ADVENTURE'S DOWNUNDER OR FARMING IN PARADISE:An Old Rams view.

[The Old Ram-Australia]

Hi Gang,WELL!! Guess what ? we awoke this morning and its still raining.It appears that an East-coast Low has developed and we can expect this to keep up for another couple of days...The problem is that its just light showers of rain and all told we have only had about 1in so far ,no run off into the "dams",but it has got the moisture profile up and we should get a good "flush" of Clovers when it stops.......Today looks like another inside day ,watch some TV and look up some "stuff" for Jenny and just have a "surf" around to see if I can find any interesting "farm stuff".................I guess I could always do some admin (nah, that can wait til the end of the month) .

Q&A:..~GD.I think you may have "confused" Native Animals with introduced Feral ones.Some time ago I posted a photo of a local Goanna(with a link) they grow up to two meters long and are "meat eaters"We also have 3 var of venomous snakes(Eastern Brown,Red-Bellied Black and the Tiger) that hunt rabbits in their 'burrows",Jenny has a Jack Russell Terrorist which is the "best" rabbit hunter I have ever encountered.............Yes, we have the English Red Fox and they "reek" havoc at lambing time.We poison ,trap and shoot them each year but by the next "lambing" new ones have moved into the "vacant territory's".I usually "night shoot" with a spotlight and scope and with my quite "light"rifle(.22 Magnum)get my share of "kills".
Its quite "funny" how both of our cultures speak "English",but the the meaning can be so different.The Vic Mountain Ash is a great species (but not close to the house as you found out),all of the Eucalypti var's have high oil and two of our "local ones" used to be used for "distilling" to extract it for sale.

DL:..I knew of the Honey Locust ,but could not remember its name(old timers disease),I think it would work a "treat" in your situation................On the question of Wombats,you may be right,but from our experience ,its not the case.If they would just "dig" one burrow and live in it that would be OK.But ,no, they dig them "everywhere",some 60/90ft long and big enough for a "man" to crawl into and when they vacate them they are taken over by "feral cats" and "foxes"....The chap next door's creek line (which runs off of ours) is about 500 yds long and has over 70 burrows in the banks,when we get a large storm all of this soil is washed off of his place down-stream.They have also "set up house" under his house and its in danger of "breaking its back" by falling into the tunnels that have been created.

Well ,that's about "your lot",its10am and for me "that's smoko"(time to put the kettle on),so until we chat again our best wishes to you all..........................T.O.R..................................

 

[dragonlaurel]

Enjoy your rain. Hope the pond levels go up enough for you.

My friends (with the 10 acres) seeded crimson clover on the bare spots of their hill last spring. I bet it's growing well by now. They were gonna wait to get livestock, but found some orphaned baby geese on their property. They had a really big cage for parrots and turned it into a goose house to keep them safe.

I like growing medicinal plants, so I planted a Silver Dollar eucalyptus tree at my old place in Florida. Gotta keep my eye out for another one. They are nice trees.

Trying to see things from the Wombats view for a bit. (shut off some brain cells for a minute )
I guess the wombats other job in their world are to make habitats for themselves and future critters. Annoying humans would be accidental, cause I doubt they think things through much.

Builders might be accidentally making things more attractive to them:
By having to disturb the soil for their building stumps- it could make easier digging in those areas.
The shade from the house might make it cooler in summer.
Other animals that are more wary of humans, might not try to move in- which could make tunnels near houses safer for them.

Could people bury some fence, or some loose rock/gravel- that could cave into the tunnel when building, to prevent them from getting too close? Just brainstorming. It may have already been tried. People try all kinds of stuff to reduce critters tunneling in their yard here too. Buried kill traps or poisons, or sonic devices to hopefully scare them away are pretty common. They also plant stuff that repels them.

Some of these tips might help with your types of burrowing critters. They work pretty well with ours.
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/pests/a/mole_control.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_lathyris
One caution about Castor bean they didn't mention. It was an invasive plant back in Florida. I planted it by mistake once. Ooops. They took over that section of the yard.

