weaning without without a drench. But yeah, time
will don't normally have to give them a pre ween
drinch just a couple of weeks before winning.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
They just finally mate. We talk about the ull Blacks one,
Damian McKenzie, you were telling me last time, oh fair
about quite a cool wee story. Actually you keeped them
out of a team once upon a time. Going to
a bit more detail. This is a good yarn I exposed.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I told you I knew, and I told you this
the other day that it would come back up to
bite me.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It's a great yarn.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
We were good cobbers back at eden Dale Primary, me
and Damien and used to play rep footy together. And
I've always had in my mind that I was first
five and he was second five, which for some reason,
you look at the size of me now, you'd wonder
how that ever happened. And then a few years ago
I caught up with Marty McKee, years older brother, and
he was telling me the same yarn, and I was like, shit,
(18:03):
I haven't gone through high school just dreaming of it.
It must have must have happened. But you look at
him now and you see how he's gone. And I'm
just a broken down lock from Edendale. So one's kicked
on and one's are.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, I'll hardly say broken down.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
My rugby boots aren't even allowed inside at the moment
Andy that I've been sitting out in the rain. They're
not even allowed near the house. So yeah, no, it's
good to see him going. Well. He's bloody good fowler
and good footballer, and I think he cemented a spot
there on the bench as an impact player, Like he's
a definition of an impact player. Coming on to change
a game the way he did in the weekend's bloody impressive.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
That is what you call a twenty five minute pocket rocket.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Yeah, yeah, recent And it'll be interest in this those
bit of talk about whether they start him this weekend.
But my opinion, he's made for the bench, like there's
no such thing as a reserve player anymore. Like they've
got to come on and make an impact. And the
way the bench has been working, I wouldn't really go
and change it too much if.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It was me.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And if anybody knows we d should be in the
back line, it's you met war because you kept them
out of a number ten position.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Mate.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Hey, always appreciate your time to enjoy the other.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, good man, Andy, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That says the Muster on Hakanui. Lurry Margraine is chair
of Open Country and catches up with us this afternoon.
Always good to have Open Country on the muster And
once again, Lorrie, good afternoon. Down here in the Deep South,
we finally have some blue sky. It's a thing of beauty.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Well, I guess that means you're not you're not inviting
any North Island provinces down to play rugby. I get
the impressure, you always dial up the ship weather, but
I'm pleased to hear it. I hear the same from
your farmers. It finally, finally, finally, we're going to get
a bit of a bit of a relief.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, as far as the rugby thing goes, it's called
home ground of Vantage Lorry but Albany. Obviously you've got
your pros and cons there as well, But let's talk
about open country. It's been a challenging month down here
in the Deep South. From your guys perspective, I suppose
how things be.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah, and it's been a very difficult month for the
for the suppliers down there. We've we've worked pretty aggressively
on on making making assistance available, transporting generators, getting trucks
out there to deliver deliver produce which they need to have.
I mean, we've done the best we possibly can. I
(20:42):
don't think with the benefit Hends, I don't think there's
more we could have done to prepare for what happened.
I was actually there on the Thursday and just got
out via Duneedin before the worst of the weather hit
for commit and so I'd like to think I have
(21:03):
some idea of how bad it was. And but we're
through it. I mean, you know what farmers are like.
This has happened before to some extent, it will happen again,
and they just get on with the job, and we're
always there to do whatever we can do to assist.
Milk flows have bound to bounce back very strong. But
I look at the graphs now for the supplies into
(21:24):
the Tarra Valley and into our own planet at Aurarua,
and are strong that bounced back really really well. So
fingers crossed vengers cross, you're going to get some blue
skies for a week or two.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yet, so peak milk's beIN and gone.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yes, well, either bend and gone andy or we're at
it and you don't get much of a plateau. Strange enough,
down down in the Deep South, we get more of
a plateau in White Catto and Taranaki matter or two
with a milk hits. A peak plateau is off for
a few weeks, but matings in and done for many
(22:01):
of the regions. That takes a bit of the edge
off it. But yeah, we're not still growing, but the
supply is really good.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Now I'm a Tara Valley milk of course. Open Country
acquired this company not that long ago. How's that been?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, all good.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
We're very proud of the asset we've managed to require.
