July 8, 2026 • 9 mins
Michelle talks about lost luggage in transit, unreasonable synthetic fertiliser policy and her love of the Tour De France!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Country Crossover brought to you by Bioactive Soils growing
together with healthy soils. Choose bioactive agg fertilizer and see
real results from the ground up.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome back to the Muster. Michelle Watts joins us for
this week's Country Crossover thanks to Bioactive Soils. Good afternoon, Michelle,
Daft Punkers the artist. The song is around the World.
Where in the world will Mark Dylan's tractor end up next? Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Who knows? Isn't this just such a crazy story?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Imagine booking your equipment to go somewhere and then finding
out it hadn't even left the port where you originally
had it packed up, but still sitting there.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I believe, So it's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I mean, I was talking to him on the phone
earlier this morning and I said I had a similar situation,
but mine was a lot less dramatic in the way
of equipment, with losing my road bike and going to
an event.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And I can tell.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
You from peeding overseas is nothing worse and losing your gear,
especially you know, things that are absolutely pivotal that you
cannot borrow. And I completely understand, you know, and them
media really so saying that borrowing isn't really an option.
I can completely understand that when you're competing at that level,
it's not ideal and it's really puts a lot of
stress on you for competition.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You wouldn't expect that kind of thing to happen, especially
with a tractor like that movie you do, Where's My Car? Well,
this is the next level up. But look, you've got
air tags and the likes of e tags these days.
You can hook them mind here and see where things
are going. But you think of the track that you
wouldn't need it.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well, you think a tractor would be a fairly obvious thing,
wouldn't it. It's not exactly small, like losing a bag
and Hestro Airport. It's a large piece of equipment. You
think it would be fairly obvious where it was found
or where it was located.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
But we'll watch the story with interest.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Hopefully they get some help with this through public publicity
across the media. Of course, he was on HOSS this
morning as well, so hopefully they managed to get their
equipment over there in time. Because of course they're competing
in September, so it doesn't leave them much time now
to get the equipment over there, and obviously they have
to go through checks and all that sort of stuff
like you do with any sort of world championship with
(02:15):
that equipment as well, So it's quite as a big deal.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And to get over there this year for Vibe, it's
pretty important because he's got a coach. He has a
plowing coach, and it is a thing.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Oh this is cool, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I never realized people had plowing coaches, but you've coaches
for everything, and I guess you do need coaches for
It's a sport just like any other sport, isn't it
where you need someone to sort of help fine tune
your ability, fine tune what you're doing. Plowing is not
just jumping in the tractor at this level and driving
along and plowing a trying to plow a straight line.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
There's a lot more to it than that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Where did you take your bike overseas?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I went to Europe? I've been over there a couple
of times. One time was to Denmark and I've lost
my bike. I think on the way home we lost
a bike, and on the way over there we lost
bike as well once and my bag got lost. And
Heathrow Airport for over a week once. So yeah, I'm
the queen of lost luggage.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I know, I have an individual that's got pink suitcases,
so as luggage doesn't get lost. The Greens and economics, yeah,
you go to school and learn education, right, And unfortunately
the Greens when they've come out of some policies over
the past couple of days, you wonder if the school
he actually worked for a few of these individuals, I
mean the synthetic fertilizer band which they wish to implement
(03:31):
over time, getting rid of cows and the likes. And
I talked about the example yesterday. You think of Sri
Lanka back in twenty twenty one did the same thing.
They ended up reversing at six months later, and it
cost to government their jobs.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh it's just absolutely insane, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
I was listening to Heather during the week about the
synthetic fertilizer thing. I already knew about it because there
was we got we Get Heady releases and.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
All that sort of stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I read it and thought, well that's a bit weird,
and sort of carried on and you know, went into
investing it, looking at getting something on the show. At
a later day, or this week sometime because it was
near the start of the week.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
And then the thing is.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It is just so it's so weird and such a
crazy policy. I think most people looked at it because
either was wondering why they wasn't more made out of it.
But I think people most people read it and thought, well,
that's a bit odd and just carried it on with life.
