The Muster Full Show: 07/09/26

Andy Muir talks to Blair Drysdale, Joseph Mooney, Mark Dillon, Andrew Welsh and Tom O'Brien.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good afternoon and welcome to the muster on Hokonui. Andy
Muley here. The show is brought to you by Peter's Genetics.
With some sunshine over the main street of Gore, it's
a thing of beauty. Long may it last. How long
it will last for is the question. Currently we're on
nine degrees. But look, just having blue sky and sunshine
is a great thing for the mood at the moment.

(00:27):
After a busy weekend on the sporting front, the ABs,
they lost to the Springboks. Now arguably this game of Baltimore,
I think it's almost like an exhibition type game for America,
isn't it? And A money gatherer as such. Southland Stags
went down to counties. I seen the first half. I
didn't bother with the second. And, yeah. Same old Southland Staggies,

(00:50):
I suppose. And the Waz, New Zealand Warriors, they've got
a home final against the Dolphins happening on, I think
it's on Saturday, but they're playing the game at Mount Smart.
So they always talk about the NRL taking it away
from their spiritual home, but they are playing there, so
that's a big win for the Waz ahead of the finals.
Music today to Rob Thomas, Matchbox 20. Massive, massive group

(01:11):
from the late 90s.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hakanui's five-day forecast with Twin Farm, Tefrom and Softex. The
proof is in the progeny.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
So this afternoon, looking like cloud with light easterlies and
a high of 10. Tomorrow, cloudy with breezy westerlies, minus
1 and 11. Wednesday afternoon, showers with breezy nor westerlies,
3 and 14. Thursday, showers with westerlies forming, 3 and 8.
And on Friday, light rain with breezy to brisk westerlies,
3 and 9. So temperatures to Hank Clinton, 7.2. Heriot, 6.2.

(01:46):
Northern South, 7.5. River to 9.3, Te Arau 6.9, Titarao 7.2,
Winter to 6.8, and Woodlands 8.4. So those soil temperatures
are wanting to get going. Just needs a bit of
the big yellow for a while. Blair Drysdale, Blair Drysdale
that is, based at Belfast, starts us off in the
Sargent Dam Farming Roundup. Followed up by Joseph Mooney, MP

(02:10):
for Southland. Getting on the campaign trail, you're seeing all
these billboards going up as we're not too far away
from the election. Andrew Walsh of Twin Farm Genetics. We
have a catch up with Snow. See how things are
down the Waimea Valley. Mark Dillon. Of course, he's been
over at the World Ploughing Championships in Croatia, recorded a
film a little bit earlier on due to time differences,

(02:31):
and got a rundown of how he went in the event.
And he did pretty darn well, considering he wasn't using
his own tractor or plough. And Tom O'Brien, our Garston correspondent,
gives us a bit of a summation of the World
Stone Skimming Championships with a New Zealand flavour involved in
the winner's circle. So we'll crank on with the show now.

(02:51):
Blocker gets us underway. Seven after one. We're away to
Balfour this afternoon on the muster to catch up with
Blair Drysdale, mixed farming operation up that way. And the

(03:11):
Sgt Dan Farming Roundup brought to you by Sgt Dan
Stock Foods here in Goreblocker. Good afternoon. How are you
coping up there at Balfour with the spring to date?

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Good afternoon, Andy. Um, Spring, it's just frustration for a
third year in a row. Simple as that. You know,
I know after that first bad spring, it's like, oh,
you won't get two of these in a row, and
then there was a hold my beer moment with Mother Nature, and,
you know, well, shit, you won't get three, will you?
Let's hope not, but the early spring has been very

(03:44):
similar to the last two, so let's see what happens. But, yeah,
I think everyone's pretty... Wet now, lack of sunshine, grass
has stopped here. We haven't had any growth for a
good week, 10 days more now. It was starting to
take away, but it's just stopped dead. So, yeah, a
little bit frustrating, getting sick of, you know, I'm just
tidying up with the tractor at the moment, doing odd
jobs because you can't really spray. It's been too wet

(04:06):
and cold to do and windy to do, yeah, furrowed
horse spraying. So ground's too wet largely to work. I've
done a little bit, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
You've got the lambing going on at the moment. From
the man who coined the phrase of all the aphids,
how are they going?

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Apart from being really unsettled, well, they've settled down a
bit the last few days since the winds dropped, but yeah,
they've been a little bit flighty, so at least it's
best with the shooting ones. So I go around them
once a day largely to make sure there's nothing cast
and to pick up dead ewes and lambs. Really, I
don't do a lot, and I don't have to do
a hell of a lot with them. Had to lamb

(04:40):
the old ones and the really early ones that have
finished lambing. They've been finished for 10 days more now.
But all in all, good numbers hitting the ground. Took
a bit of a pasting on What was it, Monday night,
that real cold night, we lost a lot of newborn
lambs that night, but he can't do much at night
about that, so it happens every now and then. But yeah,
all in all, they're taking on pretty nicely, and we'll

(05:01):
be looking at the main ewes. We'll be well through
them by the end of this week, that's for sure,
and then just wait on hogwits. They'll start on the
1st of October. So yeah, considering I started on the,
I think it was the 20th of August, that will
be a long spread out lambing, but it mitigates a
bit of risk and spreads workload too, so... All in all,
they're going well, but, yeah, lambs, the early ones, the

(05:24):
black-faced ones, they're looking for a little bit of sun.
They're starting to eat grass too, so, yeah, a bit
of sun will be handy.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
How many ewes are you lambing?

