REX Recommends - Ben O'Carroll

0:00This is a podcast from Rover. Rover! Rumor will exchange. With that speed. Broadband for the land. Okay, our next guest on the program I don't even know how to intro this guy. His name's Ben O'Carrill. I can tell you we're going to probably be talking about sheep scanning. We're going to be talking about ultra-distance running. And maybe music as well, I think. So it's going to be wide and varied. Ben, welcome on. Hey, thanks, Tom. Thanks for having me. You're based in North Canterbury. What do you do for a crust? Yeah, based in Ambulight, North Canterbury. My main gigs, sheep scanner, pregnancy testing. That's my winter job. He's been for a while now and I'll sort of base everything around that. So just try filling my time with work for the rest of the year really. But in the past I've been doing a bit of casual sort of farm working in the off season. A lot of crutching on a crutching trailer and tailing and that sort of thing. And more recently I've just started sharing in the summer.

1:01So I've just finished the main share now. First one. Really enjoying that. Love it, actually. Good on you. That's great. And obviously Farming's in the blood. And by the look of that body, your number ones you're wearing there with the Kaplan Stegs jersey that you grow up down there, did you? No, I actually grew up in North Canterbury to probably most Southlanders discussed. But now I grew up in Wakeri, just just north of here, actually. But my wife, she actually grew up in Balfour and Southland. So sort of got to represent them as well, you know? Wow. Okay. Yeah. So tell you what? Who's wearing the pants or the jersey in that relationship? Right. I'm a Southland supporter, but yeah, also I don't mind Canterbury, they're all right, I suppose. Wow. So for a bloke, I grew up in North Canterbury. This is a rarity here, like a unicorn mate. I don't know. I spend a bit of time in Southland to the Kaplan Stegs season's down there and

2:02really enjoyed it and look good people down there. I feel like they're more South to get, they're more friendly, they are. So to argue with that mate, actually speaking of marriage, didn't you only get married a couple of weeks ago or something? Yeah, three weeks ago, shares and I got married up at Tamania, home stood it on the Conway flat there. This is good old, good day out. I can only imagine that good stuff and what's, she's also working in the sector as well as she. Yeah, she has been for a while, since we met really, she was living in Warnocka before that and she came up here and got into, she helped over the crutching for clean crutch contracting. She was sort of pushing up on the trailer for a bit, got her into the barming industry through that really and helped me with my scanning for a couple of seasons and got sick of me and then sort of got a few, she got a few dogs together and she's been doing a bit of shepherding over the years and yeah, she's picked up the hand piece and she's

3:05learned to share as well. Yeah, good stuff, that's bloody brilliant. So where does your work take you, do you do a fair bit around the South Island, do you? Yeah, mostly just north of here, Dom, based in the name, believe it, most of my work is probably between sort of Harden, Wakeri, Chevy, Omey, sort of the hills around here, Amiri Basin, Waia and that, but that's sort of the early stuff in June and July then sort of partway through July. I had down to, got a bit of a run in South Canary around Feely, through there and up the rangatar to Gorge, do a few bigger places up there, which is always good to get away for a bit and then later on in August, do a few fine wall stuff and head down to the McKenzie Country Gate, around Twiser there and down to Tarris and Wannock area, actually up your neck of the woods, so it's reasonably spread out, but it works out quite well because it's quite tight up here in June and early July and then yeah, like I said, just as fine

4:10wall guys and held country stuff later on which draws the season right out to the sort of end of August. So you filled the months up nicely? Yeah, yeah, it's pretty much just solid three months. Yeah, yeah, how long have you been doing the scanning for, because I think you learned off of a cousin or an uncle or something, didn't you? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it hated the fee, knew that people called him my uncle, but usually they do it. It's not, yeah, Jeff O'Carill, he's my first cousin there. Right. He helped me out a lot in those early years and he still does now, he's a good man to bring out for a bit of advice on most things, so he got me started and that was 10 years ago or 10 or 12 years ago now, I suppose, yeah, I think I'm in my 12th season, but the first couple of years instead of learning and getting the ropes, it took a bit to get going, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. So also, I know as well that you're into the, as I said at the start there, you're into

