From Passion to Progress in Sheep Farming with Andrew Glover

WEBVTT
00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:01.040
Welcome back to Head Shepherd.
00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:02.721
We're doing another one live, which is great.
00:00:02.721 --> 00:00:09.625
We like doing the odd one out and about, so we're out here in the river today catching up with Andrew Glover, otherwise known as Gloves Gloves.
00:00:09.625 --> 00:00:11.686
Thanks for having us today.
00:00:11.686 --> 00:00:13.067
When did you?
00:00:13.067 --> 00:00:21.812
Yeah, we'll start with a few questions, and always we start with a bit of a background when did you know you sort of wanted to clear an ag, and has there ever been anything else you think you might have wanted to do or think?
00:00:22.292 --> 00:00:22.893
you might have wanted to do.
00:00:22.893 --> 00:00:27.396
Yeah, it's a good question and something that we probably spend a bit of time pondering about over the years.
00:00:27.396 --> 00:00:30.277
But yeah, I was always an outside kid growing up.
00:00:30.277 --> 00:00:37.929
Mum and Dad were both school teachers and Dad was bitten by an agricultural bug.
00:00:37.929 --> 00:00:40.740
He's a Sydney boy, but he was bitten by an agricultural bug and he bought a little property 300 acres.
00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:45.752
So I grew up there and, yeah, agriculture was on and especially sheep was always something I was interested in.
00:00:45.752 --> 00:00:55.048
But I did toy with the idea of being a bricklayer or a butcher or something like that, along with every other kid's dream of being, you know, an athlete of some description.
00:00:55.048 --> 00:00:58.020
But yeah, no, sheep are sort of where I've been in agriculture.
00:00:58.020 --> 00:01:01.430
I think it's a space that's got so many doors that you can open.
00:01:01.430 --> 00:01:04.414
It's just a matter of finding the one that fits what you want to do?
00:01:04.433 --> 00:01:07.716
Yeah, yeah, 100%, and you could have played footy, because you actually won't do that, have you?
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:09.144
No, no it's all lies.
00:01:09.144 --> 00:01:10.448
It's all lies, mate.
00:01:10.448 --> 00:01:12.387
I've broken down old has-been.
00:01:12.387 --> 00:01:12.948
Yeah righto.
00:01:14.100 --> 00:01:14.501
Yeah, I guess.
00:01:14.501 --> 00:01:16.368
Yeah, talk us through your career today.
00:01:16.368 --> 00:01:17.740
So lots of stepping stones.
00:01:17.740 --> 00:01:22.105
You did the contracting from day one to where we are today.
00:01:22.525 --> 00:01:44.007
Yeah, no, it's been a path full of twists and turns, but pretty much early days at high school I had found a passion for agriculture the subject agriculture but I had a really good careers advisor who was a mad, keen sheep breeder and I used to skip a few classes that I didn't like eg English and spend a bit of time in his office talking sheep.
00:01:44.007 --> 00:01:51.141
So that got me interested and I was, you know, always keen to get out and do some other external study and whatnot.
00:01:51.141 --> 00:02:21.921
So I actually completed my wool classing certificate while I was at school in year 11 and 12, two nights a week and from there went straight from finishing school in Cootamundra to UNE to study a Bachelor of Livestock Science, sheep and wool production, and that was a four-year course that I completed both internally and externally, like full-time and part-time, and during that stage, during that time, I worked part-time or I worked full-time, sorry on a cropping place and I did a bit of interstate truck driving as well.
00:02:21.921 --> 00:02:38.319
Towards the back end of the study In 2009, I'd sort of completed, got the certificate in the mail and realised that I had $50,000 hex debt and I had to work out how I was going to leverage that investment to make a life for myself.
00:02:41.907 --> 00:02:55.829
So I jumped into the contracting space with a crutching trailer and the plan was always to build a relationship with the client, to then step out into a consultancy role, try and get some runs on the board, I suppose, and then go into the consultancy role.
00:02:56.542 --> 00:03:11.233
But that sort of never really fully eventuated because the contracting just got bigger and bigger to the point where in the last couple of years, towards the back end of that 10-year period of our lives, we were sort of handling 600,000 sheep a year across 115 clients.