Or maybe we're desensitized to these policies coming out now, Andy,
do you think.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Chris Hopkins must sit there and shake his head. Even
Damian O'Connor, he must understand that this won't work.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
It'll be interesting actually to catch up with Damien.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Hopefully next week Jamie's back in the hot seat and
we'll catch up with Damien about this and obviously the
why Tucky issue as well with their rates, but this, yeah,
it'd be interesting to hear his take on it, because
he's all about sustainable farming. But I don't know that
he would want to take it that far. And I
do wonder how the Labor Party feel about this policy.
The fact they've moved Steve Able further down their list
(04:57):
on the Green Party list kind of surprised me as well,
because he's the one person that actually has a connection
to farming in that party, So it was very interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
What was your favorite subject to school? Was it economics
or maths of the likes?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Neither of those two really No.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Maybe a bit of science, but mainly English, believe it
or not, was my top subject. And obviously the good
old pe sports and stuff like that, that was my thing.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I enjoyed economics. So I remember back in forth form,
back in on Maru DSIs and Kevin's and mister Stad
with a deep English accent talking about commodities, and it's
just stuck with me to this day. John pimb And, Off,
you're listening, you know exactly what I'm talking about there.
How do you find AOI, Michelle, Because there's a lot
of good around it? But is it progressing too fast?
(05:44):
Is it taking away your ability to think?
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I think that's probably the scary thing about it, is
relying on it too much. I think a lot of
it is around education with artificial intelligence, so it's more
it's not always one hundred percent correct, so you do
need to check stuff. You can't just throw something in
and think it's right, especially when it comes to the likes.
We've done a lot of discussion on this this week
on the show with Innovation Week the likes of farming
(06:09):
is a good example. So there's some reliable sort of
AI sources with Bala, with Beef and Lamb website.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
They have their own one, and in darien Z have
their own.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
One as well, and they're reliable sort of sources of
being able to gather information. But however, if you go
into just some of the others, you don't know what
information where it's going to pull it from. So you
might ask, I want to be able to grow a
certain type of grass at a certain type of year,
how much of X y Z do I need?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You need to go through and double check all.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
That information because you don't know if they're pulling it
from America, from England, from somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
It still needs to be checked. But it is a
very valuable tool.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And like I pointed out, those two that I mentioned,
the one on darien Zed and the one on Beef
and Lamb, great for being able to consolidate information from
that website and work out some knowledge in a shortened way, but.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
You still have to check stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It is a great tool, but I think people just
need to be weary of it, and not fear it,
but learn more about it and not just plow on ahead.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It is a worry, Like.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
You said that we're going to stop using our brains,
and it's something that I'm very aware of the creativity.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Side of it. Are we going to lose that? That's
what I'm worried about.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
There's a lot of AI posts out there, right and
posters and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Now are we going to lose that ability to be
able to create things?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The Tour de France, You're a tragic for this. Do
you stay up all night watching it?
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Not a tragic I get up early in the morning
because of the time difference. Andy, I was up this
morning watching the stage through Po. Beautiful city Po. If
you ever get the chance to go there, it's probably
around the same size as Duned and it's the entrance
to the Pyrenees. Pretty much beautiful part of France, right
down the south of France, near the border or yeah,
reasonably far enough away from the border of Spain but
(07:45):
not too far, but beautiful part of the world. They
love their rugby down there, worth a visit. But this morning,
of course, we were watching that stage. It was fantastic
and I really enjoy just the.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Drama of it. We're only in day I think it's
stage four.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I get mixed up because of the time difference, so
still a few weeks to go yet, but exciting times.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
They really enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Did you see that crash the other day? They are
going towards in the sprint, towards the line and some
old lady drives out on her mobility scooter and just
is a messive crash.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Oh, there's some There's been some crazy stuff over the years.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
There's been horses run a horse got loose one ear
and running amongst them on the highway somewhere in the
south of France.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
There's been dogs.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
That was probably more recent one where a dog ran
out into the Platon. Now, just to put into context
how dangerous this is, Andy and a crash. Those guys
in the Ploton are sometimes getting up to speeds of
over fifty kilometers an hour depending on what kind of
road they're on, so they're going pretty fast. To crash
your bike at that speed into something, it's not great.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And you think about, I'm just comparing this to the
football players. Andy.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
The football players, right, they sort of go down someone
stands on their big toe. These cyclists have these massive crashes,
get back up and still bike to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Michelle, what enjoy a long weekend?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah? Go to England and the World Cup.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
No Norway, no England support England.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
No, it's coming home. It's coming home.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
The Shell White and the country Crossider thanks to bioactive soils.
