But Mother Nature has given us an autumn break to remember in 2020.

Calving and lambing has so far gone smoothly with day-old calves playing in 16 degrees sunshine.

Livestock is really expensive to buy as meat markets are at high levels so restocking is going to happen slowly in our district.

Please spare a thought for landholders on the Monaro who are caught in severe drought yet again and this follows hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on stock feed over many decades.

It's often been said that a mouthful of Monaro grass is worth two and a half mouthfuls in other districts and stock from that area usually thrives when bought to our climate.

THE Mudford family at Parkdale Merino Stud has provided details of mobs of their three to five-year-old breeding ewes.

On average they're growing 19.2 micron fleece with staple length of 14mm per month and scanned pregnant at 170 per cent. There are 117 sets of scanned triplets and four sets of quads.

None of the ewes has been mulesed for a decade and special mobs were not tail docked, being genetically short-tailed.

Remember when we used to take photos of Merinos with lots of body wrinkle and little bars on the back of their necks?

REPORTS keep coming of cattle traders who are making serious dollars as our seasons have turned.

Local agents are being credited with deals on trading cattle that are yielding returns in the order of $300 to $500 per head per annum on most of classes of cattle.

A market report from a store sale at Leongatha, Victoria tells of Ray White, Emms Mooney director Ben Emms buying a B-double load of feeder weight young cattle for several clients.

At that sale the quote was made that "cattle that were vendor bred, grass fed and antibiotic free attracted a premium of as much as 25c per kilogram".

ONLINE auctions for livestock have certainly gained a foothold during the COVID-19 restrictions and a line of 81 border cross ewes from Deniliquin (66kg, 14 months, scanned in lamb to white Suffolk, either twins or triplet foetus) sold to an Auctions Plus record of $446.

An Auctions Plus dairy sale had an audience of 271 with 78 registered buyers.

While these are great stories, a lot of buyers and sellers can't wait for saleyards to fully reopen.

TWO of the grand old men of rural industry have passed on in recent times.

Jim Maple-Brown, formerly of "Springfield" Goulburn, pioneered the Fonthill strain of Merino sheep and had family connections in Bathurst.

Jim Litchfield, of "Hazeldean" Cooma, was a leader in animal performance breeding of both Angus cattle and Merino sheep.

Both men could speak for some time on any subject, as long as it was about sheep.

WE hope that Australia's control methods for the COVID-19 outbreak will continue to prove successful as our schools and industries gradually return towards normal.

This result has come at a huge financial cost and will take years to repay but, from a health point of view, it has been a great success.

From PM Morrison down, this whole exercise has been carried out with great care and common sense.

It's been obvious that the quiet Australians have kept their politics out of hearing and taken notice of our leaders - both federal and state, Labor and Coalition - who in turn were following their health department leaders.

It seems that our country may have really dodged a bullet but we must all continue to be ultra careful.

BATHURST Regional Council is to be congratulated for its complete revamp of Perthville community tennis courts with all new fencing, all-weather surface and permanent nets that are available to the public at a $5 per court hourly rate.

Details on Facebook from Perthville Neighbourhood Group page.

Many thanks to Sri, Ramu and Shiva at Metro Perthville who are in charge of the court keys.

There is a refundable $50 fee to ensure that keys are returned.

Perthville Neighbourhood Group should be proud of their ongoing collaboration with council and residents of the village and its surrounds will find that this is a dynamic, friendly group of locals who know how to get things done.

MUM rushed off to work in the faithful Kingswood but it stopped after 10 minutes and she got a lift home.

She hurried in to find hubby cuddling the neighbour;s wife and he confessed to a six-month affair.

In tears, she rang talk-back radio for advice.

"What action should I take?" she begged.

The mature aged shock jock answered: "The problem with the old Kingswood is often in the distributor so ease the cap off with a flat screwdriver and carefully dry out the points and inside the cap."

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THE dentist sent his account for $4200 and mum queried the amount.

She was told: "I was only fitting your 10-year-old daughter for a brace but she screamed so loudly that the three patients in my waiting room all made a run for it."

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A LAST word: A rural worker was known to often stray from his marital bed and had some fast escapes.

He said that he twice outran a 12-gauge shotgun. That is exit speed at its best.