November 21, 2025 • 45 mins
Andy Muir talks to Greg Erickson, Sean Molloy, Mark Patterson, Steve Henderson and Nigel Woodhead.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Last night.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
A very good morning and welcome along to the best
of the muster, a collaboration of interviews. It took our
attention during a busy week here at Hokanu e HQ.
My name's Andy Muller. Thanks to your company. We're starting
off the hour by chatting with Greg Erickson, formerly a
boy Mumu these days working in Canada where he's involved
in the agricultural industry, telling us about prices in Canada,
(00:27):
especially with cattle. We talk about them being good in
New Zealand where the next level over where he's based,
and the change of government as well what it's meant
for farming over where he is now. Shawn Mylloy, Sheffield
peak farmer recently elected to the New Zealand Pork Board,
telling us how the pork industry is looking ahead of
Christmas and Sean thinks generally things are looking on the
(00:47):
up for the industry. Mark Patterson, Minister for Eral Communities,
joined us this week to talk about the weather events
of the South from a month ago, what's changed since then,
what needs to change and the big question around rural connectivity.
This thing cannot be ignored, especially the way that three
G is being phased out, but continues to be the
(01:09):
saving grace, certainly when the other networks aren't working. Steve
Henderson of Abadu. We catch up with Steve O to
see how things are going on the farm there is
he's busy with AI and just in general. What's he
doing as far as his winter crops given that he
went away from the grass wintering system to swedes. What's
his thinking for next season? And Nigel ward Head. Nigel's
(01:31):
holding the Southern Storm Shout next Thursday at his farm
between Balcluther and Milton. He tells us what we can
expect on the day and why he thinks you need
to be there. So, without further ado, we'll start the
your with Greg Erickson. You're listening to the best of
the Muster.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
The Musters on the Farm brought to you by Southland
District Council working together for a better Southland.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
We're away over to Canada this afternoon on the Muster.
Former Waymomie resident Greg Erickson now resides over there near
the town of Millet, where he's involved in the farming industries,
driving harvesters, tracks, you name it, that's what Greg's up to.
Good afternoon, Greg, thanks for joining us once again.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Oh a problem, Mandy, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
How's everything over in Millet today?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Hi?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Everything is pretty good. Here's nice not it's plus six.
We're looking pretty sunny for the middle of November fortnight.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So it's pretty mild for the time of year. It's
what you normally expect. Give us an idea what temperatures
should normally be.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Wow, it's a wide ranging window. It can be minus
twenty five for some year. It can be plus ten,
plus fifteen. So it's it's it's the flip of the coin.
You might get hot, you might get cold. It just
you just never know.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Is that in South Yes? Yep, Well so those getting
cold the end isn't it?
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Is that in a cool off? Yeahstanic call off. But
it's not too bad yet. It's we know the cold's coming,
but it's you know, we take take the good what
we can.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Does it become mind over meta when it gets that
nippy or you just deal with it?
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Nah? No, No. After a certain point, especially when it's
thirty below or forty below, and especially with some winds,
you you can't be outside too long or frost white's
kicking in and you're you're starting to physically hurt, and
then when you get inside a warm up, it's still
hurting and you're you could be in trouble.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Now, you've just come through the harvest season, you've recently
been on a family holiday to the States. As far
as the harvest, so how did it go?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Harvest was excellence. We had a pretty good amount of
rain up until July, a little bit August, and then
it just was dry, so we had perfect harvesting conditions
for about three or four weeks longer than we needed.
So it was awesome. And our yields were really good
because of the rain earlier on the season, and we're
probably ten to fifteen percent up on all of our crops.
(04:17):
It's seemed fantastic.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So it's a reasonably buoyant mood in the sector at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It is.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
It is. The prices are a bit of a drag,
but the excess yield is helping cover the losses.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Now you're explaining the prices before, and obviously we work
in kilos and tons over here, but you guys and Canada,
it's all about the imperial system of a goodness, say
you're trying to figure out bushels and the likes.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Yeah. So well, currently the price of week per bushel
was about seven dollars and the Canadian norse, and if
you converte all that to tons, it's around three hundred
bucks a ton. It's not great, and it's complicated because
the big the big guys who sell the grain overseas,
(05:10):
they they buy and sell them times. But the farmers
they see yields, they're in bushels, so there's constant conversion
and frustration.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So they're working in tons, the big players, as you
put them, because that's what the overseas markets dictate.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I guess though the only one as far as I know,
the only folks who use bushels are the farmers in
North America, but there are plenty of them, so that's
what we use. But yeah, the big guys h use
definitely use metric.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So you're talking bushels, and when do you start working
in talent and the works. I mean, you talk about
your tracks, some big rigs on the road over there.
I do say, you're not dealing in bushels when it
comes to tear weight.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
No, no, no, that's all in kilograms and tons on trucks,
hang on, that's all in kilograms and tons on trucks
in Canada. If you go to the States, you're down
to pound. So it gets complicated.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Again. This sounds bloody confusing. Good on you, America.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yeah, it's it's a challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And then you work in kilometers in Canada, but you
go over the border, it's all in miles.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
That's correct. Yes, And a lot of the vehicles have
both on the dash because you know, you across the border
or the maid half made in Canada and the other
half of the vehicles made in the States, and they
bounced back and forth. So they've got to got to
accommodate both systems.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Now take you You get used to that over time though, it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Does, yeah, you do. It's not as simple as it sounds,
but it does take time and it you can be
figured out.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So what about this shoes facing Canadian farming. At the moment, Greg,
we're hearing about terrace. The terraffs from America regarding New
Zealand beef have been dropped over the weekends. So it's
a very reactive, reactive move by the American governmenthich seems
to happen more often than not. But of course you've
got a new Prime Minister there Mark Kearney, who just
got the job a couple of months ago. How's he
(07:10):
viewed by the farming community.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Well, he's seems to be viewed positively. He's certainly an
improvement on the previous Prome Minister, Justin Trudeau in terms
of however, infuse them, especially in the farming community or
even Elberta. However, everyone is sort of just waiting to
see if he'll what he'll do that will make him
that much better. At the moment, he's well, he's playing
(07:39):
you know, chess with trump and he's I don't know
if he's losing or not, but they're playing and it's
just sort of back and forth and then comes I
think it's come to a bit of a standstill in
the last two months, so I'm not sure where it's
going to go. But Kennie, I think is definitely better
than the last month.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Is it a case would be careful what you wish
for though playing mind games with the Trumpster?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Absolutely, you never know what's gonna happen. As you've seen
with the beef thing. It's just he had to cave
for well whatever the reason was, but he's caved and
now how long is this positive gonna laugh?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
You know, but at least you've got a PM over there.
He seems to recognize farming unlike Trudeau.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, he definitely recognizes farming. He definitely recognizes the amount
of money and the impact the industry can have, and
he's you know, he's for it, and he's not ignoring
any problems that we have. So no, I guess that's
as much as you can ask for at this point.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Now read mead prices here in New Zealand, they're on
a hot industry highs at the moment. What are we
seeing over there? And for beef pipe prices in particular,
they sound rather hot.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Oh, they're definitely high. Still, they weren't coming down slightly
due to I'm not going sure why, but they were
coming down about three four weeks ago they dropped. So
if I wanted to buy a heifer, eight months old heifer,
about two months ago it was thirty five hundred bucks,
and then three weeks ago it was only three thousand bucks.
(09:16):
But I think it may have climbed up a little
bit if the tariffs on the beef have dropped, But
I'm not sure if that's shooting Canady yet, so they
haven't got back in the swing of things since the holiday.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
See this sounds like bigger fluctuations in the sheer market
and we're only talking live stock.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Yeah, it was a very big drop, so that's why
I didn't buy before a holiday. So I'm not sure
what they're going at right now, but we'll just see
what happens come tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
What about sheep prices land prices around where? You Agreegord?
There's not many of them about.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Oh, there are none about. I mean sorry, there are
some about, so if you go a couple of miles
west of me, you can find a few sheep, but
in terms of a market, there isn't one. They just
if you want to go buy one, you can go
buy one, but there's no markets per se.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, certainly interesting to see what the farming landscapes over
there compared to New Zealand. Greg, Hey, we'll leave it there.
Always appreciate your time on the muster and wrap up
and stay warm.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, thanks, Hendy.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Sean mylawyer, is a pig farmer based up at Sheffield
and Canterbury and joins us this afternoon on the muster.
He is our pig farming corresponded Sean, good afternoon and
welcome to the muster once again.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Good Eddie, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, firstly, congratulations as well. You've just been elected to
the New Zealand port Board.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Yep, put my name forward for that and hopefully it's
some barely to the industry.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, what was the driver for doing that? What made
you decide this is my time?
Speaker 5 (10:57):
I've been involved with the politics at the end of
Trooper quite a long time now, and I just felt
right to step up with who was so that the
fellow that was stepping away, And yeah, it felt like
I was finally ready to take that step up. I
do try to enjoy trying to take on the government
(11:19):
and get good rules for farmers so that we can
or farm under a preasonable set of rules and see
what we do and show everybody how well we do.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Now we've spoken to you over the past couple of years,
short and the struggles of naywork and the likes being
involved with the industry now up in the top tier
as such, are you having for a bit more leeway
and that respect.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Yeah, I don't know whether that just being up there
will We'll open up so many more doors than what
we're already got. Yeah, it will certainly mean that you're
you're involved in those conversations, which will be nice. But yeah,
it depends on the government of the time. I know
how much excess and how much time they want to
give you.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So the government at the moment. We've talked about this previously,
and ironically last time we spoke, I think the next
day the recommendations around seal creates came out.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Yeah, you think that means I've got a bit of
that for us, Sandy.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It makes you wonder that just going to DV, what
are you doing in the background. You're changing the bearing
or something.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Oh yeah, madam, just doing a little bit of mateenance,
just chanding a shed ground sorrow.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I didn't realize that's picking.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Up on the moro.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh no, that's brilliant. It's cool multitasking. A lot of
people wrecking males can't do that.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
I struggle.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
So the situation up there in Sheffield, how's it been
for the season?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Windy?
