Over six years ago an idea was on the programs drawing board for a program tentatively named 'From Paddock to Plate'.  The germ for such a program arose because stories written in the memoir writing group, particularly by David Palmer and Godfrey Marple, often related to rural issues, to 'stock and land'.  With David having been a journalist with experience at the newspaper ‘Stock and Land’, friends Kathy Murphy and Bev Lee persuaded him to take on the convenorship role and the name ‘Stock and Land’ was decided upon. Kathy co-convened the program for the first few months in 2018, while Bev has continued to provide program support. 

Drawing upon his rural background, rich network of contacts in rural industries and journalist’s 'eye for a good story', David took on the challenge, convening a course rich with speakers across the 'stock and land' spectrum, from families with generations of farming experience in traditional beef, land and wool; to producers of alternative breeds of cattle and sheep; to hop, strawberry and tree farmers; to regenerative farmers and permaculture enthusiasts; to alpaca farmers; poultry breeders, and more. There were also speakers such as 'the wild dog man', speakers with academic backgrounds from Dookie College and memorable excursions, including to the Toland sheep stud at Violet Town; the Dookie Dairy; the tree farm near Benalla; a genetics lab at Goorambat; Peter Holmes' property near Benalla.

Stock and Land group members highly value David's understanding of rural issues and capacity to generate a rich program of speakers across a range of topics and have been saddened to learn that David has a medical condition which means he cannot continue as the convenor of the group.

Thank you so much, David, for establishing 'Stock and Land' and for running such an excellent program for the past six years. 

David, along with six or seven members of Stock and Land, has also been in the Sustainability group.  A plan has emerged for 2025 in which John Lane, a member of both groups and convenor of Sustainability, will convene the Stock and Land group with the support of other current Stock and Land group members.  Stock and Land sessions will be scheduled within Sustainability’s fortnightly Friday morning time slots.   Members will have the option of enrolling for Stock and Land and/or Sustainability on the enrolment form. 

Thank you, John and members of the Sustainability for developing this solution which will enable Stock and Land to continue and can be reviewed at the end of 2025.

There was no Stock and Land session in November as it fell on Cup Day.  However, as is the tradition, there will be a break-up session in early December. Thank you, Tom Crocker, for stepping in to organise this.

Final Session and Break-Up Details

• Date: Tuesday 3rd December 
• Time: 10.00 to 12.30-1pm - Meet at U3A for carpooling at 9.30 am or go directly.
• Location: Little Cedar Goat Cheese Farm
• Menu:  Little Cedar Café Menu (cut and paste!)
• Booking Name: U3A - Tom Crocker​​​

​Bev Lee

Lou Sigmund tailored his fascinating presentation on Poultry in early October to an audience with a background in farming, with his explanation of diseases including current concerns about Avian Flu resulting in nods of understanding.  His understanding of the market for eggs; production issues; the life cycle of poultry from the formation of the egg, the development of yolk, then albumen, the way it travels in a chain down the ovaduct and takes calcium from bone in the blood of the animal to form a shell; and the chooks need for protein, not grass, to form the shell; was conveyed in a most engaging way, as was his description of how insemination occurs. 

Lou drew on history to set context for his discussion and shared his understanding of production methods; quality control and quarantining processes, including the vaccination of eggs during quarantining processes. 

After the break, Lou set the scene for his discussion of 'Inventions' by explaining that the  company he set up in Collins Street Melbourne in 1991, the Invention Submission Corporation, focused on the marketing stage involving submitting inventions to companies which would be able to proceed to develop the product.  His company developed an extensive data base of such companies across a broad spectrum of industries; with many of these companies in America.  He spoke not only of the complexity of processes involved, but also the psychological complexity for inventors facing questions such as "How do I go about it?", "How do I release it?" "Will someone steal my idea?" " "Who do I trust?".  He said that 80 of 100 original ideas were rejected in the first instance for reasons often related to patent processes not being met. Of the 20 which proceeded to be submitted to companies to develop the product, the 80% rejected/20% accepted rule again applied.  Ideas which were successful - and Lou described a number of these including "moon landing pods which the inventor wanted to submit to NASA' - often led to multi-million-dollar results for the inventor.  He also mentioned 'fly by night lighting systems for light planes'; the 'black box'; and some comical toys which also did extremely well.  Lou commented that while farmers are often inventive in solving problems on their farms, they have in the past been very conservative in relation to proceeding to patent and develop them, although Sue noted that this appears to be changing with younger people.

Thank you, Lou, for a most engaging presentation.

There will be no session on the first Tuesday in November, as this is Cup Day.  

