('COUNTRY CALENDAR' THEME MUSIC) - (WHISTLES SHRILLY) - Always a favourite on every rural road ` (DOG BARKS) Hyundai Country Calendar. (DOGS BARK, SHEEP BLEAT) - (WHISTLES SHRILLY) - She's a beautiful big station ` big paddocks, dogs. It's horse country. (COWS MOO) - On the East Coast, they're still mustering their community for the annual sale. - They all know what it was like, and they love coming up for the day. - They get older as they go ` all done. They'll go. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 (SHEEP BLEAT) (DOGS BARK) - Come here, Jude! (SHEEP BLEAT, DOGS BARK) Get in now! Stay down, Tahi. Get in, Chief. I think it's every young fulla's dream to work on this big country. It's just the fact you're working with stock and riding horses, and... Grew up on them, I suppose. - Tennant McNeil farms in the foothills of Hikurangi maunga ` sacred to Ngati Porou. The station's an hour inland from Tokomaru Bay on the North Island's East Coast. - Quiet, Gold. Get in, Gold. I suppose you feel as though you've achieved your dream, you know? (DOGS PANT) I never imagined that I'd be here at this age, running Puketoro. (HORSE SNORTS) It's 21,000 acres ` 8500 hectares. Get in, Gold. Running these big stations is harder than what a lot of people think, probably, with the weather events that get chucked at you up here on the East Coast. It makes it a little bit more challenging, but... you grin and bear it and carry on. - Puketoro Station lies on the edge of the Raukumara Ranges. The high rainfall grows plenty of grass, and in recent years, pine trees have taken the place of Tennant's farming neighbours. - Get in, Gold! 'It's the last station left, really ` bar the Waikura Valley...' Get up here, Gold. '...and there was lots of them.' It's sad. It's destroyed the Coast, really. If you'd lived here in the '70s and '80s, when the Coast was humming along with all these stations, with people farming them and working them, there was shepherds everywhere, and sports meetings, and dog trials and schools... It was a great place to grow up. (TRUCK RUMBLES) It was a different place then than what it is now. Puketoro's being run with the same atmosphere that were on these stations in the '80s. (POIGNANT MUSIC) (DOGS WHINE, BARK) - (WHISTLES) - These days at Puketoro, the horses are back, along with the shepherds and their dogs. - Here, Finn. - Head shepherd Issac Roth runs 10 dogs at the station. - It's ready. We've been right out the back today. They've covered probably 20 or so K's, I'd say, yeah. Yeah. So, nah, done a fair bit of work. Stace. Pretty happy to hop in their kennels and get a feed. - Ben MacDonald grew up on his family's farm in Te Anau. He's been here for eight months. - My dogs mean the world to me, you know, and they've done all the hard work for the day, and it's always good to come back and give them a good feed at night-time, and look after them. You should feed them before you feed yourself, and make sure they're well sorted and ready to go for tomorrow. (CRUNCHING) (GENTLE MUSIC) - An hour and a half south, Tennant's brother Burne farms their mother's old property, Manga Station, at Tolaga Bay. - Mum was a farmer and loved horses. She had a team of dogs. Then Cyclone Bola hit in 1988, and one of us boys, Tennant or myself, had to come to Tolaga to look after the farm. Get in, Maggie. We actually drew straws to see who would come to Tolaga, cos we thought Tolaga's a cabbage patch farm, close to town ` we didn't really want to come to town. So I ended up with the short straw and ended up coming down here. Farming was pretty tough, and a few of the neighbours' properties came on the market, and we bought the first neighbour in '89, and since then, we've added five more properties to this farm. So originally it was 1000 acres, and now it's 4500 acres. - Get in, Luke. Get in there, Luke. - Burne's eldest son, Hayden, now manages the property. Together, they work the land like they always have. - We were brought up on horses, and we've found that horses are the best way to shift stock around the farm. It's just better to muster stock on horses, and it gets you away from buggies and bikes on tracks, and you can get around the paddock, ride down a steep hill and get in the right place at the right time. You can ride through a paddock on a buggy, come back on a horse to shift your cattle, and you'll get a completely different view. - Having both been shepherds on Puketoro, Tennant and Burne's love for the property has never waned. Eight years ago, the brothers doubled their farming interests when they took the chance to buy the station. - What a great opportunity to buy a farm that we'd both worked on. It was my first job out of school at 17 years old. Started on $20 a day on musterer's wages, and I spent four years here. Build up a team of dogs... so we knew the farm and we knew that we could lift the production, didn't we? We had a bit of luck, though, didn't we? - You got to have luck. (COWS MOO, DOGS BARK) - We lifted the production ` stock prices increased probably 20%, 30%, And that's crucial ` when your equity is low, you need a couple of real good years to start with, and we managed that. Interest rates dropped a bit. - Gave us a chance to fulfil a dream, I suppose. And with the help of a cooperative bank manager, we made it work. