The Aussie Thread

[Bek]

That's sad about Arrow Carla, I send my condolences, 34 years, that's old! We had an ex-racer live til he was 34!

It'll be a long summer for me aswell. Got 8 weeks off and most of it I'll be working with cattle, not that it's a bad thing in my mind.

 

[MillIronQH]

Just to interupt you younguns for a moment Aus. time zones go from GMT +8 in the west to +9.5 central to +10 in the east. If you haven't done it you can adjust the time in your profile.
BTW. It's 1:08 AM CST Fri. here. Sixteen hours behind you in the east.Z

 

[Bek]

^I've already fixed mine, so its all good

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Bek. It doesn't matter how many times you do this sort of thing, it never gets any easier. Especially in the old boy's case, he's more part of the family than I am!! Nearly 14 years more than me!
In the meantime this mare can't seem to make her mind up what she's doing. I think the stress of yesterday got to her too!

 

[Bek]

Hope that mare does foal soon, and without complications.

Today was a pretty sad day, year 12's left...I've got 2 really good mates in year 12, who helped me when I moved to the school that i'm at now. They were in show team aswell so i have immense respect for them, they're great at what they do....

I didn't really care to much about the others leaving, but those two hit my heart....

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Fair day here today after the big frost this morning and the periodic snow showers/sleet/hail yesterday. I've taken a while to get onto this thread,(thank goodness you might say). I have a Poll Shorthorn breeder just up the road Carla, his bloodlines from what I can remember are mainly Bogan and I think some Polldale from down near Dubbo. He's a funny old bloke but I get along well with him. Might even use a bulls of his one day. I know the owners of Arubial at Condamine (Margaretta and Uen Morgan) I have been friends of Margaretta's sister and brother in law for years and years (They are the owners of Bizzy Brahmans) Maragretta's dad had number 4 Brahman stud in the register they were at Gin Gin near Bundaberg. Had a beautiful herd of grey Brahmans. They are no longer operating. Margaretta has Walubial Brahman stud. Margaretta's sister (another one called Caroline) just paid $155,000 for Brahman bull at Rockhampton Brahman week.Enough raving as you can see I've been around for a long time.
Colin

 

[Bek]

Well I just found out that Gatton had its coldest November day on record today...With all the emotion at school I don't think I really noticed.

Still having a bit of trouble finding a host property, someone was supposed to speak to someone else but they didn't So my ideas are running even shorter.

Glad to see you've found us Colin!

 

[Anonymous]

Who's the Shorty breeder up the road from you Colin? Perhaps I might know them. A couple of my girls have some good Polldale blood in them, their older bulls seem to have done a very good job. Been a bit quiet the past few years but still producing good cattle. They have a few bulls in the past who have left their mark on the breed.

 

[Gale Seddon]

I really do enjoy the Australian input on this board, but what I think I need is a map of the continent pinpointing where each of you is...are you near or far from each other? Do you live in the same regions, weather-wise? I feel very deficient in my knowledge of your country, its climate, etc., and how raising cattle is different (or similar) to the US. I guess I tend to focus on all the poisonous snakes and crocs and things, etc., imagining that it would be a miracle for me to survive, much less raise anything. I realize you're heading into summer there whereas we're looking at winter, but beyond that I know very little about Australia. Is it so very different from what farms and ranches contend with here?

 

[MillIronQH]

Ditto what Gale said although the snakes and crocs don't worry me much.Z

 

[mulga]

Last time i looked there were no crocks in the paddock [ not much else either] Barley crop yeilding 3 to 6 bushels per acre
normally about 40 bushels We had heavy frosts this year and rainfall is about 50 pc below normal. Australia i guess is much like the US -- a land of extreems. Some places very wet 100 inches per year [ in the northern tropical areas and in far south
] down to 4 inches per year in cental Aus [around lake Eyre] From what i can see we both farm in very similar ways with very similar problems Population wise we are much smaller -about 20 million with most living on the coast [especially the east coast Brisbane,Sydney.Melbourne] We run around 1 cow/calf per ten acres on one place and 1 cow/calf per 250 acres on our other place. Hope this helps Gale and Mill

 

[Bullseye]

Gday All,

Thought I'd show-up since I'm located down here - near Bundaberg. 8)

We're in a pleasant subtropical riverfront location, 10 km from the river mouth and the Coral Sea.

