Life and Farming at Omarama Station

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome Richard Subtall to Head Shepherd.

Speaker 2 0:03

Thanks very much, Ferg. Pleasure to be involved.

Speaker 1 0:06

Excellent, richard, we'd normally have Annabelle as well. Obviously, you two are a team there at Amerima Station, but I didn't give her enough warning, so we'll run solo today. But yeah, obviously we're not just working on it straight up. That's definitely a partnership there at Amerima. I guess maybe if you could just start with kind of life pre-Amerima, coming from the UK and time in the Middle East, and so how you ended up back on a farm or farm in the middle of the South Island, well south of the South, Island.

Speaker 2 0:36

Yeah, my first thing I'll say when you gave us tons of warning with the email this morning saying Anabalt, it was a very hard note. It's straight Good. Yeah, there was no communication, sorry, no negotiation. I mean, I was born and brought up on a little family farm in the southeast of England, and it was, you know, it was the five of us in the family, and we worked pretty hard, and mum and dad had to, because it was pretty small scale. Early on in the piece, they put a farm shop on a butchery to collect all the value and all that sort of stuff, which they never thought about in those terms, but they were aware that they couldn't do it without adding value, and that was pretty formative. I mean, we all worked on the farm and we're all still. All three of us kids are still involved in ag. Two of us are in New Zealand now, though, and one's still left back in the UK.

Speaker 2 1:30

There obviously wasn't enough room on the farm, and so, after a bit of shagging about and doing ski seasons and that sort of thing, I got a job in London, which didn't work for me at all. At some stage, I don't know, I met up with Annabelle and she was overdoing the big OE and she had 18 months or so while I knew her and then when she had to go back to New Zealand because of immigration time, I followed and I worked for her old man here for just under a year and that sort of made me think about life a bit more. I think I was about 27 by then. So we organised quite deliberately for me to go back to the UK and then look for an opportunity to work somewhere between the two countries. We've both gone on really well and always have with each other's parents. So I mean it was pretty random.

Speaker 2 2:22

There was a job going with somebody I knew in Dubai in the Middle East, and this is over 30 years ago and it was kind of before Dubai was well, it was before Dubai was even known and we had two and a half years there and then two and a half years in Malaysia, both working for TNT, the logistics and distribution company, and it was a great time. It sort of established us as a couple in our own right. It was also, I mean Dubai now unrecognizable. I don't think I've ever been so drunk for so long and if you were pulled over by the cops, they just politely asked if you'd be okay if they drove you home and dropped you off and tucked you into bed, sort of thing. So no, being thrown out of the country, no, it was a great time. It was a really, really good time.

Speaker 2 3:08

And then, to cut the long story short, we were, you know, very happy in that role and went to Malaysia. That was another good time. And then, out of the blue, annabel's father phoned up to say there was an opportunity to be involved with the station and that had never been an option at all prior to then. And Annabel was pregnant with our daughter, emma, who is now 26 plus, and it just seemed like perfect timing. So we we said we would come back and give it a go and if it didn't work out, within five years we would walk away and go back to doing something else. And it's 26, 27 years later, and we're still here.

Speaker 2 3:46

So that's the but that process did. It was pretty formative, although it was very different. It was logistics and shipping. It was a commodity-based thing. You know, you could only charge so much per kg to ship this stuff and everybody else was competing around the same stuff. And we came back just in time for the creation of New Zealand Merino and the early, early contracts and it really appealed to us. So that time that we had in the Middle East and Malaysia has formed a lot of our thinking in agriculture as well, even though it has no immediate crossover.

