Out of the Blue

It happened on a sultry, cloudy afternoon. We sat on the back verandah, considering if it was going to rain, or if it was worthwhile going out to weed the garden. Out of the blue came the brightest flash of lightning, followed immediately by a deafening crack of thunder, the loudest I’ve ever heard. I darted for the door!  I’ve had an unreasonable fear of thunderstorms since I was small, and we slept in our wired-in verandah in summer, often enduring summer storms.

The lightning felt so close we thought the house may have been hit.  But there was no smell of burning, and the phone was still working, in fact it was ringing. Our worst nightmare was confirmed—a neighbour was calling to tell us our hayshed was alight.  Our shed full of large clover hay rolls.

The lightning had struck an old pine tree, causing it to explode, sending branches far and wide, but worse, the lightning had raced across the ground in three directions. One lit a small grass fire, another went toward our neighbour’s shed leaving a mark on the wall, and the third travelled about 100 metres to the end of our hayshed, igniting the end bales.

We had a sinking feeling that it would be very hard to extinguish, and we were right! The fire truck seemed to take ages to arrive, having gone to another lane with a similar name.  Fences needed to be cut.  Everything seemed to be in slow motion, except the fire which raced up the side of the stack, then into the gap between the hay and shed roof. This acted as a wind tunnel that sucked the flames through and spread the fire rapidly. We could only stand by and watch helplessly. The bales had to be dragged out and saturated with water and detergent to extinguish them, which sadly rendered them useless for cattle feed. 

Next morning, as we surveyed the sodden hay and twisted metal of the shed, it gave me an inkling of how people must have felt after bush fires ravaged their houses and property. I wondered how they coped with so much loss, so much mess to clean up. Ours was insured, but losing your home and possessions must be soul destroying, even if it is insured.

Strange how something happening ‘out of the blue’ can cause so much damage!

Margaret Nelson
September 2020

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David Palmer
August 2020

As passionate members of the Harry Ferguson Tractor Club of Australia, Geoff Lee and Maxine Gardiner of Molyullah spoke about the legendary little grey tractors at our March Stock and Land gathering.

Geoff said the club was dedicated to helping fellow members in their restoration and preservation of the tractors, associated implements and memorabilia.  He said one member had about 100 Fergys while he and Maxine owned 14. There are about 800 members Australia wide.
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Key to the success of the tractors, was Harry’s invention of three point linkage hydraulics in 1932, enabling implements to be accurately and easily operated. That was largely motivated by Henry Ford’s Fordson tractors of the time, having a most disagreeable habit of rearing over backwards and killing the driver, if the attached trailed plough for example snagged a stump.

In 1948 the first Ferguson tractors in Australia, petrol TEA 20 models, sold for 650 to 680 pounds ($1300 to $1360)   Production finished in 1956 with 517,651 little grey tractors made in that time. There were petrol, diesel, kerosene and lamp oil models made for different markets.
Geoff said all parts, except engine blocks, are still made for the tractors.

Maxine told the group that members annually made substantial and rugged group trips on their tractors.

In 2013, a memorable one involved 12 tractors driving from Cooktown to the tip of Cape York and that involved Geoff and Maxine towing a tractor 3000km, just to get to Cooktown. Others came from Tasmania and WA.
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The Cape trip involved negotiating basic roads at 15km/hr and diesel tractors in the group, towing petrol models through numerous river crossings on the Laura, Coen, Weipa, Bamaga route.

David Palmer

Prof Snow Barlow talked to the group in February, largely about climate change.

​Apart from his academic role as foundation professor of horticulture and viticulture at the University of Melbourne, he and partner Winsome McCaughey, run a 30 acre vineyard, 'Baddaginnie Run', near Strathbogie.

Snow said Australia was one of the only countries he knew of, which did not acknowledge climate change was happening. “The polarising debate here about climate change is unique,” he said.

He said an anticipated climate change induced atmospheric temperature rise, of three degrees by 2060, seemed optimistic when the average rose 1.3 degrees last year. “I’m not certain it will get drier, but it will be hotter”.

On another tack, Snow said the herbicide Roundup was so far entrenched in Australian farming systems, that it would be impossible to ban its use without seriously harming food and fibre production.

