Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th November. We started our three hour journey south to Greenethorpe by stopping for a coffee/drinking chocolate/smoothie at a drive in at Dubbo. I hoped that Lyn could drink coffee and drive at the same time…she reassured me by saying that she could eat cereal and drive at the same time. It wasn’t long until I managed to take over the wheel!
The drive took us through some incredibly dry countryside, and we were reminded that this area has, and is suffering from a severe drought. The temperature was consistently above 30˚C with reports of 43˚C in Greenethorpe the week before. It was very surreal to stop at a little coffee shop for a break and experience a Christmas tree in the corner, and ‘I am dreaming of a White Christmas’ being the background music! Lyn was a great companion during our journey and we were very appreciative of her six hour taxi service!
We arrived with Julie in the afternoon and it was a happy reunion as she had stayed in Wales with us during the Royal Welsh and the UK part of her Nuffield study. We had also travelled together with all the 2009 Nuffield scholars from all over the world in early spring from London, through France to Brussels. Julie manages 2100 acres jointly with her brother David and parents. The farm consists of 1000 acres of cropping and 1100 acres of pasture which stocks 1000 ewes with a lamb weaning percentage of 148%. Lambs are weaned at 12 weeks onto lucerne, followed by wheat stubble and eventually supplemented by grain and silage as the summer heat takes all the green cover and turns the area into a yellow flat plain.
Julie has overall responsibility for the ewe flock and aims to sell all the male lambs at an average carcass weight of 23kg. All the ewe lambs that reach a target live weight of 45kg are put to the ram with the empty lambs at scanning often being sold at a carcass weight of 30kg. Julie sells these lambs to an abattoir that does not penalize on fat but just pays on weight!! Julie has experimented with a number of breeds including Coopworth, Corriedale, Finn and East Friesland. She covers the ewes with a Dorset Ram. Footrot has been eradicated in the area, and is a notifiable disease. With around 20 inches of rain annually, there is at least one advantage to the dry conditions.
Our visit was enhanced by some fellow lodgers during our stay. Darren who drove a combine, and was coming to the end of his harvesting travels from Queensland down to New South Wales, and Glen and Nicole who were a young couple who had finished their grain harvest at home and were hoping to make some extra cash picking cherries on the local fruit farms. Julie and her brother operated a big baling operation and I came across one of the biggest John Deere tractors I had ever seen, making the one at home seem a bit of a toy.
We followed Julie to one of her baling jobs which was to bale some of the straw behind Darren’s 36 foot header. The job was rather dubious because the harvest was poor yielding under 1t/Ha of grain and 0.8 bales per Ha of straw. Julie’s crop had been a much more respectable 2t/ha of grain. Many of the fields were in excess of 50 Ha.
We also had the pleasure of meeting two of Julie’s neighbours, Rodney Watt and Ian McColl who coincidentally both sat on the Sheep Council for Australia. They had me at a disadvantage during our lengthy discussions in that they were used to the 30˚C+ heat while I was wilting by the minute under the glaring sun and the persistent flies. Rodney is a recognized breeder of rams (Poll Dorset and White Suffolk) while Ian is currently Sheepmeat Committee Chairman for NSW Farmers Association. I was given a great insight into an Australian sheep farmer’s perspective on farming in a dry, arid climate where water shortage is common, government legislation, farm assurance, and lamb marketing.
We must have brought some luck to the area because at tea time the heavens opened and an inch of rain fell in a few hours. This had the effect of everyone (farmers, combine drivers, lorry drivers etc) all retiring to the local pub for some great food and the inevitable ‘stubbies’. (bottled beer)
We had a great time with Julie and her family, and wish her well with her Nuffield study which will take her to New Zealand next week.
The drive took us through some incredibly dry countryside, and we were reminded that this area has, and is suffering from a severe drought. The temperature was consistently above 30˚C with reports of 43˚C in Greenethorpe the week before. It was very surreal to stop at a little coffee shop for a break and experience a Christmas tree in the corner, and ‘I am dreaming of a White Christmas’ being the background music! Lyn was a great companion during our journey and we were very appreciative of her six hour taxi service!
We arrived with Julie in the afternoon and it was a happy reunion as she had stayed in Wales with us during the Royal Welsh and the UK part of her Nuffield study. We had also travelled together with all the 2009 Nuffield scholars from all over the world in early spring from London, through France to Brussels. Julie manages 2100 acres jointly with her brother David and parents. The farm consists of 1000 acres of cropping and 1100 acres of pasture which stocks 1000 ewes with a lamb weaning percentage of 148%. Lambs are weaned at 12 weeks onto lucerne, followed by wheat stubble and eventually supplemented by grain and silage as the summer heat takes all the green cover and turns the area into a yellow flat plain.
Julie has overall responsibility for the ewe flock and aims to sell all the male lambs at an average carcass weight of 23kg. All the ewe lambs that reach a target live weight of 45kg are put to the ram with the empty lambs at scanning often being sold at a carcass weight of 30kg. Julie sells these lambs to an abattoir that does not penalize on fat but just pays on weight!! Julie has experimented with a number of breeds including Coopworth, Corriedale, Finn and East Friesland. She covers the ewes with a Dorset Ram. Footrot has been eradicated in the area, and is a notifiable disease. With around 20 inches of rain annually, there is at least one advantage to the dry conditions.
Our visit was enhanced by some fellow lodgers during our stay. Darren who drove a combine, and was coming to the end of his harvesting travels from Queensland down to New South Wales, and Glen and Nicole who were a young couple who had finished their grain harvest at home and were hoping to make some extra cash picking cherries on the local fruit farms. Julie and her brother operated a big baling operation and I came across one of the biggest John Deere tractors I had ever seen, making the one at home seem a bit of a toy.
We followed Julie to one of her baling jobs which was to bale some of the straw behind Darren’s 36 foot header. The job was rather dubious because the harvest was poor yielding under 1t/Ha of grain and 0.8 bales per Ha of straw. Julie’s crop had been a much more respectable 2t/ha of grain. Many of the fields were in excess of 50 Ha.
We also had the pleasure of meeting two of Julie’s neighbours, Rodney Watt and Ian McColl who coincidentally both sat on the Sheep Council for Australia. They had me at a disadvantage during our lengthy discussions in that they were used to the 30˚C+ heat while I was wilting by the minute under the glaring sun and the persistent flies. Rodney is a recognized breeder of rams (Poll Dorset and White Suffolk) while Ian is currently Sheepmeat Committee Chairman for NSW Farmers Association. I was given a great insight into an Australian sheep farmer’s perspective on farming in a dry, arid climate where water shortage is common, government legislation, farm assurance, and lamb marketing.
We must have brought some luck to the area because at tea time the heavens opened and an inch of rain fell in a few hours. This had the effect of everyone (farmers, combine drivers, lorry drivers etc) all retiring to the local pub for some great food and the inevitable ‘stubbies’. (bottled beer)
We had a great time with Julie and her family, and wish her well with her Nuffield study which will take her to New Zealand next week.
Id like to have seen you being made to sweat!
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