We please, we've got the asset, got the business of
the company at what we considered to be a good
fair value, but a good value for us. It's got
some attributes that we don't have at Avarua, and as
we get our head around how we maximize the value
(22:38):
from a bucket of milk by using those attributes at
Matara Valley, get a few more synergies in terms of
milk collection and milk delivery. There will be some changes
to the staffing and management structure at Patara Valley, but
it's all softly, softly, do the right thing by the business,
Andy and do the right thing in terms of being fair.
(23:00):
Tw anybody's affected by it. We're very, very pleased. In
thirty days, but we're very pleased.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So the acquisition has been well received by suppliers to
Open Country.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yes, one of the best of my knowledge. I've been
down and attended supply of meetings down south. I don't
detect any negativity. I mean, there are some supplies the
Matara Valley that have supplied ourselves historically, so they're well
known to us and we're well known to them. I
think our reputation is such these days that if they
(23:30):
have any uncertainties, they can lean across the fence and
talk to a neighbor and they get reassured. So so
far it's all positivity. And I must say the management
and staff at Matara Valley have always have also been
very supportive, very understanding. I can't fault them at all.
We're very impressed with the people.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Now. The supply of meetings you head down on the
south not that long ago, Laurie. How was the feelings?
How was the feeling at the meetings?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Oh, I mean extremely positive. I don't think there's any
negativity at all. There were questions about why this came
to pass a little bit, but I think they knew inherently.
The answer to that is that the Tara value wasn't
performing financially, and if you don't perform financially, then there's
going to be changed. But I don't detect any negativity.
(24:20):
I mean, we're not going to rock the boat all
the contractional obligations that they had. Any supplier had or
has the the Tara Valley will be honored, every one
of them, and in due course they have the opportunity
to transfer over to our contracts and or we'll be
approaching them to have to do the same.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
GEDDT results haven't been very positive over the past couple
of months, though. Does that mean we're going to see
a correction in the payout?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
That depends on if you refer to a correction. I
mean I regard corrections as something that are really significant
and substantial. When you get a correction in the market,
you can get a significant change. Certainly, the current trend
is trending downwards, it's not crashing downwards, so I don't
call it a major correction, but I do think I
(25:13):
do think there's logic in our periodic payment system. We've
paid ten to thirty eight on average for the milk
from first to June to the end of September. I
suspect that that may be the highest price milk for
any of our four payment periods. So the the tendency
is the GDT is taking the price the milk price
(25:36):
slightly down, whereas you might have been looking at just
north of ten or just north of ten. Now we're
probably looking in the high nines. I mean, if we
get another year in the mid to high nines following
a ten dollar a year just passed, that would be
a course for celebration. I mean, the market is the market,
andy and it varies. There are all sorts of factors
(25:58):
that go into the z and the ags in terms
of where the auction goes. But the overall international inventories
are not particularly high. Demand is a bit more sluggish
perhaps than we would like. There's a bit more hesitancy
in the buying front. Maybe one of the factors is
that they think these on milk curve is so strong
(26:18):
this year. But the fact is the world wants what
our farmers produce, and I think that the trend will
be the tent. The trend over the longer term. There
is nothing but positive.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, well, that's just a trend for the rural sector
in general. I suppose worry especially though from a daring perspective.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Oh for sure, I'm believing on the even on the
cold cow front, where you know as well as I wear,
maybe even better than I, every front that our dairy
farmers look at at the moment is positive and that
can only be good for this young economy. What we need,
of course is the need to get more more conversions
back underway. We need regional council's local government to follow
(26:59):
central governments mantra of cutting red dape tape, acting quicker,
acting more positively. If we can get we can get
more arable land being used for the most economically positive
outcome whilst having an eye of course on on the
environmental aspects. We can get that happening, then we've got
nothing but good news coming.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Good on your Lurie. Always appreciate your time on the Muster,
and by the way, congratulations on your North Harbor getting
the one at the end of the NPC. It was
well deserved. Here I say it, thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
It took a long time to get to that piece
and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
And Major Lynn Berry joins us this afternoon on the
muster once again. Good afternoon, Lynn. What sounds as though
you're out in the garden. You're putting them missing up
over the strawberries.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Go over the raspberries.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Raspberries.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Yeah, figured out how to do the strawberries. I've got
to patch. That's twelve meters by five meters, but they
just keep expanding everywhere. I mean, it's terrible, a.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Lot of problems to have.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
I know it's better than some of the Dutch Danish
farmers at the moment, but yeah, it's only minus Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Bovera ten, I think it's had pronounce it now. This
is all about methane reduction and cows. But there's a
lot of this to unravel.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
So there's a product on the market called Barbara ten.