Roundup ready seeds – they include soybeans, corn, canola, lucerne, cotton, and sorghum, with wheat under development – are immune to the herbicide while weeds in the crops are killed.

But Snow highlighted the difference in on-label instructions for use, between Roundup bought by farmers and the same product sold in supermarkets.

“While farmers and spray contractors are well covered, there is very little information provided to buyers of domestic quantities of the product,” Snow said.

At the next Stock and Land session on Tuesday March 3, Geoff Lee and partner Maxine Gardiner from Molyullah, will talk about Harry Ferguson and his tractors and what local aficionados do to proclaim their love of the brand.

​David Palmer

Josh Kirby came to Stock and Land’s notice, as a farmer from Killawarra, near the Ovens River north west of Wangaratta.

But it turned out, when he spoke to our group in December, that he is far more than that. For two days a week he is paid to be a regional engagement officer for the Murray Darling Basin Authority - there are five around the basin - and for another two days a week, he has helped develop and co-ordinates activities, related to a Benalla Rural Council plan for how to deal with emergencies like fires, floods, storms, heat waves and even blue green algae.

Josh asked the group what he should talk about first and the response was his family’s farm.
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Killawarra Farm, operated with wife Clare and their two children, is adjacent to the Warby-Ovens National Park and features the seasonal Sandy Creek which runs through the property.  He said they aimed to produce the highest quality lamb and beef at the lowest possible cost to the natural environment. “Our farm is home to about 100 Dorper ewes, Blonde d'Aquitaine and Limousin cattle, free range chooks and other home grown produce”.

Because of lower than normal rainfall in the last couple of years, they have reduced production to suit. Market ready animals are processed in Wangaratta and 18 to 22kg lamb carcases are available whole or as cuts, direct to customers like family members, friends, or others attracted through social media.

Josh said they chose Blonde d'Aquitaines because of their good temperament and because they yielded about 50 percent meat compared which was better than most breeds.

As emergency management liaison officer for Benalla, Josh said he was “the main conduit between the public and the council about emergency matters”. The Municipal Emergency Management Plan committee, of which he is a member, meets once a month and often in Benalla because it is central to the north east. He said the lead body in an emergency would be the SES.

Regarding the MDBA, Josh said he regretted the opening of the water market since 2007 to anyone who wanted to invest. “It was established to get people through the millennial drought, but it had the advantage of opening up new country to irrigation, like almond plantations on the Murray,” he said.
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He said it was not widely realised that there were huge water losses in the basin due to evaporation. For example, in a good year 530,000GL (gigalitres) might be recorded flowing in the upper ends of the Barwon-Darling river systems. “But 90 percent of that will have evaporated by the time it gets south to Broken Hill,” he said.

David Palmer

For our October session on Tuesday October 1, we travelled to the 75 acre Specialty Trees tree farm operated by David and Jill Rush, 13km from Benalla on the Mansfield Road.

David’s father, a returned soldier from the Second World War, won the block in a soldier settler ballot, in the early 1950s. Originally about 300 acres, it fronts the Broken River and David and Jill took over from his parents in 1995.

Although in the tree production business for nearly 25 years, the Rushes about 18 months ago, sold the farm and business to Specialty Trees, Narre Warren. Its object is to grow advanced, environmentally sustainable, containerised landscape trees for local government, the landscaping industry and retailers.

At Benalla, highly fertile alluvial soil that once grew lucerne, is ideal for nurturing hundreds of thousands of trees. They range in size from tens of thousands of budded bare rooted twigs 100mm or so tall, currently worth a few dollars, to several dozen heavily lopped 35 to 40 year old olive trees in 100L contained root balls sold as works of art starting at $8000 to $10,000 each. The irrigated budded stems will grow to nearly 2m tall over summer on the rich soil.

Principal of Specialty Trees Hamish Mitchell was on hand with David to explain the intricacies of tree production to our dozen-strong group.

Hamish said most advanced trees die of over watering. But many die too from being planted too deeply. Where towards the lower part of any trunk, the trunk flares, that must indicate that the tree goes in no deeper, he said. And in the tree production business, with trees being transplanted maybe three times to bigger and bigger containers, the chances of misplanting are enormous.

