December 9, 2025 • 10 mins
James Edgar says why he thinks that gwtting winter crops in by a set date will maximise growth conditions during a slow season.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is a master around Hawker.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We were away to Mowa Flat this afternoon, catching up
with James Egga farming over that way, hopefully not getting
blown off the hills or anything silly. James, good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh here's a gun ending.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's one of the maybe five days I've had all
season that there's no wind at the moment, so it
certainly hasn't been too many. I went out fishing fishing
with the Great Wolfson there on Sunday and we had
a beautiful day and a waker and there was no
win for year. It's I've really enjoyed the five days
it hasn't been windy.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
How many fish did you catch?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh? Just enough for a feed year four or five
and ticked around a few power and yeah, and I
was just really a bit of a good day off farm.
So that was nice to do something different. It's been
pretty much chaos here, but we're well on the control.
But yeah, it's certainly busy, busy time of the year
up until about now and then start waning and stuff.
But we really trying to focus on getting those swedes
(01:07):
and then the groundwork done and focus on getting those
lambs drenched and tailed and yeah, it's just the sort
of that time of the year. There's about three months
of the year to go. Boy really fast.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You can almost rename December organized chaos.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, we'd well, air crops are all in, so it's
all ticked off. We'll try and get more cars in
November if we can. So we've just got a couple
of days waning to tidy up before Christmas and finishing
the lamb drenching sort of this week. And we're out
here just at the top road. And I don't know
if you're making this job. So yeah, it's under control,
(01:43):
which is actually a nice feeling. But yeah, I certainly
I don't like to have the swedes in lateness one thing.
I don't like it, especially up here. We were all
there winter crops too much.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So what would you call late for your Swedes.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, that's a great question. First in December really yep,
got to be in in November preferably. We would like
to work on the middle of November, especially where you
sort of sow about seventy hec DAEs, so you've got
to get started probably the middle of the month, just
to make sure you finish your last pedix on time.
But yeah, uh, we're quite close to Central Tigo. Sometimes
(02:19):
not every season, but we certainly can. If we're drawing out,
it's must to get those couple of rains on the
swedes early, just to get them up and going. If
you get too late into December and then you get
that dry January on them like Central you just, yeah,
it's pretty hard and everything.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So if you had a more consistent rainfall, you wouldn't
be too stressed about your swedes going in, say, mid December.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I've done it before. I figure it pays to panic
early because that way you get them in at some stage.
If you're aiming for the middle of December and then
they're not in by Christmas, you know, you're just getting mind. Yeah,
it's just one of the things in farming up here.
I've found it's a lot easier six of the year
if you've got good winter crops because you can just
(03:02):
do your feed budgets and everything works and you're not streeting.
If you've got a week of snow or anything like that,
are you know, you can just feed them more. Whereas
when you don't have enough up here, you can lose
a lot of weight and sheep and cattle just trying
to get through. Yeah, not every year, it's just some
I always try, and it's just risk mitigation. It's something
that I really focus on as getting those crops and
(03:25):
is it.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
A spray and sow situation or you're working the ground.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
No sweetens a drect drilled, so we just spray them
two days later the swedes go straight in that next
grass spray is really the timing of that. That's the
absolute key I found, and we use and plenty of fertilizer.
We don't usually worry about coming back in with nitrogen.
It's more the grass and weed spray that you do
about a month, well six weeks after sewing. It just depends,
(03:53):
but that's an absolute key. You just can't have the
grass or weeds competing with the swedes through the timing
of any spray. My opinion with drick drilling is yeah,
absolutely key. And we're using two hundred and fifty kilos
a DAP down the spout, so plenty of fertilizer as
well because they can't grow without fertilizer. So yeah, no,
it's working out for us anyway.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So you're working on a season of Tago climate, what
are your clover covers. Like at the moment, climate is.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Really good, stock are really good.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's just sometimes we can dry out. I guess some
of the lightest souls we don't like it. Sometimes you
can drive if you ever coming up the hill from Etric,
you can watch the line of the dry and it
comes all the way up to Male Flat. So you can,
especially in the summer, if you go down there for
ice cream months a week and you'll just watch the
dry and they will just come all the way up
right up to the top of Mile Flat, so you
can actually you've got about three weeks warning. I reckon
(04:47):
if you keep an eye on that dry lines. That's
sort of a yeah, wee thing I do sometimes.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, so you use the excuse of an ice cream
and intric to actually go and see what the line's doing.
