The great rains that have fallen across four states have given us the promise of a productive spring and many pastures that were in a horrible state in early May are really showing signs of a very early spring.
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We must not “do a Malcolm” and count our blessings too soon, but at this stage our season does look promising.
Larnach steps up
This week’s annual general meeting of the Bathurst Merino Association (BMA) saw Hugh Webb complete a three-year term as president and hand over the reins to Warwick Larnach.
Michael Inwood was elected as vice-president and other positions remained basically status quo.
Several new faces were added to the committee.
Several topical issues were discussed, including:
Attracting young people into agriculture; several ag teachers spoke on the subject. Local Land Services and the Department of Primary Industries are looking for collaboration with industry stakeholders at present. The doors are open for BMA to become involved.
The Marsden wool historians group tours vintage wool sheds and has archives that contain agent and wool company rep books from the past. Jeff McSpedden at The Lagoon has details of the Marsden group.
At the movies
John Payne, who writes the Bathurst Movie Lovers newsletter, believes local sheep breeders will be interested in seeing Rams, a darkly funny Icelandic movie starting at Bathurst Metro 5 Cinema on July 21.
It’s about two sheep-breeding brothers who haven’t spoken in decades, and who only communicate rarely through written messages carried by a sheepdog.
When the government demands all their livestock must be slaughtered to contain an outbreak of scrapie disease, the brothers are forced to unite to fight the disease, and the government. (Thanks John.)
End of an era
The advertised auction of the noted grazing property “Willow Glen” at Bruinbun will mark the end of the Lindsay family’s involvement in the sheep and wool industry in our district.
The property has been carefully managed by two generations of the family and is regarded as one of the best grazing properties in the Turon/Macquarie hills.
The finewool flock that has been bred on the property is probably the equal of any flock on our tablelands, and I’m sure that they will impress the most discerning of would-be purchasers.
Have a laugh
“Have you ever spoken before a large audience?” he asked. George answered: “Too right I have, and I said not guilty.”
The not-too-successful minister was asked by his bishop why he had entered the clergy. “I was called,” was the reply. The bishop pondered and asked: “Are you sure it wasn’t some other noise you heard?”
Selling the farm
Last Friday’s issue of the Western Advocate carried a thoughtful letter from Jim Inwood at Glanmire where he raised the matter of the foreign purchase of Australian farmlands.
I appreciated Jim’s main point - that foreign buyers are securing their own countries’ future food supplies when they purchase some of our best farming properties.
To extend that discussion, I read that a Chinese consortium is regarded as the front-runner in the proposed sale of the Port of Melbourne at a suggested price of $6 billion.
Before I leave the current money trail, the Office of the Chief Economist in a major department in Canberra has lowered its bulk iron ore price forecast from $56 a tonne to $44.80 per tonne and the price fall is factored in because of the Brexit decision in the UK.
This price drop would cause more jitters in Federal Treasury budgets.