David Palmer

Wendy Beer, who operates the only Drysdale sheep stud in Australia, spoke to the September Stock and Land session about what is now a rare breed in this country.  Wendy runs four sheep breeds, two of which are studs, on Beersheba Farm, 50 acres of mostly native grasses, on Castle Hill Road, Moorngag. Her other stud is an English Leicester one, flock number 423.

Wendy said the Drysdale breed started in New Zealand in the 1920s when a Romney Marsh breeder identified valued medulated or hollow fibres on a hairy, horned ram lamb. Horns were vital to identifying the medulated fibre carrying sheep, as were crimps in the fibre in the elbows of lambs; if there is no crimp in elbow wool when they are lambs, they are not Drysdales Wendy said.

New Zealand passed an act of parliament banning the export of Drysdales but a Tasmanian was able to import semen and use that in a Border Leicester flock in Tasmania in the late 1970s.

Drysdale fibre became important to carpet manufacturers because it significantly helped the spinability of the natural fibres they used. But when synthetic fibres became dominant in carpets, the need for Drysdale fibre largely evaporated. “It  pretty well killed the Drysdale breed here,” Wendy said.  But she maintains her sheep with dogged enthusiasm, supplying a fairly limited, but equally enthusiastic craft/hobby market.

While focussing on hand spinners and fibre crafters, Wendy aims to supply quality raw fleeces, as well as hand dyed fleece, combed tops and yarns. Her Drysdales produce two to 2.5kg of outer, inner and mixed yarn per head and it is very like the wool produced by Shetland Island and Icelandic sheep.  Wendy said the wool was difficult to felt because of the medulation but a Tasmanian woman has perfected a method of doing so for craft purposes and showed a sample at the meeting.

Although there are about 10,000 Drysdales in New Zealand, Beersheeba is the last pure Drysdale stud in this country. That and border security hurdles to be jumped to import NZ semen, makes sourcing new genetics a difficult proposition, she said.

​Wendy Beer with a sample of Drysdale wool and a poster of one of her rams.​

David Palmer

Dr Dennis O'Brien

International trade issues in agriculture was the topic chosen by Dennis O’Brien for our August meeting. He focussed on free trade agreements and said Australia was conducting negotiations for agreements with seven countries including India, Indonesia and Gulf nations.

Dr O’Brien said an FTA with the USA was close to resolution recently but fell apart because the US wanted blanket access to swamp our TV and cinema with content, which would probably have eliminated Australian content on our screens.

He also talked about exchange rate changes and how US imposed tariffs affected trade. In Australia, the recently lower Australian dollar against the US dollar, meant that exports from here were cheaper and imports more expensive.

In particular it makes education less expensive for overseas students.

​David Palmer

At the Stock and Land group's July session, Bill Sykes, local farmer, veterinarian and former Victorian National Party politician, talked about life after politics and some experiences as a vet.

Bill took us via PowerPoint through his and his wife Sally’s trips to Venezuela, Panama, China and Cuba, after he left parliament. Not surprisingly, animal pictures – even a featherless chook – popped up regularly in their travel pictures.

Later in reply to a question, Bill spoke about working as a visiting vet in Yorkshire, to help control foot and mouth disease during a major UK outbreak.

That involved day long slaughtering of largely cattle and sheep with the disease or those close to an infected area and likely to catch it. Vet students were co-opted for the task too and Bill said a generation of vet students were probably lost to veterinary science, because of the hundreds of lambs and calves they had to kill.

But some farmers made considerable money from the compensation they were paid. “Initially there was a modest payment from the British government, but then the EU kicked in with considerably more. Suddenly an old ewe which had been worth practically nothing alive, was worth 250 pounds when killed,” he said.

So Bill said there was considerable trade in foot and mouth infected material “and there was quite a bit of animosity aroused when that was suspected and people a considerable distance from an outbreak, were paid compensation”.

But he said in one area, he argued strongly for the preservation of about 20 rams and they survived the massive slaughter for the long term benefit of the sheep farmer and speedy genetic improvement in district flocks, after the outbreak ended.