As far as moisture on the.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Hills, Yeah it did, right.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, lamb quality, we're getting up to waning season. If
people haven't weaned, it's pretty much just that time being
in December. You reckon, lamb quality is something needs to
be focused on, given especially the way the prices have rebounded. Yeah,
I do.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And we were just talking there off there before. Certainly
something I've been thinking about and I hear comments from
people around the place sometimes, you know, and talking about
really getting hard into those lambs at weaning time because
the price is good, you know, going down to fifteen
point five KOs sixteen kilos. And I guess something that
(05:34):
I'm reflecting on the eleven dollars lamb schedule is that
actually the most important thing is to keep the quality
of our product up in market because if people stop
buying it because it's not very good, well what's going
to happen to our price? It's actually going to go down.
So one of the things I think we really need
to focus on as farmers is actually having to think
about the consumer. And you know, if you've got those
(05:57):
hard lambs and I've gone off and there were there,
the reality is the store price is very high and
maybe they're better off going somewhere so somebody else can
fatten them up. Because yeah, I guess that's just one
thing I reflect on, you know, as we go forward,
I guess with lower sheet numbers, we actually need to
be really focused on the quality of the product we're
(06:18):
supplying because I know, even in Australia, you've been listening
to some podcasts over there, and they've starting to really
work on intramuscular fat and lambs, and actually Pete Garden
is the one to talk to about that next time
if you're interested. But there's quite a bit in there.
But I guess when it comes back to it's the
same as a good steak. If you see that nice
marble steak and it looks good and it's been hung well,
(06:41):
you know, you know you're in for a really good
eating cordy experience and you're actually happy to pay the
money to get it. But if you have a really
tough steak, you know, you might you think to yourself, oh,
I know I can actually do something with checken or
some other protein or something else. So I guess I'm
just reflecting as far everywhere we should all be actually
thinking about that and thinking about how every lamb if
(07:04):
we can, that goes off their farm to go and
get processed, is actually you know, you can be really
happy to eat it yourself. And I think they will
just help the markets and they'll just help everyone oversees
the consumer because I actually get a great experience, like yes,
even though it's more expensive, I will actually pay for
the lamb because I want to, you know, show other
people say, yeah, something that I guess as a farmer,
(07:25):
it's not thought of very much, but it's sort of
needs to be. I guess as we're going through this
time of high prices.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Two things come to mind for me straight away, James.
Number one is animal genetics, thus giving you a better product.
But number two, like you talked about before, is every
season is different than lambs and aren't just going to
go out sometimes the way we hope. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Absolutely, I think the modern days changed, and I actually, well, yeah,
a couple of points from me. One of them i'd
like to maybe are backing off of the with the poaching.
Companies need to give you the market premiums as they go.
(08:06):
They don't need to change change the point compared to
how many are coming out of New Zealand, because that's
actually not a good market signal to just crash and
burn it weaning because you know, the price is going
to go down a dollar fifty just because there's plenty
of lambs here and the you know that's the process
is large, and well, that's actually not good for anybody
because then people are panicking killing these lambs. Light or
(08:28):
not quite fat enough when they could get further. It's
not optimum for the eating experience. I guess that's just
that's just us in the processing companies, which is actually
the wrong way. We're not thinking about the consumer enough
if we're doing that. So, yeah, that's certainly one thing
i'd like changed. And the other thing I think is
definitely there because we've got lower sheet numbers. It's very
(08:50):
and there's quite a lot of you know, lamb lamb
fatness around the place. I guess I don't see the
store market. Well. I make sure it's worth enough that
it's actually better off to take that to somebody else
to make some money off once again, and not just
process it because the process are competing to fill up
their chain. It's a bit of a roundabout way you're
(09:11):
saying that. I think everyone from the farm and the process,
so we all need to think about the consumer more
because that way everyone can have high prices on the
way through and not just think about squabbling around with
New Zealand putting premiums on killing light lambs or lambs
that actually aren't finished or won't deliver the desired eating experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, wise words as always James will leave it there.
Thanks for your time on the Muster, not just today
but throughout the year. You enjoy the holiday season mates,
and we'll be in touched in twenty twenty six. Always
appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Thanks Andy, and I hope everyone out there, including you,
has a new year and merry Christmas. So no, it's good.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
James Egger of mar Flat. Shout out Wilson Devery as well.
