Currently going up at lots of auctions all over this state there are what seems like tens of thousands of lengths of this used "drill pipe" all up for sale. They are mostly 9.5m long seamless tube, a taper thread each end and a coupling. They seem to be in three sizes. 2 3/8" 2 7/8" 3 1/2" The 2 7/8" size is the most prevalent with the 3 1/2" the least common. What is it used for, for so much to be hitting the market at once. Some of it is still brand new.
Iam not involved in the drilling industry but I can say that it is all coming from coal seam gas projects. We are close to the Surat Basin project where they have drilled around 10000 wells so far and will probably have 22000 at peak production by 2030. Probably similar or bigger numbers planned for the Bowen Basin. I believe that the drill stem is restricted to single use, hence the big number of new looking pipe. It is used to drive the bit down the hole, same as drilling a water bore. Makes a good strainer post.
Wow, that is a lot of holes. I would say there is money to be made working in that industry. I did think that the gas industry is going to boom a lot more as they start shutting down the coal power stations and their fantasy of wind and solar powering everything falls in a heap, with gas the only quick to build but very expensive to run thing they will go with. The plan is to use it for stuff like that.
We haven’t used a lot of it yet but we recently had 5 or 6km of boundary fence to do over some very hilly, rocky country. Didn’t fancy digging holes there so invested in one of these drivers. Works great, if you can keep it plumb for the first foot or 18 inches it’ll usually stay that way for the full depth.
Have a mine next door. We get any amount that we can. Put up 50kms of fence last year with drill rod. 3.3m length are perfect. Drive in with skidsteer and cut the top off as it collapses.
Neat gate assembly. Usually do 2 2.4 boxed stays as the single stay pulls out in the black soil.
3.3 long…How deep are you driving them?
About 1.6 in ground. 1.35m out.Then cut 100mm off top. Weld 50mm SHS top rail. Top wire at 1.2m.
Sorry, Actually they are 3.10m long with tapered threads either end. Put male end down and cut crushed female end off. Use same driver as you have.
The 2 7/8" tubing could be what we called snubbing tubing. Once the wells area frac'd, the casing string needs to have the plugs milled out and the sand flushed to get the well producing. A Snubbing rig, would have both apply down pressure and up pressure, drills out the well bore and begins the process of bringing the well online. I have a few joints of it left at my house after I donated some to the FIL for cattle chute fencing upgrades.
That is how I have been doing mine now, except I cement it all in. I was doing a cattle rail panel either side, then a stay, but it got too time consuming and expensive, unless it was in some black soil. Also good to see someone else putting the stay up high, just under the top wire. I have seen too many people put it below the next wire down where a little bit of movement of the stay means a lot more at the top of the post. What wire do you use, 2.4 or the new 2mm high tensile? I still have a pallet and a half of 2.4mm heavy gal here, but will be going to 2mm when that is all used up. I did a boundary fence where the neighbour supplied the materials with the 2mm high tensile and it makes a nice fence. Just very bitey stuff to handle.
Here is one I did with the neighbours before covid was ever a thing.
Like the look of 3 cattle rail, but like you said just so much welding. All vertical as well. Use high tensile. A lot lighter to lift 500m coil. But it does stretch easier when cattle slip through it then the gal.
How expensive is the drill pipe now? We got a couple of slings a few years back but the price went way up so we went back to 3” heavy wall black pipe. If there is more about I am hoping it’s more affordable and might mean I have an excuse to upgrade to a driver like Queenslander’s! The drill pipe is very good, I recall it being a bit interesting to weld with some arc wandering at times. We do our end assemblies a bit different to you guys. Most of our new fencing has been hinge joint with barb top and bottom and we settled on box assemblies with two 3” posts 10ft apart, 2” pipe top rail and a diagonal bace of 5/8” rod. It’s always great so see what other people are doing/using! Very interesting discussion.
Vertical down on the flux core mig is not too bad, provided fit up is not excessive. Plenty of it seems to be done now. Scrap dealers seem to want $80-90+ tax a length for the 2 7/8. https://www.nkf.net.au/drill-pipe Roma auction centre has been selling lots of it for months now and it seems to go for $55-70 + tax depending on who wants it I guess. Price seems to fluctuate a bit. It was selling for over $200 a length in the middle of the crazy cattle prices time period. https://auctionexchange.bidwrangler.com/ui/auctions/121761/16082539 Looks like they have more for their august auction https://auctionexchange.bidwrangler.com/ui/auctions/124013 Here is my quick old school method using 2" pipe for a stay it has proven to last the test of time now, although slow old school was mortising a big heavy rail into the post which is not that slow really. We got modern with a petrol jackhammer for the holes once I saw a contractor use one. Beats banging on rocks with a crowbar for half an hour. Now I had nothing to do with what you see in these next two photo's, it was a relatives block where their neighbours got contractors to do the "fencing". These contractors also broke the record around here for longest continuous strain of over 60 steel posts long, and I suspect they only stopped there because it was a corner at both ends. But the gate (reused the old gate) was interesting, huge gap in the middle, and well, you can see how far it opens.
@.RC. Those sizes listed are for production work, bringing the well online, and doing workover stuff. Drill pipe has a life. It is inspected on a regular basis as the OD and ID both wear during use. The tool joints (threaded ends) also wear and have minimum dimensions they have to meet as well. The threads on a tool joint can be recut if damaged, but only so many times before there isn't enough material left. Any deep scarring in the pipe will create a weak point and those joints get culled as well. If working in a high H2S area, hydrogen embrittlement is a big concern as the pipe will look jist fine, have proper dimensions and all, and just snap off under load. Fishing is very expensive and not always successful so managing your drill stem is important to help prevent unwanted fishing exercises. Grade of pipe also plays a role in whether pipe someone has is of any use. There are many different strengths. We always used S-135 (135,000psi tensile strength) In the old days, it was common to use G-105 from bottom up until calculations showed it didn't have the strength, and switch to higher grade pipe. While pipe is physically marked to identify grade, a joint of G-105 mixed in where S-135 is required could snap off and cause a fishing job. The companies I worked for quit using mixed strings so they didn't have any potential for someone to mix up the grades and cause a failure. @cfherrman might have more insight on the drill stem as he is more in the workover end of the business. I only ever did drilling. I had a bit over 7 years in before covid hit and I decided to quit traveling for work.
That's just regular tubing, it might not be seamless as most tubing is not, I don't the grades off hand. The 2 7/8 is 6.5 lbs a foot which is the common weight, saying anything like drill stem or drill pipe would be incorrect as those kinds of pipe are 3x or more the weight a foot. Worth a lot more as tubing than fence pipe.
ISO 11960:2020 Petroleum and natural gas industries — Steel pipes for use as casing or tubing for wells www.iso.org ISO 11960:2020 Petroleum and natural gas industries Steel pipes for use as casing or tubing for wells
No thanks, gets me nowhere
Running this tubing in today, 131 joints of 2 7/8, 4100'
OK, so they drill the hole, then run casing down it. Then the tubing is for pumping out water or oil, I would have thought off the top of my head gas comes out by itself, but does it need pumping out as well, if it is not under any pressure. I have seen this "sucker rod" for sale and I noticed the small 2 3/8" tube has a thick plastic liner the full length of the tube with only like an inch hole in the middle. In any case, call me a tight arse for doing this, but I can get five posts out of a length for cementing in if I weld some deformed bar on the end.
The most contentious issue with CSG here, and probably around the world, is that the gas is embedded in coal seams along with huge amounts of water. This water has to be brought to the surface, separated from the gas and disposed of. Here, it is pumped using helical rotor pumps and, I assume, the rod and pipe you’ve seen are the drive and delivery column. The experts tell us that there is no connectivity between the aquifers under the windmill that we are watering cattle with and those that they are sucking dry…Iam yet to be totally convinced.
The produced water is salt brine. I've never heard of an O&G well that produces clean freshwater. I suppose it might be possible. The produced water is seperated from the petroleum via a water separator, stored in separate tanks, and then used or disposed of. In the US, we could use some of the produced water to build drilling mud (its naturally 9.8ppg), inject it back into the producing formation to help keep formation pressure elevated to help production, or dispose in a salt brine disposal well. The injector wells and disposal wells are treated just like a production well in that they are completely isolated from formations above them via casing and cement. The injection well terminates in the desired formation that needs more pressure. The disposal wells were deep, vertical wells that went thousands of feet below the producing formation to a formation that was highly porous and without pressure. We would drill to a depth, set our last casing string, then continue drilling straight down until we lost circulation and quit getting returns. Drill until all of our mud was pumped downhole, shut er down, and trip er out. All of the brine disposal wells I drilled were over 13,000ft deep vertical wells.
As per the isolation casing and cement: In Texas and North Dakota, and other areas I drilled, we drilled from surface down ~2000-2500ft with straight freshwater because we were drilling through various freshwater aquifers. Then surface casing was pushed to bottom, flushed, and cement pumped until we had 100% returns at surface. A wireline crew was called in to run a CBL (cement bond log) to verify there were no voids in the cement job for this section. I have been on surface jobs that failed for one reason or another, and re-work had to be done before any other regular planned work could commence. They have the tools and methods to make sure the surface section is 100% isolated prior to continuing the well drilling process. Once approved, we would drill our next section from end of surface casing, all the way to bottom of curve into the producing pay zone. Some well plans called for two intermediate casing strings, but most only called for the one. Our standard intermediate string ran from surface, all the way to bottom of intermediate hole. This casing string did not get 100% cemented. The cement crew pumped a calculated volume of cement that would cement the pipe from the bottom of casing, up the annular space 2-3000 ft. They then dropped a plug and displaced this cement down until the plug hit the bottom of the well. Then we sat for a pre-determined length of time, waiting on cement to set, then the casing was tensioned, and permanent casing slips set in the well head to hold this section of casing. Once set, we carried on drilling production hole. Once completed, they ran their liner string which only came up the intermediate string part ways. It did not need to run to surface. After that, it was the production guys job. My specialty was putting holes in the ground and keeping the wellbore where the plan said it had to be.
If you're getting the strength you need out of your fence posts, then keep on doing what you do. Have any of you guys tried the pre-cast, tensioned concrete posts? Wood posts of any type rot horribly fast here right at ground level due to the persistent moisture. From ground level, down 2 or 3 inches, will just be rotted away to powder, but the deeper buried section will be just fine and anything above ground is fine. The moisture also plays hell with steel and rusting is a concern. I found some guys in Australia that made a pre-cast concrete post that could be driven in with a hydraulic post driver like a wooden fence post. Just wondering what your thoughts were. I'm only looking to fence 70 acres to start, but I would fence more in if the concrete would last.
On gas producing wells fluid will keep the gas trapped down hoke so typically they have to pump the water off so the gas will flow. Good gas wells will make oil too. Pretty much all wells in my area dont make much gas sometimes enough to run a gas motor for the pumping unit, so the gas is vented to the air. The least salty water I have heard off is around 17,000 ppm salt, you can taste 5,000 ppm, a salt water pool is around 4000, and the ocean is I think is around 30,000 ppm. Plastic lined pipe is for disposals as it's just water, and very corrosive. Every field is completely different than the next. My area is 3000-4000' with no gas, it can be easy
I know a few people who have tried concrete posts. They make a nice looking fence, but they are expensive pre covid they were AU$22 delivered each around here, and very weak. They just snap off at ground as they are so thin and the deformed bar they put in them provides zero strength in one direction, the deformed bar is also exposed top and bottom. They are only 2 1/2" think. Of course the wires go through the post, so lots of fun getting the wires out of a snapped off one. I thought an H profile using fibre strands for reinforcing would be worth a try. If you had some sort of continious casting method you could get the price way down. No idea if that would be feasible of possible though. I know a chap who made his own, a bit over 4" square, and he has no problems with his.
Drill stem is often magnetic which can be tricky to weld. It is good for fencing and other non critical applications but shouldn't be used for anything structural or under dynamic loads that could fail.
Those depths are just mind boggling for me. Around we drill for water and a 100ft deep well is quite deep. I was fixing a windmill last week and the bore it is only 56ft deep. And here were are in the oil and gas industry, I get the feeling 2000ft is just a shallow one. As an aside, a drilling company near me is apparently making a custom cutter and custom drill stem to drill a 10ft diameter hole 250+ metres deep all from the top. Ventilation or something for mine shafts I guess. The machinist machine the couplings and cutter head has made a youtube channel of the progress. https://www.youtube.com/@halheavyduty/videos
Re concrete posts. There are a few people around us that have started using them in low lying areas or flood prone country. I think they are having good results so far. Apart from the cost per post, one of the biggest factors is the freight cost due to the weight of them. I have a very good mate in the trucking industry that tries to help out clients by putting a roadtrain load by weight on a single trailer to reduce the cost but that adds the challenge of avoiding being caught doing it too. One of the manufactures of them has a property (via there personal Super fund) not huge way from us and they have used a heap there. I haven't been back there for a while to see how they are holding up. Re the oil and gas drilling guys. Thanks very much for the info on how the wells are constructed. I am still a bit skeptical of how safe it is long term for the water aquifers. We have lots of water bores around us and without them we would be very lost. The water wells/bores we have on our property are a bit deeper than some in our area with our shallowest being around 600ft and our deepest around 1900ft in total depth. The better bores are 1000ft plus. The water comes up a lot closer to the surface and has to be pumped out via windmills or solar pumps on our property but there are flowing bores not far from us. Loosing this resource would cripple us so I am sure you can understand the worry about it. My Dad used to do windmill and water bore repairs as off farm income to help though the tough times so I have spent a lot of time around the water side of things but know very little about the oil/gas drilling stuff. Really fascinating stuff to hear and learn about!! My Grandfather was a licensed water bore driller as well with old percussion rigs and going from months with those, to days now to drill a well with a rotary rig he said was life changing. Technology is a wonderful thing
Had an old yard builder tell us this the other day. Was telling us you cant use a inverter or dc welder on drill rod as weld wont penetrate. He likes to exaggerate a lot so i was skeptical to say the least.
I haven't welded any for ages but I recall sometimes getting what I think is called "Arc Blow" where the the arc gets deflected away from where the welding rod is pointing ie. at the root of the joint. I cant recall if switching polarity helped but low hydrogen welding rods were the ones everybody started using. 7016's were the favorites and some 7018's, I cant remember if this was the reason they were using them. I am talking unqualified welders too so hopefully someone here who is experienced or a qualified welder might be able to educate us on the subject? I think Arc blow can be a problem on anything that gets a lot of abrasion like machinery buckets and blades ect... another question for the experts if they dont mind?
I use inverter flux core MIG running on generator and haven’t had any noticeable problems. But I’m usually doing multiple passes filling big gaps where i miss cut on rusty material with out grinding. Farming is great for that, doesn’t matter how it got there as long as it looks good from a distance.
Haha yeah exactly!!! I have a bit of a love hate relationship with gasless fluxcore, I struggle to get the weld to look nice enough at times. I am a bit of a perfectionist which doesn't help, so if anything is strength dependent or structural I lean towards the stick welder. I even question my gas mig welds for penetration and quality at times.
If you get arc blow, move your earth clamp, that is one real recommended thing you can do. I also have heard the stories that it can at times be difficult to weld, and I was last told by someone who said they were told by some one else, wind the earth cable around the pipe in some direction. Although it could be like water divining. A lot old old wives tales.
As @cfherrman mentioned, not all O&G wells are like that. I specialized in Directional Drilling and there is a huge demand for that in the big shale plays like the Bakken in North Dakota or the Permian in Texas and New Mexico. Those wells were about 10,000 ft TVD, give or take, and ranged from 15,000ft to 25,000ft MD once done. TVD is True Vertical Depth, MD is Measured Depth of well bore(how much hole we actually cut). I also drilled in the Fayetteville in Arkansas and those wells were only 1000-2000ft TVD, and 3000ft-8000ft MD. And they drilled wicked fast, like couple days. The big shale wells take a few weeks to drill. As an aside, the world's deepest wells ever drilled were drilled from Sahkalin Island, Russia, and they currently have the record at 49 000ft MD. The company I worked for was the directional company hired to use our fleet of special tools that helped allow that feat to be possible. Water wells in the state I live in vary dramatically. Most homes here have their own personal water well. The well at my parents house is only about 30 ft deep, well at my current house is 119ft, well at my previous house 195ft, and irrigation wells at our dairy farm are 165-420 ft deep, all in the same County. (Fairly small area). If you go up to Northern Michigan, 400ft to 1000ft wells are common. We don't have to go super deep to get water around here though with all the rivers, lakes, and streams available.
I have read about this in old lincoln welding books.
Around here there is sometimes conductor pipe if there is a river close by, something like 12" and 60' long, then always surface pipe 8 5/8" and 200' to 800' then 5.5" casing to bottom. There is cement in-between the pipes. Fresh water is non corrosive so for it to break in I don't think I have ever heard from f it happing. The salt water zones like cedar hills or Dakota have broken in but they are already salt water. There is more of a chance of pollution from water (drinking) wells or septic systems then the 500,000 oil wells in Kansas. Here's 7 joints of now fence pipe and a corral made by some.
OK, I give up. Why is it magnetic ? Joe H
Idk but tubing can be radioactive
It becomes magnetic just from basically turning an iron core in the ground when drilling. It can have arc blow but not always. I mistakenly used a piece of drill stem to repair a drilling rig. I didn't have much trouble welding it but in hindsight it did weld a little funny. A laborer got the piece for me but the guys on the next shift realized it was drill stem and cut it out. They weren't mad at me. The biggest problem was the shop had lots of pipe and some drill stem laying around that wasn't marked. It was 4" drill stem that's the same size as 4" pipe. Wrapping the ground cable around it can help with arc blow. If it doesn't help or makes it worse try wrapping it the other direction. It also helps to weld towards the ground clamp. Using AC is another option but most industrial welders only have DC. I've never tried welding it with an inverter. Magnetic drill stem is about the only thing you can get arc blow with using smaller rods but arc blow will be less using smaller rods. I did about a 3' long weld with 3/16" 7018 on the drill stem that was mistakenly used. It was in a nice flat position.
Around here there is iron pyrite to drill though, fools gold, and I guess its super hard and shakes the Derrick when drilling it. I think it's around 800' down so when drilling there's a lot of weight on the bit but not much on the Derrick.
Since fools gold was bought up, we have in a few places a lot of decomposed granite just under the surface, it is full of small flakes of fools gold. We also use this decomposed granite all over the place like roads and as a floor for the sheds. I always wondered why rust was a problem with steel posts/star pickets in those areas and reading about it one day I came across how fools gold being iron sulphide, it will react with water or the atmosphere and break down to sulphuric acid and iron oxide. So the rust is from the sulphuric acid. This also explains after rain in the granite roads a black sand appears on the surface. I scooped some up one day and was very heavy. It would be a form of iron oxide. I probably could have mixed it with powered aluminium and made thermite.
Colson, we could be talking about different amounts of water here. The industry says there is something like 55 gigalitres they are bringing to the surface every year just in Queensland. It is all saline to some degree, so it is purified in huge reverse osmosis plants to a standard better than most town supplies. Most is given to farmers to use for irrigation under centre pivots, which is great for them but they have to take it whether they need it or not. The rest is used to supplement town supplies or released to waterways.
I know a bunch of wells that make 3000 bbls of water a day. I don't know how that converts to fancy communist measurements.
As cfherman said, oil and gas wells produce a lot of brine water. I have never heard of a place in the US that is purifying it for freshwater use, though I love the idea of that. Most of the produced brine gets used for drilling mud, injected into formations to maintain formation pressure, or disposed in a disposal well. Purifying it and utilizing it for freshwater could certainly help some communities in the plains areas that don't have sufficient aquifers for their own needs. I suspect the cost of disposal is substantially cheaper than purifying the water for beneficial use. It would take government intervention to force that change on the industry.
I believe that would be 0.19 olympic swimming pools.
Oh is that the fancy communist equivalent measurement unit?
Well all the stupid urban media go on about when discussing how much water evil cotton/rice/whatever farmers use is either olympic swimming pools or Sydney harbours. So I believe only the stupid would listen to that crap, and you would also have to be stupid to love communism, so therefore the measurement of olympic swimming pools is communism. But in good news, finally cattle prices are on the way up, after the arse reaming I got at the abattoirs three weeks ago. So the 350 odd lengths of tube I got now seems not so bad.
Around here all the bore water is saline to some degree (nice human drinking water is somewhat rare), so all old water bores have trouble with rusting of the casing over time. Can cause all sorts of problems when your trying to get pumps and pipes back down the hole after being repaired. This is why I worry about the long term safety of the oil and gas wells and why I find it so interesting hearing from people in the industry. Obviously pressure cementing is a big help with this. Most new water bores here are using thick PVC casing I believe, we had a new bore drilled a few years back and that was used in it. The top low yielding and higher saline water streams were cemented off similar to what has been described in the oil wells, but between 8" and 6" PVC instead of steel. We have some bores that have been reamed to clean the rust off the steel and then lined with PVC to increase the life of them, it makes the inner diameter of the casing quite small though in most cases. Just for interest the bore that supplies our house and a network or pipelines for livestock some specs: sodium: 500mg/L or aprox 500ppm Total dissolved salts (calulated)= 1700 mg/L or aprox 1700ppm Approx 1900ft depth Drilled 1890's rated for 3990Gal/hr pumping from IIRC 65m/213ft giving 1600gal/hr (because its relined with PVC and we cant get a big enough pump down the hole to get the maximum out) This is considered a very good bore in our area for a non flowing one. The bore supplying my parents house on the original family property next door is: Sodium: 1000mg/L or approx 1000ppm TDS: 3300mg/L or approx 3300ppm 650Ft deep pumping from similar depth but only 700G/hr I think How does this compare with the water bores others see... especially in the USA where the drillers are from?? Interested in what you think in regards to the life of oil/gas well casing in this sort of water? I do really appreciate talking to people in the business of doing this stuff and not just some "Muppet" parroting talking points with the intention of convincing us "the science is settled"!!!
Cant agree move with the top points in regards to measurement units! We were looking at buying some cattle or getting agistment in while we have the extra feed. Might have to hurry up by the sounds if we want to buy some.
@.RC. I found a pic of our end assemblies from a fence we did a couple years back. It was still a bit dry then too. Hadn’t swung the gate at this stage.
Repairing one of our bores 11 lengths of 3” pipe down this one to the pump.
I've never tested my water for salinity, though I don't think its an issue. Our big well was drilled in 1988. It is a 12" bore, 420ft deep and is set to pump at 750gpm. It can do more, but our big pivot can't use any more than that. Our smaller wells are in the range of 200ft and set to pump at 500gpm. That is what the pivots we own were designed around.
This is how i do assemblies. I do my angle brace back to the gate post. Any benefit of going to the outer post?
What do those deep wells cost ? Just had a well drilled in Utah end of 2023, 6" drilled and cased with PVC. $140 foot, no pump/wire, just the hole. 350' x $140. Joe H
Around here it is around the 1000 mark. Most of our water is pretty good. Plenty of it. A few km away there is a bore that does 20 000 gallons an hour at 80 feet. Most of ours do 600 to a few thousand.
I did mean to comment on the depths you guys are drilling too. Its fascinating to me how deep the wells are you're talking, really amazing stuff! Those flow rates are unreal!!! Wish we had that, I'd love to have a pivot here... not enough water though. I have thought about a big dam for a supply but the amount of water needed would mean my pivot would be like an old guy with prostate trouble I think!!!
Ya know, I had misread your post discussing flow rates on your Wells. I took the 1600 gallons per hour and my brain said "wow, 1600 gallons per minute! Thats really good". After I saw your comment I went back and re-read what you stated and realized it was more in line with our personal home drinking wells. My personal well is 119 ft, 5" PVC. I get 30gpm (1800 gallons per hour) which is really good for a private, single family home well. I think my parents well only does 5gpm, but I think it is more an issue with their pump than what the bore could produce. @Joe H my personal 119ft well, finished out with pump, electrical and bladder tank was $6,000(2016). The last irrigation well we put in was around 200ft, 10" steel cased well, with pump and 40hp 3phase motor was around $40,000(2019). Drilling is fairly easy and fast in my region. Both of these wells were drilled in a single day.
Yours look neat. If your using pipe for the stay I don’t think it makes a great deal of difference The reason we do the rod stay to the top of the back post is that steel works better under tension than compression especially if its small and thin, at least that is the theory I work on, I might be wrong. The rod stay actually stretches tight as the fence tension is added because the tops of the posts try to lean over in the direction of the fence. If they get put on the other way around, the rod gets looser as they lean over (we have had bad days and done them backwards). We found 1/2” rod was about the minimum with the hinge joint, 3/8” felt like it stretches. We usually do 1km strains but even short strains put a lot of weight on the posts with the hinge joint compared to plain wire we found.
Just reading @colson04 post and they cost a lot more here too. We had a new bore drilled a few years back… must be 10years (makes me feel old). It was I think 320m/1050ft and it cost about $55,000 then and that was really cheap compared to another company. The other guys wanted $80-100K. That is just the cased hole too nothing else. The guys we used had a small old rig that was at about its capacity it seemed, took about a week I think all up with cementing ect and a couple breakdowns. A neighbour is getting one done soon so will be interesting to see what it costs. I’d expect $100k now wouldn’t be too surprising unfortunately. Made me question if I should get an old rig myself and learn how to use it.
I reckon we would be looking at $400/metre here now…. but that’s using them fancy communist measurements!.
Yeah but using those measurements makes it cost more, you should know that!
My water well is around 30-40' deep with some closer to 20'. 150 ppm salt, 220 calcium hardness, 220 total alkalinity, 7.8 pH, the best drinking water you can find. The cedar hills zone is around 800' I think and it will flow water to surface, but it's no good for anything except disposing salt water. There are Dakota wells around here if you skim the top and only pump it for a bit a day the salt is low enough to feed cows. I can't remember the footage but 1200 sounds good.
OK I'll play show and tell, just finished this last week, still needs a bit more done, but so much else is falling down that I am only staying in front by replacing the worst of it. I've also got a little experience with the concrete posts. I bought a semi load just before covid lockdowns happened, so they sat at the factory for almost 12 months before I could get them. Trucked them myself which made a price difference, I live only 3 hrs from factory. Think I paid $14 a post, these are ACP (Australian Concrete Posts), no experience with other brands. Finally got around to standing some about 6 months ago. They are about 5in x 2.5in, are a flat bottom post 7ft2in long, so I found that the pilot hole had to be pretty much the same size as the post otherwise it won't drive in our country. We knock the shoulders off our split posts (not pointed) The concrete posts pretty easily tapped in, give them a quick ram and they were tight. I've also heard the stories about them being fragile and I wouldn't put them around the cooler in my picture, but I have a few neighbours who must have shares in matchstick factories, it's pretty disheartening to see brand new split posts burnt out and figured these posts might steady that up a bit, before a neighbour disappeared in mysterious circumstances. The problem I see now is that they have priced themselves out of the market. I called 6 months ago about another load, gone from $14 to $25 (ex factory) in 4 yrs. Seeing as I rip all my own split posts for free I really can't afford $25 a post.
Kind of reminds me of the limestone posts farmers used to use around here. By the way does it freeze there?
As a rule… definitely not. But having said that, just saw this forecast of snow as high as Kingaroy for next week. Kingaroy is the northernmost speck of blue.
It'll freeze as in we'll get morning frosts, but days will always get to double digit C, that's winter. Summer about same temp as the surface of the sun. Photo is 3 wks ago constructing fence in first photo, left the ute at the fence rather than put it in the shed.
I mentioned it because if you cement in posts with the concrete above the ground line that when it freezes the frost will move the post and I er like a decade it won't be straight anymore
This is how we grow rocks here in MO...
So you would end the cement below ground level and fill to ground level with dirt? The reason we go above ground level is to keep water away from the steel post, I know it's galvanised but if you let water sit on top of the cement eventually it will rust your post out. As stated ground doesn't freeze, so no issues that end. I forgot to mention RC, around here most drive the drill pipe directly in the ground, if you have to dig a hole and cement it, we use gal RHS.
You have no worries about frost lifting the posts there. Here the frost depth is X and your post and concrete needs to be below that or when the ground freezes the post/concrete ball goes up as the soil expands. As your frost level is zero it makes no difference where you cement ends so above ground to keep the water from pooling is correct. Joe H
One I did a few weeks ago. I welded the hinges on thusly so the gate will swing both ways and right onto the fence one way. Did not have the heart to cut down this big blue gum, so cut a gap for the wires. I know people in the US wonder why our dozers have such big canopies. Well this tree is a reason. Touch it with the blade and expect a one tonne limb to come falling onto the canopy. The wood posts have so much sticking out because when I went to collect them, they were all eight feet long.