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Mixed-age ewes, there's 300, and there's 300 hoggets, but I
actually can't fit all those numbers in next year, the
way it's looking, so I'm probably going to cut the
heads off some hoggets either late next week or early
next week. So we'll do that. See, ideally, you know,
I'd like to sort of, around that 500, 450, 500
next year. We'll sort of be where it's at. We

(05:54):
won't land hoggets again next year. We've just sort of
done that to get numbers up in a.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Hurry, really.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
So we'll quit that next year. It does have, you know,
a lot of hoggets last year. It had twins and, boy, shit,
it's hard on them. So I can still see those
ones now as a two-tooth. So, yeah, we'll quit that
game and just land the ewes only. But we'll still
do land the old girls early to a terminal and
do the rest as per normal.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Remembering that you went away from use proper, I mean,
you're the guy who infamously just buried his wool shed.
So what are you thinking there? The market's looking pretty
good and you're just keeping your hand in a few
different pies as such?

Speaker 3 (06:30):
We've always run a diverse operation. We've always had, yes,
we dropped sheep numbers back to nothing for a while
down to 30 or 40 ewes, but we've always had
sheep and beef. We're just changing the mix a wee
bit at the moment, doing a lot more beef. We've
just and we bought a block next door a year ago,
so it's all re-fenced now, and the cattle yards, they
should be finished by the end of the day, and

(06:51):
then water seemed to go in, so just changing up
a bit. You know, there's more margin in beef than
there is in wheat at the moment, which is still
the main arable crop really in Southland, so, yeah, just
go with the margin rather than, you know, we're not
chasing markets as such, as, like I say, we've always
had beef, but we're just increasing it there a bit. So, yeah,

(07:12):
spreads of workload, spreads of risk, and makes it a
little bit more interesting, too, doing some new things as.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Well, Andy.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
With the way the arable sector is at the moment,
are you thinking of perhaps getting more sheep into the equation?
Or beef, for that matter?

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Sheep sort of have to fit into the system around
everything else. So the arable and beef sort of take priority,
and the sheep, you know, they fit around it. We
can change those numbers pretty quickly, so they fit around
everything else. So they're largely there.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Um....

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, to tidy up behind the combine and do that
sort of thing, keep fence lines tidy, lanes tidy. We
do have a lot of smaller paddocks around the house
that aren't really much good for anything else but our sheep.
So they largely have a job to do and just
have to fit in. That's where they sit.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
You want to talk about tax today, Blair. Now, you
had a wee rant off air before we came on
for a chat. Possibly, I haven't had an F-bomb on
the show since Bruce Edelwein movie. That may change today.
Where are we at?

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Well, we definitely, you wouldn't want to air my little
rant off air.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
It was one for the ages, I'll say that.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
But as we get close to the election, things get serious.
And from no party, really, it's all sort of tax-based
policy and what we can do. give away for the
policy and.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
What we can do for free.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Nothing's ever free. It always has to be paid from
from somewhere. And you have to rob Peter to pay Paul.
And what we're not seeing a lot of is how
do we grow our economy? How do we get that
good fiscal and economic policy to get this country to
a position where we're back in the top tier of
the world's nations? Because you look at our health system

(08:49):
and education, we're slipping behind.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
The eight ball a lot. You look at our.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
And then, you know, You can't, Winston Churchill said it
very famously, trying to tax yourself to prosperity is like
standing in a bucket and trying to lift yourself up
by a handle. And unfortunately, that's where Labour and the
once socialist and now seemingly communist Greens are at. So
it's terrible. And if the Greens with their latest policy

(09:13):
about supermarkets, they should probably take a wee trip to
Zimbabwe and try and buy a loaf of bread and
see what it costs them. They are raving lunatics with
no idea of economics whatsoever. They're in la-la land. So
it'd just be nice, actually, from all parties to see
how we can grow the country's economy, how we can
grow industry, because industry's just leaving this country. Your sawmill's

(09:35):
closing down everywhere, for argument's sake. So I'd like to
see a lot more in that area, and every party's
guilty of not giving us enough in that area.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Is your vote up for grabs?

Speaker 5 (09:46):
Hell yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Well, you know, every farmer in this electorate would largely, normally,
and probably take the last election out of it, would
have voted National. You know, Joseph's got a pretty safe seat,
there's no doubt about that, but there'll be a lot more...
tactical voting going on, that's for sure, around where your
electorate and party vote goes. There's no doubt about that,
because a lot of people are looking for, you know,

(10:11):
the policies that make sense from some of the smaller parties.
Let's exclude the Greens, because their policies are videocracy. But
I'm talking ACT and New Zealand First. So it's going
to be a very interesting election. It's probably going to
be the messiest one in living memory, I believe. So
that's going to be very interesting come November.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Good on you, Blair. We'll let you carry on. And
thank you for not getting me to the Broadcasting Standards
Authority today.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
No, I'll save my F-bombs for another day as much
as the Greens rile me.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Blair Blocker-Drysdale, based at Balfour in the Sargent Dan Farming Roundup. Thanks,
of course, to Sargent Dan Stock Foods, based here in Gore.
Talking politics, Joseph Mooney, MP for Southlands, up next. I
believe the world is burning to the ground. I guess

(11:04):
we'd better find out. Matchbox 20 there with how far
we have come for our next guest. Joseph Mooney, MP
for Southland. Some of those lyrics you'd agree with, other
ones probably not so much, Joe. Good afternoon.

