All rams are on offer at one price, $500 each - first in, first served.

The Turon Hill and Farnham stud rams are top quality with the merino rams carrying traditional superfine wool to attract Italian processors.

I know that Kerry, Brenden and family will welcome buyers and visitors to their studs.

LAST Thursday's Mount Bathurst poll dorset ram sale gave a satisfactory result and clearance as many buyers are waiting for the seasonal break before they recharge their line up of stud sires.

Lot 1's proceeds of $850 were donated for cancer research and this is a great sentiment from the Healey family.

The presentation of the young rams was a credit to all concerned and the beautiful house garden and shrubs show much dedication from the family.

There are still some excellent young rams available for private sale at Mount Bathurst Stud.

POMANARA Merino Stud at Sally's Flat held a successful auction last Saturday.

Forty-plus people crowded into the woolshed to watch Marcus Schembri sell 19 young rams to a top $1700 twice and achieve a healthy average.

Two of the highest priced rams went to Tasmanian interests who were obviously chasing the A1 genetics of Conrayn stud, Berridale.

It was good to see several Bathurst Merino Association members in support at this top quality stud sale.

VOTING for board members of Australian Wool Innovation is to the counting stage and the policy speeches from nominees make interesting reading.

One candidate states that he doesn't know of much of AWI's details because they aren't made public, while others allude to untidy board governance.

Meanwhile, every wool cockie asks the same question: "Can Wally Merriman be re-elected after more than 10 years as a director?"

Completed forms must be in before Wednedsay, November 20 for the meeting in Sydney on Friday, November 22.

PRODUCERS have been doing some very serious sums during recent weeks and calculations show that a fully hand-fed cow can eat her own value every 12 weeks.

Similar feeding to keep ewes in a full 3-score condition may show about 14 weeks to eat their market value.

Please do your feed and watering sums very carefully in case this mongrel summer continues dry for many months.

We know that the rewards will come eventually but common sense is needed right now.

If we use a ball park figure of $7 per ewe per week and $70 per cow per week, costs and quantity will vary, but please plan carefully.

IN the back of every mind is the number of drought-like years that have recurred since the late 1970s and the possibility of these seasons continuing into the future.

As we see raging fires in areas to our north, we think of the serious shortage of surface water across inland NSW and the problem of sourcing large volumes of water for firefighting purposes.

THE latest federal government drought assistance package has opened up some opportunities for farms and associated businesses as eligibility criteria have changed for some.

Loans that are capped at a maximum $2 million, interest free for two years, interest only for the following three years and repayments to then commence could give cash-strapped entities the opportunity to consolidate existing loans.

Government loans are not easy to obtain and the application and approval will probably differ from the prime minister's media announcement.

CONGRATULATIONS to Radio 2BS Bathurst citizen of the month Jim Schaerf.

His many years of voluntary community involvement have been recognised by this award but the old timers also remember him as a young welding expert at the Bathurst Waterworks building at Gormans Hill, with Arch Rowe, Ellis Hamer and Ian Keech.

A GET well call to Milton Naylor from Perthville who has been a bit off song.

Please direct any prayers to the welfare of the nursing staff at Bathurst Hospital where Milton is spending a few days.

A NEW book, Bridle Track Revealed by Sharon Shelton, will be launched at Tremains Mill on Sunday, November 24 from 10am to 5pm.

Sharon lives on the iconic Bridle Track which linked Bathurst to Hill End.

Over the past four years she has spoken to residents, farmers, workers and visitors to the Bridle Track, documenting and recording their stories for this book.

It includes information from more than 70 contributors with copies of original photographs plus many of Sharon's coloured photos.

The book is beautifully presented in full colour with 450 pages of revealing stories and first-hand accounts describing the family photographs of times along the track.

Stories of hardship, humour and heartbreak make it a must read for all.

THE very volatile wool market continued its turbulent run this week with all micron types losing ground.

Superfine and fine merinos only lost around 10c/kg while the medium and stronger merinos lost around 50 to 80c/kg.

The crossbred wools also saw discounts of around 40c/kg which all saw the Northern Market Indicator end the week on 1583c/kg, down 43c/kg.

However, next week, from all reports, we could see the market gain back some of the losses from this week which makes the market trend nearly impossible to predict.

Next week 38,497 will be offered nationwide.

FIVE old friends were walking home from the club, singing in the street and being rowdy.

At 11pm a woman opened an upstairs window and yelled for quiet.

One noisy friend called: "Are you John Smith's wife?" and she replied that she was.

So he called out again: "Could you come down and pick him out love, so the rest of us can go home?"

***

BETSY went online for a date and included a photo of a good-looking friend to give her a better chance.

An email reply came in and she sobbed on her mother's shoulder.

When asked why so sad she cried: "I can't believe it, it's from daddy."