However there was often considerable friendliness from farmers whose flocks and herds Bill had slaughtered; one couple, the day after he had killed on their farm, even invited him to their son’s wedding.

But he said the massive slaughter got to him. Every time he sees a slab sided grain truck on the road here, he thinks of similar lorries in Yorkshire, full of dead animals.
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Our next session on Tuesday August 6, will be conducted by Dr Dennis O’Brien, who previously exercised our minds last year about being kind to animals. 
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David Palmer

A stabilised blend of White Dorper, Van Rooy, Texel and Poll Dorset genetics, known as Australian Whites, are taking the Australian lamb production sector by storm, Markwood breeder Judy Rooney told the June Stock and Land session.

Because of their productivity and unsurpassed eating quality, they are capturing the attention of farmers everywhere, but in particular young farmers who might otherwise have followed other careers.

Judy said she had previously run Dorpers on her 80ha, but bought five Australian White ewes and one AW ram five years ago. Now she is running close to 400 head and for the first time has sold ewes.

Demand is strong with ewes making from $3000 to $4000 each and in her stud, all saleable ewes have been sold by four weeks of age.

Lambing is close to 200 per cent due to quite small lambs which grow quickly, often to a saleable weight of 56kg by four months of age. That means ewes lambing in March will farewell their lambs by the end of spring. Fully mature weight for rams is 130kg and for ewes 80 to 90kg.
The sheep prefer roughage like leaves and bark and when feed is really short, they will grow on 80kg of pellets a day. Even then, Judy said, they can get almost too fat. After trial and error, best pastures on the 4.6pH soils at Markwood, are fescue based.

Judy said Australian White lamb has an equivalent reputation to Wagyu beef in terms of eating quality: “it’s incredibly delicious”. The key is low melting point (28 degrees) long chain Omega 3 fat, which is better eating than the 28 to 32 degrees of Wagyu meat’s internal fat, she said.

Ram selection is made easier because the meat of rams does not taint until they are at least 15 months old. Judy said she kept 35 rams entire to that age last year and once she had selected the sires she wanted, the meat from the cull rams was entirely acceptable. But they do start working at two months. Another downside is that they tend to get scalded feet. That means a footbath every month.

As well, foxes have been a problem at Markwood, with stacked derelict cars on Judy’s boundary providing perfect cover; she shot 17 foxes one night on her farm. Her answer has been to introduce eight Maremma dogs to live with the sheep and one even killed a kangaroo which impinged on one flock. “If I check with a spotlight, I can often see foxes running around my boundary to avoid the Marremas,” she said. “I haven’t lost a lamb to a fox in seven years”.
But Judy said introducing the $1200 a head Maremmas was not a bed of roses; it took six months to bond them to the sheep. However they have a life expectancy of 15 years.   Judy will be holding an open day on her farm towards the end of October.
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David Palmer

A keeper of 300 queen breeding beehives, David Briggs of Glenrowan, told the May U3A Stock and Land group that the transfer of hives to pollinate the forests of almond trees in the Murray Valley, was the biggest migration of livestock in the southern hemisphere.

Most of the something like 150,000 colonies, which are moved onto almond orchards there in August, normally overwinter in the warmer than the rest of Victoria Mallee to be in good condition for the upcoming task. “Ideally they’ll be placed on a north facing, dry and warm sandy bank,” David said. 

Canola is the next big pollination thing – “one of the best” - for beekeepers and bees, after almonds. Adequate honey bees will see a canola crop yield 15% more oil than crops relying on native bees, David said. Going rates to hire hives is $110 a hive for almonds and $100 for canola.

There are about 4000 public land bee sites around Victoria although this number was only the result of quite strenuous renegotiations with the Victorian government in 2013.

David said clear fell tree harvesting by Vic Forests, loss of annual flowering plants, mono cultures, loss of weeds and use of herbicides in gardens and on farms, were significantly depleting pollination opportunities for honey bees.

David particularly named neonicotinoid insecticides as particularly threatening bee numbers. “Gaucho is the main one used on farms but garden use [of herbicides] to destroy weeds is practically as bad”.

