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

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day and welcome back ,its a special "hello" if this is your first time with us .May I suggest you look back over some of/or all of the posts so the story makes "sense".

Friday:Well ,the best laid plans of "mice and men",early this morning we got a "Strong Wind Warning",over 100 kph on the "high country"..........So any plans for spraying were abandoned and I set out on a more through check of the "lambing ewe's",three of the maiden ewe's that have lambed have formed a little group of there own and seem to be doing just fine.The other one is still with her group and her lamb is growing well enough for it to have "no trouble" keeping up..................We lost another maiden ewe yesterday/last night she was on a slope and was facing down-hill,the lamb was "still born" and she had "prolapsed" after-wards trying to "clear the after-birth"....................Our neighbors do not seem to be having a lot of "luck" either,one had lost a Stud Poll Hereford heifer while she was "calving",it looked as though that they lost the calf as well.I also noticed that they have lost two of their ewe's while lambing ,and his wife was taking one out of two lots of "triplets",I'd say she will "bottle" them and raise them for the "freezer",once you buy milk powder and count in for feed and your time there's no "profit " in selling them.

On the subject of the pasture recording,the first one is what I consider to be the "worst one" on the place.Prior to us buying the place this area was a "cattle camp".there was "NO" top soil and just the "dead remnants" of grass.Nothing has been added to the pasture by way of "fertilizer" and the paddock has been grazed in our normal rotation.

I will come back later to the rest as its "drinky's time"right now.bye for now........................T.O.R................................

Sorry about the break,but we make it a habit to sit down and have a couple of Bourbons/Scotchs before diner each night,during the day we are involved in our own pursuits re the farm and its a time when we can just relax and chat about the day..............So where were we up to,Hmmmm,right ,now to continue.

The next step is to "speed up" the rehabilitation of the area,to achieve this at least cost this is what I propose to do.From some materials on hand I intend to mix up a batch of "home-made compost".Last year the power company came through our place and cleared all the trees from under the power lines that traverse our property,they chipped up all the results and dumped it at my direction near the shearing shed.Now as many of you would be aware wood chip "burns" a lot of Nitrogen during initial stages of breakdown.This stage is now finished and it is starting to generate the biology which will decompose it further.I also have a heap of the grass cuttings from our front lawn,along with a good amount of Sheep Manure from the shearing shed.The intention is to mix it at a ratio of 30% of each by volume and spread it over the slightly improved area,"and stand back".The pic's over the next couple of months should be pretty interesting I think.
DL:Yes .! although its not an exact copy ,the group of trees in the bottom pic's in the top left are clearly the same.

I would like to now show another example which is about the average result for the rest of the property.

As impressive as these results look,please bear in mind that the paddock was grazed at the same time last year as this.This area is one where we have been doing grazing management trials to develop a sustainable "woodland grazing "outcome.

In our next "chat" I would like to examine what in our view has contributed to this outcome,if that's Ok and I am not "boring you all to death" on the subject.

Q & A: DL.We factor in a flock loss of 1/4% in any given year,covering lambing,worms and flystrike,along with unexplained losses(no obvious reason).

~GD: I had a look at that Tax Site,that's a whole different format to the one we have introduced,I have "book-marked "it and will explore the site in a little more detail when time permits.

Well ,we hope the above has provided you with some food for thought.....Least cost" livestock production"is a very complicated subject and requires you to consider all the "likely"challenges that can confront your objectives and to" PLAN" for them so the result benifiets not only "you" ,but the "livestock and the environment" as well .Some of you will remember that ,QUOTE"If you fail to plan,you plan to fail".
We look forward to your next visit,so until then ,stay safe,.........................................T.O.R...............................

 

[dragonlaurel]

Sorry you lost another ewe.
Holding off on the spraying is better. You might lose a good sprayer. And the container with the stuff in it too. Don't want you to blow away.

Are those pics all of the same spot? What a difference!

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

Hi Gang ,just thought I would let you know that the previous post is now finished,regards......................T.O.R..........................