Speaker 6 (11:16):
Good afternoon, Andy. Well, I agree with this. Where you
come from, where you're going to, and right now I'm
trekking across Southland.

Speaker 7 (11:25):
Bit of fog.

Speaker 6 (11:26):
So I'd say, yeah, it's a spring where it's a
bit chilly outdoors at the moment. They've just come into
London as we.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
Speak, actually.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Joseph, we're looking at our third spring in a row
where it's been anything but the norm during lambing and calving.
I don't know, we just want some sunshine. That's all
we're asking for.

Speaker 7 (11:47):
Yeah, well, politicians try and.

Speaker 6 (11:49):
Do all sorts of things, but I can't promise you that.
It's one thing I can't promise you. But what I
will say is actually tomorrow... I've got the Agriculture Minister,
Tom McClay. He's in Southland tomorrow. We've got a woolshed
meeting if people can get any time away from their lambing.
At Trevor Stark's place, 530 Lancet and Valley Road in

(12:13):
Waikiki Valley, between 11.30 to 12.30pm. So if you can
make some time free, be a golden opportunity to come
and catch up with the Trade Minister and hear from
him and give him some feedback.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Are you expecting many people at a meeting in the
middle of September, with all due respect?

Speaker 6 (12:30):
Oh, look, no, it's a challenging time. And, you know,
but I just wanted to, you know, we're well into
the election season now, so it's, although everyone will be
flat out with Lambie, et cetera, you know, if anyone's
able to get away, it would be great.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
To see them. Over the weekend, all these hoardings are
going up and you're getting the obligatory selfies and photos
and social media of all these politicians using a hammer
for the first time and probably since the last election,
truth be known. We're just coming into that cycle again. Yourself, Joseph,
did you stay out there for the day and actually
do more than three nails or a couple of tech screws?

Speaker 6 (13:09):
Oh, yeah, no, no, 100 percent. Every time and Last season,
my wife and I were the main hoardings people for
the Queenstown area that got to get out and about
all across the region. But having said that, we couldn't
do it without our volunteers. Obviously, as I've probably said
there before, the South Island electorate is bigger than 60 countries,

(13:33):
so it's a huge bit of territory. So we heavily
rely on our volunteers. and I'm very thankful to them
for the hard work they do. They really care about
our region and our country. They want to give us
their time to help make it happen.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Two questions. I've got two questions for you, Joseph. Number one,
how much does one of those hoardings cost? And number two,
you're not wearing a tie. In fact, a lot of
National MPs aren't wearing ties in the photos. Surprising.

Speaker 6 (14:02):
It's just, sometimes people wear ties, sometimes they don't. I
can't remember what the thinking was, to be honest, behind
choosing that particular photo. But that was the decision. And yeah,
every electorate's election cycle is a little bit different.

Speaker 7 (14:18):
I guess.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
What does one of those signs cost?

Speaker 6 (14:22):
Oh, a sign cost? I couldn't tell you off the
top of my head. I'd have to go back and
check the records. But our electorate pays for them. We
pay for those signs. So we've got to raise the
money ourselves and pay for them. So if people go
and stuff them up, they're stuffing up locals who have
worked their tails off to make it happen.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Another poll out this morning, Joseph. Now, the Opportunity Party,
who's been flying, if you believe, other polls, they've slipped
down to 4.5%. They wouldn't go into Parliament. I mean,
there was a poll out last week. I think it
had the Greens and top combined with almost a quarter
of the vote. That's just well above where they're going
to be. So what are we actually supposed to believe

(15:05):
in the lead-up?

Speaker 6 (15:06):
Well, I think we've said this before. The only poll
that truly matters is who gets the polling votes and
ticks those boxes. I honestly don't think COP's going to
make it. They might suck up a few votes. But, yeah,
I mean, I think, like, federated farmers, their policies would

(15:26):
cost farmers about $ 47, 000 each per annum, I think, is
what they calculated. And that's, yeah, so they basically want
to tax the chiefers out of people and make, you know, others... basically,
welfare beneficiaries. That's not what we need as a country.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Well, the Greens are interesting coming out with this so-called
break-up of the supermarket duopoly, Kiwimart, although Kiwimart, I think
it's the name of a second-hand shop somewhere up north.