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) (HORSE WHICKERS) (HORSE WHINNIES) - It didn't take long for Tennant to start another tradition at Puketoro ` the annual on-farm sale. - I've got to take the credit for that. I said, 'Well, we only need one guy to come in here to buy his sheep, or cattle, and think, 'This is a tidy, well-run outfit ` it'd be a good place to send me young fulla,' and you've solved your staff problem. We're reaping the benefit of that decision now. We get a good crew of guys. We're getting good guys coming here. - There'll be young guys coming here at 17, 18, and when they leave ` you've virtually got to tell them to go, like, in three or four years ` so when they leave, they can break in a horse, they've got a beautiful team of dogs, and they're good stockmen. So it's a good grounding for them. They love it. Young guys' country. (HORSE SNORTS) (R & B MUSIC) (PHONE CHIMES) OK, OK! My Uber One membership savings don't disappoint. (MUSIC STOPS) You know what is disappointing? I was in one of the most iconic girl groups and no-one recognises me. (SCOFFS) MAN: Michelle! Michelle, you spit that out! Hmm? Naughty Michelle! Michelle, naughty! (MUTTERS) Who calls their dog Michelle? At least my Uber One savings don't disappoint. Can't take you anywhere, Michelle! (GENTLE MUSIC) (GULLS SQUAWK, WAVES CRASH) - The North Island's East Coast has always been home to Tennant and Burne McNeil. Their farming careers started at Tikitiki, on their father's property, Tapuihikitia. - Old Lister's still going good. - Yeah, well, it's done some hours, that old motor. Mm! - We grew up on horses ` used to ride to school as little fullas, um, down halfway to Tikitik, about 4 or 5 miles, and come back and jump on our horses and gallop all the way home. Yeah, it was brilliant. There were 200 kids going to the local school. Nah, it was fantastic. - The old shed's in good heart. - Yeah. - Looking... - Burne and Tennant's father, Maurice, was well known on the coast. He farmed a mix of freehold and leased land from local iwi and hapu. - He taught us how to work ` up early in the morning and out there doing it. - I suppose the biggest influence was, he knew how to make a deal. He always carried his chequebook in his Swanndri pocket. If he saw a horse down the road and he could buy it, he'd buy it and he sell it for a profit. But those dealers never tell you about their losses ` they always tell you about their wins. - Remember dinner in the cottage? - The brothers formed their first farming partnership while working together on the Tikitiki farms. By then, it was time to start thinking about settling down. - Had a couple of girls coming to stay a few nights at Tiki, and they were schoolteachers from Hawke's Bay, so did a bit of research and asked a couple of mates, 'Now, what would schoolteachers have for breakfast? We can't serve them up steak and eggs.' And one guy said, 'Oh, muesli would be a good go, Burne,' so shot over to Ruatoria to the Four Square (CHUCKLES) and bought a pack of muesli, and served them up muesli for breakfast, and I think they were quite impressed. - WOMAN: It was so funny. - You probably wanted actually bacon and eggs. - Probably wanted a grilled chop and a couple of eggs. - Well, exactly, yeah. - Tracey is Burne's wife ` and one of those Hawke's Bay teachers. The boys have kept the old home farm. It's lovingly nurtured today, but it was a different story when Tennant's wife, Leigh, first joined them on the Coast. - Drove up the drive, and I thought` Tennant said, 'Oh, just go in. 