Gale, and others not in Aus, this is the East Coast of Australia with the Great Barrier Reef just off our coastline. The climate here is pretty good for humans but hard on bovine with heat, ticks & biting insects.

The other things we have here that bite are snakes (deadly Eastern Brown & Taipan). Luckily, Crocs are located a few hours north and fortunately the fish here are often "on the bite" too. :lol:

This Mangrove Jack is one of the best eating and fighting fish in the river...

Colin, I can appreciate the cool weather you've been experiencing lately. In the early 90's I drove drove from this region to UNE, Armidale. When I left Gladstone I had the air-conditioner running and when I arrived in Armidale I had the heater on high. It was snowing at Black Mountain, Brrrrrr.

We had frost here last winter. It killed off the grass and a month later we had 150 mm of rain! You can imagine what the pasture was like... We sure could use some rain now though. The 50 odd mm we received in early November is being sucked right out of the ground with the hot dry winds at the moment. Looks like the MJO (phase 4) predicts rain in early-mid December. I hope!

 

[MillIronQH]

Well we don't need anymore snakes. We have plenty of our own. Two common types of rattlesnakes, western diamondback and pygmy with an occassional eastern diamondback just to keep it interesting. Also copperheads, coral snakes and water moccasins. Instead of the crocs we have gaters. We're 100 miles from the nearest swamps where everyone thinks alligators are supposed to be but we have them all over the place. To make it worse they're protected. We had to call Texas parks and Wildlife last year to get them to trap a 14 footer that was in one of our stock tanks (ponds).Z

 

[Bek]

Bullseye,

I had a feeling you may have been an Aussie after posting in the WHOA! thread. I've finally found someone else from Queensland! Also great to see another Aussie on the boards!

Had an ag test today, I think I aced it, it was REALLY easy .

 

[Keren]

Now bek, why did you have to do well on an exam when I had an awful one??? Nah just kidding, well done Finished my last exam today, now I'm on holidays for three months. But today was a shocker. I finished the exam and I thought I did ok, not brilliantly but not awfully. Anyway, then when I was talking to some of the others, I found out I wrote most of my answers in the wrong booklet, and I missed a page. Looks like I'll be doing micro again next year.

Oh and btw welcome to the aussie thread bullseye!

 

[Bek]

Wow Keren that's a bit of a kick in the guts. I've done that before, ended up failing miserably because I missed a page. it's not a very good feeling.

On a good note, I may have found a host property for my traineeship, yay!

 

[Keren]

Yeah its not a good feeling.

So tell me about the property. What livestock do they have, what will you be doing etc.

 

[Bek]

Well with the traineeship, it specializes in Beef Production.

I gotta do a variety of competency based stuff rather than theory, which is a good thing for me.

The guy I might be going to has around 7000 acres, he's got Limo's not sure how many. Most of the mustering is done on horses.

Lol I'll just copy what I've gotta do off the sheet.

I've got to do a total of 16 units

Theres another 10 or so,aswell but I can;t find that sheet

3 Units, Italics are compulsory

Unit 1

Carry out workplace OHS procedures
Prepare and apply Chemicals
Transport, handle and store chemicals
Identify and draft livestock
Implement feeding plans for livestock
Implement livestock husbandry practices
Implement animal health control programs

Unit 2

Plan and construct conventional fencing
Establish pastures and crops for livestock production
Educate, ride and care for horses and equipment
Transport livestock
Plan and construct and electric fence
Implement vertebrate pest control program
Monitor weather conditions
Administer medication to livestock

Unit 3
Handle young horses

 

[Keren]

looks very similar to the one I did, although without the handle horses bit. Horses tend to run the opposite direction to where I want them to go when I try to ride And I did just ag not beef production, so not as much emphasis on livestock. I wanted to do the beef production but just couldn't with the facilities available.

To change the subject completely, WTH is the weather doing where you are? Within 6 days we have had both the fire and the air conditioner on. It reached 39 today. Av for the month is I think somewhere around low 30s but not sure. Weird.

 

[Bek]

It's been as hot as hell the last 3 days, and the 3 days before it was winter all over again. I thought it was just Melbourne that had 4 seasons in one day!