In a nominal six week lifetime, one honey bee will produce about 5mls or a teaspoon full of honey. Of that time she will spend about three weeks in the hive and three weeks foraging up to 10km from the hive. In an hour she will typically travel 20km.

David said he had a closed bee breeding population. He selects the 10 best daughters from a hive and artificially inseminates them to superior but unrelated males to maintain genetic variation.

In Western Australia, the best colonies and drones are annually taken to Rottnest Island off Fremantle, where they can be bred remote from interlopers.    

​David Palmer

As with all agricultural crops, production is one thing but proper focussed marketing is everything to a successful enterprise.

In Allan and Vicki Wright’s Samaria Farm essential oils enterprise, their best market is for rosewater and is in Japan. But that presents special problems, not least in getting the product better known there.

At our April meeting they said Japanese women were passionate about their skin and particularly their faces. So the ones who knew about Samaria Farm’s rosewater and lemon oil, liked them because they were organic, Australian and gentle on their skin.

Vicki said she and Allan were the only people in Australia to distil lemons to produce lemon oil. “It will stop your skin burning,” she said.

Their farm is 22 acres of red volcanic soil on a hill near Moorngag and is the perfect environment for 400 olive trees, Seville oranges, lemon myrtle trees and most notably, 2000 specially grafted Damascus bush roses.

Vicki said harvesting of rose flowers started at daybreak in late October and ran through November every day until 9am.

Blooms are placed in a stainless steel drum with water which is then heated on a gas ring. The steam generated collects the essential oils in two to three hours to produce 100 to 120ml rosewater. They can then distil that further to produce 3 to 5ml of rose oil worth $100 per millilitre.

But rosewater is the most viable product and half or what they produce they market as a facial mist in Japan, mainly to young women. “But we need to get our brand better known,” Vicki said.
To that end the Wrights will hold a rosewater festival in November on the Samaria property.
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David Palmer

When Julie Knight saw the back end of a Lowline bull at the 1995 Seymour Alternative Farming Field days, she said: "I don't know what I like about it but I want what he has".
Julie told our March Stock and Land session that she and husband Greg soon after bought Lowline cattle for their farm. It is at Major Plains between Dookie College and Devenish.
Now 23 years later, as well as selling surplus cattle in the eastern states, she is flushing Wanamara Lowline females for local and overseas embryo buyers after the cream of their genetics.
Julie said the Lowline breed was derived from Angus cattle imported from Canadian stud Glencarnock by the NSW Department of Agriculture in 1929.
The Department wanted to determine whether big or small cattle had higher growth rates and it divided the imports into Lowline, Highline and control groups for that purpose. After 19 years, results were inconclusive, so the Department sold its 154 purebred animals to stud breeders in 1992 and 1993.
As the name suggests Lowline cattle are smaller - about 30 per cent - than most Angus. But Julie said she liked her cattle to be at least 1.2m tall and they generally weigh 600 to 700 kg at 18 months.
She said cattlemen could carry two Lowline cattle in the same area it would take to carry just one conventional Angus and this was a factor which appealed to her because "I wanted more cows on our small property".
Julie said she didn't really know she had an eye for superior cattle until she bought a bull which was going to be castrated, but later went on to be champion at a Royal Melbourne Lowline feature show.
Last year the Lowline breed society celebrated its 25th anniversary. But Julie thought that was going to slip by relatively un-noticed, so took on with a co-author, the huge job of producing a coffee table sized book, to celebrate the breed's coming of age. Substantial and impressive it sells for $75 and was launched in June.

​​Our next session on Tuesday March 5 at 10am, will host Major Plains Lowline cattle breeder Julie Knight. Julie and husband Greg have been breeding these specially selected smaller versions of the Angus breed for more than 20 years. As well she has written a book about the breed which started at the Trangie Research Station 90 years ago. Julie will have a copy/copies with her on Tuesday. 

David.

In 35 years as a Moulamein ricegrower, now Benalla district resident Brian Vial, saw the industry grow substantially to rival dairy exporter Murray Goulburn, as an earner of export income.