 

[~gd]

TOR I dont think I have confused Natives with introduced species. I know that rabbits and Fox are non-native, I think both were introduced for hunting (riding with the hounds for fox, darn I cant remember the slang name for the English) I didnt realize the size of the Goanna and I dont want to meet one. So is the fox the top predator in your area or have feral dogs filled that spot? Where my contact used to live, suburbs of Melbourne, feral dogs were killing fox off and she used to shoot both when they came around her poultry. She used a 22 magnum too. She said it was the heaviest rifle she was allowed to own, I used 22LRBS Long Rifle Bird Shot for rodents and snakes because I had neighbors that a stray rifle round could reach. When fox and dogs became more of a problem I moved up to a 12 gage shotgun with heavy shot, better knockdown but the shot doesnt go far so the neighbors were still safe. I have a slight knowledge of your snakes thanks to TVs Steve Irwin of Crocodile Hunter fame, I always thought he was slightly bonkers to wear those khaki shorts to mess with reptiles but I taped a bunch of his shows.
English, I read somewhere that if it wasnt for our Revolution, Australia wouldnt have been settled by the English. Before the war the colonies were where the troublemakers were dumped, afterwards it was Australia. There wasnt a lot of contact except for your gold rush in the 1850sjust when our gold fields were pretty much paid out and again during WWII when we were considered over paid, over sexed, and over here. Despite our habit of sending our armed forces everywhere, I understand we only have 126 in Australia this month. Opps remembered I have a veterans meeting to attend so Gday ~gd

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day gang,hope you are all well?............Its been a while,but it has been both busy and exhausting,so I have just not had the energy to update the journal......

Last Thursday was as usual Retail Therapy and as usual we picked up the weeks mail.This week there was a letter from the Shire about our weed control program.At this point a bit of history may be in order,over the years we have enjoyed excellent relations with our Weed Inspectors,who deliver advice and support and have in "writing"supported not only our "weed control plan" but its implementation.So it came as a complete shock to us that as a result of us failing to meet "their" timeline,the end of the 'WORLD" WAS "NIGH" and the "Rath" of GOD would befall us in the shape of the weed inspector wielding the "Sword of Damocles",delivering "justice" on behalf of the peoples of the world.

We started spraying in May as per the "plan",but the volume of growth was such that "finding ' the plants and delivering the "herbicide" was difficult.We received a letter as usual to say that the weed inspector would be inspecting our place in May,so "spraying" ceased,so we could discuss a change of strategy to cope with the changed conditions......But it appears that we have a NEW weed man and he entered our place by a back gate and drove around several "heavily grassed" paddocks until he happened upon a paddock which we had "crash grazed",so spraying could re-commence....Imagine his excitement, here was a paddock "full" of the weed and as he "rushed"about with his camera and taking "notes",it must have almost caused a "wet dream".He then departed the property,now there are several points that a person with more training and greater experience would have "observed".All of the plants were less than12 months old,there was evidence of "dead plants " that had not "rotted out" from last Springs spraying .
The next morning in his office as he composed our letter ,no doubt copying same to his "boss" with a note "patting himself "on the back and saying that he was the most "valuable employee "they had....At this point with just one "mouse click"he could have opened our file and saw the previous inspectors comments.
So first thing Friday morning I made contact with him and explained what had gone before,he replied that as soon as we had "completed" the spraying,we were to let him know and he would return and inspect same...It took me all of Sat and Sun to spray out that paddock,using 200 lts of mix to complete the task.(all of our spraying is done with a 12lt backpack)...
So today (Monday) I phoned him first thing to advise him that the paddock was completed and the rest of the property would be done in due course and the Spring follow-up would happen as usual,he said he will return "next week" and inspect and if satisfied he will lift the "notice" on our property..........To be continued.

Today I took Jack and moved a small "mob' of sheep(about 75)over to the shearing shed,I then went back to that paddock and did a little move spraying for about 3 hours or so.Back to the shed and "drafted off" some ewe's are "shore" 13,leaving the rest of the lambs for tomorrow.

Q &A:..~GD.We call the English "Pommies"(its a term of endearment.LOL).I have heard the story about your "lot" over hear in WW2,I think it is an "Urban Myth" myself...Steve in my opinion was a "crazy man",there is NO WAY I would handle any of our snakes.We do not have Dingo's in our area and most of our problems are with "lost" hunting dogs(a LEAD ASPRO usually fixes that problem)..How did the vets meeting go?Where did you serve Vietnam?