00:03:12.443 --> 00:03:13.384
So that was really big.
00:03:13.384 --> 00:03:18.004
So from there we'd, you know, be honest probably burn ourselves out or burnt myself out a little bit.
00:03:18.004 --> 00:03:37.381
So I was looking to change the pace and jumped out of the contracting space into into some into a farm manager's role and was lucky enough to go and be operations manager up at a well-known study in the central west where you do a lot of work for, where we met each other up at mumble bone, and from there I had a really good five years there.
00:03:37.381 --> 00:03:49.230
But then it was just time to chase that next or scratch that next ditch, I suppose, and we're lucky enough to fall into this role here where we are now at Pudgenook and, yeah, still really excited about where the sheep industry can go.
00:03:49.230 --> 00:03:59.391
Despite the challenges we're all facing with diminishing returns and increasing cost structures, still think there's a positive, bright future for the right type of sheep in Australia.
00:03:59.391 --> 00:03:59.935
That's for certain.
00:03:59.955 --> 00:04:00.960
Yeah, 100%.
00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:25.360
Won't disagree with that at all no-transcript.
00:04:25.379 --> 00:04:29.596
The unsuccessful places, I would say would be fair, and I was.
00:04:29.656 --> 00:04:45.228
I was really lucky I probably didn't realise it until towards the back end of that 10 years of contracting that I was lucky enough to be invited into people's workplaces and businesses and could cast like a third degree eye, like an external eye, over what was going on.
00:04:45.603 --> 00:04:54.468
And I started asking lots of questions towards the back end of that to try and build my knowledge set and gain some trust, I suppose, in case I did want to step out into that consultancy space.
00:04:54.468 --> 00:05:08.608
And the three things that stood out for me, for guys that really were the top end producers of those 115 clients we had on our books, was probably investment in infrastructure, investment in genetics and investment in their people.
00:05:08.608 --> 00:05:17.444
You know, with the infrastructure becomes the ability to, you know, run at that, run it right, right at that pointy end, and obviously to get to the pointy end you've got to have good genetics.
00:05:17.444 --> 00:05:20.154
And then people you we're all stuffed without people.
00:05:20.154 --> 00:05:24.346
So you know that was probably the three things that really stood out.
00:05:24.346 --> 00:05:33.653
And, yeah, any of those guys that I used to work for, listening, I'd extend a great thanks and gratitude for allowing us to be part of your businesses for so long.
00:05:33.653 --> 00:05:37.130
It was a good part of our lives and something that I'll never forget.
00:05:37.459 --> 00:05:39.629
Yeah, I think they're three keys to any business.
00:05:39.629 --> 00:05:46.511
And well, obviously you can't control the genetics if you're in a people business, but having that people right is critical.
00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:48.987
Yeah, just another thing I'll probably put in there.
00:05:48.987 --> 00:05:57.870
Third, two was the one thing that just stood out for me was the guys who knew their businesses or who were successful and knew their businesses inside out.
00:05:57.870 --> 00:06:01.651
They did one or two things and did them really really well.
00:06:01.651 --> 00:06:17.509
They weren't what I call a whirlwind farmer, they didn't chase the next fad, so to speak, and the best way to explain it is probably when you get a phone call to say we've got X amount of sheep to do whatever to, and you turn up and there's 500 less or 500 more.
00:06:17.509 --> 00:06:21.050
That was generally an indication that the guys didn't have a full handle on their business.
00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:32.454
So that was probably one thing I missed off that previous question, that those successful guys knew their business and they knew it inside out, but they kept it simple, you know, weren't juggling too many balls, so to speak.
00:06:32.473 --> 00:06:38.115
Yeah, no, your numbers is something we we refer to a bit and yeah, obviously, and you do, yeah, lots of.
00:06:38.115 --> 00:06:39.300
I guess you're in contracts.
00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:41.024
Any contractor has that experience that way.
00:06:41.024 --> 00:06:54.255
You've come out and catch a few hundred or whatever, and then there's a thousand yards or whatever, and yeah, yeah, yeah it was nearly a weekly occurrence back in the day I mean, it's pretty clear from from that job being contracted for that many sheep.