5:15the sort of the multi sport and the ultra distance and all that sort of mad stuff, so when did you get into that? About five years ago, I think 2021, I sort of, yeah, I was playing rugby, you know, right through all my, throughout all my 20s, they were right from school, from a young age I guess, and loved rugby, you know, it was like in the rural communities, it's sort of a footy or nothing, and that was great, yeah, a great tom, like any good footy player, but well, not that I'm good footy player, but like any footy player, it sort of revolves around a bit of booze and that sort of thing and, you know, nothing like a good old beer and a dirty at the end of the game and the chainy sheds is there, but there's a couple of toms in my life, I was probably doing too much of that, so I actually thought I'd stop and give it a try to lock it on here and just started running out, just thought, oh, go for it run and see, well that's like it, sort of took off with it here, just sort

6:19of didn't stop, I suppose, and got right into it and then I sort of stopped, the passion for footies sort of left in the passion for running started, I guess, and yeah, it's just been a big part of my life, from then till now, yeah, still trying to get out when I can. It's going to say less injuries or not quite with the running. I've been very lucky through rugby and running, not to get injured, but well, I can't just summer, yeah, how things are running, so. Shit, that's, again, that's rare, there's not too many people you can, that have done that and can say that they've come out relatively unscathed. So, also, I know, so run through some of the sort of events that you've taken, but I mean, I know that you did the coast, the coast recently as one example. It was actually with a, did you do it with that, was that with the farming team? Yeah, it wasn't, yeah, no, it wasn't actually, sorry, it was with Mark Maklin, who's Gallagher

7:24Rick, and Brian Kaisanozki, he's a veggie farmer, just north of Brosh, it's there, both recently Elite Athletes, I'd say, those two, so I got roped into it, but it was good to have a crack, and yeah, that was lots of fun. So, it's in the team event, so it was a bit easier to try and just for one event, rather than three disciplines. Yeah, so that's the dog show team, right? Dog show racing. Yeah, that's the one, yeah. Yeah, yeah, the rural lads getting the mugs, that's good. So, you did the, obviously, the running leg of, of the event? Yeah, that's right, Dom, yeah, just ran over goats past there, which is a bit of fun. Yeah. How'd you go? Okay. Not too bad, yeah, I think they got second overall something, which is quite handy. Second overall or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the guys in front were a bit quick, so.

8:25It's pretty good effort. Yeah, now, Ryan's a pretty handy padler. He got down the river in the fastest time for the whole weekend, I think, in mainland East. He's got some pretty smooth legs. He shaves them quite often, so he's got a fair bit of speed on the bike. Ero dynamic. Yeah, 60 legs of mainland. I'll take your word for it, Gem. So, yeah, that's pretty cool. Do you also, before all, do you've done God's own as well, right? No, no, we haven't actually done it. We, our team got, we trained to do it, but they got cancelled for years ago, so we did a few other events leading up to it. A couple of our teammates have done it before. I'd love to give it a crack one that seems to be like the pinnacle of sort of adventurousing. Yeah, I'll just be good to see if we can do it. Give it another year. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you decided to run one day, and

9:26you're obviously not too bad at it. Yeah, what do you mean? What's the motivation to keep going and to do them over, like, those bloody, ridiculous distances? Yeah, I think it's just to see what you capable of, Orican, sort of when I was starting, I was just hadn't done much running like I've looted to before, and was playing rugby in that, and I thought, I'll give it a go, and just, you know, get fat and try and better myself, and, you know, and then I'll just keep going. I was like, oh, I should have probably, you know, see how far I could actually go, and sort of reading a few things and listening to podcasts and that about this ultra-running stuff, I wasn't, I haven't heard much of that. We'll try it out, and then in 2021, I thought I could be a good way to raise a bit of money for charity, and it was, you know, it was the months leading up to MoVemba, to NoVemba, sorry, and thought, oh, we'll give the MoVemba thing a crack and