There will be no session on Tuesday 5 November, as this is Cup Day.  We will meet in early December at Little Cedar Goat Farm where Moussa and Victoire will show us their goats, we will have a meal, and they will give a talk.  More detail in the next newsletter.  

​Bev Lee and Tom Crocker

John Lane

A segment on Bovine Brucellosis followed, with Bev Morton’s story ‘A Brush with Brucellosis’ setting the scene.  John Archer, an Animal Health Officer with the Department of Agriculture for many years, added his insights as class members shared stories of family members contracting brucellosis, including Peter’s experience of contracting of brucellosis as a young dairy farmer with a newly born son.  We talked about its similarities to long Covid and chronic fatigue.  Fortunately, bovine brucellosis was eradicated in Australia in 1989. Thank you to John and class members for participating in an interesting discussion.

Next session: Lou Sigmund will speak on ‘The Inventiveness of Farmers’ on October 1 at 2pm.  All welcome.

Bev Morton - 'A Brush with Brucellosis:  stock-and-land-3-a-brush-with-brucellosis.html

An article providing an over view of eradication - Eradication success story–Australia is free of brucella abortus  ​brucella-abortus-colour_success_story_dep_of_agriculture.pdf

A recent article from the NSW Govt ?  brucellosis_-_communicable_diseases_factsheet_-_nsw_gov_-_ed_2019.pdf
​
Further Reading Want to read a recent academic article on brucellosis in cattle?  ​Brucellosis: Unveiling the complexities of a pervasive zoonotic disease and its global impacts  Open Vet J. 2024 May; 14(5): 1081–1097.  Published online 2024 May 31

Helen and David Kennett from Strathbogie talked about their Pinjarra Alpacas at our July 2 meeting.

Helen and David breed alpacas for their high-quality fibre and sell surplus animals to protect sheep and goats from attacks by foxes. Alpacas can live for 20 years or so and be effective stock guards for most of that time.

A most enjoyable and informative session!

David Palmer

Murray showed slides and a film “Bringing an Old Hay Baler Back to Life” which he and Bev made last year, of a 1940s Cliff and Bunting 23 hay baler, originally manufactured in Coburg, which Murray rebuilt from parts discarded on a farm. Murray and Bev also showed “Bill Stockman’s Hay Days”, which they compiled in 2016 for Bill Stockman in Iowa in the US, of his last annual hay baling day where a gathering of antique hay baler enthusiasts paraded their restored hay balers and tractors.

Murray also showed a film he produced, “Thyra, Australia antique hay baling festival”, of a parade of restored International Harvester balers held in Thyra, New South Wales in April 2015.

Our speakers on Tuesday July 2 will be Helen and David Kennett of Pinjarra Alpacas near Strathbogie.​

David Palmer

Andrew Marriott, Tilpa, Benalla spoke about his largely cattle breeding and finishing operations over nearly 3000ha near Benalla and 1200ha near Caramut in the Western District.

As well though, the Marriott family is famous for breeding and showing Clydesdale horses for many years. They were vital for carting the family's market garden produce to the Queen Victoria market two or three times a week from their 20ha farm in Bentleigh.

The family started showing four horse Clydesdale gelding teams at the Royal Melbourne Show in 1946 and have continued showing, particularly at a big annual Werribee show.

Urban sprawl took over the Bentleigh farm in 1962 and the family moved to 40ha in Dandenong and later 200ha in Ferntree Gully where they employed 15 to 20 people.

But vegetables would not continue to dominate their farming and in 1973 the family changed to fattening bullocks.

Now Andrew and family run 2700 mainly Angus cross cows at Caramut and bring calves to Benalla for finishing on silage and grain so they gain 1.5 to 3kg a day.

They sell most of their cattle to Coles when their estimated dressed weight is 300 to 325kg.

With the Clydesdales, Andrew joins a dozen or so mares a year to gain 10 or 12 foals annually.

Stock and Land’s speakers for Tuesday June 4 will be Helen and David Kennett, Pinjarra Alpacas, based at Strathbogie.


​David Palmer

​Our March speaker, John Petschack, crops nearly 1000ha near Dookie, worth about $20,000/ha, growing wheat, canola and faba beans. John's ancestors came to Dookie in 1920 and bought 130ha which he still owns and farms.

John and a nephew use about $1.5m worth of equipment and spend about $150,000 a year on seed, fertiliser, herbicides and more recently fungicides to grow their crops. The gross margin is about $1000/ha a year.

John said the average size of cropping farms between Albury and Bendigo was about 1000ha with 2000ha farms not uncommon.

He said he'd had four bumper wheat crops in the last few years with the best yielding 40 bags/acre or 8t/ha.