Having been putting some of this pipe in the ground and putting on some stays and a bit of panel work. Being round it is a bit different to using the square stuff I am used to. Having no helper to hold it up for marking and being round clamping on the side is just not going to happen. So I went to town and bought a couple of cheap F-Clamps and modified them to hold up the oval rail for marking. Of course you have to cut it longer and V out the ends. I designed a guide in a CAD program and 3D printed it. It fits on the round post and you can draw a line on the rail that is 8mm longer. A bit more experience and it probably is not needed as you would be able to judge by sight how much longer it needs to be. I started off using my dual shield, but 1.2mm is just too thick a wire for this thin material, I could not go down low enough in amps and was just making a mess so went back to 0.9mm (0.35") solid wire and gee it welded nice with the 80/20 gas. I enquired about buying some 0.9mm dual shield, but it is not available for sale in this country.
Photo of the guide and marking a stay.
That’s funny, I’ve never had trouble buying dual shield(flux core) in either 1.2 or 0.9, unless you’re chasing a particular brand? It’s almost a shame to cover those accurate cuts with a weld.
3/16" is thin? Tubing could be wore out and thin in spots
You might be confusing self shielded with dual shield. Self Shielded is most commonly E71T-11, E71T-8 or E71T-GS, the -11 and -GS is the stuff you can buy pretty much everywhere in sizes starting at 0.8mm. Dual shield is predominately E71T-1 I have looked at all the online stores and been to local welding suppliers and even though companies like Lincoln or Esab make it in 0.9mm, they do not import any to Australia. Best I can do is some Blue Demon stuff from amazon, but it is not worth it https://www.amazon.com.au/Demon-E71T-1-Spool-shielded-welding/dp/B00G5GIDJS The gal oval rail I am welding on is only 2mm thick.
OK…. so what benefit would there be using that wire in a fencing/cattle yard application, and who makes the 1.2 that you have?
I found the self shielded flux core to burn very hot and gaps are then hard to fill as it wants to blow holes in the oval rail, and weld on galvanised materials you cannot see anything from the big plume of smoke as it is already a smoky process without the burning galvanising. Then there is the large amount of spatter and the slag sticks like glue to the weld and often near impossible to remove with a wire brush on a grinder. Also I found self shielded flux core, the wire feed sputters. I think it is very sensitive to wire stickout. I have used four different mig welders with the self shielded stuff and all four of them the wire feed sputtered. The solid wire with gas does not like galvanised material too much either but you can fill gaps and it is easy to clean. The 1.2mm gas shielded flux core I use is Hyundai brand, around $80 for 15kg. Once I get about 3mm thickness and better it is wonderful stuff, but at 1.2mm around 140 amps is about the minimum you can run it, just a bit too much for oval rail. With steers now at $6/kg at the works, I might be able to afford a roll to try it.
Well you learn something every day. I’ve probably used 50 rolls(5kg) of flux core wire in the past 10 years and never looked at the numbers. I just accepted that some welded better than others. The roll that I’ve just finished was GL-11 and I didn’t get along with it at all. The roll Iam using now is E71T-GS and seems to be very good. I’ve just bought 4 rolls to have on hand which is E71T-11. I try to avoid using big rolls because they make the wire feeder 10 kg heavier.
That is a nice setup. I am going to steal your method of holding the cables. That weldclass GL-11 is mostly all I have used, it came highly recommended. Only other stuff I have used is some Lincoln NR-211, and it was far worse.
T-11 is better than T-GS. T-GS is single pass only and doesn't have to meet any AWS standards.
Off topic, but the BW (boonagra welding) ute trays hold up well aye. Got 2 of them on utes. One 5years old one 15years old. Still exactly the same design as your old girl. Never had a problem. What make is the toolbox?
When the Black family bought the local Toyota franchise in the early eighties the standard Ute tray was pretty basic. Maybe wooden or light pressed metal sides and a pathetic attempt for a headboard. They got together with a local engineering firm and came up with something like the body on this ‘91 cruiser and the Boonarga tray evolved from there. This old girl lugs a compressor and fuel trailer around behind our dozers. The toolboxes are a Paramount brand sold by Global Industrial. https://www.globalind.com.au/product-category/ute-tool-boxes/ Imported, no doubt, but Iam very happy with both quality and price…rain and dust proof as well.
Sure different from service trucks here.
It would be a bit of a stretch to call it a service truck. We just use it on private property for our cattle operation… hasn’t been road registered for ten years or more, same with the welding ute.
It's kind of a diet service truck. I'm guessing it's easy to take the compressor and toolbox off to make it a flat bed to carry other stuff.
That’s basically what I’ve always run. Flat tray with Two tool boxes and an air compressor. Anything after that is a luxury.
Well, actually no, Dave. The only reason we keep these old 4wds is that they each have a designated job so we don’t have to pull gear off and put it back on.
The old landcruisers are just good vehicles. Once they bought out the V8 and removed the 1HZ option, that was the end of them for real paddock cars. And now they are going to put in a 4 cylinder 2.8 litre. A bloke I used to help out drove Nissan Patrol's. He used to trade them every few years. He went from the 4.2 litre to the 4.2 litre turbo intercooled model. Then when they went to the four cylinder piddly tiny motor, he eventually got one of them. Then he stalled it and stalled it and stalled it. In fact everyone who drove it stalled it and stalled it when trying to take off. It had no power down at low RPM. You could not just sneak around at an idle. Once the turbo boost kicked in it had heaps of power, but pathetic under 2000rpm. This new landcruiser will be the same. I have a little 4WD Mitsubishi Canter ex fire truck here with farm rego I bought about seven years ago, early 1990's model, 15 000km on the clock. I like it, but it is unbelievably rough. Really really rough, like I suspect those old landrovers were. Those service vehicles you see on the highways, all little Jap trucks, I would hate to see how rough they would be on our highways going by my little Canter. I can see why in the US they use what they use for service trucks. Comfortable and easy to drive. Parking would be a bitch though.
I believe the new model will only be available with six speed auto. Can’t imagine paddock bashing with that combination at 25 years old.
Mine's got a crane on it, handiest machine I got, but like you said, no fun driving around the paddock.
Nice crane. Good thing about cranes on easily movable vehicles is the extra hands and lifting capacity it can provide, and they do not droop down. All the general hydraulic lifting gear I have is old and all drops down fast enough so useless for things like holding the end of a gate up while you weld the hinges on. The palfinger crane I do have is fantastic but is mounted on a bare truck chassis and pulled behind a tractor, so not very mobile for me as you need two people to take it anywhere. One to take the tractor and one to pick you up at the destination.
What does everyone use to mix their cement for posts, yards? I use my little dingo with the dingo cement mixer that I modified by extending it a bit so it mixes more and added a leg to the drive unit as the hydraulics drop down when you mix it. I can mix around 90 litres of concrete a mix. One 20kg bag of powder to a mix, and a mix will do a post hole. (12" hole 900mm deep). I have a sand/rock mix on a tipping trailer and it is far easier to get it from there to the mixer then from ground level. I keep the bags of cement powder in sealed ex grease drums. Each drum will hold 12 bags. I am pretty happy with it's capabilities, beats a wheel barrow. Few months ago I was helping a full time yard builder at my brothers block, he had a bobcat mounted horizontal auger mixer. It would mix around 400 litres a mix. It is high maintenance though. You also think you are a reasonable welder until the professionals come out and play.
For fencing, where we need to keep moving along, we have yet another old vehicle. A 1986 Hino tipper with drop sides that we load up with sand, stone, a 1000 litre pod of water and a pallet with bags of powder. Hop up in the back and throw in to a tractor mounted mixer. This may have been a bit of an overkill, but the yard builder had an old kibble and we had a loader to lift it…saved some back breaking work.
Nice mixer and double ramp. Having a good setup of gear saves a lot of time. A cousin got one built on one of his blocks as part of some new yards, and they had to wheelbarrow the cement all the way up the top. Plus he got a wide unloading ramp made as well, although I think they may have got a cement truck in for the cementing, so saved some work there. He loves his new ramp so much he going to put in another one on their main place.
They certainly make a potentially stressful job much run much smoother. Unfortunately, this one is on the block that we just sold, where we had a small feedlot. Not sure that we can justify building another one now.
I dry pour post holes, it will steal moisture from the ground and set up
You blokes are giving me “yards envy”.
Well you can be jealous of one of my sets. Don't you love what portable panels can repair. But the good news is 17mm of rain there a couple of days ago. That is an interesting method. I am not sure there would be enough moisture in the soil surrounding our holes to be able to do that. What I have heard of being done is put in a dry mix, then pour water on top. No idea if it works.
Good thing I wasn't taking a drink when I blew up that pic..... You guys do good work BTW! would like one of those paddy trucks tho.... those are the sh!ts!
It works. Good for rough slabs too, like pump house floor. Spread it, smooth it & sprinkle lightly so yu don't make a mess of it. Sprinkle again later a few times. Nothing to brag about but for a pump house it's adequate. Joe H
Made these up some months ago. Great for cutting cattle rail on. Easy to cart around. Bits of finger crushers though. Plus the fire truck.
A little history tonight. This is a crush that my dad made in the mid seventies, at the absolute depths of the cattle slump, when cattle were worth next to nothing. He needed something to help with speying and other vet practices. Unlike today, there were only one or two commercial manufacturers of crushes, but there is no way he could afford one anyway. We had no mains power back then so the only tools he had were a Murex pto welder, a big 32v drill that ran off it, a homemade pipe bender, a pipe cutter and a big hammer. I was at ag college at the time and had learned to handle an oxy torch there, so cut a few bits and pieces with a borrowed set when home on break. But most of the cutting was done with the welder…screw it up to full noise and blow a cut through. No angle grinder to tidy things up. We’ve since redesigned and rebuild the yards but have left it in the middle of the yard as a tribute, of sorts, to all the work that went into it.
Bit late to the party re cementing, but doesn't really matter cause I'm about 30yrs behind you blokes. But I'm a one man band and for real little jobs like this strainer and stay I done today, less is sometimes quicker. Got about 4km sandy river to cross to get anywhere so shovel a bit on the trailer as I cross, unload mixer with crane and away we go. Primitive, but better than mixing it in a wheelbarrow by hand, like we did when I was growing up.
That is quite impressive for the 1970's, or even today not many people would build their own vet crush. There would not have been many people even working with steel other then paddock gates back in those days. After I left school I helped build a set of timber yards and that was in the 1990's. Here we have only started using steel in yards and for fence strainers in the past ten years. Looks a good setup for the application. The steel post is going to be there for a long time. Our iron bark does not seem to last in the ground these days. The main yards here were built sometime around the mid 1960's, and while they have had plenty of repairs the posts are still solid. Meanwhile a section of cable yard that was built in the late 1980's has posts snapped off already. That is a good stand of black spear grass there, around here we do not get to see it like that much any more. Indian couch has started to take over.
Still a bit new to driving strainers but we needed to urgently replace a double gateway in an older fence and thought this would be the way to go. Trouble is, it is in some really soft river loam and Iam worried about the assemblies pulling out of the ground. We drove steel pickets, at an angle, full length and welded them to the gate posts. Time will tell..any better suggestions?
I drive them deep. I do 1.6m under in black soil and do 2 boxed stays.
And for the wire retainers i use old chain links.
Tamping
About all you can do is go another panel out and then if you want a stay out again. A fellow was telling me they go two panels and then a stay on the soft black soils where no posts stay vertical for long. Another thing you could do is put slit poly pipe on the high tensile wire where the panel is for a more visual block for cattle. There invariably is always a few stupid ones in a mob that will see the mob going through the gate, but then they try to shortcut before the gate. will see the cattle rail top, but may not see the barbed wire and try to duck under the top rail. I will have to deduct point though for tying a knot in the tail, not that it matters there, but a neighbour did their share of a boundary fence, split posts, wooden strainers etc. They put knots in the tail like that and when I saw a beast of ours on their side of the fence, I had merry hell undoing the wires at the closest strainer to get him back. Same here, but I just discovered those weld on lugs like in Queenslander's photo a month or so ago. So being silly I bought a few dozen thinking, they are just sheared and bent 10mm rod and a machine could punch out sixty a minute, they are going to be cheap. Then I got the bill at the end of the month. $1.70 each. They are easier to weld on then a chain link though, I am going to make up a jig so I can bend ten or so in my press in one go. ------------------------------ Here is an interesting couple of photo's. Found all these old Kodachrome slides and scanned some of them in. There was a few of the still existing yards that are here. So I snapped a photo this morning of the same position. The first photo would be 1960's and about 60 years later the posts and some of the rails are still the same. Isn't DDT a great chemical?
Speaking of pipes in the gas industry. Looking through some of my old photo's, found these I snapped when I was doing a bit of part time work as a non unionised wharfie. (we had to actually work) Taking pipes off the ship. Those pipes are 9 tonnes each.
Cliffy, what do you have your driver mounted on? At the moment we are cutting four posts to a length, so around 2.4, and driving them in 1.1, but our skid steer only has another couple hundred mm reach. Iam thinking that 1.1 is plenty for most of our country, we don’t have a lot of this loamy soil. Mostly don’t use tails at all, especially with long strains of ht wire, but where we do use them I like to knot the suckers so they don’t let go. The clips, we buy in boxes of 300 so I don’t think they cost quite that much. They’re just quick and convenient. That whole job took two of us an afternoon from go to whoa, including some landscaping with a grader to get the area somewhat level. Your yards still have plenty of life left in them, still the best to work in when everything is in good order.
S300 bobcat with percussion driver. Has 3.2m lift
42”, Gladstone, circa 2011?
Yea, 2012, pipes were 42", 3/4" wall thickness and 18m long. Cannot believe it was that long ago. This was Gladstone but I only did a few shifts there. Port Alma bought in boatloads of pipes, I mostly worked there. Was a braindead but still interesting job, saw some funny stuff that opens your eyes to what employees will do. Like the time one of the smokers on one of their their fifteen minute smoke breaks every half an hour decided rather then walk the 150 metres to the smoking area, easier to take the only forklift. Which was handy when it started holding up trucks. The pipes painting had to be protected from scratches, so they put a hopeless crane operator on, when they got lifted out they would start windmilling on him, so he just banged them against the hold doors to stop that. Saw some real expert crane operators as well. They would pull whatever was coming out and bang them dead on, on the truck. I missed out on seeing the pipe that bounced off the truck onto the wharf. Saw some interesting stuff like the ship that the front was like a normal ship, but the rear end was a massive tugboat. The US military turned up when it arrived. STRONG & MARINER - IMO 7634331 Information, photos and AIS vessel tracker for the Ship STRONG & MARINER (IMO 7634331, Callsign WDD9335, MMSI 368533000) www.shipspotting.com
We had the QCLNG pipeline come past here and the APLNG just to the west of that. We scored some work on the ROW as well as maintaining local roads while they were carting pipe. Could only carry two pipes per truck so there were a few loads involved. Bit of an eye opener seeing an engineering project of that scale in our remote area.
Yeah Queenslander, a neighbour got me to drive in a bunch of drill pipe years ago for gate posts like have done. He used a single diagonal stay, rather than your box stay. I had a look about 6 mths after he finished and they had all moved a bit. My theory is that the 3 inch pipe simply doesn't have the surface area to resist moving a bit. If we were to use say, an 8 inch pipe I think that would be a different story, but the cost of pipe would send you broke. So I now do a 3 cattle-rail panel and then a diagonal stay in any assembly that has a steel gate. I use 75mm RHS that I cement 1100 in the ground in a 10 inch hole. Yes it take more time, but it won't move.
Yep, I’ve done quite a few of those in the past as well. I make the panels in the shed on a table with a jig to quickly square them up. Used to do the stays the same as RC and yourself but now make them in the shed as well. Little bit of dicking around when concreting in but saves measuring and cutting in the paddock.
As the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. We all do it a bit different due to having different soil types, equipment available, time constraints and skill levels, etc, etc. I've only been using steel assemblies for the last couple of years and while I'm definitely sold on the strength and longevity, it is a hell of a lot slower and more equipment hungry than timber. I've had to leave it half done and go do the fence I just showed photos of, but it is a boundary fence (half done one) and neighbour wanted all timber, no steel. It really was an eye opener going back to how I used to do it, how much less gear you have to cart around. No welder, genny, mixer, etc, just a small saw to joggle the stay in and that's it.
You can or at least used to be able to buy the pre built 75mm RHS with 3 bars of oval rail welded on panels ready to cement in. A cousin bought some and put them in. I do not know cost wise how they worked out. It could be a bit like gates, we always bent up our own gates out of pipe. Then these 5 bar gates turned up cheaper then we could buy the pipe, plus the pipe we could buy you could not bend it any more without it kinking. So we started buying gates instead. We have found the quality of galvanising used on these gates is pretty poor though. I have tried slotting posts with the plasma cutter to fit the oval rail with limited success, and I do not think it was any quicker in the end. I am always on the lookout for new ways to do things. I looked at these yards and they had put in a lever so you could open shut the front slide from the back slide. The float covers on those wild river troughs, while I like them have one flaw. Black creatures can slip into through the gaps in the corner. Although the latest wild river troughs seem to come with an inferior bent sheet metal cover.
Never would have thought to slot the yard posts for the cattle rail, did you use the full 6100 length or still cut it into 3m? Would certainly eliminate the need to try and hold one end up when working by yourself doing it the traditional way. Have seen blokes offset every second post and use 6m lengths and weld it on the side of the offset posts, but I reckoned it looked ugly, plus there was the effort of offsetting the posts. I wholeheartedly agree with trying different things and not letting your ego lock you into doing things your way simply because that's the way your family has always done things. It's actually very good we've got a few blokes from the land on here now and can bounce a few things off each other. Especially on a rainy day when I can't be fencing. That stand of black speargrass you commented on in one of my photos will be gone after this rain goes through, got my matchboxes lined up ready to go.
Works ok for bigger pigs! I wasn’t impressed with the folded sheet float covers either, but they seem to have gone back to the original style, I’ve only had those new ones for a couple of weeks. We now sit these troughs up on 10 or 12 inches of gravel to help shed water.
Only 3m lengths, the idea was to get away from having to have an exacting length and thus you could cut all five rails quick and easy. Reality turned out the slots have to be bigger so you can slot the rail in, and I found cattle rail does not all come with nice flat sides. Often the sides are curved inwards, especially on the ends. So you end up with big gaps to fill, I found the benefits were not there to continue doing it. I have done one yard where I welded the rail onto the side of the posts. But then talking to a fellow who had done it many years ago, he was pulling down some he had done and the rail was all rusted where it went against the side of the posts. Moisture constantly trapped in there and then it starts to rust. One thing it is hard to buy these days. Decent matches. Bring back the Greenlites. I can remember when young, going out mustering and everyone had three or four boxes of Greenlites, and you could see where everyone was in the hills by the trail of smoke. And often everyone in the district would all be out burning at the same time. Bit different today. It is a good idea to build them up. Mostly still old hume troughs here, with the now expensive rubbers you have to replace. All installed at ground level and you end up with a moat around them in wet weather. But I can understand why they were popular before heavy lifting gear became commonplace where today you can easily lift a one tonne trough and place it
70mm of rain so it is a bit wet to do anything outside at the moment. Even better is that it has been quite widespread, fella I know at Rolleston has had 2" as well. Just awesome for August, the usually driest month of the year.
We’re away from home at the moment but apparently 40mm there and still raining. Went to Bunnings and bought a heap of “Samba” matches, supposed to be better than Redheads.
Yeah I came home to see the family, 50mm so far in the south-east. Spoke to the parents, about the same up home.
Glad to hear you guys are getting much needed rain. It's been a crazy year. We have irrigation on 400+/- acres, but we've barely touched it. About the time the corn shows any stress, we get another 1"+ to tide it over. Been very consistent rain all summer. Been a hindrance making dry hay, but even then we've gotten decent dry breaks to put up the hay. With the size of the lots you guys are building, how many head of cattle do you guys have? We're dairy farmers here, milking about 360/daily, about 640 total head with all the cows and replacement heifers. We only keep a pair of steers a year for personal beef, the rest of our bulls get sold as deacons.
Ended up with 153mm here. Bit more then I was expecting.
Heading up later today, but spoke to parents, 85mm in North Burnett, but did vary a bit, apparently over 200 near BanBan Springs, highway is currently closed. Will give you reply when I get a bit more time Colson
125mm here, a little south of Pony’s Nth Burnett country. Carrying capacity varies greatly across the country but in our case it averages about a beast to ten acres. Not really suitable for grass fattening, we run breeders and turn off progeny at around 450kg, either in to our own feedlot or selling to others.
Did not expect to be fixing flood fences all morning. Neighbour had 190mm. Dams all overflowing. Usually this time of year we are either feeding or thinking about it. Pretty much a once in a lifetime event for August. Carrying capacity were I am is around 1 adult equivalent to around 7.5 acres in a normal year, some paddocks are heavier some lighter. I generally fatten everything I breed which I hope to be a consistent 250+ calves a year but I know the country I have is not really suited to that for steers in this day and age as I cannot fatten them fast enough for today's markets as I have to provide supplements to get them there and then I only get the basic generic Jap market price add in a duopoly of processors with no competition, they really know how to do over their suppliers. The last twelve months have been a waste of time for me income wise by the time expenses are taken out. I am also nearing the end of a stage of change, as my father died some years back and the land has been split up as we all go our own way. The split up was all highly amicable though, unlike some I have seen which has involved many solicitors and even threats of violence. I have had to buy land and it was pure luck the neighbour decided to sell, with my usual financial skill of buying when the market was red hot and interest rates have only gone one direction two months after I bought. At the end of the day feedlotting is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.
I know 2 parts of bugger all about dairying Colson, but that seems like a decent size set up. The dairy industry was deregulated here years ago and a lot either went bust or got out shortly after. I'm a bit smaller than either RC or Queenslander, but you have to try and adapt to maximise what you have. They both grow out their steers, which obviously takes more land. I sell my steers at 6-9mths age straight off mum, that way I can run a few more breeders rather than try and value add. Obviously markets are volatile, but I kept a bunch of cull heifers one year extra a while ago and sold them at the same time as the ones 12 mths younger. The ones 12mths older made $50 a head more, why would I bother? I do have one little paddock of good scrub country. Like most others, I seasonally join the bulls, preg test the cows and cull the empties. I fatten these cull cows in that paddock and take them direct to works, I reckon I get best bang for buck that way out of my best country, rather than trying to grow out a handful of steers. The problem over here is that land values have gotten so ridiculous that nearly everyone ( at least with smaller blocks) has to have at least one partner working off farm. I stopped working full-time off farm about 5yrs ago, but my wife still does. My family is 6hrs away from our properties, it's better for our children's schooling to stay down near civilisation, plus my wife's job. But she is basically a single parent, for the last 5 yrs I am away 10 days, home 4. But the previous 10yrs, I would work 10 days, drive 6hrs, work 4 days on the properties chasing my tail, drive 6hrs, work 10 days, rinse and repeat, didn't see the family anyway. Ahh the joys of living on the land. Millionaires, asset wise, but living alone eating baked beans
In the famous words of Crocodile Dundee, RC. That's not a creek crossing, this is a creek crossing. And thankfully it's not taken, just got to go check the other 4 across it now.
Ahh well I do not have one quite that big, but look on the bright side, when all that goes there are not a lot of trees to get the wires wrapped around. Just a lot of soil to bury the wires and bog vehicles trying to pull the wires out of the dirt. My brother has some crossings, not as big as that but a bigger level of difficulty when a big flood takes them. Also have some neighbours that we suspect do not own a set of pliers. I have filled the firebug up and asked for a fire permit. Something new to us really, not that many years ago we never bothered about fire permits. Last year was the first time I bothered ringing firecom. Just as well, as apparently three busy bodies got upset at my smoke signals. Buggies and Quad bikes are better then the old two wheelers for fire bug duty. It gets exciting going along burning and you find a log hidden in the grass. Today I also bought some Calcium Chloride. I have been wanting to accelerate the time it takes cement to go off since I have been cementing in these posts. Apparently 1-2% of the weight of the cement powder of calcium chloride added to the concrete mix will halve or even 2/3'rds lessen the time to harden the cement. It is pretty cheap as well. This stuff was $60 for 25kg. https://kuert.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Calcium-Chloride-in-Portland-Cement-Concrete.pdf Plus you can also put it in tractor tyres with the water to stop rusting of the rims. My last query is what wire strainers do people use? I had a set of mengie strainers. They were fantastic, but they have vanished and you can not buy them any more, they were also very expensive. Back to using some worn out hayes ones at the moment, and not liking them.
Unfortunately, big brother is watching every thing these days, so we are compelled to at least try do everything to the letter of the law when it comes to burning. I wanted to burn about 30 acres about a fortnight ago to help get on top of a Love grass problem. Put a break around it, luckily had a permit, rang firecom etc. and let it go. Sure enough, that small area appeared on the NAFI map later that night. Already a few showing up today. We have a set of Mengie strainers and they are very good, but I’ve always reckoned that you can get along with most styles if you use them often enough..a muscle memory sort of thing.
This is the fire site I use https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/map.html I like the Mengie ones in that you do not have to put your hands near the barbed wire to attach them. I have a set of chinese knock off Mengie ones. The are reasonable, but need work as the pins are wearing out fast on them. They were available, but vanished off the market pretty quick. I also found on ebay some years back a very old set looked like pre WW2 vintage of near identical to the Mengie style. I am not sure if he re-invented that clamping style, or just copied a very old set he found.
Yep, one of those purple stars was me. It was almost still to damp, burned a bit stalky, but very controllable. One of my neighbours is the local fire warden so have always got permits, don't want to rock the boat. I also usually ring Firecom, forgot today, was only going to burn around the house and didn't think it would really burn, but it did so I kept going. Make some more smoke tomorrow.
Here is a photo of these mengie knock offs. They were something like $50 when I got them.
Found these, but not cheap. I like the idea of the spring to hold them on the wire. Many times, have put the strainers on and they fall off when doing something to the wire Spring Grip Wire Strainers | Fence-Line Solutions 1. CAM & ANVIL Spring Operated - won’t fall off Doesn’t Slip or Jam Smooth Grip Self Location On Barb Wire Hardened Steel Jaws Strainer Designed Suits All Fencing Wire The only Strainer designed specifically for high tensile wire. 2. TENSION GAUGE Built in Tension Gauge - measures every time you… www.fencelinesolutions.com.au
If you do a lot of fencing, I could see a guy justifying that kind of tool. I only work with 12ga HT wire, but we do so little fencing work its hard to justify owning any of the tools. Just a patch job here and there, maintaining our two little pens that we keep heifers on. Most of our damage is either from post rotting off, or tree branch falling during a storm. I've removed most of the trees now so that isn't even as big of a concern either.
Unfortunately, fencing on bigger areas is a major ongoing expense. It’s a bit concerning when you start replacing stuff that you built in your teens because it’s now worn out. These are the strainers that I strained my first fence with fifty years ago. Made by Ritch Engineering in Melbourne, They have an adjustable scale to strain to a predetermined level… the handle is hinged a little and clicks like a torque wrench. I’ve never seen another set like them…probably good for another fifty years.
Never seen anything like that here, fences aren't that tight here. Looking on line there are some interesting variations, I'd buy this one if I was in need of one. The way the grippers go on looks a whole lot easier than those above, and they don't want to fall of as soon as you let go. Or my stretcher does, damn thing really isn't very cooperative, think the guy had 3 hands who designed it. Joe H
We have some very similar to those as well. My better half does her fair share of fence fixing as well and is always keen to try easier ways of straining wire. Consequently, we have a different style in every vehicle or quad. I still think you are better to stick with one set, even if they first seem difficult to use and eventually it will become second nature… as long as they don’t let go on you, in which case, they need throwing in the nearest creek.
I have a pair of these https://texasfencefixer.com/ They are really good for old iowa 2.4mm that is loose and the wire is tied to each post. But there is a flaw in the knock-off pair I have in that is squashes the wire and it will cut it. I welded in stoppers so now it does not squash the 2.4mm wire, but it is only now suitable for the 2.4mm. I had the building inspectors turn up today.
It has only been about 15 years ago I learned this trick with the strainers, tying the tail off around the clamp. How we have always tied off the wire when it goes on the side of the posts.
Are you guys using high tensile barb with star pickets or 2.4 Iowa in wooden posts? I have several sets of strainers but never really thought of the brand or type before. I actually bought them at a garage sale when living/working up FNQ years ago. Parents/Grandparents never owned a set. Cause I must admit that I only strain with a pair of pliers around a wooden strainer post, on any repairs in bored wooden posts with Iowa. I'll tighten with wire strainers a new fence but after that, nope. High tensile with steel posts different story, you have to use wire strainers, but I don't have any. I don't use high tensile and I only use steel posts in placed I can't get the tractor. My parents never got a tractor mounted post hole digger until the early 80's before that it was all crowbar and shovel, so there were almost no steel posts in the old fences either. My grandfather showed me that way of tying wire on the side of wooden posts, RC. It was used in the river crossings I showed a photo of earlier, and still is. Everywhere else we'd run the barb through the hole as it never had to be removed.
