The Country 17/04/25: Blair Drysdale talks to Jamie Mackay

We catch up with a Southland arable farmer and pie connoisseur on his way to Wheels at Wānaka. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I had a gap to fill on the show today.

(00:01):
Who should I ring up but my old mate from
Belfer in Northern Southland, Blair Blocker Drysdale. Because we always
get complaints here on the show that we don't cover
arable farming enough, so I thought i'd ring up an
arable farmer. But lo and behold he's heading off on
holiday to Roxburgh, No less to buy a Jimmy's pie, Blocker,
Blair Drysdale, Welcome to the country.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good afternoon, Jamie. You know I am heading to rocks
for a pie. Fletcher an Ioway for a boys weekend,
up to Wontaker for where was a Wantica? So passing
through really and he is staying from for weekends.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, no finer place than Roxburgh to stop for a
Jimmy's pie. How's the season been for you? Because I
left Queenstown very early this morning to come back to
Dunedin and I drove past an old mates farm in
between Riversdale and Belfer and low and behold here's a
huge crop of maize. Of course this is a relatively
new development for southern farmers. Obviously it's for a silas crop.

(00:53):
I would have thought that'd have it off by now now.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Look, I was talking to Mate about this bit a
week ten days ago and probably from now they still
need an the sort of ten days frost free to
get maximize both dry matter and starts levels. So we
had a really good frost here on it was Sunday morning,
we had a riper, so they won't be wanting any
more of them, but you'll suspect a lot of it
will come off the next ten days, that's for sure.
But yeah, as far as our season, look, I think

(01:18):
last springs challenges are wearing their head now with a
lot of late spring saw and crops still standing and
still a little bit on the green side. So there's
some challenges out there for some people getting them off,
that's for sure. Because we got bought to me very
quickly sort of interfere Bevern. But for us here, yeah,
it was just a pretty typical harvest to be fair, weatherwise,
yields on winter wheats were down on average, everything else

(01:41):
was for me was up so and I think years
being down is pretty general right round our district and
probably all the south and to be fair of it, yeah,
driving to to Need in a couple of weeks on
Sunday taking Fletcher back up to Needingam. There's a lot
of grain leaft to come off between Gore and all
the way right up to Melton. So yeah, and it
makes it challenging for these guys to try and get

(02:02):
crops off now to then try and get next season's
crops in before winter sets in. And that's happening pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah. Okay, across the board, and I'm talking about in
New Zealand here, how have arable farmers fared? I know
that some of the Canterbury guys, for instance, had difficulty
getting good harvesting conditions. But once you've got the crop off,
have you made any money? Here?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
We're making money, but our margins are getting slimmer and
slimmer every year, Jamien. I mean, like we talked about
briefly off here. You know, dairy farmers might like to
think we rip them off, but we don't. We have
very little connection to dairy payout price. We're greatness concerned.
It's now really very much based around imported feed prices.
So yeah, we'd like to be making a lot more money,

(02:45):
that's for sure, because the machinery is not getting any cheaper,
that's for sure, yep, fuel's gone the right way for it.
We'll probably the looks that your ear is going to
head north in the spring, so a lot of people
be looking at forward contract in the area to try
and nail down some of these prices that your margins
the big one for us that just keeps diminishing pretty
much a year on here, Jamie. So yeah, the industry's
got a few headwinds in that respect, especially around the cereals.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
When you're not being an arable farmer or a poster
boy for Jimmy's Pies in Roxbury, you're an extra excellent
billboard for Jimmy's Pies, if you don't mind me saying so, Blocker.
You also were a finalist in the Balanced Farm Environment Awards,
obviously in the Southland category, and you took home three
prizes science, Soils and water quality and biodiversity. How's the

(03:30):
water quality on the duck pond? You haven't got that
many sleeps to go?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Well, look, I wouldn't want to take a swim in
the duck pond after all. The waterfowl has been there,
that's for sure. But yeah it's full. But that's the
main thing. The ducks are sort of dispersed a fair bit,
so I don't know where they've all gone. There was
extreme numbers around Steen days for four nine ago, like
a made of mine was drilling and he reckon he
had ten to fifteen thousand ducks in the paddock with
him and they were just parting around the tractor and drilling,

(03:56):
carrying on their merry way grazing. So yeah, look would
be interesting on the Boys Christmas or opening day, that's
for sure, to see how many are around and how
many we can get. But you encourage everyone just to
get into them because they're causing a hell a lot
of problems in South And this year, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
On this show. I think last week we chatted to
Mark Dylan, who's a mate yours not a mile away
from your farm, the New Zealand Plowing Champion, and he's
right next door to my duck pond down on Southland,
and I told him to leave some crop on to
keep the ducks interested. No crop left at your place, obviously.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
No, none, only in lock. Some years, if I am
harvesting in the duck pom paddic and it's close to
duck shooting, I get a bit lazy or a bit cunning,
depends the way you want look at it, and just
flick the orger out off the combine and do a
lap round the part of the pond that we can so.
But no grain left here for us. That the ducks
are away feeding somewhere else in the maintime.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Good on you, will you enjoy your jimmy'spie and rocksborgh
good luck on opening day and congratulations taking home three
of the gongs. If you want at the balance farm
environment towards for Southland Blair block of Drysdale

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Go well, no thanks, Jamie, but congrats to Camp Nelson
who took the south intoadaway