Speaking at our February Stock and Land session, he said that towards the end of that 35 year period in 2005, much more expensive irrigation water, was severely depleting the area grown to the water thirsty crop.

Brian said after stints as a teacher and with BHP in the 1960s, he decided to become a farmer. To that end he bought a meat chicken farm on the Mornington Peninsula but with the aim of generating funds to buy a bigger farm.

When he had maximised the poultry farm’s earning potential, he sold it and in 1970, bought what became a 2400ha part irrigation farm between Moulamein and Balranald.

Brian said at that time, the big farmers in the Riverina tended to be graziers of livestock, while it was farmers on the irrigation channels like him, who tended to grow crops like rice, wheat and even cotton. Others were dairy farmers.  

To gain an initial 50 acre permit for rice, it was necessary to have soil tested for water holding capacity. Eventually the Vials grew up to 200ha of rice a year, but because the crop needs up to 10 megalitres a hectare and the current water price is sky high, son Leigh currently running the farm, has not grown rice this year. He put his limited water supply onto pasture through a centre pivot and that finished a mob of lambs, which in fact topped a Swan Hill market. Leigh has described the Riverina as “rice growing heaven”.

Brian’s partner Andrea, said that because rice paddocks were artificial wetlands for six months of the year, huge numbers of local and migratory water birds descended on paddies. Ducks and swans were the problem visitors, despite Sydney bureaucrats at one time saying swans did not eat the stuff. But following the discovery that a purposely shot swan’s stomach “was absolutely chockers with rice,” authorities issued the necessary permits for growers to shoot up to five swans, she said. “That was usually sufficient to move the rest on”.  

Brian said they used to encourage local and Melbourne shooters, to discourage the nightly duck invasion, so the predators moved to someone else’s paddy. Parties of Italian shooters were keen and targeted galahs and rabbits, if ducks were scarce.

Rice cannot be grown in consecutive years on the same paddocks, so with a soil profile substantially full of water, it has become common to sow wheat on rice stubbles almost as soon as the rice is harvested. In wet years, constantly unbogging tractors and drills, was a decidedly “character building experience”.
 
He said the big years for rice – up to 1.7 million tonnes worth $1.4 billion in the 1990s - would not return while water was selling for up to $500 a megalitre. Those growing some rice are largely choosing the variety Koshihikari which fetches premium prices in Japan.

In the 1990s, the two co-operatives, Murray Goulburn and the Rice Growers Co-operative, competed to see which was the biggest exporter of containers through the Port of Melbourne. “But both have changed significantly: Murray Goulburn has been taken over by a Canadian dairy company and Ricegrowers Ltd is about to list their B class shares on the ASX. Active growers will still control the company as A class shareholders, Brian said.

He foresees further difficulties for Ricegrowers because it’s A class shareholders are the only ones able to vote on the body’s future. “That means they have to be active growers producing at least 200t over two years. But with the drought it is tricky being an active grower,” he said.
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Brian was elected to the Rice Marketing Board and the Ricegrowers Co-operative in 1993 and retired in 2005. Now son Leigh is a Ricegrowers Ltd director.

​David Palmer

​One hop cone is all that is needed hop wise to produce one bottle of beer, Alison Earp, Myrrhee, told our Stock and Land group in December.  However the higher the alpha acids in the resin glands of the hops, the lesser the volume of hops needed, for a given degree of bitterness of a beer.
 
Alison said she married into the hop industry when she teamed up with husband Les at Myrrhee. He died nearly five years ago, but Alison has continued in the industry by growing about 15 old, mostly aroma rich hop varieties for boutique breweries.
 
Although she doesn't drink beer Alison is quite taken with a green hop derived boutique beer produced in the King Valley.
 
Alison said the industry was more or less on an even keel – although hops were always much easier to grow than to sell - until entrepreneur John Elliot decided the industry was a cash cow in the 1980s.
 
"He established a large area of vines in Australia but took no account of the fact that growers tend thousands of hectares of hops overseas and Australia could never have any impact on the world price"
.
Even the current Rostrevor hop garden near Myrtleford, set up by John Elliot, grows 100s of hectares of hops and "burns off the competition," Alison said. It also breeds new high alpha varieties which growers like her cannot get access to.
 