 

[~gd]

Gday Ram It was not my intent to put you in your place but rather to point out that we are all likely to miss posting a time or two. I am sorry if I offended you. As to my novels I took a course in typing in school because I knew at an early age that I would attend college and that typing would be an advantage because I never mastered a fine hand with a pen. I was the only male in that class and I had to state my reasons in order to attend it was unheard of back then. Also I do not have a farm to run, my time is mine and I spend way too much of it on the internet. It really wasnt my intent to open the whole cans of worms on tax systems. I wondered about the power of the council that I have heard about so often and didnt have a clue about what a Shire was.
1080 early in my career I was in charge of pest control (mostly mice and rats with an occasional bird) we were forbidden to use it inside (too deadly) but used it in a ring of bait stations around the exterior. It was not fast acting but sick rodents made easy targets for their usual predators which would also die after eating the rodents. With the predators wiped out the rodent population would explode. I never noticed it on the farm but the few fox I bagged were untouched until consumed by insects (my practice with varmints I had killed was to leave them exposed I used to enjoy the sight of buzzards feeding)
Protected stock eaters=Here in my state wolves can still be found in the very wild areas and are protected as are bears. Here the white tailed deer have exploded with the growth of the suburbs. Lawns and gardens provide much more food than can be found in the pine woods. Farmers have always shot them and kept silent about it but you cant do that in the suburbs since shooting of firearms is prohibited. Even with very liberal hunting seasons outside of the suburbs the leading cause of death is being struck by an auto. Many Utes here have roo guards for that reason. Although denied by Wildlife officials they have been filmed releasing coyotes into areas that didnt have them before. Link to coyote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote#Interspecific_hybridization they are not protected. It is a subject of debate of if the wildlife officers were following a secret policy or acting on their own to use coyotes to control deer populations. They are bad animals for my money.
I too like to catch BBC news for more balance on our news. The left pretty much control our major TV networks with the right being represented by that Aussy Press lord Murdock or something like that. I have a feed from News 7 on my homepage with mostly AAP stories. I have to leave now. ~gd

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

Hi to you all,before I start with today's "chat",I would like to try to clear up some misconceptions about us Aussie's...Firstly to ~gd,you intended NO offence and none was taken.I feel that we have "chatted" long enough now for me to treat you as I would any" Aussie friend".....As a "species" us Aussie's do not take ourselves to "seriously" and "light-hearted digs"at one another in normal conversation are a way of life for us,I guessed you would have been used to it, chatting to your "lady friend" in Vic as you do........On reflection I guess Americans would find a conversation between two Aussie friends a little "confronting"in the way they "sling off"at each other,it rarely results in "hurt feelings" on either side,unless it is said in a "malicious " manner(its just the way we are).............My aim with the journal was to present the day to day events on the farm in an interesting and humorous manner, but also to gain insights into life "up-there",that's why I am always looking for feed-back as that's what open's up new areas to explore...............Your novel's have resulted in us exploring many subjects that otherwise would not have rated a mention in the normal course of events.Take the tax system as one example,we now have (as well as everyone else)had the chance to have a look at each other's system and evaluate each against the other,its my view that these little excursions add a point of "difference " to this journal and members as well as visitors make a point of "logging in" just to see what 'hair-brained idea " I am exploring today.

Well its that time of the day again ,so I will post this now and come back to the days events later (after diner)............T.O.R................

G'day gang,hope everybody is OK with the above.So to today.

Saturday:It sure looked like we would get some rain after breakfast this morning,but in the end all it did was to be windy,right up to almost dark......So the ewe's got to be checked about lunch,but the thing is that I now have to be careful not to disturb them to much.Wild Eyes saw me at the same I saw her and she "jumped" up and headed into the bush with her lamb(so shes OK).I had taken to checking them with a pair of field glasses so as not to have them running about to much.All seemed Ok so that was it for today.

Q & A:.~GD...Its funny how nothing eats the body's of foxes(I guess its because they smell so bad),I tend to leave the body's on the paths used by foxes as a warning to others.I had to smile when you said they thought that the wolves and lions would control "foxes",why on earth would they bother with a fox that would fight back ,when they could kill a defenseless sheep or calf.....We have the strongest "roo bar" we could get at the time to protect both us and our truck..That was a great link on the coyotes,we have similar problems with domestic dogs and Dingo's...The BBC news comes to us in the middle of the night on the TV,so I almost never catch it.(the audio has "died" on my computer,as has the PDF downloader).....On another subject I just heard on the news about the "downgrade " of the US to AA+,that does not sound like good news to me for you all?