10:30see if we can raise some money, and I'll sort of, spend a lot of time as a young, shepherd working around Chivriets, so I picked that as my start destination for a run, and, and thought I'd run to Christchurch, and picked the Carlton as the indestination, because that was also another watering hole, and he ended up raising a bit of tin, I think we got 25 green or something, for, means me to health, which is pretty cool, and it, and it raised a lot of awareness as well, which was sort of the main thing, the main good thing that come out of it, I thought, and, yeah, lots of people reached out, and you know, they said that it inspired them, or whatever, you know, helped them get through whatever they're getting through, and that sort of thing, yeah. You've kept the Mo too, I say. Yeah, I've seen just sort of run a full-time mo now, those, yeah. So what is it about the mental health side of things, is that a personal thing, or you just thought it was coming up, I'll just have a crack at that, was there anything behind that, or

11:32just a good cause? Yeah, I guess it was a good cause, and it was just a thing that was coming up, and then, once a sort of good dive into the whole Mo Vemba thing, I realised that it was a personal thing, and, you know, there's, everyone has struggles the next sort of thing, don't they? You know, you'd be lying if you see, you haven't struggled with anything throughout life, and, you know, it doesn't matter what it is, everyone goes through something, so I'll go through a bit of stuff at the time, and just wanted to sort it out, and felt that that was platform to do it through, and yeah, it's definitely up, yeah. I don't know where, sort of be if I didn't, so we get into running nowadays, but I'm sure I wouldn't work without, but yeah, it definitely helped anyway. It's a good thing, you get into that rhythm, that zone, not that I've run anything near that, I think the best I've ever done is a half marathon, but, you know, go for a jog, you're now in a game, but it's, you know, it's, it is a good thing for the, for the old, for the, for the, for the, for the brain, and that, really.

12:36Definitely, yeah. Now, it's, it's quite a good way, it's a good form of therapy, almost, go out for a run, even nowadays, it's sort of, if I'm running, I'm sort of training for something in particular, but the last couple of months, or the last month or so, I haven't really been training for anything, so if I'm having a bit of a stressful time, or a bit of a, you know, rough days, it's quite good just to go out for a run and get back into sort of, forgotten about it as sort of, yeah, brings everything back into perspective, I reckon. Thank you, right, when you're talking about, you know, back then, a few years ago, the Royal Mental Health thing was, yeah, it was getting a better coverage, a lot of coverage, actually, and I dare say, you know, it hasn't gone anywhere, but, yeah, you don't seem to hear about it as much now, it was definitely a thing there for about, wasn't it? Yeah, which is just, I don't know where I'm going with that, but it's just an interesting sort of, as you'd talking about it, I was just, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, good point, actually,

13:41yeah, maybe it has sort of just become more normalised to speak about, so to me, do health in the Royal Communities, and I think farm strong has been good with that as well, in November, and, you know, the Royal Support Trust and that sort of thing. Yeah, I don't know, I guess we're not, when I was sort of going through whatever that was in 2021 with the November stuff, I was trying to make it more normal to just talk about their feelings and that sort of thing, you know, when you're young fellow, especially in the rural industry, you know, farming that you're probably considered, you know, what I mean, if you were to talk about your feelings, I think it's cool that it's sort of normalised now, and it's probably helped a lot of people, I would have thought, well, hopefully it has. Yeah, well, I think it's just one of those things where it's like, oh, so that's you as well, I thought it was just me, you know, and it's probably that, I think, you know, as much as anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone sort of can

14:47resonate with it. Because now I want to be the first one to put their hand up with something like that, that's the issue, though, isn't it, like, you know, it's that first one that goes, actually, I'm not great, you know, yeah, and then it can open the floodgates, I suppose. That's right, yeah, yeah, for sure. Now, I did say at the start that, yeah, we're talking sheep scanning and running, and also music. Talk to me about your music career, about what's going on there. You're a drummer, right? Is that true? Yeah, it's right on, yeah. Yeah, it helps. I played drums when I was at school and I had a bit of a passion for music and just making loud noise, I guess, but now we had a band, Dolphin Friendly, where we were playing a few shows, while some of us started up, seven years ago, something, and sort of playing a few shows around New Zealand, festivals, and we started pubs and it sort of thing, doing a few, ended up doing some big festivals and it's electric air and rhythm and the ups and R&B and that sort of thing,