Botanically hops, a perennial herb, are closest genetically to marijuana. But they don't contain THC, the active ingredient which makes marijuana so desirable.
 
Alison said hop roots are extremely tough and will grow during summer up to more than 5m vertically along strings tied to overhead wires. 
 
The old varieties she grows are not easily machine harvestable and since the demise of readily available mostly Asian work crews for stringing up and training vines and picking hops – the biggest work areas – the crop had become much less economical to grow.
 
As well growers must invest in about $2m worth of processing equipment on farm, including a $1m pelleter. At their peak the Earps used to produce each March/April about 400 bales weighing 120kg each, of kiln dried hops.
 
Today there are two main agents handling sales from about 30 growers with Myrrhee remaining the principal point of production in Victoria. It is not historically and currently possible for growers to sell direct to brewers.
 
David Palmer 

With Stock and Land’s November session falling on Cup Day, the group met in early December when Alison Earp, a hop producer from Myrhee, gave a fascinating presentation on growing and using hops.   Another popular 'Stock and Land' session with lots of positive feedback from class members. We are all looking forward to David's report in the next newsletter.

​Dr Dennis O’Brien, former head of the University of Melbourne’s Dookie campus and currently with wife Gail, a Wagyu cattle breeder at Stewarton, spoke to our October meeting about animal welfare. After graduating in agricultural science at the University of Sydney, Dennis worked for five years on development projects in the Philippines and Indonesia. He also worked in seven other Asian countries until 1985.

Quoting a US definition, Dennis said animal welfare means how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives.

“An animal is in a good state of welfare if (as indicated by scientific evidence) it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behaviour and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress. Good animal welfare requires disease prevention and veterinary treatment, appropriate shelter, management, nutrition, humane handling and slaughter”.

Dennis said the big animal welfare issues in Australia were mulesing, castration, live export, slaughter techniques, intensive systems, tail docking of cattle, dehorning and others.

Another is lack of appropriate shelter for many paddock raised animals. In the last few decades farmers have increasingly adopted Landcare tree planting techniques not only to care better for their land but to also to maximise livestock production.

On the other hand Dennis said a group of visiting Iowa farmers, could not understand Australian farmers’ increased focus on planting trees and shrubs, when in their state they planted no trees on their farms.

Dennis highlighted country (farmers’) versus city (consumers’) attitudes to animal welfare.
Farmers: “What do city people know about farming?” City people: “Farmers are bastards!” Farmers: “They’re greenie, leftie do gooders; they don’t understand … let us get on with it. We are the custodians of the land; we love our animals."

Mulesing wrinkly Merino sheep’s breeches is a contentious Australian and international animal welfare issue Dennis addressed.

Responses to the controversy include: Don’t respond; it needs to be done to prevent fly strike; do it but with anaesthetic; genetically select within the breed for unwrinkled breeches; use pegs (clamps) to “rubber ring” wrinkled breeches and select a breed with clean breeches or one that sheds its fleece.
​
One picture Dennis showed of the mulesed area of a sheep surrounded by a much larger area that was badly fly blown, highlighted to this writer the futility of the technique.   

​Our November session falls on the Tuesday of Cup Day.  We are investigating at an excursion to the Wangaratta markets with a follow up chat with buyer Gary McCorkell on Thursday 8th November (it will be an early start) and will let members know if this goes ahead.

​David Palmer

​Watching this DELWP video related to restoration of trout cod native habitat, restocking and management of the Ovens River, not too far from Benalla, jogged memories of 'stock' in rivers in country settings as a child - evoking memories of eeling at night, and yabbies in dams.   It might elicit stories relating to the role of inland water marine life in rural settings...

Dookie College’s relatively new automated dairy at Nalinga, 30km west of Benalla, was the meeting place for 11 of us in September.

Damian Finnegan, three months into the dairy manager’s job, greeted us and provided an articulate and knowledgeable account of the operation.

It is on 89ha (220ac) of clover/ryegrass pasture beside the Broken River and comprises three flood irrigated blocks and some elevated dryland.  The 150 head strong herd calves three times a year and 133 head were producing up to 45L a day each through four Lely Acrobat robotic milkers when we called. Newly calved cows were producing more like 20L a day. The Acrobats allow cows to be milked up to three times a day although the average is about 2.2.

