The Muster- Nigel Woodhead: Breaking Up The Lambing Beat

Nigel gives some words of wisdom ahead of lambing regarding keeping yourself fresh.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Away to South Otago this afternoon to catch up with
Nigel Woodhead, who farms between Balcluester and Milton Nige.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good afternoon, Yeah, afternoon, Andy.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
How's everything up there in South Otago? Are you getting
through this weather? Okay?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh it's not too bad? Yes, said it was nice.
You can. Yeah, we'll take a couple of weeks in
nice days you stay. But no, it's not too bad today.
It's a bit of moisture around, but nothing major, so yeah,
we'd take along. Not too bad.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
You're still a couple of days out from Lemming starting.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, officially stay, but there's probably I don't know, there'll
be lambs and every second petic type thing around the
place now. So yeah, there's new twins and new singles
floating around, so that's good. Yeah, slowly but surely getting
into it.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
The sheep are pottering away. I suppose there's a term.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, yeah, just starting to think about it really, but yeah,
i'd say by the weekend or it will have broken
loose and what'll we into it?

Speaker 1 (01:11):
So is that your focus at the moment, just getting
ready for that?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, pretty much. We've basically spend most of the morning
doing a full leap of everything making trovering's okay, and yeah,
just keeping it for bearings and casts really and then
last thing at night just whip brown for casts. I
think last night there was four or five of them,
So if worth doing at night.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
As far as casts, what would you normally get in
the day At the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, we're getting a handful of sort of a you know,
I think I tipped over a couple this morning, and
four or five last night. So yeah, we don't tend
to get too many casts. We usually don't tend to
fit enough sheep. But the user in pretty good nickness here,
and there's a feed around, so yeah, and they're worth
a few bucks this year. It's good to try and
keep them a life.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Do you hang on the cast or do you give
them a tag and get rid of them? A lot
of people have different theories.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh now I just roll them over the way they go,
keep my fingers crossed that everything's all good. So I
don't think it's something worth culling for. I don't think
getting cast has anything.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
To do with you need it just fat sheep, I suppose.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh yeah, fat sheep, And yeah we get you know,
you know, the odd indents around the place and on
top of a flat ridge sheep camp or an overflow
sort of line or something that you know, not always,
but often there's there's something in the environment that they
happen to get down and lie down on it and
can't get back up again as well. So yeah, I

(02:43):
don't I don't think it's genetic.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, just a sheep being a sheep in September.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, yeah, you know the old the old saying that
sheep's been turning sixty four days a year trying to
work out how to die. We've been pretty good like it.
It is a tough time year, this time of year.
I reckon about eighty percent of deaths occur in the
in the month around lambing. But we've been we've been
pretty good. I haven't had too many bearings, just a

(03:11):
wee smattering of bearings, and I've kept most of them alive.
So yeah, I think we're looking all right for lambing
this year.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
So what do you do to your bearings? You got retainers,
you just use clips. What's the plan.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
No, we sort of make a bit of a harness
thing that goes around the middle and then down each
side of the back end with just out a like
juke baaling toe and then you know, after we see
them lamb a couple of days later, if we can
catch them, we'll just catch them and cut it off,
or otherwise as they're running through the tailing pen will
cut it off. And yeah, like from now on, those

(03:45):
us that have bearings, we'll catch them, fix them, and
then they go back and get lambed close to the
house with the freezers and then then get killed and
killed in December with the freezer. You's so, yeah, we've
never never kept any beer after that first season, after
the hopefully rear lamb or two.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
So it's a good lambing tip you've got for people
on the leading bait this afternoon nights, because there can
be a bit of a hard yacker just to break
out with them. Innost Andy, What do you do differently
to break that up?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
A couple of things. I make sure there's lots of
snacks and coffee at my wallshed, and like I don't
stop for smoko all through the year, but at lembing
time I do. And I try not to work too
much harder at lemming time. Try not to create any
more stress than you need to. But it is a

(04:38):
busy time year and there's a lot going on, especially
if the weather gets rough. So I've got like a
like a coffee cup that comes with me on the bike,
and I'll take a coffee with me in the morning
and it's pretty good, like it usually keeps coffee warming
to almost lunchtime. And then have a couple of snacks,
some good callity movesy bars and biscuits and square meals

(05:00):
type thing, and always a few lollies as well for
later on. And yeah, make a point of if I'm
cruising past the yard, just take ten minutes to stop
and make make a new Kappa if you if I
need to, and have a snack and give for me,
giving myself something to look forward to during the day
as well. But yeah, I don't know where. I probably

(05:23):
don't do as quite an intense of lemming beet as
like my parents did or what we did when we
were kids. You know, I don't, yeah, like mothering on
and things. I try and avoid that if I can,
Like I just you've got to be a certain type
of person to to be mothering on lambs and and
that sort of thing, and that's just not my jam.
So that I think that sort of helps. I try

(05:47):
not to get too stressed out about it, but like
I say, you know, lambs and use are worth a
bit this year, so try and keep as many alive.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
As we can and just finally probably past coming to
make Dylan ploy an extraordinaire. Competing at the World Champs
over in Prague over the week. He did really good,
really well.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I haven't haven't talked to Mark,
but I've been keeping up with the with the Facebook posts.
It sounds like conditions were really really really tough. Bend
in culture stalks and skimmer storks and things flared out
in their practice, so yeah, it sounds like it was.
It was tough, and but just making it to the

(06:24):
World's it was a big effort. Not only winning winning
the New Yells is probably the easy, but you all
the fundraising and you've got to send the track on
the other side of the world and then getting there
and all the practice and you know, it's it's not
cheap and it's it's a big undertaking. So yeah, well
done to Mark. Of course that Bobby Murdens as well
from timorrow. He was in the Reversible and they both

(06:45):
both did pretty well, buil accounts in some tough conditions.
So yeah, I would say Mark will be coming home
to get stuck into some spring work. He's had a
sort of a month or so away. I'd say, you'll
be you'll be to get stuck into the spring.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, and he gets to go again next year as well.
Have we leave it there, Nige, you're the best on
the beat this afternoon and just getting organized day.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
No no worries, Thanks Andy, and yeah, all the best
out there. I hope, I hope the weather stays all right.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
NIGEA wadhead farming in south Ataga. You just got to
mess us through before as well. Alan Savage listens in
regularly saying down on his neck of the woods, there
not fucking number cardgle. It's a little bit damp. Always
got to get your correspondence, Allen. We carry you on
with the afternoon. Cal Stewart is up next from Open Country.