Speaker 1 4:23

Yeah, excellent. And often you learn a lot, bob things outside of your own industry, or learn more there than you do in industry sometimes, depending on what you're learning. Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 4:35

I think it's a big thing for people to get out of their comfort zone. It doesn't work for everybody, but if you go out and you have a look at the rest of the world, whether you like it or not, it does mean you can go back to what you're comfortable with and know that you're doing it because it's what you love. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 4:49

Maybe for those who aren't from the South Island and don't know where Amarama is and what Amarama Station is. If yeah, could you give us a quick rundown on the sort of operation there in a maybe in a normal year? Obviously you're trying to to be normal this year, but it's been probably a bit reduced or a bit squeezed. But yeah, normally what the go is at Amara.

Speaker 2 5:06

So we're a 12,000 hectare high country block. There's 8,000 hectares of high altitude stuff, which goes up to 5,500 feet, 15, 50 metres, it's 450 metres at the homestead and there's 4,000 hectares of flats that vary from high intensityintensity irrigation center pivots to really really extensive river flats and everything else in between. We run 7,500 merino ewes and about 350 breeding Angus cows. We usually wean about 120% out of our merinos and we buy in about 3,000 of other people's culls. So by the time we've sold some pre-the winter and killed some of our own pre-winter. We take about 10,500 lambs through the winter and it's a pretty long winter in the Merrimah, so there's lots of feeding out and shifting breaks.

Speaker 2 6:04

This is not an advert for people who want a job, but, um, I mean, that's that's always been a pretty high value gig to take an animal through the winter, get that, first pine fleece and then, um you know, kill the culls thereafter in the early spring before they the crossbreds have come online. So that works as a good system for us. But we're breeding for, uh, an icebreaker style uh sheep. So we're sort of we're targeting about 18 and a half, 19 micron long, strong, pretty unsexy. We're not italian spinners or anything like that. We don't want to be. Um, when we find that that sort of fleece sits well on a ewe that's hopefully going to scan with multiples and do it, you know, every year rather than once in a lifetime, type of thing.

Speaker 1 6:53

Yeah, excellent. So, yeah, a good rundown there and we'll probably get to the switch over in the cattle job as we chat through. You already mentioned Icebreaker and, I guess, the associated contracts. Up until recently, you sort of had most of your products in some form of contract, rather, and it's obviously been a feature of the business. Is that long-term contracts? Yeah, I guess, maybe just in your words, what that's meant for business over those years.

Speaker 2 7:20

Yeah, I think, going back to you know the history thing of being used to commodities, the time was perfect. When we came in, there was this option to not just deal in a commodity or to try and not deal in a commodity. And so very early on in the piece we, you know, we were one of the first people involved with the icebreaker thing and the dream then was to try and make it a more partnership rather than the typical buyer-seller relationship. And I mean it's taken a bit of work from both sides it really has and there's been times when we've had to take it on the chin and vice versa that Icebreaker have been left arguably back. You know in years past They've been paying more than the spot market. You know it matured several years ago to a rolling 10-year contract where there's recognition of the loyalty and there's recognition of the access for marketing. So we regularly have guests here or videos or photo shoots and lots of things in support of the brand. So there's a lot of imagery that gets used by them and there has a value to that and that's reflected.

Speaker 2 8:30

But a trend is that we're always in the 80th percentile in terms of where the market is or better, and it's not like we have all the cream on the cake all the time, but we very rarely don't have some cream on the cake, shall we say, and it just means that in terms of our breeding decisions, all the time but we very rarely don't have some cream on the cake, shall we say and it just means that in terms of our breeding decisions and the whole farming operation.

Speaker 2 8:50

I guess when we first got involved, people you know, there was a fine wool boom at one stage and people were trying to breed to suddenly shoot sideways and get finer, or vice versa. With the way things are now, we breed for the icebreaker contract and we can see 10 years in advance. So really, with our contract, given that Annie and I are not going to be doing this in 10 years' time, I guess we're giving a bit of a platform to the kids, assuming that that's what they want to do in the next decade. So it's been more than just a business. It's pretty cool when you are involved in where it goes and you know, with all the CEOs and right back to Jeremy Moon, the founder, they're literally people who we can pick the phone up to and have a conversation with. We're meeting the current CEO, who's now based in Switzerland, but we're off to christchurch in a month's time to catch up with yarn. He stayed here.

