March 31, 2026 • 9 mins
James Edgar says the outlook for Kiwi red meat remains positive despite geopolitical tension adding to the current situation.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
I hear the trainer come, it's all and around it,
and I seen the suns. James Egger farms at moa
Flat and joins us once again on the must good afternoon. James,
Have I got the hat track? Have I got three
artists in a row that you actually like?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah? Yeah, No, I actually do like Johnny Keny hell
Lojah movie.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I watched the movie once and it's actually Yeah. The
guys had an incredibly interesting life involved sort of a
that real rock star sort of way of life that
only those guys have ever lived.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I guess and defi's logic that members of the Rolling
Stones are still alive.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh, you must be a lot of lucking some of
that stuff. He lived for a very long time too,
and he was reasonably hardened the body, Shall we say, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It's probably a fair assumption. Hey maa flat. How are things?
As we spoke to you a couple of weeks ago.
Has been an evolving feast in the rural landscape?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, absolutely, it has been. From a personal point of view.
On the farm, we've had forty five mills and we
were getting like really really dry, like no past your
growth and just starting to get too long from the
point of view, since we had any past your growth,
we've sort of been selling down all the stuff we
could and extending their rotations through our ewes and lambs,
(01:28):
and yeah, I was thinking, oh no, this is not
going very well at all. But yeah, since then, it's
gone really well. And we've had enough hate and I
suppose the rocks underneath are dry enough, you know, and warm,
so the past has taken off. Now we put a
bit of nitrogen on basically everywhere was there maintenance fertilizer
this year, and I'm really pleased we did that. So
(01:51):
that's all gone really well. We have the veterans today,
my sister, So what we've done, I think we've talked
about it a couple of times. Andy. So now we
have check about five times a year on our stock
and it just sort of gives us a bit of
a scorecard. So today Sam's going to be she'll put
a condition score on each marble. Use So how we
(02:14):
do that. Probably in a perfect world you should condition
score every single sheep. We don't do that where you
just conditions score twenty or thirty at a time and
each mob and then sort of give us a mob score.
Then we've done like selenium or mineral blood tests before,
but we're not going to do that anymore because it
results are really consistent now and we don't need any minerals.
(02:37):
And we'll do some EFECT tests, so we'll go through
every mob of use and around the place and they'll
all get fect tested today, so I'll get the results
back and we can find out what the results are.
Really So I think it's been really good because we're
in more than one location and getting someone independent. It's
(02:58):
not you that knows how dry it or how you're
trying to get about greedy and you know, lifted your
lamb weights when you shouldn't have, or however that works.
It's really good to get that scorecard. So yeah, we'll
get that done today and yeah, lets us know at
scanning time we'll be able to get another scorecard and
basically we'll be able to look back and see how
(03:19):
we've gone and then the result we've got. Yeah, so
it's been good.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Did you say your sister's the VET.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, so my sister does just been good. Well, you'd
like to think that endy, but you know, it's it's
an expensive world at the moment. So I'm told, so
we paid market rate. But I think when we had
the beef and lamb field day at my place, I
think there was a difference between maybe perfection on a
(03:46):
piece of paper and efficiency. Because I've found so we
can basically get all our mobs done, you know, in
four hairs, because we just have cuts of every single
marb of sheet sitting in the yard, so when the
vet turns up, we can just do it so far
and so it doesn't it's quite cost effective, whereas if
(04:06):
you're setting into seven thousand years to condition score everything,
every single one, it's just going to take too long
and become really expensive. So yeah, we're more looking for
a snapshot, you know, and then we can if we
know some mobs are slightly lighter than others, we can
either draft them out or we can do different things
with them or feed them better than other mobs. So yeah,
(04:27):
it's just really to get a snapshot for us so
we can do our feed budgets from there.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I guess, of course, a hog at one fifty group
is what we're talking about. We actually spoke to the
team on their travels back down south a couple of
weeks ago. But let you say, James. Putting yourself out
there can be intimidating.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, No, I thought it was really good there. We
appreciated them coming round fairly sharp farmers there, And yeah,
I think it's I still believe the sheep industry some
of our metrics don't necessarily make money. So, like we
put a lot of emphasis on scanning percentages, you know,
and some guys are going well north of two hundred percent,
(05:07):
but I'd still argue that they don't pay any bills.