Well I guess that covers everything so far,we only got a few MM of rain and now its just cold,who knows what tomorrow will bring...All things being equal we should return again tomorrow night,so til then our best wishes to you all.............................T.O.R.........................

 

[~gd]

Gday Ram, You are right, I do understand how Aussie conversation and email goes and I actually enjoy it. Now for the back story. I think I have mentioned before that there are some sensitive souls on this forum. Recently I offended one of them on another thread or just a passing reader and therefore received a notice to the effect that I am on probation here and future complaints would result in my being banned. A lot of that stuff was in case they were watching me. Do you understand what I am saying? I did not intend to offend the other; I just straight corrected some of info posted as being wrong. I dont know how much of this forum you read but there are people here with strange, but strong beliefs, do not sling off to them or you will have the bed next to mine in probation!
If I should suddenly disappear my email is goosedragon@hotmail.com enough said?

It is Saturday morning here and they are predicting heavy downpours from a hurricane sitting off the coast, even if we dont get the high winds these storms can dump 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in 24 hours which result in flooding. The clay soil we have here can hold a lot of moisture, but at the moment the surface is baked so much will run off before it is damp enough to accept more moisture. It should break the current drought though, The pine forests are still damp enough because of shade to accept rain and where the farms have broken the crust can accept 2-3 inches before it starts to run off (taking the best soil with it) but the cities and suburbs might as well be completely paved and the drainage system will not be able to handle the load so local flooding is a good bet. The TV weathermen go on and on about wind but dont mention flooding until it gets over their shoes.

It seems you have a good use for those field glasses you got recently; did you keep both or just the best?

All carrion smells bad I think it must be taste that keeps them away (talking foxes now) Wolves, coyote and even dogs are pack animals and have a sense of territory. In theory you are the leader of your pack of dogs and I bet they stick to your farm as their territory. Would they accept another dog without you telling and showing them that it is OK? Wolves will chase coyote; coyote will chase and kill fox, dogs, and cats. They will eat dogs and cats but as mentioned above they dont eat fox. Fox dont usually pack so they are real easy if attacked by a pack. It can be a sport for them like a bunch of horsemen riding to hounds. (Do they still do that down under?) But more probably it is a matter of territory. Why let a fox have a shot at a nice tender lamb when we can kill him and keep all the lambs for ourselves? Just to keep what I meant to say straight, many suspect that coyote were moved in by man to control DEER not foxes and lions were not mentioned by me. Wolves will chase lions but they can take to trees that wolves cant climb.
It is funny that roo bars are sold here to people who have never seen a live roo! Why dont we call them deer guards? Of course the best were developed for roo Deer have the nasty habit of leaping at the last second which means they often go through the windscreen with fatal results. I have been struck twice once in the side of the car where the deer ran into me and once on the roof where the jump was not high enough. 2 meter fences will not stop deer they can clear them easily.

I think we get the BBC late evening edition (if they have one) It could be taped and rebroadcasted, at 6-7 PM which is right after our national news but on a different channel. I use PDF format a lot, most government documents are available in it. I am not a computer geek but when I have problems I dump the version giving me trouble and install a fresh version which is available free at many sites that use that format. Sometimes I get audio and sometimes not. There are so many different formats that I dont try too hard to keep up.
I dont think the official downgrade means much; most of the financial world knew we werent as strong as we used to be. The thing that I think is funny is that the rating system that downgraded us still had strong credit ratings on businesses that went bust during the current recession for a week or more after they had closed their doors! How can you trust a rating from them unless you have a very short memory? Our government tried to spend their way out of the recession (this has never worked here before) they borrowed heavily abroad to throw money at the problem and it did not bring the results expected. In my opinion we need to cut spending on foreign aid and quit trying to be the police for the world with our military. Free trade yes but not when we cut our tariffs and the other side does not. Australias exports are mostly mined raw materials and produce from your farms. You are much closer to the growing Indian and Asian markets than most suppliers so you should have a bright future ahead. I suspect that our loss will be your gains. We will have a tough time until we dump our free spending government and replace it with one that spends more wisely and in fact less. What brought on this mess is that spend less-tax less people made huge gains in the off year (2010) elections and didnt just roll over and vote to raise our debt limit like the free spenders wanted to. Our current spenders have increased the debt more than our entire history including WWII and if continued will lead to ruin.
Time to climb off my soap box and go out to check that my ditches are clear just in case we get all that rain. ~gd

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day to you all,we are glad you could make time to visit us again.............................