00:06:54.877 --> 00:06:57.550
It takes a massive engine and I think if we asked I haven't done this.
00:06:57.550 --> 00:07:02.223
But if we did ask lots of people how to describe you, I think work ethic and drive would come up near the top of the list.
00:07:02.223 --> 00:07:07.331
Where does that sort of that real drive and work ethic come from to keep the fires burning?
00:07:08.514 --> 00:07:17.959
Yeah, it's a good question and I think, to be brutally honest, the drive to be successful has been instilled in me from a young age.
00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:23.112
Dad was a Sydney born and bred boy that ended up in the bush, followed mum, got married.
00:07:23.112 --> 00:07:25.225
Anyway, long story short short.
00:07:25.225 --> 00:07:35.850
He was gifted, or he bought six corridor ewes and an old ram and ran them on the back of the ju young schoolyard, ended up selling those for 60, the lambs for 60 or something.
00:07:35.850 --> 00:07:36.831
He thought, how good's farming?
00:07:36.831 --> 00:07:37.901
I'm going to get into farming.
00:07:37.901 --> 00:07:43.668
So went and bought 300 tough acres at coolac in the hills and build a nice house.
00:07:44.608 --> 00:07:52.987
But his work ethic was something that sort of had rubbed off on me but all of my brothers and sisters, one of four.
00:07:52.987 --> 00:08:08.062
And to see Dad literally work his hands to the bone every weekend, every spare hour he had to make that little block of dirt financially viable for us was something that I you know I'll probably never.
00:08:08.062 --> 00:08:14.504
You sort of don't realise it as a kid that you're getting exposed to that, but it sort of it rubs off for sure.
00:08:14.504 --> 00:08:18.560
And the best way to sum up the work ethic and where it comes from.
00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:39.152
Not too many people have been up to mum and dad's house where they live up on top of quite a big hill, and dad and us kids, as we got older, were a bit more help, but hand cemented a one and a half kilometre driveway by hand because that was the cheapest way to do it.
00:08:39.220 --> 00:08:42.389
He didn't value his time, rightly or wrongly.
00:08:42.389 --> 00:08:49.988
But you know, so long days and hard work was something we were used to as kids and it sort of just rubbed off as a lot later in life.
00:08:49.988 --> 00:08:54.370
But I have worked out that you know the old analogy you only get what you get by.
00:08:54.370 --> 00:08:57.101
The sweat of your brow is true to a degree, but we've got to.
00:08:57.101 --> 00:09:01.783
Everyone's got to work a little bit smarter and I'm sort of potentially learning that at nearly 40.
00:09:01.783 --> 00:09:03.429
So, yeah, yeah, I'm not sure I could I go back my work.
00:09:03.451 --> 00:09:07.404
Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure I could like I would back my work ethic, but I'm not sure I could stay down the barrel.
00:09:07.465 --> 00:09:13.734
A k and a half of concreting, yeah, yeah, yeah no, it was, uh, it was 13, or yeah, it was round figures 13.
00:09:13.734 --> 00:09:16.702
Summer holidays yeah yeah, dad used to buy a pallet of concrete.
00:09:16.702 --> 00:09:19.009
Um, when the concrete was done, we'd go on holidays.
00:09:19.009 --> 00:09:23.086
It was all hand mixed shovel, the sand shovel, the gravel shovel.
00:09:23.086 --> 00:09:25.331
Yeah, yeah, the yeah cart the water, you name it.
00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:26.745
That is a good way to teach work.
00:09:26.745 --> 00:09:34.530
Graves, you're now managing a significant station, pudgenook.
00:09:34.530 --> 00:09:36.417
It's a big deal.
00:09:36.417 --> 00:09:44.110
What advice would you give to young passionate people out there that that would be aspiring to sort of take this role on in the future?
00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:55.130
Yeah, I think it's potentially a dream job for a lot of guys out there that are aspiring to manage a station, especially one with the aura that Pudginook has in the Riverina.
00:09:55.130 --> 00:10:01.168
You know, long-term Merino studs still producing top-end rams, still supplying a lot of rams to the industry.
00:10:01.168 --> 00:10:10.933
So there's that ability or that potential to influence the industry from a seed stock point of view and that's obviously a big attraction for me to have taken on this role.
