March 1, 2026 • 8 mins
Ben Dooley looks at proposed changes to Kiwi Saver and what they will mean regarding farm workers and home ownership.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The muster on the farm with Southland District Council working
together for a beta Southland.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Ben Dewey Farms just out of windhom Sheep beef and
YouTube farmer and joins us once again. Deal's good afternoon,
Welcome to autumn.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah she's here, isn't it here?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
In a vengeance?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Jeez?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It was nippy yesterday.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, yeah, yesterday. I wasn't much fun, especially in the afternoon,
and the old forecast was saying that there wasn't supposed
to be rain after about seven pm, so I went
and dropped nineteen days of Baylage last night. But it'll
be right because yeah it's only had about two and
a half mills of rain on it, and yeah the
forecast for the rest of the week is dry, so
we'll get her hopefully Wednesday. The goal was Tuesday because
(00:46):
it's a bit on this week. But yeah, no, other
than that, things are chipping away pretty boddy Well.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I went out to w Kerry Kelley for Club Day
of cricket on Saturday. Beautiful afternoon as well and really
good occasion. Quinc Dailly welt under the club for organizing
great event. But then you wake up Sunday morning you
just hear the rain drops and just gets rather cool.
And when I got the groceries and had to put
the jacket on, and like, what the hell.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, Yeah, when you see things like twelve degrees in
the forecast for a high for the day, you go, oh,
it's just just a bit early for that kind of
carry on, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, that's what Phil Duncan was talking about. The other day.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It was four degrees this morning at six thirty and Gore.
But that's just a tale of the season. Look, you
talk about the baileage, you've got that down on the ground.
Is we get into March, getting closer to the rams
going out on the cycle starting again?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yep, that's the one. Yep. We put the US over
the Pretley the other day and condition scored them, pulled
a few out the bottom or there was probably eleven
hundred and twelve to twelve hundred, and the fat morven
about six fifty odd. And the lighter mobs they're not
all that light. There's a few of them that are,
but just trying to get them as even as possible,
because yeah, that day is getting very close early. I
(01:54):
think I haven't decided whether we're going to do that
again or not this year, but when we do normally
the RAM days to twin ninth and March. So yeah,
rolling around very fast.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
See, there's only three and a half weeks away more
or least.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, I know, and that's for twenty third I think
of there's of August landing. That's just like I said,
just there early girls, just like two hundred and too
fifty of them, maybe three hundred most just all those
old girls that we want to well they don't all
go to the works, but fear wa I can go
to the works in November. But yeah, there's a cost
involved with that practice. Obviously, you've got to have more
feed available early on to lamb on and I'm just
(02:30):
not convinced that we're not going to be able to
get ready use through that December January period moving forward,
which was the only reason really Weaver did that early mob.
So few decisions to make there, whether we take the
risk or whether we carry on or just do the
old girls instead of doing the light ones as well
and sort of have the risk there, awey bit. But yeah,
(02:50):
we've got a month and we've got three weeks to decide,
so we'll make a decision before the day.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well a space from a producer's viewpoint, there's been no
pressure on to get them to the works at least.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Know that, and also there's been availability. We've had no
trouble getting rid of the remainder of as we just
under half of their works using a normal year would
be in that mob. The other half get shorn late
December and then go to the works early mid January.
And it hasn't been an issue the last few years.
We've been told it could be, but it hasn't been.
And like I say, there's a rather large feed cost
(03:25):
associated even with a small mob and having enough feed
to actually lamb those girls properly that early. So yeah,
it's just yeah, trying to work out whether we think
we'll get that space or not.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Now you talk about lambs and the weekly lamb schedule
that used to be published, it seems as though this
is a thing of the past.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well certainly seems to be for one company anyway. Look,
there's lots of different aspects to look at here. Years ago,
you would definitely say that the other companies just just
waited for that company to print a schedule and they
would then just beated by a week. But if they
could the time they could in more recent years would
say that's probably not quite been the case. But I
(04:05):
can see a desire for the big company not to
print a schedule. I do think it'll go one way
or the other. It will either wind up in a
situation we know one prince's schedule, and that I know.
