November 3, 2025 • 9 mins
Our Knapdale correspondent looks at the workload that November presents....weather aside!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Musters on the Farm brought to you by Southland
District Council working Together for a Better Southland.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Five is the artist. This is the muster on Hakanui.
We're joined next by Peter Gard Iron Farming at Netdale,
Blast from the Past music wise, Pete, how's everything in Netdale? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Everything in that that was pretty good there. We've got
a bit of wind, so if anyone's looking to the forward,
there's no shortage of forward and.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Self and this here, that's going to be the biggest
understatement of the year. We've had a bit of wind.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, we've had a bit of wind. We've lost a
few trees, so we're going to have a clean up there.
But I mean, well we farm in the in the
natural environment and that's part of the gig for better
or for So how are.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You How did you fear there in general with that breeze,
whether on breeze or that wind. Let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
One, we've got over one hundred and fifty trees down
in the clean up. We've started some of it, but
I mean we're rud in the middle of seeding too,
trying to tell lambs for the gow. So yeah, it'll
take a while to clean it all up. We're just
prioritizing the areas that we can get biggest spand for buck,
so where we can clean up the most amount of
meats of fence per our spent. And yeah, I'm very
(01:23):
aware that we've got to We've got a probably a
moderate problem here. There's goings that are far more oft
than us, and especially Batesdale Sale seems to have had
a pretty worse run than us.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I'd say, has it caused a lot of damage to
your fencing system, Yeah, it's caused a.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Bit of damage. Luckily, we're the biggest trees are that
are down is actually not hates the whole wars on
that block, so that's not as bad. Yeah, so the others.
But it's also the time year where we don't have
anything behind a hot water or anything like that, so
we're not super bad like that. So that's just yeah,
it'll be something that will keep chipping away when we
(02:00):
can all annoy.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You've got a lay pretty pretty well over there. You
just carrying on with what you need to do because
life doesn't stop on the farm. But everybody's been treated
differently by the way that Mother Natures fell upon them.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Oh yeah, definitely, And we're pretty fortunate where we've lived.
We got power back relatively soon. We're only a couple
of days without poir. One of our staff members who
lives a bit further away, she was just show up
a week without power. Yeah, so others that, But I
mean right now we're sort of hopefully finishing up sighing
oats today and then getting onto peace. So that's just
(02:36):
late enough. But that's what the salt temperatures are telling
us to do. So we can't really be fluffing around
with picking out trees. It doesn't make money when we've
got to get crops in the ground and make sure
our stock are a feed and all the rest of
it first, and then worry about these other things.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And the secondary sense even having sunshine yesterday though, was
coming back from Queenstown and through northern South and there
to be honest in a couple of places, and you know,
I looked an absolutely picture of the lambs were booming
and they seemed to be a bit more cover on
the peddix.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, and we did a part to read on the
home place. We're just doing the other ones at the moment.
And where we went into leaving with huge covers, better
than we've ever gone. We crashed down pretty low to
its sort of similar to last year, but we held
on bitter than some guys around us. And then it's
just it's creeped up about eighty kilograms of dry meta
in the last three weeks for us. And I think
(03:29):
I've been probably a little bit aggressive buying kettle because
of trying to buy the death a wee bit. But
you know, I think we're in the phase where things
are coming right for us. But we did use nitrogen
over a feel of good work of the property two
weeks ago ish because we saw that in need. And
if your grass gets below that critical mess of sort
(03:51):
of seventeen hundred average for your whole farm or eighteen
hundred average, which is where we were at eighteen hundred,
you know, you really lose that grunt. You can keep
it in that growing phase. It's just such a huge
multiplor effect for using that little bit of something to
get up on keep on that plane.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Everybody else in the Nepdale region were they as fortunate
as you guys.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
From what I've seen. And this is something that I
pevenmon agree with to disagree with bigger trees that haven't
been as well maintained in heates that haven't been topped
seem to have been the worst effected around here. I
think just that more forget the area to catch the wind,
seems to have put those ones worse. So yeah, they're
sort of yeah, I don't know. I think that they'll
(04:35):
sort of moderate. I don't think we're the best off,
but I don't think we're the worst off.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
But as fascinating will be the word looking at these
massive macrocarpas, they haven't just snapped off like a popular
or anything halfway, but the whole base of the trees
just collapsed over. There's some surreal pictures that we're seeing
else and about.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Oh yeah in these old trees of them, and it's yeah,
there's going to be a big cleaner, you know, like
those big boys. My recommendation to everybody would beat if
you can, please try and hire in a twenty ton bigger.