Speaker 5 (12:41):
It would be one way to describe it so far. Yeah,
really really windy. So it had a few cropspins burned
off a little bit due to the high winds. We
didn't get hammered like Southend or North Canterbury, thankfully, So
we escaped pretty easy, a little bit of ten off
and stuff like that, and there was a bit of
hail came through just over the weekend, so we escaped
(13:03):
it up here touchwood this time. So hopefully we don't
get that. But I'm not going talked to many yet
to see what it means to them, but I imagine
a few crops are taken, a bit of a hammering,
just a bit of a bugger.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Now, we had these catastrophic winds down here almost a
month ago. Have you experienced anything like that or it's
just Northwest is doing their thing over the season.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
We are here at the farm. It's a real windy
spot anywhere in the throw to the Waimakerari River, so
just where the farmers we caught quite high wind. So
it's I guess it's what you call a typical year.
Except normally a typical year maybe two three weeks match
of quite strong winds in the change of season. It's
just gone on and on. So yeah, it's been a
(13:49):
bit of an extra windy season really.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And of course your farm there sure, and you've got
four hundred breeding cells you also grow your own barley
as feed for the pigs, and the affluent coming from
the using that as fertilizer on the irrigated land as well,
So you're feeling you're filling quite a few of the
boxes of text there.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Mate, it's great to have our own land to make
use of that, because when you use as a pig farmer,
if you're not putting on your own land, you don't
get any value for it. So it's really nice to
do that. And with the influence you just get all
those out of nutrients that you don't keep with sthetic fertilizer.
So yeah, there's nothing nothing makes a crop look better
than some peggy influent on there, that's for sure. So
(14:31):
really nice to have that circle go round.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
And I dare say there'll be plenty of that flowing
as well.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
There's a fear bort of a constant supply which is nice.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, that's for sure. Now, as far as the season,
they're like, what would your rainfall tell you be per year?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
There?
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Would you say somewhere between seven eight hundred dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
That's not too bad for Kennedy. Your things taken into
account of what a.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Thought yeah, I know we're pretty good a so we're
up close to the mountains, we get a bit and
always spiller over often to that a little bit of
a a wee bit of.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
A boost and it's a little.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Green button that we get to fort two when it
does get a bit too dry.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So we're pretty lucky that we are.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Now we're speaking just before you were saying there's only
sixty five serious peak farms as such at New Zealand.
Now everybody has a couple of pigs on the side.
I remember back in the day when I left school,
we had a pig there we were fattening up. Had
to go and give us swedes every day, plus the
scraps from their house. But generally it just shows how
it's not a big farming system here in New Zealand.
(15:38):
I suppose.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
No, but the guys that are here we do.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
We do work out quite a few pigs, so I
guess numbers wise, yeah, if you look at the amount
of meat that we put out, we are quite as
quite large and saying that also we don't have a
huge year in the market, down to about thirty of
the market, so yeah, I guess the industry just reflects
(16:04):
that and it sort of tens to be. It's just larger,
more serious players remaining in the industry.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And we've talked about this before as well. The threat
that imports pose with animal welfare codes well blow our own.
But to pick farmers in New Zealand, do they have
issues getting rid of their stock?
Speaker 5 (16:24):
The last couple of years, it's been being pretty good.
It generally to be seems to be seasonal, so normally
end of January, if it's going to get pretty tight
and pretty tough, it's normally there for about sort of
four or five months.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
It's normally when our price will drop.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I was ready, sorry, Sean. I was reading something the
other day talking about the Resource Management Act and its
effect on the pork industry, saying that it's just like anything,
it's making anything and everything harder when you just want
to get out there and do the farming. Are you
striking any issues off there? May?
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Yeah, it's just a real pain in the backside. And
being a smaller industry and not many of us, it's
not well understood what we do, and the Council send
out of these revolving door of people, so you're constantly
re educating them on what you do, so it's quite frustrating.
And of course for indoor producers particularly you know, or
(17:23):
even outdoor guys, you've still got to put barns and
structures up, so you've got to deal with your environmental
guys and then your local council as well, so you're
dealing with two lots there. And yeah, it's just just
a complicated nightmare. It just costs so much money when
you want to do something there.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So you've pretty much got e Can on speed dial.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I wish. Yeah, you need to keep close to them.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But in general, though, how would you rank the pork
industry in New Zealand out of ten?
Speaker 5 (17:55):
For ours?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Just for performance in general, just the vibe, but the
industry as such.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Look, we're rocking along pretty good. I guess there were
probably I would say Ana can't speak for everybody, but yeah,
things are things are going along. Prices are good, Yeah,
just as some of that regulatory stuff was was better
and easier and less expensive than would be really good.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Getting young people unto the industry is that an issue?
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Definitely? Yeah, yep, Because we're small. People don't know what
it's about. I never bring a person and a person
never visits the farm and then comes away and says,
you know, they're always like, wow, that was not what
I thought. That was just amazing, and they're just blown
away by the technology using. I mean a lot of
people's perception of pigs, like you said, one or two
(18:45):
in a backyard and a bit of a muckypn And
we traveled to scraps over the not all the ventilation
systems and automotive feedding systems and plastic floorings and pumps
and you know, there's just so much to it. It's
really complex. That's not what people think. So it is
(19:06):
really nice when you show people around and then they
just come away with, well, you know, there's a lot
more going on here.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Well it looks at you guys that.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
You know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Certainly one of those things, but look anyway, Sean will
leave it there. It sounds as though the New Zealand
Pork Industries and good hands and once again gratulations on
going on to the New Zealand Pork Board and is
here is hoping your boy Raiser gets things right against
Wales on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Hey yeah, made he needs of bloody step it up,
doesn't he?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And that's coming from a died in the wall cantapory
and we'll leave it there short. Always appreciate your time.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Come on, Eddie.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Thanks mate, Thanks to the South and Little Support Trust.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
We're catching it with different individuals involved with farming sectors
down here in the South of course, and association with
Community Trust South. This afternoon we are catching up with
Mark Patterson. He is a Minister for Rural Communities. Mark,
Good afternoon, Great a chat. It's been a while.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
Good afternoon, Andy, yep, good to be on.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
So about a month on from the events that occurred
as far as the win situation down here in the South, Mark,
when you reflect back on those four weeks, it's certainly
showing there's a big task ahead.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
Yeah. Well, I mean, firstly, it was a really big
event in terms of how widespread the damage was with
the south coast of south Under right up through in
the cloture and then you know there's been a gap
through the middle of the island and then hit hard
again through Harnui and Kakoras. So yeah, very widespread.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I take it the power situation has been resolved.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
Now, yeah, to the best of my knowledge, and I
mean it's been an incredible efforts from power It, particularly
in those early days to get things up and running,
and the crews that came in to help them from
Waitaki and Central Targo and the like as well at
Kulan Task. But you know, even then, you know, we
(21:14):
had people out of without power ten twelve days, which
is pretty debilitating.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
So when we reflect back on those events of four
weeks ago, Mark, there are a number of things that
came to the four We'll start off with this straightaway
being rural connectivity. I'm sure you guys are pushing for
this up in parliament, but the fact we had to
rely on three G to get one bar on our
cell phones and this three G network is being disestablished,
it's a big concern.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
It is a big concern, and I think that that
was the biggest lesson, just the fragility of our rural connectivity.
And you know, we actually had one New Zealand and
here yesterday sort of talking through the bolstering of their networks,
and you know, you get these sort of soothing sounds
from corporate headquarters, but you know, when presh come to
(22:01):
shove and we're under real pressure. There was people without
connectivity for quite some time and that was the feed
that got that was the most abilitating, but not knowing
what was happening, and whilst the emergency management was pumping
out huge amounts of information, people just simply weren't able
to get it. And it was said world stuff actually
(22:23):
at times. So we've got to get much much more
resilient in that network.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, arguably parts of the Third world would have better
connectivity than what we experienced. And if we're going to
have to rely on four G n FIG going forward,
there's going to have to be serious, serious conversations had
regarding rural.
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Yeah, well they're giving us, as I say, all sorts
of siving sounds that the four G will be equivalents in
terms of coverage, but there is some question then in
terms of network bandwards that I would say that the
most underestimated response and or toll on this response as
(23:02):
radio and the hock and fantastic yourself, Chetty. You know,
time and time again we're hearing that that was the lifeline,
that was the one avenue people had to get information.
So we really owe your data gratitude, and as policy makers,
we've got to make sure we recognize that Sam and
Gabriel and so we're going to make sure we sort
(23:24):
of fire our radio network as well.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Based on that mark, I think more than anything, this
brings to the four that people don't really have a
plan B in place as far as a survival pack.
