ADVENTURE'S DOWNUNDER OR FARMING IN PARADISE:An Old Rams view.

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Gang, I thought it might be "fun" and of interest to some of you

The memories of the last 10 years of drought are starting to fade now(lucky I have the photo's to remind me )and we are hoping to get a couple of "good seasons" before we slide back into tougher times..

Well this morning we woke up to our first taste of winter,its about 13C with a wind chill of about 4C in the open.(making it about 9C).Its drizzling rain and I daresay it will "snow" on the peaks later.

Yesterday a neighbor offered us grazing on 20 acres of "alfalfa",which he needs to clean up,before he can "spray-out " all the weeds.I have to do a little work ,as he only has cattle,but it should work out OK for both of us (he told me that if I did not graze it, he would have to "buy" fuel to slash it.

As some of your know we are "sheepie's"(we have English Suffolks)and this year we expect to "join "about 220 ewe's,at the moment we have been selling the "bottom line" of last years ewe lambs along with a small line of "cull ewe's(GSM),which someone can get maybe 2 more lambing s from or they will make over $120.00ea "over the hooks".

Now with this journal you will have to help me as I have "no idea" what sort of things you would like to hear about.Do you want history of the farm,how we survived the drought,grazing and livestock management and getting ready for the next drought maybe?....................But this is a start and where it leads to will rely quite a deal on feedback from yourselves .

I do hope we can make the journey an interesting and enjoyable one,I will try for every day ,but "no" promises.

..........................................T.O.R..........................

 

[framing fowl]

Welcome! I'd be interested in a history of the farm. Do you call it a farm or a ranch? How much land does it take to support that many animals? Is the photo in your avatar your garden?

 

[gettinaclue]

I would also like to hear the history of the farm, but I'm keenly interested in how you made it through the drought and how you are preparing for the next.

I'm very curious about all farm life, so I seriously doubt you could make it uninteresting for me . You living in another country with sheep will give a whole new perspective.

I'm subscribing to this and then I'm hittin' the hay. It's 1:00am here and I'm far to old to be staying up this late LOL

 

[gettinaclue]

And Welcome!

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Gang,OK, we will star with this farms history(no wait a minute)I'll tell you how we got here first.

About 40 years ago(in the dim distant past,lucky it was not last week or I would have forgotten,OLD TIMERS Desease. LOL)we sold our house in the burbs and moved onto 5acs and built a house.We sold that house and moved to 25acs and built another house and after another while we brought 200acs with a"shack" and used to travel 3hrs every weekend......After a few more years we brought this block (its about 1./2 hrs drive down the road,and guess what, we "built" another house(this is "definitely " the last house we are going to build).

The farm is 300acs,a good mix of timber and grazing.We have had it now for about 12yrs,(10 of which were pretty hard going)it took us about 5yrs to build the house and develop the sheep flock into a low cost operation.

The photo's give you some idea of what our country is like,the first one is in the "depths "of the drought and the other was last dec.

On the subject of "carrying capacity",all up at the moment we have just short of 400 head (which includes about130 lambs) and we think something around 320 breeders may be possible on a sustainable basis.That is,NO hand-feeding(hay or grain) ,No fert inputs and no crop growing.But by managing our pastures.I daresay we will chat about pastures a fair bit ,along with our efforts in developing our "Woodland Grazing".

The garden is "part"of Jenny's veg patch,at the moment she is making pickles,relish's and chutneys from this years crop.

Well, thats a "pretty good "start(2 posts in one day,I'm ahead already.LOL).....................................

..........................................................................T.O.R..........................

 

[Denim Deb]

What a difference!

 

[framing fowl]

Amazing difference. What beautiful land.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey TOR! glad you are joining us!

 

[gettinaclue]

Amazing difference. What beautiful land.

What she said....X2.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day gang ,We awoke to 5c this morning (its only Fall yet)and yes they had a light dusting on the peaks(now I know this is "not "cold compared to you guys,)................Put in a "bush gate " to next doors Alfalfa and ran in 180 head for 1 hour,after lunch I added another 45 head and they went in for about 1 hour or so while I re-meshed two of his gates...................About a week ago I put some signs up in a few rural supply stores to sell the "bottom cut"of our ewe lambs................ALL SOLD.,along with a few cull ewes as well(GSM).....A tidy $4500.00 for the bank a/c........Today Jenny was making yet more tomato pickles,her tomato crop this year has been amazing,as was her courgettes and cucumbers..............

I thought I would address a question from gettinaclue,about the drought.I believe we "survived" because we "adapted" to a changing production environment.
1.We reduced stock numbers "early".
2.We adapted our grazing management to suit a "new 'set of circumstances.
3.We set up a system of recording what was going on with regard to our pastures,looked for opportunity's to grow more "grass".
4.Gained an understanding of what we had and how to maximize its production benefits

These two photo's show the site of our "Woodland Grazing Project".

The "small black trunked tree " is the focal point in these two pictures,

I think we will discuss our drought forward planning in our next chat.