15:47which is cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we're sort of just the we fellows on the little stage, but still, yeah, but an marginal, yeah, that's lots of fun. We're sort of playing sort of rocky, rock music, I suppose, you call it, yeah. Brilliant. Yeah, good. I didn't realise that I'd gotten to that stage. I know that you've been to Australia as well on a wee bit of a tour at one stage. Yeah, here we have there for a little tour back in 2019, sort of, some of those busier sort of days and those sort of modest, pest truck, yeah, but now it was awesome. It was like great fun. You had a song on the rock too, yeah? Yeah, yeah, that was a big achievement for the boys. I got a song on the rock radio channel, yeah, but now we've sort of finished that up a couple of years ago, but seeing Amanda and myself, here's the lead singer, haven't I've got a new project sort of in the mix now, just very exciting, but more sort of country, bluesy sort of stuff that's the way it's sounding at the moment. Come on, yeah, that sounds great.

16:51So, well, what did you listen to growing up? My first memory of any music was Brian Adams, actually. Well, we still have an old tape, but now I've listened to a lot of CCR and Bob Seeger, you know, classic sort of skinned, lured, skinned, sort of stuff in my teens and got onto a bit of heavier rock and a telekure and that sort of thing when I was growing up and sort of just combined everything I listened to chucked it into our music, I guess. Yeah, I've been doing music, but a DMB on those days, you need it. What days are those? Oh, say when you belly crutch in a heap of old bloody, hard corridor views or something like that. That's a brilliant, I love that, yeah. No, that's good. You'll play listen to it right around here. That would be accepted. But, yeah, the country blues thing, it's quite interesting, actually, there's a really good sort of

17:53thing that's coming out sort of, yeah, bluesy, fokie kind of country is opposed to what you'd probably call classic country, but you know, the likes of the Holt Awards and people like that, which are, you know, just brilliant. Yeah, it's good. I was a staple in his, he's a big one, we're sort of trying to channel into sort of that direction, I guess, but yeah, Sam's got an amazing voice and played pretty good on the Gato, so he'll come up with something pretty special on set. So, did you guys obviously to get a song on the commercial radio? Did you obviously got a bit of recording time, did you, a bit of studio time? Yeah, it's right. We must have recorded a couple of sort of EPs, short albums and a few different studios. I can't really remember where we started out, oh, we started in the garage, actually. We fell out of Conor Jane, and he's a bit of a whiz with the audio engineering, he sort of helped us through that, and we ended up paying some money to go to another one of orange studios in Crosshitch for the next album, and then

18:57the last one, I think, CJ helped us out again, just, he just had all the gear and we went hide out of house and did it that way. No, it's because that's lots of fun, the recording part, we sort of, yeah, he felt like a real musician there, and I suppose, yeah. Yeah, I've been to that orange recording studio in Crosshitch, actually, one of my sons recorded something there, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's up and Wellington at the moment for his sins, you know, doing a bit of production study up there, actually, yeah, yeah, music production, you know, yeah, yeah, because that's kind of on the way to Liddleton, I think, it's not too far away, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a cool set up there, actually, yeah, that's awesome. So, who did you, as a drummer, do you have anyone that you, who did you, did you try and copy as style of anyone, or who do you admire drumming wise? Biggest one would be John Wong from Led Zeppelin, I'll say, as a legendary drummer, he's

20:01influenced a lot of great drummers as well, but yeah, I don't know, really, sort of no one in particular, but he'd be one to stand out, I'll just take a lot of everything and chuck it under one, but I sort of, yeah, I taught myself, I was just listening to people music in my years and just tried to copy it really on the drums and it sort of just worked out somehow. That's brilliant, yeah, that's cool. So, that's obviously something that's coming up that's, yeah, that's going to be pretty exciting. Can I ask how the name of the original band Dolphin Friendly came about? Yeah, it's just off the back of a tuner can. Sam at the time is probably still isn't a marine life loves a bit of diving in the water and that sort of thing, and we were sort of trying to chase that surfy vibe stuff at the start, like, you know, sticky fingers and oceanallys and those sort of Aussie surf rock bands. Yeah, sort of what we were trying to do, I don't know, just