00:10:10.933 --> 00:10:15.001
But I think the advice that I'd give would be that you just got to take your time to do the apprenticeship.
00:10:15.001 --> 00:10:16.365
It's a slow road.
00:10:16.365 --> 00:10:18.030
Gain the experience and be patient.
00:10:18.211 --> 00:10:27.642
You've got to be really willing to do those jobs or to start at the bottom to do those jobs that don't really fit what you think you're up to.
00:10:27.642 --> 00:10:38.500
You might have a $40,000 or $50,000 hex debt, but you've still got to be willing to drag out that shitty sheep and crutch it, fix that fence, do all those things that we've all had to do.
00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:39.764
We've all started at the bottom.
00:10:39.764 --> 00:10:51.924
Just be willing to stay curious, be willing to ask the questions, be willing to throw yourself out in front of the people that make the decision about who's going to be the overseer, who's going to be the assistant manager who's going to potentially be the manager?
00:10:51.924 --> 00:10:57.883
Be positive and confident, work hard, but one key piece of advice would be throw the clock away.
00:10:57.883 --> 00:11:01.989
Clock watches in agriculture don't fit, so don't count hours.
00:11:01.989 --> 00:11:06.916
It's a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job and that's the stuff that doesn't go unnoticed.
00:11:06.916 --> 00:11:09.368
So work hard, stay committed and your time will come.
00:11:09.368 --> 00:11:12.749
Just yeah and stay curious would probably be the main thing.
00:11:12.969 --> 00:11:13.711
Yeah, great thoughts.
00:11:13.711 --> 00:11:17.610
And yeah, I think I 100% agree on that clock-watching aspect.
00:11:17.610 --> 00:11:19.143
It's sort of I don't know.
00:11:19.143 --> 00:11:24.753
We came up through an era where there just wasn't an option to be watching what the clock is, and I think we need to.
00:11:24.753 --> 00:11:36.143
Yeah, I mean, obviously every employee has rights, but there's still if you want to climb, you have to work, and that's the same as in McKinsey and PwC, like it's.
00:11:36.143 --> 00:11:38.591
All the big firms are the same and agriculture is no different.
00:11:38.591 --> 00:11:42.051
If you want to achieve something, you actually have to bend your back and make it happen.
00:11:42.299 --> 00:11:45.801
Yeah, you've got to be a bit of a self-starter back and make it happen.
00:11:45.801 --> 00:11:53.274
Yeah, you've got to be a bit of a self-starter, you've got to be willing to put the time in, and the harder you work, the more you enjoy the time that you get not to work.
00:11:53.274 --> 00:12:10.184
And I think it's a key thing that, yes, we've all got entitlements, but sometimes the job at hand overrides that entitlement and you've just got to get the job done for the benefit of the business or the company or whoever you're working for, and it doesn't go unnoticed.
00:12:10.184 --> 00:12:10.947
People take note.
00:12:10.947 --> 00:12:16.711
So, yeah, I think when we grew up, we didn't have a clock on every device we owned.
00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:18.203
So unless you had one on your wrist.
00:12:18.203 --> 00:12:24.022
You were guided by the sun, and when the sun came up, you went to work, and when it went down, you went home, and when it went down, you went home.
00:12:24.022 --> 00:12:27.349
So you know, that's whether that's the old school approach, I don't know.
00:12:27.349 --> 00:12:34.193
But yeah, I think that's pretty key that clock watches and agriculture are two very different worlds yeah, no 100.
00:12:34.475 --> 00:12:43.884
I think your leadership point's a really good one and I actually one of my users that's probably been out by the time of well, this is released but I think it doesn't matter where you run a business.
00:12:43.884 --> 00:12:45.147
You need to find a way to lead.
00:12:45.147 --> 00:12:49.883
Like, even if you're the, you're the juniorist, junior shepherd or whatever on the on a property, you still need to.
00:12:49.883 --> 00:12:55.168
If you've got something you see wrong, you still need to find a way to, and that's just through communication, as you already covered.