Up next, Nathan Burdon
The Country Crossover brought to you by Bioactive Soils growing
together with healthy soils. Choose bioactive agg fertilizer and see
real results from the ground up.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome back to the Muster. Michelle Watts joins us for
this week's Country Crossover thanks to Bioactive Soils. Good afternoon, Michelle,
Daft Punkers the artist. The song is around the World.
Where in the world will Mark Dylan's tractor end up next? Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Who knows? Isn't this just such a crazy story?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Imagine booking your equipment to go somewhere and then finding
out it hadn't even left the port where you originally
had it packed up, but still sitting there.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I believe, So it's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I mean, I was talking to him on the phone
earlier this morning and I said I had a similar situation,
but mine was a lot less dramatic in the way
of equipment, with losing my road bike and going to
an event.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And I can tell.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
You from peeding overseas is nothing worse and losing your gear,
especially you know, things that are absolutely pivotal that you
cannot borrow. And I completely understand, you know, and them
media really so saying that borrowing isn't really an option.
I can completely understand that when you're competing at that level,
it's not ideal and it's really puts a lot of
stress on you for competition.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You wouldn't expect that kind of thing to happen, especially
with a tractor like that movie you do, Where's My Car? Well,
this is the next level up. But look, you've got
air tags and the likes of e tags these days.
You can hook them mind here and see where things
are going. But you think of the track that you
wouldn't need it.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well, you think a tractor would be a fairly obvious thing,
wouldn't it. It's not exactly small, like losing a bag
and Hestro Airport. It's a large piece of equipment. You
think it would be fairly obvious where it was found
or where it was located.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
But we'll watch the story with interest.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Hopefully they get some help with this through public publicity
across the media. Of course, he was on HOSS this
morning as well, so hopefully they managed to get their
equipment over there in time. Because of course they're competing
in September, so it doesn't leave them much time now
to get the equipment over there, and obviously they have
to go through checks and all that sort of stuff
like you do with any sort of world championship with
(02:15):
that equipment as well, So it's quite as a big deal.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And to get over there this year for Vibe, it's
pretty important because he's got a coach. He has a
plowing coach, and it is a thing.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Oh this is cool, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I never realized people had plowing coaches, but you've coaches
for everything, and I guess you do need coaches for
It's a sport just like any other sport, isn't it
where you need someone to sort of help fine tune
your ability, fine tune what you're doing. Plowing is not
just jumping in the tractor at this level and driving
along and plowing a trying to plow a straight line.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
There's a lot more to it than that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Where did you take your bike overseas?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I went to Europe? I've been over there a couple
of times. One time was to Denmark and I've lost
my bike. I think on the way home we lost
a bike, and on the way over there we lost
bike as well once and my bag got lost. And
Heathrow Airport for over a week once. So yeah, I'm
the queen of lost luggage.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I know, I have an individual that's got pink suitcases,
so as luggage doesn't get lost. The Greens and economics, yeah,
you go to school and learn education, right, And unfortunately
the Greens when they've come out of some policies over
the past couple of days, you wonder if the school
he actually worked for a few of these individuals, I
mean the synthetic fertilizer band which they wish to implement
(03:31):
over time, getting rid of cows and the likes. And
I talked about the example yesterday. You think of Sri
Lanka back in twenty twenty one did the same thing.
They ended up reversing at six months later, and it
cost to government their jobs.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh it's just absolutely insane, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
I was listening to Heather during the week about the
synthetic fertilizer thing. I already knew about it because there
was we got we Get Heady releases and.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
All that sort of stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I read it and thought, well that's a bit weird,
and sort of carried on and you know, went into
investing it, looking at getting something on the show. At
a later day, or this week sometime because it was
near the start of the week.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
And then the thing is.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It is just so it's so weird and such a
crazy policy. I think most people looked at it because
either was wondering why they wasn't more made out of it.
But I think people most people read it and thought, well,
that's a bit odd and just carried it on with life.
Or maybe we're desensitized to these policies coming out now, Andy,
do you think.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Chris Hopkins must sit there and shake his head. Even
Damian O'Connor, he must understand that this won't work.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
It'll be interesting actually to catch up with Damien.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Hopefully next week Jamie's back in the hot seat and
we'll catch up with Damien about this and obviously the
why Tucky issue as well with their rates, but this, yeah,
it'd be interesting to hear his take on it, because
he's all about sustainable farming. But I don't know that
he would want to take it that far. And I
do wonder how the Labor Party feel about this policy.