Speaker 6 (15:59):
Yeah, look, people have been frustrated for a long time
with the price of food in New Zealand, and, you know,
the frustration I've shared myself, to be honest, But the
only way we can really solve that is, you know,
more effective competition, which is not easy in a country
of 5.3 million people spread over the size of, you know,

(16:20):
the United Kingdom and Japan. So, you know, to get
the scale, you know, supermarket networks, you know, stack up
is challenging, and other countries or businesses have taken a
look at it and decided it doesn't make sense financially
to enter the market. But we've been doing what we
really can to try to track them in, you know,

(16:42):
fast tracking, you know, changing the law so that people
can apply, you know, to put a new supermarket in
the areas and things like that. But this idea by
the Greens is frankly nuts. It's been tried before. It's
not a new idea. Communist Russia did something very similar.
They took over the supply and control of food. You

(17:02):
can just have a look at how that played out.
people literally started lining up for food that was no
longer on the shelves in supermarkets. They couldn't actually get
food into those supermarkets. So people actually started starving. So
the Greens' idea is completely nuts. Like I say, it's
been tried before and failed before.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
There is a real argument out there, though, and a
lot of tourists who came to New Zealand will agree
with this, Joseph. We are just too expensive, especially in
the supermarket aisle.

Speaker 6 (17:33):
Yeah, look, that used to be true. And I say
used to be true because, you know, I hear from
people who are, you know, in other countries overseas, Canada,
the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, that food was cheaper.
I'm not hearing that anymore. So I think on a
relative basis, I don't think that's true. You know, specifically

(17:54):
New Zealand, our food inflation has actually only increased by 1.9%
in the last, I think, year or two. Obviously, I
shop at the supermarket like everyone else, and I look
at the prices and go, oh, gosh. So, look, the
cost of food is a genuine challenge. But the government
taking over it is not going to fix it. Anyone

(18:17):
who knows a little bit of history will appreciate that point.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
I reckon the weekly shop's gone up 15%. But anyway,
we're talking percentages. This is a good news story too
for you guys, trying to increase the income cap from
$ 150, 000 to $ 300, 000 regarding first home loan income. Yeah, that
was a great announcement.

Speaker 6 (18:39):
We had over the weekend. So the cap, like I say,
from $ 150, 000 to $ 300, 000 for everyone. So whether you're a
single or a couple, your maximum will be $ 300, 000, and
then you can access that 5% loan facility to help
you buy your own home. Because, I mean, that's probably

(19:01):
sort of showed the difference between the left and the right.
On the centre-right, we want people to become property owners,
versus the left, who want the state to own things.
We think we're Kiwis. We trust them. We trust them
to manage their own money, and we want them to
own their.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Own land, literally. Is the Kiwi dream of homeownership slipping
through our fingers realistically?

Speaker 6 (19:23):
No, absolutely not. That's why we're doing this policy like this, though,
to make sure that it doesn't... Because ultimately, you know,
people who own their own bit of land are more
embedded in their communities. And, you know, ultimately, that's how
you can build up, you know, your wealth and your
sense of community over time. So we want to ensure

(19:47):
that does not become.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
A dream Have you got that hybrid NPC jersey made
up yet, Joseph?

Speaker 6 (19:54):
It's a work in progress.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
I think you might want to have the blue on
more than the maroon at the moment going by results.
We'll let you carry on. Always appreciate your time.

Speaker 6 (20:03):
You got it handy. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Joseph Mooney, MP for Southland, as we get closer to
the election. This is the muster up next. We're all
over to Croatia to catch up with ploughman Mark Dillon
of the World Ploughing Champs. This is the muster on Hokanui.
Mark Dillon has been representing New Zealand at the World

(20:28):
Ploughing Championships yet again over in Croatia. Of course, he's
based at Riversdale in northern Southland. And we've all heard
about the issues Bob had with shipping containers and lack
of them getting to their destinations. The event occurred over
the weekend, the World Champs. Bob joins us to give
us a rundown on how it all went. Bob, good afternoon. Firstly,

(20:49):
how did the weekend treat you?

Speaker 7 (20:53):
Yeah, g'day Andy. Yeah, not bad. Yeah, I thought I
played a pretty coldy plot on Friday, which was a
stubble ground, but the judges didn't agree with me. Yeah,
the Saturday we had what was meant to be grass turn,
but it was alfalfa ground, which is looser and extremely hard.
It'd be some of the hardest ground I reckon I've
ever played, but yeah, I had a better day on

(21:15):
the Saturday and got a bit further up the points list.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
What were the issues that the judges had for the
first day?

Speaker 7 (21:24):
Oh, they must have been listening to different stuff than me,
and they decided to keep their points and not give
them to me, the buggers.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Can you say anything to them at the time, or
do you just have to just bite your tongue and
carry on with it? I mean, there's no third umpire
or anything, is there?

Speaker 7 (21:37):
No, there's no third umpire, you can't really, but then
once we get back and you're looking, it's hard to
tell when you're sitting on the track to see, but
once you go and have a look after you've done
the job, and compared to the top trailmen, what they've
done and what you've done, it's a big learning curve,
and different gear and everything else, but yeah, it wasn't

(21:58):
a disaster, but it's all there. It's learning and learning,
and it's been a great experience, and it's been challenging
with the different gear, and then I turned up here
10 days ago and I pinched a nerve in my back,
so that hasn't been that cool either, so I know
the physio over here by first-name basis as well, so
that's been part of the experience.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
You say the ground yesterday was some of the hardest
ploughing you've ever done. Just put into context what you
came up against.