I mean, we're dealing with private companies now right, there's
no no true co ops left or big ones anyway,
they have the ability to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It would be good though, but it would be good
though deals have a cooperative by nature fer Fontier for example,
open Country. Okay, not a cooperative, but they're open and
transparently gain in the milk price.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Where can it be like that with red meat?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh, I'd love it to be. I'd absolutely love it
to be. And that's that's what I was coming to.
Is we'll either wind up we know one prince's schedule,
or will the big company will get forced back to
the point where they have to because of that. One
reason is you know, you all of a sudden don't
have a printed schedule. You can't find what they're paying anywhere.
They are now essentially a private company. We can talk
about that thirty five percent amount, that's sixty five percent
(05:02):
of it's a private company, they now can if they
want to quite comfortably pay people different rates. I'm not
happy about it. I don't like it. We know it's
always happened, and we know all the other companies do
it too. But yeah, that's the downside to me now
is that they've got a bit more of a cover
to hide behind there, which, like I say, they're completely
entitled to. But word, we'll get out and yeah, if
(05:25):
those margins are too big then that will cost them.
But the problem is there, where do you go? Because
like I say, everyone else does it as well. So yeah,
an unusual decision.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
But depending on which company are you worth, you can
ring up your agent and get engaged.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Then one hundred percent, But what's to say that they're
giving you the same schedule price that they're giving another person. Well,
people talk, Yeah, one hundred percent, and that's what I'm saying.
It will get out, so they'll have to be careful
in that space.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
But yeah, Kiwi savor being made available for farmers farm
workers to get in and get them to your new
a new farm and use your Kiwis money and the likes.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
What do you make of that? A YF fan?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, look, I'm a big fan of that idea. The
whole reason that I every job I started when I
was young, I opted out of Keysaver was because I
knew the only way I was ever going to get
that money out was when I was sixty five. And
let's be honest, there's a chance we don't make sixty five.
I don't think that money disappears and we will go
to someone else, and you know who if you leave
it to. But that to me didn't seem like a
(06:23):
logical thing to do. And the reason for that is
because you know, I was always coming back here to
the farm, so we knew what was happening there. I
had no reason to buy a house that I was
going to be living in. I was always working on
other farms. How accommodation provided. One of the big rules
that really frustrated people was that if you bought a
house with your Q save money, which let's be honest,
(06:45):
buying a house can be quite a good investment, you
had to live in it for the first six months. Now,
I don't know how they would go about policing that,
but that was one of the rules, and I believe
that's the big one that's now gone and they got
it through are they're working on. You can use it
to buy your far or you heard if you're sheer
farming as well. So yeah, you know, young people can
(07:06):
now go into q save and knowing that they can
pull that money out to buy a rental property if
they want, or to put it towards the farm, or
to put it towards a hurricanes to go are shamilking
or you know, buy some news to go list a
bit of land somewhere. I think it's great and had
that been the case when I was younger, I probably
would have got stuck right into it too.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But do you know of a lot of people who
haven't taken up the option of kiwisaver. Let's remember it's
not that many years ago. Contracts were in a big
thing through farm employment.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, I know plenty of people that haven't. I know
plenty of people that have. In all fairness, up until
this point, I don't really think there's been a big
benefit or downsided way. It just depends on what you
want to do. Yeah, But like I say, now, moving forward, yeah,
it certainly gives you more options with it. I didn't
have employment contracts at a lot of places that I
(07:54):
used to work out before it was a requirement. But
we still seem to be opting into qysaver automatically, so
I'm not sure how it'll work.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Good on your Ben, We'll let you carry on. You'll
get that baylage in the next day, so I wouldn't
sweat about it. Catch up next.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Time, not jeers Ammy.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Ben Deeley out of Windom.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, and a recent one regarding the contracts, farm contracts
and people who don't actually have an employment contract. I'm
sure it still exists, although certainly not to the same
degree that.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It used to be once upon a time.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Next on the Muster, Andy Magnus talking about an ulture
sport event that's occurring around Gore this week, and before
the end of the hour, Bruce Ford out of Beautiful
Stuart Island, did you believe
The muster on the farm with Southland District Council working
together for a beta Southland.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Ben Dewey Farms just out of windhom Sheep beef and
YouTube farmer and joins us once again. Deal's good afternoon,
Welcome to autumn.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah she's here, isn't it here?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
In a vengeance?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Jeez?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It was nippy yesterday.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, yeah, yesterday. I wasn't much fun, especially in the afternoon,
and the old forecast was saying that there wasn't supposed
to be rain after about seven pm, so I went
and dropped nineteen days of Baylage last night. But it'll
be right because yeah it's only had about two and
a half mills of rain on it, and yeah the
forecast for the rest of the week is dry, so
we'll get her hopefully Wednesday. The goal was Tuesday because
(00:46):
it's a bit on this week. But yeah, no, other
than that, things are chipping away pretty boddy Well.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I went out to w Kerry Kelley for Club Day
of cricket on Saturday. Beautiful afternoon as well and really
good occasion. Quinc Dailly welt under the club for organizing
great event. But then you wake up Sunday morning you
just hear the rain drops and just gets rather cool.