The fact they've moved Steve Able further down their list
(04:57):
on the Green Party list kind of surprised me as well,
because he's the one person that actually has a connection
to farming in that party, So it was very interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
What was your favorite subject to school? Was it economics
or maths of the likes?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Neither of those two really No.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Maybe a bit of science, but mainly English, believe it
or not, was my top subject. And obviously the good
old pe sports and stuff like that, that was my thing.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I enjoyed economics. So I remember back in forth form,
back in on Maru DSIs and Kevin's and mister Stad
with a deep English accent talking about commodities, and it's
just stuck with me to this day. John pimb And, Off,
you're listening, you know exactly what I'm talking about there.
How do you find AOI, Michelle, Because there's a lot
of good around it? But is it progressing too fast?
(05:44):
Is it taking away your ability to think?
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I think that's probably the scary thing about it, is
relying on it too much. I think a lot of
it is around education with artificial intelligence, so it's more
it's not always one hundred percent correct, so you do
need to check stuff. You can't just throw something in
and think it's right, especially when it comes to the likes.
We've done a lot of discussion on this this week
on the show with Innovation Week the likes of farming
(06:09):
is a good example. So there's some reliable sort of
AI sources with Bala, with Beef and Lamb website.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
They have their own one, and in darien Z have
their own.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
One as well, and they're reliable sort of sources of
being able to gather information. But however, if you go
into just some of the others, you don't know what
information where it's going to pull it from. So you
might ask, I want to be able to grow a
certain type of grass at a certain type of year,
how much of X y Z do I need?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You need to go through and double check all.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
That information because you don't know if they're pulling it
from America, from England, from somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
It still needs to be checked. But it is a
very valuable tool.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And like I pointed out, those two that I mentioned,
the one on darien Zed and the one on Beef
and Lamb, great for being able to consolidate information from
that website and work out some knowledge in a shortened way, but.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
You still have to check stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It is a great tool, but I think people just
need to be weary of it, and not fear it,
but learn more about it and not just plow on ahead.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It is a worry, Like.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
You said that we're going to stop using our brains,
and it's something that I'm very aware of the creativity.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Side of it. Are we going to lose that? That's
what I'm worried about.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
There's a lot of AI posts out there, right and
posters and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Now are we going to lose that ability to be
able to create things?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The Tour de France, You're a tragic for this. Do
you stay up all night watching it?
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Not a tragic I get up early in the morning
because of the time difference. Andy, I was up this
morning watching the stage through Po. Beautiful city Po. If
you ever get the chance to go there, it's probably
around the same size as Duned and it's the entrance
to the Pyrenees. Pretty much beautiful part of France, right
down the south of France, near the border or yeah,
reasonably far enough away from the border of Spain but
(07:45):
not too far, but beautiful part of the world. They
love their rugby down there, worth a visit. But this morning,
of course, we were watching that stage. It was fantastic
and I really enjoy just the.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Drama of it. We're only in day I think it's
stage four.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I get mixed up because of the time difference, so
still a few weeks to go yet, but exciting times.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
They really enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Did you see that crash the other day? They are
going towards in the sprint, towards the line and some
old lady drives out on her mobility scooter and just
is a messive crash.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Oh, there's some There's been some crazy stuff over the years.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
There's been horses run a horse got loose one ear
and running amongst them on the highway somewhere in the
south of France.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
There's been dogs.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
That was probably more recent one where a dog ran
out into the Platon. Now, just to put into context
how dangerous this is, Andy and a crash. Those guys
in the Ploton are sometimes getting up to speeds of
over fifty kilometers an hour depending on what kind of
road they're on, so they're going pretty fast. To crash
your bike at that speed into something, it's not great.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And you think about, I'm just comparing this to the
football players. Andy.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
The football players, right, they sort of go down someone
stands on their big toe. These cyclists have these massive crashes,
get back up and still bike to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Michelle, what enjoy a long weekend?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah? Go to England and the World Cup.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
No Norway, no England support England.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
No, it's coming home. It's coming home.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
The Shell White and the country Crossider thanks to bioactive soils.
Up next, Nathan Burdon
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