00:12:55.187 --> 00:13:10.370
Like, leadership can come from all parts of wherever you are in a business, you still you still have an opportunity to show some leadership yeah, I agree, and leadership has so many different meanings and when people think a leader they quite often think a captain yeah, captain of the ship, sort of thing.
00:13:10.370 --> 00:13:13.565
But that's definitely not the case and it's not the case in a multi.
00:13:13.565 --> 00:13:20.648
You know employee business like, um, yeah, it's, you've got to, everyone's got to learn.
00:13:20.648 --> 00:13:22.672
I think it's a, it's a real development piece that's.
00:13:22.672 --> 00:13:27.451
That's sort of coming into a lot of agriculture, probably because it was missing for a lot of years.
00:13:27.451 --> 00:13:29.405
It was more of a follow me type.
00:13:29.405 --> 00:13:35.365
But if we want to keep staff and we want to attract the right staff, we've got to create buy-in.
00:13:35.365 --> 00:13:44.309
And the best way to create buy-in is give people an opportunity to lead and take on some of those meaningful tasks as their own, change it to make it suit them and do it better than what we can do it.
00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:52.274
I think that's I've always when, whenever I've employed people, I've always tried to find someone that does the job better than I can do it and then let them go and do it.
00:13:52.274 --> 00:13:53.715
That makes life a little easier if you can find those people.
00:13:53.715 --> 00:13:55.076
So here at bush it's.
00:13:55.076 --> 00:13:55.876
It's one of.
00:13:55.876 --> 00:13:58.440
It's home to one of australia's largest marina stud.
00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:00.563
The sheep industry is ever changing.
00:14:00.563 --> 00:14:05.052
It's ever evolving um and to an extent, the marina studs should lead this evolution.
00:14:05.052 --> 00:14:08.399
What do you see as the features of pushing at Pomerino in 2035?
00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:16.366
So if we could jump in our time machine and fast forward sort of 11 years or 10 and a bit years as we are today, what are we looking at?
00:14:16.366 --> 00:14:18.860
If we wandered out into the yards today, can we?
00:14:18.899 --> 00:14:22.703
jump in that time machine and see what the market's going to do in 10 or 11 years time.
00:14:22.783 --> 00:14:24.706
We wouldn't have to be here doing a podcast if we knew that.
00:14:24.706 --> 00:14:25.246
Answer mate.
00:14:25.267 --> 00:14:26.048
Yeah, no, that's right.
00:14:26.048 --> 00:14:29.051
Look, I 100% agree with what you're saying.
00:14:29.051 --> 00:14:33.556
I think education is key behind a lot of that.
00:14:33.556 --> 00:14:42.192
The industry needs educators like yourself and it needs studs to help facilitate that education.
00:14:44.039 --> 00:14:47.500
Pudginook, you know I'm lucky to have inherited a great business.
00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:50.408
Pudgenook's been under the Parraway Bennett for 16 years.
00:14:50.408 --> 00:14:54.485
It's stood the test of time for all the right reasons.
00:14:54.485 --> 00:15:20.787
So we're not tipping it upside down and all we're trying to do now is just take off some of those sharp edges round the animal out a bit more, become a little bit more resilient and ultimately more profitable, and whether that's in lamb or wool, or kilos of lamb produced or kilos of wool produced, I think it's probably a combination of both, Not convinced that one or the other is gonna reign supreme in 10 years.
00:15:20.787 --> 00:15:40.048
So, no, I think it'll be subtle changes and, yeah, we just hopefully no, not hopefully it will be Pudginook will stand the test of time and someone else will be able to stand here behind this wall table in 20 years or 10 years or however long I last at the helm and be able to talk about it as well.
00:15:40.168 --> 00:15:47.269
Yeah, exactly and I think, yeah, I guess, if we could get in that crystal ball, I think they're relatively predictable.
00:15:47.269 --> 00:15:55.340
We've already seen, like we were just chatting before, like the RWS premiums are there and so we're seeing the market rewarding the non-meal status of Pudginook.
00:15:55.340 --> 00:16:12.989
We'll see well, the land markets bounce back pretty well and we're going to see that meat market, like all the trends are pretty good for the meat side, so that dual-purpose animal as it already is, I can imagine that will just keep building out and some of the welfare traits will keep kicking in there as well.