Sunday:It looked like rain when we got up this morning ,but nothing came ,so I guess it will be back to the spraying tomorrow,we have had another visit from some "feral pigs" again ,hell, they make a mess it looks as though they have "torn up" about an acre. Tomorrow night I will have to go out after dark with the rifle and spotlight.Today was pleasant enough in got to about 20C,but the wind was still pretty cool.A check of the ewes resulted in everything looking OK.

Q & A:..~GD...Sorry to hear that you have got yourself into some "strife",you can be sure I will be "extra careful".That's a lot of rain to get in that short period ,hope you miss out on any damage from it..........I don't use those glasses to check the stock(they are a bit big and bulky)instead I use a pair of 8X30 Gerber 2000 7deg at 1000mts,I have about 1/2 a doz pairs around the house and will sell a couple when we attend our village market in the Spring.We have a bric a brac stall and usually have quite good sales.......Your views on Foreign Aid is the same as Jenny's ,she maintains that we should get things right at home first before we go throwing money overseas....The problem as I see it is that they have had to find "jobs" for all of those Humanities Degree's, and so many of them have joined the N G O's.
Thanks for that tip on the PDF reader will try that tomorrow and see how I go.

The recent week of warm weather has started many of the "warm season " grasses to begin to stir Cocksfoot(Orchard grass over there)is beginning to shoot nicely from its crowns and the "sub clover" is showing signs of life next will be the Phalaris,Rye, Fescue and of course the Native grasses.In the paddocks that have been previously plowed we aim for over 60% of Perennial Species,about 10/15 % clovers and the balance in annual grasses.I have noted that the Scotch Thistles are starting to crown up and after a trial last year treating them at an early stage with a "tiny"drop of herb-aside,you can avoid the big "bare"patch you get when "chipping" them at a later stage.The Thistles started germinating about a month ago,ready for the first signs of warmth so they get a head start on the grasses.I wont find them all so the "beetles" will still get there share............................Next Friday I hope to "run out a line of 1080 baits" and then I will start the night patrols with the rifle and spotlight(I will have to plan carefully to leave time to complete the journal)

Well as they say in the Classic's" that's about your lot"so til next time we chat our best wishes to you all........................T.O.R..........................

 

[~gd]

Gday Ram, You actually brought two subjects that I am hot about. They are official foreign aid and NGOs both domestic and abroad. I dont have huge problems with our government giving short term aid after a disaster, but much of our long term aid is destructive to the people of the county that receive it. We will give a sum to a corrupt government who bank it abroad in case their subjects rebel and throw them out. Then there is tied aid where the money must be spent on our products, and much of that is spent on advanced military equipment. What does a third rate country use our 2nd line jet fighters for except to threaten their neighbors so they rush to China or us to buy more 2nd line equipment for their defense (Iran-Iraq or India -Pakistan).Of course they can also be used against their own people if they think of rebelling (Libya). Long term food aid is worse, how does the small farmer survive competing against free grain that we are providing because our government is subdizing our farmers to produce grain that there is no market for? If they are smart and isolated they grow poppy for the opium market (Afghanistan) or Coca for cocaine (South America). Grain is just the easiest product to dump but the problem could be anything. I suspect Australia-NZ has pretty much held down our production of lamb meat (by fair trade). I dont remember the last time I saw US lamb in the markets. So this does not become one of my novels, I think short term aid is helpful but longer term aid is not.
NGOs are my biggest hot spot because so many are even less efficient and effective than government and you cant vote them out, you can only expose them for the scam that some are and hope that their donors will starve them out. Just for an example we have four separate NGOs working to prevent unwed teen mothers in my County, total population 68,000 last year. Salaries for Directors are in the 60-120 $K range. We had only 14 teen unwed mothers last year. But in the 10 previous years the highest number was 16. No one knows the source of their funding but they do have to account for how the money was spent. Administration 21% (see directors salaries since all other workers are unpaid volunteers) Fund Raising 34% and the remaining 45% for client services whatever that means. Do you see why I insist they are neither efficient nor effective?
Well our weathermen were wrong again we didnt any rain at all! They claimed a cold front moved in and pushed the storm out to sea. Your pictures show that proper management does help production and you are to be commended for your stewardship of your land. Your field glasses sound better than my 7X30 B&L I think mine only were 5deg at 1000yards. Without my glasses I am legally blind in my right eye and must wear them to have any depth perception so my field glasses have been modified to provide extra eye relief (distance between eye piece and eye so I can use them with my all-the-time glasses) It also prevents anyone else from using them. There is a common lab tool which would be handy for tiny dropping herbicide on your Scotch Thistles it is called a stepper pipette. It uses plastic syringes (we used mostly 2 or 5 mL. but they could handle up to 30mL) with a blunt needle, shaped much like a pistol; every time you pulled the trigger a preset amount would be delivered. We used them to deliver tiny amounts to 50-60 test tubes in a hurry. I see you are online so I am going to post now,

