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Hyundai Country Calendar Season 61 Episode 13
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00:05Proudly celebrating 60 years of rural New Zealand.
00:10Hyundai Country Calendar.
00:15Twelve years after our first visit, we return to a King Country station.
00:21You know, these farms, you can't run them yourself.
00:24It's everything to have a good team.
00:26Oh, he's a pretty good boss.
00:28Mecca's real good, he's got lots of knowledge.
00:30Nice.
00:31Yeah, I'll be keeping a good eye on Archie.
00:33Someone's got her.
00:34Another 50,000, you'll be going quite well.
00:5421 years has ticked over and I guess, yeah, I still enjoy what I'm doing.
01:01You know, every year you've got different challenges, different things come along and it keeps it exciting.
01:09When Alan McDonald started managing Te Fatua Station in the King Country two decades ago, he was a young fella.
01:17Still trying to be.
01:21A bit of time's ticked by, I didn't think that would happen, but anyway, it's happened.
01:25As long as it keeps happening for a while, I'll be happy.
01:31Alan is known to everyone as Mickey.
01:35At the 1800 hectare Te Wharua Station, they fatten sheep and beef.
01:40The station's owned by Pamu, the state-owned enterprise formerly called Landcorp.
01:46Being a caretaker for a corporation, you've got a sense of responsibility to do things well and make things good
01:54all the time.
01:57Country Calendar first met Mickey in 2014.
02:03Ten years ago, Mickey sold his own farm so that he could lease a bigger place.
02:07The farm he leased was right here, Te Wharua Station, which at the time was privately owned.
02:12He knew its potential, which is why he chose it.
02:16Having shorn around the area, sort of for 23 years or so, we used to come down this way sharing
02:21stock.
02:22Very good stock, very healthy, strong country, you know, and you get good weights out of your stock.
02:29So that appealed to me.
02:31I ended up in the chattels with Landcorp when they purchased it and carried on and worked for them.
02:36I never imagined being a manager, but it can't be all bad.
02:42I'm probably not what you'd say the ideal Landcorp manager is, but just a matter of getting used to delegating
02:48people to doing the jobs you like to do best.
02:50It's probably the hardest thing for me, but it's growing on me.
02:54These days, Mickey runs Te Wharua with a staff of three, including Head Shepherd, Marie Gibbard.
03:00Morning.
03:01Morning.
03:01Hey, if you can go up for me and grab those 940 lambs that you weighed up the other day.
03:07Yeah.
03:08That'd be good.
03:08First truck's at nine, so we'll get them dirty cleaned and load them up.
03:12Sweet.
03:12Sounds good.
03:13Awesome.
03:17I've been here for about a year and a half.
03:20I like the location, really.
03:23The further out of town, the better.
03:28Get up, Dawn.
03:29Get up, Dawn.
03:31My most favourite thing about shimp beef is actually locations.
03:35You can pretty much go anywhere, the beautiful scenery, all that.
03:39Yeah, it's a pretty cool life, really.
03:42Get inside.
03:44Get inside.
03:45The goal has always been farming for my life and making my way up the ladder, really.
03:51Maybe even hopefully one day lease or own.
03:54That'd be pretty good.
04:02You know, these farms, you can't run them yourself.
04:04You need a good team right behind you and you surround yourself with good people.
04:10Clean, clean.
04:12All clean.
04:13It's great having a boss that's open-minded and always enjoys trying out new things.
04:19You do well for one part of the season and next season you're already thinking how you can do better.
04:24And I really like working with someone like that.
04:28While I think I'm a simple bloke, sometimes I'm not as simple as I think I am.
04:34But she's sort of got the measure of me.
04:37She knows when I've got pressure on me, knows how to take that pressure from me and take a bit
04:41off my shoulders.
04:42So it's pretty cool.
04:44Yeah.
04:48To train the staff, it's just a constant thing, really.
04:52Steady.
04:53Steady.
04:54Steady.
04:54It's creating them opportunities, giving them confidence and letting them have a go.
05:01Steady.
05:04Steady.
05:05My parents were dairy farmers and I thought a bit about dairy, but as soon as I sort of started
05:10working with my uncle on his sheep and beef property in Taipei, yeah.
05:13I just wanted to go that way, yeah.
