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plenty of green grass about south of the border. Have a yard full of the first batch of weaners, a mix of commercials and studs. Thanks goodness the yards dried out before they went in there. Sold the bulk of our weaners straight off their mothers a week or so ago. Prices were dismal to say the least. They were back about $150 a head on last year. Thank god we kept back a few and kept more heifers. Our heifer calves were too dam good to let go for nothing. Here in this country there are no rewards for buying good bulls or putting effort into breeding good cattle, only peace of mind. The weather has become decidedly Autumn like with the trees turning browner each day and the temperatures subsiding a bit. As long as "jack' stays away for at least another 6 weeks will be ok. But April 25 usually brings on a white one.
Off to the Fassifern Brahman Female sale tomorrow for a look. 50 very good quality grey and red heifers on offer from about 6 select studs. Last year they were back in price but who knows tomorrow.
 
Yeh I noticed today in town a lot of trees were changing colour and even some leaves were starting to fall. I have to do a trip down New England in early April so am looking forward to it. In the meantime storms are forecast for the weekend.
Colin from what I read in the paper the black calves at Tenterfield sounded as though the prices were half decent. Casino prices sounded woefull though.
Ken
 
Hubby round balled 55 bales the other day.

We went down to square bale last night and no go. There is a whatchamacallit on the baler. A round thing that is plastic and the first one was okay and lasted years. They have changed what they are made out of and the colour and now they don't last. It went which upset the baler and broke the knotter. Sigh.

We pulled out the old knotter and called the technician. 5 hours later and the baler was going again, so we went down to bale. 352 bales later and we stopped. A myriad of problems we haven't had before, I think it is trying to test us.

I am going down to rake the rest and the other paddock soon.
 
Suzie, it sounds like you are out of practice baling, I haven't heard that you have done much of late. That should be a fair few small bales by the time you finish.
What are you doing with your cattle of late, I haven't heard that you have sold much lately, you must be accumulating a fair few. Have you sold your bull yet, or are you back to using him now?
We had a few showers overnight, only 2.5mm, forecast for more tomorrow, I'm hoping it stays dry so I can get the truck in on Monday for the calves.
Ken
 
That's the way it goes with baling, Ken. You can do nothing for 12 months with winter and floods and stuff and then every 3 weeks when it is up and going over Summer. We missed the Summer crops because of the floods, so be mindful of that if anyone is around here as hay will probably be more expensive this year as of course it happened to everyone and not just us. Everyone that we pass in Baudesert is baling their hay at the moment as well.

We ended up with around 116 round bales and 682 square bales. So hopefully we get the square bales up before it rains. They are predicting 5 - 10 mm for today, so we will be trying our best. So far I don't think we have brought up half the square bales yet. No round bales yet, but it doesn't really matter if they get wet with 5 - 10 mm before we bring them up. If we flood with them down there they will float off down the creek!!!

It is also amazing how the muscle memory and skill does not leave you for baling after a year. When i first started I couldn't keep the tractor straight no matter how hard I tried. The moment you look back that darn tractor would turn. Now I don't think about it and I can be looking behind most of the time and the tractor goes straight. I can mow within a couple of mm's of the fence and not touch the fence with the mower conditioner which is about 14 foot across next to the tractor plus a couple more feet where it attaches. However hubby cut this time so there is quite a bit next to the fence that hasn't been cut!!!

The problems we had that we hadn't had before was that the hay would start going around the auger in the square baler rather than being pushed along to be baled. The windrows were a lot bigger than normal and I naturally put the tractor where it does not run over the windrows. This is because of when doing lucerne and you don't want to knock the leaf off, however this is mainly grass so that is not a problem. So we fixed the baler doing that by me moving the tractor over and feeding the windrow into the middle of the square baler rather than the far end of the baler and that worked.

The other problem that we have never seen before is that many of the bales were attached to each other with hay even though baled 'separately' with the twine. They were impossible to try and pull apart and when hubby tried the baling twine broke, so we fixed that problem by him buying a cheap hand saw and sawing the bales apart before putting them on the trailer.

We have been flooded again which is why nothing has been done with the cattle. When we are wet like that we can't get my car out the driveway let alone a truck full of cattle. Since we have dried out we have cut and baled the whole of the crops and "When you do hay, you do nothing else".

We have had this side of the farm cut off since we flooded and the grass has now grown on this side, so much so that I was eaten alive by mosquitoes when I drove the David Brown through it. It is easier with no cattle on this side while we are doing the hay as all the gates are open and lazy us don't have to get on and off the tractors to open and shut gates. Once we have finished bringing the hay up I will separate the herd to those we are keeping and those we are selling and those we are selling can go onto this side of the farm to eat the grass and 4 round bales we have put in there rather than put the new netting roll on the round baler.

At the moment hubby is making a new cattle ramp and at the same time redesigning the cattle yard. Not only have we been too wet to get the truck out, but the ramp that was here when we bought is now being classed as too dangerous to use. I think the ramp is nearly finished now, however he has put it away from the yards as he is going to redesign the yards so as there are no corners for the cattle to stand in and just look at you when you want them to move!!