Bit of everything here. Until that new 2mm high tensile came out we have never done a full high tensile fence, although we have bought land where all high tensile was done. We have done wood posts with a high tensile on top, two heavies underneath. All through the post as well. It is only recent times where we have gone back to tying on the side of the wood posts. This is because we have generally used heavy gal barbed wire. Being so coastal, standard gal barb wire will be completely rusty within twenty years. Meanwhile the heavy gal wire, stuff installed in the 1960's is stilll in near perfect condition. Since first those Atom Borers came out amd then decent electric drills and we went through the posts in the 1980's, well with the crappy timber these days, those posts are now snapping off, wires are through the posts so it is a chainsaw job to get the wires out. With steel posts, same thing, they are rusting off and the wire is still pristine. So at the moment I still have a pallet and a half of 2.4mm heavy gal to use up. I have 500 or so rosewood posts to use up as well, but I am now going wood post, steel post, about 6m between posts. Everything tied onto the side. Down the track I will probably think about using Maxi posts along with the smaller steel posts along with 2mm high tensile. As for straining up. As a general rule I only use strainers on new fences. Pliers to strain for repairs.
Picture showing the difference between normal galvanised and heavy/double galvanised. It is a boundary fence and our family supplied heavy/double gal barbed wire for our bit. I do not know when the fence was done but probably early seventies.
Mostly split posts and Iowa wire here, but not adverse to using steeleys and ht. We would like to do more with laneways and fencing to make mustering easier. Driving steel strainers and posts makes the job so much quicker, a bit cheaper and a little more justifiable, if you get my drift. Can you still get double gal wire or just the long life blue stuff?
Do you guys have any Brigalow/Softwood scrub country? As stated earlier I have one paddock as above, it's part of a block I bought about 10yrs ago. I blade plowed it about 7yrs ago with my little dozer, in one fairly flat bottom hollow, I found a number of holes and small sunken areas, I plowed it up with the dozer and thought no more of it till a few months ago, when mustering I was riding over the same area and horse near went down to his guts. Luckily was only at a walk. Anyway burnt this paddock a couple of days ago and when checking fiund these, i went back today with the tractor/ripper and gave these a touch up. Foot is for scale, up to 3ft deep, one in particular allowed the tape measure to go into the hole at the 3ft depth a further 7ft. My question is, are these things common in scrub country and what causes them? My only guess is that being in a hollow, when the scrub was pulled/pushed and raked many years ago, perhaps it was pushed into the hollow and maybe big storm covered really soft timber (bottle trees, etc) with dirt and these trees decayed to nothing and left the void? These a few things about my explanation I don't like but I've got nothing else. Any ideas?
This is what I have been using BARBED WIRE | GalMAX Fencing www.galmax.com.au I have seen other wires of various colours, a few years after Waratah went blue. I have seen black wire and green wire. The green stuff was from greensteel https://greensteel.com.au/fencing/barbed-wire/ I think the black stuff was angus wire https://www.angasfencing.com.au/barbed-wire Those coloured coatings are just a gimmick anyway. They come off just with normal handling. I know the waratah coating under the blue is just a zinc aluminium coating similar to zincalume on the roofing iron.
I have seen similar looking holes but nothing like that deep, but not in the scrub country I have which is a stony clay soil, it was in a more sandy type soil. What I have seen only looks like a foot deep, I just put it down to burned out stumps or something like that. One thing it could be is water going through soil can dissolve minerals and then over a long time you get left with a void, which then collapses. Or if the soil has lots of fines in it, the fines get washed away underground somehow.
Yea nothing really makes sense, main cluster about 100m long but all shapes and sizes. However I did find a couple more about a km away, up on a flat of what was an old dryland cultivation. In the photo of the flat, 2 holes in the bare patch next to the fence.
I have several used rolls of barb wire . Do people reuse it? Its almost been loaded on a scrap load several times.
Yeah we reuse it in creek crossings and the like. But your not going to stand new posts and put second hand wire in it. Heavy Iowa wire here is about $130 a coil (cheap stuff) (400m) how much is someone going to pay for it second-hand? If you can get a few bucks for it in scrap, do it or if you have any friends who have a use for it, give it to them if they shout you a coffee.
Gee I have missed out on a lot of very good discussion here, just been reading trough everything! We have been Flatout mustering, drafting and trucking goats out for the last week. We just did a bit of fencing on the side of a holding paddock near the house to replace some old hinge joint that wasn’t holding the goats in anymore so I’ll post a couple of pics. Re the holes in the ground Pony… we have something similar on black and grey clay ground where it expands and contracts and some times opens up with deep holes. We call them crab holes… not sure why they got that name.
We reused the old gate on the road because there was nothing wrong with it, when we strained the hinge joint up it did move it a little bit but nothing serious. Just needs a coat of paint now. I added in the weld I did on the assembly at the other end. I was very disappointed I missed out on the “weld porn” while I was busy. We had generator dramas so I ended up doing this with an old Lincoln Petrol AC stick welder. Not my best work unfortunately but I thought it will do the job. Fence is HT barb top and bottom, Clipex 7line prefab in the middle, on Clipex gal posts.
Nice clean looking country there. We are getting inundated with new pests. Lantana the biggest one, although it has been here since forever, a new variety has come about and is taking over where it can and giant rats tail grass is spreading rapidly everywhere all helped along by neighbours that do nothing about anything, so it is another job to chase it. Then the harrisia cactus is spreading as well, again, so many people do nothing about any of them. Looks like a nice vertical weld for a stick welder. Better then what I can do.
Not wanting to be outdone, I installed a "crane" on my truck. Makes swinging gates a breeze.
Yeah RC it looks alright now, was very run down when I got it, almost covered in some sort of prickly bush. Blade plow fixed that. I really try and stay on top of weeds, only one that is unstoppable is parthienium. We got some down a major river that block has several km of frontage to back in the 2011-13 floods. It's only really spread out of the river in the last 5yrs or so a few of us are still chasing it but we're wasting our time if I'm honest.
Our pest of choice at the moment is African Love Grass. Although it's been around for a while, we haven't had the time in the past to get rid of it completely, just spray out the thickest patches, mostly alongside the main road. Now...we're determined to get rid of the @%&#ing stuff. It didn't help that, during covid, China stopped making the most effective chemical to control it. It is available again now at a horrendous price. There is a place, not far from here, that is almost 100% ALG and claims to be getting reasonable production from it... he burns it every year without fail. I have heard that it is a valuable pasture grass in the southern US. I wonder if anyone on this forum has experience with it?
Never heard of African Love Grass. I live in the northern Midwest part of the US. If it is a heat loving perennial grass, then it won't thrive up here. Generally, when seeding pastures, we seed a mix of Orchard, Brome, and Timothy grass. Maybe some Alfalfa sprinkled in if the owner plans on taking a cutting of hay off of it for winter feeding. We don't have much of anything that glyphosate or steel can't get under control.
Do you fellas use loose lick for supplementary feeding? We have always mixed our own molasses based wet lick when things get tough season wise and it works great and will continue to do it when required, but the last five or so years we moved to buying in cheap premixed wet lick based on dunder. Which was all fine when cattle prices were quite high it was convenient to simply fill up the tanker and put it out. But it has increased in price by 50% in the past three years and getting harder to slow down intake and they are burning through the product, but I need to feed something to steers and heifers for production purposes otherwise they will not grow fast enough and I will get a backlog of cattle. Too heavy for feeder steers and not finished for the meatworks, so wondering about loose licks. Have used them in the 2010's, managed to kill two cows and a bull when they gorged it and got urea poisoning, but thinking of going back to it just because of costs. Probably use some of this 2 7/8 pipe to make some lick sheds.
Yeah Queenslander, the block with the bit of scrub on it also had a fair bit of ALG in the lighter country, mainly along tracks and fences where previous owner had spread it by driving through it and not giving a ****. As long as you don't let it get to out of hand I've found it fairly easy to control. Flupropanate kills it easily, the best part is if you miss a one plant this year, next year you'll have two and the year after you'll have three. Parthienium, miss one this year, next year you'll have 10 million. I've also heard stories about blokes who love ALG but i reckon there to lazy to spray it and trying not to appear so to everyone else. I assume yours is the same as mine, cattle don't eat it unless theres nothing else.
RC, we have fed a urea based dry lick for about 20 yrs. We only have breeders but, no backgrounding, so it is fed as a maintenance supplement only. I do keep it out year round, but once there is a bit green grass they aren't interested. I don't know if dad ever killed any and learned the hard way or not, but he always told me if you stay around the 12.5% urea content then you won't kill them with urea poisoning, you can go to a lot higher percentage but you have to work up to it, you can't just stick it out and she'll be right. Also as your aware you can't get it wet, has to be covered. I have been using PBA Hylick Breeder, mainly cause I can collect at factory in Toowoomba and cart it up myself, save 100 a pallet on freight. Also my neighbour has a small stud and got some flash bloke out to do tests on his grasses, etc to find out what supplements his country specifically needed and the Hylick pretty much fit the bill off the shelf without going to a custom blend. Do your homework, I know they do other blends for different situations. I also give mine free access to coarse salt year round, just got this in open tubs, when they get wet they will still lick the salty water til it drys out. Salt is cheaper than dry lick and if they don't have access to salt alone they will eat the lick just to get the salt.
We did use dry lick when we had cattle, haven’t had any since the last drought as we sold them all off and haven’t got any back yet. Feeding hay and pushing mulga was getting old and there was no end in sight…. Was a very good decision at the time but I’d love to have a few back now. We had dry lick and or lick blocks out all the time for the cattle, at the end we were giving them Molofos (premixed molasses and urea/minerals ect). That seemed to give them a good boost. We were giving it to the sheep as well at the time. The sheep and goats usually got lick blocks but we haven’t been putting them out the last few years, that was partly because of good seasons and then very low stock prices when they would have been useful. Supplement’s definitely make a difference but it depends what they are lacking in. As Pony alluded too feed tests are one way to work it out, we used the trial and error method to find what seemed to work. Not the most efficient, but Dad had it pretty dialled in by the end of the 2000 drought and we have worked from there. The stock did seem to self regulate pretty well, but you can get a bittering additive for the dry lick or molasses based products if they are going through it like lollies…. I can’t remember what it is though. Don’t think it was just urea. Re the urea content, we need that here as it seems to help break down the mulga and prevent scrub balls in the guts. Like you said Pony you have to start low and work up, we had the lick blocks up to 25% I think. That should be high enough to kill goats we were told, but they loved it. Had to work up there slowly though. Like Pony, we only do supplements for maintenance, top up… not in a high production sense like RC. is talking about so all this won’t really be any use to you RC. Are you feedlotting them RC. or finishing them in the paddock?
We’re much the same as Pony, use the 15% breeder mix from PBA, cart it ourselves and keep it out year round. There could be some added benefit in using a custom mix but this keeps it simple and easy. Because we have a bit of feedlot experience, I like to play around with different feed mixes in self feeders. At the moment we’re supplementing weaners with a blend of DDG wheat pellets, dry rolled wheat, whole cottonseed and a mineral mix with monensin etc.
Thanks, that is interesting about the salt. There are a number of local manufacturers of dry lick around here as well. No lot feeding here, all grass. Although I do have a couple of grain feeders I bought during the 2017 drought to help finish some cows off. The wet lick is just what I would call a low level enhancer, plus it has sodium monensin in it to help increase efficiency. I do not do the niche markets neither do I use HGP's as we did years ago, because we found it turned a proportion of the older steers into lunatics once they were stressed a bit, like drafting in the yards. Of course since we use Sodium Monensin, that automatically rules us out of the certified grass fed market as well. That is the problem at the moment. Prices are still pretty ordinary for just the generic markets with the input costs we have to pay, this week meatworks price is something like $5.80/kg for two tooth steers over 300kg. You start putting $100+ worth of feed down their throat it starts cutting into profits. They are paying $6.60/kg for 4 tooth steers down south, and it is only the southern buyers coming into Queensland that have started making the Qld pay more. They can buy cattle in Queensland, pay over $100 a head to freight them to southern NSW/Victoria and they must still be making money. I bought half a tonne of loose DDG some years back to feed the poddy's. Good stuff in that it lasted a couple of years in the bag and never went off. I have wondered about using PKE to help weaners along.
Dumb as a box of rocks here, 2 tooth & 4 tooth, what is it? Joe H
DDG = Dried Distillers Grain? That's what it means locally anyways. We fed it for years, but late season fungus in the corn become an issue over the past 7-8 years. This vomitoxon becomes concentrated in the DDG from the ethanol process. We started having mass abortions and other reproduction issues in the heard. Our nutritionist ran feed samples on all of our feedstock and found the corn silage, high moisture corn, and dry ground corn had elevated vomitoxon levels, but the DDG had exceptionally high levels of vomitoxon putting it beyond safe levels for the cattle. We quickly reduced the levels of DDG mixed into our ration to reduce vomitoxon, but still feed up what we had bought. After that pile was gone, we dropped DDG from the ration altogether on our farm. We ended up switching from soybean meal to canola meal, and adjusted the mineral/bypass mix to make up for the difference and have gotten by quite well. There are still plenty of folks around that feed DDG, especially the beef guys, but we have been able to carry on fine without it. You can add diatomaceous earth to the TMR as it acts as a binder to toxins and helps carry them through the cattle without as many negative affects.
Its an accurate way of aging cattle. Milk tooth, they still have there baby teeth. “Two tooth” or “milk and two” means they have lost there first two baby teeth. Four tooth or milk and four, lost four baby teeth. Six tooth ect.
Not a lot of cattle around here, deer & elk mostly. And mountain lions which I suppose would like a cow if they had a chance. Joe H
A few of my old girls can defend them selves.
Queenslander, I didn't know that African Love Grass was up here, saw loads of it when I was working on the Manaro country and the far south NSW. A bloke who did some fabrication work for me had designed a tow behind weed wiper for dealing with it. Must of worked well because an implement manufacturer copied it. Because African Love Grass burns so hot he thought if you could harvest it and make bricks for burning in a Furness it could turn it into a winner but no. The process to make bricks or pellets requires heat which would ignite it.
One of my favourite girls. No dog will touch her baby.
As Cliffy says, it is the number of front bottom adult teeth, ranging from none (all milk teeth) to 8 which is called a full mouth. Also cattle have no top front teeth, they only have molars on the top. Yes, Dried distillers grain. These days where I am we have to also compete against the ethanol distillers for product like molasses. Molasses is our go to product for all drought feeding and can be used for production supplements with the right additives. We also have access to PKE (Palm Kernal Expeller) from the Palm oil extraction process and Coprameal, which is from coconuts. As well as the usual cotton seed, soy, grains, canola, etc. I am not really up on what is out there, but I know it is quite involved these days. Back in the 1970's and 80's for our family anyway it was molasses in 44 imperial gallon drums, and urea, poured into old ex main roads department 44 gallon paint drums cut in half, then pour in urea and stir with a stick. Then when the drought broke it was a mad panic always at night as the storms were always late afternoon, to cover the drums up to stop urea poisoning from the rain dissolving the urea and laying on top which the cattle would drink. By the time I was old enough to remember much we had bought a molasses mixer towed behind the fordson.
Even looks evil in print. Is it common in all forms of DDG, Colson, or just corn? We are unlikely to ever have access to the corn variety, using wheat now, have used sorghum in the past when we had a plant nearby. Have never heard of any toxicity problems. PKE works well in the mix that we use as well. We used it last year when ddg became impossible to get because of dry weather. Not as much protein as ddg, it all comes down to price..at the first hint of dry weather everything jumps $100/tonne. Believe it or not, the ddg comes from Nowra, about 1300km from here. We get a b-double load at a time and put it in a silo.. they often take coal from a nearby mine as a backload to use in the ethanol plant. The old(er) timers tell me that there was a time when molasses was considered a waste product and taken offshore in ships and dumped overboard. Yep, plenty of it, as Pony says, there are many other pests that are much worse. At least cattle will eat it if there is nothing better around. Once, on a trip down the New England highway to Sydney I took note of it along the roadside…I need to get a life. It was virtually along the whole route, including on some vacant lots in the city. I was hoping to get a photo of some with the harbour bridge in the back ground but couldn’t quite swing it.
I am pretty happy with the way this pipe makes nice looking fences. I think I have it mostly sorted. Just using solid 0.9mm wire with gas to weld it all, and happy with the way it can fill big gaps Plus the bonus is steel is easy to modify if need be. I am still struggling to weld timber together. Be nice if it was gal but for the price I am not complaining. I see there are over 3000 lengths of the 2 7/8" alone currently up at the Roma Auction Centre. RAC AUGUST VEHICLES, TRUCKS, TRAILERS, MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT AUCTION TIMED ONLINE AUCTION BIDDING STARTED: 11:00AM FRIDAY 23RD OF AUGUST 2024 | OPTIONAL PRE-BIDDING AVAILABLE. BIDDING CLOSES FROM: 11:00AM WEDNESDAY 28TH OF AUGUST 2024 | FIVE MINUTE BID EXTENSIONS APPLY ON ALL LOTS ADDRESS: 'ROMA AUCTION CENTRE' 73 BEAUMONT DRIVE, ROMA QLD 4455 | YARD 6 SALE ITEMS... auctionexchange.bidwrangler.com
You’re doing better than me with the gas!! There can be not a blowfly’s fart of wind…. and every time I want to weld outside here with the mig and solid wire, by the time I get the welder out to the thing I want to weld, it’s too windy! It can’t be beaten for neatly filling big gaps though. I have a mate that jokingly tells me that the welding literature has it wrong and “MIG” actually really stands for “Metal In Gap”.
Goats seem to be their favourite livestock snack here unfortunately, followed by sheep. Don’t think they bothered our cattle much when we had them as there was too much easy food around. The cattle only guys around here didn’t seem too worried about the wild dogs for ages but I think they must have run out of other things to eat and started on the cattle as most seem to be a lot more concerned about them now. It was bound to happen. Do you loose many to dogs where you are Cliffy?
Vomitoxin concentration gets trippled in the distilling process. 20 parts per billion allowed in grain before have to document where the affected grain was sold, paperwork gets real heavy. Most distillers grain around here sold/fed wet. DDG mostly for hogs and chickens.
There's one dairy around here that has a long term contract to buy wet distillers grain from the local ethanol plant. The ethanol plant will only sell distillers grain on long term contracts, and mostly only to feed suppliers. Even though we sell our corn to them, they wouldn't contract with us to buy DDG that we haul ourselves. We had to buy it through CFE and then have a 3rd party truck deliver it the 20 miles to us. It's a mute point though since we quit feeding it.
Just have to up the gas flow rate. I have had some trouble with wind blowing the gas away. I can understand these big companies not wanting the hassle of dealing with a heap of people buying small amounts with the paperwork and loading headache like someone wanting ten tonnes then turning up with a F150 and trailer and wanting it all on that, they want sell large quantities like tens of thousands of tonnes at a time and then the product is out of their hair. With drought feeding here it is hard work for the supplier. I try to buy something from my feed suppliers even in the good time when maybe I do not really need it to keep them going and keep in contact with them, even if it is only once a year. Other people will buy nothing for years, then in a drought out of the blue want so many truckloads yesterday. They will not prepare themselves for tough time. The suppliers get product they then cannot sell, then in a drought can not get enough. A feast or a famine for them. The bittering agent is a big secret. It seems no one knows what it is. I have asked what is left of the DPI (department of primary industries) and they really only have 40 year old data of licker roller recipes, since the department was wrecked by the near thirty years of labor rule. I cannot find anyone to tell me a recipe for a cheap watery molasses/urea based liquid lick you can put in a tub. It is all secret recipes like molaphos or anipro or quicklick (although it is dunder based). I think the stock and station agents are probably thinking I am a bit weird with the stuff I ask if they can get for me. Garlic liquid or powder was once such thing, put it with the lick to stop buffalo flies, used with success in some US feedlots on their flies. I did manage to get some though. I have asked around for bovatec, but they seem to not be interested in even trying to get it. But everyone sells Rumensin, bovatec is essentially a liquid equivalent to rumensin. I must be doing it all wrong wanting all this weird stuff. Not sure if you have seen this youtube channel, this fellow seems to experiment a bit with different stuff. Life On The Lick Run Share your videos with friends, family, and the world www.youtube.com
Not sure if he is big enough to wean yet.
He's a good looking boy for sure. Don't ever see Braham where I'm from. We have just about every other beef and dairy breed you can think of though around us. Black is the preferred color though. We even breed half or better of our dairy cows to black Angus bulls to get a better sale price on the deacons. We only need 140-150 replacement heifers a year, so we have our heard genetically profiled and the best 25-30% get premium Holstein sexed semen. The rest get genetically culled by breeding them back to Angus. Last week, the Angus crosses brought a 10% premium.
They are not real brahman, just droughtmaster mostly, which is a cross between brahman and santa gertrudis. I do have one brahman bull which is only there to keep a slightly higher brahman content in the breeders to deal with cattle ticks a bit better. I am not that fussed on the brahman breed because it is hard to get an affordable decent bull and I think the breed had genetic problems of bottle teats and sometimes spastic calves that not try to drink if the cows udder is a bit low, or even slightly larger teats, mostly always a male calf. I bought three brahman bulls back in 2020, I have already sent two to the meatworks as they bred looney calves. It hurts spending $7500 on a bull and he is a dud. In saying that though, the breed serves a purpose in hardiness and lets people run cattle in country where the bos taurus breeds would all die. We have an beef eating quality system here called MSA (Meat Standards Australia), and one of the requirements for a carcass to grade MSA is the hump height must be less then 90mm, although I do wonder if that at the time was added from pressure from another group of breeders cough angus cough to have less competition for them to get into that market
I'll have to argue there RC, I always thought Droughties were a Shorthorn/Brahman cross. Google seems to agree with me. Either way if you want to give him and 50 of his mates away, I'll take them off your hands.
I have to agree with the Brahmans though. I've had droughtmaster bulls for the last 10 yrs, still got a few old Brahman cross cows left, they throw a bit of a hump on the calves, as stated I sell as weaners and they pick out those few calves with a bit of a hump and discount them.
He’ll do all right on that country RC. What we’re doing with weaners might not pencil out too well in a cold, hard economic analysis, but it was always disappointing to see the condition melt off big sappy calves after taking them off mum in the driest time of the year. All Santas here now, although we do buy the odd Droughtie bull to try to add a little more hardiness to the breeders.
Probably, I am only going by what someone told me years ago. All I know is they work for us. As for the 50. Well I have one. I have the opinion that for every kilo they lose, that is another kilo they have to put back on. Plus feeding them like that helps to quieten them as well as they will go onto feed better in a feedlot when the time comes. I just finished my tax for the last year and it was obscene what I spent on cattle feed, or moreso on Quicklick. But right now I have a heap of cattle ready to sell starting tomorrow, that had I not fed them would not be where they are. Just lucky the price has risen so it probably made it slightly worth it. Also lucky we have had a semi decent season here.
Here's our big boy. He's working clean up down at the bred heifer lot. He's a bit lame at the moment, slight case of foot rot, but that isn't slowing him down from servicing the ladies. He was trimmed and treated Friday morning and he was out chasing tail in the pasture this morning while I was down there. All of our heifers get bred via AI once, then shipped off to his lot. Running an Angus bull on heifers let us control our herd genetics better. If it's black, its getting sold. Only the genetics we AI bred to get to stay. Plus, the Angus bulls are way calmer and gentler to work around than a Holstein bull. This guy is 24 months old. He walked right into the trailer to be hauled down to see the hoof trimmer, then walked into the chute for work, then right back onto the trailer without a fuss to go back to his ladies. For comparison, most of our Holstein bulls were sold off due to the bulls attitude before they make 20 months old. They get mean and ornery early on. The Angus don't seem to.
Yeah bull sales starting around here in a week or two. I've had a bad year with preg testing results, so down on breeder numbers, will try and run a few less bulls this year otherwise I'll have to be buying to many. Culled one for age, one broke his pizzle, two had reproductive infections, will need to be re-semen tested and two more failed morphology testing. Am planning on buying four and hoping one or two of the re-tests come good. I hate bulls. Bought three last for $27k total, one of those has an infection. I hate bulls. I've settled on just a few stud producers that I have a relationship with and inspect bulls prior to auction so I can see them and access temperament. To me fertility and temperament are first consideration, conformation is second. This is the bloke with the infection just after I put him out with my maiden heifers last year. Droughtie obviously, hope he comes good. Not a massive bull, but poddy raised so extra quiet. Perfect for the maiden heifers. Do you guys semen test your bulls colson?
It was that way in the 60's with our Jersey herd, was all Curtis AI back then. But some wouldn't settle with a Jersey bull so Angus was always the go to.
We buy bulls from proven bull providers. You pay a little extra, but they guarantee an animal that will produce. We trade bulls once or twice a year, and the farms we buy from will back their bull 100% if something is wrong. We've only had 1bull not perform in my memory, and the seller made it right with us with a proven performer.
What do you mean "you trade bulls once or twice a year". Do you actually trade, ie swap with other producers or do you sell them? Why? Most if not all studs over here will give a 12 month fertility guarantee, but it's not the actual bull price that hurts if there's a fertility problem, it's the lack of progeny. I had that exact situation a few years ago, paid 13k for a bull, he went and sat in the corner of the paddock by himself, got about 40% preg test in calf (PTIC). single sire. Got my money back on the bull but missed out on about 20 calves and culled those empty cows when it wasn't their fault. With semen testing I'll keep a bull regardless of age as long as he's passing testing and also the attitude test.
We buy and sell our bull once or twice a year. We calve all year long. Dairy bulls get mean. We would buy a 12-15 month old Holstein bull to service our 12-18 month old heifers. By the time he was 18-20 months old, you couldn't get in the pen with them because he had become a safety hazard. The heifers aren't the problem, but a pissed off bull is. We have to enter the pen at minimum twice a week for cleaning so we can't keep a bull with a bad attitude. Too much of a safety liability. Older Holstein bulls don't get calmer either. Using an Angus bull is a new thing for us this year. We've been tweaking our AI program for 10 years or so, trying to find that right mix that helped with calving ease, but also added better value. The first solution was a jersey bull, but they got mean as well, and you couldn't hardly give the jersey cross bulls away. Switching to Angus has really helped add value to our bull calves while not hurting the calving ease issue with our heifers. We do breed our heifers young as there is a better payback in the dairy biz to get them producing at an earlier age, so large calves on the first go can cause irreparable damage that can't be undone. Hence the focus on calving ease for our heifers.
This is the barnyard we keep our young bred heifers in. My grandpa bought this farm in the early 2000's, but we've been raising cattle here since the 80's. We raised steers here until the mid 90s, feeding them high moisture corn out of the silo. Worked well, raised the calves to feeder size in the big barn, then sell off a lot to the processor and move the feeders out to the big yard to grow and finish out. Currently, small calves (3 months to 5 months age) are kept in the big barn towards the road and have access to the small pen. They will be hauled home to our heifer barn where they stay until they're AI bred around 12-13 months age. Then hauled back down here to grow. The 12-20 month old bred heifers are kept with our bull in the back barn with access to the larger pen.
Do you cull heifers based on pelvic measurements?
Bloody hell, I don't know if it's the dairy side or the climate/country side but there's not much in common with us. In the photo above, I that bull had been with those heifers for 5 mths and was just about to get pulled out. The bull had just been purchased 5 mths earlier, he would have been somewhere around 20-24 mths when purchased. Heifers are my maiden (never joined) heifers and would be around the same age as the bull. I don't join any younger as you get calving issues and also it pulls the heifers down to much trying to still grow and raise a calf, more productive country could do it, but not mine. Bulls go out for 5mths and then removed, cows preg tested and empties culled. As stated earlier I fatten my culls and take them direct to works, another reason to not join heifers to young as they end up never really growing to their full potential when pulled down with first calf. Recommended bull/cow ratio is approx 30 cows. I run a bit higher, 1-40ish cause paddock size is such that is how many cows each will carry. I plan on pulling a few fences down soon as single sire paddocks is a pain in the ar$e. Have bull issues, there's no back up, you end up with empty cows, not an issue for my parents/grandparents before me as they like most of that generation calved year round. Most cull cows at age 10yrs, but I tend to keep them a bit longer if they make it that far. I have been getting around 85-90% PTIC until this year, so I figure prioritising fertility has been paying off. Recommended cull age for Bulls they say is around 7yrs, but again with semen testing I'll keep them longer if they're fertile, physically sound and passing the attitude test. What are you paying for your bulls? It must start getting expensive keeping them for such a short time. I try a budget for around 10k each, which is what I consider a lot, but you've got to try and increase the quality of your herd and if I can get 5+ yrs out of a 10k bull, then it doesn't seem so bad then.
My sentiments entirely.
We leave the stud bulls for the stud breeders. They can have there elephants. We need bulls that can thrive in their own environment. Not grain fed. No supplements. Narrow hip, big balls, wide shoulders, smaller pizzle, big libido. We buy our grass fed bulls out of a large nucleus herd with good fertility. Mostly black (brangus) but mix it up charbray, droughtys, higher Brahman or more angus. Anything that doesn’t stay with the cows gets culled. You want a bit of fight in the fellas. Buy the end of 4 months they loose there fight and are quite manageable. Cull after 7 years. If they suffer in conditions we meatworks as well. Also keep a few good looking bull calves whole. If they look good at weaning will give then a chance. If not they make good steers. 4 months with cows, preg test when pulling bulls out with a 3 month calving window. Fats meatworks straight away. Skinny emptys get fattened then meatwork Heifers get a chance if miss if they are crossbread or black, greys dont get a chance if empty.