I mean, we think back to the COVID times and
goodness me, how much toilet paper and the likes are
left over from that day and age. But it's all
about having a plan be in place. Do you think
we're really up to the spit up to pace as
far as having a plan B in case of an emergency.
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Well, there's some real lessons there wasn't there. And I mean,
you know, we can look at the top down stuff
from the government, but I think in terms of the
just an individual preparedness that a business preparedness se many.
You know, let's be honest, theory farmers didn't have a
generator capacity or access to a generator even sheds wide
up for a generator, putting massive pressure on actually a
(24:13):
volunteer network to keep them going. And that's a lesson
that I'm sure that we'll be learned and you know,
we'll be followed up on by the companies. At a
community level, has every community got a facility that's got
access to a generator and starlink or some sort of
(24:34):
you know, resilience built into it that everyone in the
community knows they can go there to you know, to
change their phones or you know, get information or whatever
it might be. So there's a whole number of layers
to this that we've got to take into account. Because
the big question that we keep getting asked, you know,
imagine if this was you know, the fault line going,
(24:54):
you know, and we didn't have roading access and things
like that on top of this. So I think we've
got to be much more prepared at a number of levels.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
As far as funds from the government. Southern District Mayor
of Scott has been critical saying for the amount of
GDB produced by such a low amount of the population,
there should be more on the ground here for response services.
Would you agree with that?
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Well, you put me on the spot there, Andy, But yeah,
I mean it's been a pretty modest contributional though, you know,
und fifty or seventy thousand. I think all up, we've
got to be careful here. You know, this is not
to bail out businesses, you know, it's of businesses to
protect themselves or build resilience into their system. But where
(25:43):
we can help at a community level, whether that's through
support for the Real Support Trust or Merrior Relief funds,
we should be doing that with there's some community good
element to it and some wellbeing stuff here, and those
groups too exceedingly well as we know, doing great work.
But it's a hard balance to strike. But yeah, I
(26:04):
think Robs, you know, he's got a point, and I
think our systems need upgraded too. I mean it was
actually getting the money out of the door was pretty clunky,
which created some anxiety for organizations that were just trying
to do some really good stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Passforce workers. Have they been mentioned at all mark regarding
their recovery.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Tasa's key We yes.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
So I went up and saw them in action up
in Hernui. They're in negotiations to come down both to
Kluth and Southland, putting a bit of a stretch on
their resources as well. But and I know the Rural
Support Trust and the Real Advisory Groups are looking at
how they might be deploy those resources. But they are
(26:49):
really good addition into our recovery toolcat as a country,
mainly ex service personnel, they're all trained up, they've got
their health and safety that sell tickets for like so,
but you know it's inequity and how to deploy them to,
you know, people that may have been most badly if impacted.
(27:11):
But we really are encouraged. We're really pushing on the
safety side of things. You know that missage cannot get
through enough. These trees down and still under load. They're
still dangerous if they get people that, which frankly is
most of us haven't got the skills to deal with
that sort of dangerous tree. So, you know, really encouraging
(27:34):
people to get the professionals to forestry gangs that have
come out of the forest to help get them to
assess the trees first, work out what's safe to what's not,
Get the heavy gear, get the specialist gear, get the
people that know what they're doing to do the heavy stuff,
and then you know, we can clean up the rest
of the family.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
With some farmers. I've spoken to Marke and talking about
a year being in recovery mode.
Speaker 7 (27:59):
What are you here, Well, that'll be true. I mean
some of the properties, you know, it's heart wrenching to
see and of course this has happened at such a
busy time of the year, so it could be worse
in that regard. So a lot of the stuff said
to be parked up and just worked around for now.
But some of that's not a bad thing because there's
a lot of danger in some of those fallen or
(28:20):
a half fallen tree, so it's you know where you
can just work around it. But yeah, it's going to
be a long, long haul and that's where you know
the Royal Support Trust come in because they're there for
the long haul helping farmers through these events.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Mark Patterson, Minister for Veral Communities, Thanks to your time
on the muster and keep out the good work out
there in Parliament. Thanks Andy, Steve Henderson farming down at
oh a good afternoon.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
How are you afternoon, Andy?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
I'm not too dead actually, how thing's gone up there?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, it's a beautiful day. It's like twenty three degrees.
Forecasts are high today. Tourists that if you were around town,
there's a real vibe in detail.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, it's been a mintor eight. I think the fact
that they kids to our self has made a however
different the weather.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, but the problem is a sed A scheduled for January.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I won't need round by January it'll be fine. Maybe
not so much a few day's piece, but there's a farmer.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yes, we need absolutely, I mean field day, Southern field
Day's coming around sooner the later. How's everything looking on
the farm though, Are you getting those trees under control?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yep, yep, we've yeah, I spoke last time. We've got
them all cleaned off the lines and got pair all
resurrected and everything's pretty much as it was. We've just
got quite a few piles round. We'll take a bit
of fireway out of the mix and and get them
heaped up and burnt when time permits. But it's probably
just just keeping an eye on in calf kills now,
going into peddocks with Mick. The cap pulled up on them,
(29:52):
so making sure we fenced them and make sure pairs
on the fence and the other The last thing we
want is to go through and have a dose of
that Meca kappa. Yes, it may be worse for them
than Ford trimester, but I suppose it's still a bit
of a risk of losing a fetus. So yeah, yep.
Just keeping next to capa at bay until we burn it,
and I think we'll be back under control another couple
(30:12):
of four weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So you're busy with mating at the moment.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, yep, so we just finished. We'll finish here into
the first three weeks on Saturday. So as a whole,
Matea's been down pretty good. There's always good pub talk
when you talk about submission rates and stuff. But yeah,
where we're on, we're actually about five percent ahead of
last year, and last year was reasonably good. We had
it was eighty one percent submitted in the first three weeks,
(30:38):
so we don't well, we Paige can get ad old chaos,
but other than that year, there's no seeders, were not
too much interventions. So yeah, we're tracking pretty good and
you can you can have as many as submitted as
you want, but it's all about in calf for that
first three weeks. So yeah, long return rates will tell
a story from next week.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Would you say mazing's a stressful time of year? Would
just a matter of It's just a matter of effect
for the time of season.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I often talk to stuff and you talk to a
lot of people about it, thinking are you ready for carving?
And like carving's carving's pros easy, there's nothing else happening
at that time of the year. It's just literally carving.
So yeah, it's right now yet mate, it's not stressful,
it's just time consuming. You know, there's a person there
grabbing cares and you obviously got the tech turning up,
(31:25):
so that's one person tied up there. And you're also
right now we're winning cabs literally right now, you know,
the top and pedics and cultivation, trying to get seed
in the ground. Yeah, there's a lot going on at
the time of the year, and it's just managing what
needs to be done at first and then you get
sticking at third. So yeah, I think the top of
the air the heck of a lot more busy, not
necessarily more stressful, but just busier. And you're just pretty
(31:48):
good at the time management and human air the allocation.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
So ground conditions there are pretty good.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Starting to get better with how you describe that. So yeah,
we're still pretty dead. We haven't had any desk come
off the back of the pair hair, so I suppose
guys and set yourself and will be a bit eaviy
of that, but they probably didn't catch as much rain
as we did during those winds and stuff. So yeah,
we were getting seed in the ground, and we actually
(32:16):
just had to resource some summer turnips. We put some
in three weeks ago Besulto, which has played out at
about eight degrees, so a lot of them rotted. So
we're going to scratch a few more than hopefully today
tomorrow's got them back for febury grading.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So temperatures all around twelve to thirteen degrees at the moment,
as you'd expect.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, and and hindsight TOAs goodhead I know,
and that we were going to have another you know,
two or three weeks of eight eight degrees all temperatures,
we would have never put them in the ground, but
we were sort of on that false rising plane and
then we had that crip come through. So and you've
got to get your summer turnips in reasonably early, so
you've got the turnaround to get you young grass grazed.
We dry off so with this as their last week
(32:56):
this window. So if we don't get them in this week,
we'll you probably grass to grass and we go to
a different trend.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
So how many petics are summer turnips are you putting in?
Speaker 3 (33:04):
We're doing about ten heat tears on one place and
then about fourteen on the other place. So it's just
enough to do about two or three kilos of their
diet for about forty days to push that round about.
And it's also a bit of a regrassing regime. Some
of those petics are bit tired, so it does just
up up your red grassing rates. So and it also
gives a bit of opportunity to do some drain. Is
(33:25):
a bit of development rather than through the winter crop phase,
and you can sort of do it within three or
four months and keep that pedic as good as can be.
So yeah, we've done it for a few years, and
last year we missed out of one farm getting the
turn of turner that was d needed it. So yeah,
we use a lot of things to silver gat, but
turnips is obviously still a very cheap feed and why
(33:46):
you need to keep kre of milking through that Febrius
late January, Debrie.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Would you call it a safety need as such for summer?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I think it is.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
You know, it's a yeah, w sword a year. You
don't need your turnips stuff really well high yielding. You've
got a lot of grass, but you still got that
you know, preheaty you've still got to grow as much
well not necessarily grasped as much drying as you can.
So yes, you've grown all these that you need to eat.
But so you can harvestick grass and put it into
(34:16):
a little put it into onto crop. So yeah, I
don't think that's either a lose by putting turn of in.
But some years you don't need them, but you'll always
make use of that other grass. So it is a
good of strange policy.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Now you've gone away from grass win terrain putting in swedes,
tell us about that, and what are you thinking in
the next season, because you're going against the grain affixing effectively.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, so it was.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Last year's whether just wasn't that what do you call it?