And when I got the groceries and had to put
the jacket on, and like, what the hell.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, Yeah, when you see things like twelve degrees in
the forecast for a high for the day, you go, oh,
it's just just a bit early for that kind of
carry on, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, that's what Phil Duncan was talking about. The other day.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It was four degrees this morning at six thirty and Gore.
But that's just a tale of the season. Look, you
talk about the baileage, you've got that down on the ground.
Is we get into March, getting closer to the rams
going out on the cycle starting again?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yep, that's the one. Yep. We put the US over
the Pretley the other day and condition scored them, pulled
a few out the bottom or there was probably eleven
hundred and twelve to twelve hundred, and the fat morven
about six fifty odd. And the lighter mobs they're not
all that light. There's a few of them that are,
but just trying to get them as even as possible,
because yeah, that day is getting very close early. I
(01:54):
think I haven't decided whether we're going to do that
again or not this year, but when we do normally
the RAM days to twin ninth and March. So yeah,
rolling around very fast.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
See, there's only three and a half weeks away more
or least.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, I know, and that's for twenty third I think
of there's of August landing. That's just like I said,
just there early girls, just like two hundred and too
fifty of them, maybe three hundred most just all those
old girls that we want to well they don't all
go to the works, but fear wa I can go
to the works in November. But yeah, there's a cost
involved with that practice. Obviously, you've got to have more
feed available early on to lamb on and I'm just
(02:30):
not convinced that we're not going to be able to
get ready use through that December January period moving forward,
which was the only reason really Weaver did that early mob.
So few decisions to make there, whether we take the
risk or whether we carry on or just do the
old girls instead of doing the light ones as well
and sort of have the risk there, awey bit. But yeah,
(02:50):
we've got a month and we've got three weeks to decide,
so we'll make a decision before the day.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well a space from a producer's viewpoint, there's been no
pressure on to get them to the works at least.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Know that, and also there's been availability. We've had no
trouble getting rid of the remainder of as we just
under half of their works using a normal year would
be in that mob. The other half get shorn late
December and then go to the works early mid January.
And it hasn't been an issue the last few years.
We've been told it could be, but it hasn't been.
And like I say, there's a rather large feed cost
(03:25):
associated even with a small mob and having enough feed
to actually lamb those girls properly that early. So yeah,
it's just yeah, trying to work out whether we think
we'll get that space or not.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Now you talk about lambs and the weekly lamb schedule
that used to be published, it seems as though this
is a thing of the past.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well certainly seems to be for one company anyway. Look,
there's lots of different aspects to look at here. Years ago,
you would definitely say that the other companies just just
waited for that company to print a schedule and they
would then just beated by a week. But if they
could the time they could in more recent years would
say that's probably not quite been the case. But I
(04:05):
can see a desire for the big company not to
print a schedule. I do think it'll go one way
or the other. It will either wind up in a
situation we know one prince's schedule, and that I know.