I've done a bit with these that style of trees
in the past. We've cleaned up properly with random massive
(05:16):
trees on it. And from a safety and a productivity
point of view, I think it's pretty hard to beat
having a twenty ton digger with a greffel and a
good operator to help you out there. That would be
the big thing I'd say is try and deal with
the smaller stuff, medium stuff yourself and the Yeah, ideally
I can't endorse a twenty ton digger with grefful enough
in those bigger trees.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
But if you're not fortunate enough to be able to
get a twenty ton gore a lot of people getting
on the saw making ends meet, trying to get the
power up and running, especially in a dairy sense. It's
just one of those things you've got to contend with
as well, along with the other workload. I mean, AI
and everything's kicked off too, right, Yeah, No, you've.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Got a really good point there, And we're probably lucky
that we're our biggest trees are down. It's not the
end of the world for us, so we're just doing
everything else first. And yeah, I mean at the moment,
we're trying to run the drill pretty late into the
night and all the rest of it, so I know
what that's like. And yeah, I guess some solar units
and some fences to keep cattle out of the trees
(06:15):
or something like that's not a bad idea. But yeah,
and others it's pretty untidy. And I feel for the
dairyvoice because you know, without power, I'm milking you know,
once or twice a day. It's pretty fundamental for them
when we're not affected to that same effect with the
sheep and beef system at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now, we spoke to you pre lambing, and you had
a message there around mental health and taking the opportunity
to look after yourself. We fast forward to the current situation.
What would you say to people who are trying to
comprehend what's on the farm at the moment.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, no, that's a good point for us. We don't
work Sundays unless we have to, and I may see
a mess event of that. When I used to run
crutching games when I was a young and short pants,
we used to only crutch six days a week, and
I honestly guarantee that we did more lambs in a
(07:08):
week on a six day week than we could have
done it a seven day week. And probably the best
example of that is if your share is are ever grumpy?
The first question I always asked them as when was
your last day off? And if the last day off
was three weeks ago. It's usually not my problem. If
the last day off would sooner than that, it might
be my problem. So what I say is, like, man,
(07:30):
the problem about these shoes, they're in a change, it's huge,
But try and have a day a week off or
something if you can, because I think at a it's
great for you, mean, your health. And my fully heartfelt
position is that I believe you're all achieved more by
only working six days a week than you will seven
(07:50):
days a week, or limiting the work one seventh day
if possible.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, And it's just about having looking at the bigger picture,
I suppose, And you've got through the busy spell, especially
if you're a lamb and a lambing sense high country
you might argue with that at the moment you're just
starting to get through it now, but tailing and the lights,
you just got to take things in your stride sometimes
and just keep a clear clear heare to suppose.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Oh definitely, And like I understand what that's like because
I do the lemming and then I turn around and
we do a seeding, so you kind of do two
big things back to beat, and that's I'm the big
thing of like we don't we don't see it on
a Sunday, and it's really really bad. And I know
that the guys. I'm pretty sure the guys love the
fact that they know that Sunday is for their own
(08:36):
life and your family or their friends or whatever they
want to do. And I would rather do more hours
on the other days of the week and then you
just take that day off and just enjoy life. Yeah,
because yeah, you're not here forever.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Good time, not a long time. I like that, Peter Guard.
