‘‘It just goes to show how robust those wee buggers are,’’ he said.
Mr Lyders and his gang of five staff tail about 150,000 lambs each season across Southland.
‘‘I am expecting the total to be a bit less this year, but so far, the numbers haven’t been too bad.
‘‘Scanning percentages were up and the weather during lambing didn’t do as much damage as many were expecting,’’ he said.
This year’s tailing season has been a challenging one.
Wet and muddy conditions had made it tough going getting through the numbers.
‘‘It’s been a lot slower going, that’s for sure,’’ he said.
‘‘We are doing smaller mobs at a time and penning them in different parts of the paddocks just trying to avoid the wettest areas.
‘‘You’ve got to look after the lambs; you don’t want to get them covered in mud before they try to find mum again.’’
‘‘That’s worked really well. It keeps them nice and dry and they’re much better to handle when they’re not muddy ...’’
Getting trucks around the paddocks had also proved difficult.
‘‘I have got a set of tractor-grip tyres for the truck towing the Prattley unit.
‘‘We bring them on the back of the ute with a trolley jack and rattle gun and we’ll turn up about 15 minutes early and swap them over for the day.
‘‘It takes a bit of extra time in the morning, but it has probably saved us hours not getting stuck as much.’’
‘‘Just working out where to go and what areas to avoid, we also bring a tow-ball hitch so a tractor can tow the Prattleys if the paddocks are too wet for the truck.’’
The wet and muddy working conditions could be tough on morale, but Mr Lyders said he had a great team of guys who worked hard and kept a positive attitude.
‘‘We are all in it together. There’s a job to be done and you’ve just got to get on with it.
‘‘When there is a spell of good weather, everyone just knows it’s go, go, go. You have got to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak, because tomorrow there will probably be another 50ml of rain.’’
Mr Lyders bought the tailing business three years ago after working in the gang for the previous two years.
The 28-year-old grew up on a farm in Tokanui and has spent the past eight months driving loaders and dozers in a nickel mine in Western Australia and returned to Southland for three months to see out another season.
‘‘I’ll head back there in the new year and do a bit longer before I come home for good and get stuck into farming,’’ he said.
Running a tailing gang is not Mr Lyders’ first foray into business ownership. As a 17-year-old, he ran a crutching run.
‘‘I got a job working for a crutching contractor when I was about 15 and I had hardly held a handpiece. Dad ran a few lambs into the shed the day before I started, and I learnt the fundamentals.
‘‘It’s fair to say I wondered just what I had got myself into for the first few weeks.’’
When his boss finished up with the run, Mr Lyders took it over.
‘‘It seemed like a good way to spend the summer with a couple of mates. I guess I learnt a few people skills talking to farmers and being organised which helped me a lot when I took on the tailing run,’’ he said.