So when we sell them I don't know whether it will be one last hurrah for the old ramp or whether we are waiting for the new fences to go in to use the new ramp.

I will get a photo of the new ramp for you in the morning. Hubby put in road base rather than putting in a wooden ramp that can disintegrate like what has happened with the old ramp. He has some extra road base and has put it on the worst bits of the driveway and at the gate down to the farm which has just been absolutely lovely. I hope the next lot of rain doesn't just wash it away!!!
 
Hi guys, sounds like were all keeping well. All good my end except for a fly problem but are getting it sorted. We got the majority of them in the yards and sprayed them but it just wont stop raining up our way. Sorry for those want more rain but we have had metres and metres of the stuff. We set up a backrubber to help sort out this fly problem. Do you guys use these backrubbers? Weve set it up at the gate were they have to go through to get a feed of mollasas hay etc. They seem to be getting used to it. I know once the rain starts slowing down so will the flys so we just have to deal with it. Burgalar it sounds like you are well on track it is still good buying atm. Ken those renos are a pain hey, ive done many. A good reliable paint colour is natural white ive found. Take care cheers.
 
Warm here today. Chance of thunderstorms. Need another drop of rain to top things up. Weaners are going well in the yards and out in the smaller paddocks near the house. Fassifern Brahman sale went well. Top red made $7,000 and grey topped At $7,250. Fair prices nothing over the top. Never bought any. Waiting for Toowoomba Brahman female sale end of April. South Qld Branch of Brahman association are organizing a Brahman bull sale and show and commercial sale in September. That is great news for cattlebreeders to access quality cattle closer than up north. Show team will be organized the next couple of days for later in the year. Have a feature Brahman show at the North Coast National at Lismore in October. Will do a couple of shows just before that and will think about the EKKA.
 
The Angus guys have set a new Angus record, $117,500 at Ireland's Angus Wagga. I've met Corey and he is a great cattleman that's seems to be doing things right.
By now Diana will be watching the first of her cattle sold in the stud sale at Sydney Royal. I've seen some of the show results and a KO bull that happens to be a maternal half brother to their record bull was named best Angus exhibit.
 
We had a bit of a storm this arvo but only got about 5mm out of it which was good for tomorrow. It came up from down Tenterfield way so Colin would probably have got his rain.
What was that bull by OME. So far this season the Tuwharetoa Regent's seem to be the flavour of the year.
Suzie, I like loading ramps with dirt floors. I find the cattle go up them better, they don't like the hollow sound of timber ones.
Ken
 
OME, that bull must have really looked something special, his pedigree and EBV's don't really jump out at you. Those blokes like Dick Whale that do the structural assessments, when they see something really special put the word out to their clients who are on the lookout for a new bull and there is usually a few people that have come especially for that bull.
Good to see that the price was achieved mainly on looks.
Ken
 
Yes we had 11 mls of nice rain. I'm not a pure Angus fan by any means but like crossing them with our different breeds. I received the Irelands catalogue and picked lot 2 as the most impressive lot. He was the top price. He had conformation and a dam good hindquarter, unlike a lot of Angus these days that look like Wagyus. i never look at figures they mean nothing to me, because they can easily be fudged. I really like the Irelands females they are always impressive as are lots of their bulls. Another stud that impresses me is Raff Angus. Wouldn't give a dollar for Lawsons or Temania, they just don't have the body that I like on my cattle. Nairn Park ( near Walcha NSW) used to have better bulls when they had more NZ blood than the US Canadian stuff. Any way each to their own.
 
Yesterday we went and unloaded the trailer full of square bales. Went down with the truck and then unloaded that. I told hubby that we deserved to go out for lunch for our hard work, so we rang our friend and invited her to go with us. She said she didn't deserve to go with us because her husband took her out to a BBQ and she didn't turn up to help us with the hay. LOL we wouldn't take no for an answer.

So we went down and picked up another load of hay with the truck. That left about 20 square bales down the paddock, but we came and had a shower and picked her up and went to lunch. It has been over a year since we have been there for a paid meal and we go to their free Christmas Party BBQ each year, so it is fitting to go there for a paid lunch when we finally get around to it.

From there we dropped our friend off and went to the Supermarket and bought some stuff. Home and we took the trailer down and on picking up the 18th bale there were 5 huge rain drops on the front of the tractor.

I put it in to 10th gear to get up to the shed as quickly as we could. On seeing the 19th and 20th bale on the way back, we stopped for them. Half way up we pulled off the track and hubby pushed off the broken bales. It was now just starting to spit, a tiny bit. A drop here and drop there, but the hay was so dry that it was absorbed without being noticed.

Getting up to the shed I wanted to drive in forward, but nope hubby wanted me to back in which did take a couple of extra seconds to drive up away from the shed and back in.

