The Muster- Greg Erickson: Cattle Price Fluctuations

Former Waimumu resident Greg Erickson now resides in Canada and he says that cattle prices over there fluctuate at a ridiculous rate, almost weekly.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Musters on the Farm brought to you by Southland
District Council working together for a better Southland.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
We're away over to Canada this afternoon on the Muster.
Former Waymoumi resident Greg Erickson now resides over there near
the town of Millet, where he's involved in the farming
industry's driving harvesters, tracks, you name it, that's what Gregg's
up to. Good afternoon, Greg, Thanks for joining us once again.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Oh problem, Mandy, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
How's everything over in Millet today?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Hi? Everything is pretty good. Here's nice. Know it's plus six.
We're looking pretty sunny for the middle of November. Quite nice.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
So it's pretty mild for the time of years. What
you normally expect. Give us an idea what temperatures should
normally be.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
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 the flip of the coin.
You might get hot, you might get cold, just you
just never know.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Is that in south Yes? Yep, Well so that is
getting cold the end, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Is that in a cool off? Yeah, historical off, but
it's not too bad yet. It's uh, we know the
cold's coming, but it's you know, we take take the
good what we can.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Does it become mind over meadow when it gets that
nippy or you just deal with it?

Speaker 1 (01:25):
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 the warm up, it's still
hurting and you're you could be in trouble.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
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, though, how did it go?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Harvest was excellance. We had a pretty good amount of
rain up until July and a little bit in August,
and 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.

(02:14):
It's been fantastic, so.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
It's a reasonably buoyant mood in the sector at the moment,
it is.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
It is. The prices are a bit of a drag,
but the excess yield is helping cover the losses.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Now you're explaining the prices before, and obviously we working
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 1 (02:44):
Yeah, so, well, currently the price a week for a
bushel was about seven dollars and the Canadian dolls, 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,

(03:07):
they buy and sell them tons. But the farmers they
see yields, they're in bushels, so there's constant conversion and frustrating.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
So they're working in tons, the big players, as you
put them, because that's what the overseas markets dictate.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
I guess. So the only one, as far as I know,
the only folks who use bushels are the farmers in
North America. But there's plenty of them, so that's what
we use. But yeah, the big guys whose definitely use metric.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you're talking bushels. And when do you start working
in tannage in the works? I mean you talk about
your trucks, some big rigs on the road over there.
I do say you're not dealing in bushels when it
comes to tear weight.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
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. Again.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
This sounds bloody confusing. Good on you, America.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, it's it's a challenge.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
And then you work in kilometers in Canada, but you
go over the border, it's all in miles.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
That's correct. Yes, And a lot of the vehicles have
both on the dash because you know, across the border
or the maid half made in Canada and the other
half of the vehicles made in the States, and they
bounce back and forth, so they've got to gott to
accommodate both systems.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Now, take you to get used to that over time, though.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
It 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 (04:46):
So what about this shoes facing Canadian farming. At the moment, Greg,
we're hearing about terrace the terriffs from America regarding New
Zealand beef have been dropped over the weekends. So it's
a very reactive, reactive move by the mirror can give him,
which 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.

(05:07):
How's he viewed by the farming community.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Well, he seems to be viewed positively. He's certainly an
improvement on the previous pro minis of Justin Trudeau in
terms of how 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,

(05:34):
he's playing 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 this. 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.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Mine, Is it a case would be key for what
you wish for though playing games with the Trumpster?

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Oh absolutely, you never know what's going to 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 last?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
You know? But at least you've got a PM over there.
He seems to recognize farming unlike Trudeau.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
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 (06:42):
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 1 (06:53):
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.

(07:13):
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 shifting Canada yet. I sort
they haven't got back in the swing of things since
the holiday.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
See this sounds like bigger fluctuations in the sheer market.
We're only talking live stock.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
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 (07:40):
What about sheep prices, land prices around where you agree? God,
there's not many of them about.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
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 are
just if you want to go buy one, you can
go buy one, but there's no markets per.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Se ye're certainly interesting to see what the farming landscapes
over there compared to New Zealand. Greg, hey will leave
it there. Always appreciate your time on the muster and
wrap up and stay warm.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
YEA, thanks Hendy.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Greg Erickson, formerly a boy Moon who now residing at
Millet in Canada. You're listening to the muster before you
wrap up. Elliott Smith, the voice of rugby and news
talk Zby and Gold Sport, looking at the Albacks twenty
four hours after their latest loss.