05:17Seventeen-year-old Archie Davidson is the newest member of Mickey's team.
05:21He's recently arrived after a year's training on Pamu's new cadet apprenticeship scheme.
05:28Archie was on the first intake of that and they spend time on different Pamu farms, dairy and livestock farm
05:35sheep and beef.
05:36Stand.
05:38Stand.
05:40Stand.
05:41Stand.
05:41I like working with the team.
05:43Mickey's real good.
05:44He's got lots of knowledge and so does Marie.
05:46Everyone has something to teach me, so it's really cool.
05:49Yeah.
05:52When Country Calendar was last here, Te Wharua Station was fattening bulls.
05:57In here, you need to keep your wits about you.
06:00No one wants to mess with half a tonne of angry bull.
06:07Twelve years later the bulls are gone, replaced by heifers.
06:12We struggled to carry the bigger animals in the winter on our pastures with them being so heavy,
06:17so we've sort of opted to go down to a lighter sort of a footprint for our winters.
06:23So now we've just taken these hundred kilo heifer calves.
06:28Pamu dairy farms are keeping their best female calves for milking.
06:33The rest and the male bobby calves are sent here for raising his beef cattle.
06:39Historically, bobbies have been killed and discarded.
06:41The Pamu has introduced a nationwide plan to stop killing bobby calves on its farms by 2030.
06:49I think it's a good thing.
06:51I've never liked the bobby calf system, how it's worked over the years.
06:54It's definitely got better.
06:55It's got a better look about it, but I think it's a very good thing, you know.
07:20Mickey McDonnell, manager of Te Wharau Station, is a former shearing champion, and was still competing in his 50s.
07:30If I stopped shearing, I felt like the time was right.
07:34My body was still good, nothing was worn out or broken,
07:37and I didn't want to be broken down as I'd become an older person.
07:44I still miss it to this day.
07:46I always get that inkling that you could go back shearing,
07:48and I do half a day shearing somewhere, and I think,
07:51nah, I think I've done the right thing.
07:57Nicky watches with an expert's eye.
08:02In 1994, he was the world individual shearing champion.
08:08Oh, well, I've won a few things, and did a few world records,
08:12and yeah, definitely pretty good.
08:15Highlight of my wins is 94 world champs.
08:19That was my best win by far.
08:20Mickey was up against the legendary David Fagan.
08:25To beat him at his peak in 94, in Wales, that was real special.
08:30Yeah, yeah, great moment.
08:36Right, if you get it out here like this, Archie.
08:38These days, Mickey makes an ideal tutor for the youngest member of staff, Archie Davidson.
08:44This is the most difficult part here, dropping down.
08:50I'll leave it there and then finish it off from there, Archie.
08:56Look at that, eh?
08:57That's it. That's good.
08:59Just shuffle forward a little bit.
09:01Yep.
09:02Got it there.
09:03Yep.
09:07Nice slow blow.
09:10That's it.
09:12Nice.
09:13Keep it on the skin.
09:17Beautiful.
09:19That's good.
09:23To his staff, Mickey's more than just a boss.
09:27Our chief, for instance, he is like a family member, like a son.
09:31So now and again we have father discussions and we have boss discussions and then we have mate discussions.
09:37So he hits all those roles pretty well.
09:40I mean, they're someone else's son or daughter.
09:43So, you know, you want them home safe and look after them as well.
09:47That's good, Archie.
09:52Another 50,000, you'll be going quite well.
09:54Yeah.
10:05Shepherd Anita Kendrick is the most experienced member of Mickey's team.
10:12Been here just over 15 years now.
10:15It's definitely ended up a bit a part of the furniture.
10:18But yeah, it's a pretty awesome farm to work on.
10:22Help.
10:23Help.
10:24Help.
10:32It's been a few years since Mickey gave Anita advice.
10:37Oh, he's a pretty good boss.
10:39Yep.
10:40He's usually joking around about something most of the time.
10:43And yeah, he's sort of similar to me.
10:46Been here a long time and seen a lot of different things on the farm.
10:49Lots of different changes.
10:51Leave it. Check.
10:52Just six months into Anita's time as a shepherd at Te Wharua, fate dealt her an unexpected blow.
11:01Anita lost the use of her legs in a farm accident.