I always appreciate your time. Definitely.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Next Peter Guard a.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Natdal with some really relevant advice too. Up next, Hillary
Copeland from Bannerman Crookshank Pride to lawyers, you're listening to
the muster
The Musters on the Farm brought to you by Southland
District Council working Together for a Better Southland.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Five is the artist. This is the muster on Hakanui.
We're joined next by Peter Gard Iron Farming at Netdale,
Blast from the Past music wise, Pete, how's everything in Netdale? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Everything in that that was pretty good there. We've got
a bit of wind, so if anyone's looking to the forward,
there's no shortage of forward and.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Self and this here, that's going to be the biggest
understatement of the year. We've had a bit of wind.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, we've had a bit of wind. We've lost a
few trees, so we're going to have a clean up there.
But I mean, well we farm in the in the
natural environment and that's part of the gig for better
or for So how are.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You How did you fear there in general with that breeze,
whether on breeze or that wind. Let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
One, we've got over one hundred and fifty trees down
in the clean up. We've started some of it, but
I mean we're rud in the middle of seeding too,
trying to tell lambs for the gow. So yeah, it'll
take a while to clean it all up. We're just
prioritizing the areas that we can get biggest spand for buck,
so where we can clean up the most amount of
meats of fence per our spent. And yeah, I'm very
(01:23):
aware that we've got to We've got a probably a
moderate problem here. There's goings that are far more oft
than us, and especially Batesdale Sale seems to have had
a pretty worse run than us.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I'd say, has it caused a lot of damage to
your fencing system, Yeah, it's caused a.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Bit of damage. Luckily, we're the biggest trees are that
are down is actually not hates the whole wars on
that block, so that's not as bad. Yeah, so the others.
But it's also the time year where we don't have
anything behind a hot water or anything like that, so
we're not super bad like that. So that's just yeah,
it'll be something that will keep chipping away when we
(02:00):
can all annoy.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You've got a lay pretty pretty well over there. You
just carrying on with what you need to do because
life doesn't stop on the farm. But everybody's been treated
differently by the way that Mother Natures fell upon them.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Oh yeah, definitely, And we're pretty fortunate where we've lived.
We got power back relatively soon. We're only a couple
of days without poir. One of our staff members who
lives a bit further away, she was just show up
a week without power. Yeah, so others that, But I
mean right now we're sort of hopefully finishing up sighing
oats today and then getting onto peace. So that's just
(02:36):
late enough. But that's what the salt temperatures are telling
us to do. So we can't really be fluffing around
with picking out trees. It doesn't make money when we've
got to get crops in the ground and make sure
our stock are a feed and all the rest of
it first, and then worry about these other things.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And the secondary sense even having sunshine yesterday though, was
coming back from Queenstown and through northern South and there
to be honest in a couple of places, and you know,
I looked an absolutely picture of the lambs were booming
and they seemed to be a bit more cover on
the peddix.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, and we did a part to read on the
home place. We're just doing the other ones at the moment.
And where we went into leaving with huge covers, better
than we've ever gone. We crashed down pretty low to
its sort of similar to last year, but we held
on bitter than some guys around us. And then it's
just it's creeped up about eighty kilograms of dry meta
in the last three weeks for us. And I think
(03:29):
I've been probably a little bit aggressive buying kettle because
of trying to buy the death a wee bit. But
you know, I think we're in the phase where things
are coming right for us. But we did use nitrogen
over a feel of good work of the property two
weeks ago ish because we saw that in need. And
if your grass gets below that critical mess of sort
(03:51):
of seventeen hundred average for your whole farm or eighteen
hundred average, which is where we were at eighteen hundred,
you know, you really lose that grunt. You can keep
it in that growing phase. It's just such a huge
multiplor effect for using that little bit of something to
get up on keep on that plane.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Everybody else in the Nepdale region were they as fortunate
as you guys.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
From what I've seen. And this is something that I
pevenmon agree with to disagree with bigger trees that haven't
been as well maintained in heates that haven't been topped
seem to have been the worst effected around here. I
think just that more forget the area to catch the wind,
seems to have put those ones worse. So yeah, they're
sort of yeah, I don't know. I think that they'll
(04:35):
sort of moderate. I don't think we're the best off,
but I don't think we're the worst off.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
But as fascinating will be the word looking at these
massive macrocarpas, they haven't just snapped off like a popular
or anything halfway, but the whole base of the trees
just collapsed over. There's some surreal pictures that we're seeing
else and about.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Oh yeah in these old trees of them, and it's yeah,
there's going to be a big cleaner, you know, like
those big boys. My recommendation to everybody would beat if
you can, please try and hire in a twenty ton bigger.