Speaker 7 (22:24):
Oh, so they haven't had any rain over here for
75 days, and this farm we were ploughing on, it's
pretty much mint till, so it would have come out
of a cereal crop maybe or maize or something like that,
and this mint till with the looser on top of it,
so the ground's reasonably undulating, very compacted. The whole time
we've been here, I don't think I've seen one worm

(22:44):
in the soil, so it probably explains a bit about
soil health and how that goes towards the compaction issue.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
So overall, result-wise, where did you end up?

Speaker 7 (22:56):
Yeah, 14th, which is a bit better than last year.
I was 11th on the second day in the FFL,
which is, yeah, I was happy enough. I was straight,
which a lot of people couldn't draw straight, which probably
got me a bit further up the points list. Had
a pretty good crown, got a very good split. Haven't
actually seen the final breakdown of the points, just to
chew the fat on what kind of, there's always room

(23:17):
for improvement, yep. As I said to someone, the ever-elusive
perfect plot has still eluded me, but we'll keep chipping
away and trying to get better.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well, you say some individuals are having issues having a
straight line on their plots. Was that due to the
state of the ground?

Speaker 4 (23:31):
Oh, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 7 (23:32):
If your gear's just not running dead true, then it'll
start walking a lot, and a lot of guys had
issues with that during their splits. The plough was walking
around the paddock, and actually, if you studied, watched the ploughs,
where you get issues, if you could feel it from
the seat, the ploughs are shuddering or shaking when they're
going through the ground. It was that hard, and I
didn't hear it, but there's a guy from the Netherlands,

(23:53):
just about seven or eight plots up from me, and
he must have hit something and broke a colter stalk,
and it went off like a shotgun.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Remembering you weren't in your own gear either, how did
you adapt to the massy and the plough that you
got lent?

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Pretty good.

Speaker 7 (24:06):
It was the first day, it was one bit, and
I was getting under the pump and getting a wee
bit frustrated, and I went to lean and reach for
the wrong lever, but the second day, yeah, but just
took it and destroyed it. everything, yeah, I was getting
frustrated halfway through the plot, thinking, what, yeah, I've got
to do something different here that's not working, and Ed
started tinkering and did this wee fine-tuning of things, and
the ploughing improved, and it was quite funny, my coach

(24:28):
was on the end of the headland, and he goes,
he needs to give her a couple of screws on
that land well, that's about what I did, and tinkered
with a few other bits and pieces, and it improved,
and it's always a good feeling when you do something
like that, and the result at the back looks better.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
This is fascinating. You have a coach for ploughing. What
can somebody who's watching what you do compared to your
average ploughman on the tractor going about his business in
the lands and logs, what can he see differently?

Speaker 7 (24:56):
Oh, we're pretty lucky. Thomas is a two-time world champion.
He ploughs his jam. He lives and breathes it. He
just knows. He's got that much experience under his belt.
He can see or he knows what to do to
make the result happen. the back change. It's an experience
on the site really.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
So I dare say you had a good shindig after
the event finished?

Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah, really awesome awards dinner last night. There was a
big business centre on the other side of town. We
didn't realise that building was there. Huge big building and
great music. A couple of babies and they had a
band playing as well so it was a good way
to finish off the week.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
So therefore, the plough and the tractor you were using,
your French mates, they'll just take your Welsh mates, sorry,
it'll go back to Wales. You and Sonia and your
mum and dad, you'll get back on the plane and
come back to New Zealand shortly, I'd imagine.

Speaker 7 (25:47):
Yeah, so we started stripping gear down last night. We
think we finished ploughing about 2 o'clock and then the
finishing or the end of the ploughing ceremony was about 3.30,
then back to the compound, started stripping gear down and
stuff and then we were about to get in the car,
head back out there now, start washing stuff up and
packing it away, and then I've got a few bits
and pieces I've had shipped here that I've ploughed with

(26:08):
to clean them up, and they're going to go on
to the Caverna dealers, they're going to ship them back
to New Zealand for me.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Next year it's in Kenya. I mean, it sounds like
a very close-knit community, the ploughing fraternity, especially at these events.
A lot of these individuals, have they qualified to go
over to Africa next year as well?

Speaker 7 (26:28):
There's not a whole lot because we're this side of
the world. We qualify, I suppose, half, six months earlier
than anyone else. But this is sort of why the
Welsh guys want to get the gear home. So it
was James and Roger George's gear from Wales I used.
And James is heading over to Ireland to have all
his planners to qualify so he can come to Kenya
next year.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
So that is the plan. That is the intention next
year to go to Kenya, isn't it?

Speaker 7 (26:55):
Yeah, I've already qualified. So when I won the nationals
back in April, that qualified me to come and play
on Kenya for next year. So that's the next thing,
get home and there's a few bits and pieces I
want to do to the playoff and just keep practising
and tinkering away and improving on the art.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Now it's not that long, what is it, Kenya next year,
back to the Netherlands and then New Zealand the year after.
Are people asking you about what to expect when they
come to New Zealand?