The higher you scan, there's still a lot of work
to do from there, and we probably don't talk enough
about cage's a heat you're produced, or you know, kilos
of lambs sold, or you know, some of those metrics
that actually make money where if you have a look
at the dairy industry, you know, they talk about milk solids,
(05:27):
you know, stock cells per milk solid, like some of
their metrics and costs to produce the milk solid, which
are actually metrics that how your business is running. Yeah,
as I say, and you know, I still shake my
head sometimes that the sheep farmers all they're worried about
us selling all their lambs early so they can scan higher. Well,
(05:50):
i'd argue, you know, you need to do the math
on it. Could you have maybe sold your lambs heavier
and scanned a bit less and ends up at the
same position and sold the same amount of meat per hecta.
I don't know, you know, just yeah, this one probably
personal gripe I have in the sheep industry.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Talking about lamb over in Australia. Record prices at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, we're just going off here. I think this is
probably the most excited I've ever been coming into a season.
I think the prices are better again Andy, And I'm
sure the normal consumer doesn't like to hear that, but
the Australian sheep flocks about the lowest it's been in
about forty years, and they're struggling to get enough stock
to process, so they're getting record prices. I see there's
(06:34):
a lot of contracts coming out over there at twelve
dollars Australian per kilo. And I think you've seen the
new zeal lamb kill. It's about eight percent back and
in my opinion, it's going to stay back. I don't
think the forecast and extra lambs are there personally, and
a lot of those lambs to be for now what't
be seen to October. All those lambs have gone to Canterbury,
(06:55):
So I think that's really exciting. And we've got to
mate and he's supposed to be in Australia right now
seeding grain, and he's been told to stay at home
and they'll basically let him know when to come over
or if they come over, because they're actually thinking they
won't even planning to crop this year, just with the
fuel and fertilizer prices over there, which will be incredibly
(07:18):
interesting as that runs through the system because a lot
of the cattle, especially but even some lambs they're grain fed,
they're actually feed lot finished. So what's the meat price
can do next year if all these big producers of
grain fed beef have to pay a lot more for
their grain. I mean, it's going to be quite interesting times,
very inflationary. But yeah, I still find a lot of
(07:41):
reason to be positive, I guess, even with the increase
of fuel and fertilizer pricing.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So you're flying against the grain somewhat haired James, and
you're prepared to predict that the upcoming season for real
meat producers is going to be a very good one.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yep. Yeah, I'm willing to say that I've had a
check a history on the show with some of my
predictions though, so it really is not. It's a very
uneducated guest. But anyway, no, I do. That's just some
of the pieces I see. They're just with supply and demand.
I see a lot these supply and the demand seems
to be holding up, and we've got a fantastic product.
(08:17):
And it'd be really interesting to see what happens with
this grain thing going forward, with all this grain feed beef,
with the fertilizer and prices especially, and you know you
see some of that stuff with the fuel, like you
can't see the crop without enough diesel, can you. So
some of these big places in Australia and places like that,
(08:38):
they just don't plan a crop, shut up shop and
then come back next year. So I think it's going
to be incredibly interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Okay, we'll go and revisit this yarn in about six
months time, James Iger, and we'll see how we're placed.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's very good, Andy. Hopefully it's not like a thing
I called I learned very early on, don't forecast the weather,
because I've actually got literally no idea on that one.