Speaker 1 9:49

It changes the whole relationship and it's been a really good, foundational thing for us yeah, I think that's that was where I was gonna gonna lead you next, but you've already gone there. Yeah, that it's not just that transaction, it's that opportunity to to interact directly with brands. Anyone that gets close down to the other end of the value chain gets is always, it always has an appreciation for their side of the business, which is, I guess, what we know. We're dealing with humans. We can, you can view them as corporations, but at the end of the day, it's humans making decisions somewhere else in the world and I guess you've had good opportunities to travel and and see, see those, those enterprises, and then then obviously, lots of people coming back your way and seeing the farm, and it's that two-way thing that really does create. I guess, created the platform for the 10-year contracts in the first place.

Speaker 2 10:34

Yeah, I mean I don't want to give the idea this is sort of all holding hands and come by. The fact is, from my point of view it clears the decks of making decisions about genetics and all that sort of thing. So it's really really simple and our brand breeder knows exactly what we want and we're on a track that's going in a very specific direction. But it also, because it is a direct-to-brand supply thing, we're cutting out a lot of the middlemen who I mean if they can find value in there for them, that's great, but they're taking away from both of us. So you know it's good business and if we go to our accountant or a bank manager and we can show them a track record of the contract and where the contract's going for the next 10 years, most agribusiness accountants or bank managers will say they've never seen that before. So we can borrow money against that kind of thing. So it's not all happy-clappy, it's definitely business underpinning it. Yeah, good point.

Speaker 1 11:37

I guess, moving on that same theme, there's always, I guess, a careful balance between maintaining tradition and changing with the times, particularly on, I guess, high careful balance between maintaining tradition and changing with the times, particularly on, I guess, high country New Zealand. It's a bit like northern Australia where there's a bit of romance associated with it and there's a bit of tradition associated with it, but obviously times do change. How have you gone about achieving that balance at Amurma?

Speaker 2 11:57

We tried to suppress romance as much as possible.

Speaker 1 12:01

Yeah, careful to allow on the down low.

Improving Farm Efficiency With EID

Speaker 2 12:04

I mean we definitely. I mean we're dealing with marinos and another crossbred and to a certain extent we are trying with, you know, intensive irrigation. We're putting them into places that is not traditional. So we're we're trying to work with our big block of extensive high country, which is their perfect environment, and then adapt them to benefit from the more intense stuff down in the irrigation, for example. So tech is important, but we've got to bear in mind that we are dealing with animals and we're dealing with people as well, and in terms of getting really good staff doing things, in terms of mustering on foot on the hill, using horses, those are all things that attract a better standard of stuff.

Speaker 2 12:51

So we don't want to become too much like a machine. But on the other hand, yeah, we've embraced EID. Obviously, all the U's have been EID for quite a long time now. We have our own sheet conveyor and we have a five-way pneumatic auto-drafter, et cetera, et cetera. So we try and strike a balance between making sure that we are holding on to the best of the history and there's a lot of it and it's important but looking forward as well. So there is a real business here for the next generation I mean our kids will be fourth generation and that's really really, really important to us. But each of the previous generations have sort of put another layer on the onion and if we keep doing that then it'll be better for Emma and Henry, our children, if they choose to do it.

Speaker 1 13:40

Yeah, exactly, and I guess a recent example of not really traditional, I suppose, but having to change was like when the beef contracts that you had for a significant period of time, when they sort of disappeared, you changed your whole cow-calf process because it was no point continuing to pump out a product that was no longer going to attract a premium in the market.

Speaker 2 14:01

No well, the contract hasn't died. The real premium small market that we were in has changed. Specifically this year we very reluctantly had to sell our weaned calves because basically the drought that we've got going at the moment meant we just didn't have a wind feed. That contract is still in existence, but not at the same premium level. It's still better than the alternative.