21:05seemed like something funny at the time, yeah, it seemed to stick to other people, neither names it. That's good, that's good actually. Yeah, no, sticky fingers, they're a good band actually. They were, I think they were just an electric cave a few weeks ago, I think. Well, they were one of my other songs went to it. I think a couple of them went to it, I think. Yeah, we managed to open for sticky fingers a couple of years ago when they came in to New Zealand, they'd played a show all that arena and crush it. East Beasts is a corner on how it's called now, they was probably one of our biggest achievements opening for those guys, they're hard case bells and partied with them afterwards, they're definitely reasonably loose. Oh, I'm, yeah, yeah, that's just cool. I'm going to be telling my lads about this actually, that I had to get to a guy who opened for sticky fingers once, they'll be very impressed actually, unlike most of the time. So, if we can, we'll go back to where we kind of started with the farming

22:13side of things, because you've clearly got a lot going on and your time outside of farming, but it's an interesting moment is it, because you'll get this. What people are talking about, it's just fuel, fuel, fuel. I can't have a conversation without it, so I thought, how bring it up again, just for something different. Yeah, it's going up, yeah, good cool. Yeah, I mean, it's just going to bump prices up through everything, isn't it? I don't know what we'll do with the scanning prices, but yeah, probably the fuel is a massive part in my business, with a lot of travel every day, even just during scanning season, I'm filling the truck up every night when I get home, and I think a lot of people will be filling the hit as well, but I mean, yeah, I can't chat, you know what the change is, so it is what it is. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that is very true. I've been speaking to a few people about it, like from Melbourne,

23:13helicopters, I spoke to them, rural contractors, chief executive, to name just a couple. Yeah, well, the thing that they've kind of been saying is, look, again, what kind of what you're saying, okay, so you got business owner and client, it's like, well, okay, it's not your fault, and it's also not your fault. So we have to start there and go, okay, so let's not try and screw each other on this. Let's first of all just have the conversation, okay, yep, situation isn't great. How do we kind of work together? So, you know, neither one of us is getting a kick out the ass more than the other one, as far as that can go, but I guess you got to talk is kind of their first thing is start with a conversation rather than throwing a bill at somebody that they go holy shit, look at that, you know, like this asshole, you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, my my works are like contract basis per sheep and that sort of thing, but I don't know about slapping on a fuel bill as well. I don't think anyone would like that, but maybe has to be

24:18integrated into the price somehow of anything, but yeah, the conversation is a good one, I'd say I'll be, I've just started booking in a few jobs now, but I'd say I'd be talking to people about that, to clients about that and see what they're thoughts about, no one wants to pay more for anything, do that, so it's a tricky one. Yeah, well, that's it. I think, yeah, so the fuel one's an interesting one, so Simon from other helicopters, Melbourne is talking about maybe for them, it might be like a fuel lever, he might be a good one, because if you just add the sort of the cost on, then you might sort of get a situation, but he won't be going, well, are they are they going to pull that back when things start, yeah, I'm not sure. So I think it's horses for courses really, I mean, I don't think you can really, yeah, there's certainly not a blanket approach here, I think everyone's just going to have to work through it with their own clients as best they can really, and good thing

25:19about this country and the rural sector in particular is that people aren't stupid and they're also pretty pragmatic and they get it, and as long as you're a good bugger about it, I suppose that you can come to some sort of arrangement. Probably pretty lucky this season, yeah, it's been a cracker for sheep and beef fellas and dairy guys as well, you know, to the main farming sectors here in New Zealand, so I would say, yeah, yeah, if it was a season like a few years ago in the 7th of the real, but even though it does, yeah, but it's been a good year, though, isn't it, you've been seeing that down one of your way as well, though? Or, yeah, that's, you know, up until about two weeks ago, everyone was that that was the chat, the consistent chat was, this is good, the long way it continues, you know, and it's about getting those back-to-back seasons, isn't it, really, because everyone has, you know, you have a blip up and down all the time, but, you know, the consistency 23 sort of good seasons is we