Well for trying to make as much better as we could.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So we ended up.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Putting cropping to try and bridge that gap that we
never had enough to try meta.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
So we put cropping and the.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Kills actually want probably the best they have in a
long long time. And just looking back at what we
were doing, we were making bid it. But the variability
of them have failed. It's quite high, so it could
be you know, you could have some eight and a
half up to maybe teen and a half but your
winter crop, your swedes are pretty consistent. Em So this
year we were going to joint by world work on
breaskers and then we're going to try and sport end
(35:21):
period pretty carving that they'll transition onto grass and bailers
so when they carve down their diets as it would
be when they're milking, and hopefully they'll try and listen
a bit of a bit of a milk fever issues
we had this spring coming off the deck of crop,
and probably transition wasn't as good because we had too
much crop of the eed and we had to try
and get through it. So yeah, you know, change is
(35:41):
always good and if we can change something to make
something better, that'll work out. So yeah, that's what's the
planners this year, so.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Made about I guess she's this year you touched on
milk for you the hell they ranked compared to other seasons.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
At the point in time, you think you're getting bloody
heaps and milk feavor because you're big and the kale
here and there there, But we're only probably teens the
previous years, so as a whole, you know, we might
have had thirty, thirty or forty maybe clinical stuff either
pre carving or post carbon. And yeah, the year before
we might have been you know, thirty odds.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
So yeah, as a whole, not a huge amount.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
But it's still an issue that I think we can
try and get on top of. And you're putting gypsum
in the mix during the springers was yeah, bit of
a night chain or two. So we'll go down next
week too, and yeah be the pollock heuse no fair,
sort of just knocked it on the head like his
dad putting gypsum. So if we can transition in a
bit better and get chipsum in the diet, yeah, hopefully
(36:36):
next spring is looking pretty good.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Good on your stave. I will let you carry on,
but we always appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
No genetic.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Niger one head farms in South Otago between Balcluther and
Milton and joins us. This afternoon, No, it's good afternoon,
blue sky and abundance. It's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
After the andy. It is an absolute Bobby dazzler.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
How good two days in a row. Who would have thought, yeah,
we'll take it.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
We'll take it.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
So things are looking good on the ranch at the moment.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, No, we're looking really good. Hit sheheet, Yeah, just
finished up drinking of first drench on mum all the
lambs yesterday, so it's good and they're they're looking good.
I weighed a few handful heavyes to see how he did,
had drench them, but and the handful of them were
north of twenty five. So hopefully in another month's time
(37:36):
we can we'll be able to yeah, get some heads
off some of them at waning. And yeah, I reckon
the lambs are looking really good, considering I think they
look you know, I sort of felt they looked good
average really on.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
A few people have said that looking at lambs, thinking
they're just a little bit slow due to the weather.
But it's surprising how they yield, especially off man.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, And you know, like hot days
like that, man, you know, lambs will grow is a
bit of fresh green feed underneath him, you know. So yeah,
like weather like this is perfect lamb growing weather. I mean,
we need the grass to keep growing. We sprayed about
nine hectias out earlier in the week for young grass
to go and eat summer last summer crop, and then
(38:21):
you've got another twenty hecties to blow out this afternoon
ready for swedes and fo beets, so you know, the
grass needs to keep going. We're taking a few bit
of the bit of the platform out.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
So you're still a month away from waning more or less.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Uh yeah, well hopefully it will depend on the weather.
I suppose like, well we'll have freezer, us will go,
so that's will go that second week of December and
we usually get talking to buy our drafted, talking to
sending away skim drafting, and then we'll know we might
win some before Christmas. If feeds a bit tight, ideally
(38:59):
would would weigh them of the new year, keep the
lambs growing on their mothers. But we'll just see what
the feed situation's like. And they use these a couple
of mobs, it must have got a bit tight, and
earlier on they're a bit lighter, but most they're using
really good back. So you know, if we can keep locks,
they keep feed underneath them, then they should be able
to keep bilking and keep lambs growing right through year.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
So your covers are looking okay.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, we are. Well you must be
all right because we had kettle kettle out of their
kettle rotations last week cruising around in front of using
lambs just taking tops out of peddicks because it was
getting away us. So it's always a good sign that
you met all hell broke loose there for a bit
and feed took off, thank God for bid. Yeah, well,
(39:45):
dar I say it. We're probably just dry enough. Really,
we could do it that we rain, so we're growing
grass and growing it fast. But you know, typical farmer,
we're not growing it as fast as we could be,
but we're going good like It's it's really hard to complain,
you know, on days like this, this time of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah, certainly makes a difference to the mood after a
few weeks back.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Right, Oh yeah, yeah, but god yeah, you just just
got to get used to seeing trees line everywhere there
and it's just part it's just part of the landscape.
But we'll get on feeding some of them up at
some stage and.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Based on that, notightge have you talked about their Jamie
McKay earlier on in the week. The Southern storm shout
happening at your place, which is next Thursday from three
o'clock onwards. It levels flat, so that's where you are.
So you are halfway between Milton and Bewcluth and now
the Emerson's tiny pub is going to be there. The
Space Spar is going to be intendants as well. The
Milton Lions are on the Barbie Silverfare and farms have
(40:43):
got the meat. The Milton Lion's got a van book
to give people a ride home, mind you. And the
Milton bell Cluth Lawrence area not quite coming to Southland,
but nonetheless get a Carlo together a and Deed's bringing
the coffee and ice cream carts and near the Mcoles
McKay's is in there as well. It's Jamie has described
as a bold hop oil and fused Zealand pills and
brood with the taste of press for lemons and limes,
(41:05):
with a refreshing finish. So it sounds a bit like
a laggertop.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
It's just I haven't heard description yet.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
It was there was.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Well that will go down, yeah, well yeah, there'll be
a few. There'll be a few Macau's as drug. But
you don't don't fear the Spakes bars coming to so
there'll be plenty of gold middle while and summ up
there as well for everybody. So it should be good afternoon.
Well I say, you know, same with Jamie Lockett. There
wasn't my idea, Jamie just ring and looking for a
farm to host it, and yeah, you don't, you don't
(41:38):
say no to this sort of opportunity. So yeah, all
of a sudden, words starting to get out and a
few sponsors turn up and sort of made a call.
Who is a lady locally here? He's got a coffee cart,
So thanks to Ane's In for sponsoring that. So you know,
if if you're if you're not keen on a bed
and coming to have a coffee and ice cream and
we have plenty of non alcoholic refreshments too, and some
(42:01):
good taka and yeah, some some yarns and hopefully it's
a beautiful day like this and we can stand around
in the sun and forget about the fact that we're
falling out on the farm for a few hours.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
How often can you say, though you've got two portable
pubs in your backyard.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Well giver and hint hints the fact that when Jamie
asked me years So, yeah, I can't say much work
getting done in middle in the next week, but that's
all good. That's going to be. It's gonna be a
good after Nona, And like hopefully, hopefully we go a
few people can can find some time to park the
(42:39):
tractors up for a day and we'll half a day
and come come out and have a beer.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah, I don't think we need any more reason to
do that nights after what we've head over the past month.
Like you say, a good opportunity. Everything's provided, just turn
up if you're not keen on a beer, coffee cats here,
a bit of ice cream, a bit of meat on
the barbie as well, So it's all provided. That's the
best part.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
It'll be good. I think the only thing we got
the Porterloo's order. We've got everything ordered. I think the
only thing we haven't tracked down yet. But I've got
a couple of ideas as a big bluetooth speaker so
you can have some tunes in the background.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Well, actually, Jamie McKay has got a massive bluetooth speaker
that he bought, but I don't think he knew how
to work it, so we might have a bit of
an ischey the so you might have to track one
down yourself.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Oh well, if he brings it down, I'm sure I
can get it going. So yeah, like that's a minor
detail to be fair exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
I'm just sitting in the yard about to heat the
head out of the yard and the tractor in most
and baylage which has been ready to mow for a
wee bit now, so it'll be good to get it
on the ground. And then, like I say, I've got
some pets of spurry out for beaten swedes and kale.
And then the next job after that is they have
a tidy up around the yard, get rid of all
the old scrap, midle and all the crack that's lying
(43:49):
around and tidy to place up and look respectable.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
So it's almost like you're having one of those orders,
but you're doing it for a good reason.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Right Wow. Yeah, well I've got one of those orders
coming up to it. There you go about a week
before Christmas of all times, but I haven't. I'm ninety
nine percent of the ladea with my audit stuff. I
just need to do a few we detail things. Yeah,
this is I don't know. It depends on who you
listen to. Whether it's a hundred or or three or
(44:16):
four hundred people coming next week, I'd better get the
place tidy up and make a good impressure nhe yeah,
the more.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Than miria and nights. Hey will that you carry on,
looking forward to catching out next week and thanks for
putting your hand up much appreciated, and enjoy the ovo.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
No no worries, and yeah, I hope everyone's getting all
right out there and you're looking forward to sending good
crowd turn up next week, fill some mutes up, get
on up here and make sure it's a sober driver
and we'll have a good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
That's Niger would here the host of the Southern Spring Shout,
happening next Thursday at his farm between bar Cluth and Milton.