Speaker 2 14:30

Yeah, you have to go with what's there and unfortunately I guess the commodity thing in the beef sector in New Zealand anyway has pulled us back a bit. We'll still keep looking for those. I mean, 25 years we've been working with the same Japanese restaurant chain and we still are now. But I guess the other thing that being really close to the people that you surprise and the brands is also, you understand much better the pain that they are feeling sometimes. And I mean I think it's a thing in Australasia and Ang we're pretty well separated from the rest of the world and we just don't always realize how things have changed out there and it's a pretty ugly place in the markets we want to supply. Things are tough at the moment.

Speaker 1 15:19

Yeah, yeah for sure, If we get onto the AOD and strangely enough, I bumped into Monty in Jamestown in South Australia last week, which is the last place I expected to see him, but anyway. So, Hamish, Monty has been doing your pregnancy scanning for a fair while and I guess I think it was you or you and Gundy that sort of challenged him to get more data while he was doing that process, which I guess. How has that evolved over time and what's the sort of service he's provided to you been useful for you?

Speaker 2 15:50

Yeah, so typical South Island, New Zealand. His wife is Annabelle's cousin, so you know that's them. But then, after that, it's the fact that he's never been happy to just do what he's always done and we've always sort of annoyed each other with okay, what are we going to do next? And I think he was probably getting bored of just being able to be a good, a really good scanner. So what can I do next? So we started off by integrating scales into the scanner so that we could then, you know, draft based on weight profile as well, and then with the ERD, recording that lifetime data, and and then with the age scanning of the pregnancy. So we're recording that all, and Monty has got his crate up so that he can collect everything and scan just as many years as he used to when he was just are they?

Speaker 2 16:47

in lamb or not sort of thing, and it's been a yeah, it's been a really healthy sort of scenario because, as I said I he scanned millions of sheep and he didn't want to just keep on doing it the way that it had always been done and that's kind of that's his world and it crossed over with our world and so it's been good.

Speaker 2 17:04

But, just like any body that you want to deal with, what Monty adds to the business is also insights to how the whole operation is going. And you know, sometimes people say small things and I'll never forget him early on in the piece saying the best big farms that he'd deal with behave like small farms. So it's the sort of attention to detail and the small things that you do on a big scale that then keep on incrementally making you better and improve the nature of what you do. And I think that's because it's quite hard once you get up and planing making improvements early on in the piece. You know, to be honest, our dry percentage back in the early days was pretty woeful. So Monty encouraged us to be ruthless and kill everything all the time, which was pretty hard in the first year or two, but that's bred through into better performance, and then it's trying to find those little incremental improvements to keep on going, and he's been very helpful with that.

Speaker 1 18:07

Yeah, for sure. And I guess just to put a bit of detail around what he does, so once the sheep walks into his normal skin and crate, but he's teared his weight off so he can get an accurate weight that's recorded on the 5,000, as well as the pregnancy rate and whether it's an early, mid or late. So he collects all that information and you get a USB stick at the end or he sends you the file and all that's collected, which has been awesome for us to go back and have a look at, and as well as just that ability to then pull those groups off as required later on after shearing, when they're all got the wool off, rather than putting a dot in the middle of the back or five different dots in the middle of the back and all that sort of caper.

Speaker 2 18:46

Yeah, the dots would be very unpopular around here.