I've done a bit with these that style of trees
in the past. We've cleaned up properly with random massive
(05:16):
trees on it. And from a safety and a productivity
point of view, I think it's pretty hard to beat
having a twenty ton digger with a greffel and a
good operator to help you out there. That would be
the big thing I'd say is try and deal with
the smaller stuff, medium stuff yourself and the Yeah, ideally
I can't endorse a twenty ton digger with grefful enough
in those bigger trees.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
But if you're not fortunate enough to be able to
get a twenty ton gore a lot of people getting
on the saw making ends meet, trying to get the
power up and running, especially in a dairy sense. It's
just one of those things you've got to contend with
as well, along with the other workload. I mean, AI
and everything's kicked off too, right, Yeah, No, you've.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Got a really good point there, And we're probably lucky
that we're our biggest trees are down. It's not the
end of the world for us, so we're just doing
everything else first. And yeah, I mean at the moment,
we're trying to run the drill pretty late into the
night and all the rest of it, so I know
what that's like. And yeah, I guess some solar units
and some fences to keep cattle out of the trees
(06:15):
or something like that's not a bad idea. But yeah,
and others it's pretty untidy. And I feel for the
dairyvoice because you know, without power, I'm milking you know,
once or twice a day. It's pretty fundamental for them
when we're not affected to that same effect with the
sheep and beef system at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now, we spoke to you pre lambing, and you had
a message there around mental health and taking the opportunity
to look after yourself. We fast forward to the current situation.
What would you say to people who are trying to
comprehend what's on the farm at the moment.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, no, that's a good point for us. We don't
work Sundays unless we have to, and I may see
a mess event of that. When I used to run
crutching games when I was a young and short pants,
we used to only crutch six days a week, and
I honestly guarantee that we did more lambs in a
(07:08):
week on a six day week than we could have
done it a seven day week. And probably the best
example of that is if your share is are ever grumpy?
The first question I always asked them as when was
your last day off? And if the last day off
was three weeks ago. It's usually not my problem. If
the last day off would sooner than that, it might
be my problem. So what I say is, like, man,
(07:30):
the problem about these shoes, they're in a change, it's huge,
But try and have a day a week off or
something if you can, because I think at a it's
great for you, mean, your health. And my fully heartfelt
position is that I believe you're all achieved more by
only working six days a week than you will seven
(07:50):
days a week, or limiting the work one seventh day
if possible.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, And it's just about having looking at the bigger picture,
I suppose, And you've got through the busy spell, especially
if you're a lamb and a lambing sense high country
you might argue with that at the moment you're just
starting to get through it now, but tailing and the lights,
you just got to take things in your stride sometimes
and just keep a clear clear heare to suppose.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Oh definitely, And like I understand what that's like because
I do the lemming and then I turn around and
we do a seeding, so you kind of do two
big things back to beat, and that's I'm the big
thing of like we don't we don't see it on
a Sunday, and it's really really bad. And I know
that the guys. I'm pretty sure the guys love the
fact that they know that Sunday is for their own
(08:36):
life and your family or their friends or whatever they
want to do. And I would rather do more hours
on the other days of the week and then you
just take that day off and just enjoy life. Yeah,
because yeah, you're not here forever.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Good time, not a long time. I like that, Peter Guard.
I always appreciate your time. Definitely.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Next Peter Guard a.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Natdal with some really relevant advice too. Up next, Hillary
Copeland from Bannerman Crookshank Pride to lawyers, you're listening to
the muster
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