11:05Two and a half years ago, she was working on another property on her day off.
11:09She was going up a steep hill when she rolled a four-wheeler farm bike.
11:13I was just going up a track and it was quite rutty and I gave it too much grunt at
11:19the wrong time and the bike came over and broke my back.
11:23It soon became clear she wouldn't walk again.
11:26It was a huge blow because Anita had only ever wanted to do one thing, work on a farm.
11:32I suppose it was very much a big question mark, hoping that I'd still be able to farm, but the
11:38reality, you know, was I don't think I was going to be able to.
11:42Um, yeah, it was, it took a fair bit of getting my head around, yeah, around it all.
11:51But thanks to the support of everyone on the farm, she's back.
11:55But no, I do try and give everything a go, yeah.
11:58Daging and drenching and all that, I miss a lot, yeah.
12:02Quite hard to watch everyone else do it, but yeah, it's just something you've just got to handle, yeah.
12:10Mickey told Anita in hospital that he wanted her back on the farm in a new role, part admin, part
12:16farm work.
12:16She was developing as a shepherd and going along really well, you know, and to be cut down like that,
12:22it was pretty hard on the whole crew, you know, just to see one of the team go down.
12:27I think if we'd shut the door on her then, that would have destroyed her soul, you know.
12:31So, at that point, I think it was about giving a person a chance to build again and get going.
12:38Quiet in. Quiet in.
12:40With the team around her at the time, you know, they helped her to develop and get back into it.
12:45She's getting her confidence and going along well and, you know, awesome shepherd with it, you know.
12:49Great team of dogs.
12:53I'm incredibly grateful to him that he had the time to help me and also had the belief in me
13:00that I could get through it
13:01and I could be doing, you know, what I was doing.
13:03He always believed in me from day one.
13:04Whereas a few people, actually family members, doubted me a little bit, so it was good to have his support
13:09and still have it even though, you know, I was, I couldn't walk and he, yeah, never stopped believing in
13:15me.
13:20Despite the doubters, Anita is still here.
13:24Today, she's helping Archie train his pup.
13:28Get up nice and close to your sheep.
13:30And then as soon as the sheep start to walk away from you, let them go and then hopefully we
13:34can just encourage them around to head them.
13:37Yep.
13:39While Anita started back after the accident with a hiss and a roar, she's finding it tougher these days.
13:46The body's definitely struggling with full-time work, definitely struggling with the long days and also being in the weather
13:5524-7.
13:56It's taking a toll on my body, yep.
14:01I think the passion's still there, it's just a little bit redirected and not quite as intense as it was.
14:10Yep, that's it.
14:11Just nice and slow.
14:14If you just come back along the gates there, that's it.
14:18Down bolt.
14:19Good boy.
14:21So yeah, nice and slow.
14:22Down bolt.
14:23While Anita has had to reduce to part-time, she still has a lot to teach Archie as he builds
14:27up his team of dogs.
14:29Down bolt.
14:32I spent a bit of money on starting my team.
14:36Yeah, they range from five grand for quite a good dog to ten grand.
14:41Down bolt.
14:42Down bolt.
14:44Archie reckons bolt has what it takes.
14:47He's silly, but he's real intelligent.
14:51Yeah, he's good.
14:51Just obviously training, but yeah.
14:54No, he's cool.
14:55He's my best mate.
14:58Get him bolt.
15:00Get him bolt.
15:04Get him bolt.
15:05Get him bolt.
15:06He's a little man.
15:06Get him bolt.
15:17He's a little man.
15:18Since Country Calendar first visited Te Whārawa Station in the King Country twelve years ago,
15:23one of the biggest changes manager Mickey McDonald has overseen has been the introduction of a pine forest.
15:35We took out 540 hectares of the hill country, class six and seven, to diversify into trees.
15:45Been a big project over the last few years to get that up and underway and get going. So yeah,
15:51it's quite a big change, one of the biggest changes that we've done. Pretty interesting.
15:56I didn't know much about forestry or anything like that and it's pretty much of a crash course,
16:01but we're getting there, yeah. The steepest slopes are now in pines.
16:06When they were grazed, these hills were earning about $250 a hectare a year.
16:11The return from carbon credits varies with the age of the trees,
16:15but in the best years will now bring in over $3,000 per hectare.