DL:I think on the subject of the Wombats ,it may be wise to just "respect " each others views on the topic and leave it at that.If that's OK with you?....There is a book written by a French lass,which has some great advice for Herbal remedy's for livestock if you can get a copy(I will consult our library before the next post and give you the details)

Well ,that's enough for tonight as I want to see a program on the TV,so til next time our best wishes to you all....................T.O.R..................

 

[~gd]

TOR, I expect some of our readers are shaking their heads about your tale of the weed inspector, but I have read the same from my woman in VIC. It reminds of an encounter my father had. We have farm experts in every county (even in the middle of cities! County =Shire). Their job is to assist farmers and gardeners with Ag advise. At the time he was managing about 6000 acres all planted in various fruit trees. They liked to run research projects on insects and diseases since some of our fruit was sold to baby food manufactures who allowed no chemicals (most were pretty toxic in the bad old days before the term organic was even coined) and the unsprayed orchards made good control groups. Sorry wandering. We had a weed expert on one visit, and my Dad asked him to look at a strange new weed that was up to 3m tall which was springing up by our guest workers quarters. Expert took one look, turned pale and asked You REALLY dont know what that is? I need to use your Phone When he returned he said that is a big stand of Cannabis, he could see that Dad was still confused he said thats Marijuana and the police are on the way. The Police cut every weed to the ground and the expert convinced them that Dad didnt have anything to do with it so they raided the guest workers quarters where they found a stash of funny cigarettes.
Pommies! Right has nothing to do with what the Australian sun does to fair skins, right?
Vets meeting normal the usual amount of tall stories about how their unit saved the free world! I am located about 50 km from the base where paratroops are trained. My group is for anyone that ever served. I dont qualify for the group that actually fought in a war. I joined the US Navy back in 1960 and we were not officially at war. Served about 9 months on a yard vessel in the Pacific before being transferred to a Navy Oil Tanker that served in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic refueling the fleet at sea.

 

[freemotion]

I'm stunned that you are required to spray for weeds.....I have not had time this spring to read all the journals here so you may have explained this before. I have sought out Australian meat because it is grass-fed, but I never knew it was grazed on pastured doused in herbicides. What do they require you use and how often? Is it Round-Up? Yikes. We have some really bad policies here and NAIS was rather frightening (I have no doubt it will be back under another name) but I thought it was better there.....

 

[dragonlaurel]

I would hate to have some official telling me if my weed control program was good enough for their standards. Especially without talking to you first, to get the whole story. He sounds like a control freak too.

I realize you already have ways of dealing with wombats. Since it works for you- good enough.

I wouldn't want to deal with the Aust. snakes either. Ours are bad enough, but at least I know their habits, so I rarely encounter them.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Gang,how'ya'goin?.............This morning we awoke to a "howling gale",it was blowing at about 80 MPH and "as cold as"(remember M I L K),anyway as I had those lambs looked up overnight and it was to cold to "shear",I thought it would be a good idea to "drench them" and take off the belly wool and crutch them to make it easier to shear when the time comes(Friday I hope).There were 64 all up and it took till mid-afternoon.Turned them out into a handy paddock and went home for lunch...............The afternoon news said the wind would ease overnight so I got Ruby and went to get the ewe lamb drop so I can shear them tomorrow.Maiden ewe's,my god they area "ratbag lot",they were running on about 20 acs with only one Grandmother and they "ran everywhere",they split into 3 groups and all went in a different direction,it took Ruby about 15 min to get them to "hold" in a group and head them towards the gate to the shed,anyway once she had a hold of them she kept them "nicely" bunched and soon had them through the gate and into the yards(thank God).So in the morning its just a matter of sharping some combs and cutters and we are off.