'Make yourself at home, we'll be down the yards.' Walked in, and was sort of, you know, reasonably pleasantly surprised, but one of the interesting aspects was the ivy that was growing up the kitchen wall there through the window and up the kitchen. Do you remember that? - Oh my God, I do remember that. - The whole ivy bush was there, sticking to the kitchen wall. - Yeah. Bit of a pot plant thing. - Yeah, and the cockroaches... Oh my God, the cockroaches. (LAUGHTER) - Yeah. - But I have to say that, yeah, certainly felt like I was coming home. Mm. - TRACEY: Yeah, it's such a cool house. - The two couples are just as tight today. While Burne and Tennant are all about the big picture with an eye for opportunities, it's Tracey and Leigh that keep it all running, managing the finances and the family. - And the cookhouse is gonna be full. - Right. - Yeah, that's gonna be full, and our house is gonna be full. It's a great thing to have the four of us, because when we're making big decisions` - Mm. - ...little decisions, any decisions, we have four opinions. Everyone has the opportunity to speak and be heard. - TRACEY: As our business has evolved, we've kept it very much family. Yeah. - 390 to 420. - Yeah. - Yeah. We're really lucky, cos our three kids have had another set of parents, which has been really cool. - And lucky for us, because they're close to the kids. The kids are great ` you know, hugely important part of this whole business` - Yeah. - ...you know, and becoming more so as they get older. - The McNeils' farming operation stretches up and down the Coast on a mix of freehold and leasehold land. Some of these blocks are the same ones their father signed up for 60 years ago. (DOG BARKS, SHRILL WHISTLE) - That'll do, Shooter! That'll do, Shooter. - Burne's youngest son, Scott, manages the coastal blocks for the family at Rangitukia. - Get up here, Moss! Get up here, Moss! We're real flexible. We sort of just suit whatever's going on in the big farm, and, you know, if things get tight up there, he can offload to us. Get up here. (WHISTLES) We put 'em on these good crops like this chicory ` bit of rocket fuel, and yeah, yeah, get 'em out the gate pretty quick. It shows the capability of this land round here ` like, it's nice, fertile soil, and you just got to keep the scrub and gorse away from it, and, you know, you can have some bloody good paddocks. How's that eye? - Good. - CHUCKLES: Sharp. - Sharp as. (WHISTLES GENTLY) You can tell those Chevioty ones, eh? They're real Perendales. - Yeah. Yeah. They are, definitely. - Two days out from the annual on-farm sale, Burne's helping Scott to draft off the top line of two-tooth ewes. - SCOTT: From out here to the side. (DOG BARKS) - Burne oversees the lease blocks and makes sure there's a healthy competition between the farm managers at sale time. (BARKS) - (WHISTLES) They get a bit of a hard winter, these sheep, but they're looking real good this year, so, nah, pretty proud of them. Yeah, it's quite a good trade, really, and you're sort of dealing with your own stock from the same family, so, yeah, it feels good at the end of the day. - It'll be busy in the yards this afternoon. - (WHISTLES) - And closer to home, another member of the family is readying her stock for market. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) (MAGPIE WARBLES) - It's early in the new year, and the day before the on-farm sale at Puketoro Station on the East Coast. - Mike. (WHISTLES) Get up ahead. I've always had quite a liking to the hills. It's cool country. Yeah. Good fun mustering. - Tom McLean manages Waitahaia and Owetea, two of the old East Coast farms that now make up Puketoro Station. Tom and his partner Jess have a 6km walk to get these 5-year-old ewes to the Puketoro woolshed. - It's paradise up here. It's pretty special to get away from everyone and out of town. Growing up on a farm, I think it's just in our blood. We just love being out and about, and specially on a horse. - Jess is Burne and Tracey McNeil's daughter. She works off-station as a farm nutrient specialist and heads back to the hills as often as she can. (DOG BARKS) - Pretty enjoyable, especially on a day like this when there's not a breath of wind. You don't get many days like this, so, yeah, pretty hard to beat. - On the final run to the woolshed, Jess and Tom know that soon, all eyes will be on these prized ewes. - Steve, get up, Steve. Pretty happy with how they've done. They will sell quite well, yeah. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. - All good? - Had a good morning, mate? - Yeah, yeah. Come down all good. - Beautiful day, yeah. - Oh, they look good, these ewes, don't they? - Yeah. - Look the best they've looked. Time will tell, though. - (CHUCKLES) (HOOVES CLOP ON GRAVEL) - It's sale day, and a few last-minute jobs are underway as the station gears up to welcome buyers. At the cookhouse, sandwich-making is underway on a grand scale. - We need some lettuce for sure. - This is our eighth year making sandwiches, (CHUCKLES) so yeah, it's great. We have lots of helpers. (ELECTRIC KNIFE WHIRRS) - As the station cook, Jennie Chrisp's well used to churning out morning teas, lunches and dinners for the shepherds and other staff living on the