 

[~gd]

Evidently I should wear my reading glasses because TOR was not on line. I wish I had saved a few of those stepper pipettes we usually threw them out after use. They are hard to come by except from lab supply houses and they dont like to sell to individuals because of the risk that they may be used in Meth or bomb making. Many of what used to be common useful chemicals just are not available in useful form any more. Ram I noticed you mentioned paddocks that have been previously plowed ,did you have that done and if so why?
Is it practical to bait those hogs? Salt here is used to attract both deer and hogs to bring them to an area where they can be shot. Natural salt is in short supply here and large molded blocks are placed on both horse and cattle pasture for them to lick. I assume salt is provided in the mix you put out for your flock.
Now I do have to close. ~gd

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Gang,Well today was both very good and really bad.

Monday:It was "damm" cold this morning -4C and was only expected to get to +10C.So in spite of the cold loaded up the gear to do some spraying .Recently I had undertaken a trial on the Scotch Thistle's,and had managed to achieve 100% kill rate,now we have a paddock with really heavy infestation so I set about to "subdue " them.So i drive down to the paddock only to find that the "pigs" had returned last night and "tore" up another 3/4 acs.I'm so "disheartened and cranky" as I had planed to finish some market lambs on this paddock,the way it looks now it will take me about 3 days to repair it and it could be next Autumn before we get any worthwhile production from it.

When I got back up to the house I rang around the neighbors and sure enough they had also suffered at there hands,although one guy had managed to shoot 4 out of 5 of one mob.One other chap had a pro shooter on his place trying to get rid of them.Because we are at point of lambing we cannot have guys with guns and dogs running about our place.So tonight after diner (no pre-diner drinks tonight)I drove down to see if I would be lucky enough to come across them....No luck,so after 2& 1/2 hours in the freezing cold I gave up and came home.

Q & A:..~GD.I just use my back-pack with a fine narrow mist on the Thistles ,this uses a only a very small amount of herb-aside mix,but is enough to do the job.At the risk of being "to nosy",how did you injure your eye?..The plowing was undertaken by the previous owners,they had a cattle stud and were trying to establish improved species pasture,but all they did was introduce all manner of weeds(which we are still doing battle with).....You mentioned the US sheep meat industry,what a stroke of luck,I have been "dying "to open up this subject and in the next night or 2 we are going to have a "looong" chat on this subject(it's to cold in the office for it tonight).I do hope some of you are going to "join in" on this one.....on the mineral mix ,yes, salt is about 15% by volume......Poisoning pigs is not an option due to the risk of non-target deaths,they just set a trap and "free feed" wheat and usually slaughter them in it .It is really hard to keep track of them as after a night or two they move off to another area and may not return to our place for maybe 2 weeks or so... I'm sure I will have a reply to your NGO observations ,but not tonight(I'm freezing here).

Well gang that's it for tonight ,they say -3C in the morning,so it will not be an early start,our best wishes to you all,T.O.R.........................