Replacement breeders come from own heifers but also replace with trade cow/calf combos in the early or right calving window. Can get a skinny cow/calf cheap. If she gets in calf again she can stay. We have quite a few good old girls that we have brought in as trade cattle and have stayed in the program.
Mostly dingos. We don’t worry about them. They have there family groups which are a stable population. They where here long before us and we have been trying to cull them for a 100 years. Still going strong. You go culling the alphas out then the young fellas have a bread up. Also dingos help maintain the cow’s natural instinct. Keeps them mobbed up and looking after their calves. We have taken so much of the bovine instinct away. Let them be cows. Have had cross bread dogs pulling Weiners. Definitely cull them.
No. Calving ease is only an issue for us because we are breeding our dairy heifers so young and they aren't fully developed. Once they're a 3 year old, having their second calf, calving ease isn't an issue. Buying young bulls like we do, they aren't horribly expensive. That Angus I showed cost us $3,000, which is what he would bring for beef at an auction locally. Dairy business is completely different than open range cattle operations. I'm aware as I've talked with many ranchers in the Western US when I worked oil drilling rigs. Our cattle live their lives in barns, are fed a mixed ration that was designed by a nutritionist to get the most possible out of each animal at every stage of life. Lots of high quality milk is what pays our bills. Selling the calves, excess grain, and culls just offsets some of the operating costs of the dairy.
I just hate anything that causes trouble. Time wasters I call them. So some bulls, mad cattle, bottle teated cows, etc. Wonderful day yesterday. Mustered the old meatworks steers in this new paddock in a different way to the last time I mustered when there were heifers in there, the steers being too old I expected some trouble as the way I was going to muster was not the right way to go about it with old steers , two of them took off downhill and just bailed up in the end. So they never made it to the yards. Then I learn the abattoir decides to increase the price 30c/kg in a week and a half, just after I finish selling. Then coming home in the truck in this new paddock the previous owner had an electric fence on the ground that I thought I had pulled it all up. Obviously not as a piece must have got dragged onto the road and wrapped itself around the tailshaft right at the diff, taking out the seal and two air hoses as it whipped around. At least the steers were fine in the yard and a bit bigger then I thought, just fitted 40 on the truck. In any case a bit behind the times here as we always since day dot kept our bulls in all year round. I am sick of weaning all year round and having a 12 month age difference between a year number. So this year I found a bull paddock and took out the bulls. Had a crappy calving last year for no obvious reason. Sometimes cows when they get out of sync of calving in spring/early summer, and start having late calves they end up missing a calf. That is what happened last year I suspect. I am trying to get a bit more productive and makes things easier. I do not pay as much as you do for bulls, every time I have paid over $7000 for a bull it all ended in tears within a couple of years. I have one paddock that is single sire due to it's size and 30% calving there one year. Another job I do not enjoy is buying bulls at an auction. Seems the ones I can pick out go for >$12 000. But I learned if you are prepared to wait you can often pick something up for a reasonable price, then you are wondering why no one else wanted him. You would probably only get AU$1500 for that bull over here at the meatworks. Yes your farm is a more intensive way of doing it then us here and heavily reliant on modern technology. If something disastrious happened we could go back to how it was done in the 1950's here and there would not be a massive drop in productivity, I have a list a mile long on what I would like to do to increase productivity, but simply can not afford to do it or do not have the time. I have noticed in the US and Europe a lot of farms have a lot of shiny newish equipment, we do not get enough for our cattle here to be able to be like that, but there are very wealthy farms around, especially those that are high quality land that have been handed down via inheritance, I have also seen in those situation pretty often those inherited farms the new owners the place just goes backwards as they never earned it and could not be bothered working, I do not have to go very far to find many examples of that. But we probably have to pay out similar in wages and taxes. My local government rates bill alone is over AU$20 000 a year for a rough access road, one paddock in a different local government area has no access so it is a pure donation for them. Workers want AU$300+ a day, some contractors now over $400 per person per day. It is what has been shitting me off the past twelve months, costs have gone through the roof, but our prices have been abysmal, it is only now I think they are at a fair level.
This afternoons effort. Been tordoned once, pulled twice and pelleted as well. Going to stickrake it now.
Yeah RC, overall, pulling the bulls in and out is more work in some aspects but less in others. As you said one branding round, one weaning round, makes life so much easier. Overall I think it's the way to go. I started doing it about 14 yrs ago and it did take a few years to get all the cows sync'd and everything to start working properly so you're calving rates may be down for a while. It'll also identify any non productive cows and they will keep popping up for several years. The hardest part is culling beautiful quiet empty cows, but if they aren't producing, then in my mind they are no good, keep culling and you will end up with beautiful quiet pregnant cows.
Breaks my heart everytime we cull a nice quite favourite but end up keeping some high strung grey who puts you over rail but is a good mother.
Yea it is hard to sell your favourites. Like these two poor little poddies here on the left. Most of their mates went on the truck two days ago. Then there are the real bastards you can not wait to see them get on a truck. Here is a photo of when I used to work for the neighbour, there is a reason why no one is in the yard. He died, then we had to clean out the block that was going to be sold which was over 20 000 acres of timbered range country. All helicopter work. Found some really old ones that had been missed for years and you did not get in the yard with them.
You might be interested in this as you have probably never seen the results sheet we get from the abattoirs. So our results just for generic markets comes back like this. This was today's results from the steers I sold. DEN is number of teeth. P8 Fat is the depth of fat measurement. Generally 5 to 27mm is where you aim for. Fat cows are notorious for being over fat, and you will get massively discounted. Had one recently go 50mm and lost over a dollar a kg on her. Butt shape goes from A to D. A: butt shape is the best and a unicorn for us. Rare to get a B or a D. MS, I have no idea what that one is. Then you have each sides results. Ht Wgt, or hot weight, the range there is typically 300 to 420KG, under/over that you will get discounted, if you look at the steer that went 420kg, you might think he scraped in, then you see either side was not the same. one side weighed 211kg, the other side weighed 209kg. Then look at the money I got paid for each side, $5.15/kg for the side that was 2kg heavier while $5.70/kg for the lighter one. Do you think they put the meat in a different box and sold it for less? Bru or Bruising, Grid is the money grade that side made on abattiors pricing schedule, they call that a grid. Then comments. Sometimes you might get a comment like "yellow Fat" or Scar Tissue Removal, which is code for a dingo bite as a calf. Then further along the other half, then the total carcass weight, then the value you will get paid. Personally I think they should have been worth $2400 a head. The average I got for this mob is around AU$2100 which is US$1426.
You have good weight in those bullocks RC, just a shame the price is not the same as we were getting a couple of years ago. The steers going up the ramp in the clip I posted was in Dec./21. We had done a deal with a large family owned feedlot a month prior. They were in the yards ready to go the following morning when we had 4 inches of rain. Ended up with 16 inches (2/3 our annual average) over the next ten days. When things had dried out enough for them to go, I was fully prepared to meet the agreed price, even though the market had kicked a little. Without asking, they offered an extra 40c/kg. Unfortunately, we don’t see those sort of offers today and certainly not from a processor owned feedlot.
Wow, thanks for sharing. I am familiar with some of the discounting, it seems to happen in every facet of agriculture. We generally sell our dairy culls at the local livestock auction on Tuesdays. All the local meatworks are there and you get a decent price for not having to haul them very far. While we don't get a breakdown like this, we have noticed depending on age and weight, that the pricing drops significantly on heavy animals. Most of our culls run 1600+/- pounds (Holstein cows are some big boned ladies) at the auction and tend to get a sharp discount over finished beef. I know a couple local beef operations that market direct to processors, but the processors want minimum sized groups of similar cattle to do that. Sometimes, we haul direct to a processor about an hour away that will take one off culls. We only go there if we have one that might not make it through the auction, or if we don't want to hold on to her until the next auction for risk reasons. This place takes everything as long as it will walk off the trailer and into their chute. Those animals get graded on carcass and paid out based on the Hot Weight. More than once, we've hauled in a frumpy, depressed cow that suddenly dropped production and then got a slip in the mail from the processor saying she was condemned for cancer. These are cows that were milking fine, and then just took ill. We do everything we can to treat them, but when there is no positive response, we've learned to cut our losses and get them out the door. I don't think we've had a condemned cow in a year or so now though.
Some more photo's I found of when we were cleaning out the neighbours place. Some got a taxi ride. Someone once made the comment they thought even their mince would be tough.
We were planning to take a couple of decks of heifers to the fortnightly sale at Biggenden today. Have decided to put it off…Burnett Highway is not the best road to be on at the moment.
Yeah I was going to head back up this arvo, could go through Dalby, but bugger it, tomorrow will work. Then back down for Coolabunia Bull Sale next Saturday.
We heard the bang from here, over 100km away. In any case I am not sure why they closed the highway, what is one more small pothole out of the thousands already there to dodge. I would say more about out illustrious state government but I see Pony is from SE Queensland and I know that area are big supporters of the current government and I do not want to upset him. For those who would not know about it a B-Double truck carrying ammonium nitrate was involved in a crash where it subsequently caught fire and part of it exploded five hours later. Explosion felt kilometres away as truck carrying 42 tonnes of ammonium nitrate crashes on Bruce Highway Residents are allowed to return after evacuating from near a head-on crash and explosion on the Bruce Highway in central Queensland, the third major truck crash on the central Queensland highway this week. www.abc.net.au
How did it go up? I thought ammonium nitrate was stable until it was mixed to a paste with a fuel oil. Does heat or fire set it off without mixing?
Cliffy, diesel from the truck tanks? RC, I can honestly say I've never voted labour in my life, but having said that, the older I get, the more i think all politicians are idiots regardless of party. None of them have any idea about life in the real world.
Ammonium nitrate can explode on it's own under specific circumstances, generally it catches fire and then get hotter an hotter and will eventually melt in a confined space and get hot enough to decompose rapidly into a gas. There was a huge explosion on a ship in Texas a long time ago, that was fire related. That Beirut explosion is another example. Often you see red smoke from the explosion, that is nitrogen oxides. Had to do one of those fake courses in a day as part of a part time wharf job handling the stuff. If a ship of it catches fire, you do not close the ships hold to confine it.
The truck was on fire, as were the trucks in two previous Qld. AN explosions. Freakily, Friday’s episode was on the anniversary of another explosion on the 30th August 1972, when another truck went up just north of Taroom, killing the driver and two locals that had arrived to help. Has been a bad week for the Bruce Highway with six B doubles involved in a separate accident, just south of this one, with another life lost there. Traffic is being diverted inland on the Burnett Highway adding several hours to the trip. Already another fatal accident on this highway early this morning as it is not suitable for huge volumes of heavy traffic, all frustrated and unfamiliar with the road.
It should be nearly fixed by now if they were competent as the explosion was not even on the road, but they are probably still standing around filling out their JSA that is they even have staff to do the repairs. Took them eight months to fix a damaged bridge guardrail around here, of course they had speed restrictions on it all that time that most people ignored. I read QR have already repaired the railway line that got blown sideways.
With the billions spent on the bruce, they could of duplicated the whole length of it and made it two lanes by now instead of making it 6ft wider with a painted median strip.
That’s what they say isn’t it? Here in Australia we drive on the left of the road. On the Bruce, they drive on what’s left of the road.
Must have been a decent bang!
10yrs ago this one happened Truck hauling fertiliser explodes; 8 hurt A police officer and four firefighters were among those hospitalised after a truck carrying ammonium nitrate rolled over and exploded near Charleville in south-west Queensland. A police spokesman said the blast was so powerful the truck "disintegrated", destroying a firefighting vehicle along... www.abc.net.au
The last time I went up through the Belyandoe the speed limit was 110 but at 60kph I blew out both front shockers. The road was better when it was dirt.
Was that 10yrs ago, bloody hell, doesn't time fly when you're having fun.
Apparently the repairs have had to be delayed. They have to have a cultural inspection and then a fauna inspection for three trees that have to be pushed over. When did Queensland become such a hopeless mess? Was not that long ago they would just bring in a dozer, push it all into a pile and light it up.
Yeah I can tell the Bruce is still closed. Came up through Dalby, Durong, Mundubberra, little bit more traffic, more trucks. Hit the Burnett highway at Mundubberra, bloody hell, never seen the road so busy.
Can you imagine what ole Jo would be saying or doing. There would be some bleeding noses from the ar^e kicking about now
He is probably part to blame. He built so much in Queensland. Made Brisbane and the south east corner a place everyone wants to live in. Bought up heaps of mexican immigrants, especially from Victoria, who bought all their ways with with them they turned that area into a big labor stronghold and us rural people have been cast as the villians to be stomped on whenever the government needed to get some urban support. I think it is like the old three generation rule. First creates it, second builds on it, the third loses it, because the time the third generation is around, they have always been well off and have no idea how they became so well off. The people in the south east corner, having no idea what created all the wealth that allowed all the infrastructure to be built in their area, that being the mining and agriculture sector now hate those things that made them able to live such a fancy lifestyle.
If there aren't more fatalities on the Burnett highway while the Bruce is shut I'll eat my hat. I went to check things on my block north of Monto this morning. There are B-Doubles going from GinGin through Kalpowar to Monto, that's madness. While coming back from Monto towards Eidsvold, there's clowns towing camper trailers etc sitting on 80kph, while 5 semi's are sitting behind them. There's no overtaking lanes and not a lot of long straights. I was glad to get off onto the dirt roads. Another of my blocks where I stay in the house fronts the Burnett highway, the house is about 1km up a hill from the highway, having lunch now looking down, just a constant stream of traffic. I really didn't appreciate the volume of traffic the Bruce handles.
RC, the Fairburn dam was constructed during Joh's tenure along with other projects in Central Queensland and never borrowed a cent to do it. All monies came out of revenue and still Queensland was the cheapest state to live in. Since his passing this State has gone to ****.
Last I heard was that they hope to have one lane open at midnight tonight. At one stage they were diverting some light traffic over Blackman’s gap, that is one scary road.
Wow, that sounds like a mess to deal with over there. Around 2010-2012, I was working drilling rigs up in North Dakota when part of Hwy 22 just slid off the side hill it was cut in North of Killdeer. Heavy, prolonged rains that spring made a mess of the area and apparently the heavy drilling rig traffic rumbling up and down 22 had taken its toll on the highway. It was closed for the year while they rebuilt it and the detours were horrendous. Initially sending lots of traffic down unimproved side roads before eventually rerouting everything the long way around over to Watford City and them down.
Here is a pic for colson as our cattle trucks might be a bit different to what he uses. Just loaded these cows this morning. I have seen videos of cattle trucks in the US and the trailer design is very foreign to ours. These have a full width ramp maybe about 13 feet long inside the trailer near the rear that gets lowered down, so when you do not have a double ramp you lower the trailer ramp, jam the top deck on and lift the ramp which will have cattle standing on it. Then you climb up and split the top into the two partitions. With the b doubles, the front of the long trailer and the rear of the front short trailer opens up to make a walkway to load the front trailer.
Just wanted to say a quick Gday to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I have only just come across it but have read plenty and have plenty left to go. I'm a cattle producer in QLD as well so it is all very much of relevance and interesting. Great to see a proper discussion online that flows from topic to topic!
What two wheel motorbikes are you fellas running. Had a good run out of crf230s until the last 2. Both blowing smoke at 700hrs. Probably a bit to do with the two young blokes on them. Sold mine at 1000hr still ok. Have 600hrs on crf250f. Already had fork seals and stator replaced. Seat is hard and stalls easy when trying to idle on lead ect. Leaks oil. Jumps out of gear. Just got two new kawasaki 230s and have multiple electrical issues already.
I have CRF300L at the moment. Not sure on the hours but it would be at least 1000-2000. Before that a CRF250L. They are not the most rugged bikes but are definitely more comfortable and pleasant considering i can spend 12+ hours a day on the back of it some days. Fuel injection is great. I previously had Yamaha TTR 250's but the switch to the CRF250L was quite literally life changing. The taller seating position and narrower harder seat (and probably the way I rode them as I was younger then) left me with almost crippling sciatica back pain. That all disapeared on the switch in bikes! Biggest issue with mustering bikes in our climate comes down to heat. Not moving fast enough to get the airflow. The aircooled engines were great for being simple and not having radiators to clean and coolant to top up. But they could overheat quickly in a slow moving hard working mustering situation on a hot QLD day. I still have the same issue with the honda the liquid cooling. Really have to be aware of it and sometimes shoot off back up a track mid muster to get some airflowing through the radiator and over the engine. Actually, the biggest issue I have now with the Honda CRF300L is the black metal fuel tank and the heat that builds up in the fuel. You can smell it fuming and is down right scary somedays! I do miss the old '90s era XR250 bikes
Got a ttr230 as well. Just hate it. Probably fine if your 5ft tall. Trying to stay away from water cooled. Will give the kawakas bit more of a chance before i pass judgement. I do love my hondas but the 250f has left a sour taste. Also did clutch at 500 hours.
Thats quite the rig, definitely different than what is common here. As for us, we have a 20ft stock trailer we pull behind our pickup for shuttling youngstock around or hauling culls to the auction. Not much for capacity, but it suits our needs. We never have more than 4 culls to haul at once, and we grouped our heifer pens to match what we can haul for calves. Works out fair enough. The big boys can haul 30-50 head, depending on size. I'm not exactly sure, we don't buy cattle, and we've never sold enough at one time to need a cattle car. We have sold groups of weaned heifers when we were overstocked, about 30 head or so, and they all went on a 30ft trailer pulled by a one ton dually pickup.
Never thought about using bikes for mustering, not something that is part of my world. We have a John Deere 620i Gator we use daily for running around the spread. Its been used a time or two to encourage some cattle back to the barn when someone left a gate unlocked. I'm a big fan of Honda bikes and Polaris ATVs for recreational riding. Been riding the Polaris' for over 20 years. None are perfect, but I'm not very gentle on them when I go riding.
Me, my niece, my oldest daughter on this weekends trip My wife and oldest daughter the next day One of our destinations was a sand dune over looking a bend in the Manistee River. If you're good at playing 'find it', there's an American Bald Eagle perched in a tree in the right ⅓ of the picture. We watched him swoop in and land.
Hard to see on my phone. Is it the green tree's or the dead one?
Green trees. Look at the short tree in middle of photo beside river. Eagle is in the tree to the right of that.
Can see its white head. Pretty camouflaged though but cool to see.
The rest of my crew all ride quads and continually have a go at me for riding a two wheeler, but I’ll only muster on a four wheeler under sufferance. This is the second one of these Kawasakis that I’ve had…wore the first out without having too many dramas. When we bought this one two years ago, we had a choice of it or the new fuel injected 230 but decided to stick with what I knew. Before we picked the first one up, I rode it around the dealer’s yard and changed sprockets twice before I was happy that it was going slow enough. Nice seat and low enough that you can plant both feet on the ground when pulled up.
too too busy admiring the shed/diesel tank before I could see the bike. Do you get diesel at a good price when you buy bulk or are you just burning lots of it?
No two wheel bikes here any more but we went through about five Yamaha Ag200's. Starting with the yellow 6V ones, then the grey ones and then the electric start blue ones. They were simple and reliable. Now there is only a suzuki 500 quad we have had since 2012 and a nearly 4 year old kawasaki mx pro buggy. The suzuki has been bullet proof, over 40 000km and virtually touched nothing other then a couple of drive belts, and it looks pretty rough now. The buggy has had a lot of minor issues, 27 000km and on it's fourth drive belt, speedo sensor replaced, it has been boiled (but seems no damage done) from a faulty fan connector and other stuff, but talking to others about buggies it seems they all have issues of being very maintenance intensive, and they are expensive as hell to buy moreso these days post covid inflation. Most of our mustering is done with horses though, but I am not a horse person, only use them because they do what we have to do. Buggies and bikes do not kick, bite, buck, and they stay where they are left and they go where you want them to go, even if that is where you should not be going As a worker of one of the neighbours found out.
We have a little road maintenance business on the side so we do go through a bit at times. Could probably save a few cents by shopping around but prefer to stick with our local seller who provides dependable service. We had a blue Ag200, was a reliable bike, comfortable seat, but due to the antiquated suspension would throw you in a heartbeat if you hit the right size rock/stick.
I have not really ridden anything other then the Ag200 bikes to compare to. Got thrown off a fair number of times, but I was young and dumb then. Never really suffered any injuries other then bruises. Some exciting times of going along driving one handed, firebug in the other hand and running up a fork of a limb on the ground and stalling it, then a mad panic to restart it, kick start of course and they never liked starting when hot. Crossing smooth sticks or even worse poly pipe that was above ground on a dewy morning never ended well. Dogs crossing in front of you as they are chasing each other, another hazard. Then you read about the number of deaths from quad bikes, and realise how safe the two wheelers are, not that our quad/buggy has ever gone anything near being rolled. I have found because their speed and do not run out of puff, you can afford to work cattle wider and if something breaks you can always catch up to them even if you have to take the long way around an obstacle. The beast will run out of puff before the quad/buggy.
Do the dogs ride on it? The most famous dog to ride on a bike was Kookie the wonder dog. Rode on the gas tank of fast desert racer John McCown. Carpet was glued onto the tank so Kookie had something to grab onto. He knew when to jump off and when to hang on. He's in the On any Sunday movie. An incredible duo! In his off time John wrote children's books. John Mc Cown & Kookie the Wonder Dog As popularized in the movie, “On any Sunday”, this desert duo spent most of their weekends romping through the So Cal desert at 300 plus races. John and Kookie rode together as one. Like any expert desert racer, “Kookie learned to read the terrain... hotshoehof.com https://flic.kr/p/pzsxtz https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1a/6b/8d/1a6b8db2e7bc2e3abf9757de67bc7f43.jpg
Yeah, always take at least one but mostly two. They learn to lay low and hang on and are quick to bail out when things start to get a bit sketchy.
Looks like RC was right, it was definitely a good bang and some poor bugger died. But surely, clean it up, get a detour in place and open up the road, did it need to closed for as long as it did?
Just government in action.
Another ex-mines product that we’ve used a bit of is this victaulic pipe. Six inch diameter, only thin wall, might be 2mm at most, but is hot dipped gal. We completely fill with concrete for added strength or to make them look pretty but mostly just fill to above ground level and leave the top open. Caps add at least another $6/post.
That is a nice looking job, and it will look nice for many decades to come.
An unexpected failure here. We installed a new head on this windmill sometime in the early 2000's, the tower is old, probably 1920's. I would have expected to get 40 years before needing to do any work on it. Barely 20 years later and the crank has totally worn through. I think manufacturing standards have dropped on this sort of stuff over time as the people with the knowledge of making them retired or died off. This is obvious as I found 3/8UNC nuts where there should have been 3/8" Whitworth, and even some 10mm metric bolts thrown in, just to make me happy as I only bought whitworth spanners and a couple of shifters. Got ones installed in the 1950's and 1960's that only needed work after 40+ years. Have got a fair few second hand spare parts here so I put in some of them to fix it. It is always the greasiest oiliest job we have to do.
Of course it is even better as it runs on wood bearings so when the crank is removed the wheel is isolated from the tower. As you can see in the photo's it is right under a high voltage transmission line, and if you touch the wheel and the tower you get a zap.
I've always wondered if a fellow could build an air core transformer and pull enough power from those transmission lines to be useful.
Why not apply a ground wire when you work on it ?
There was a contractor building a new transmission line in the South Island NZ and was told where to locate his camp. Part of the deal the agency was to supply power but didn't happen. So he got a pole, coiled a conductor around it and planted it near the adjacent to the existing line. He ran that camp for 6mths off the leakage until he got court. All hell broke loose with the treat of legal action until he pulled out the contract and made them read it, recond it was funny as watching bureaucrats fighting amongst themselves.
I really forgot all about it's shocks as it has been so long since we put it up. The shocks are more like rubbing something sensitive against a wire brush. More of an annoyance. ----------------------------------------------------------- And here is something for Pony, he can tell me if I did my money at the bull sale today. Paid 10 000 for the fella on the right and 5000 for the closer fella on the left. The fella on the left probably sits a bit low on his back toes but that will probably improve when he loses a bit of condition. It was a pretty strong sale, of course the ones I really wanted were all $12 000+. Lot 2 went for $28 000, while not a big amount, this sale is usually one of the cheaper ones. https://vimeo.com/showcase/11346021?page=1 And we have been buying here for years off and on and been satisfied with the results we get. I hate buying bulls at auction.
To me, the two most important traits of a bull are fertility and temperament, we can sit here and pick their conformation apart, but I wonder how much difference it really makes for commercial blokes like us. What we really want is calves on the ground and to be able to easily handle the bull. So based on one simple photo, yours appear good to me, walking sensibly, not bouncing around, I quite like your cheaper one. Come back and tell us in 12 mths what their calves are like. I bought two at the national droughtmaster sale in Rocky a few weeks ago, know the vendor real well. In his opinion (and mine) his first bull was his best, the next 4 or 5 were pretty much peas in a pod. I got the first one for 9k, rest of them were dearer and I got the last one for 11k. So I paid 2k more for a worse conformation bull (in my opinion). Moral of my story, even the experts (stud owner, not me) can't pick their own best (highest price) so what hope do ordinary mugs like us have? I also hate buying bulls.
This seems appropriate.
Yea based on the photo your first one is better then the second one by meatiness. There is the fear of missing out mentality where people fear they may miss out, so will pay that bit extra. It is why I do not like going to auctions, but still seem to buy most of my bulls from them. The capricorn sale I bought these from, the vendor has his own commercial side and feedlot as well because he does not have much in the way of prime fattening country, and does quite well in carcass competitions. With that to back up his bulls it gives you confidence that they will perform. A brahman bull I bought some years back now, only got a few years out of him as he crippled his hip, he was a good bull visually and good temperament, but turns out he throws females with bottle tits. First calf heifers with front tits way bigger then they should be, it was obvious what was going to happen down the track.
Yep, auctions suck. I was at a Santa sale the other day. Upset price was $6000 with $2000 bids. Place a bid and by the time you get another you’re another 4K up. Makes it tough.
I'm just shocked by what y'all are paying for bulls. We bought our current Angus for $3000 and he's been pretty busy at his job keeping the heifers settled. I'm pretty sure that is the most we have ever paid for a bull. At the time when we got him, our deacon bulls were bringing $800, picked up at the farm by our regular buyer so we weren't too upset about what we paid. He did have to see the foot trimmer about 5 weeks ago. He developed a white line abscess in his right rear. Little trim and some oxytet and back to his ladies. We were concerned it might throw him off for a while, but the next morning he observed servicing another heifer, and has stayed busy ever since. We'll get a better idea of his record in another 4 months when the first ladies he serviced start to come due.
Now that is getting a bit silly. I thought starting bids at $5000 and $1000 bids is a bit bold, but it is the norm these days. Only problem is on our screens it comes up "The uploader has not made this video available in your country" You will have to explain to me what a deacon bull is as I have not heard the term before.
Day old bull calfs. Not sure where the deacon name came from, but thats what everyone around here calls them. We have a calf broker that comes around twice a week. He sizes them and cuts a check right then for us. He then takes them to a nursery 2 hours away that will raise them to whatever size their buyer wants up to Feeders (around 550 pounds) We sold 4 calves on Tuesday and got a check for a bit over $2500. Three years ago, these calves would have barely brought $600 for the group. I think calf prices hit their peak in early August this year as they've backed off a little over 10% now, but still pretty good.
My dairy neighbor used AI (as I thought most dairy do), is that not used in beef cattle ?
Did they use Armorall on that bull ?.... Went to an auto auction, they had it in 55 gal drums all around the place....
We use AI for all of our cows. We keep a bull with the open heifers to reduce labor involved for that age group. AI can be used in beef operations, but typically only smaller operations where the cost of AI is cheaper than the cost of carrying a bull all year. As for the open range guys, bulls just make sense as it significantly reduces the labor involved in breeding. AI isn't a 100% guarantee. First pass conception rates hover in the 40% range. Most cows get bred at least twice before they settle. Bull first pass conception rates are typically in the 35% range, but he's always there with the ladies, sniffing out who's coming into heat and staying with her until she'll stand firm for him.
AC/DC Big Balls video.
Digger Doug Nope, just grain. But they aren't my photos they're the professional ones taken for the auction catalogue. Colson I'm not involved in the stud business but am pretty good friends with the vendor of the ones above. As Queenslander stated some bull sales are minimum 6k, I bought 4 bulls this year at 3 different sales, 2 sales minimum 5k other one 4k. Friend stated it costs him about 2.5-3k to get a bull to sale ring. So when he runs the risk of only making approx 2k per bull for all the time invested, its not really a viable business. He has to get half or so up around the 10k to make money. He bought a bull at Rocky this year for 65k, it's not a cheap business to try and get into. Top price bull made 120k, that's where the big boys play. Don't want to be swatting flies when he was being sold. That's why I made the statement to RC, I really don't know as a commercial breeder weather he or I will see any real financial benefit of a 10k bull over a 5k bull. But my stud friend will definitely see the benefit of a 65k bull over a 30k bull. I probably should qualify about the 5k-10k bull. It gets very blurry when buying at auction, as stated earlier I paid 9k for a better bull than I paid 11k for. I also bought 2 others this year at different auctions (same vendor), 9k and 4k. They are all very quiet but the second 9k bull is exceptionally quiet so was happy with his price, but the 4k bull was about same conformation/temperament as the 11k bull. So my cheapest was by far the best buy for me, but it was just a cheap sale where I bought him, he probably would have brought double at the Rocky sale. And my dearest was the worst buy, as someone else obviously wanted him. It was the last bull sold on day one, I was 5hrs from home, I didn't want to stay night or drive back the next, so put in one more bid and got him. Hence everyone saying they hate auctions.