Each cow carries an electronic tag around her neck which pretty much controls how much in bail feed she gets, how the machines adjust the application of cups to her particular udder, where her milk goes (colostrum is labelled, stored and fed to her specific calf), and at every milking, records numerous health indicators like cud chewing activity, temperature and weight.

Many cows were clearly showing their ribs and some Stock and Land members thought they were a bit thin. But Damian said they had recently been body scored at about 4.5, which he said was “pretty high” and more than adequate for maximum milk production and health.

The cows have 20kg of grass, 7kg of pellets and 3kg of hay available to them every day “which is more than they can eat,” he said.

This visitor was impressed by the quiet efficiency of the operation; the only dramatic event was the release over about one minute, of a flood of several thousand litres of recycled water from special silos, to wash down the yards and dairy floor. Because of the short term deleterious effect of effluent applied directly to pastures, it is dewatered and stored and is likely soon to be composted. Some goes to a worm farm.

Damian said the expense of running the operation, had blown out unexpectedly by about $20,000 in technician’s charges, incurred since May when they had to repair wiring chewed by an invasion of rats.

“One wire down and the whole system goes down,” Damian said.

There are about 20 Lely Acrobat automatic milking systems in operation around Australia with one dairy having 10 units. But major growth is expected in Tasmania where 18 robotic installations are planned.

The speaker for our next meeting on Tuesday October 2 will be Dr Dennis O’Brien who will speak about animal welfare. He has worked extensively in Asia on agricultural development projects and was in 2002 appointed associate professor and head of the Dookie Campus of the University of Melbourne.  Dennis and wife Gail run Wagyu and Wagyu cross cattle on their farm near Stewarton.

​David Palmer

Finding innovative ways of making repetitive jobs easier and more efficient, has been a key driver of Devenish prime lamb, cattle and crop producer Kevin Mitchell's farming life. Now 77 and still active, he and wife Pat run 1000 acres, half of which is flood irrigated from the Broken Creek. They moved to the Devenish district in 1960 from Sea Lake to find more reliable rainfall.

Running 1500 crossbreed ewes and an average of 2500 lambs they produce each year by themselves, prompted Kevin to make the way they handled them, more efficient.To that end he installed an overhead rail and movable shearing machine above their sheep race, so he can more easily crutch the flock; it works so well he reckons every sheep farmer should have a similar set up.  But he is clearly disappointed the idea has not caught on.  He said the rail ran the length of the race and enabled him to stay standing and crutch between 2000 and 3000 sheep a year by himself.  It is paired with a Pro Weigh sheep handler which lifts the whole race so all the sheep in the race have their feet off the ground and are therefore disinclined to struggle.  It is particularly useful for inoculations and Kevin said its calming effect, meant he could inoculate about 20 a minute.

The Mitchells were innovators too, in their cropping operation, when in 1962 they expanded the grain and fertiliser boxes on their combine and augured seed and super. in from truck mounted bulk bins. But Kevin said it took the best part of a decade for that idea to take off elsewhere.

Kevin's wife Pat is an active participant in the farm's operations too; he said if your wife could work amicably in the sheep yards with you, your relationship was probably faring well. Pat is secretary of the 15 farmer members Goorambat lamb group and is also a qualified wool classer.  But Kevin said their wool was "terrible" because producing prime lambs was their major money earner. They buy Prime Line rams from a prominent Holbrook breeder, to maximise profits from lambs.

To encourage the best pasture species and maximise their production, the Mitchells laid 8km of poly pipe to about 50 paddocks. That enables them to fine tune grazing of each paddock which might mean just a few hours access for a big mob.

The Mitchells have also been active in the $50,000 project to paint massive soldier and military nurse pictures, or silo art, on the Devenish silos. He said 15,000 people had signed the visitors' book (they are now halfway through the second) since the massive artworks were completed in April. 

Plans are underway for post and rail fencing and seating near the silos and Kevin said he would love to see a coffee shop start to better serve silo art visitors.