I will devote some time to Free's post because she may be worrying unduly....When we purchased this block about 30% was considered of NO value for livestock,30% was of little value and the rest was at best "fair".The land was overcome with 3 weeds ,Serrated tussock,Scotch thistle and Patterson's curse.In the beginning we tried all the "natural approaches" and only succeeded in growing more of them,all manner of "witchcraft,black magic and "dancing naked at the full moon with a village virgin" but nothing helped...So then we got serious and purchased a "narrow spectrum herb-aside" for the tussock and got "biological control agents" for the other two. So far we have been at it for 12years and the life of the seed is about 25years(so not long to go now. NOT).
Down here we have a list of Weeds Of National Importance and we had 3 of them,these weeds have laid waste '000s of acs of grazing country and they must be controlled if production of any sort is to continue and as we are continually being "called upon " to save the staving millions,action has to be taken.The chemical we use is so "narrow" that it kills from the roots up and does not have any "residue left in the leaves,after 1in of rain it is "leached "out of the soil and there is no trace of it left,it also has NO effect on any other pasture species(and I have the photo's to prove same,as we have our share of anti-chemical type's down here).
We do not approve of "blanket spraying" of pastures under any circumstances and that's why all of our work is done with a"back-pack"..You will find that the "bulk" of our "grass-fed" beef comes from our very large range-lands and the area is so large(property's of 1million acs are not uncommon)that its just to dry for weeds to take hold.The country is supported by the "wet season"which lasts for about 3 months of the year and so the cycle repeats itself year on year.
As for the NLIS,I generally agree with their policy's as I remember the Foot and Mouth in Britain and the pictures of 100's of years of breeding being "slaughtered" it an effort to contain the out-break.The losses for the farmers concerned was "heart-breaking"and many of them "never" returned to farming as a result.If it ever got "loose" in the Top End there would not be ONE head of livestock left in Australia.

Q & A...DL.That book is"The complete herbal handbook for farm and stable" by Juliette de Baracli Levy.As for our snakes ,you just have to keep your wits about you when you are wandering about and not be in "la la land".

~gd:It's funny about the "pot thing"down here they use helicopters with special camera's to find the plantations hidden out in the bush and we often have them "flyover"on the way to the National Park close to us....All my military was done in the Armoured Corp,along with some Sniper work,but was never sent overseas.

Well gang its about that time again, (tonight's has been a novel and a half)so till the next time we chat,our best wishes to you all..........................T.O.R.........................................

 

[~gd]

TOR as a former vaccine maker I cannot let your comments on Foot and Mouth disease slip by. Foot and Mouth is rarely deadly to its host so if it got loose it would NOT wipe out your livestock. What it would wipe out is your overseas markets and your yield per head would be off about 20%. 2. It can be prevented with vaccine but that makes the fast and simple test read as a positive and other nations would ban the import of your meat just to be on the safe side. Those 100 year old breeds could have been shipped to other infected countries but then would not be allowed back into Britain. It was purely an economic decision the government decided to throw a relatively few stockmen to the wolves to save overseas markets for the other stockmen that were not in the small area. Postmortem tests (conducted in the area) showed that 72% of the samples were virus free and were killed just to be safe On second thought I am not sure which outbreak you are writing about, the big 1967 outbreak or the 2001 or 2007 outbreaks. This is making me hungry for some beef and today is my market day Other subjects later maybe. ~gd

 

[~gd]

Weed control. Since my brother is a professor of Entomology (insects) and I am basically a Chemist weed control methods have been discussed in the family. It seems a fair number of insects have been used in Australia for weed control the big problem seems to be that the bugs arent all that selective in what they eat (he never mentioned dancing naked with a virgin but that is probably because virgins are in short supply here). He has researched several insects that are used in our own (US not personal) dry land grazing areas, and proposed a couple to your Quarantine Service which rejected them. Do you use the dung beetle to get the dung off the surface and down into the soil where it builds the soil faster and better?
I of course have always maintained that chemicals were better but were expensive to produce and apply. Do you know how the biological controls work; Ill bet they are diseases not insects, diseases tend to be more host specific then insects and die when the host dies
Pot yes we use the flyover method too but they usually dont check farm land because the penalty is so steep that most farmers wont risk it. We have huge tree plantations owned by paper companies there are always small clearings near dirt trails and the growers are only around to plant and harvest which is low risk if you are any kind of woodsman most law enforcement is done from autos these days and the officers are such poor woodsmen that they tend to get lost if they get out of sight of their autos.
No disrespect meant but what does a Sniper do in country?
Catch you next time! ~gd