I think I called it Lemming a few years ago,
and I think it was that really weat one, so
I've certainly got a check in history with some of these.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
You've got a track record. James, good on your mate,
always appreciate your time on the muster Jee than James
Egg of Mala flat and just on that. Regarding the
price of red meat, supermarkets are doing deals in the
lead up to Easter. For example, rump steak. At the
moment you can pick it up for twenty one ninety
(09:29):
yaquilo in free flow form at one of the supermarkets
here and Gore, I think there's a sale line for
Lamb as well, and yes it's not ideal, but nonetheless
it's certainly a lot better than what it's been. So
if you're coming into town, just do a bit of
a comparison throughout the supermarkets and see what you think. Niga,
what heads up next,
I hear the trainer come, it's all and around it,
and I seen the suns. James Egger farms at moa
Flat and joins us once again on the must good afternoon. James,
Have I got the hat track? Have I got three
artists in a row that you actually like?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah? Yeah, No, I actually do like Johnny Keny hell
Lojah movie.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I watched the movie once and it's actually Yeah. The
guys had an incredibly interesting life involved sort of a
that real rock star sort of way of life that
only those guys have ever lived.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I guess and defi's logic that members of the Rolling
Stones are still alive.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh, you must be a lot of lucking some of
that stuff. He lived for a very long time too,
and he was reasonably hardened the body, Shall we say, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It's probably a fair assumption. Hey maa flat. How are things?
As we spoke to you a couple of weeks ago.
Has been an evolving feast in the rural landscape?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, absolutely, it has been. From a personal point of view.
On the farm, we've had forty five mills and we
were getting like really really dry, like no past your
growth and just starting to get too long from the
point of view, since we had any past your growth,
we've sort of been selling down all the stuff we
could and extending their rotations through our ewes and lambs,
(01:28):
and yeah, I was thinking, oh no, this is not
going very well at all. But yeah, since then, it's
gone really well. And we've had enough hate and I
suppose the rocks underneath are dry enough, you know, and warm,
so the past has taken off. Now we put a
bit of nitrogen on basically everywhere was there maintenance fertilizer
this year, and I'm really pleased we did that. So
(01:51):
that's all gone really well. We have the veterans today,
my sister, So what we've done, I think we've talked
about it a couple of times. Andy. So now we
have check about five times a year on our stock
and it just sort of gives us a bit of
a scorecard. So today Sam's going to be she'll put
a condition score on each marble. Use So how we
(02:14):
do that. Probably in a perfect world you should condition
score every single sheep. We don't do that where you
just conditions score twenty or thirty at a time and
each mob and then sort of give us a mob score.
Then we've done like selenium or mineral blood tests before,
but we're not going to do that anymore because it
results are really consistent now and we don't need any minerals.
(02:37):
And we'll do some EFECT tests, so we'll go through
every mob of use and around the place and they'll
all get fect tested today, so I'll get the results
back and we can find out what the results are.
Really So I think it's been really good because we're
in more than one location and getting someone independent. It's
(02:58):
not you that knows how dry it or how you're
trying to get about greedy and you know, lifted your
lamb weights when you shouldn't have, or however that works.
It's really good to get that scorecard. So yeah, we'll
get that done today and yeah, lets us know at
scanning time we'll be able to get another scorecard and
basically we'll be able to look back and see how
(03:19):
we've gone and then the result we've got. Yeah, so
it's been good.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Did you say your sister's the VET.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, so my sister does just been good. Well, you'd
like to think that endy, but you know, it's it's
an expensive world at the moment. So I'm told, so
we paid market rate. But I think when we had
the beef and lamb field day at my place, I
think there was a difference between maybe perfection on a
(03:46):
piece of paper and efficiency. Because I've found so we
can basically get all our mobs done, you know, in
four hairs, because we just have cuts of every single
marb of sheet sitting in the yard, so when the
vet turns up, we can just do it so far
and so it doesn't it's quite cost effective, whereas if
(04:06):
you're setting into seven thousand years to condition score everything,
every single one, it's just going to take too long
and become really expensive. So yeah, we're more looking for
a snapshot, you know, and then we can if we
know some mobs are slightly lighter than others, we can
either draft them out or we can do different things
with them or feed them better than other mobs. So yeah,
(04:27):
it's just really to get a snapshot for us so
we can do our feed budgets from there.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I guess, of course, a hog at one fifty group
is what we're talking about. We actually spoke to the
team on their travels back down south a couple of
weeks ago. But let you say, James. Putting yourself out
there can be intimidating.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, No, I thought it was really good there. We
appreciated them coming round fairly sharp farmers there, And yeah,
I think it's I still believe the sheep industry some
of our metrics don't necessarily make money. So, like we
put a lot of emphasis on scanning percentages, you know,
and some guys are going well north of two hundred percent,
(05:07):
but I'd still argue that they don't pay any bills.