It's not in the market here, it's in about thirty
five countries around the world have approved its use and
it's supposed to reduce the methane production from remin and
bacteria in our cattle are cows in this case by
(28:48):
thirty to It's really interesting that the research that I've
read about it, it says that it's at this stage
it's should only be fed to female luminance from their
first mating until culling, and the feedap which is terrible
(29:10):
for a DISFXIT person to say, doesn't recommend it on
other ruminants at this stage. Because the information and the
retrol results has seen, they can't calibrate out how much
it is, so that big all those letters is the
Panel on Additives and product products or Substances used in
Animal Feeds and it's a panel that reports back to
(29:33):
the European Food Safety Authority. So the product itself is
made up of three different only three different ingredients only
and excuse me if I can't pronounce the first one,
which is three nitro oxopropanol.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes, best direct, well done.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Excellent, silicon dioxide and propelene glycol.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
They shorten the three and the call it's down to threeps.
So when the cow I eat this as thep is
broken down into NPA and HPA. So all the research
shows that the three duft gets broken down really rapidly
and it's not found in plasma to one to two
(30:20):
hours post feeding of your animals. And according to all
the research that I've seen, the threep and NPA are
not found in milk or edible tissue. This has been
one of the issues with trials that one of the
dairy companies, are Alah in the UK, have been trialing
(30:42):
it on their dairy farms and it's been selling through
some of the supermarkets there. He's been quite a consumer
backlash about its youth and they worried about the fact
that it could be passed on, but according to trials,
it's not. The other thing is that some of the
(31:04):
inner trials at high doses, they have found a relationship
between high doses and rats with testicular toxicity.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Hell have a name for a band that isn't it.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
It could be a good part rock band, but not
too good for you, bloke though, because it reduces the
size of the testicles, it reduces the ani epiditomis at
lower sperm counts, and it can create poor sperm mobility.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Now it's supposed to reduce methane reduction by approximately thirty
percent and dairy cows and up to forty five percent
in beef cattle. They're saying as far as dosage, only
a quarter of a teaspoon of bo Via ten is
needed per cow per day and it starts to take
effect within thirty minutes. If these are all trials, though,
there is none of the set in concrete as far
(31:58):
as what the extra results are.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Okay, So the majority of the trials have been done
on individual cows or goat or rats or guinea pigs,
and what it has been as it hasn't been done
over like a whole herd situation or a whole farm
or in a large scale operation. There's not a heck
(32:21):
of a lot of information about the effect on milk production,
feed efficiency, milk solids, or any other gases that are omitted.
So it's really interesting the information that you read. There's
a good review out by Japanese organization that had some
(32:42):
really good information in it. But the big thing is
that it's supposed to be safe for your care. But
if you're a person who is actually handling these products,
maybe an grain facility or somewhere like Sergeant Dens where
they're putting it into a palette form so it goes
into the cows, then you have to wear protective gear,
(33:03):
eye protection, dust masks, imperviable gloves, and you have to
if you get it on yourself, you have to wash
it off really really quickly. So as far as for
human contact of the product, not ingesting it, there are
some issues with it as well.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
As far as New Zealand, though how realistic is it
for this being available? I see likes of Australia, the EU, Canada,
the US, et cetera. It's all available there, but realistically,
can we expect it on our shores.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I would, I mean not unless the government is going
to change the rules and make us all feed that
have our cows houses and barns and feed them a
controlled amount of feed each day, which we we can't
do when they go out into a paddock, you know.
