This workshop will study soil health, soil fertility, soil testing, as well as impacts on pasture production and sustainability.

These events centre on the importance of farmers' positivity as well as being a vital point of contact with a rural service provider.

A day spent with country peers in a sphere that interests all of us is probably great therapy in tough times.

No one is looking for a shoulder to cry on but rather a very practical. interesting day with a few laughs and some friendly discussion.

Please use the staff and services of LLS, they want to help and without them there's not much help available.

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LAST Friday's merino auction at Blink Bonnie, Tarana, presented two lots of young restocker sheep and 55 hogget rams.

The mob of one-year-old ewes with August-shorn skins made $200 and were in fat condition.

Woolly wether lambs, about five months old, were passed in at $95 and probably sold shortly afterwards.

The hogget rams were a credit to the breeders Peter and Kaye Moore and topped at $2700.

These sheep are genuine bale fillers and the stud has a regular clientele for stud rams and restocker sheep.

GOVERNMENT assistance to the farming community has come into the national spotlight as the question of "help the starving cockies or present a balanced federal budget"is debated.

A comment is often made that only one-in-10 farm families can access meaningful financial assistance and the amount of detail that is required to qualify is a real drawback.

When we see the number of small business that fail in towns and cities and add those to the long list of drought flattened farmers, we can clearly see the urgent need for government assistance as cash grants or Newstart payments.

In our Central Tablelands, most farm operators also work off farm (in many cases, both partners) and this excludes them from the Centrelink criteria of 51 per cent income earned from primary production.

When this horrible drought does break, the market prospects for every rural commodity could not look much brighter, so we keep doing our very best and hope like hell.

FOUR of our district's most respected community members have passed away in recent weeks:

Austin Knight is remembered as a landholder at Black Springs, a quality long distance athlete and a former chairman of Prospect County Council.

Glen Hutchison was one of our best shearers who went on to own several large rural properties in the Gilgandra/Armatree district.

Victor Fisher was a farmer at Burraga, a quality shearer, staunch AWU organiser and a great workmate.

Terry Holden was a long-time face of Southern Mitchell County Council in Bathurst, and was a founding member of St Patrick's Club in our city.

These four men will be sadly missed as each one has been a vital cog in our Bathurst community.

FORMER F&G Wool and Livestock specialist Alan Gahan makes an interesting point when he notes that merino sheep buyers now look for a plain-bodied, good shearing animal rather than the 8kg wool cutter that filled a lot of bales.

At a recent ram sale, a former top flight Egelabra blood breeder bought SRS-type rams for his sixth year.

He specialises in selling merino wether lambs and restocker ewes after his flock averages 125 per cent lambing.

A GROUP of old buffers and their wives had an interesting discussion at a local venue last weekend.

Discussion points included:

FOSTERFIELD Fine Wools held its 17th on-property ram sale over the weekend and Scott Seaman reports a a good crowd of people went along to have a look.

The stud sold 27 of the 40 rams on offer with a top price of $1800 and sale average of $860.

"We had good support from local producers with nine different buyers who all purchased multiple rams," Scott said.

"There was a mix of new and repeat buyers from past sales and I was pleased to see the rams go to good homes.

"We still have rams on hand if there are people looking for good quality fine merino flock rams."

Scott thanked family and friends for their help in setting up and running the day.

"I can't do it without their help."

THE wool market continued to search for direction this week across all merino wool types.

The first day of selling saw falls of around 30 cents a kilogram for the finer types and 50 cents a kilogram for the medium to broader wools.

On the second day, the trend was reversed. There were gains across all types of around 17 cents a kilogram.

The wash-up for the week was that the fine wools lost 10 to 15 cents a kilogram and the medium to broader types lost around 30 cents a kilogram.

Crossbred wools followed suit.

The fine types lost around 10 cents a kilogram and the broader 28 microns lost around 40 cents a kilogram.

The Northern Market Indicator finished the week on 1545 cents a kilogram - down 22 cents a kilogram.

Over the next couple of weeks we could see this market stabilise around these levels and maybe get a little dearer as we progress toward the end of the year.

GEORGE said he hoped his children would one day have all the things that he could never afford.

"Then we'll move in with them," he said.

***

HE says his wife must have had 61 boyfriends before him, because she calls him the "60-second lover".

***

SHE told a lady friend that her husband reminds her of the Pacific Ocean.

"Is he restless, tempestuous and mysterious?" asked her friend.

"No," she said, "he just makes me sick."