It's always good to have you listening in Wilson as
you are happy. Next and Studio Graham Butcher. This is
the Muster.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Mm hmm
This is a master around Hawker.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We were away to Mowa Flat this afternoon, catching up
with James Egga farming over that way, hopefully not getting
blown off the hills or anything silly. James, good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh here's a gun ending.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's one of the maybe five days I've had all
season that there's no wind at the moment, so it
certainly hasn't been too many. I went out fishing fishing
with the Great Wolfson there on Sunday and we had
a beautiful day and a waker and there was no
win for year. It's I've really enjoyed the five days
it hasn't been windy.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
How many fish did you catch?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh? Just enough for a feed year four or five
and ticked around a few power and yeah, and I
was just really a bit of a good day off farm.
So that was nice to do something different. It's been
pretty much chaos here, but we're well on the control.
But yeah, it's certainly busy, busy time of the year
up until about now and then start waning and stuff.
But we really trying to focus on getting those swedes
(01:07):
and then the groundwork done and focus on getting those
lambs drenched and tailed and yeah, it's just the sort
of that time of the year. There's about three months
of the year to go. Boy really fast.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You can almost rename December organized chaos.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, we'd well, air crops are all in, so it's
all ticked off. We'll try and get more cars in
November if we can. So we've just got a couple
of days waning to tidy up before Christmas and finishing
the lamb drenching sort of this week. And we're out
here just at the top road. And I don't know
if you're making this job. So yeah, it's under control,
(01:43):
which is actually a nice feeling. But yeah, I certainly
I don't like to have the swedes in lateness one thing.
I don't like it, especially up here. We were all
there winter crops too much.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So what would you call late for your Swedes.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, that's a great question. First in December really yep,
got to be in in November preferably. We would like
to work on the middle of November, especially where you
sort of sow about seventy hec DAEs, so you've got
to get started probably the middle of the month, just
to make sure you finish your last pedix on time.
But yeah, uh, we're quite close to Central Tigo. Sometimes
(02:19):
not every season, but we certainly can. If we're drawing out,
it's must to get those couple of rains on the
swedes early, just to get them up and going. If
you get too late into December and then you get
that dry January on them like Central you just, yeah,
it's pretty hard and everything.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So if you had a more consistent rainfall, you wouldn't
be too stressed about your swedes going in, say, mid December.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I've done it before. I figure it pays to panic
early because that way you get them in at some stage.
If you're aiming for the middle of December and then
they're not in by Christmas, you know, you're just getting mind. Yeah,
it's just one of the things in farming up here.
I've found it's a lot easier six of the year
if you've got good winter crops because you can just
(03:02):
do your feed budgets and everything works and you're not streeting.
If you've got a week of snow or anything like that,
are you know, you can just feed them more. Whereas
when you don't have enough up here, you can lose
a lot of weight and sheep and cattle just trying
to get through. Yeah, not every year, it's just some
I always try, and it's just risk mitigation. It's something
that I really focus on as getting those crops and
(03:25):
is it.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
A spray and sow situation or you're working the ground.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
No sweetens a drect drilled, so we just spray them
two days later the swedes go straight in that next
grass spray is really the timing of that. That's the
absolute key I found, and we use and plenty of fertilizer.
We don't usually worry about coming back in with nitrogen.
It's more the grass and weed spray that you do
about a month, well six weeks after sewing. It just depends,
(03:53):
but that's an absolute key. You just can't have the
grass or weeds competing with the swedes through the timing
of any spray. My opinion with drick drilling is yeah,
absolutely key. And we're using two hundred and fifty kilos
a DAP down the spout, so plenty of fertilizer as
well because they can't grow without fertilizer. So yeah, no,
it's working out for us anyway.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So you're working on a season of Tago climate, what
are your clover covers. Like at the moment, climate is.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Really good, stock are really good.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's just sometimes we can dry out. I guess some
of the lightest souls we don't like it. Sometimes you
can drive if you ever coming up the hill from Etric,
you can watch the line of the dry and it
comes all the way up to Male Flat. So you can,
especially in the summer, if you go down there for
ice cream months a week and you'll just watch the
dry and they will just come all the way up
right up to the top of Mile Flat, so you
can actually you've got about three weeks warning. I reckon
(04:47):
if you keep an eye on that dry lines. That's
sort of a yeah, wee thing I do sometimes.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, so you use the excuse of an ice cream
and intric to actually go and see what the line's doing.