Speaker 7 (27:23):
Yeah, so because next year we were thinking that there
may not be as many countries go to Kenya, so
we did a bit of a brief presentation and had
a bit of a video running there so people can
sort of see what New Zealand's up to and that
there are a lot of people, if it's on their
bucket list or if they've never been to New Zealand,
they think, well, what better time to come over and
compete in the world or even just come over and

(27:45):
judge or manage and be part of the team and
come and be, as you say, Andy, there's a big family.
The amount of people that reached out to us when
we When we were in a pickle with the shipping,
it was really, really awesome and humbling. It's been great
to catch up with people from our playing family that
we only catch up with once a year.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Mark Dillon, congratulations once again on finishing 11th. That's no
mean feat over at World Ploughing Champs. Safe travels for you, Sonia,
your mum and dad and all your support team. And
once again, mighty congratulations. That's a hell of an effort.

Speaker 7 (28:14):
Thanks, Eddie.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Mark Dillon over in Croatia. Far cry from Northern Southland.
and the wet weather that we're seeing at the moment.
This is the muster up next. Andrew Walsh on Twin
Farm Genetics. I'm having awesome. Get myself to go away. Oh, God,
I shouldn't dare this way now.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
Reach down ahead.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Welcome back to the muster as we catch up with
Andrew Welsh out of Twin Farm Genetics, the home of
Tehran and the sponsors of the five-day forecast here on
the muster and Hokanui in general. Andrew, good afternoon. That
forecast has been a little bit lacking in sunshine recently.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
Afternoon, Andy. You're dead right. It's been a wee bit
challenging around about, but we'll take it today. We had
fog this morning, but it's cleared beautiful blue sky and
really nice out there at the moment.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
How often do you get fog in September?

Speaker 5 (29:08):
We're actually talking about that with the staff this morning.
I can't actually ever remember having fog in September before.
It seems real strange.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Seasons seem out of whack.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
It does, yep.

Speaker 5 (29:18):
Yeah, well, you just sort of can do what you
can do, and that's it, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (29:23):
So what's the state of play there, Snow? It'll be
wet on top, I'd imagine, and just needing sunshine. Everything's
there for the grass to grow. You just need a
bit of an element to come down.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
Oh, definitely. Yep, no, the ground's definitely saturated at the moment. Yeah,
we were actually driving around some of the lambing paddocks
the other day. and actually just about lost the bike.
The water was up nearly the top of the seat,
so I started to think that I was driving in
the wrong place.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
The top of the seat?

Speaker 5 (29:48):
Yeah, she was getting pretty deep there for a while.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Well, were you crossing the river or something?

Speaker 5 (29:55):
No, just one of our paddocks. It's called the Swamp
Paddock for a reason. It's the first one on the
farm to fill up with water and use on the
far side of it. Just wanted to get around and
push them out onto the flood bank. So, yeah, luckily
we got them through and out and the water retreated
down before causing any troubles.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Oh, well, that's good to see that you got an
outcome there. So how is the state of play with
lambing at your place? You've got studs and the likes.
You've got split lambing mobs. How's it been?

Speaker 5 (30:21):
Yep, not too bad so far. Yeah, we managed to
avoid the worst of that weather last weekend, so they
didn't really start until about the Tuesday. So, yeah, they've
been going for about six days now, so with the
suff text, just the early sort of 400 or 500 ewes,
so it's been not too bad at the moment. The
bulk of the rest of the ewes don't start until

(30:42):
the end of this week, so they're all set stock
now and spread out. Yeah, we're just trying not to
drive around too many paddocks and create black marks behind
as you go. But yeah, just this time of year
and the weather we've been having, you've got to watch
out for casts and all that sort of thing with
having news in good condition.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Brenton Howden had a great idea and he started using
it this season as far as a drone and doing
the lambing beat in the morning before things get too
hectic just to go around looking for use. He said
it's just been a game changer regarding black marks and
paddocks and the like when it's wet.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
Yeah, that'd be right. It'd probably be quite fantastic up
on the hill. Dad actually had one and used to
have it a couple of years ago, but it doesn't
fly at the moment for some reason. But we found
that it's quite hard to see the screens. I think
new technology now, bigger screens, it's easier to see them and, yeah,
get round.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
There's a lot of these people who just don't get
around to wearing glasses anyway. Our tennis group on a
Wednesday night when we were at the moon having a
beer debriefing, the amount of people there that are holding
their phones about a metre away from their face because
they're too ignorant to go to the optician is ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
Yeah, yep, that'd be about right.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Anyway, without naming names. So are you changing anything as
far as your feeding cycle for September based on the conditions?

Speaker 6 (32:01):
Not really.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
I suppose they're talking this sort of drier summer, so
we managed to actually go through and put a fair
bit of SOA on before lambing this year, which has
really kicked in and working really well. And we also
were lucky enough to get a bit of grazing at
the neighbour's grain farm for sort of a week or
10 days for 1,000 ewes, which really just gave us

(32:23):
that extra buffer going into lambing, which we would have
been really tight if we hadn't had that this year.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Nothing like the neighbours having a bit of grazing come available.

Speaker 5 (32:31):
Yeah, it was really good. He sort of had a
few weed issues in his paddock, so he sort of
wanted it eaten off. And yeah, we were looking for
every blade of grass we could at the time, so
it's good to get those wee win-wins.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
And how are the hoggarts looking?