Ahh OK, they are called bobby calves over here and I believe they are generally sent to the abattoirs for veal at a very young age. The prices you get for them are unreal.
From my understanding, locally, the largest of the deacons will become veal, and the rest will nursed until they can be sent to a feedlot. There are a lot of feedlots in my area that only buy calves in the 500+/- pound range and keep them until finished around 1350pounds, or whatever terminal weight is desirable. We don't have the mega feedlots like they do in the Western US, but there are several local to me in the 500-2500 head size, which is plenty of work for a family run business.
I don't know if it's changed now, but back in the early 90's I spent 12 mths working on a fairly large cow/calf operation in Colorado. I know we lost a handful of newborn calves for whatever reason, I couldn't believe it when they bought these day old calves and we had to spend a fair bit of time and effort getting the cows to accept the replacements. There's certainly nothing like that over here in my experience, now or back then. From memory they paid $250/head back then for the day olds.
I have another bonus from the production pipe purchase. the 2 3/8" stuff with the hollow plastic tube down the centre. I got some out of the pipe and found out you can easily put a 1 1/2" pipe thread on it. So now I can use that inner plastic pipe for water pipe use. I could maybe even thread the 2 3/8" steel pipe with a 2" thread should the need arise.
When you are helping someone else, it is always stress free when things give you trouble. My role was uber driver.
Had a thought bubble. I wonder if you pre-cast the posts into concrete in a mould at your leisure, then had them on hand and all you had to do is dig a hole and plonk them in, then either ram them up or pour a small amount of concrete around the outside. It would speed up the fencing process a bit, not having to wait for concrete to dry, which I always thought you should leave for a few days, before straining the wires.
Thinking outside the square is always good, something I struggle with a bit. Happy to be proven wrong, but my understanding is that cementing in place is many times stronger than any other method. I also agree with you re leaving the cement to cure for a bit. I usually cement the RHS in, and leave it at least a day or two to cure then weld any stays or rails in and again leave a day or two before straining off it. I usually just whack a steel post in somewhere handy and run the existing wires around the strainer, etc to keep the cattle out. Definitely slower, but no-ones paying me by the hour or post so all's good there.
I once thought about digging a six inch hole and sliding one of those victaulic pipes in, maybe rattling some rapid set down the outside if it was a bit loose. Never tried it though.
Is anyone else still cutting posts or am I the only silly bugger? Everyone has dodged this big fella for the last hundred years but he had to go, he was righton the fence line. He had a big split (grown over) at about head high, so I wasn't sure how much wood he had in him, but as it turned out, plenty. If the bottom billet was any good, he would have had four billets. The three I got didn't change in diameter from bottom to top. 13 posts from each billet. I used to cut a few posts for outside people years ago, so I've cut a few bigger narrow leaf ironbark, but I don't think I've ever cut one with no taper like that before. He was the biggest ironbark on our block, there was one bigger only a few hundred metres away from him, up until a few years ago, until he was struck by lightning.
I am not much good at cutting split posts. That pulling I did a few days ago, I did think of splitting out a few of the big ones, they died from pellets, not borers or leaf strippers so the timber should be OK.
Yeah I was nearly going to comment there could have been a few posts in some of those trees. Cause I'm lousy and hate wasting anything, I will rip the dead ones. It's a bit harder on you and your gear, and depending upon how long it's been dead for can be nearly impossible to bark. But if the bark won't come off, just cut it into billets and put it behind the shed somewhere for a year or so till it comes off by itself, the timber won't get any harder, so you've lost nothing. I can't believe what they're getting now to rip posts. I stopped when it was $2.50 a post at the stump. Someone said they're paying $12 now. I obviously had the tractor to move the billets in the photo above, that certainly makes it easier with those big ones, not trying to wrestle 3/4 ton billet around in the rocks, sticks, gullies, etc where it fell, by hand.
I probably tend to overthink things rather then just getting on with the job. Posts really are getting up there in price now. It would be worth my while to split them out and just send them to the local auction house in small lots for hobby farmers. I am amazed what they sell there. I have seen people happily pay $30 for a small bundle of used steel posts. Just looked at the weather radar, Looks like the Burnett region might get a sprinkle or two if that big line of storms continues through.
We might get a scud if we’re lucky. Our place is marked on the 128k Taroom loop so we are able to accurately track storms as they slip past us. More likely to just lose power as we are on the end of a swer line.
I've been looking at the radar myself, I come home to the Lockyer Valley to see the family yesterday, hopefully it does come through. That burnt country needs a drink, I put the bulls out start of last week. Those new bulls straight off grain are going to think their throats been cut going onto dried off speargrass shoots.
Well what's the chances! I was pretty sure before but I'm 100% now, Queenslander. I used to work for your better half's old man many years ago. I'll leave it at that and see if you can work out who I am from that.
Well I have seen that truck of yours go through town a couple of times but that’s all I’ve got. Leave it with me, I’ll send you a PM if I work it out.
Quick question to confirm….. would your parents have been at the race meeting on the weekend that I mentioned in my other thread?
They most certainly would have been.
PM sent.
Got awoken at 4am to lightning and thunder. I think I got 2 spots of rain out of it as is was all south of me, but apparently at the callide valley block the neighbour got 16mm. A better chance of storms today I think.
Yeah 6mm here in Lockyer Valley, storms all around us but didn't get under one. Haven't spoke to the parents so don't know up there, but going by the radar hopefully my Monto block got under the southern end of that band of storms your talking about RC
Ended up with 25mm here, others nearby had 30-50mm.
I don't know how dry you are, but I'm usually pretty happy with 25mm per rain event. Enough to soak in and give everything a good drink without turning the ground into a muddy quagmire. Though, I usually see rain on a regular basis through the year.
We have had no rain for near on two months so the grass was starting to go off a bit, it was only that we had very unusual big falls early August that has kept things greenish. In saying that August/September are our two driest months of the year. Getting little rain in those two months is not unusual. They are two months that we are glad to see the end of.
And this is why I hate bulls. Not sure what this new chap has done to himself. As soon as he goes to walk he goes like this, like he is sidling up for a fight. But he isn't. When he is not walking he looks normal, can move his neck around like normal. Lucky me it is only the $5000 bull.
I got nothing, but it's probably worth the gamble of throwing more money away to get a vet to see him. Just in case it's something simple, like a pinched nerve. Spoke to my neighbour last week she only bought 1 bull this year, so spent 12k. Put him out early and as young bulls do was humping anything anyhow. Broke his pizzle, time for another new bull, she wasn't real happy either.
I actually wondered if it could be an inner ear infection. A fair bit of three day sickness around as well although has been vaccinated against that. Neighbour bought a $25 000 bull this year, and he was also vaccinated, but he went down with it anyway. He said he was over it now, he was not insured either. Looks normal when not walking.
Well looks like that rain was a bit patchy. Only 5mm at the main block, haven't been up to the other one yet, so fingers crossed it got a bit more.
Looks like it is going to be one of those times. The Kawasaki buggy stopped moving today and only made a whizzing noise. Pulled the belt cover off to reveal a worn out female spline and a worn male one. To replace the male one, according to the service book it is the first thing they put into the motor/transmission at the factory. You have to strip the entire engine/transmission. I partly regret buying this SxS now, they are fantastic for zipping around and go many places, but they are just not built for real work. 28 000km and it has had a heap of minor problems. Thing is though, now from what people tell me, pretty much every brand is the same. They are just plain expensive to run. Compared to the Suzuki Quad. 50 000km and barely touched it with a spanner. The old Yamaha ag200 bikes. Never had to touch a gearbox on them, and we had five of them over the years and they copped a flogging.
Bugger. Is that a diesel Mule? I hope not cause I've got one as well, mine would be around 7yrs old but would have nothing like that many km, its been pretty good so far, got plenty of busted plastic panels, so doesn't look real flash, but mechanically it's been good. Fingers crossed.
Think I would broach it for a key way and if I had to I’d weld it. Is there room to put a shear bolt in?
No the MX petrol one. Kawasaki had them made by Kymco in Taiwan or China. I could do that, I am not sure how I will go about things just yet as I am suspecting it has gearbox issues inside by the amount of freeplay in that shaft when it is in gear.
They are all the same. 30000kms and they are buggered. Its around $1 a km to run these things.
Yeah but they've definitely got a niche. Quads are better for working cattle, racing out to check something or anything else where speed is important. Side by side (diesel at least) is a much better choice to go run a fence line or similar where you need to cart a bit wire, chainsaw, etc etc. Real PITA on a quad and they'll go places a 4x4 ute won't. If you're out fencing or something and need to cart coils of barbwire, fence posts, etc, use the ute. As stated s/s aren't real work vehicles.
I think that is a pretty solid assessment Pony. I guess you also get what you pay for. I paid around $15 000 for this MX Pro in Jan 2021. I think our trouble free suzuki King Quad which we got in 2012. Made in the USA was around $12 000. When I was looking for a SxS the Kawasaki diesel DX and full sized petrol FX were USA made models and a fair bit more then the MX. An uncle bought one of those chinese diesel landbosses. I think they got over 10 000km on it before they gave up on it and gave it away to someone.
The only SxS we have is a little Kawasaki SX. I wanted something manoeuvrable to carry the scattergun that I mentioned in another thread. Some of the bigger ones are almost as wide as a Hilux. It’s been great for that, cops a bit of a rough time…I suspect it won’t have a long life either.
My parents have two Suzuki Kingquad LTA400s with right around 20,000 miles on each. I’ve had to fix a few things on them, but they have been the most trouble free ATVs they’ve owned. They do burn enough oil that I no longer change it. I just keep adding and change filters. They might get traded after another 10,000 miles. Might get 500s next time. The 400s are pretty nimble, but only have a max speed of 40 mph. And they are pretty well maxed out with our sprayers. They always had Kawasakis before these, and I don’t think they ever kept them past 10,000 miles.
We have a John Deere Gator 620i at the farm for errands/checking irrigation. It started to get really noisy this summer when suddenly it lost its go. Torque convertor did the exact same thing as yours, stripped all of the female splines out. We installed new clutches and belt and sent it out. The male splines were shiny, but fit fairly tight with the female. I forget how many hours it has, but I'll try to look tomorrow. It's awfully handy for a quick run around compared to the pickup.
Yeah mine is the Kawasaki DX diesel, I think i paid around 17k around 7 yrs ago, its got a yanmar 3cyl. Uses no fuel, bit slow (45kph) but has been pretty good really. Bought it on recommendation of a friend who has a brother who breaks anvils with feathers and he hasn't been able to destroy his yet. I did look at the hydro drive kubota's but were a bit more expensive again than the Kawasaki's.
I do have one of these https://specialistsales.com.au/shop...s/iris-ie-ss-c-12-v-electric-spreader-seeder/ I mounted on my MX, and it is great for putting out grass seed and pellets. We cannot buy the Suzuki, Can Am, Kawasaki, Polaris, Yamaha, etc quads in Australia any more. People were killing themselves on quad bikes doing stupid stuff, so the idiotic government changed the importation rules that the quads had to be modified to be imported. The big quality manufacturers told the government to get stuffed and refused to import new ones. Now all we have are chinese ones. The kubotas are not much chop. Slow and gutless and and being all hydrostatic, expensive to fix, their good point is the tray they have, and they are probably well suited to small acreages. The aforementioned uncle who had the landboss has two of the hydrostatic Kubotas, (one of the kubotas had serious transmission issues at under 8 000 km that cost a bit to fix), and a Kawasaki DX and a Kawasaki MX.
On edit….we both posted together RC. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to buy Suzuki farm quads here anymore along with Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and maybe a couple of others. Because of the high number of fatalities on quads the government legislated that they must be fitted with operator protection devices from new. Australia is a relatively small market and the major manufacturers weren’t prepared to deal with the issue so promptly withdrew their products. This is part of Suzuki’s statement at the time.
Holy smokes, I had no idea your government passed such legislation. How do they sell dirt bikes then? They are just as dangerous as any quad could be. You can't coddle everyone in the population because a few individuals don't know how to use common sense, or won't read the warning labels. About 15 years ago, my state actually repealed the mandatory helmet law for riding motorcycles on road after it was in place for decades. The general public lobbied and pushed to get it repealed as it was accepted that riding motorcycles is already a high risk, dangerous activity. The survival rate wearing a helmet in a high speed crash wasn't any better than states that didn't mandate helmet use at the time.
Missouri did away with the helmet law I guess there wasn't enough organ donors ? Medical people call them donor cycles.
You might be surprised on what rules our government's have made, just as I am surprised what rules the "land of the free" have at times. For example if you drive a sxs on the road you must wear a helmet. Even on private land you cannot drive a vehicle including ride a horse with an alcohol reading over 0.05. Some states have banned electric scooters from being driven on roads, and even then they are supposed to be power limited. Electric push bikes are also power limited. -------------- At least the better news is my bull seems to be getting better, I did ring the vet's office, but they never got back to me. I did also hit him with two doses of penicillin in case it was an inner ear infection. And I have decided to put some devcon on that worn spline and put the new part over that and see how it goes. And try to wean myself off driving the sxs so much.
I am starting to wonder exactly how many calves this cow has inside of her. She is getting rounder and rounder. Also one heifer decided to not have a calf at all after being given nearly two years of chances. No more chances for her.
Yum yum
We used to do our own until a few years ago. Now we just run a killer into the local butcher. He’ll hang her for a week and a half before breaking down. It costs a bit more but everything is done..roasts rolled, steak sliced, corned meat, mince, steaketts, not to mention award winning sausages.
We are the opposite, we used to get ours done by butchers until a few years ago as now it is near impossible to get one done by anyone around here. So now we only get very roughly cut chunks of meat, mince and corned meat. We tried a farm butcher once, he came with his coldroom. Bowled the beast over, skinned it, quartered it and we hung it in the coldroom. Then he immediately cuts it all up. Could not even let it hang overnight to set.
The little bully seems to be mostly better again now. Getting a fair few calves now and the bulls with the cows are all running around. Plus the steers are getting fatter and around half of this mob going later next month. And I fixed the worn male SxS spline with devcon
Was a good burning day yesterday, so burned that country I pulled.
Now what kind of work do you do to whats left? Looks like the bigger stuff didn't burn down, or does it all burn down fairly well?
I will end up stickraking it sometime down the track. The bigger stuff was never expected to burn, the hardwood is pretty resilient to fire when left out in the open like that. I will be spraying it with something to try to get rid of the stuff that will grow back. Our battle with woody weeds is pretty much endless. No matter what we do the vegetation just grows back, time and time again. No matter what the urban fools who have never stepped foot on a farm say. People are starting to get excited with drone technology for spraying, in fact spraying drones are getting within the reach of a lot of producers to buy their own.
Agree on the never ending battle with regrowth. Iam a big believer in using technology to kill bushes but I have a few reservations about using drones to spray them. To get a good kill I’ve found that you need to cover both sides of the leaf around the whole bush. I’ve haven’t seen them in action spraying but I reckon a drone would struggle to do that while maintaining a gps grid line. Might be OK on something a meter or less. We spray them up to about 2.5 meters tall but anything bigger uses a lot of spray so we hit them with pellets.
Thing with the ability to use herbicides yourself is you can apply them at the appropriate time. We have in the past used aerial application but when time is right to spray, the contractor is never available. There is also the situation where label restrictions make zero sense. Some good chemicals you are able to spray by helicopter, but they prohibit spraying by plane. Planes being far cheaper and you can put on far more water, but the contractors will not risk their licence and spray what you want. A neighbour hired a consultant and the consultant got in a plane and sprayed on glyphosate and then after a burn and the grass and woody weeds had regrown, the consultant got in a helicopter to fly on a different herbicide. The helicopter was flying and spraying at the same height as the plane, could only carry 200 litres of mixed chemical compared to the planes 3000 litres, so the helicopter put on far less water per hectare, and got the usual rubbish kill of the woody weeds and was probably twice or more per hectare to spray. The other thing is you can apply it at the rates you want to apply it at. I have seen the results some people are getting and they are getting outstanding results at prices far cheaper then any other method.
Sodium Nitrate mixed with water is good but care is needed with this stuff. When it dries it's very flammable, even rubbing your hand over clothing thats had spray on then is enough to ignite it. Aircraft need a real good washdown after work. Apparently good for killing feral pigs to.
I think I will stick to Metsulfuron Methyl, Picloram and Fluroxapyr. I will keep the sodium nitrate for making corned meat and there is a company now selling pig baits made up of sodium nitrate. Then I priced them with their special bait applicator. Makes you wonder if some companies think we have the wealth of Gina Rhinehart at the prices they think we are going to pay.
What is your recipe of choice for eucalypt regrowth? We had a bad experience with a generic Grazon once, so now only use the genuine article and throw in some Met.Meth.(Militia or Bow Saw)
To be honest overall spraying eucalypt suckers with a hand sprayer is not something I generally do., but it would probably be 500-750ml/100l of Grazon and probably throw in 50 grammes/100l metsulfuron. I think Metsulfuron is the key for wattle suckers. With added wetter of course, geniune. Uptake has been found to be superior to the generics. Clopyralid is another for wattle. I now have that much crap to get rid I am scratching my head on what to do. I swear plants are growing twice as fast as they used to and a herbicide that works on one thing may not work on another. All the flat country where I can boomless spray. I think that is the future.
That’s a similar brew to the one we use. Our bad experience involved several hundred acres that we sprayed with a generic that we had had good results with previously. Initial kill looked very good but within 12 months around 80% had shot around the base.
Took delivery of a load of PKE this morning…we used some in our weaner ration earlier in the year with similar results to the DDG pellets. Not as pleasant to handle though.
So the PKE is a fine powdery substance. What is it worth a tonne ex where ever you get it from? Weaner pellets have increased in price here to $780 a tonne, I only feed the little ones at those sorts of prices especially since cattle prices seem to have stalled at the moment. We had 12mm on Thursday night in that huge line of storms.
At the moment it is $370 at Port of Brisbane for bulk loads, another $60 to get it out here. On paper, the pellets should be a better proposition but I was really impressed how they did on the Palm Kernel. Mix about 60% PKE, 30% rolled wheat, 6% whole cottonseed and 4% feedlot mineral mix. Works out about $450 at the moment, including a bit for labour to mix it. Been feeding everything since weaning but bigger ones will have to start cooking for themselves from now on. 30mm here in a wild storm, no power for 30 hours. Apparently 15 poles blown over on a swer line…I wouldn’t have thought it possible.
Would Lupin seed be beneficial to raise the protein levels in cattle?
Nice rain, pity about the power. For years here we never had a generator, while we had blackouts during storms, they were usually all fixed within a few hours. These days we have a generator as the blackouts seem to happen more often and it takes longer for the power to come back on. That seems a good mix for the weaners, compared to what I am paying. PKE has good protein and energy values. I was also told it was a bit bitter so they do not guts it. I am just feeding my weaners a water/molasses/urea/phosphorus mix in licker rollers. It is also our standard drought feed as we usually always have ample dry feed (not at the moment though as "someone" went a bit overboard with the matches) Never lost a cow in a drought for decades now, it has served us well. It always amazes me the people who let their weaners go backwards at a rate of knots rather then try to keep them going. I always have the opinion, for every kilo they lose, that is a kilo they have to put back on later on.
Stressful night RC?
It was at the start. I see you are not in bed either.
For people wondering what the above is all about, we just had a state election yesterday and the anti-farmer very urban governing party that have been screwing us over for decades got sent packing. Although earlier in the night things were no so clear cut. I also forgot to add the obligatory photo in my post above.
Poles ? In your area, why not just plow it in ?
No, it wouldn’t be feasible Doug. The single wire earth return,SWER, system is used to deliver power over long distances in remote areas. As the name suggests, a single wire is used on poles with wide spans to economically cover long distances. Transformers are limited to a maximum of 25kva single phase but the only alternative in these areas would be to run diesel generators.
I Don't understand. You've got a wire on a pole yes ? You bury the wire, get rid of the poles, and all the problems. we have single wires on poles and we run more than 25kva. we also have buried wire in certain locations.
Doug, there seems to be a bit of a fobia with puting power cables under ground here in Oz. Considering the amount of bushfires and white ants here I would have though it would be a no brainer.
I guess it all comes down to money. When they were installed in the eighties, the swer lines provided mains power to huge areas that never expected to ever see it. Would certainly be better underground, at the first sign of a storm approaching from a certain direction we know we can expect an outage. Mostly from lightning strikes, don’t usually see poles blown over. Everyone has backup generators hardwired in around here.
Dragging a tile plow with a D-8 to install 4" corrugated drain tile is pretty easy.
Worked on the optic fibre roll-out here and averaged 20 kilometres a day. For that every inch was pre ripped. The record for a day was 42ks. I doubt those distances could be achieved on poles and wires without a huge workforce.
Colson might be interested in this article from an au perspective of the current US beef situation. I will say the reporter who wrote it is a bit naive in that what us producers get is entirely dependent on what the processors will pay us. They will only cough up money when they are forced to. Even today our prices are only just keeping your head above water for producers that have a reasonable amount of debt to service.
Was at bunnings (hardware/gardening store) today looking to get some more matches and found these Samba Fire and BBQ, Natural Firelighters, Fire Starters, matches, gas lighters, charcoal grilling, Gourmet BBQ and more! : Waterproof Safety Matches | 10 PACK Samba Fire and BBQ products have been fueling Australian BBQs and Fires for over 30 years...... www.sambafireandbbq.com.au Been struggling to get decent matches for years and years. So bought a box or five of these to try. Probably not up to greenlite standards, but so far better then the other "waterproof" matches I have tried. I remember when young, just before the burning season, my father would come home from town with a carton or two of Greenlites. When I say carton, I mean you would have your boxes of 47 matches, wrapped up in the usual package of probably twelve boxes, then there would be a heap of them probably ten packages shrink wrapped together. We used to have matches everywhere, every vehicle, all the sheds at all the yards all had many boxes of matches.
So are the Greenlites no longer available? How often do you guys light fires that a carton of matches is required? I'm genuinely curious as I know you're standard practices are much different than ours in the States. For what little burning I do and such a small relative area I cover, I pack a MAPP gas torch for lighting things off. We usually only burn one or two brush piles a year. I heat my house with an outdoor wood fired water heater, but once it is lit in the fall, it burns continuously until the spring when I shut it down.
Yes the greenlites have not been available since I do not know when. Maybe early 1990's. The Australian match factory that made them shut down in 1987 according to the internet, then I think they imported them from Sweden for a few years, in different cardboard boxes. Why did we use so many matches? It is the way things were for my father who was involved in a very old long term family partnership involving many people. Things were often done the old way. They had over 40 000 acres, probably near 5000 head of cattle. This place never got main electricity until the mid 1980's. The stoves were all wood stoves with a combined hot water system in the stove. Separate wood hot water systems were called "donkey's" for some reason. My cousin who started working there mid 80's reminisces on any spare time they had to go out getting firewood and cutting it on the old saw bench. He says how they put barbed wire on pack horses to get the wire up into the hills to do some fencing as there were no roads there. In the mid 1980's they were still running the horses into the yards to go mustering with the old night horse. Motorbikes did not turn up until the late 1980's. I know some reading this will think this sounds like a pretty backwards place technologically but it wasn't really, they did have equipment and actually were more prosperous then most of the neighbours. (most of whom have all sold up since) They did do some things the old ways though. Those who have knowledge of old traditional family partnerships might understand. The country is what we call forest country, in that it was hardwood forest originally but had been cleared with the axe by ringbarking and later by chemical stem injection when tordon came out in the mid 1960's. It is how you will hear the term "Tordon gangs or doing some Tordonning" mentioned in Australia, because Dow came out with various chemical mixes under the trade name Tordon and these were widely used at least in Queensland with axes stem injecting it into trees to kill them. The name has stuck as a person/group of people who go around killing trees with an axe. Usually an interesting group of people. Prior to that is was ringbarking gangs, and such and such is a ringbarker. A humourous story. The neighbour here, his son married an urban girl, and he had booked up a tordon gang to come do some tree maintenance, and was as usual they rarely ever turn up when they say they will, so the conversation was the tordonners were not here yet and the daughter in law thought Tordonner was their surname. Anyway I digressed a bit. So the country here is coastal cleared forest country, a reasonable amount of hilly country and the grass was often burnt once every few years. We did not use drip torches then and there were not a lot of roads around back then. All the cattle work was done on horses and I can remember as a child during burning season you would stuff your pockets with boxes of matches and when mustering the paddocks which might be up to 4000 acres in size everyone would be dropping matches off the horse where there was grass every hundred metres to light the paddock up. That is where most matches went. Used to have lots of rabbits around then and also a lot of hollow logs. The dogs used to love chasing rabbits and as you went along they spent a lot of time sniffing logs, sometimes finding a log where something was inside. Some of the paddocks you might be waiting an hour holding the cattle on a watering point while others were still checking the rest of the paddock. If the dogs found a log with a rabbit in it close to where you were, on the odd occasion you would light up one end of the log while the dogs were all at the other end waiting for the rabbit. Probably 80% of the time the rabbit still got away. These days though the hollow logs are mostly gone now, burnt up or stickraked up, along with the rabbits when the calicivirus was "accidently" released by the government. The paddocks have been subdivided, the family partnership is long long gone, mustering is done on bikes, helicopters, horses. The old ways are all to be looked upon with rose tinted glasses. Strange how we got from drill production pipe to discussing matches.
The boys were being a bit annoying today inspecting everything for workplace safety violations no doubt., trying to get more fencing done to make mustering them up a bit easier in a few weeks time. Princes seem to have stabilised for the time being, could be higher though. Recent events, well we will see what happens with prices now that is over.
Cattle are experts at finding any loose, unsecured wiring and chewing it to destruction. We’re about to start on a fencing project as well. Have a contractor that expects to drive around 1000 split posts in eight days. We do end assemblies and drop posts on the line for him. Looking forward to that now that we have heatwave conditions.
Putting in a thousand posts in eight days will be impressive. Compared to what we can accomplish here in a day doing it old school of digging new holes and ramming them up. Was good fun mixing cement today when it was 38C. I do not think I have seen the cement go off so quickly.
Our local mobile phone tower was shut down for 10 days while they shut off 3g and upgraded. Parents landline was transferred onto mobile tower after the 2011-13 floods ripped up the buried cable over river crossings, so absolutely no phone service of any type for 10 days. We're only 40 minutes from town (if you can call it that) but still, was hoping I did hurt myself and need an ambulance in a hurry. Yeah I here ya RC, it was 41 here yesterday and I was cementing some more strainers in as well. These cement posts certainly make a pretty fenceline. And yes, I have yet to strain it up.
I reckon that would have to be a Telstra tower. There tower "upgrade" here in Esk went for 3mths with little or no service, even affected the local hospital. The amount of bare faced lies they told was staggering. Eventually got the truth and 3mths credit.
Imagine if they pulled that stunt in a large town or city, we’d never hear the end of it. The concrete posts certainly do make a nice looking fence, I’ve got some to put in around the house. Did you drive yours or dig holes?
Yeah Tones, Telstra, as bad as they are, as you know, theres really no alternative once you're out of major metro areas. Queenslander, i "tapped" them in with a drop hammer driver. Instructions say either use no pilot hole or one inch smaller than the post. I tried an inch smaller and they weren't going to go down in my country. So posts are 5x2, I use a 5 inch auger and the posts are tight enough that I have to tap them in. They are 7ft2in long and because the top wire is only 2 inches from the top of the post, they're 2ft11 in the ground. I back fill after driving them in and give them a quick ram and they're plenty tight enough for me. I also only pull one wire at a time, which they also recommend. You also need a special cap to use with a driver.
Looks like your burnt country is a bit greener then ours. Fires here in the ranges will not go out now until it rains, hopefully later this week. I also see you have those same single big ant holes we have on the sand ridges. I am yet to see what sort of ant digs them.
You blokes getting any of this rain? RC, that photo must be a bit of a trick of lighting cause it's actually looking pretty ordinary. We haven't had a fall of more than about 5mm since the big rain in August. I've got a few cows in the paddock off to the left with their first calf and they aren't enjoying life at the moment. I come home Monday and we got 100mm that night here in the Lockyer Valley. And it's stinking hot and humid here now, feels like Noah should get his hammer and saws out again.
Our tanks are checkers here and the creek is starting to flow again.