station. - They all eat very huge meals. They're all very different. Really great boys, full of fun. When a new batch comes in, they're always so quiet, and after a month, they're all sort of bouncing off each other, I guess. (STEERS MOO) - As Burne brings in the steers for the sale, Tennant is overseeing the last of the arrivals at the woolshed. - What are they gonna make? 185 bucks? (DOG BARKS, SHEEP BLEAT) - He's being helped by a group of friends who arrive every year to lend a hand. - All runs pretty smoothly... I think. - Meantime, Hayden and his farming mates have been mustering these ewes and lambs off the hills. While the sale is getting plenty of attention, these animals, which won't be sold until next year, still need to be moved into fresh paddocks. - (WHISTLES SHRILLY) - TRACEY: It's that young energy, watching them come in, and you just think, 'Oh, this is just awesome.' - We love it. It's just` Yeah. And very proud too. - Yeah. (SHEEP BLEAT) - Want some good sheep? - I do. - Do you? Get in there. - TENNANT: A lot of people come for a look, and people that have had connections with the Coast ` they all know what it was like, and they love coming up for the day. - Family and friends are key to the success of the sale. Auctioneer Shane Scott is Tracey's brother, and he's called all the auctions at Puketoro. - OK. Good luck. - Good luck. Go hard. - Cheers. - Cheers, boys. - Do your job, mate. - (CHUCKLES) - Welcome, everybody. It's good to see all these faces here year after year. I'd like to thank all the staff from McNeil Farming, but I'd like to thank the Puketoro staff for the work they did in 2023 with the weather and the roads. It was commendable, the effort that the boys up here put in. - It's one of the first sales of the year, and it's not long before these hill country sheep start setting the price for the East Coast. - 162's here. Someone else can have a go. 162. 5? All done. They'll go. Buyer 33, the line gone. For a hill country flock, I don't think you'd find a better 5-year-old in the country. 133! - Buyers are out in force, and a good price for the 5-year-olds looks likely. - One more. Come all this way ` 137's here. You can't let him have 'em! Make a name for yourself ` 139. I'm gonna sell 'em! All done. 139. Take the lot? Thanks, mate. Mr McKelvie. - Thanks, Cam. - With the sheep sold, attention turns to the cattle. - One thing about the Puketoro cattle is the temperament ` they are so quiet. And these boys are just like their mums ` crackers. Out they go ` all done at 15! $1500. They are here for sale. I'll take 10. All done. They'll go. $1500. Right, you can let those boys go. - (WHISTLES) - As everyone gathers in the woolshed, John Puha, the man the McNeils regard as their kaumatua, opens the festivities. - Well, kia ora, everybody. This is my part of the show. (LAUGHTER) So, um... again, welcome, all. Congratulations to all the buyers. Mine didn't win the best money, but for me, it wasn't about having the top dollar ` it was having the best sheep. (LAUGHTER) You see? - MAN: Oh yeah (!) Oh yeah (!) - You see? Hey? - Whatever, Johnny. - Ka pai? So, congratulations, Scotty` - Thank you. - ...for three bucks. (LAUGHTER) This is us. E te Atua, whakapai tenei kai mo o matou, e taro mo o matou tinana. Hei oranga mo o matou wairua i roto i te tamata wairua tapu. Amine. Kia ora, tatou. (LIVELY CHATTER) - TENNANT: It's in your blood when you live and farm and work up the Coast, cos you'll always have the memories. - It was really good. - Cheers. - Well done. Whoo-hoo! - Cheers, mate! Cheers. - With the eighth sale behind them, Tennant and Burne are looking to step back a little, freeing up some time for themselves. And they've already given a nod to the next generation. - (WHISTLES SHRILLY) (DOG YELPS, BARKS) - Incredibly lucky to have a family that's so passionate about farming here on the East Coast, and we have a heap of fun doing it at the same time. You couldn't ask for anything more. - We've been given a pretty unreal opportunity and very thankful of what our parents and Tennant and Leigh have set up, eh? - Yeah, it's pretty exciting to sort of continue their legacy. - Incredible stockmen, hard workers and pretty good role models. - Yeah, yeah. - Always out there doing it. (CHUCKLES) - (CHUCKLES) Yeah. - Next time ` - It's going to be the best crop we have ever pulled off this block. - ..a Gisborne family growing a business for the future... - To have our first bins going through the shed was quite moving, really. - ...and providing jobs for workers from near and far. - I think this one is perfect. - It's really just up to us from now on to see that it is a success. - That's next time on Hyundai Country Calendar.