WHEN prime minister Malcolm Turnbull brought on the demise of the Green Army, he made it much harder for landholders and public bodies to plant and establish environmental projects such as wildlife corridors, koala habitat, tree lots and land reclamation.
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Some accused the PM of white-anting the former PM’s pet scheme in the Green Army.
From my involvement with that scheme through Skillset and Local Land Services, I know that many of the young workers who were involved in these projects gained valuable work and character references as they showed their reliability and willingness to work.
The scheme has been sorely missed by those who get a hand up and recognition for their efforts.
I hope that a future Federal Government will restore a similar scheme.
Time of change
OUR very dry autumn has made high lambing percentages pretty hard to attain and hungry ewes with multiple lambs following them is not the scene that most would wish for.
In merino flocks, the common mark and mules operation will probably be delayed with lambs being marked only.
A lot of breeders will not apply eartags at marking and earmark for identification purposes only.
Several reports of anaemic sheep and big lambs give us reasons for checking the need for an early winter drench.
Healthy livestock will battle through a tough winter fairly well with reasonable hand-feeding.
Needed advice
LOCAL Land Services district vet Bruce Watt wrote a timely column on the serious drought situation across our district and the article was printed in last week’s edition of The Land.
Producers in the area may appreciate the article being re-printed in our local Fairfax newspapers as advice and opinion from respected sources are hard to find.
Most livestock producers are now being forced to make costly plans for at least the next five months and the mental and financial strains will cause much stress.
Vic’s milestone
BELATED birthday wishes to retired Burraga pastoralist Victor Fisher, who celebrated his 90th birthday a few weeks ago.
Vic worked in the wool industry for many years and was regarded as a great workmate who would always be there when the going got tough.
He has been regarded as the Governor of Burraga for most of his lifetime.
Cover stars
FOLLOWING the success of the CTLX blue ribbon weaner sale, it was great to see the Emms Mooney selling team pictured in action on the front cover of last week’s Land newspaper.
The 2018 blue ribbon sale has drawn favourable written comments in rural media in both Victoria and South Australia, a credit to CTLX.
Comments came to me that auctioneer Harry Larnach may have attracted movie and television scouts who saw the photo.
Stuck in traffic
NATIONALS state leader John Barilaro has spent a lot of time and pledged a lot of finance to a wide variety of community causes in the Bathurst electorate and this seems to illustrate the value of our local seat to the State Coalition Government.
The rapid growth of Bathurst city and its satellite villages is placing much pressure on our road network as well as congestion in the CBD.
We know that traffic at busy times would hardly move in town if traffic lights and roundabouts had never been installed and car parking spaces are often hard to find.
Bathurst is a great place to live but care must be taken when choosing a place to live that is readily accessible by car as unbroken lines of traffic are now common.
Strong candidates from both Labor and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party are expected to promote strong ideas for Bathurst’s traffic problems at the 2019 state election.
Laugh lines
THE fearless crim had taken five months to dig an escape tunnel under the jail perimeter fence.
He finally broke through and popped up in a pre-schoolers’ yard.
“I’m free, I’m free,” he shouted.
“Well, bully for you,” a little miss told him, “I’m four.”
***
OUR old farmer friend died and was definitely not in Heaven.
He passed roaring fires and shrieking sinners until he noticed his stock and station agent making love with a gorgeous young redhead.
He braced Satan: “I face Hell and torment forever and the blasted agent gets to do what I just saw.”
Satan told him: “That’s her eternal punishment.”