Gosh, your rain fall sounds a lot like ours. We had some good rain up until August this year, then everything dried up. The weather turned warm and rain stopped falling. The 4 acre pond behind my house was just a tiny puddle by October. We have received more rain in November now than we did all of September and October combined. The dry weather helped speed up harvest though so we weren't complaining. We had all the crops off 2-4 weeks earlier than average.
We have had an inch or so since August. Looking at the radar, better chance of storms at the moment. In the photo below the blue dotted line I have circled what people on the now defunct weatherzone forums called the Quidge, or Queensland ridge, it pretty much a permanent feature on the weather map at this time of year. On the eastern side of it you get unsettled weather, storms and so on. It generally moves closer to the coast as a strong weather event comes scross the country, then relocates itself back inland. It is why northern NSW, and the South East Corner of Queensland and also in the Canarvon ranges area in Central Queensland get storms around this time. It really is a bloody curse though for us as it blocks so much potential rain.
We ended up with a big heat storm and 10mm. Lots of lightning.
Something similar here. Another 20hr power outage, back on for 3hrs and gone again now. I need to get digger doug over here to help bury these swer lines.
Isolated heavy storms though. 3km away had 40mm. Although nearly 50mm and a very severe storm at the neighbours at my other block in the callide valley.
There's some Telstra zero tension plough dozers sitting around the country doing nothing that would be ideal. They can lay the warning tape at the same time. Could be another gig for you.
Sounds good, but I doubt that we’d be able to talk Ergon into something like that. Frustrating though, we cancelled a weekend away because of it, can’t afford freezers full of meat etc. to be without power for extended periods. Second outage lasted 12 hours and more storms approaching from the west tonight so it’ll probably be on again. We have to manually start our generator and flick the changeover switch. Currently looking for an automatic transfer switch that will start the generator when the power drops out and shut it down when it comes back on.
I'm pretty sure that Ergon and Energex receive grants from the state government to fix storm damaged infrastructure which can be manipulated to their benefit. I've seen local authorities do this on roads that were never damaged.
This rain appears to be a bit patchy for what looks like massive rain bands on the BOM radar. Home block finally got a drink last night, nearly 3 inches, but the other block 10km away got less than half. Parents said creek crossings aren't gone, but very close to it. I'm not up there so haven't been to Monto, but reports around 30mm. Happy days, should be fat calves to brand in a month.
The joys of having breeders. Bought a Brahman bull in 2019, he did his hip last year so he got meatworked, he still dressed out at 490kg. His stock were quiet, steers were OK for a brahman type. But his heifers. First calf heifers started showing signs of bottle tits. Started culling them out and on their second calf no chance for the calf to suck. I would have thought the bull breeder should have known this bull had a genetic issue with bottle tits. First calf heifers with noticeable udder problems is near unheard of. This is this cows second calf. I milked 9.5 litres out of her late this afternoon. Dunno why all those blokes chase females with big tits, they are a complete curse for me, the amount of extra work they create.
Six of these flew over yesterday Snapped a pic of the nursery today.
Hello .R.C. Shame about the bottle tits. Private sale or agent? It is good to tell the bull breeder or agent you deal with, you are actually giving the breeder useful information, they want to know when problems come up. Agents deal with these issues regularly, from an independent perspective, hopefully. Just what I think.
It was at auction, it was years ago so I wonder if the breeder would be interested any more. The brahmans seems to still have problems with bottle teats, temperament, and spastic calves that will not suck (when that happens nearly always a bull calf). I sometimes wonder, when they imported all that gir necked, long legged, narrow rubbish from the USA in the early 1980's, did they import a heap of genetic problems as well? I was chatting to my neighbour a week and a bit ago and they are into Wagyu. I asked them about bottle teats and they said their biggest problem was Wagyu's not having enough milk for the calf.
You're right, it's not real green there is it.
Yea it is not amazingly green here yet, just getting enough to keep it low level green. I am starting to think about feeding the breeders, not that they are poor, but with all the calves around now I do not want the cows to get dragged down in condition then not get in calf.
Sounds like you missed out as well this week. Despite flooding rain to the east and west of us, we lost zero hours on our fencing job due to rain…5mm for the week. Was a little conservative in his estimate, ended up doing 950 posts in four and half days. Another 100 left to do on Monday but they’ll probably have them in by smoko.
How far apart are your posts? They look bloody close, I've gone to 21ft (7 paces) in low stress applications. You'll have to sell some cattle to pay your contractor, what's he on, about $26/post?
I agree, they do look close but they’re at seven paces as well. He is on $20, if we drop posts on the line. He is standing 5000 at his next job just down the road. Last year, because of the huge demand for lick and having to order so far ahead, we ended up with a lot of it on hand when it did rain. For the first time, we continued to feed it out during the wet season and it was surprising how they went for it. During the peak of the dry we were going through 2 tonnes a week…surrounded with green feed they were still going through nearly half a tonne per week.
1000 posts in the ground, bored and strained in five days makes my efforts look absolutely pathetic. I like his setup. I am a bit of a fan of using a tractor for fencing rather then a bobcat, just more versatile with the bucket/forks on the front and digger/driver on the rear. When I was working with someone with a bobcat, next to no weight on the front for post hole digging and the digging rate was pathetic. It was like back to the good old days of the generic ultra safe three point linkage digger.
Been there, done that. Back in the day, getting holes down was the most painful part of fencing. Around 30 years ago we bought a second hand Ford 4610 with a loader and put one of Digga’s first hydraulic auger drives on it. The tractor didn’t have enough flow but it was still quicker than the old pto digger. Still using the same auger drive.
Upgraded to this on the loader around mid 2000's. Old loader from the 60's only has 1500psi, so not a massive amount of torque, but it still ended up wrecking that auger that we used on the old 3ptl digger.
Would have felt life changing, Iam sure. Shortly after we bought the auger drive those 3pl diggers with hydraulic assist came on the scene. I believe they perform very well but I couldn’t help thinking about all the years we battled getting holes down when all we needed was a hydraulic ram and a simple change in geometry.
It was a bit of a change getting it. It's performance in nasty rock was probably not as good as I was expecting, but I have come to learn nothing much can drill nasty rock unless you have specialised drilling stuff. But just hard country it is awesome. In black soil or sandy stuff you can corkscrew the auger into the ground if you go down too fast. The little dingo I use is pretty mediocre digging in just plain hard ground, but it is amazingly good in stony country. I had some contract fencers here about eight years ago, they used a dingo and I had my loader there and I worked along side them. We started digging holes and I did fourteen holes to their two, and they were charging by the hour.
Interesting thing happened today. Putting up a temporary kiwitech electric fence around a dam this afternoon and a heavy storm come through. Only had one section to go and was tying off kiwitech string when lightning struck close. Got a boot from the fence like it was a 40 joule energiser. Finished that job in record time. Must of been from the static electricity or the like.
Sounds like some zappy stuff got inducted into the wire and you were the least resistant conductor to ground. Heard stories (some from relatives) where by dead cattle/horses were found dead near a fence after a storm. We found a dead weaner close to our hay shed after a storm. Not a mark on it.
Doesn't need to be a fence involved RC. In a previous life I come across this a bit, can be under trees or out in the open and simply the highest point around. Both horses and cattle, actually quite a bit more common than anyone realises. A couple of years ago now, I was blade blowing on my little dozer, a bit of a storm seemed to roll in, I just kept going, there was no rain, just a bit of wind. Next thing huge flash and lighting bolt struck the next ridge across from me. I was off that big hunk of steel so fast I reckon the dozer motor hadn't stopped spinning from being turned off, before I was in the ute and getting gone.
I thought you use left hand augers down under......
Sounds like a damn close encounter. I was working in the barns 8-10 years ago, doing chores mid day on the dairy. We have two large, blue Harvestore silos on the back of the barns that we stored High Moisture Corn in at the time. Early June, prime thunderstorm season for us, a bad one rolls in. We were almost done with the last group of cows to be milked when it sounded like a shotgun went off in my ear. We lost power, the cattle spooked and started racing in the barn, my dad and the guy milking came rushing out to see what was going on. Our 80ft tall silo got stuck by lightning. Knocked out the phone, internet, fried a bunch of electric motors used for unloading the silos, cooked some wires, etc. In my dad's 40 years on that farm, he had never seen the silos get struck, even though they are definitely the tallest thing around for a few hundred yards. We had to have the well drillers come out and replace the well control panel and the drop line into the well that powered the pump. The furnace, washer and dryer all got toasted in the milk house utility room. We were fortunate, we did not loose the bulk tank coolers or controllers, as we were over half full at the time this happened. Just a big mess.
I know a couple who lost a son doing just that. He was on a dozer when a storm approached and was struck making a dash to his ute. I don’t know, but you may be better off staying on the machine…faraday cage etc.
You may be right Queenslander, but that lightning bolt looked about as big around as a fuel tanker as it snaked its way to the ground. I just figured I didn't want to be sitting on a massive steel lightning rod anymore. Self preservation sometimes trumps common sense.
I've noticed that Ironbark trees seem to be prone to get hit by lightning, coincidence, maybe.
I snapped this pic, well not sure how long ago now.
Tones, can't say I've seen Ironbark trees struck any more or any less than Blue gum or Bloodwood or any other type of trees. Probably the ones I've seen struck the least are Spotted gum. That's on my blocks at least, don't know if location makes a difference.
What are blocks? Sections ? Joe H
When I was involved with the optic fibre roll-out there's a section between Warwick and Stanthorpe the cable got damaged by lightning even though it was buried at 1.2 metres deep. Turns out that stretch was Iron stone country. To overcome the lightning the cable was put on poles.
Usually areas of farm land away from the homestead, sometimes several thousand acres or in some cases 100s of thousands.
Joe, I'm happy to be corrected on this from the others in Queensland, but to my knowledge we don't have anything standardised like your square mile sections. We have a lot on plan surveying system, but each lot can be a different size. From memory, my home property consists of 3 lots, while another I own 10km away is 2 lots, however the home property is nearly twice the size. Having said all that, I was simply being a little generic and using block interchangeably with property. In this area we don't use the word "station" ie cattle station. If you need to identify your property to someone you will call it by it's name, ie "Glencoe", but if your talking to someone who knows you, you might simply say my block, or my paddock, or whatever other slang word you can come up with. If it's not named, then it was probably previously part of a bigger named property that was split up and sold in parts, usually we'll only call that a paddock. So as to explain fully, even though I am taking about owning 2 properties in the area, they are many times smaller than a lot of others around here. Number of properties means very little in determining the overall size of the combined holdings.
Interesting, here it's acres or sections so you pretty much know what's what. Although some are hundreds of thousands of acres they're not that common. Joe H
Here is an example of surveyed parcels of land at least in the state I am in. The government has a website where anyone can look up huge amounts of data for free. Each yellow shape represents an individual surveyed parcel of land that unless it is a government reserve someone somewhere will own. If you see two parallel lines, that means there is a surveyed roadway as every individual surveyed parcel of land will have a surveyed lane for accessing it, even if the road does not yet exist, the surveyed lane is still there. Parcels of land will size from a small portion of an acre town house block, to parcels of hundreds of thousands or bigger acres.
Just a totally useless thought. I went to boarding school in Rocky many years ago and must have travelled the Burnett Hway through Bilo to Dululu and onto Rocky a hundred times. I've been from Bilo out through Banana, etc, etc. I have never travelled through Wowan. Never been from Dululu to Banana. Am I missing out on anything RC?
Another useless thought, but the only fact about that road that immediately springs to mind is that from Wowan to Dululu it was built on the abandoned railway formation. It used to follow the Dee River up.
Map Same is available here, the individual states have different info available. Joe H
Same here. Each county will have a GIS map that you can click on each parcel with a ton of data available. Current and past ownership, parcel numbers, deeds, mortgages, taxes, liens, etc. Very valuable tool coupled with the state level Secretary of State website where you can look up corp ownership. Screen shot of a tank farm not far from our shop.
I do not go that way very often, but good fertile country, a surprisingly large but now dead town and a rough road that runs parallel with a defunct railway line is about all you are missing. I guess we probably went to the same high school. RGS. Not that it did much for me. I bet the first settlers to that area got a shock when the first decent flood event happened. It would be why they put the railway line where they put it.
Bloody hell, it turns out I know Queenslander personally, what are the chances I used to know you as well. I was at RGS in 87-88, when were you there?
Nearly, 89-91
My sister was there earlier in the 80s. I went to boarding school in Toowoomba but we won’t talk about years.
1930's?
It did just dawn on me a cousin was in your grade. My brother and sister were there as well, along with other cousins. I bought up the tail.
Not quite, although some mornings, first up, I do feel like a hundred.
Ive missed out on quite a bit on the thread it seems! Re the school years I was having a giggle while catching up... it seems there is a bit of an age gap between you guys and me. I thought there would be but not sure if you guys picked it too? I did all my school via Distance Education, so missed out on some of the positives of boarding school but it was my choice and I am still happy with it.
So you might be one of those ones who are always playing with their phones at every opportunity.
Yeah JAJ, I was eligible for distance education and I tried to convince parents that it was the way to go, mainly because I thought i could basically get out of school. But even with 20 min to school bus and then an hour on the bus each way, in hindsight i think public school was good for me. Then boarding school was probably better again, didn't like it of course, but it certainly puts you out of your comfort zone and makes you adapt to a situation. I had a pretty decent career in a challenging profession and I think that being exposed to all the good and bad parts of schooling certainly helped me with that. Now I just chase cows around, belt big sticks in the ground, then pull barbwire through them and kill vegetation. Ahhh, reaping the benefits of a good education.
Haha not quite... especialy not for anything social media related! This place is as close as I get to anything resembling facebook. I do miss their market place and have been thinking about getting it for that. Smart phones do have some great uses though, like storing huge amounts of workshop manuals, spec sheets and other reference materials. I find that pretty useful when something breaks and I can look at a manual out in the paddock. Some of the old manuals that are hard to get hold of in good condition are popping up in pdf now too. I still think nothing beats flicking through paper pages though!!!
Yes you are right with pushing you out of your comfort zone in a good way. We still had a week a term with other kids at the school, but its not the same. That was something that I had to make up for after school I guess, but I don't think I turned out too bad. My parents still made sure we got a shot at anything social, school or sport related that we could. Our nearest primary school was 80Km away and High School was more like 300km. I had to grow up pretty quick and there wasn't a lot of young people around, so the people I worked with and were friends with, were mostly older than me... and they were old school, hard and fair. The world would have a lot less problems if there was more of those people around! My passion has always been in rural stuff so I have always managed to find things connected to it to keep me busy, I have dabbled in a few interesting things though.
1st of December. Made a new Christmas tree.
Looks like they are all up the right way so the luck does not drain out of them. ----------------------------------- The spring rain has been pretty abysmal here for another year. It is hard to get excited for christmas.
Had 2” in last week. Buffle grass has got a flag of green for the first time in 6 months. After an 800mm wet season we didn’t get close to eating last season’s grass
Looks like a hand operated forge blower in the photo there.
Photo was from back of work shop. Yes its the old outdoor blacksmith’s shop. Forge, quench and hand drill press.
Had another 8mm, neighbours on one side had more as per usual and the better country had the usual nothing. Unfortunately the weaners have gone backwards. Some irrigation would be nice.
You did a little better than us. Didn’t bother measuring the last change but the Farmbot up the hill says 0.3mm.
In regards to rain, Grandad used to say, good country don't need it, bad country don't deserve it. Looks like i win, nearly 100mm down here in the Lockyer Valley where it won't do me any good, just make the lawn grow, so I have to mow it. Parents got under a storm around dark yesterday, ended up with an inch which was very nice. Last couple of days humidity down here has been brutal, in the shed fixing the cruiser and just dripping sweat.
A ringer told me that saying about greasing. New machinery dont need it, old machinery doesn’t deserve it. Worrying thing was he was actually serious.
I know guys like that. Their grease gun is shiny new looking and coated with dry dust from sitting unused in the corner.
That sucks. I am procrastinating going to town to get another tonne of urea. Something I was hoping not to have to do. I was hoping to buy a ~130cfm diesel compressor this/next year. Won't be at this rate as funds go elsewhere.
Well I did get to town to spend $$, and to get back on topic, I visited the local auction place that has another small batch of production pipe on offer. However this time they had tiny pipe, It's OD would have barely been 2" but it was the same style seamless with flares ends for the threads.
Trying to sort out some breeding heifers and managed to get some wet stuff.
Listening to one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. Thunder and rain on a corrugated iron roof. And 50mm fell.
Nice, on the road heading back up patchy showers leaving Lockyer Valley, sun shining since then. Having late lunch/early tea in Nanango now and humidity seems to have dropped a bit. We're branding Saturday/Sunday, Sundays supposed to be a million degrees, happy days.
This surprised me, til it saw Large tropical breeds like Brahmans and Droughtmasters continue to sell the majority of bulls privately via the paddock, rather than via the auction ring, making any sort of accurate assessment of total bulls used impossible.
Pretty much. My neighbour was a bull breeder and he would sell semi loads of bulls into the Northern Territory, but only put a handful through the main auction centre. The auction sales really seemed to be more like just a form of marketing rather then there to make money.
Studs sell to studs. Breeders sell to breeders.
I am sure I will win an OHS award today for most safe workplace. Weaners need a bit of assistance so I have a tonne bag of weaner pellets here. Decided to do what I did in the 2017-19 drought and crush the pellets and mix them with molasses. I had to drag out the old grain cracker I used last time and dodgy it all back up again to a chonda motor with geared reduction. It works well when the motor runs. Really should be using cotton seed or PKE or copra, but I no way of storing that in bulk. It in interesting decades ago pre feral pigs, there was a bit of grain sorghum grown in the district. No big acreages though. A 60 acre farm would be a big one. But it was mostly for the milkers and the chooks. These days nothing is grown, in fact I feel a few places at not utlilised as they could be as newer generations have inherited it and do not seem to have much interest. And looks like I found what I suspect is a twin calf yesterday. The cow I thought it's mother but she was ignoring him yesterday when he was singing out, today has a similar looking calf. Twins for us is not common, but not uncommon. Probably get a set every couple of years. That is out of around 300 cows. Seems to always be something.
I like the crusher set up. I get where the OHS would give a fit, but sometimes ya just make do. We had a set of twins born yesterday. I would have to look, but I bet we have a set born monthly here. We have around 400-450 births annually. The higher rate of twins is related to our use of reproductive set up shots to bring cows into heat. Not all cows get the shots, maybe 15-20%, but out of that group, the probability of a set of twins is considerably higher. We ended up having 6 cows freshen yesterday before I left for the day, dropping 7 calves. Usually it's only one or two fresh cows a day. Will you try to graft the calf on to a different cow, or bottle feed it until weaning? We're currently bottle feeding an Angus cross at my house for next winters beef, and will probably get a second calf here this week to keep it company.
Just finished second day branding, hot but not kill you hot. Ride away from the yards at 0430, so do as much as we can early. Can't say I have ever seen a set twins here. I'll let RC answer re bottle feeding, but in my experience you may have a cow that will voluntarily take a orphan calf, but generally we don't muck around trying to make it happen and just bucket rear them. As previously mentioned i spent 12 months many years ago on a pretty big cow/calf operation in Colorado, it was an eye opener buying the day old calves and then going to all the trouble of making any cow that lost her calf accept the substitute. To my knowledge nothing like that happens over here, at least in my area. Same as cows having trouble calving, if you catch it in time and can get her to the yards you will try and pull the calf, but mostly it a bit of a self culling problem, we don't know about calving issues till you find a dead cow.
Gotcha. We have our share of calving issues, but we know each cows due date, and they go into a closeup pen in the barn when they are under 21 days to freshen. This keeps them on a specific ration and close at hand for good observation, 24/7. Somebody is always in the barn, so most issues don't go very long unnoticed. I have a friend who's wife is a master of grafting orphaned calves on to dairy cows. She will take any calf she can get cheap, through the auction houses, local farms, etc, and graft them on to one of her old dairy cull cows. This all started as a fluke, but she has it figured out quite well. When one calf is big enough to wean, she separates them and sticks another calf on the cow. At this point, her dairy cows don't even care who is suckling anymore. They don't raise the young, just provide the feed. She keeps the calves and cows separated, only bringing the cows in to the calf pen during designated "milking time".
It is amazing how foreign your set up is from what I see here. The calf will be put on a self feeder until weaning. As a general rule I will give the calf 40kg of powered milk then it will be pellets. We have trouble getting them started on pellets. In years past when there were milkers here, poddy calves were put on a milker, but there are no milkers here any more and bush cows will rarely if ever take a calf that is not theirs. A few people around here do not bother with calves that can not feed off their mother. They just let them die in the paddock, some along with the cows when a drought happens. I do not call those people cattle people, they should have their often inherited land taken away from them. I still lose the odd calf. I have lost one this season despite keeping an eye on the cow who was already culled out, she had her calf stashed somewhere and I did not know she had calved until she started drying off and I found a dead calf. We also lose the odd cow to stuck calves. You only have a brief window to find them and usually bowl them over with a vehicle and get the calf out. Some years back I found a cow with a dead calf. I managed to get it out, only a couple of days later see her with another pair of legs sticking out. Both calves were dead of course, the cow survived. Despite constant checking the paddocks such as they are terrain wise you can always miss things.
I like it ……simple and clever at the same time. This is our orphan, Barry the Brahman. I’ve tried to get him on a truck several times over the last couple of years but have been threatened with divorce proceedings every time. Weighed 886kg, nearly 2000lbs, a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, his mate Larry, doesn’t have the same emotional attachment and will soon be embarking on a short one way trip.
It is always a sad day when the pets head off on their last adventure. Colson and others might find this interesting. An article in the local rural newspaper. It is subscription only so cannot link to it, but here is a pdf copy of it. It is what I guess is one of the bigger players and what they can achieve with good country, and being tick free as well helps. Heifers in that condition coming out of winter is impressive. And such a big number and such a straight line as well. Also did Pony get washed out this afternoon?
Wow, that's quite the sale. Were those prices reasonable? I didn't convert that to US for comparison. Still have strong cattle prices locally. I'll see what the calf buyer shells out today when he comes by, but last week we got $800 for a 2 day old Angus/Holstein cross bull. He was big, 80-90 pounds, all black and as Angus looking as a calf could be. I haven't looked at our cull dairy prices in the last couple weeks, but it has been considerably high all year
Don't know RC, cleaned up and took strangers back, then looking at forecast, decided not much point trying to fence and get rained out or simply melt. Decided to come back down to see the bride again til the weather settles. Came through some decent rain from about halfway from Mundubbera to Durong, then onto halfway to Dalby from Durong. Looking at the BOM radar, we should have got wet at home. Was doing a last check this morning at Monto block and it's looking pretty ordinary there, so hopefully it got that far north. Queenslander might have got a bit of that stuff i was driving through this arvo, unless it started to the east of him?
Don't know if it's should say this if everyone else missed out, but just got off the phone to the parents. 3 inches last night, still got no power. Didn't get much further north than the home block so looks like may have missed out on the other block. Bit lucky to get my branding done, neighbour was supposed to start today, don't know how that's going to work out. I've still got to brand the other block but it's small enough we can do that with family, don't need outside help, so will do it when it suits. Drizzly rain here now down the Lockyer Valley.
I looked in our last 3 months of calf records. We had three sets of twins born in November, none in October, and three sets born in September. That's 6 sets of twins out of 75ish births. We have 60 cows set to calve in the next 6 weeks, so we'll see what that brings. One cow was in the fresh pen as I was leaving, and two cows are currently over due. If they get over a week past due, we'll have the vet check them out to ensure they're still carrying a live calf.
They appeared to get really good money for the times. Nothing like what you fellas get though. Now I do not know if the reporter doing the reporting only reported on the highest selling pen or if they averaged it all out. But the lighter ones fetching $1000, that is about US$640. Plus they would have a good few fees to come out of that as well. The heavier ones around US$900. Prices here have slowly risen a bit. I just sold most of my steers to the meatworks born from July 2021 to June 2022 year and they dressed 330kg (727lb) and made $2000 (US$1280)each off grass. If you do not have any major financial commitments it is perfectly adequate money, but if you want to get ahead and expand via land purchases, you will struggle.
Just got another 15mm today. The grass is visibly growing now.
Our just started dying. lol
My buggy is still in a love hate relationship with me. A small cooling hose that directs water through the oil cooler developed a pin hole, spraying out most of the water in the process. Lucky it was detected before it really cooked the motor. But a 2021 built machine with a radiator hose that was already perishing screams made in china. Then the driven pulley in the belt converter the spring loaded nut must have somehow come off and it took out the gearbox input shaft seal. Oil came out it into the belt converter and it was like a hoon burning their tyres on the road with the white smoke. Fixed that and notice more parts in the belt converter worn out. But bright side is the callide valley block just had 3" in a storm tonight on top of 2" a couple of weeks ago.
Was wondering how far north that rain went. Nothing at your home block? They keep changing their mind, was supposed to clear up by the weekend, now it's supposed to keep going. I've got to brand the Monto block yet, but no point going up if it's showering/raining, as you know, you can't brand them wet. Same with fencing, no point get a strain pulled down, then get rained out. I've got plenty to do down here in the valley, just feel a bit bit guilty with so much more to do up there.
No rain here, but hopefully more soon. Hopefully it also will be widespread rather then these 5km wide storms.
Well there's big rain around, but still narrow. Parents called this morning, they'd had another inch the previous evening but drove the road in to the other close block 10km away. 4 inches there, decent size gully comes out of the neighbours crosses the road and into mine, he must have had a fair bit more. Washed 2 big split posts clean out of the ground and obviously took all the wires. It was to much for the parents to do, so 6hr drive and roughly fixed it on dark to make it stock proof. I've owned this block 14 yrs and never had that fence taken before. See what else I can find tomorrow.
Yes, just narrow storms. 25mm here this afternoon, gully's trickling in one direction, bugger all in the other direction. Might have had another 10mm since then. Over in the callide vallley another 20mm there yesterday. Some places there have had near 150mm this week. I remember a couple of years ago. One of the paddocks around the house I found wrong cattle in there and was wondering why. So I went up the paddock and found the creek crossings down, and they had been down for a few days. No rain at the house, but big rain just a few km away when there was no one home.
How did you fellas get on with the rain event. We did OK, another 30mm, but it was all narrow as hell falls. There would be a strip a few km wide with thunder, then another narrow strip elsewhere. Some ended up with 100mm over the week, others 20mm. Absolutely nothing widespread at all. I have also upgraded my grain grinding setup. Using a hammer mill now. Much safer, can do chaff as well.
We’ve been missing out a bit here, 60 mm for the month so far. Some huge falls less than 100 km to the east. I’ll be glad to see the end of this change so we can look forward to the next one from the west, where they usually come from. We’re feeding some young steers as well, just to keep them going ahead in case it does forget to rain properly.
We've had some funky weather to start winter off. Snowed end of November, then thawed, then rained, then snowed, then thawed, repeated by rain. It's all set to repeat again starting this weekend with rain forecasted for Christmas day again.
Yep, our weather has been much the same. Supposed to get new mailbox and granite post put in by tree company that backed over my old one, the morning I was going to NY deer hunting. Will see how smoothly it goes, supposed to be here at 9am. Hoping frost is all out of the ground.
You fellas can keep your snow. Predicting a cool 104F here for christmas eve. Might need a coat.
The concept of a summer time Christmas never crossed my mind until fairly recently when we went to Florida for Christmas. It was only about 60°F, but it was only 20°F at home with a foot of snow. We're usually blustery, cold, and half snowed in December through February.
Well it is interesting the christmas imagery we get via the movies and TV shows that get shown here. It is the quintessential US/UK style. Snow, brick cottages with plane glass windows, fireplaces, traditional nuclear family and perfectly wrapped presents.
I wondered if y'all had your own Christmas movies and shows based on a summer time Christmas.
No, not much local content here. Even I grew up with Sesame Street on a black and white TV. In other news, just came across this interesting article On farm made urea. Green ammonia - Are we overlooking the opportunity for the livestock sector? - Beef Central What if protein was no longer a limiting factor in our northern beef systems? Qld beef industry RD&E professional Dr Lindsey Perry looks at how small-scale, on-farm 'green' ammonia technologies could provide localised systems to potentially fill the protein gap in future...Read More www.beefcentral.com
My brother on his annual christmas trip to see his inlaws, we get to look after his dogs, six of them.. Plus a duck. Lucky he has a few feral horses in one of his paddocks. He borders rangeland and that country is full of them and they get in every so often. An uncle's place next door has even more of the inbred things, so once or twice a year I give them a hurry up as well. We were mustering one day years ago and one of the bloody things went straight though the mob splitting it. They fight with each other over fences. Just a bloody curse. So a good supply of meat when we have ten dogs to look after.
Some places in Europe, that would almost be a prime rib dinner. When my family had a farm, it wasn’t that uncommon to take some decent cuts off a horse, that had to be put down. It always bothered me to admit that I have eaten horse but now in some places, it’s a serious contender for beef.