And then we get the animal welfare groups jumping up
and down because we're industrial or farming. The thing is
(33:59):
too that there's it's only supposed to be used on
Some of the information I've seen is on your lactating cows.
It hasn't got it. It's not supposed to be used
for any other ruminant animals from the trial work that
I've seen. So it's quite interesting that the beef industry
is using it and their suggestions that it should could
be used on sheep and beef as well. Only for
(34:21):
and only for lactating animals, So you've only got a
certain amount of animal of cattle that can have the
product to get that thirty to forty five percent reduction.
So it's a bit it's a bit confusing some of
the information like can you use it in all your cattle?
(34:42):
In Denmark they are actually bringing it in next year
that it has to be used on forty percent of
all cattles.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Good luck with that, I'd say, Lynn, Hey, better leave
it there. Thanks to your time, interesting those always thank you.
Sarah Swinburne is part of the Beef and Lamb's Southern
Farmer Council. She is based near Lawrence and joins us
this afternoon. Sarah, good afternoon. How have you been.
Speaker 6 (35:15):
I have been well. Thank you, Andy. It's lovely to
join you on the show today. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, we always appreciate catching up because the words of
wisdom you've got regarding the workshops and the likes are
very relevant. But look, we're talking about the messaging today
based on the events over the last three weeks, and
we make no apology here on the muster. It's all
about looking ahead to what the future holds for you
in a work frame, right, because what's happened three weeks
(35:44):
ago has happened, but life still still has to continue
on the farm.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Absolutely, Andy, I mean.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Belittle what's happened.
Speaker 6 (35:55):
It's been very significant damage and across wide areas of
the disc. I know we've got lots of trees there,
lots of fences down, some fences are up where the
root balls has come over. We've got sensors six feet
in there and the other sideline flat, and she's to
go under one fence and over the other. And you go, well,
we'll fix that later, and it is fixable. Our family
(36:18):
is okay, our buildings are okay, our machinery is okay.
We are lucky. For those who have damaged buildings and
damaged machinery, are really really feel for them. But the
trees and fences and what, there's no rush, they will
they will get there. I know for us at home,
(36:39):
we probably initially had a bit of a splurge clearing
some easy trees, and it became very apparent that we
weren't going to get through all the trees. We didn't
have the skills, we didn't have the capacity, we didn't
have the machinery. And so after four or five days,
our focus very quickly turned back to actually what is
our priority? And first who was drenching lands and finishing paling,
(37:05):
And after that it then becomes well, where are our
paddocks we need to get sewn and younger, Let's clear
those and get those stockproofs. Where are our cropping paddocks,
Let's clear those and get those stockproof so that we
can get crops established. We've we've made some decisions about
what paddocks are going to go into the winter crop
this year. Some of our are going to take probably
(37:27):
close to a year to get back to being clear
and stockproof and getting permanent electricity running back out there,
so the easy choices don't crop those, and we've gone
back to strawing board and it's some different attcks. Taken
the easy option and changed our cropping rotation to to
paddocks that we can cultivate at the right time of
(37:48):
year and actually get stock. Out of staying calm and
remembering to prioritize what's brucial right now has been key
for us.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yes, well, it seems to be the key mess such today, Sarah,
yourself and your husband, you've taken a step back. You
looked at the situation situation that you've got, and you're
realizing it's a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
Absolutely, we've done the easy bits. We've got lots of
big blocks and they're going to take time, and there's
any further and there's no rush. We don't have the machinery,
we don't have the skill set to do it, we
will need help. We haven't decided what our approach is
(38:32):
going to be, whether we harvest them or where we
just push them into a pile and get rid of it.