Stay tuned for details around that event. It's going to
be a doozy as well. That's us over and done
for the morning. My name's Andy Muher. This has been
the best of the muster. Enjoy the weekend, go to
the abs
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Then
Last night.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
A very good morning and welcome along to the best
of the muster, a collaboration of interviews. It took our
attention during a busy week here at Hokanu e HQ.
My name's Andy Muller. Thanks to your company. We're starting
off the hour by chatting with Greg Erickson, formerly a
boy Mumu these days working in Canada where he's involved
in the agricultural industry, telling us about prices in Canada,
(00:27):
especially with cattle. We talk about them being good in
New Zealand where the next level over where he's based,
and the change of government as well what it's meant
for farming over where he is now. Shawn Mylloy, Sheffield
peak farmer recently elected to the New Zealand Pork Board,
telling us how the pork industry is looking ahead of
Christmas and Sean thinks generally things are looking on the
(00:47):
up for the industry. Mark Patterson, Minister for Eral Communities,
joined us this week to talk about the weather events
of the South from a month ago, what's changed since then,
what needs to change and the big question around rural connectivity.
This thing cannot be ignored, especially the way that three
G is being phased out, but continues to be the
(01:09):
saving grace, certainly when the other networks aren't working. Steve
Henderson of Abadu. We catch up with Steve O to
see how things are going on the farm there is
he's busy with AI and just in general. What's he
doing as far as his winter crops given that he
went away from the grass wintering system to swedes. What's
his thinking for next season? And Nigel ward Head. Nigel's
(01:31):
holding the Southern Storm Shout next Thursday at his farm
between Balcluther and Milton. He tells us what we can
expect on the day and why he thinks you need
to be there. So, without further ado, we'll start the
your with Greg Erickson. You're listening to the best of
the Muster.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
The Musters on the Farm brought to you by Southland
District Council working together for a better Southland.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
We're away over to Canada this afternoon on the Muster.
Former Waymomie resident Greg Erickson now resides over there near
the town of Millet, where he's involved in the farming industries,
driving harvesters, tracks, you name it, that's what Greg's up to.
Good afternoon, Greg, thanks for joining us once again.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Oh a problem, Mandy, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
How's everything over in Millet today?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Hi?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Everything is pretty good. Here's nice not it's plus six.
We're looking pretty sunny for the middle of November fortnight.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So it's pretty mild for the time of year. It's
what you normally expect. Give us an idea what temperatures
should normally be.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Wow, it's a wide ranging window. It can be minus
twenty five for some year. It can be plus ten,
plus fifteen. So it's it's it's the flip of the coin.
You might get hot, you might get cold. It just
you just never know.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Is that in South Yes? Yep, Well so those getting
cold the end isn't it?
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Is that in a cool off? Yeahstanic call off. But
it's not too bad yet. It's we know the cold's coming,
but it's you know, we take take the good what
we can.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Does it become mind over meta when it gets that
nippy or you just deal with it?
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Nah? No, No. After a certain point, especially when it's
thirty below or forty below, and especially with some winds,
you you can't be outside too long or frost white's
kicking in and you're you're starting to physically hurt, and
then when you get inside a warm up, it's still
hurting and you're you could be in trouble.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Now, you've just come through the harvest season, you've recently
been on a family holiday to the States. As far
as the harvest, so how did it go?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Harvest was excellence. We had a pretty good amount of
rain up until July, a little bit August, and then
it just was dry, so we had perfect harvesting conditions
for about three or four weeks longer than we needed.
So it was awesome. And our yields were really good
because of the rain earlier on the season, and we're
probably ten to fifteen percent up on all of our crops.
(04:17):
It's seemed fantastic.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So it's a reasonably buoyant mood in the sector at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It is.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
It is. The prices are a bit of a drag,
but the excess yield is helping cover the losses.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Now you're explaining the prices before, and obviously we work
in kilos and tons over here, but you guys and Canada,
it's all about the imperial system of a goodness, say
you're trying to figure out bushels and the likes.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Yeah. So well, currently the price of week per bushel
was about seven dollars and the Canadian norse, and if
you converte all that to tons, it's around three hundred
bucks a ton. It's not great, and it's complicated because
the big the big guys who sell the grain overseas,
(05:10):
they they buy and sell them times. But the farmers
they see yields, they're in bushels, so there's constant conversion
and frustration.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So they're working in tons, the big players, as you
put them, because that's what the overseas markets dictate.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I guess though the only one as far as I know,
the only folks who use bushels are the farmers in
North America, but there are plenty of them, so that's
what we use. But yeah, the big guys h use
definitely use metric.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So you're talking bushels, and when do you start working
in talent and the works. I mean, you talk about
your tracks, some big rigs on the road over there.
I do say, you're not dealing in bushels when it
comes to tear weight.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
No, no, no, that's all in kilograms and tons on trucks,
hang on, that's all in kilograms and tons on trucks
in Canada. If you go to the States, you're down
to pound. So it gets complicated.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Again. This sounds bloody confusing. Good on you, America.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yeah, it's it's a challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And then you work in kilometers in Canada, but you
go over the border, it's all in miles.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
That's correct. Yes, And a lot of the vehicles have
both on the dash because you know, you across the border
or the maid half made in Canada and the other
half of the vehicles made in the States, and they
bounced back and forth. So they've got to got to
accommodate both systems.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Now take you You get used to that over time though, it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Does, yeah, you do. It's not as simple as it sounds,
but it does take time and it you can be
figured out.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So what about this shoes facing Canadian farming. At the moment, Greg,
we're hearing about terrace. The terraffs from America regarding New
Zealand beef have been dropped over the weekends. So it's
a very reactive, reactive move by the American governmenthich seems
to happen more often than not. But of course you've
got a new Prime Minister there Mark Kearney, who just
got the job a couple of months ago. How's he
(07:10):
viewed by the farming community.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Well, he's seems to be viewed positively. He's certainly an
improvement on the previous Prome Minister, Justin Trudeau in terms
of however, infuse them, especially in the farming community or
even Elberta. However, everyone is sort of just waiting to
see if he'll what he'll do that will make him
that much better. At the moment, he's well, he's playing
(07:39):
you know, chess with trump and he's I don't know
if he's losing or not, but they're playing and it's
just sort of back and forth and then comes I
think it's come to a bit of a standstill in
the last two months, so I'm not sure where it's
going to go. But Kennie, I think is definitely better
than the last month.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Is it a case would be careful what you wish
for though playing mind games with the Trumpster?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Absolutely, you never know what's gonna happen. As you've seen
with the beef thing. It's just he had to cave
for well whatever the reason was, but he's caved and
now how long is this positive gonna laugh?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
You know, but at least you've got a PM over there.
He seems to recognize farming unlike Trudeau.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, he definitely recognizes farming. He definitely recognizes the amount
of money and the impact the industry can have, and
he's you know, he's for it, and he's not ignoring
any problems that we have. So no, I guess that's
as much as you can ask for at this point.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Now read mead prices here in New Zealand, they're on
a hot industry highs at the moment. What are we
seeing over there? And for beef pipe prices in particular,
they sound rather hot.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Oh, they're definitely high. Still, they weren't coming down slightly
due to I'm not going sure why, but they were
coming down about three four weeks ago they dropped. So
if I wanted to buy a heifer, eight months old heifer,
about two months ago it was thirty five hundred bucks,
and then three weeks ago it was only three thousand bucks.
(09:16):
But I think it may have climbed up a little
bit if the tariffs on the beef have dropped, But
I'm not sure if that's shooting Canady yet, so they
haven't got back in the swing of things since the holiday.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
See this sounds like bigger fluctuations in the sheer market
and we're only talking live stock.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Yeah, it was a very big drop, so that's why
I didn't buy before a holiday. So I'm not sure
what they're going at right now, but we'll just see
what happens come tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
What about sheep prices land prices around where? You Agreegord?
There's not many of them about.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Oh, there are none about. I mean sorry, there are
some about, so if you go a couple of miles
west of me, you can find a few sheep, but
in terms of a market, there isn't one. They just
if you want to go buy one, you can go
buy one, but there's no markets per se.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, certainly interesting to see what the farming landscapes over
there compared to New Zealand. Greg, Hey, we'll leave it there.
Always appreciate your time on the muster and wrap up
and stay warm.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, thanks, Hendy.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Sean mylawyer, is a pig farmer based up at Sheffield
and Canterbury and joins us this afternoon on the muster.
He is our pig farming corresponded Sean, good afternoon and
welcome to the muster once again.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Good Eddie, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, firstly, congratulations as well. You've just been elected to
the New Zealand port Board.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Yep, put my name forward for that and hopefully it's
some barely to the industry.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, what was the driver for doing that? What made
you decide this is my time?
Speaker 5 (10:57):
I've been involved with the politics at the end of
Trooper quite a long time now, and I just felt
right to step up with who was so that the
fellow that was stepping away, And yeah, it felt like
I was finally ready to take that step up. I
do try to enjoy trying to take on the government
(11:19):
and get good rules for farmers so that we can
or farm under a preasonable set of rules and see
what we do and show everybody how well we do.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Now we've spoken to you over the past couple of years,
short and the struggles of naywork and the likes being
involved with the industry now up in the top tier
as such, are you having for a bit more leeway
and that respect.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Yeah, I don't know whether that just being up there
will We'll open up so many more doors than what
we're already got. Yeah, it will certainly mean that you're
you're involved in those conversations, which will be nice. But yeah,
it depends on the government of the time. I know
how much excess and how much time they want to
give you.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So the government at the moment. We've talked about this previously,
and ironically last time we spoke, I think the next
day the recommendations around seal creates came out.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Yeah, you think that means I've got a bit of
that for us, Sandy.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It makes you wonder that just going to DV, what
are you doing in the background. You're changing the bearing
or something.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Oh yeah, madam, just doing a little bit of mateenance,
just chanding a shed ground sorrow.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I didn't realize that's picking.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Up on the moro.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh no, that's brilliant. It's cool multitasking. A lot of
people wrecking males can't do that.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
I struggle.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
So the situation up there in Sheffield, how's it been
for the season?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Windy?