If there was a local supplier, I would happily try it. Have you seen the size of a tenderloin on a horse?! That just looks like good eats to me. I said that once in front of a family friend that is a crazy horse lady, her eyes could have shot daggers with the look she gave me. She was pissed that I would even mention eating a horse.
It's meat ain't it..? Just like dog (which I have tried) only a bit bigger.
How was the dog meat? Ive heard carnivores can have an off putting flavor, but I've never had any personally aside from alligator. Gator is pretty mild really.
Many years ago. it was a Filiino barbecue and the meat was done in a dish somewhat similar to a stew. Tasted OK from memory. Crocodile tails taste like lobster IMO.
I believe it is illegal to slaughter a horse for human consumption in the United States.
That might be true but yes, to mention it, I have seen a few tenderloins from horses. Almost as big as a moose. the backstraps tend to be a bit stringy but it’s better than wasting it. I used to have to bury horses with a 9N ford with a single arm bucket. The smaller the hole, the better. Now 40 years later, I am actually concerned about digging up horse bones, should have made a map, now that I built a house on the river, out back That little law may change one day, especially if you decide to look at countries that consume horse meat. Almost the whole globe, except us.
I know it is illegal and has been. Not sure why though.
To get to town we have to drive through the Barakula State Forest, supposedly the largest in the southern hemisphere. For as long as I can remember there were feral horses there, everyone has stories of collisions or near misses, it is only a miracle that no one was seriously injured or killed. A few years ago they quietly disappeared, we suspect, shot out from helicopters.
I had no idea Barakula was so big. In a previous life I spent a few days riding a horse around in there looking for someone. The area we were was plantation timber and looked to be very well managed. Is it all like that or is there a lot of natural bush i simply didn’t see? We certainly didn't see any indication of brumby's, this would be somewhere around 10 yrs ago.
There was a guy that had a bunch of hunting dogs . He fed them horse . He had a pickup all set up to haul them with a ramp and winch to load them. He lived in the middle of a big Amish settlement so he had a good supply . It sure seems like it would have been a lot of work?
There are some plantations on the eastern fringe, mostly freehold I thought. The vast bulk is native Spotted Gum or Cypress Pine forest. Not a good place to be lost in.
Yeah we were on the eastern side, near the, i don't know what it is, ranger station?, headquarters?, camp? Depending upon who you talk to there may have been a more nefarious reason other than being lost.
I just cut the legs off, get the fillet and leave it at that. Then when home just have the legs slung up and just butcher the meat off starting at the top (or bottom as they are hung upside down) Dogs are not fussy about not getting the correct cut of meat. It is pretty quick. Just to begin with you have to make sure you get the horse in an easily accessible spot. Sometimes they are just not accommodating and they insist on being up gullies or on the side of steep ridges. They can be stupid things, I generally head shoot them. Dropped one and his mate came trotting over to see why he was having a nap. So he joined him.
Not judging but why would you be shooting them? Is it legal down under? I imagine they are hell on fences and other things.
I like Dogs and cats but I would not like spending a bunch of hours messing with finding stuff for them to eat. My Dad had several out side cats at his farm. He was in the damaged freight business most of his life . Buying and selling stuff that had been damaged in shipping . That was everything including can goods. I think he liked the hunt of finding stuff he could feed his cats. When he got in bad shape he didn't say a lot but be did tell me one day "Make sure you feed the cats" He has been gone 4 years luckily there is only 7 left . I pray and am think full they haven't multiplied. I feed them mainly dry food.
They are feral horses. More of them, less cows you can run. Less cows means less $$$ for you to spend on your earthmoving equipment. We need to spend the $$ on our earthmoving equipment to use to kill the trees. Less trees means more cows and then more $$$ which the government/bank then comes along and takes.
Think anywhere in the southern US and the problem they have with feral pigs.
Killing domesticated horses has been illegal in the U.S. since 2006, because of all the unregistered toxic medication given, the meat can't be used. Wild horses can be shot.
We have a massive problem with large feral animals in Australia. Camels Water Buffalo Horses Scrub Cattle Donkey's Pigs Even Deer in some places. They do a lot of damage to the environment plus infrastructure. Also, in my limited experience, the smaller populations of ferals like I'm guessing RC's are, get very inbred and end up with all sorts of conformation problems leading to welfare issues. Something the animal activists either don't realise or conveniently ignore.
One of the best parts of Christmas. Dessert.
Yep, mum made trifle for us as well.
Sign erected by council at Speculation Creek, in the middle of the state forest that I mentioned above.
Schlumberger was big in Alberta maybe still is but not sure. They actually had a Schlumberger restaurant in one of the shopping malls in the 70's. I thought it was a little odd for a company in the oil industry to have a restaurant.
Not sure if they were involved in this project at the time or just commenting on the drilling logs. However, they are heavily involved in the CSG industry here now.
How come the writing in English on the signage, sounds so American and half the time you blokes converse on here, I can’t tell what you’re talking about here. That dessert plate of “trifle“ looks like someone ate too much dessert and uked all over the plate. lol
That goes both ways ol mate. Trifle made correctly and with eating enough one can end up with very wobbly boots.
Did your Mum put sherry in your trifle like mine used to.?
The trifle is only the 'stuff on the bottom, custard, jelly, whipped cream, bit of fruit. RC got real lucky, someone made him a plumb pudding as well, that's the slice on top. Can't quiet tell what the chocolate looking thing is beneath that but. No sherry for us Nige, mums never drunk alcohol in her life, can't see her starting at 80. That includes adding alcohol to any foodstuffs.
My grandmothers trifle was full of plonk when she used to make it. In the photo there is trifle, rice pudding, cheese cake and plum pudding. Normally there would be ice cream there as well, but that was missing this year, and not really needed. Then you have to go fencing for a week to work it all off.
My mother was teetotal as well, but that didn't stop her keeping a bottle of sherry in the cupboard to "dose" the trifle with......!!
Yes, SLB is big in Alberta still. Anywhere there is drilling and they think they sell their "premium" services. I worked for SLB for a bit over 7 years. They laid me off in 2020 and I haven't missed them a bit since. One of my mates from my time working out of their Denver office is from Perth. Great guy, hard working, talented at everything he touches. I learned a fair bit of Aussie lingo from working with him.
Let’s start a dictionary explanation in this thread, like what is plonk and I have never heard of trifle. I realize I have led a sheltered life.
Wine You have led a very sheltered life.......... Trifle - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Whenever trifle is mentioned I always remember the story about the fella with jelly in one ear and custard in the other. Allegedly he was a trifle deaf........
I thought we were being pretty good on the language front. There are some words and phrases that will always be country specific. As mentioned earlier I spent 12 mths working in the USA many years ago, probably first day or so, someone said pass that cresent wrench. I was like, what? It was pointed out what was required and I was, oh you mean the shifter, (short for shifting spanner). There are thousands of examples like that. We also use a bit of cockney rhyming slang that's morphed over the years to become Australian. If your having a few beers with your mates and you need to "take a short walk", you might say your "going for a snakes", as in snakes hiss. Looks like you got your wish Queenslander, here's the next change from the west. I just come home again last night, going down the Gold Coast today to see the in-laws for a late Christmas, knowing my luck we'll get a bad storm and I'll be racing back up to fix fences. Won't take much now, there's still a bit of water laying around.
This is one of the most comprehensive lists of Aussie slang that I’ve seen yet. https://gpsupervisorsaustralia.org....docs/t4/R4.17-Australian-Slang-Dictionary.pdf
If your ancestors had not fought so hard in 1775, you would still be a cultured nation today and know all these words.
I hope you’re right Pony. If we miss out this time we’ll be up s..t creek in a barbed wire canoe without a paddle.
Looks like storms making up just to the east of you, but plenty more to the west. Hope you don't get a bad one.
0.7mm…looks even more disheartening when you see it in graph form. We’re not too bad yet, just maintaining a bit of green pick when we should be growing a body of feed for next year. Our yearly average is around 650mm, so we’ve made that, thanks to the big fall in August.
You don't whinge about to much rain, but we're the opposite at the home block. That most recent rain has got the speargrass going so much that it will be going to seed soon, which is obviously not so good this early in the growing season. To make it even more frustrating, dams are all by-washing where I was fixing fences, but 10km away at home block, dams aren't even full. If only you could get rain to order....
Well we had 7mm and the neighbours had 40mm last night. The issue I am having it that the patterns seem to be changing to consistently being very narrow storms especially in the spring, early summer period. While they have always been like this, not to the degree I see these days. But given the world is x number of billions of years old, a year, a century, a thousand years is but a blip on the time scale. Today looks like a better day for storms by the look of the sky.
Texas was the first state to ban horse slaughter for human consumption in 1949. It had nothing to do with any romantic notions of horses. Rather a pure business decision from the cattle raisers. American soldiers came back from the European theater of WW2. They had eaten horse while in Europe, and many preferred it to the grass fed beef of the time.
Another 10mm last night, watching the radar, was a massive storm over the area, lots of red and orange colours. Was thinking I'd be heading up today to fix more fences, but as it turns out no.
Nothing here in the north west since 35mm at start of month. Been 40+ every day since. 44 tomorrow. Still have a nice flash of green. God’s country.
Storms everywhere on the radar, but obviously no steering winds so they are just meandering here and there like a mob of drunks.
It is Christmas, why should they be any different?
Imagine if Santa was drunk on Christmas, none of us would get any presents.
Queenslanders getting wet tonight.
That’s very interesting. I knew that eating horse wasn’t on the approval list, just happened because growing up poor on a farm, when a horse had to be put down because of injuries, we ate it. If it died of old age, 3, I had to bury, my father a few before that. We had one sorry horse that got stung by a bee, we think, because there were 4 or 5 of us standing there, spooked for unknown reasons and ran pell Mel across a field and over the edge of a quarry, landed on the bottom and broke his neck. We winched it on to the trailer and brought it to the barn and ate very well that winter.
Ide eat a skunk versus starving.
I think if you check with others on here you will find most will say }many parts of the stink bag are edible.
RC’s assessment was spot on. Something we don’t see too often, two meandering storms, one from the west the other from the east, met over the top of us and dropped 104mm over 3 hours.
Hope it soaks in and doesn't run off.
Either that or @Queenslander has a dam he can channel it all into.
Guess what has happened to my $10 000 bull? Just to end the year on.
Bugger….insured? Unfortunately insurance doesn’t completely cover the inconvenience and loss of use until you can find a replacement and settle him in. It was a pretty heavy shower but there are reports of some places that had the same amount in less than an hour. We used to have a dam that we could ski on..just, but we went and sold it.
Nah, not insured, it was another $1000 for only six months. I will talk to the local vet to see what my options are. A dead cow, another starving calf, a stuffed bull and no rain. Days like this sometimes you wonder why you bother.
Bugger. My only dramas this year so far, have been neighbours bulls. One paddock had my bull, found three wookachook looking bulls of the neighbours, one was near a fence so pushed him out easily enough. Mustered the paddock to brand before Christmas, I trucked the other 2 (plus some cows/calves) back to their yards. A week later ones back in already. Better luck next year RC.
So how many of your cows are at the neighbors then? Or are their paddocks worse off and the cattle are chasing better feed?
Sorry to hear about the rough bit of luck RC. We lose a few on the dairy throughout the year, but nothing with that kind of valuation. On Christmas Eve, we had a fresh heifer found dead in an ally at 1am. She had not been sick, her milk production had been average and steady. Found warm and dead when cows were brought up to start milking. Same group, Saturday 5pm, found an aborted calve. Mother had been 150+/- days pregnant and is still milking well. No obvious reasons for an abortion as she was not carrying twins (usual reason for an abort) and is in good health overall. She's marked as Do Not Breed now. We'll carry her through until she produces less milk than what it costs to feed her. Had to sell the second oldest cow on the farm yesterday. She was 10.5 years old. She calved Saturday afternoon with her 9th baby, but she came in from being dry with a lame foot. She won't force herself up to eat and her condition is horrible for the transition from dry to fresh. She'll never make it so we cut our losses and got her off the farm while she can still walk out on her own. We can't sell them if they don't walk into the processor under their own power so it's best to ship them when there's warning signs, and not after they're already struggling. I had a bit of drama at my home a month ago. I brought a pair of calves home for my kids to raise for 2026 beef for us. Calves were a week old and drinking milk replacer from a bucket when they traveled home. Calf 1 (Cayla) wouldn't hardly drink, but calf 2 (Charles) was a voracious eater. So voracious that he inhaled milk and gave himself pneumonia on his 3rd day at our place. Weather was cold and damp from fall rains, I found him at 6pm when I got home looking like death warmed over. Ran back to farm, got meds, treated and pampered him, but he passed 2 days later. During this, I finally got Cayla to eating better and then she came down with pneumonia two days after the first one died. Pampered the heck out of her to keep her along and after a long week of meds, drenches, constant attention, she perked up and is doing well now. My kids are old enough to help, but not quite at the age to process and fully understand death. We picked up another calf (Colby) before Christmas. She hasn't missed a beat. These calves are half Angus, half mutt (Jersey/Holstein cross mothers), but they grow well and should be ready for processing January of 2026. I've raised a lot of calves, but I've never had this kind of drama getting them started. I can usually have them weaned by 5-6 weeks of age, but I'm already passed that with this group.
This muster, I pushed 2 dry cows and a bull back through the fence and trucked 2 bulls, 2 dry cows and 2 wet cows with calves back to their yards. There's already the 1 bull to go back next muster (end of Feb when I pull the bulls out) and who knows what else by then. Last year, I think branding round, I gave back about 10 or 12 cows and calves. It's hard to say, but I reckon I would return 12-15 adult cattle a year. Obviously, it varies from year to year. In the 14 years I've been running the show, I've had 1 bull returned (at the end of the season after he'd been missing since the start of the season) and 1 cow and calf and then 2 cows and 1 calf on another occasion. And i went in a little way and got another bull myself on another occasion. This is my home property where my parents live, its only 2500ac, so not a big block. You're always down a few cows every year, do they die calving or do the neighbours get them? I've got my theories, you do the math and form your own. We have traditionally used hardwood fence posts and they want to burn every year so the fences are getting ordinary. And yes I do run less cattle per acre than them so will have a better body of feed. They're also not that enthusiastic about fixing fences. You're always going to have straying cattle over here, its how you deal with them, which decides if you're a good neighbour or not.
It goes with the flow and you just have to put up with it. I cannot see myself paying that sort of money for a bull again. The worst part is the expenses that only serve to feather the beds of others. Going to get another $11 000 bill this month for local government rates so they can go buy more paintings that look like someone was sick on a piece of canvas. Meanwhile our road has not been graded for six years. Insurance was another $12 000 this year. I do not even bother insuring the house these days as it is so expensive. There seems to be endless people who leech off the productivity of others. I am glad someone else has that problem. I know of the ten or so neighbours I have, only a handful have shares in a plier manufacturing plant.
HeavyEquipmentForums
Vet said he can perform surgery and has a pretty good success rate.
Maybe I'm better not knowing but can you explain this ? Broke his pizzle, time for another new bull, she wasn't real happy either. I know squat about raising cattle, but this doesn't sound good. Joe H
Their sheath/foreskin, not sure what the technical term is gets damaged by trauma and it swells up and the bull can not do his job. Can happen by something like they are lying down on a hot day with it hanging out and a cow comes along and stands on it, or they stand on it themselves. Not a problem I would have personally, but cannot vouch for others on here.
Holy Moly that opened up some territory--there was a country tune a few years back, Just'a Swing'in.
Is that a generic photo RC or the actual injury in question? I've never even heard of anyone trying to fix it, best of luck with it. I culled one last year exactly the same. Joe its a bit like most things in life its a balancing act. Conformation wise you want the bull to be nice and "soft" and loose skinned, but take it to far and they get a bit loose in the sheath and it hangs down to straight or to far and they have more potential for injury. In RC's photo, you can see his is nearly straight down, ideally you'd want angling forward. Not knocking the bull, the injury may be affecting how its hanging.
I always thought "Stepped on his own dick" was just an expression. Guess I might have been wrong ? Once again I've learned something new here on HEQ. Maybe not something I needed to know, but still, now I know. Joe H
That is his injury. I have heard storied of people trying to treat them with limited results, so was the reason I rang the vet. I sent him that photo and he thinks it treatable without surgery, but will need to have a look. Sometimes he said it just comes down to bad luck. He has seen people who have had the bull a week and they do it. Here he is a few months ago.
Let us know how it goes, like i said I have never even heard of anyone trying. When I was semen testing back in July one of mine came in like that, he was fine when I put him in the bull paddock. Vet was obviously there doing the testing, there was no discussion about treatment, I didn't raise it but neither did she. He wasn't an old bull, but wasn't brand new like yours neither. Either way I'm curious. No, Joe not just an expression, it is, i wouldn't call it regular, but not uncommon either. At least with bulls. I could start skiting about myself, but I'm not that sort of bloke. I'll let you all use Queenslanders slang dictionary to decipher that one.
Well I’ll tell you. I started going through that dictionary and at B decided you people have slang down to an art. TMI on that list. Still doesn’t explain the perfect English on that sign. It seems that our country language doesn’t really have much imagination like yours. lol
Well he has been to the vet. Vet said it did not look that bad and expects a 100% recovery. Cleaned it up and covered it with some salve no doubt with ingredients like salamander tail and eye of newt. The cut is pretty superficial he said. It is all soft and supple and pretty fresh still. A salt infused bandage to reduce swelling then wrapped it all up with a sticky bandage. some injections of anti-inflammatory and anti bacterial stuff and good to go. Expects him to be fine within a couple of weeks. The bandage should fall off when the swelling goes down. Wait and see now. I am a bit more relieved now then a few days ago when I found him. Who would have thought you would be looking at photo's of bull todgers on HEF?
Although most vets charge like wounded bulls, (no pun intended), that looks like it should be a successful outcome. I thought I would continue the generator discussion here to avoid derailing kshansens’s thread even further. The operators manual you posted looks like the one we had. I remembered it as starting on 12v but obviously it was 24. As well as starting automatically, it also stopped when the last switch was turned off in the house, avoiding a trip out to the engine room late at night. Reminds me of an experience some middle aged near neighbours had years ago. They didn’t have an automatic lighting plant so wife volunteers to go turn it off when they were ready for bed. After an extremely long time, she eventually made it back inside. Hubby asked what happened. As she leaned over to turn the motor off, the end of the crankshaft caught her nightie and tore it clean off her. There were a couple more graphic details that I won’t mention here but at the end of the day she wasn’t seriously injured, just extremely traumatised.
At the place up the road where my father grew up, they had a couple of lighting plant sheds for the various houses and even to this day they still have the Southern Cross diesel and generators in them, all 32V of course. They did upgrade to a 240V generator eventually, then they eventually got a SWER line early to mid 80's. They had an old 3hp petrol southern cross engine on a pump jack to pump water should the high tanks be dry and no wind for the windmill. I remember hearing the story of my grandmother having to start it and it was on an old steel wheeled frame and she got a broken finger when the engine fired and the starting handle went flying and banged her hand against the steel wheel. Where my parents moved to after they got married, that place had (still has) an old Yb (4hp) southern cross and a small generator of Davey (as in the pump manufacturer) build. I barely have any memories of that place, still have the old B&W TV still in the old house though. They moved a few km away to where we are now as 3 phase mains power was already running through the block. A couple of the neighbours took advantage of the 3 phase power availability and installed their own feed milling equipment back in the day they were mixing feed to feed stud bulls they bred. These days it is all trucked in pre mixed from town and put straight into the bins. I feel a lot of these people we see around the place have no idea what it is like to have no reliable mains electricity and have to rely on generator power. They would be in for a world of shock if they go to flick a switch and nothing happens. Or have to rely on high tanks and wind to pump water. Plus a donkey for hot water and a wood stove. Thank goodness for mains power I say.
Listy when i First installed her a few years back. Got it off a neighbour. 10kva. And Big Lou in the background.
Interesting factoid. When I was in uni back in the day one of my course mates was there on a scholarship from R A Lister & Co.
What? You guys doing porn now!?
Vetech----a todger no less.
Yes, mains power, reliable communication and no fuss water supplies are luxuries that townsfolk have taken for granted for ages. Our family operated a local telephone exchange for many years, servicing 10 properties on party lines. Each party line was a single wire that property owners had to erect and maintain. The trunk line was two bare copper wires strung tree to tree for fifty miles. The line wasn’t cleared as such, just a narrow track underneath, so every time there was a bit of a blow a falling branch would bring the line down. We had that until 1988 when Telecom introduced their radio concentrator system. Compare that to today when, as a Xmas present, I was given a Starlink roam setup that allows in motion use up to 100mph, providing wifi calling and internet anywhere with a clear view of the sky.
How many trunks to the mile?
What the box the starlink is in?
Just imagine the reaction when your mate returned from uni, with all these bright ideas about building a engine that didnt leak, vibrate or rattle. The old lister engineers would of run him out the door.
Michael’s Electronics in Toowoomba are selling them. Magnetic mounts so you can quickly shift it to another vehicle. I worry about someone lifting it but I guess it’s not needed so much in town, so no trouble to stow out of site. Bit pricey, at nearly $700 it costs more than the dish. Here in Aus the Starlink Mini dish was only $299 for the month of December, normal price is double that.
With all the chat about Lister engines I just couldn't couldn't resist. 71K views · 178 reactions | Remember the old Lister engine noise? Well apparently they are still popular in India, put on your headphones and reminisce... | By Cruising Helmsman Magazine | Facebook Remember the old Lister engine noise? Well apparently they are still popular in India, put on your headphones and reminisce... www.facebook.com
That was pretty bloody good, if you shut your eyes, you couldn't tell it from the real thing.
Does any one know a video platform can i use to link a recording without signing up? Dont have any social media ect. Got one of Listy shutting down.
Good luck with that. The one I use is Rumble.com
To be fair, if it was a UK university they probably did not teach them anything different.
I first saw the video on YouTube years ago,it maybe still there. If it is then copy and paste.
Nige might confirm what the lecture topics where. Perhaps, Rope seals - the best way to prevent chassis corrosion! Wiring insulation - no possible alternative to wrapped cloth! Positive earth systems - the way it is meant to be! Land Rover owners - are they the best mechanics?
Here is a place for Queenslander to expand his holdings. Roma’s versatile Meeleebee Downs could make $140m - Beef Central The combination of secure and extensive water supplemented by additional income from 22 Origin Energy gas wells is expected to spark significant interest in Freeman Pastoral Co’s Meeleebee Downs near Roma in southern Queensland, which is expected to sell for more than $140 million...Read More www.beefcentral.com
No thanks, Iam aiming for less or better yet no work, not more, besides the $140 mil could be a bit of a problem. Nice block though.
Just check the ashtray in the ute, that should get you close.
140,000,000 @ 6.4% = $9,100,000 interest. Increase from 3000 to 5000 breeders. 9500 lsu, 5000 breaders, 4000 calves, 1000 replacement heifers, 2000 steers. Steers sale $3,000,000 Heifers sale $600,000 Fat cows $800,000 Net $4,400,000 Carring cost $2 lsu $1,000,000 Loss $5,700,000 Gas must pay well.
If land sells for that sort of money the buyer invariably will be into a high value product like Wagyu. I think that is why I now see a huge gulf between the top quality larger blocks >5000 acres and the mediocre stuff. Mediocre stuff seems to have come back in price and is harder to shift, while the top quality land is just out of reach these days for most players like myself unless you get into breeding bulls or Wagyu or high end angus for the supermarket. My neighbour breeds Wagyu and he has a far higher borrowing capacity then I would ever have selling generic jap ox steers. But when it comes to the small blocks goodness me. I just heard of a small block 20km away. 100 acres, fully arable though. Just an average house and shed, around $950 000. Of course it was a mine worker that bought it I heard. I really do doubt that block I linked to above will go for anything near $140 million though. Although I do think the wagyu take the cake as the worst looking breed there is. They even make a milker look good. But they are worth a fortune.
Wagyu--I was in the store about a week ago and saw these steaks for $41 bucks a pound. I looked around--everyone I could see were average working class. I must say the only person who would spend that kind of money for one steak, only to set and savor the I suppose flavor, is in love with himself, 12 to 14 hours later his sphincter pushes and pinches off a single turd that cost $41 bucks.
They ugly and stupid bastards as well. 600 days on a feedlot to make it marble, contributing to the price per Kg. Ill stick with my big old grass fed grey girls.
I just got to. 1 steak = $41 = 1 pound 1 single turd = $41 therefore must = 1 pound I guess everything is bigger in America, cause I don't reckon I can do that.
You left out the trimmings, sure you can americans test their systems all the time with Burger King & McDonalds 3 to 4 a setting. *
Wagyu couldn’t even make land payments around here. If you wanted to buy land and make it cash flow with cattle, you’d have to have some type of special cow that scht gold.
Same old, same old. Had 17mm in a storm this afternoon. Same old neighbour had 65mm.
Looks like more coming for you but. Haven't spoken to parents yet, but looking at radar they got something.
40mm here so far. Shame I wasn’t able to record it on this pluviograph we have. It came from a nearby property that was an official recording station for many years. Sadly, when new owners took over they refused to continue and later put it up for auction at a clearing sale and I was able to pick it up for $50. The drum on top is wound up like a clock and holds a sheet of printed graph paper that lasts for a week. A scribe marks the amount of rain, the day it fell, time of day and intensity. It is a precision made thing, all brass and copper and still in very good condition…. only problem is, I don’t have any of the printed sheets. I once worked on this place for a while and had to change the charts every Monday morning and still remember what they look like. I have been onto the BoM and put a post on fb with no luck. Thought it would be worth mentioning here, someone might know of a place to that used to have one and may have a box hidden in the back of an office somewhere. I believe they have been replaced by automated gauges now.
Nothing here. New growth from last month has hayed off. BoM reckons a Monsoon is coming later in month. BOM also announced a late LaNina this week, predicting that areas that already have had rain have a 80% chance of above average rain fall. Starting to get a little nervous but hopeful.
27mm at block near Eidsvold. 87mm down here at Lockyer Valley. Can't help with your jigger Queenslander.
I have never heard such a rain measuring device existed. Given the long times between rainfall events that sometimes happen, they would have gone through a lot of paper. A few places around here at various times have been official BOM rainfall stations. Some went over one hundred years until the place was sold. They just used normal rain gauges though. 81.5mm fallen today now. Our best fall this spring/summer. It is getting a bit crook looking in a few places now, but this will bring some green back.. I am starting to think La Nina's for my location tend to mean a bit drier then normal. The Quidge I mentioned earlier in this thread does not tend to come to the coast before heading back west again, and thus the storms tend to stay more inland and the south east corner cops plenty of rain as well. That triple La Nina were essentially failures for us summer rain wise. We got good winter rain, but creeks here have not run properly since 2016. In fact 2016 was the last time we saw a proper cyclone.
Just a pic from today and little bully is slowly getting better. Fingers are still crossed. Sick of the hot weather though and wanting some decent rain to fall rather then these pathetic narrow storms everywhere.
We abruptly changed bulls in the last couple weeks. The Monday before Christmas got my heart jumping as our 'quiet' Angus bull decided he didn't want company for him and his ladies for Christmas. I went to move them out to the pasture and he whipped around and charged me. I heard him change direction (hooves on concrete make distinct sounds) and got a head start for the freestall barn. I got in the barn and on top of the freestalls just as he entered the barn. He thrashed around for a few seconds while I contemplated climbing into the rafters, but then he turned and ran back outside. He guarded the doorway for a bit, then trotted off, watching the barn. I poked my head out the doorway and he whipped around and started coming back. He stopped far enough out that I made my break for the Manger and dove through as he took off after me again. He was on the trailer the next auction day. We spent about 3 weeks looking for another bull and finally found one. Registered Angus, $3500. He's a bit older than we wanted (19 months), but he's calm and has already been servicing heifers for the farm we purchased him from.
Good time to get rid of them when they start carrying on like that. An uncle had one that would come at you from the middle of a paddock for no reason.
Ornery, old, and open(unproductive) go down the road.
The heifers are crazy enough on their own. They don't need an ornery bull to egg them on too. Historically, we've changed bulls every 6 months due to temperament issues. Holstein bulls get very aggressive in the 18-20 month old range. The Angus we got rid was like 24 months old. We had him for 7 months. The new bull (another Angus) is 19 months old and was pretty much all we could find.
Been a few stories from long ago when their was lots of dairying around mostly for cream of farmers being killed or seriously injured by a quiet jersey bull who just was having a bad day.
Yea, a lot of those stories here too. About ten years ago, a woman died from a bull attack working on a dairy farm near us. Bull jumped a 54" tall gate and mowed over everything in his path.
We all seem to have bad days. Saturday I mustered a small 500 acre hilly paddock we have never had trouble in for decades. But that day the cows were all in different mobs scattered and a heap missing we found they were camping in a cool dry creek full of thick vegetation and lots of rocks, flies have been giving them hell as well. We found the missing half of them them and chased them out and they headed off the right way, so we plodded along thinking they all went the right way as they usually do (paddock is starting to get overgrown with vegetation). But no a long story short they went off on a different tangent. A longer story short we blocked all bar 2. We blew one heifer, and blocked an old bow that just bailed up. Bowled her over and the only rope I had to tie her up was a skinny nylon one. Tied up three legs to each other. Went back to pick her up and she was gone. Found her yesterday, with one part of the rope knotted tight around one leg, the other two free. Got them in again today and butter would not melt in their mouths. I think everyone has musters like that once in awhile.
