SOME sales of rural real estate across the tablelands have shown us that rural land is still a great investment even during a succession of pretty tough seasons.
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A Bathurst accountant describes rural land in our district as gold.
Quite a few properties that have been virtually unstocked for some years were obviously bought for an investment over a medium to long term.
The rule of thumb that real estate doubles its value each decade is probably true.
In the field
LITHGOW Landcare hosted an informative field day on pasture sowing at "Blink Bonnie" on Tuesday and about 25 landholders were impressed by the ability of the Agrodrill to sow a small seed mix into adequate soil moisture.
Bathurst Machinery supplier On Trac Ag supplied the New Holland tractor and Agrodrill that were demonstrated and are owned by district contractor Ash Miller (phone 0429 377 191).
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Sheep show
THE Land newspaper, in conjunction with Bathurst Merino Association, will host a stud sheep exhibition at Bathurst Showground on Tuesday, June 18.
This event, part of Sheep Week across southern NSW and all of Victoria, is open to all breeds of stud sheep.
Details and bookings from studmasters to Peter Moore on 0419 011 398.
Updates will be in future Rural Notebooks.
Green days
LAMB marking jobs will soon be on the agenda and light green is the 2019 colour for lamb eartags.
During a lifetime of sheep and lamb handling and probably three million lambs through our cradles, it's obvious that every lamb should be earmarked with the property's registered mark and ear-tagged in the opposite ear.
Earmark in the left ear for rams and wethers, tag in the right opposite ear for ewe lambs.
Stolen sheep may be identified if ear-marked even when the eartags have been changed.
That's a relief
THE Victorian Government has legislated that pain relief must be used when mulesing lambs and this adds about $1 to the cost of the procedure.
A majority of merino breeders in our district have been using pain relief products for a number of years and this is seen as best practice and a real help in getting lambs to find mum quickly as they leave the marking cradle.
Knows hoses
WHEN we need urgent repairs of hydraulic or pneumatic hoses, it's often a rush to the phone book (for over 50s) or a Google search for repairers in our town.
Quick, efficient service is on hand at Westhose, 13 Lambert Street, Bathurst, where Eddie Bestwick operates the business.
Eddie's family is as "old Bathurst" as mine, and he really does believe in service with a grin. Phone 6332 3555.
Good advice
SHEEP health lecturer at the University of Adelaide, Colin Trengrove, recently addressed a series of livestock producer forums sponsored by Australian Wool Innovation and Meat and Livestock Australia.
He discussed condition scoring of pregnant ewes and seasonal feed pressures that are brought on by continuing dry weather.
"This time of the year paddock feed has always dwindled and is low quality, so it's not enough to meet the feed requirements of even a wether, let alone a pregnant ewe," he said.
He also discussed energy requirements for ewes and the probability of feed supplements to attempt to ward off twin lamb disease.
It's a big call
SCHOOL holidays in autumn are a great time for families, with lots of time to help mum and dad and maybe a chance to go away for a few days.
Farm kids have grown up learning stock-handling skills and many of them are great helpers in stockyards, mustering paddocks and woolsheds.
Mums and dads should take great care on the roads at Easter and the greatest no-no must be the mobile phone.
If we are caught using a mobile phone while driving during double demerit periods, we lose 10 points.
This is an immediate loss of licence for P-platers and will have the same effect on unrestricted licence holders who have already lost three points or more.
Please don't spoil Easter; don't use the mobile.
New interest
THE nomination of Orange City Councillor Sam Romano as Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate for Calare has added a lot of interest.
Andrew Gee, as the sitting member with a 12 per cent margin, must have felt confident when facing the electors, but the addition of an SFF representative with a fairly high profile has raised a few possibilities.
The damage that former PM Malcolm Turnbull caused during his years in federal parliament is obvious as the Liberals try to present a united front while the National Party will have to fight for every vote.
Current opinion polls give the federal Coalition very little hope of victory, but opinion polls gave Donald Trump no hope and the NSW Coalition a 50/50 chance.
In each instance, the polls were a dud.
Wool report
THE wool market fell for the seventh consecutive week as all merino types slipped around 10c/kg.
The crossbred wools, however, are having a real purple patch.
The 28-micron crossbreds finished the week on 1205c/kg, which is a record level.
The Northern Market Indicator finished the week on 1978c/kg, down 8c/kg.
Although the market has lost ground, it is still 70c/kg above the same period last year.
Lack of supply is now starting to show up in the northern centres. The offering of fleece in Sydney this week was only 4000 bales, the smallest offering since 1994, while the offering of fleece in Melbourne was 12,000 bales and in Fremantle it was 8000 bales.
The Sydney sale next week will be held at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, which usually creates a lot of interest.
Mark Horsburgh TWG Landmark
Laugh lines
THE pessimist thinks all women are bad; the optimist hopes they are.
***
HE said that his wife has a keen sense of rumour.
Life is like a shower; one wrong turn and you're in very hot water.
***
IN the little village church, the new vicar announced that his first sermon would discuss lying and perjury.
"How many of you, my dear people, have read Chapter 25?" he asked.
Every hand was raised.
"You are the very people I need to talk with," he said. "There is no Chapter 25."