We're working through gathering information to be able to make
the best informed decision on that. But indications have heard
are that it's going to take a year to clean
up all the plantation blocks that are down, so there
(38:52):
is no rush. It's meaty and it's not nice to
look at, but it's not causing us significant disruption to
our business. So we're just parking that well. We collect
our thoughts and get information to make the best long
term decision for us around those damaged blocks of trees.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
The analogy is used on the show over the last
couple of days that it's almost like eating an elephant,
and not on one big spurge, but actually just taking
little bites at a time, because there's no way on
how you'll get it all done in one hit.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
No, and you'll fry yourself physically and mentally if you
try to have it all done by next week or
whatever your time frame might be in your head. It's unfortunately,
it's going to be a long, slow recovery. And I
think I think the challenging part as time wears on
is going to be still looking at that damage on
(39:50):
your property, and it is going to be a mental
battle that you can't sit straight away and that it
is going to sit there for a while for some
people until contractors and machinery can around to it. And
that's that's going to be the hart, that is the
reminder that keeps looking at you. But I think we
need to accept that rather than panicking, and we need
(40:12):
to keep ourselves safe and just make it one step
at a time.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Sarah over at Lawrence or in South Otaga in particular,
it sounds as though there are areas that took on
a lot of severe damage. So the other thing is
talking to neighbors and everybody just from around the district
and realizing that you're not in this by yourself.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
One And I love this Lawrence Water Her community that
we that we live in here. I feel really fortunate.
You know, you've seen it time and time again here
that communities pulled together. And you know, our Lions Club
went door to door knocking on people. People from the
fire brigade came around checking when we're real families. People
(40:57):
checked on their neighbors. You know, a stop had damage
or was struggling without power, they came and stayed at
someone else's place. It's just and that still goes on.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
It.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
I mean, we've got our power back and we're functioning
more like normal, but you will still have neighbors that
have bad days and rough days, and it's being there. No.
The day afterwards, we went tailing because we went, oh, well,
can't do much about it. The lands are going to
get bigger, the trees won't fall any further. Let's go
have a social day and discuss at all. And I
think that was great for everyone's mindset to go tailing
(41:31):
the next day because well, we didn't think there was
much else we could do that was more productive on
that day. So it's really important to stay together as
communities and his neighbors and friends and checking and as
the weeks and the months past.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
So how long were you without power for? There?
Speaker 6 (41:50):
We were thirteen days without power.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Andy, that's a long time.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (41:57):
It kind of felt pretty minor though, like there was
so much to do every day when you got up
that there wasn't really time to dwell on not having power.
You just had to change your routine. You had to
make sure there was always a pot of water on
the fire for doing dishes and having a cup of tea,
and making sure you had lots of pops on for
bath water in the evening, and you just cooked on
(42:18):
the barbecue and cooked on.
Speaker 5 (42:19):
The fire and harried on with life.
Speaker 6 (42:21):
It was I don't know, you didn't get a choice.
You just had to go with it, and it was
quite an adventure. You changed what you cooked and thankfully
we actually enjoyed cooking on our fire and have lots
of cast iron camp ovens, so I didn't find that
too challenging not having electricity. It just was what it was,
(42:42):
and you carried on.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
As far as workshops of beef and lamb, these are
coming up surely. Now we're hearing of chainsaw workshops like
some of Otago Rural Support trusts they're involved with these.
I believe there are some on the pipeline for Southland
as well. But workshops of beef and lamb, I dare
say it's a given there'll be things coming up.
Speaker 6 (43:00):
Up right, Yeah, Typically this is a very busy time
of year for farmers, but we have got some workshops
popping up that are really topical at the moment if
you're wanting to upskill, So jump on the events page
and have a look. Because across the region there's feeds
Smart and body condition scoring workshops coming up, there's growing
(43:22):
Great Lambs, and there is also worm Wise worm Wise
events coming up, so there's some really good opportunities to upskill,
broaden your knowledge, get out and do that socializing or
if you want something that's not as hard on, you.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
Know, testing the old brain out.
Speaker 6 (43:43):
There's also real Riders and Surfing for farmers, so they're
more around getting out, being actives, being involved in sports.
The Real Riders as mountain biking and obviously surfing for
farmers has been around for a while in surfing, so
they they are kicking off again starting in November around
the regions. So have a look at those because they're
great opportunities to get out a network and catch up
(44:04):
with farmers and sure you are.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Least matter how the strangers. Sarah Swimborne there wrapping up
the best of the muster. That's us over and dumber
for the morning. My name is Andy Mure. Thanks very
much for your company. Enjoy the weekend. If you're playing
sport all the best take this opportunity to get off
farm and go and connect with others. See you Monday.
Go to AB's
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