Speaker 2 18:50

So I mean, we preferentially feed those twin ewes, obviously, and given the nature of the property and the altitude range and the different attributes of the blocks, we can then draft off the early, late twin bearing use and singles and then match their requirement to what the attributes of the place and we've got a massive range in terms of, yeah, altitude and access to feed and all that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 19:16

So so we will put those early twin bearing use on the lower better blocks that that start to grow a bit earlier in the season. And for those who don't know this area, we're typically an average of 350 mils of rainfall and friends from the North Island come down here and wonder what the hell she'd eat. But if we can put those twin yews in the earlier blocks and then have access to the loosened paddocks below and start to rotate them through and then bring the later lambing ewes down behind, that kind of thing, that makes a massive difference from back in the day where we just used to have twins together with their early, middle, late. And then, more importantly, once we get that lifetime data being developed, we can also make sure that we are rewarding those ewes that GS regularly give us early twins every single time every year, especially when at winning time you look at a ewe and she's looking a bit tatty. Is that because she's a poor ewe or is that because she's worked really, really hard for you?

Speaker 1 20:21

Yeah, excellent, and recently Jane Mulholland from our team has been looking kind of into your data, which there's plenty of it because of all those years of collecting info and it's been really I've been enjoying looking through all the different reports, I guess. I was just keen to hear whether you're getting any insights out of that or what you're thinking.

Speaker 2 20:43

Yeah, I mean we are definitely, and I guess what got us hooked, going right back, was when we first used the EID data and we had been classing out what we called royals, but it was sort of that was by eye and when we then compared the poorer sheep to the performance of the royals I don't know whether you remember the analysis, but basically there was $150,000 difference. That if we had been able to convert all the sheep on the place to royals, there was $150,000 worth of profit to be had without spending a dollar more on animal health or feeding them more or anything. It was just better sheep. So the analysis data can confirm what we think we're seeing and I'm always really impressed, having gone to last year's bendigo sheep show, when you look at people who can tell we're just looking at a sheep, that this is the best one on the planet.

Speaker 2 21:40

I'm not that good, I can't do that and I'll never have that skill, but hopefully, if we can combine a visual assessment about the traits we need to run on these hills, these mountains, whatever, with the background data and have it stored all on that little thing in its ear, that seems like pretty good stuff to me. It's not for everyone, but it definitely works for us. Um, and then a brief aside, is that again dealing with these brands, when we tell them the story of the lifetime data and we can show them on the, the true test wand, um, that you know this, you has had this profile throughout her life. That's the kind of stuff that people who come from the northern hemisphere understand and they really find exciting and it reassures them that they're dealing with the right people. So it isn't just what it can do on the farm, it's also what it can do to support the story that we're telling and that premium that we're looking to attract.

Speaker 1 22:38

Yeah, excellent. I guess this year or last year the team I wasn't there, but Will and Jane did the hard yards and probably yeah, I guess applied our best bet of the principles we should apply for making those U selections using all the data that you've collected, as well as doing some visual scores on the day of U-classing. It's a process we're sort of now calling up to you and trying to really hone and make sure it can be utilised more widely. I guess we combined measures with visual, tried to make sure we weren't penalising twins or penalising lambs out of maidens and a whole heap of things you can do as you go down this lane. For me it was an awesome process and when I look back at the data that Jane sent through, it's awesome how we ended up, I think, selecting the right user. You got any reflections on that process? Was it slower or harder? I guess it was a little bit slower, probably, but yeah.

Benefits of foetal aging

Speaker 2 23:38

I guess reflections would be good. Well, the first thing is I didn't realize we were the crash test and we were the first ones to do it.

Speaker 1 23:46

Obviously, we're not going to tell you that, but yeah.

Speaker 2 23:49

Thanks for that, phil. No, I mean on the day it worked extremely well and it just made sense. And well, I think Jane was very patient with Will and I. She was doing the hard stuff when they first came on. And on the scales, yeah, the fact that again, that combination of hard hard data and starting to accumulate a lifetime data as early as possible and we've got all the background about where they've been born and what mobs they were in and all that sort of thing so we can reflect oh yeah, that twin was born in a relatively hard block, et cetera, so we want to give her a better crack at it.