Speaker 5 (32:43):
Looking fantastic, but there's a bit of abortion going through
them at the moment, which is a bit frustrating. Because, yeah,
they scanned really well and I was looking forward to
trying to beat that 110% lambing out of their hoggets
this year. But I've actually sent some samples away. We're
going to actually try and find out exactly what it is.
We think we know, talking to the vet, he thinks

(33:04):
he knows what it is, which I'm hoping it's not
because we've already vaccinated for that and I'll be pretty
hacked off if the vaccine hasn't worked. But all you
can do is try your best and, yeah, try and
avoid the problem next season.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Just a couple of abortions you're seeing on the ground daily.
What's the state of play there?

Speaker 5 (33:22):
Yeah, you're sort of getting two or three a day
at the moment, and then you had a couple of
days where we were getting six a day there for
a few days. So it's just frustrating. The hoggets are
still happy and healthy, but, yeah, you do all the
effort taken right through to now, and then you have
them spit out those lambs and... Just frustrating, I suppose
you'd call it.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
So is it bordering on Brandenburg?

Speaker 5 (33:45):
No, no, it's not. They're having a brown, rotten-y mummified
sort of a wee thing that they're splitting out in
one healthier sort of lamb. So we're suspecting it's Toxo,
but we'll wait and see.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Hopefully you guys get a resolution out of that. There's
nothing worse at this time of year with everything else.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
Yeah, exactly. Yep, it's sort of early days to be saying,
but yeah, that's what we're... We're suspecting that's what it
looks like at the moment, but we're going to get
it tested and confirmed and just see if that's exactly
what it is. And then we can have some words
with some vaccine companies, maybe.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Absolutely, if it goes like that. OK, so you're getting
to the middle of September. There might be a few
cattle just tidying up winter crops and the likes. You'll
be pretty happy with the way they've played out, I'd imagine.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
Yeah, no, they've looked really good actually. We've actually, yeah,
the cattle have all finished the winter crops and the
cows are set stocked on the hill now with all
the ewes. Heifers are down. Heifers have been sort of
calving for the last three or four days now. So
we try to calve them a wee bit earlier just
so we've got a bit of time to keep an
eye on them. And then the cows sort of kick
in in another week's time with the rest of the

(34:52):
ewes up on the hill.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Wanderers, your football's all over for the season I'd imagine?

Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yep, it's all tidied up. We just had prize giving
there the other night. So yeah, good to see a
good bunch of young guys coming through the team there
and had a really good season. And it sounds like
quite a few of them are sticking around again for
next year. Quite often the ones just leaving school, going
off to university, we lose a few of them. But
good young bunch this year that are hanging around, which
will be really good for next season.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yourself and Morgan Green, are you like the out-of-statesman in
the team? Are you nicknamed Grandad or anything yet?

Speaker 5 (35:24):
It's heading that way, but they keep giving us a
hard time about being the old man in the team. Yeah,
old enough that the young ones could be my kids
in the team and that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
That's a reality.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
Nothing like keeping them on their toes. You learn the
old trick with getting a bit older and cunning and
you still keep up with them most days.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Good on you, Snow. All the best over the next
six weeks or so. Twin Farm Genetics, the home of Tehran,
and the sponsors of the five-day forecast here on Hokonui.
Always appreciate your time.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
Good as gold, Andy. And, yeah, everyone, keep your heads
up out there. Remember, it's just a short time in
the grand scheme of it, so enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Andrew Welsh of Twin Farm Genetics, a home of Tehran.
The amount of people who aren't prepared to accept the
fact they need to go and see an optometrist is staggering.
It's not naming names, but you sit around having a pint,
just sit there and watch people on their phone and
gradually glare. Their eyes bulge as the phone pulls away
from their face. Anyway, we'll go up to Garston next.

(36:26):
We're going to catch up with Thomas O'Brien.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
We're away up to Garston this afternoon on the muster
to catch up with Tom O'Brien, business owner up that way.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
And last time we spoke to you, you were on
a jigger between Fairlight and Kingston. Tom, good afternoon. Did
you fix all those sleepers?

Speaker 4 (36:55):
Oh, good afternoon, Andy. Well, interestingly enough, yesterday morning, after
I watched the All Black game, I went out with
a couple of mates and we dropped off 50 sleepers,
which are now currently, well, they're just about to be
put in with the digger that goes on the rails.
I'm not there at the moment. I'm at the farm
at the moment enjoying the sunshine.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
No, only 50 sleepers. That's not bad.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Well, yeah, so that'll be the first truck.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Oh, it's the first truck idea.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, yeah, and, you know, I was just saying to
my mate yesterday, I said, you know, back in my day,
you know, we used to have to do all this
by hand, you know, and between two of us, if
we got 11 sleepers in in a day, we were
doing really, really well. So, yeah, it's amazing how quickly
time flies and technology changes and, you know, the world
moves on and advances. But, you know, like we sort

(37:45):
of cut our teeth back then and that was... I mean,
it doesn't seem that long ago. When I think about it,
that's back in 1993. So, yeah, yeah, just got to
keep moving.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Forward, mate.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
We all cut our teeth in certain things once upon
a time, but you were part of the Dunedin rap scene,
weren't you, back in the day?

