PLEASE put a circle around Saturday, August 10 for the Bathurst Merino Association annual Ram Expo and Working Dog Auction.
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The junior sheep-judging competition is a bright spot for the younger generation while the Super 6 for commercial ewes and the Bowyer and Livermore dog auction keep the day interesting.
This is a chance to ignore the season and the politicians between 10am and 3pm and the local CWA ladies will have some special treats for lunch.
There will be good numbers of stud sheep on display and breeders should see British and terminal breed,s as well as good quality merino sires.
This event deserves to attract good numbers of spectators to ensure that it can be kept going into future years
Leaders returned
AT the BMA annual general meeting last Monday night, most executive positions remained status quo.
President is Warwick Larnach, minutes secretary Richard Butcher, IT secretary Kirby McPhee, vice president Richard Butcher and treasurer Graeme Ross.
The committee is Brian Seaman, John Osborne, Michael Inwood, Scott Seaman, Col McPhee, Rob McLeod, Hugh Webb, John Dwyer, Stuart Kelly, Peter Moore and Nic Fogarty.
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Winter woolies
TO stroll past Martin Place on a cool winter's morning, it warms a woolgrower's heart to notice the people who work in the business centre of Sydney wearing quality black woollen overcoats as they make their way to offices.
Channel 9 commentators and presenters certainly look their very best as they front the cameras in similar jet black overcoats.
All of these wool wearers are great ambassadors for the Australian wool industry, and we all know that nothing is as warm and cosy as real wool.
Shearer's rules
LONG-TIME friend Mike Dickson has forwarded this snippet from the Gundagai Times, Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser dated Friday, April 4, 1913:
A shearer with a bit of mischief pinned his set of rules to a woolshed door;
- No cockie shall speak disrespectfully of the AWU, Labor Party, PM Andy Fisher, the cook, shearers or rousies.
- No cockie shall bring seed wheat onto the board.
- The cockie must not stand in front of any shearer for more than five seconds.
- When a cockie speaks to a shearer or shed hand he must do so with great respect.
- Cockie must not talk about land tax, scarcity of workers, immigration or the country being ruined.
- The cockie must not assume any superior airs and shall not refer to himself as the backbone of the nation.
Mike was no stranger to the shearing board and in later years he was a valuable contact for drought ravaged farmers when he managed Bob Debus' parliamentary office in Bathurst.
Health worries
THERE is rising disquiet across Bathurst district as out city's hospital struggles to cope with a rapidly expanding population that is expected to increase by about 33 per cent during the medium term.
In every other case except shopping facilities and space in churches, our infrastructure is badly trailing the population increase, but our modern hospital and its loyal staff are currently swamped by the demand for emergency and patient beds.
I'm told that the operating theatre didn't operate one day last week because of a lack of ward space and a young lady with a very sick eight-year-old spent almost seven hours (until 2am) in a hectic emergency room.
No one ever complains of the dedicated staff, but surely our state and federal members, our mayor and councillors and many of our voluntary organisations must support them and bring the premier and health minister to a Bathurst meeting at the earliest convenience.
[NB: At almost 78 years of age, I will probably need the mortuary rather than the maternity ward, but the hospital issue is now a really serious issue.]
Just thinking
A FEW insights for the week:
- Friends who now live in Claudy, County Derry, Northern Ireland are still regular readers of this column online. They report current hot summer temps. of 32 degress-plus and still enjoy an Aussie laugh or two. They tell me that the size of working farms is about 200 acres and that all livestock are shedded every night.
- After 14 years of sheep contract retirement, I still get requests to please come and mules lambs as they need it, but I have to go sensibly nowadays.
- Boonoke's poll merino sales topper at the Bendigo Sheep Show is a grandson of the famous Wallaloo Park Real Deal. Price was $26,000.
- Equal top price was for a Glenpaen-horned merino ram that is directly descended from Snowy Plains Stud at Berridale. Glenpaen was stud registered in 1989 and is a real family affair.
- The AGM of NSW Farmers was well attended in Sydney and it is now the only organisation where producers have a forum to discuss and debate the industry matters that concern them. Other authorities that were producer-driven are now really "small government departments".
Laugh lines
THE company boss had brekkie alone on his 45th birthday.
It seemed the kids and wife had forgotten the birthday but the pretty secretary had not.
She treated him to Thai lunch, drove him around town and back to her apartment.
She said: "Wait here, I'll slip into something more comfortable."
Five minutes passed, then the secretary, wife and four kids burst in with a cake blazing with 45 candles, singing Happy Birthday.
Our company boss met them in just his socks.
***
"How old are you 'Enry?" the little boy asked his mate at preschool.
Henry didn't know.
So he asked Henry: "Do the girls at school annoy you?" The answer was no.
So our little boy said: "'Enry, you must still only be five."