Speaker 5 (12:41):
It would be one way to describe it so far. Yeah,
really really windy. So it had a few cropspins burned
off a little bit due to the high winds. We
didn't get hammered like Southend or North Canterbury, thankfully, So
we escaped pretty easy, a little bit of ten off
and stuff like that, and there was a bit of
hail came through just over the weekend, so we escaped
(13:03):
it up here touchwood this time. So hopefully we don't
get that. But I'm not going talked to many yet
to see what it means to them, but I imagine
a few crops are taken, a bit of a hammering,
just a bit of a bugger.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Now, we had these catastrophic winds down here almost a
month ago. Have you experienced anything like that or it's
just Northwest is doing their thing over the season.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
We are here at the farm. It's a real windy
spot anywhere in the throw to the Waimakerari River, so
just where the farmers we caught quite high wind. So
it's I guess it's what you call a typical year.
Except normally a typical year maybe two three weeks match
of quite strong winds in the change of season. It's
just gone on and on. So yeah, it's been a
(13:49):
bit of an extra windy season really.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And of course your farm there sure, and you've got
four hundred breeding cells you also grow your own barley
as feed for the pigs, and the affluent coming from
the using that as fertilizer on the irrigated land as well,
So you're feeling you're filling quite a few of the
boxes of text there.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Mate, it's great to have our own land to make
use of that, because when you use as a pig farmer,
if you're not putting on your own land, you don't
get any value for it. So it's really nice to
do that. And with the influence you just get all
those out of nutrients that you don't keep with sthetic fertilizer.
So yeah, there's nothing nothing makes a crop look better
than some peggy influent on there, that's for sure. So
(14:31):
really nice to have that circle go round.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
And I dare say there'll be plenty of that flowing
as well.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
There's a fear bort of a constant supply which is nice.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, that's for sure. Now, as far as the season,
they're like, what would your rainfall tell you be per year?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
There?
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Would you say somewhere between seven eight hundred dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
That's not too bad for Kennedy. Your things taken into
account of what a.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Thought yeah, I know we're pretty good a so we're
up close to the mountains, we get a bit and
always spiller over often to that a little bit of
a a wee bit of.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
A boost and it's a little.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Green button that we get to fort two when it
does get a bit too dry.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So we're pretty lucky that we are.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Now we're speaking just before you were saying there's only
sixty five serious peak farms as such at New Zealand.
Now everybody has a couple of pigs on the side.
I remember back in the day when I left school,
we had a pig there we were fattening up. Had
to go and give us swedes every day, plus the
scraps from their house. But generally it just shows how
it's not a big farming system here in New Zealand.
(15:38):
I suppose.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
No, but the guys that are here we do.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
We do work out quite a few pigs, so I
guess numbers wise, yeah, if you look at the amount
of meat that we put out, we are quite as
quite large and saying that also we don't have a
huge year in the market, down to about thirty of
the market, so yeah, I guess the industry just reflects
(16:04):
that and it sort of tens to be. It's just larger,
more serious players remaining in the industry.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And we've talked about this before as well. The threat
that imports pose with animal welfare codes well blow our own.
But to pick farmers in New Zealand, do they have
issues getting rid of their stock?
Speaker 5 (16:24):
The last couple of years, it's been being pretty good.
It generally to be seems to be seasonal, so normally
end of January, if it's going to get pretty tight
and pretty tough, it's normally there for about sort of
four or five months.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
It's normally when our price will drop.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I was ready, sorry, Sean. I was reading something the
other day talking about the Resource Management Act and its
effect on the pork industry, saying that it's just like anything,
it's making anything and everything harder when you just want
to get out there and do the farming. Are you
striking any issues off there? May?
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Yeah, it's just a real pain in the backside. And
being a smaller industry and not many of us, it's
not well understood what we do, and the Council send
out of these revolving door of people, so you're constantly
re educating them on what you do, so it's quite frustrating.
And of course for indoor producers particularly you know, or
(17:23):
even outdoor guys, you've still got to put barns and
structures up, so you've got to deal with your environmental
guys and then your local council as well, so you're
dealing with two lots there. And yeah, it's just just
a complicated nightmare. It just costs so much money when
you want to do something there.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So you've pretty much got e Can on speed dial.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I wish. Yeah, you need to keep close to them.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But in general, though, how would you rank the pork
industry in New Zealand out of ten?
Speaker 5 (17:55):
For ours?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Just for performance in general, just the vibe, but the
industry as such.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Look, we're rocking along pretty good. I guess there were
probably I would say Ana can't speak for everybody, but yeah,
things are things are going along. Prices are good, Yeah,
just as some of that regulatory stuff was was better
and easier and less expensive than would be really good.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Getting young people unto the industry is that an issue?
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Definitely? Yeah, yep, Because we're small. People don't know what
it's about. I never bring a person and a person
never visits the farm and then comes away and says,
you know, they're always like, wow, that was not what
I thought. That was just amazing, and they're just blown
away by the technology using. I mean a lot of
people's perception of pigs, like you said, one or two
(18:45):
in a backyard and a bit of a muckypn And
we traveled to scraps over the not all the ventilation
systems and automotive feedding systems and plastic floorings and pumps
and you know, there's just so much to it. It's
really complex. That's not what people think. So it is
(19:06):
really nice when you show people around and then they
just come away with, well, you know, there's a lot
more going on here.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Well it looks at you guys that.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
You know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Certainly one of those things, but look anyway, Sean will
leave it there. It sounds as though the New Zealand
Pork Industries and good hands and once again gratulations on
going on to the New Zealand Pork Board and is
here is hoping your boy Raiser gets things right against
Wales on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Hey yeah, made he needs of bloody step it up,
doesn't he?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And that's coming from a died in the wall cantapory
and we'll leave it there short. Always appreciate your time.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Come on, Eddie.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Thanks mate, Thanks to the South and Little Support Trust.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
We're catching it with different individuals involved with farming sectors
down here in the South of course, and association with
Community Trust South. This afternoon we are catching up with
Mark Patterson. He is a Minister for Rural Communities. Mark,
Good afternoon, Great a chat. It's been a while.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
Good afternoon, Andy, yep, good to be on.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
So about a month on from the events that occurred
as far as the win situation down here in the South, Mark,
when you reflect back on those four weeks, it's certainly
showing there's a big task ahead.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
Yeah. Well, I mean, firstly, it was a really big
event in terms of how widespread the damage was with
the south coast of south Under right up through in
the cloture and then you know there's been a gap
through the middle of the island and then hit hard
again through Harnui and Kakoras. So yeah, very widespread.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I take it the power situation has been resolved.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
Now, yeah, to the best of my knowledge, and I
mean it's been an incredible efforts from power It, particularly
in those early days to get things up and running,
and the crews that came in to help them from
Waitaki and Central Targo and the like as well at
Kulan Task. But you know, even then, you know, we
(21:14):
had people out of without power ten twelve days, which
is pretty debilitating.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
So when we reflect back on those events of four
weeks ago, Mark, there are a number of things that
came to the four We'll start off with this straightaway
being rural connectivity. I'm sure you guys are pushing for
this up in parliament, but the fact we had to
rely on three G to get one bar on our
cell phones and this three G network is being disestablished,
it's a big concern.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
It is a big concern, and I think that that
was the biggest lesson, just the fragility of our rural connectivity.
And you know, we actually had one New Zealand and
here yesterday sort of talking through the bolstering of their networks,
and you know, you get these sort of soothing sounds
from corporate headquarters, but you know, when presh come to
(22:01):
shove and we're under real pressure. There was people without
connectivity for quite some time and that was the feed
that got that was the most abilitating, but not knowing
what was happening, and whilst the emergency management was pumping
out huge amounts of information, people just simply weren't able
to get it. And it was said world stuff actually
(22:23):
at times. So we've got to get much much more
resilient in that network.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, arguably parts of the Third world would have better
connectivity than what we experienced. And if we're going to
have to rely on four G n FIG going forward,
there's going to have to be serious, serious conversations had
regarding rural.
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Yeah, well they're giving us, as I say, all sorts
of siving sounds that the four G will be equivalents in
terms of coverage, but there is some question then in
terms of network bandwards that I would say that the
most underestimated response and or toll on this response as
(23:02):
radio and the hock and fantastic yourself, Chetty. You know,
time and time again we're hearing that that was the lifeline,
that was the one avenue people had to get information.
So we really owe your data gratitude, and as policy makers,
we've got to make sure we recognize that Sam and
Gabriel and so we're going to make sure we sort
(23:24):
of fire our radio network as well.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Based on that mark, I think more than anything, this
brings to the four that people don't really have a
plan B in place as far as a survival pack.
I mean, we think back to the COVID times and
goodness me, how much toilet paper and the likes are
left over from that day and age. But it's all
about having a plan be in place. Do you think
we're really up to the spit up to pace as
far as having a plan B in case of an emergency.