Speaker 2 24:30

And then the visual on the flossing race. It worked really well and it didn't really add much time at all. I mean, once we got up and going it was really good. And we're seeing that the profile of the two-dos now that are heading to the shearing shed in a month or so's time. We're really really happy with them and Corey, our stock manager, has done a great job of managing them in a pretty tricky season.

Speaker 2 24:54

But their body condition score has been right up there and now we're throwing in things like not just blanket drenching and just drenching based on condition score on the day. So they're getting less animal health help, but it's more targeted and we're recording which ones are and aren't getting it. They're getting less animal health help, but it's more targeted and we're recording which ones are and aren't getting it. So in a year or two's time, if we have to make hard decisions, the first ones that we'll be able to pick out using the ERD will be those ones that have been drenched more often than the average and you know, haven't had the weight profile and haven't scanned twins as many times as they like, but we know it all. It's.

Speaker 1 25:30

It's reliable data rather than a form cycle that we used to have to rely on yeah, I think that's pretty cool and I think I mean, if you're sort of, if we're a1 the clock, it hasn't been like some people get a little bit or find a bit daunting that sort of thinking about how you are now, but it's it's been small steps as you go. You sort of add one job each year or whatever. Like this hasn't been a dramatic shift, and I think that's what people need to understand that you sort of you just do one little thing that makes sense and then the next thing makes sense because you've already got, you've already learned that last bit, and so it's sort of a bit of a snowball that goes forward.

Speaker 2 26:01

Yeah, I mean, this isn't a very sexy podcast so far. Oh, we can make. Um, we haven't, we haven't embraced, uh, we haven't gone fast enough. In hindsight, but I think that if you're going to try and eat the elephant, if you just attack you, you end up getting put off. So, I know I'm really happy. Um, what we're doing uh, we probably should have gone a bit harder, faster, but some of it is is also just, you know, taking your time and making sure that you're using the info you've got, rather than getting too much info and not using it enough or not using the right way. We've also had to develop the station in terms of subdivision and paddock development and all that sort of thing, because the last thing we want to do is end up creating more and more fertile ewes on the one hand and then not being able to feed them once the land's around, and you know a season like this is going to be challenging.

Speaker 1 26:58

Hopefully there's a spring I think that's a really good point as, yeah, as you shifted your production system, everyone, everyone being down your path, yeah, all of a sudden goes what we need more feed for twins. How are we going to do that? We need to find areas in the farm that can support that, and so they have to be fenced and seed and furt and yeah. So, yeah, there's always, there's never any limit to where the amount of money you can spend on a farm. It's prioritizing to where it, where it needs to go, and I think, yeah, obviously that makes sense yeah, that's probably where we need annabelle here to back you up on that one.

Speaker 2 27:33

I mean the last thing very seriously. The last thing we want is a high scanning percentage and a low weaning percentage. That always seems to me that's sort of vanity massive scanning and then poor landing stroke weaning. So we're really focused on that. No, I mean it's exciting and we keep on learning. That's the other thing. And there are always things when you do haven't a bit of a change and improvement or whatever is. It's amazing, the peripheral things that you learn that you didn't expect to learn in the first place, and I think you know right on the periphery is is that getting involved with the eid early on, the pieceflex that actually then opened the door of being involved with Shane McManoway and the original Triple P and the Xander McDonald Award, and you know, the exposure to people that we've met through that process has been fantastic. It really has, and I seem to remember lining you up to get involved with it.

Speaker 1 28:28

I seem to remember that as well. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 28:31

So I mean that's really exciting. But it is amazing when you get out there and you are looking at new things. In my experience, you always have things that you didn't expect to be beneficial that come out as a result of it. If you stick your head in the hole and you leave it there, no one's going to come up and ask you to have a look around.

Speaker 1 28:52

Yeah really good point. We'll get the hardest question out of the way now, richard, which is well, you're probably pretty good at changing your mind, but what's the last thing you changed your mind about?