The 2024 season will get underway next month when he will burn stubbles and direct drill, dry if necessary, the new crops. John said cultivation for his crops was not necessary and they were direct drilled into stubbles.

Just a reminder that our next Stock and Land is on Tuesday April 2 at 10am. Our speaker will be former Benalla resident and beef producer Rob Williams. He and his family previously ran an Angus stud at Morago on the western edge of Benalla. Rob, now at Glenrowan, consults locally and internationally with beef breeders on desirable genetics for their herds.

He is also keenly interested in quality food (for humans) and will speak about it and even process some for our consumption in the U3A kitchen on April 2. Access eatwild.com for an introduction.


David Palmer

​Our speaker for Stock and Land on Tuesday 5 March at 10 am will be Dookie cropping expert John Petschak. His family have more than a century’s history in the area.

​David Palmer

At our first session on Tuesday 6 January, fifth-generation Baddaginnie farmer Rodney Cook took us through his extensive family history in the area dating back to the 1870s, as well as his farming experiences. In the 1870s and 1880s, Ned Kelly used to regularly “borrow” a grey horse from their farmyard and return it some time later.

About four famous sportsmen have hailed from Baddaginnie including cricketer Merv Hughes, whose father taught at the school.

Rodney initiated a farm based sheep insemination program, inseminating his flock in the 1980s using rams borrowed from the Australian Merino Society. He achieved an acceptable 64 percent conception rate and huge increases in wool and sheep quality. The superior genes meant fibre diameter of their wool dropped two microns, worth about an extra $1per micron per kilogram. Rodney said that led to his best wool auction price yet of 1970c/kg a few years ago and although the auction market has since sagged somewhat, he has vowed to keep going until he gains 2000c/kg.

​
​David Palmer

In early December we joined with the Sustainability group to look at the work of Gretals Australia Pty Ltd’s work in commercialising the pharmaceutical benefits of certain types of eucalyptus leaves. Chairman, MD and CEO of Gretals, Alistair Cumming, initially showed us their eucalyptus leaf processing plant in Benalla, before taking us to Gretals’ farm at Lurg. ​

​There will be no session on Cup Day, however we will meet again on Tuesday 5th December.  Keep an eye out for details in your email box and in the December Newsletter.


David Palmer

Dennis O'Connor of Mistletoe Limousins, Greta South, talked about his three decades of breeding Limousin cattle and until 2005, combining it with a teaching career. He said when he began with the breed, Limousin were renowned for being a bit wild and flighty. Nowadays they are much easier to handle and at Mistletoe they are rated with a docility score.
​
Dennis joins their 70 breeders to about 20 bulls accessed by semen from breeders all over the world. But he is suspicious of some overseas bulls which have poor legs and feet and could not easily cover the distances necessary on many Australian farms.

A high point in 30 year's breeding, was in April when Dennis and wife Pam's Mistletoe Sweet Cake, was supreme exhibit at the Limousin National Show and sale at Holbrook.
Another high point in the O'Connor family life, was when Dennis and his three sons, demonstrated whip cracking at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Dennis gave us a modest demonstration of that when he cracked a whip inside the U3A room.

​For the next Stock and Land on Tuesday October 3, we will visit Dom and Joanne Bayard's Global Reproduction Solutions Wagyu Beef genetics farm, at 256 Peck Road, Goorambat. Dom spoke to the group in Benalla in April and invited us to visit the farm. Details of the visit will be emailed to participants in late September.


​David Palmer

Luke Marple, a local farmer and manager of stock and station agent Nutrien Harcourts in Benalla, spoke of the current good season, high and low livestock and land prices and the difficulty and ease of doing business during Covid.

Selling lifestyle farms during Covid, Luke would film properties on his phone and forward the result to interested people, mostly city dwellers.  They would often respond immediately with a contract request and then almost straightaway send back the completed contract and 10 per cent deposit. His best sale was a 35-acre block of rock which quickly sold for $10,000 an acre.  

Luke said the October 2022 flood on his 500-acre Broken River frontage farm, was worse than 1993. But he said one of the major benefits for a sheep producer, was the death by drowning of hundreds of foxes. Unfortunately, all platypuses seemed to drown too.

David Burness, a lifestyle farmer on 15 acres at Tatong, took us through his 24 years working in a SA bank, followed by five years for an Adelaide law firm and 14 years working for Deakin University in Brisbane, before buying his Tatong farm in 2007.

But before he went to live on the farm, he married an eastern Russian called Maria, when friends told him couldn't farm without a wife. But no regrets on either front, because she has taken him to visit numerous relatives around Vladivostock, which while experiencing a vastly different culture, he has enjoyed greatly.