Into the shed and it started to sprinkle more on the roof. A second later it was raining and 5 seconds after that it was pouring with thunder.

This morning 30 mm in the rain gauge. They only predicted 5 - 10 mm so they got that totally wrong. We haven't brought up the round bales yet and we didn't do a load this morning as we will let it dry out a bit first.

A huge fog this morning and I had to take hubby to pick up a car to take to his work for a Service, so I have done some washing instead of doing the water hyacinth (all the mud caked clothes from pulling out the water hyacinth!) and have had quite a sleep today.

Now I am off to help my friend whose hubby has bought a new mobile phone and they can't work out how to use it!!!
 
Ken I think its fair to say Corey is not a man to chase EBV's or the bull of the moment. He breeds solid functional cattle that I have a lot of time for.
Australian I agree with you on the Raff cattle, a few years ago I thought they were way to big, and for some, they are. But put frame aside and I think they are very impressive in their conformation and muscularity. I find it hard not to get caught up in the Angus hype but in saying that, if I had my way I would be doing a lot more Angus influenced crossing breeding than I do now.
 
Thanks for that news OME. Bondfields deserve their success!
No doubt folk have heard of the death of John Quintana and Charlie Maher in a plane accident at Roma today. Zander McDonald from also fell off a windmill recently and was badly hurt - why would he be up a mill, surely he had men to do that!
I wonder if this round of the monsoon is going to come down this far. It's very hot and humid. Hopefully there'll be something decent somewhere to stem the avalanche of cattle heading south. The cows have not yet begun to come, wait until they hit the market in another few weeks....
Some good news for us that our wonderful regular buyer has stumped up to take 250 big feeder steers tomorrow, weighed and delivered locally, for premium money (for the current market that is!) They must make the dollars out of our cattle because they keep on coming back - more power to them. By a stroke of luck, we've managed to secure transports which are rare as rocking-horse doo-doo. That gets the steers off our (northern)country and makes a little bit of room for the weaners yet to come off and to spread cows out. Mind you, apart from the 800-odd we already have on agistment, we still have quite a few other dry stock around the place. After easter, if there's no rain, we'll be moving the cows and calves that are being fed cottonseed, on the most western block, onto agistment which we are lucky enough to have up our sleeve. A few inches of rain would diffuse the situation for so many people.
 
yes it is very sad news of charlie and John. Most Australians wouldn't know them personally but if you are in the beef industry you would have heard of them. I agree Zander McDonald wouldn't have been short of staff to go up a windmill. Hope the last hurrah of the wet season comes down to you. We only need little top ups from now through late Autumn and into Winter. We have had just over 500 mls for the first bit of the year so far which is ok. We have 400 mls to go for the rest of the year to get to our average (900 mls) Lets hope 75 to 100 mls comes in mid August and then the rest in Spring. Buffalo fly are a bit of a nuisance here at present but not as bad as some other years. Three day sickness has hit across the district. We had one crossbred heifer die yesterday she had only been down from the day before. Weaners in the yards are hardly talking now. They see me coming out of the house and start to bellow. Have the younger show team segregated ready to have halters on tomorrow. Have to finish some gardening and mowing today.
 
Such sad news. Doctors orders are no matter how old or young you are if you go up a ladder, windmill, anything that means you are taller than you already are wear a helmet.

Doctors can fix bleeding wounds and broken bones, but if you damage your brain it is not so easy, so wear a helmet, use safety harnesses and always take care.

A huge fog again this morning, so I haven't gone down to pull out water hyacinth yet. We did bring up a load of round bales last night and you could see our tracks on the crop. Sigh.
 
I took 24 calves to Warwick on Monday and they sold today. Prices were pretty woefull as expected, I wasn't real happy with the way they looked, very uneven in size, a few stragglers. There were only 8 steers and they brought $1.97, the best selling were my top pen of heifers which brought $1.96 but not enough of them. Anyway they are gone now and I am happy to get the money.
We have been clear of fly here but the cows from the other block had a few on them and I sprayed them this arvo. I have been a bit slack with the backrub lately I have not been shifting it around with the wet weather, I don't like towing it around on the wet ground.
I got one of my sale bulls back from Dalveen today, he was stuck in there with the wet. He is a bit lower in condition than I would have liked but not death warmed up. It will be touch and go weather he gets up to condition or not in time. He will have to do at least 2kg/day.
I might have to review my strategy for next year.
Ken
 
I dropped off 8 cows to Dale today, a very enjoyable morning, we took the truck up Dale's reasonably steep driveway and jumped them off onto the bank of a dam. I got to have a look around the new house and met Dale's lovely wife Alice. It is a beautifull house, lots of open areas and surrounded by a wide verandah on the top level to take advantage of the magnificent view. In the east you can look across to the back of my place, Bald rock to the SE and out over Stanthorpe to the west. Hey Dale doesn't Bald rock change a lot depending on how the sun shines on it. Thanks Dale.
Ken
 

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