Speaker 2 29:03

Yeah, I thought about this one a little bit. There's only a couple of things. No, for a long time we've had this thing with Emma and Henry that they had to go off farm for 10 years and they weren't allowed to after leaving secondary school. They weren't allowed to come back for 10 years. And now we're really regretting that decision because we'd like to see them back and as a part of that, I was always pretty staunch that we needed to retire somewhere far away from the station so that we didn't do that thing where you're getting in the way of the kids, and they're both much better operators than I'll ever be, so the last thing they need is me being in the way.

Speaker 2 29:42

But having recently had them both home for longer periods than we have in a dozen years, it was really good fun in a dozen years. It was really good fun. So now, much to Annabelle's surprise, I'm saying why don't we build a house in the village nearby or on the station so we can be here? And she's like really, we've just spent the last 10 years looking to build somewhere else. So watch that space. The kids might listen to this and go. Actually, they might make this decision for me. Yeah, that's my biggest, latest change of opinion.

Speaker 1 30:14

Well, that's a significant one and yeah, it's always good to reflect and pull up if you've made the wrong call I've had some well, we don't need to go into me. But if we do get into the future, which is Henry and Emma and I've had the pleasure of working alongside Emma a fair bit, not so much with Henry, but yeah, great couple of industry, passionate industry people coming forward. So I guess the future of Amerima is well squarely lies with what they want to do with it.

Speaker 2 30:43

Yep, yep. I mean it goes back to the previous generation thing. Anibal's parents were incredibly generous, or to me and to us in terms of helping if we wanted the help and if, if they offered help and we then got it wrong, dick especially didn't criticize, he might have just sort of you know, I think I would try and admit that I got it wrong, um, but if we got it right, they'd uh let us know and sort of uh encourage us, I guess. And so that's the challenge for us.

Speaker 2 31:13

We've put a lot of thought and work into the succession plan and we've recently had a catch up with the two of them and you know we talked about the option, given that these properties are worth such ridiculous money these days, of just selling and going, and you know, for whatever reason, because it doesn't make any sense to me. They both said they want to stay, but they want to work together to grow the pie. So that's their decision and you know we want to fully support them in that and by going on record and saying that, you know I'm not going to get in the way, then anybody can remind me. I know that Emma has sort of bumped into a lot of people in Australia who have sort of said oh yeah, I think I know you're a man, I met him. One guy said oh yeah, he made me open a gate that he knew was really hot with electricity. Emma has to measure carefully whether she says that she knows me or not.

Speaker 1 32:06

I don't think she always admits that you're her father, but sometimes she does. Yeah, there was a guy with an English accent down that way. I don't think she always admits that you're her father, but sometimes she does, yeah. Yeah, there was a guy with an English accent down that way. No, that wasn't dad. No, that's someone else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, excellent, richard. Yeah, I think that's pretty out of cover. Anything, we haven't. What have we missed? I mean, I thought you might have changed your mind about the Australian cricket team but that didn't come.

Speaker 2 32:33

I don't mind about inviting you to watch any video.

Speaker 2 32:34

No, I mean, I think that what we don't value enough, just as a bit of philosophy anyway, is just how incredible this industry is. It's really easy to get stuck in your hole and I mean this season hasn't been great for us in terms of the weather and all that sort of stuff, but I would rather be doing this here than doing absolutely anything. And we've travelled a anything and we've traveled a bit and we've worked in different places and I hope that everybody does love what they do and if they think they don't, just have a look at how shitty it could be being somewhere else. You know, I reckon there's a lot of challenges and I don't enjoy all of them, but you know that's just life and, yeah, we have a pretty good go. So, yeah, that's my bit of philosophy is make the most of it, enjoy it and make sure you've had a look around at what else you could be not enjoying before you, you know, before you get too down on what you're up to perfect, fantastic way to leave it.

Speaker 1 33:25

Thanks, richard pleasure, ferg.

Speaker 2 33:27

All right, thanks and see you. Cheers mate.