Q. How do you think lambing and calving will shape up in the South next season?
It’s quite scary, to be fair, because we’ve had a very good winter so far. We had a good winter last year and then all the bad weather came during the spring, really, didn’t it? But, you know, hopefully it goes good because all the sheep are in really good condition and cattle are in great nick — they’ve had a great scan this year. So everything’s looking pretty positive so far but it’s pretty scary because it is going too good and laws of average, the bad weather has got to come and hopefully it’s not going to be during lambing and calving.
Q. Your neighbourhood would have been very wet last spring?
Yeah, it was awful. We had 200mm rainfall in September and the station up the river recorded 250mm in September.
Q. What did you see on your ultrasound monitor on sheep, beef and dairy farms in the South this year?
The dairy cows I scanned did extremely well. Their conception rates were better than normal and then on the beefy side, it all depended where you were. The conception rate up in Te Anau was great, Moa Flat was a little bit back on average and Miller’s Flat was great. On the sheep side, the conception rate has been brilliant, a bit above average. The condition of the ewes are definitely better this year.
Q. Have you noticed any trends scanning?
There’s been more single lambs than normal and there has been fewer dries for ewes and cows.
Q. Last time I talked to you, you mentioned a dream of farm ownership. Are you any closer to chasing that dream down?
Yeah, I’m very, very lucky. We’ve got a 125ha farm and this is our fourth winter and we’re just getting the hang of it. The first three years, the way prices were, things were very, very hard so if it wasn’t for the scanning business, we’d probably be in a bit of trouble and struggling more than we are at the minute.
Q. Is you farm sheep and beef?
Yeah, at present we’ve got 750 ewes, 20 cows and 200 hoggets and we will build up to what the property can handle.
Q. Is your scanning service something farmers drop to save money when times are tough?
Most cockies, if they’re going to drop something, it might be applying a little less fertiliser. The scanning is quite crucial. A client of mine did that and they didn’t realise that they had a lot of earlies in their flock that year and they all lambed on the crop, and it was an absolute disaster.
Q. How are farmers feeling in the South?
Everything’s looking real good and everyone’s real happy. Sheep traders are saying the next couple of years are looking real positive and hopefully it continues because it is needed.