The higher you scan, there's still a lot of work
to do from there, and we probably don't talk enough
about cage's a heat you're produced, or you know, kilos
of lambs sold, or you know, some of those metrics
that actually make money where if you have a look
at the dairy industry, you know, they talk about milk solids,
(05:27):
you know, stock cells per milk solid, like some of
their metrics and costs to produce the milk solid, which
are actually metrics that how your business is running. Yeah,
as I say, and you know, I still shake my
head sometimes that the sheep farmers all they're worried about
us selling all their lambs early so they can scan higher. Well,
(05:50):
i'd argue, you know, you need to do the math
on it. Could you have maybe sold your lambs heavier
and scanned a bit less and ends up at the
same position and sold the same amount of meat per hecta.
I don't know, you know, just yeah, this one probably
personal gripe I have in the sheep industry.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Talking about lamb over in Australia. Record prices at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, we're just going off here. I think this is
probably the most excited I've ever been coming into a season.
I think the prices are better again Andy, And I'm
sure the normal consumer doesn't like to hear that, but
the Australian sheep flocks about the lowest it's been in
about forty years, and they're struggling to get enough stock
to process, so they're getting record prices. I see there's
(06:34):
a lot of contracts coming out over there at twelve
dollars Australian per kilo. And I think you've seen the
new zeal lamb kill. It's about eight percent back and
in my opinion, it's going to stay back. I don't
think the forecast and extra lambs are there personally, and
a lot of those lambs to be for now what't
be seen to October. All those lambs have gone to Canterbury,
(06:55):
So I think that's really exciting. And we've got to
mate and he's supposed to be in Australia right now
seeding grain, and he's been told to stay at home
and they'll basically let him know when to come over
or if they come over, because they're actually thinking they
won't even planning to crop this year, just with the
fuel and fertilizer prices over there, which will be incredibly
(07:18):
interesting as that runs through the system because a lot
of the cattle, especially but even some lambs they're grain fed,
they're actually feed lot finished. So what's the meat price
can do next year if all these big producers of
grain fed beef have to pay a lot more for
their grain. I mean, it's going to be quite interesting times,
very inflationary. But yeah, I still find a lot of
(07:41):
reason to be positive, I guess, even with the increase
of fuel and fertilizer pricing.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So you're flying against the grain somewhat haired James, and
you're prepared to predict that the upcoming season for real
meat producers is going to be a very good one.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yep. Yeah, I'm willing to say that I've had a
check a history on the show with some of my
predictions though, so it really is not. It's a very
uneducated guest. But anyway, no, I do. That's just some
of the pieces I see. They're just with supply and demand.
I see a lot these supply and the demand seems
to be holding up, and we've got a fantastic product.
(08:17):
And it'd be really interesting to see what happens with
this grain thing going forward, with all this grain feed beef,
with the fertilizer and prices especially, and you know you
see some of that stuff with the fuel, like you
can't see the crop without enough diesel, can you. So
some of these big places in Australia and places like that,
(08:38):
they just don't plan a crop, shut up shop and
then come back next year. So I think it's going
to be incredibly interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Okay, we'll go and revisit this yarn in about six
months time, James Iger, and we'll see how we're placed.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's very good, Andy. Hopefully it's not like a thing
I called I learned very early on, don't forecast the weather,
because I've actually got literally no idea on that one.
I think I called it Lemming a few years ago,
and I think it was that really weat one, so
I've certainly got a check in history with some of these.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
You've got a track record. James, good on your mate,
always appreciate your time on the muster Jee than James
Egg of Mala flat and just on that. Regarding the
price of red meat, supermarkets are doing deals in the
lead up to Easter. For example, rump steak. At the
moment you can pick it up for twenty one ninety
(09:29):
yaquilo in free flow form at one of the supermarkets
here and Gore, I think there's a sale line for
Lamb as well, and yes it's not ideal, but nonetheless
it's certainly a lot better than what it's been. So
if you're coming into town, just do a bit of
a comparison throughout the supermarkets and see what you think. Niga,
what heads up next,
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