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Well, there's some real lessons there wasn't there. And I mean,
you know, we can look at the top down stuff
from the government, but I think in terms of the
just an individual preparedness that a business preparedness se many.
You know, let's be honest, theory farmers didn't have a
generator capacity or access to a generator even sheds wide
up for a generator, putting massive pressure on actually a
(24:13):
volunteer network to keep them going. And that's a lesson
that I'm sure that we'll be learned and you know,
we'll be followed up on by the companies. At a
community level, has every community got a facility that's got
access to a generator and starlink or some sort of
(24:34):
you know, resilience built into it that everyone in the
community knows they can go there to you know, to
change their phones or you know, get information or whatever
it might be. So there's a whole number of layers
to this that we've got to take into account. Because
the big question that we keep getting asked, you know,
imagine if this was you know, the fault line going,
(24:54):
you know, and we didn't have roading access and things
like that on top of this. So I think we've
got to be much more prepared at a number of levels.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
As far as funds from the government. Southern District Mayor
of Scott has been critical saying for the amount of
GDB produced by such a low amount of the population,
there should be more on the ground here for response services.
Would you agree with that?
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Well, you put me on the spot there, Andy, But yeah,
I mean it's been a pretty modest contributional though, you know,
und fifty or seventy thousand. I think all up, we've
got to be careful here. You know, this is not
to bail out businesses, you know, it's of businesses to
protect themselves or build resilience into their system. But where
(25:43):
we can help at a community level, whether that's through
support for the Real Support Trust or Merrior Relief funds,
we should be doing that with there's some community good
element to it and some wellbeing stuff here, and those
groups too exceedingly well as we know, doing great work.
But it's a hard balance to strike. But yeah, I
(26:04):
think Robs, you know, he's got a point, and I
think our systems need upgraded too. I mean it was
actually getting the money out of the door was pretty clunky,
which created some anxiety for organizations that were just trying
to do some really good stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Passforce workers. Have they been mentioned at all mark regarding
their recovery.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Tasa's key We yes.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
So I went up and saw them in action up
in Hernui. They're in negotiations to come down both to
Kluth and Southland, putting a bit of a stretch on
their resources as well. But and I know the Rural
Support Trust and the Real Advisory Groups are looking at
how they might be deploy those resources. But they are
(26:49):
really good addition into our recovery toolcat as a country,
mainly ex service personnel, they're all trained up, they've got
their health and safety that sell tickets for like so,
but you know it's inequity and how to deploy them to,
you know, people that may have been most badly if impacted.
(27:11):
But we really are encouraged. We're really pushing on the
safety side of things. You know that missage cannot get
through enough. These trees down and still under load. They're
still dangerous if they get people that, which frankly is
most of us haven't got the skills to deal with
that sort of dangerous tree. So, you know, really encouraging
(27:34):
people to get the professionals to forestry gangs that have
come out of the forest to help get them to
assess the trees first, work out what's safe to what's not,
Get the heavy gear, get the specialist gear, get the
people that know what they're doing to do the heavy stuff,
and then you know, we can clean up the rest
of the family.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
With some farmers. I've spoken to Marke and talking about
a year being in recovery mode.
Speaker 7 (27:59):
What are you here, Well, that'll be true. I mean
some of the properties, you know, it's heart wrenching to
see and of course this has happened at such a
busy time of the year, so it could be worse
in that regard. So a lot of the stuff said
to be parked up and just worked around for now.
But some of that's not a bad thing because there's
a lot of danger in some of those fallen or
(28:20):
a half fallen tree, so it's you know where you
can just work around it. But yeah, it's going to
be a long, long haul and that's where you know
the Royal Support Trust come in because they're there for
the long haul helping farmers through these events.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Mark Patterson, Minister for Veral Communities, Thanks to your time
on the muster and keep out the good work out
there in Parliament. Thanks Andy, Steve Henderson farming down at
oh a good afternoon.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
How are you afternoon, Andy?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
I'm not too dead actually, how thing's gone up there?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, it's a beautiful day. It's like twenty three degrees.
Forecasts are high today. Tourists that if you were around town,
there's a real vibe in detail.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, it's been a mintor eight. I think the fact
that they kids to our self has made a however
different the weather.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, but the problem is a sed A scheduled for January.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I won't need round by January it'll be fine. Maybe
not so much a few day's piece, but there's a farmer.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yes, we need absolutely, I mean field day, Southern field
Day's coming around sooner the later. How's everything looking on
the farm though, Are you getting those trees under control?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yep, yep, we've yeah, I spoke last time. We've got
them all cleaned off the lines and got pair all
resurrected and everything's pretty much as it was. We've just
got quite a few piles round. We'll take a bit
of fireway out of the mix and and get them
heaped up and burnt when time permits. But it's probably
just just keeping an eye on in calf kills now,
going into peddocks with Mick. The cap pulled up on them,
(29:52):
so making sure we fenced them and make sure pairs
on the fence and the other The last thing we
want is to go through and have a dose of
that Meca kappa. Yes, it may be worse for them
than Ford trimester, but I suppose it's still a bit
of a risk of losing a fetus. So yeah, yep.
Just keeping next to capa at bay until we burn it,
and I think we'll be back under control another couple
(30:12):
of four weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So you're busy with mating at the moment.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, yep, so we just finished. We'll finish here into
the first three weeks on Saturday. So as a whole,
Matea's been down pretty good. There's always good pub talk
when you talk about submission rates and stuff. But yeah,
where we're on, we're actually about five percent ahead of
last year, and last year was reasonably good. We had
it was eighty one percent submitted in the first three weeks,
(30:38):
so we don't well, we Paige can get ad old chaos,
but other than that year, there's no seeders, were not
too much interventions. So yeah, we're tracking pretty good and
you can you can have as many as submitted as
you want, but it's all about in calf for that
first three weeks. So yeah, long return rates will tell
a story from next week.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Would you say mazing's a stressful time of year? Would
just a matter of It's just a matter of effect
for the time of season.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I often talk to stuff and you talk to a
lot of people about it, thinking are you ready for carving?
And like carving's carving's pros easy, there's nothing else happening
at that time of the year. It's just literally carving.
So yeah, it's right now yet mate, it's not stressful,
it's just time consuming. You know, there's a person there
grabbing cares and you obviously got the tech turning up,
(31:25):
so that's one person tied up there. And you're also
right now we're winning cabs literally right now, you know,
the top and pedics and cultivation, trying to get seed
in the ground. Yeah, there's a lot going on at
the time of the year, and it's just managing what
needs to be done at first and then you get
sticking at third. So yeah, I think the top of
the air the heck of a lot more busy, not
necessarily more stressful, but just busier. And you're just pretty
(31:48):
good at the time management and human air the allocation.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
So ground conditions there are pretty good.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Starting to get better with how you describe that. So yeah,
we're still pretty dead. We haven't had any desk come
off the back of the pair hair, so I suppose
guys and set yourself and will be a bit eaviy
of that, but they probably didn't catch as much rain
as we did during those winds and stuff. So yeah,
we were getting seed in the ground, and we actually
(32:16):
just had to resource some summer turnips. We put some
in three weeks ago Besulto, which has played out at
about eight degrees, so a lot of them rotted. So
we're going to scratch a few more than hopefully today
tomorrow's got them back for febury grading.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So temperatures all around twelve to thirteen degrees at the moment,
as you'd expect.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, and and hindsight TOAs goodhead I know,
and that we were going to have another you know,
two or three weeks of eight eight degrees all temperatures,
we would have never put them in the ground, but
we were sort of on that false rising plane and
then we had that crip come through. So and you've
got to get your summer turnips in reasonably early, so
you've got the turnaround to get you young grass grazed.
We dry off so with this as their last week
(32:56):
this window. So if we don't get them in this week,
we'll you probably grass to grass and we go to
a different trend.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
So how many petics are summer turnips are you putting in?
Speaker 3 (33:04):
We're doing about ten heat tears on one place and
then about fourteen on the other place. So it's just
enough to do about two or three kilos of their
diet for about forty days to push that round about.
And it's also a bit of a regrassing regime. Some
of those petics are bit tired, so it does just
up up your red grassing rates. So and it also
gives a bit of opportunity to do some drain. Is
(33:25):
a bit of development rather than through the winter crop phase,
and you can sort of do it within three or
four months and keep that pedic as good as can be.
So yeah, we've done it for a few years, and
last year we missed out of one farm getting the
turn of turner that was d needed it. So yeah,
we use a lot of things to silver gat, but
turnips is obviously still a very cheap feed and why
(33:46):
you need to keep kre of milking through that Febrius
late January, Debrie.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Would you call it a safety need as such for summer?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I think it is.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
You know, it's a yeah, w sword a year. You
don't need your turnips stuff really well high yielding. You've
got a lot of grass, but you still got that
you know, preheaty you've still got to grow as much
well not necessarily grasped as much drying as you can.
So yes, you've grown all these that you need to eat.
But so you can harvestick grass and put it into
(34:16):
a little put it into onto crop. So yeah, I
don't think that's either a lose by putting turn of in.
But some years you don't need them, but you'll always
make use of that other grass. So it is a
good of strange policy.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Now you've gone away from grass win terrain putting in swedes,
tell us about that, and what are you thinking in
the next season, because you're going against the grain affixing effectively.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, so it was.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Last year's whether just wasn't that what do you call it?