David initially bought for the farm, a couple of Square Meater beef cattle, a Murray Grey derivative. But  they ended up with 13 head on the property which he allowed was a little over stocked. That included bulls Thunder and Hoover, one of whom lifted him over a high fence with David's shoulders subsequently requiring surgery. Now only a couple of Alpacas remain to supply fibre for Maria's spinning needs.

In the second hour, a first for Stock and Land and rather out of left field, David reflecting on his Deakin days, engaged us in an 80 question learning styles questionnaire, to psychologically evaluate whether we were activists, reflectors, theorists or pragmatists. I and a couple of others were definitely rated as pragmatists.

​Our guest speaker on Tuesday 1 August at 10am is Luke Marple, local farmer and stock and station agent.

David Palmer

​We also saw a pretty new 12.5mm a turn centre pivot irrigation system, which draws water from a hole which yielded 100,000 cubic metres of gravel when the Hume Freeway was duplicated. A seasonal pumping licence enables Peter to pump into the dam from the adjacent Four Mile Creek.
​
Libby Skilbeck, cattle manager at Alpine Angus at Porepunkah, will be our next speaker on Tuesday June 6 at 10am in Classroom 1.  

David

​Goorambat Wagyu's Dom Bayard talked us through some pretty complicated in vitro cattle breeding techniques at our April meeting.

​Trading as Global Reproduction Systems, Dom and wife Joanne, produce embryos from their own Wagyu cattle and brought in beef and dairy females and bulls, which they implant into cows on the farm, or freeze and sell locally and around the world.

In fact, they sold so many embryos to China alone, with Dom visiting the country about a dozen times, that they were able to buy their Goorambat farm. Since the advent of lifetime ruler Xi Jinping, that market has completely stopped though.

The Bayards run about 350 of their own high end Wagyus on the 400ha Goorambat farm.

Our next Stock and Land session will be on Tuesday, May 2 at 10 am at the property of Benalla sheep farmer and irrigator Peter Holmes.  Peter has suggested that we meet on his farm about 9k from Benalla as he has a number of interesting things to show us.  We will meet at the U3A car park at 9.30am next Tuesday and proceed to the farm from there.  If you will need, or can provide transport, let me know beforehand or on Tuesday.  (Phone or SMS 0408 470 468)

David Palmer

Our planned speaker was facing some urgent health problems with his sheep and was unable to attend our March session.  ‘Spray Drift’ became the topic for the day, with concerned farmers and agricultural experts in videos produced by Agriculture Victoria and the Grain Research and Development Corporation (see post below) addressing a growing problem of herbicide sprays drifting off target and particularly killing vines and cotton.  Considerable discussion ensued about farmers ingesting harmful herbicides and insecticides over past decades, often with deleterious effects on their health. 

We also watched most of the video recording of Dr Greg Moore speaking in Benalla recently on the topic ‘Trees are a major asset as the climate changes’.  These videos are available below if you are interested in following up these topics.

​In Tuesday 4th April at 10am, Goorambat Wagyu cattle producer Dom Bayard, will talk about his farming operation.
​
David Palmer

What is your understanding of spray drift, some of the problems it is causing?

A short video from Agriculture Victoria featuring farmers who understand both sides of the issue, with stories to help you to think carefully about spray drift.

Source/Resource: https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/farm-management/chemicals/spraying-agricultural-chemicals/managing-spray-drift

From Grain Research and Development Corporation:  November 2020 - Preventing off-target spray drift  Physical and inversion drift can move product away from a spray target and cause significant yet unintended crop damage. This animation explains the factors that can cause physical and inversion drift and shares the key best management practices for growers.

Resources and Information: 

Highly Recommend: https://grdc.com.au/spray-drift

Also
CSIRO Book - Spray Drift Management (downloadable as PDF)   https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/3452/

Here are some 'good practice' case studies listed on the Grain Research and Development site:

​A presentation by Dr Greg Moore entitled “Trees are major assets as the climate changes”, at the BSFG General Meeting 7pm on Wednesday 22nd February, at the Benalla Uniting Church in Carrier St. Dr Moore is a regular presenter on Melbourne radio stations ABC 774 and 3AW on all things arboricultural. He was Principal of Burnley Horticultural College from 1988 to 2007, and has served on a number of important environmental Boards, such as Trust For Nature and Greening Australia, as a member and Chair over many years. Much of Dr Moore’s work has been involved with arboriculture, particularly in the areas of streetscape and landscape design, and you will see from the title of his presentation, his research work over many years has determined just how important trees are in our landscapes.