Speaker 4 (38:01):
Here we go. Here we go. Yeah, well, I don't
know if I was part of the scene. I guess
you could say that I kind of dabbled in it. Yeah,
I think the only thing I was cutting was shapes
on the dance floor. I don't know if I was
really cutting up too much on the microphone, although I
do have a very distant memory of getting on the stage,

(38:22):
and I think Tiki Tane of Salmonella Dub was emceeing,
and I managed to jump up on the stage and
have a bit of a blast. And I think as I...
retreated to the exit stage left, he was like, who
was that guy? So, yeah, I'll claim that. But, yeah,
I'm still doing a bit of writing, actually. I still,
you know, write a few songs and a bit of

(38:44):
poetry from time to time. If I can't sleep at night,
I'll wake up and put a pen to pad. And, yeah,
it's a nice way to sort of relax and calm
your mind.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
And, yeah, it's good.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
You should have been at the Poetry Night in Te
Arau about 10 days ago.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
Oh, I didn't know anything about her. I would have
loved to have gone, mate.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah, I went along. It was my wife's birthday. She
was outside with a mate, but I went inside and
had a listen. And yeah, poetry and emotions as such.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's good. It's good for the soul.
It's a good way to express yourself. In fact, I
don't know about you, mate, but I kind of get
the feeling that there's a lot more open mic nights
happening around the country. And yeah, I I'd like to
know whether or not there are open mic nights in
Gore or in the Cargill. I mean, if there's the
poetry night in Te Ana, and I don't know if

(39:32):
that's a regular thing or not, but we should be
doing more of this stuff, I reckon.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Hey, look, you were a part of the stone-skimming champs,
New Zealand champs at Lake Hawea a couple of months back. Now, overnight,
Abby McDonald, based in Queenstown, she took out the Women's Prize.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Yeah, unbelievable, isn't it? Like, the world champion. Although, you know,
I witnessed her winning the New Zealand Aotearoa stone skimming
championships on Lake Hawea, and you know, people go, oh shit,
how hard can it be? And it's like, well, actually, no,
you've got to actually keep within a laneway, and I
think from memory, we had a six metre laneway that

(40:10):
we had to keep the stone inside, but Correct me
if I'm wrong, but I think in Scotland, I think
it's a four metre lane. So it's very difficult. My
understanding was that she managed to top out at 72 metres,
which is very impressive.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Now, my bone of contention with stone skimming, careful how
you say that, was that not distance, but how many
times you could get the stone to bubble up and
down as it just fluttered across the water.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
Well, interestingly enough, mate, when I was first approached by
Jeff Ross up at Lakeside Highway Station to say, hey, look,
I'd like you to come along, would you give it
a whirl? I was like, yeah, no problem. And, you know,
they've got the very strict sort of adjudicators and judges
and cameras set up and all the rest of it.
And I thought that part of the criteria was exactly that,

(40:58):
how many times the stone actually breaks.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Skims on the water yes.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
Because i as a kid remember you know it was
always like yeah i got 27 i counted 27 skips
in there and and um yeah i i you know
i thought that would have been part of the criteria
as well but i guess it's very unless you've got
super high speed cameras to be able to count uh
each each stone and i don't know if they had
that tech or not but maybe they should bring.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
It in No, we've got that clarified anyway. But you've
got some cool stuff going on there where you're based
at Garston. You've got a keg of beer from a
beer company that's going to be sitting in a hut.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
Well, yeah, I mean, I've got a PR company coming
down from Auckland tomorrow and they're measuring up one of
the huts. And what they're basically going to do is
wrap the hut in a, well, it's a zero beer, right?

Speaker 1 (41:48):
It's Heineken Zero.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
Heineken Zero, yes. It's like a global giant Heineken, as
we all know. But also, as we've found out in
the news quite recently, the rates of alcoholic drinking or
drinking of alcoholic beverages is dropping quite rapidly in New Zealand,
which is a healthy thing, which is a good thing, really.
But it's being superseded by the likes of the Zero beers.

(42:12):
And To be brutally honest, you know, when they first
came out, I thought, oh, God, they tasted a bit
like horse piss, to be fair. But, yeah, they're coming away,
and they're actually, some of them are really good.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
Just finally, ground conditions at Garston, how have things been?
Is it wet?

Speaker 4 (42:29):
Oh, it is a bit wet underfoot, actually, to be fair.
You know, a beautiful day, but, yeah, we've had a
decent amount of precipitation, mate, and that's... And it's certainly
a bit of surface water in some of the lower-lying
parts and areas. But I'm standing on a veranda at
the moment, and I'm looking out over the paddocks, and
I see all of the poplars and willows sort of

(42:51):
in the shelter-bouts. They're all just popping. They're just beautiful, iridescent, beautiful,
bright greens and yellows. And it's very pleasant to look at. So,
you know, spring has literally sprung.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Good on you, Tom. Always appreciate your time.

Speaker 7 (43:06):
Good on you.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
See you, mate.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Laugh out loud with Ag Proud, cos life on the
land can be a laughing matter.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Brought to us by Shearwell Data, working to help the
livestock farmer. What's the difference between a moose and an ant?
A moose is antlers, but an ant doesn't have mooselers. Well,
that's us over and done with for the afternoon. Hopefully
we get some drying out there. My name's Andy Muir.

(43:36):
Of course, the muster is brought to you by Peter's Genetics.
Podcast will be going up shortly thanks to iHeartRadio, and
I'll see you tomorrow at 1 o'clock.