00:16:12.989 --> 00:16:13.951
Yeah, 100%.
00:16:14.602 --> 00:16:15.044
You're right.
00:16:15.044 --> 00:16:21.089
I think consumers will shape where we need to go, because if we don't listen, we don't have a market.
00:16:21.089 --> 00:16:25.931
The RWS side of stuff quite intriguing at the moment.
00:16:25.931 --> 00:16:27.847
Like you said, we just sold some wool yesterday.
00:16:27.847 --> 00:16:35.482
That's shown that the premiums are back and back in a big way for some short 68 mil RWS accredited wool.
00:16:35.482 --> 00:16:43.386
So that's exciting and I think, yeah, the meat market people have got to eat can't see that changing.
00:16:43.386 --> 00:17:06.875
It's more just a matter of trying to make ourselves resilient and be able to flex when the season, the climate variability we now all face be it like yesterday, like 30 mil downpour, our rain seems to be falling in shorter, sharper bursts and our dry patches are getting longer and more frequent.
00:17:06.875 --> 00:17:21.648
Without going down that rabbit hole, I think it's about building businesses and animal enterprises that can flex, that can ramp up and go hard when the seasons are good and then tighten back down when the seasons aren't there, knowing you can get back in quickly when it turns.
00:17:21.648 --> 00:17:22.651
Yeah, 100%.
00:17:23.142 --> 00:17:28.666
Doing this interview and being where we are, we wouldn't be appropriate without mentioning your wife, Peter.
00:17:28.666 --> 00:17:31.603
Like lots of people in agriculture, it's a team effort.
00:17:31.603 --> 00:17:35.026
How important to you has been sharing the career journey with Peter.
00:17:36.095 --> 00:17:39.385
Yeah, mate, peter's an amazing woman.
00:17:39.385 --> 00:17:46.326
She's definitely helped take some of my rough edges off.
00:17:46.326 --> 00:17:52.743
Pretty big chisel some days yeah, some days a chisel isn't big enough.
00:17:52.743 --> 00:17:58.748
No, look, she's been a successful entrepreneur in her own right as well.
00:17:58.748 --> 00:18:05.184
I think that's what made us such a good team, or makes us such a good team is her ability to sit back and look at the big picture.
00:18:06.615 --> 00:18:19.205
So obviously, raised four beautiful boys while I was contracting and allowed me to run that business and probably run a little bit harder than we should have from a family point of view, but kept us all together.
00:18:19.205 --> 00:18:27.280
And then, yeah, she's been successful, started and ran a very successful laundromat business which she sold when we left Wellington.
00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:31.084
She's had food trucks and coffee carts and all sorts of stuff.
00:18:31.084 --> 00:18:34.045
So, yeah, no, peter, like you say, it is a team effort.
00:18:34.045 --> 00:18:40.082
There's no way I don't think I could have done half of what I've achieved without someone like her beside me.
00:18:40.082 --> 00:18:49.344
So, yeah, no, she's a very important person and I know she'll cook us a good feed tonight, ferg, so we'll be spoiled, as usual.
00:18:49.494 --> 00:18:51.096
But yeah, no, I love her dearly and yeah, couldn't have done it without her.
00:18:51.096 --> 00:18:52.878
Yeah, no, I love her dearly and yeah, couldn't have done it without her.
00:18:52.878 --> 00:18:52.980
Yeah.
00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:53.800
I understand Clive.
00:18:53.800 --> 00:19:00.650
It's a question we ask everybody, which is the hardest question we ask often, and that is what is the last thing you change your mind about.
00:19:05.954 --> 00:19:10.487
Yeah, it's a great question and one I sort of was trying to come up with something funny to reply to, because I did see this question come up.
00:19:10.487 --> 00:19:16.586
But anyone that knows me knows I change my mind nearly as often as I've changed my socks, um, which is daily.
00:19:16.586 --> 00:19:25.404
So just just to clarify, yeah, yeah, but I'm it's a very open question and I was just trying to think of, you know, obviously, something funny.
00:19:25.404 --> 00:19:29.769
But there's one thing that I keep coming back to and that's probably the riverina itself.