26:25really get the fat in the system, you know? Yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, long way it continued, but, I guess, yeah, prices have to come down at some stage for reading, meeting that sort of thing. With those tougher times and, you know, being a scanner and getting onto farms and talking with farmers and stuff like that, do you find sometimes you're a, you know, set of ears occasionally? Yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah, a couple of a minute, two years ago, I wasn't there, she was a fairly, um, a dire old autumn, here in North Canaver anyway, um, it didn't rain for a long time, yeah, which is pretty standard around here, but, um, yeah, there's some, and the prices were pretty shit, so, yeah, there's a wee bit of that going on, and, you know, you sort of get there and, so if the use, when in great condition, when the rain went out of them, it crunched down, and then, yeah, the percentage of this might be back a bit, and, yeah, it's a tough under, to, to, to, to be the messenger and give the, the results, that weren't as good as normal, so,

27:31yeah, you're just going to stay positive, I think, but, as a foreign line, you don't want to be too positive, you know, because I'm, I'm there, you know, earning money from, from the farmer as well, and, you know, if I come across too positive, then I'll be thinking, oh, this bug is just happy because he's taking, making the same amount of money, no matter the season, but, um, I think, yeah, it's always good when it's a great season, like, shit, I love giving out, um, you know, oh, you got the highest scanning you've had since it's been scanning for you, all that sort of thing, you know, and, um, the, the good guys, the good guys are consistent year on end, no matter the season, so, um, you know, here in North Canary, it's not very, some safe, so, the guys that have, have sort of had cropping, all that sort of thing, uh, through the autumn, seem to do well, we'll have years on kale, and that sort of thing, um, you know, say the grasses and growing as well, as should be in the autumn, then, so they have some cropping, it always seems to, they seem to balance it out and just get the same results each year, which are, again, there's, um, pretty key,

28:36for you breeding. What, um, this feed situation, like, as you say, like, it's always dry, where you are pretty much, um, what's it like this time round? Uh, this time's been, well, you talked to anyone around here, they'll say it's best season I've had, probably in their farming careers, but it was similar last year, we had a bit of average spring, sorry, the year before, and, um, it didn't sort of rain until Christmas, um, but, but there wasn't, yeah, it didn't get down as hard as it did this just past season, which, I mean, it like, was the average spring, again, and everything got chewed out, quite, quite low until Christmas, um, were new years sort of when it started raining, and then it just didn't stop, so the qualities come back because it's been grazed down, um, pretty hard prior to it raining, so I think, you know, in past summers, where it's been real wet, there's already been a tag around, um, so then they sort of get a few issues, with it getting too,

29:40too long, you get a bit, a bit of fungal stuff in the grass, and that sort of thing, and that, they really fix the, um, the pregnancy and the use or the fertility, um, and this season, I'm looking forward to scanning this year, because they're like, I say, it's been such good quality feed around, um, and yeah, the use, but it's been pretty good looking use around the show at the moment, um, and yeah, it would be hard to probably get a flush on them because they're already doing so well, but just from getting out and the sharing, shooting that and the, uh, over the summer, yeah, there's some big use about. That's brilliant, man, um, so things, uh, yeah, far more is looking, looking pretty good, uh, in that naked awards at the moment to sum it up, yeah? Yeah, yeah, definitely, I don't think many copies are being complained on this year, maybe, just the fuel prices. Ben, as I said at the start, mate, yeah, so it was going to go all over the show and it certainly did, you're, you're a man of, uh, many, many, uh, interests and talents, so, um, I appreciate you taking the time to, uh, you know, have a chat about all of them on the show,

30:40mate, it's been, uh, it's been a bloody pleasure, so thank you. Oh, thanks very much, Donald, it's been a pleasure having a chat, do you do, mate? Rural Exchange, with NetSpeed. Internet, till the cows come home.