As far as moisture on the.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Hills, Yeah it did, right.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, lamb quality, we're getting up to waning season. If
people haven't weaned, it's pretty much just that time being
in December. You reckon, lamb quality is something needs to
be focused on, given especially the way the prices have rebounded. Yeah,
I do.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And we were just talking there off there before. Certainly
something I've been thinking about and I hear comments from
people around the place sometimes, you know, and talking about
really getting hard into those lambs at weaning time because
the price is good, you know, going down to fifteen
point five KOs sixteen kilos. And I guess something that
(05:34):
I'm reflecting on the eleven dollars lamb schedule is that
actually the most important thing is to keep the quality
of our product up in market because if people stop
buying it because it's not very good, well what's going
to happen to our price? It's actually going to go down.
So one of the things I think we really need
to focus on as farmers is actually having to think
about the consumer. And you know, if you've got those
(05:57):
hard lambs and I've gone off and there were there,
the reality is the store price is very high and
maybe they're better off going somewhere so somebody else can
fatten them up. Because yeah, I guess that's just one
thing I reflect on, you know, as we go forward,
I guess with lower sheet numbers, we actually need to
be really focused on the quality of the product we're
(06:18):
supplying because I know, even in Australia, you've been listening
to some podcasts over there, and they've starting to really
work on intramuscular fat and lambs, and actually Pete Garden
is the one to talk to about that next time
if you're interested. But there's quite a bit in there.
But I guess when it comes back to it's the
same as a good steak. If you see that nice
marble steak and it looks good and it's been hung well,
(06:41):
you know, you know you're in for a really good
eating cordy experience and you're actually happy to pay the
money to get it. But if you have a really
tough steak, you know, you might you think to yourself, oh,
I know I can actually do something with checken or
some other protein or something else. So I guess I'm
just reflecting as far everywhere we should all be actually
thinking about that and thinking about how every lamb if
(07:04):
we can, that goes off their farm to go and
get processed, is actually you know, you can be really
happy to eat it yourself. And I think they will
just help the markets and they'll just help everyone oversees
the consumer because I actually get a great experience, like yes,
even though it's more expensive, I will actually pay for
the lamb because I want to, you know, show other
people say, yeah, something that I guess as a farmer,
(07:25):
it's not thought of very much, but it's sort of
needs to be. I guess as we're going through this
time of high prices.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Two things come to mind for me straight away, James.
Number one is animal genetics, thus giving you a better product.
But number two, like you talked about before, is every
season is different than lambs and aren't just going to
go out sometimes the way we hope. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Absolutely, I think the modern days changed, and I actually, well, yeah,
a couple of points from me. One of them i'd
like to maybe are backing off of the with the poaching.
Companies need to give you the market premiums as they go.
(08:06):
They don't need to change change the point compared to
how many are coming out of New Zealand, because that's
actually not a good market signal to just crash and
burn it weaning because you know, the price is going
to go down a dollar fifty just because there's plenty
of lambs here and the you know that's the process
is large, and well, that's actually not good for anybody
because then people are panicking killing these lambs. Light or
(08:28):
not quite fat enough when they could get further. It's
not optimum for the eating experience. I guess that's just
that's just us in the processing companies, which is actually
the wrong way. We're not thinking about the consumer enough
if we're doing that. So, yeah, that's certainly one thing
i'd like changed. And the other thing I think is
definitely there because we've got lower sheet numbers. It's very
(08:50):
and there's quite a lot of you know, lamb lamb
fatness around the place. I guess I don't see the
store market. Well. I make sure it's worth enough that
it's actually better off to take that to somebody else
to make some money off once again, and not just
process it because the process are competing to fill up
their chain. It's a bit of a roundabout way you're
(09:11):
saying that. I think everyone from the farm and the process,
so we all need to think about the consumer more
because that way everyone can have high prices on the
way through and not just think about squabbling around with
New Zealand putting premiums on killing light lambs or lambs
that actually aren't finished or won't deliver the desired eating experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, wise words as always James will leave it there.
Thanks for your time on the Muster, not just today
but throughout the year. You enjoy the holiday season mates,
and we'll be in touched in twenty twenty six. Always
appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Thanks Andy, and I hope everyone out there, including you,
has a new year and merry Christmas. So no, it's good.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
James Egger of mar Flat. Shout out Wilson Devery as well.
It's always good to have you listening in Wilson as
you are happy. Next and Studio Graham Butcher. This is
the Muster.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Mm hmm
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