00:19:29.769 --> 00:19:38.905
Um, you know, I grew up at cootamundra in that you know, some of that best wheat growing country in australia around cootamundra, wallenbeen, through that, through that area.
00:19:38.905 --> 00:19:44.347
There, you know the riverina was sort of had this perception of being borderline desert.
00:19:44.347 --> 00:19:47.419
You know you're one step off the great sandy desert in south australia.
00:19:47.419 --> 00:19:49.807
You know like it was, but it's a big.
00:19:50.150 --> 00:20:06.182
It's been a big eye opener moving down here and seeing how strong this country is, how, how well the stock do, the lack of pressure that we spoke about today in the car from worms and diseases and things like that, but the ability for the country to respond.
00:20:06.182 --> 00:20:09.163
We've had 40 mils of rain in the last two days.
00:20:09.163 --> 00:20:14.105
We'll see a green pick come now, that'll carry our sheep through joining.
00:20:14.105 --> 00:20:17.855
Green pick come now, that'll carry our sheep through joining.
00:20:17.855 --> 00:20:33.394
And when I turned up here in 2023, sorry we took on some adjustment cattle that came down very drought, ridden out of the north out of that big drought that was on its way, and within sort of two or three months they turned around to become quite good looking mob of cattle.
00:20:33.394 --> 00:20:44.782
So, yeah, I think the thing I've changed my most on is the ability of this country to be able to grow stock and be productive, and it's probably about trying to find a now.
00:20:44.782 --> 00:20:50.768
It's trying to find the genotype that will allow us to do that and make some good returns in the modern era.
00:20:52.038 --> 00:20:53.134
Yeah, really interesting.
00:20:53.134 --> 00:21:10.798
And maybe a supplementary question is how, yeah, I mean, in this strong country, people sort of see sheep out here and see, like you're here, like you can literally hear the fleece at the table out here, because they grow great, great fleece weights and and are healthy and they have heaps of lambs, because it is really really strong country.
00:21:10.798 --> 00:21:18.902
But I guess, yeah, we have to be careful about expecting these sort of genetics to then transform into other environments that aren't so easy.
00:21:18.902 --> 00:21:29.079
And that's the, that's the art, I suppose, of trying to seed stock producers, trying to breed sheep that will not only do well here but also do well as you shift them into into different environments that have different challenges, I suppose.
00:21:29.079 --> 00:21:39.358
And that's kind of that's, that's the beauty of, I guess, the breeding base to test things here that aren't maybe a challenge here, but we can force them to have a challenge here in worms or whatever, but it's not really heavy worm country.
00:21:39.861 --> 00:21:40.343
Yeah, and that's.
00:21:40.343 --> 00:21:41.700
I think you're right there.
00:21:41.700 --> 00:21:54.844
We're lucky enough to have a big client base, that a lot of those guys are east of the Newell Highway, so back into sort of a moderate to high rainfall dual purpose country like cropping and grazing country.
00:21:54.844 --> 00:22:00.185
So we we need to be able to breed sheep that can go into those areas, um, down into victoria as well.
00:22:00.185 --> 00:22:18.035
So you know, key things that we're we're focusing on and we'll continue to focus on are obviously feet and worms and dag and things like that, because whilst it may not be top of the tree for our local environment, it's still there are still correlations or fundamentals at play that mean they perform well in our environment.
00:22:18.035 --> 00:22:23.707
In particular years and last year with our wet summer that turned up.
00:22:23.707 --> 00:22:29.066
This year, with the potential of another wet summer, those key traits will be paramount.
00:22:29.066 --> 00:22:36.923
So, yeah, that is the beauty of the art of seed stock breeding, something that I'm only new to, but I'm sure in time we'll get there yeah, 100.
00:22:37.464 --> 00:22:38.006
Awesome mate.
00:22:38.006 --> 00:22:40.718
Thanks for you, thanks for your time and yeah, great, great to have a chat.
00:22:40.718 --> 00:22:44.430
We'll, we'll, uh, we'll be plenty of plenty more chats.
00:22:44.530 --> 00:22:50.276
I'll be there after this yeah, and I look forward to it, fergan, looking forward to having you on board and we'll go from there.
00:22:50.276 --> 00:22:50.877
Cheers, mate.