Well for trying to make as much better as we could.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So we ended up.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Putting cropping to try and bridge that gap that we
never had enough to try meta.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
So we put cropping and the.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Kills actually want probably the best they have in a
long long time. And just looking back at what we
were doing, we were making bid it. But the variability
of them have failed. It's quite high, so it could
be you know, you could have some eight and a
half up to maybe teen and a half but your
winter crop, your swedes are pretty consistent. Em So this
year we were going to joint by world work on
breaskers and then we're going to try and sport end
(35:21):
period pretty carving that they'll transition onto grass and bailers
so when they carve down their diets as it would
be when they're milking, and hopefully they'll try and listen
a bit of a bit of a milk fever issues
we had this spring coming off the deck of crop,
and probably transition wasn't as good because we had too
much crop of the eed and we had to try
and get through it. So yeah, you know, change is
(35:41):
always good and if we can change something to make
something better, that'll work out. So yeah, that's what's the
planners this year, so.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Made about I guess she's this year you touched on
milk for you the hell they ranked compared to other seasons.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
At the point in time, you think you're getting bloody
heaps and milk feavor because you're big and the kale
here and there there, But we're only probably teens the
previous years, so as a whole, you know, we might
have had thirty, thirty or forty maybe clinical stuff either
pre carving or post carbon. And yeah, the year before
we might have been you know, thirty odds.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
So yeah, as a whole, not a huge amount.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
But it's still an issue that I think we can
try and get on top of. And you're putting gypsum
in the mix during the springers was yeah, bit of
a night chain or two. So we'll go down next
week too, and yeah be the pollock heuse no fair,
sort of just knocked it on the head like his
dad putting gypsum. So if we can transition in a
bit better and get chipsum in the diet, yeah, hopefully
(36:36):
next spring is looking pretty good.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Good on your stave. I will let you carry on,
but we always appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
No genetic.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Niger one head farms in South Otago between Balcluther and
Milton and joins us. This afternoon, No, it's good afternoon,
blue sky and abundance. It's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
After the andy. It is an absolute Bobby dazzler.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
How good two days in a row. Who would have thought, yeah,
we'll take it.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
We'll take it.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
So things are looking good on the ranch at the moment.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, No, we're looking really good. Hit sheheet, Yeah, just
finished up drinking of first drench on mum all the
lambs yesterday, so it's good and they're they're looking good.
I weighed a few handful heavyes to see how he did,
had drench them, but and the handful of them were
north of twenty five. So hopefully in another month's time
(37:36):
we can we'll be able to yeah, get some heads
off some of them at waning. And yeah, I reckon
the lambs are looking really good, considering I think they
look you know, I sort of felt they looked good
average really on.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
A few people have said that looking at lambs, thinking
they're just a little bit slow due to the weather.
But it's surprising how they yield, especially off man.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, And you know, like hot days
like that, man, you know, lambs will grow is a
bit of fresh green feed underneath him, you know. So yeah,
like weather like this is perfect lamb growing weather. I mean,
we need the grass to keep growing. We sprayed about
nine hectias out earlier in the week for young grass
to go and eat summer last summer crop, and then
(38:21):
you've got another twenty hecties to blow out this afternoon
ready for swedes and fo beets, so you know, the
grass needs to keep going. We're taking a few bit
of the bit of the platform out.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
So you're still a month away from waning more or less.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Uh yeah, well hopefully it will depend on the weather.
I suppose like, well we'll have freezer, us will go,
so that's will go that second week of December and
we usually get talking to buy our drafted, talking to
sending away skim drafting, and then we'll know we might
win some before Christmas. If feeds a bit tight, ideally
(38:59):
would would weigh them of the new year, keep the
lambs growing on their mothers. But we'll just see what
the feed situation's like. And they use these a couple
of mobs, it must have got a bit tight, and
earlier on they're a bit lighter, but most they're using
really good back. So you know, if we can keep locks,
they keep feed underneath them, then they should be able
to keep bilking and keep lambs growing right through year.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
So your covers are looking okay.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, we are. Well you must be
all right because we had kettle kettle out of their
kettle rotations last week cruising around in front of using
lambs just taking tops out of peddicks because it was
getting away us. So it's always a good sign that
you met all hell broke loose there for a bit
and feed took off, thank God for bid. Yeah, well,
(39:45):
dar I say it. We're probably just dry enough. Really,
we could do it that we rain, so we're growing
grass and growing it fast. But you know, typical farmer,
we're not growing it as fast as we could be,
but we're going good like It's it's really hard to complain,
you know, on days like this, this time of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah, certainly makes a difference to the mood after a
few weeks back.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Right, Oh yeah, yeah, but god yeah, you just just
got to get used to seeing trees line everywhere there
and it's just part it's just part of the landscape.
But we'll get on feeding some of them up at
some stage and.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Based on that, notightge have you talked about their Jamie
McKay earlier on in the week. The Southern storm shout
happening at your place, which is next Thursday from three
o'clock onwards. It levels flat, so that's where you are.
So you are halfway between Milton and Bewcluth and now
the Emerson's tiny pub is going to be there. The
Space Spar is going to be intendants as well. The
Milton Lions are on the Barbie Silverfare and farms have
(40:43):
got the meat. The Milton Lion's got a van book
to give people a ride home, mind you. And the
Milton bell Cluth Lawrence area not quite coming to Southland,
but nonetheless get a Carlo together a and Deed's bringing
the coffee and ice cream carts and near the Mcoles
McKay's is in there as well. It's Jamie has described
as a bold hop oil and fused Zealand pills and
brood with the taste of press for lemons and limes,
(41:05):
with a refreshing finish. So it sounds a bit like
a laggertop.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
It's just I haven't heard description yet.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
It was there was.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Well that will go down, yeah, well yeah, there'll be
a few. There'll be a few Macau's as drug. But
you don't don't fear the Spakes bars coming to so
there'll be plenty of gold middle while and summ up
there as well for everybody. So it should be good afternoon.
Well I say, you know, same with Jamie Lockett. There
wasn't my idea, Jamie just ring and looking for a
farm to host it, and yeah, you don't, you don't
(41:38):
say no to this sort of opportunity. So yeah, all
of a sudden, words starting to get out and a
few sponsors turn up and sort of made a call.
Who is a lady locally here? He's got a coffee cart,
So thanks to Ane's In for sponsoring that. So you know,
if if you're if you're not keen on a bed
and coming to have a coffee and ice cream and
we have plenty of non alcoholic refreshments too, and some
(42:01):
good taka and yeah, some some yarns and hopefully it's
a beautiful day like this and we can stand around
in the sun and forget about the fact that we're
falling out on the farm for a few hours.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
How often can you say, though you've got two portable
pubs in your backyard.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Well giver and hint hints the fact that when Jamie
asked me years So, yeah, I can't say much work
getting done in middle in the next week, but that's
all good. That's going to be. It's gonna be a
good after Nona, And like hopefully, hopefully we go a
few people can can find some time to park the
(42:39):
tractors up for a day and we'll half a day
and come come out and have a beer.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah, I don't think we need any more reason to
do that nights after what we've head over the past month.
Like you say, a good opportunity. Everything's provided, just turn
up if you're not keen on a beer, coffee cats here,
a bit of ice cream, a bit of meat on
the barbie as well, So it's all provided. That's the
best part.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
It'll be good. I think the only thing we got
the Porterloo's order. We've got everything ordered. I think the
only thing we haven't tracked down yet. But I've got
a couple of ideas as a big bluetooth speaker so
you can have some tunes in the background.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Well, actually, Jamie McKay has got a massive bluetooth speaker
that he bought, but I don't think he knew how
to work it, so we might have a bit of
an ischey the so you might have to track one
down yourself.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Oh well, if he brings it down, I'm sure I
can get it going. So yeah, like that's a minor
detail to be fair exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
I'm just sitting in the yard about to heat the
head out of the yard and the tractor in most
and baylage which has been ready to mow for a
wee bit now, so it'll be good to get it
on the ground. And then, like I say, I've got
some pets of spurry out for beaten swedes and kale.
And then the next job after that is they have
a tidy up around the yard, get rid of all
the old scrap, midle and all the crack that's lying
(43:49):
around and tidy to place up and look respectable.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
So it's almost like you're having one of those orders,
but you're doing it for a good reason.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Right Wow. Yeah, well I've got one of those orders
coming up to it. There you go about a week
before Christmas of all times, but I haven't. I'm ninety
nine percent of the ladea with my audit stuff. I
just need to do a few we detail things. Yeah,
this is I don't know. It depends on who you
listen to. Whether it's a hundred or or three or
(44:16):
four hundred people coming next week, I'd better get the
place tidy up and make a good impressure nhe yeah,
the more.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Than miria and nights. Hey will that you carry on,
looking forward to catching out next week and thanks for
putting your hand up much appreciated, and enjoy the ovo.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
No no worries, and yeah, I hope everyone's getting all
right out there and you're looking forward to sending good
crowd turn up next week, fill some mutes up, get
on up here and make sure it's a sober driver
and we'll have a good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
That's Niger would here the host of the Southern Spring Shout,
happening next Thursday at his farm between bar Cluth and Milton.
Stay tuned for details around that event. It's going to
be a doozy as well. That's us over and done
for the morning. My name's Andy Muher. This has been
the best of the muster. Enjoy the weekend, go to
the abs
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Then
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