I mean, we're dealing with private companies now right, there's
no no true co ops left or big ones anyway,
they have the ability to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It would be good though, but it would be good
though deals have a cooperative by nature fer Fontier for example,
open Country. Okay, not a cooperative, but they're open and
transparently gain in the milk price.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Where can it be like that with red meat?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh, I'd love it to be. I'd absolutely love it
to be. And that's that's what I was coming to.
Is we'll either wind up we know one prince's schedule,
or will the big company will get forced back to
the point where they have to because of that. One
reason is you know, you all of a sudden don't
have a printed schedule. You can't find what they're paying anywhere.
They are now essentially a private company. We can talk
about that thirty five percent amount, that's sixty five percent
(05:02):
of it's a private company, they now can if they
want to quite comfortably pay people different rates. I'm not
happy about it. I don't like it. We know it's
always happened, and we know all the other companies do
it too. But yeah, that's the downside to me now
is that they've got a bit more of a cover
to hide behind there, which, like I say, they're completely
entitled to. But word, we'll get out and yeah, if
(05:25):
those margins are too big then that will cost them.
But the problem is there, where do you go? Because
like I say, everyone else does it as well. So yeah,
an unusual decision.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
But depending on which company are you worth, you can
ring up your agent and get engaged.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Then one hundred percent, But what's to say that they're
giving you the same schedule price that they're giving another person. Well,
people talk, Yeah, one hundred percent, and that's what I'm saying.
It will get out, so they'll have to be careful
in that space.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
But yeah, Kiwi savor being made available for farmers farm
workers to get in and get them to your new
a new farm and use your Kiwis money and the likes.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
What do you make of that? A YF fan?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, look, I'm a big fan of that idea. The
whole reason that I every job I started when I
was young, I opted out of Keysaver was because I
knew the only way I was ever going to get
that money out was when I was sixty five. And
let's be honest, there's a chance we don't make sixty five.
I don't think that money disappears and we will go
to someone else, and you know who if you leave
it to. But that to me didn't seem like a
(06:23):
logical thing to do. And the reason for that is
because you know, I was always coming back here to
the farm, so we knew what was happening there. I
had no reason to buy a house that I was
going to be living in. I was always working on
other farms. How accommodation provided. One of the big rules
that really frustrated people was that if you bought a
house with your Q save money, which let's be honest,
(06:45):
buying a house can be quite a good investment, you
had to live in it for the first six months. Now,
I don't know how they would go about policing that,
but that was one of the rules, and I believe
that's the big one that's now gone and they got
it through are they're working on. You can use it
to buy your far or you heard if you're sheer
farming as well. So yeah, you know, young people can
(07:06):
now go into q save and knowing that they can
pull that money out to buy a rental property if
they want, or to put it towards the farm, or
to put it towards a hurricanes to go are shamilking
or you know, buy some news to go list a
bit of land somewhere. I think it's great and had
that been the case when I was younger, I probably
would have got stuck right into it too.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But do you know of a lot of people who
haven't taken up the option of kiwisaver. Let's remember it's
not that many years ago. Contracts were in a big
thing through farm employment.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, I know plenty of people that haven't. I know
plenty of people that have. In all fairness, up until
this point, I don't really think there's been a big
benefit or downsided way. It just depends on what you
want to do. Yeah, But like I say, now, moving forward, yeah,
it certainly gives you more options with it. I didn't
have employment contracts at a lot of places that I
(07:54):
used to work out before it was a requirement. But
we still seem to be opting into qysaver automatically, so
I'm not sure how it'll work.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Good on your Ben, We'll let you carry on. You'll
get that baylage in the next day, so I wouldn't
sweat about it. Catch up next.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Time, not jeers Ammy.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Ben Deeley out of Windom.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, and a recent one regarding the contracts, farm contracts
and people who don't actually have an employment contract. I'm
sure it still exists, although certainly not to the same
degree that.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It used to be once upon a time.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Next on the Muster, Andy Magnus talking about an ulture
sport event that's occurring around Gore this week, and before
the end of the hour, Bruce Ford out of Beautiful
Stuart Island, did you believe
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