16:21To argue the point that we don't want forestry,
16:24there's no argument really when it comes to a financial decision.
16:27You know, all the farms are driving all the time to lift their production and do things better.
16:33I'm the caretaker for the land at this point,
16:35and financially it just makes a better, more balanced farm out of it all.
16:48Six years ago, Mickey faced a major new challenge.
16:52The worms that can infest lambs had become resistant to drench.
16:59They're just multiplying inside them and then they grow dags so they're more prone to fly and
17:05eventually it just kills them. Everything just catches up with them, so yeah.
17:10For me, it was one of the hardest things with farming that I've ever had to cope with.
17:14The sense of sort of feeling like you'd let the farm down, let the company down, let yourself down.
17:20And yeah, I should have captured more hard data sooner rather than wondering what was going wrong.
17:27You know, just thinking that I could fix it. I didn't think it was as serious as what it was.
17:33So yeah, very hard on mental health and your bottom line.
17:46What we've done is we've lessened the sheep numbers and sold off any of our replacements,
17:52so we didn't have lambs on in the autumn part of the season when the worms are really bad,
17:56spreading their worms around the pasture to make it harder to clean up. So yeah,
18:01and then just for strategic sort of drenching and using the right types of drench to combat it.
18:07So we're starting to win now. We're coming out of it now quite nicely.
18:17One of Anita's regular jobs is keeping an eye on the worm count.
18:22I'm testing to see how many eggs are in each gram of their poo.
18:29I bring the sample home, pop it on the scales, it goes through another process of some salt water
18:35added to it, through another filter and then into a system that takes photos of it and sends it off
18:41to
18:41experts for them to email through a result for us.
18:46Hey Mickey, it's Anita here. How you doing?
18:48Good. Hey, just got these test results back.
18:51And yeah, looking pretty good. Still quite low at 210 eggs per gram, so.
18:56That's a good result for the length of time they've gone undrenched,
19:00so, and they're looking bloody good, so.
19:02Obviously everything's working really well, so, ah, good.
19:05Awesome results. Cool, sweet as.
19:12How you getting on? Good.
19:13After the challenges of the last decade,
19:16Anita is enjoying life with her partner, Goody, who came with two children.
19:23Goody's got an earthworks business and does our digger work on the farm, so, yeah, ended up bumping
19:29into him a few years ago, and got chatting and, um, yeah. I'll do some roasties. I've got some pork
19:38fillets for dinner as well. Cool.
19:41It's sort of been pretty easy, really. Very easy. We've just, we've clicked and away we went.
19:48Yeah, no, it's just, she's easy to talk to and, yeah.
19:53And Anita is thinking about life beyond Te Wharua.
19:58Plans for the future would ideally to purchase our own block.
20:02Just a nice, nice small farm that I can still take along and, and still do what I love.
20:08And Goody can still carry on doing what he loves as well. And, um, yeah,
20:12just having our own place to call home would be really, really cool.
20:22Mickey is getting to the stage when retirement is looming,
20:25and he'll have to pass the farm to someone else to manage.
20:31I think I'll feel pretty good about it. You know, it's not going to be something easy to do,
20:36because, you know, that passion that you have for the, the work you've done and what have you,
20:41but, you know, at the end of the day, it was always, it's always going to be for someone else,
20:45and that's the way it is.
20:51I like being busy. I like being active. I'll have projects and I've got my own, um, property
20:56and Pew Pew there that are looking forward to getting up to there at some point and running that
21:01and just working away there and enjoying life, get to catch up with grandchildren a bit more and
21:06and my children as well. So, yeah, it should be a good stage of life, I hope.
21:23Now, about pastures, uh, you will find that most, uh, most animals eat grass,
21:30so we're very concerned to keep the green outer covering of the earth in good order,
21:34but we're having a lot of trouble.
21:35Uh, there are several things that can go wrong with pastures.
21:38Uh, here, this is a classic example of what we've got here.
21:42Uh, this is not very good pasture at all because it's too damp.
21:47To see the rest of this classic episode and more gems from the past 60 years, head to TVNZ Plus.
22:08Oh!
22:12Get in.
22:25Country Calendar was proudly brought to you by Hyundai New Zealand.
22:30the wind.
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