Iam seriously considering buying a drone to help spot and move cattle out of heavily timbered areas. Thermal cameras on modern drones have dramatically changed the way you can use them. Some even have a speaker, loud enough to be heard over a couple of hundred meters, so you can have a horn/siren …or just swear at them. This is one of the best clips that I’ve found so far, particularly the nest of dogs around the 2.00 mark.
My young fella's been doing a bit of work these school holidays, so I shouted myself half a day off yesterday and took him fishing at a local dam. Coming back to the ramp just on dark and saw this, not sure where he thought he was going to or why he was doing it. But it's probably close to 800m wide where he was.
Wivenhoe?
Just spotting them can be a big thing. A lifetime ago I used to help an elderly chap who used to muster with a helicopter. Sometimes I went up in the little R22 to spot and shut gates etc. It was rugged hilly terrain, full of thick timber and creeks overgrown with lantana. It was amazing how easy it was to lose sight of cattle. If you took your eye off them, they could blend in. They would get in the creeks and lay flat out, totally still.
Tones. Wuruma
Maybe chased in by dogs or even flys? Somewhere I have photo of a wallaby that had taken refuge in the toilet block of a little community centre we have. It was at the height of a big flood and sand fly had been thick for weeks.
Nessie??
Yeah "Kanga-Nessie" It's funny how generations change, my sons 14 and probably somewhere between city kid and bush kid. Spends the school holidays with me working on the properties but otherwise down in the semi-bigsmoke. Upon seeing the roo in the photo he goes, what are we going to do to help him? I looked to make sure he wasn't taking the mickey and no he was serious. I then explained that apart from the fact he was quite happy doing what he was doing, didn't he realise how dangerous they could be? Especially in the water? The water was about 80ft deep where he was, but I told him that when roo's get bailed up by dogs they can go into a dam and when the dog comes in after them, they'll grab them and drown them. Queenslander, maybe I'm giving him to much credit, but atm the dam is full enough that there is an island probably 5ac in size right where he was heading. When the level drops the island disappears, but did he know its now an island and would have fresh ungrazed grass? I was thinking about it after I posted and this crossed my mind.
Yeah, they are very competent swimmers. When I was was working down on the FSC NSW the house I was staying in overlooked the Bega River and it was almost a daily exercise for the Roos to swim out to an island and graze, even the joey's were in on the gig.
Love the expression with one ear down, it's like, "C'mon, shut the door will ya, I'm busting for a ****"
You guys crack me up, even if I can’t understand half the crap you spout. I‘m only up to letter D in the Aussie slang dictionary. Been busy. I thought that was a donkey swimming.
The crappy lack of rain weather is continuing here, unless you are my neighbours, they got another 25mm yesterday, we got 7. I see cattle prices started OK, but now are dropping already. Another big lot of drill pipe hitting the market at another auction. Casing & Steel Pipe Sale - Miles QLD - Pickles AU Bid and buy at the Casing & Steel Pipe Sale - Miles QLD at Pickles . Choose from online auctions, fixed-price or through PicklesLIVE. www.pickles.com.au
Yeah I got a grid price for meatworks cows a couple of weeks ago now. Took me a few days to decide on dates, got back to them to book them in. Price had dropped 20c. Gotta love it.
Sorry to hear about the prices guys. Deacon calves are holding strong, even went up 2.5% around the first of the year. Getting almost $800 for day old beef/dairy crosses right now. The Holstein bulls are bring $515-565, and anything that looks like a Jersey is a flat $450. No complaints on calf prices when they were all under $100/calf back in 2018/2019. I have not checked cull cow rates, but given the high demand on calves, I would presume it is staying fairly stable at the moment. Current processors note is lack of heifers being kept in beef herds for replacement is signaling low forage availability. Thus the producers are shipping the heifers instead of keeping them. Very bullish sentiment on the long term cattle prices due to low herd inventory.
Just saw this and feel compelled to share. x.com x.com
FT, draw, put 3 in his chest and 1 in the noggin for good measure. Freak Frog.
Crazy to see their musculature when they are wet like that. Freaking hopper is ripped.
Fighting is a necessary part of life for male roos, very common to see them with torn ears like that. Happy to take on humans as well. Pony might remember one that briefly terrorised the town of Monto years ago.
No Queenslander, i don't. But you had better tell us more, see if it can compete with your wallaby in the toilet story.
They also try to emulate men.
I can’t believe I actually found a copy of the story. It originally appeared in the C&NB Times. https://www.smh.com.au/national/crazy-roo-axed-to-death-20030711-gdh2z7.html
Pet buck kangaroos that still have their nuts are pretty dangerous pets. My grandmother got her back broken by one an uncle had as a pet. The roo then got relocated to another place by my father.
Yeah again, I think it's just that times have changed and not necessarily for the better. I, like I imagine most on here from Australia would have grown up shooting roos for dog meat. Any joey's big enough to survive were kept and hand raised as pets. You learned how the animals behaved and probably more importantly, learned how to behave around them. Now you'd get locked up for shooting a roo without a permit, and probably publicly flogged for keeping and rearing a joey. As indicated earlier, my son wanted to rescue the roo swimming in the dam, a good way of getting yourself killed. But hey what do I know, all the "experts" are making the laws, so they must be right.
Are you far enough north to get much of this rain RC? Only 15mm for the week here so far, just enough to wet up the road and make a mess of everything. Cliffy probably has webbed feet by now.
Wet season is my favourite time of year. The country changes overnight. The heat, humidity, plant growth and rain. Unfortunately im down south for a funeral so no webbed feet this year. Will probably be home just in time to fix the flood gates.
Nothing substantial here. In fact it is getting a bit concerning for a couple of paddocks that got burnt. Those couple of weeks of stupidly hot weather sucked out of the ground what moisture profile we had. It is quite green again now but we only get 5mm here and 10mm there. Nothing of any quantity to give us any moisture profile in the soil. But then 3km away and they are still getting 50mm when we get 5mm. Further south from me and it gets worse as when we get 10mm they get 2mm. We just cannot get any widespread rainfall systems. Creeks have not run properly since 2016 now. This weather is just annoying. Showery enough to stop you doing stuff you want to do, but nothing substantial in it. Not really wanting 1200mm in two days like Ingham got, but 300mm-400mm over a week would be nice.
So your places don't look like this then.
hopefully the "place" was the grill....
I wonder what Kangaroo would taste like? Kinda a red meat I bet.
It's good. I had it at the Chop House in Cody, Wyoming, many years ago. We walked in and it was the special of the night. Reminded me of venison or elk, another lean, red meat.
Reading the Country Life today Queenslander, I see you had a good sale and got your name in the paper. Good sale overall? I'm taking a body load of fat cows down to Beenleigh abattoir tomorrow. Got a fair few more to go and I'm a bit like RC grass wise. Paddock is overstocked cause of bad pregnancy rates last year, but I'm thinking of booking in another few loads straight away as the grass isn't there. The price is going backwards and they aren't fully finished, but if I wait and it doesn't rain, I'll have less grass and the prices will have dropped more as everyone else will be unloading as well.
Our grass has decided to start growing now. Had 24mm about 1am last night in a storm and it was quite widespread. Overall though another disappointing season so far. As for prices, getting a bit sick of reading how grinding beef into the US is at record high prices, meanwhile the abattoir prices have not changed to reflect this. I think current prices are acceptable, but nothing amazing given the way inputs have gone up in price. Got a bill here where the local government wants another $10 000 donation for six months.
Patchy down here. We only got 8mm, same on both blocks 10km apart, but around Monto got 30-50mm. Stupid humid though, almost couldn't work the last couple of days, or maybe I'm just getting soft as I get older.
Pretty solid sale, around $4 for heavy feeders. This particular has been so popular in the last couple of years that they have had to split it in two along breed lines. So we had purebred Santa steers last week but will have some Droughtie cross fellas next week, that I reckon are an even better line. See what happens.
That explains a few things. I've never sent cattle there, so no first hand knowledge, paper said all breeds sale, but the winners listed for each class didn't include a few categories i thought it should have. Obviously they're next sale.
My run of luck is holding up well. Car was in the sun all day yesterday. Had a can of blue marking paint on the dash. Today I discover the interior has taken on a blue colour and a smashed windscreen. Of course the lucky bit was it has cleaned off better then I expected, goes to show how cheap that marking paint it.
Shame about the windscreen. Could have been worse though, you might have ended up looking like a Smurf.
Bugger
Even worse if it had have been that fluoro pink paint. I would fit right in in Sydney/Melbourne though. Windscreen already had a big crack in it, although it had been like that for years.
Trying not to laugh RC, it's only funny cause it's usually me that it happens to. I asked my son to unload the back of the ute at the end of the school holidays after fencing. Usual tools etc, along with a half spool of barbwire and a few cans of spray marker paint. I went to do something else and left him to it. Came back a bit later and son, back of ute and spool of wire covered in fluoro green paint. Apparently if you drop half a spool of barbwire on a can of spray paint it goes boom.
That sucks @.RC. . Hopefully it all cleans out fairly well.
This mornings collection. 103m of 1 3/4" stud link chain ex bouy use, a tiny bit light but I have seen people wrap two chains around each other to get more weight into them. Hard to find now, Queenslander would probably remember the name Garth Zerner from around Emerald somewhere, used to have a perpetual ad in the Country Life newspaper "Scrub Chain, phone Garth Zerner" Now all I need is another one of those bargain dozers Chidog keeps boasting about.
Yes, I have some chain that I bought from GZ, he’s been in the game for a long time. When it got to the stage when we were only pulling regrowth I added in a 100ft of 3” which I bought from Deaf Jeff in Toowoomba, another legend who has been around forever.
Yes I have seen Deaf Jeff's adverts around seemingly forever as well. The place I got this chain from had a heap of 3" there. They would not part with it though, they use it to hold buoys in the one place. I paid $8 a foot for this 1 3/4" stuff. Have a cousin that tried to use their chain with 2" in the middle (the one I borrowed a few months ago) to do brigalow suckers. All it did was bend them over, so their neighbour had a 3" chain so they borrowed it and it was much more successful at propagating more sucker regrowth. So now they are using pellets. We had contractors pulling here around 97, they had 3" chain, and we got them back a few years later. Goodness knows how much pulling they did but the chain had gone from being new to flats worn across the links to the point they thought it may snap within a few years. I guess that is the beauty of swivels as the chain will roll rather then skid.
$8 sounds like good buying. Along with the 3”, we have 200 ft of 2” and 50ft of high tensile at each end that is only about 1”. The ht looks puny but is super strong and doesn’t have a scratch on it, despite being constantly backed over. Biggest drawback is that it is much easier to pick up with a track, particularly with newer pads.
You strapped the load of chains down with nylon straps ?
The straps are only for appearances. The chain does not move. So here is one I prepared earlier and used chains.
Has anyone had any experiences, good or bad, with Rebound Truck Bodies in Wacol, Brisbane? Sick of being dicked around looking at second-hand trailers and getting close to going new.
Not heard of them, but from my experience with others, you will want to look at some of their designs and completed work. I bought a hans tandem trailer and they seemed to be modern in their approach with structural parts plasma cut out of plate and then all bent up into various shapes. I was impressed, but it was quite expensive four years ago, hate to think what they are now. Then there is our cattle truck tray and crate made by TWE in Toowoomba. Design is **** poor like something out of the 1960's. Workmanship is fine, just the design is bad.
Yeah I've been looking at second-hand trailers on and off for years now. Went and had a look at a Rebound dog trailer in Toowoomba a while ago, didn't really suit, but became aware of the builder. Spoke to them by phone a few weeks ago and went in to the workshop for a squiz. They had a tandem axle skel pig completed which apart from lack of tray is basically what I'm looking at. Was impressed by the job. Also bunch of truck trays, tippers etc being built in the shop. They don't seem to specialise in any one thing, but do a bit of everything. I went in a few days ago with the truck and got measured up, looked around again. I went around the big livestock trailer manufacturers in Toowoomba about 12 months ago, they all had multiple b-doubles etc to build and basically said they weren't interested in my little job. TWE are no longer building trailers. If I go Rebound, it'll be trailer only, I'll rebuild the stockcrate I made for my smaller truck to suit. I can't afford a new trailer and crate.
Well, Queenslander's done it again, got his name AND picture in the paper. Congratulations.
Yeah, Thank You, No doubt, the kickstart we gave them after weaning got them over the line. The story was a little misleading. The winning pen were all milk toothers, early No 4s and came back at 468kg… they wouldn’t do that on our country without a little help along.
That little bit of help at weaning during that tough stage makes a big difference. I always say for every kilo they lose, that is a kilo they have to put back on. If I pull my finger out I should do something this year. I have found a source of mung beans seconds for what you would be paying for PKE.
This goes to show what land can be capable of when developed. The farm with the rhoades grass in it is only 5 acres and a sort of trial, it was just planted a few years ago and fed off as required. Then you compare it to the native grasses next to it. When I win lotto and then clone myself, I have thousands of acres to do this to.
Which variety do you have there? I‘ve planted a bit over the years, Katambora being the last. I believe there have been a couple of newer ones since then. Certainly excellent feed but struggles with these dry seasons that are becoming more frequent.
That one is Callide Rhoades. There is some Hatch Blue Grass mixed with it. It is a bit more coarse then Bisset Blue Grass, but is not affected by die back, but it also put out really long runners, like ten feet long and they will not put roots down, unlike Bisset which will root at each nodule on it's runners. Bisset was going to be our wonder grass here for the coast, until die back came along and it wiped out huge areas of it. It is not worth planting now, but it is a great grass otherwise. https://www.feedipedia.org/node/494 We have had a love hate relationship with Rhoades grass. We have planted it before and it came up well. Then five years down the track it is all gone again as soil fertility was not enough to sustain it. Especially the newer ones like Fine Cut, Top Cut and there are some newer ones then that out now. We still have some stands of the original Pioneer cultivar in one paddock where the soil fertility has stayed up, so it will persist sometimes. As you know the big gamble these days with planting grass seeds is the utter crap rain seasons we are getting it is so unreliable you can plant and then it comes up then no more rain. My brother is having a big run of bad luck trying to establish Leucaena. Between the unreliable rain and vermin eating the new plants he has had to replant some of it three times. A cousin went down to Roma last Friday and thought it was dryish here, until they got closer and closer to Roma and it got worse and worse. I am surprised the cattle market has not collapsed yet. I think there might be some people thinking about destocking to some extent now the cyclone has turned out to be a fizzer for rural people and there is really only one month yet of a chance of getting something.
Agree on the Hatch. We once planted some through a roller drum that had five compartments, two with Hatch and three with Buffel. When the season was right the bluegrass would dominate but when grazed down it would go back to two stripes through the paddock.
Well there you go, I've learnt my thing for the day. I thought it was that Rhodes couldn't handle the grazing pressure rather than soil fertility. I planted a shotgun mix when I blade plowed the regrowth in my scrub paddock and like everyone else the Rhodes only lasted a few years before it was gone.
Probably a bit of everything. Lack of rain, grazing pressure and soil fertility. Driving along the highways looking at all the brigalow country pulled in the 70's and looking at a fair bit of it now. Patches of bare dirt, considerable amounts of Indian Couch grass. The soil fertility has been depleted from the highs of the freshly cleared stuff. I am no greenie by any means but by observation it looks like those that bladeploughed the brigalow to oblivion got a bit boost straight away, then it has been downhill since then. This is exactly what has happened in my callide valley block. Previous owners went a bit silly bladeploughing it and killed all the brigalow, they left nothing. When my parents bought it, the production was phenomenal, but it has been going downhill since then and desperately needs renovating again, as there is no more nitrogen going back into the soil from the brigalow with it being a legume. These people that go on about regenerative agriculture, while I feel it is a bit of a cult, do have some credible points to make. Along the coastal forest country the people on the poorer white powdery clay soils who stickraked everything, from looking at it their country over time has gone hard. Then there is less water penetration from rain. Bare patches start. Then droughts happen and the paddock is bare. It needs to be ripped up.
Paging RC, the "Wang Whisperer", do you reckon your special bandage will fix this one? Mustered over the last couple of days, branded the last few calves and pulled the bulls out. It's less than a week old, I was going to cull him for age this year anyway, but it's sad to see him go this way, he was a lovely quiet old bull. How did your bull work out, all good?
That one might be a bit large, but if you can shrink it back down at least then you will be able to meatworks him. This is the stuff I did not use on my bull as it is not registered for cattle, so I would not have used it. Prednoderm - Jurox Prednoderm is an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, healing and deodorising compound for topical treatment of infections, wounds, and lesions. www.jurox.com.au So my bull was not slathered with that, then a salt or something infused moist cotton wound pad wrapped around, then a bandage over that. My bull does not let rub him now. I think since I handled his old fella a bit he has got the wrong impression of me. Here he is as of today. As for being a wang whisperer. May I suggest you go see this bloke.
A bit like the relationship we have with cows when preg testing. As for Elbow, he’s too busy saving SEQ from Alfred.
Bit of rain around last night and wild storms. Ended up with 70mm. One neighbour had over 150mm and lost their shed roof. Another got 172mm. Where I have no rain gauge this was empty this time yesterday. it holds 500 litres
Yeah, looks like Alfred's got a bit of a sting in his tail after all. We had nothing down here in the Lockyer Valley until yesterday, no real wind, nothing. Started steady rain 24hrs ago, hasn't stopped since. 10 inches in 24 hrs. I'm literally on a mountain top, so I'm never going to flood, but Laidley and other places are getting wet. Nothing up at my blocks, looking at the BOM yesterday arvo those storms seemed to pretty much build up over them and then move off to the north-east. I'd say Queenslander would have missed out as well.
I see there is some rain maybe in your general area now? The neighbour closest to where the red tub is got 230mm in two falls yesterday afternoon and last night. I expected 5 or 10mm in a big heat storm.
Managed to snag an inch last night. Was in Toowoomba yesterday, the big truckstops at Charlton were chockers due to highway being cut further down.
Lucky you. 10 pts (2.5mm) up at Eidsvold. We ended up with 13 1/2 inches (340mm) over the 36 hrs down here, plenty of damage, Laidley went half under. But unusually the water seems to be getting away quicker than usual. I drove down to the shed from the house and on a whim decided to keep going towards town just to have a stickybeak. Laidley Crk has run down and bridge was open so I'd say i can get to Laidley, don't know if the Warrego Hway is open or not, but I reckon it would be.
Hope you fellas get some good falls out of this coming rain event. Certainly looks good for out west. Abattoirs currently booked out for near two months I expect the price to collapse, especially if trump puts a big tariff on our cow meat.
Yeah you and me both, re the rain. Cliffy's been quiet, probably been washed away up there. I just heard the same re meatworks bookings this morning. I delivered a load to Bilo last Sunday and then another down to Beenleigh Monday. The rest aren't fat enough to go yet, need that rain so I can get rid of a few more before winter.
Had 150mm over the wet. Was a failed season up until a week ago. Little to no herbage or flinders grass shot. Perennials shot but new growth hayed off quick. Had 160mm this week so far. Good soaking rain as we had ground cover. Should be able to have ago now.
That is pretty good Cliffy, nothing much to measure here yet. I have been committing grass heresy today for those that have not had a good wet season. I took this photo in 2008, it was after the neighbours decided to buy an old D8H and this was their idea of road maintenance. Now I own it I am trying to change it back from a gully to a road and bring the dirt from the edges back in. The grader hated doing it with all the grass. So I decided to try ploughing it. They did these roads everywhere, with a pile of dirt every 50-100m or so.
That last lot of rain you had really sparked your grass along, RC. I haven't got a touch of green in mine at Eidsvold. Spoke to the parents today, half inch so far. 20mm down here in Lockyer Valley.
Yea it has really thickened up the past month, looks quite good. That paddock has not had cattle in it for four months. Ready for some soon. Getting a heavy shower here now. I got stuck out in the middle of it on the quad.
Only 15mm for the week here… very disappointing. I needn’t have bothered parking the dozer in the shed to work on it as it is not much wetter outside.
Yes that is disappointing. Lets hope this forecast comes off at a minimum.
I would be very happy with that but we saw a sunset on the horizon this evening so won’t be getting too excited.
You need to upgrade from that old Fiat and I have just the machine to bid on. Caterpillar D9-H Dozer - THEODORE Vendor Advised Dozer is Operational www.tvaa.com.au
Lucky us Queenslander, what'd you end up with RC? 80 odd mm and counting down here in Lockyer Valley. Haven't gotten up there yet, but according to neighbours, next to nothing at Monto block. Real little dry area in there, Monto up towards Bilo. Callide dam is 16%, Cania 24%.
Had 66mm here so far. Overcast and a bit of a mist falling. But yea it never went inland.
Where do you find that map Pony, I assume they are all the automatic stations? I know where to find them in table form but this is much easier to read. Was talking to someone south of Bilo and they only registered 2.8mm so I better not winge too much. RC, the 14 is getting old and tired, but then again, so am I. Given enough tlc we both should be good for a few more years.
2.5 inches RC - so I'll be right to bring a load of cull cows up, to put in that paddock for a bit? I don't know Queenslander, I subscribe to Higgins weather and they posted it out this morning. It's the first time I've gotten something like that. You're right it nice and easy to read, I also assume it automated stations.
I would love to but I am scared that grass may poison your cows or if they ate too much they might explode.
The rainfall maps I just use the BOM ones. There are two owners of the weather stations the BOM uses, their own and a Qld government department owns some as well. You can get historical data on the BOM ones but nothing on the qld govt ones. This one shows all weather stations but only goes back 24 hours http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/widebay.shtml These two only show BOM weather stations. http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/rain_maps.cgi http://www.bom.gov.au/watl/rainfall/observations/index.shtml You can get historical data right back to the 1800's where available here on open and closed rainfall stations. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/index.shtml Another 46mm last night and currently there is a big fog outside.
I might take that risk RC. Just spoke to the parents, we missed those storms last night, apparently just broke up before they got to us and reformed once they passed over. 3mm That's the problem with just looking at yearly averages, we got that 5 inch storm a couple of months ago when you missed out and now you get the same in good rain. Yours soaks in where as mine ended up down the gullies. Oh well, these things happen.
Watched Landline yesterday which had a story about these cattle in Oz. Very interesting. Steaks in restaurants going for $300. Speckle Park International Speckle Park International, breed society - Australia New Zealand www.specklepark.org
I watched that story as well… big steaks, must be nearly 2” thick.
I'll order one of those steaks... for 3.
There is certainly a lot of marketing going on over that speckled park stuff. It is like angus a few years ago. Those fast food chains and their "angus burger" when all they sell is a mince rissole slapped between some bread. I am yet to find tough mince from any breed. But fools and their money are soon parted. I have proven that over the years. Although I remember one old fella tell me years ago about the way another old fella ran his property. Big eight year old piker brahman bullocks living in the roughest hardest range country. They would get galloped out with a helicopter up their bums. Those that made it to the yard would get galloped onto the truck and they galloped off the truck to the meatworks. He thought even their mince would be tough.
Back to oil and gas pipe bits. A cousin has picked this up from the oil and gas industry. Looks to be stators out of a helical pump assembly. Had about 150mm for the week now. Was helping fix flood fences today.
Managed to scrape together 75-100mm for the fortnight, so we are very happy with that. Just a follow up on the previous photo of the 14. As we were expecting some wet weather we thought we would take the opportunity to give the old girl a good service, including changing edges on the blade. Nuts and threads were completely mangled..didn’t fancy tackling the job upside down with a gas axe..only took 15min. to pull the blade and stand it up where we could attack it easier. Everything went very smoothly until we put it all back together and went to lift the blade. Oil immediately started pouring out of one ram where it only had the smallest of weeps before. Long story short, the rod obviously had a bend in it that we hadn’t noticed. We do a lot of timber work and often have heavy tops lobbing down there. When we reattached it we must have turned the rod 180 degrees, a position that it didn’t like at all…at least, that’s all I can put it down to.
Yeah thought you'd be getting a bit from that big line of rain yesterday, havnt spoke to the parents yet. I don't know with that ram, you'd imagine if it leaks bad at 180, it'd leak just as bad in original position. Unless the outer barrell is tweaked as well?
That rod isn't a huge diameter so It could be put in a press and straightened but it would have to be rmoved from the cylinder and disassembled. Does it have any scars, scratches, or dings in the chrome anywhere.? Your rod would class as a "gentle" bend so could theoretically be straightened. It is also solid which is another plus. Provided the bend is no more than 3mm measured over any 600mm of rod length put it in a press and have at it. The best method would be to first heat it in an oven, not with a torch. You can go up to 150 DegC if you need to. The final target is <0.25mm of bend over the whole chromed length of the rod.
Is 150c as much as the chrome can handle Nige? I rebuilt a steering ram on my backhoe recently and had to first remove the tie-rod ends. I was concerned about them being very hard to remove and trying to figure out if heat was option so close to the chrome. As it turned out they come off ok and heat wasn't required.
This photo shows a bit more of the shaft, Iam guessing we have more than 3mm of bend there. I took it to our local Enzed, hose doctor franchise renowned for charging outrageous prices, and asked them to quote on a new rod. Actually very reasonable so we’re going to go that way.
Stator sections from downhole mud motors. Pump mud down the center of pipe, through Stator to drive a rotor to drive the bit. The lower section (no longer attached to this pile) would have a bearing section and them either a straight housing, or a bent housing for directional steering. I spent a good chunk of my life drilling deviated wells with a bent housing mud motor.
That is good. Not really been wanting to post how much we have had as I know what it is like when others get all the rain and you are constantly missing out. We had another inch and a half yesterday and finally got a bit of a drink in the callide valley as well as there seemed to be good storms around that area and further south yesterday afternoon. Pity about the rod, surprised you can get a new one without much trouble. I have found running a hydraulic shop in mining country is like striking oil. I have resorted to buying hose and fittings from a place on the gold coast somewhere that has an online shop. https://www.hydraulic.online I was planning to get two now lift rods for the 6 this financial year. Chroming is perfect except for two small regions on each rod but they refuse to start leaking so have been putting it off. Well I would not have thought they would have been a motor to drive a drill bit. The whole oil and gas industry seems to be a complex science and engineering industry. Here I was thinking you just drill a hole in the ground and then you pump oil out like water and make a squillion dollars.
Amazing what you see other people doing in other countries. I would have never thought ground driven slashers would be a thing in 2025. They seem quite effective. SP 2 – Inroda Força em Campo www.inroda.com.br Fast forward to three minutes to see this bloke have three connected together slashing away.
As drill bit technology advanced from steel "fish tail" bits to tri-cone roller bits to PDC bits from the early 1900s to the 1970s, the need for higher bit speed to efficiently take advantage of the newer technology arose. Roller cone bits need under 100 rpm as they are crushing, gouging, and scraping rock away. PDC bits need over 100 rpm, sometimes over 200 rpm to efficiently shear the rock. Spinning the entire drill string from surface to bit at 200 rpm is impractical to say the least. From my experience, we would plan on running our rotary at 50rpm (entire drill string), and choose a motor to put downhole that would make up the difference to reach our optimal bit rpm. Motors are fixed displacement, so a .50rev/gal motor will put out .5 revolutions for every gallon So, for an 8¾" diameter intermediate section, we want to pump 550gpm with a bit speed of 200-225rpm, planned rotary at 50rpm. 225-50=175rpm 200-50=150rpm 175rpm/550gpm= 0.318 rev/gal 150rpm/540gpm=0.272 rev/gsl Choose a motor that has an output between 0.272rev/gal and 0.318 rev/gal to stay in your optimum range. 0.29 rev/gal is a very common output for a 6¾" motor, so that was what we used pretty regularly. Those had a 7/8 rotor/stator lobe configuration providing high torque and lower output speed. A 4/5 power section would spin substantially faster, but with reduced output torque resulting in a motor that could be stalled easier if you pushed it too hard.
Looks like the rain event has finished. Ended up with 380mm. opened a few gates for the old girls. They didn’t get cut up to bad but plenty of water around. The 450 husky comes in handy when its wet.
That is a pretty good total Cliffy, should keep things green for awhile heading into winter.
I guess it takes a lot of hp to pump the mud to drive the motor as well as bring all the cuttings to the surface. As well as a big filter to filter the mud to make sure you do not pump cuttings back down through the motor wrecking it.
On the wells we drilled, yes. We would go down vertical 10,000ft+/-, then build a curve to 90° inclination, then drill laterally between 5,000 and 15,000 ft. The length of the lateral depended on a lot of variables, the biggest being how many continuous leases the Operator had, and the acceptable risk of going further put. Most of these rigs had draw works rated at 500,000-600,000 pounds of lift, and ran (3) CAT 3512 Gensets at 2,000hp each. When drilling, we usually only ran two generators at a time, but when tripping, we ran all three and worked the snot out of them when we were allowed to. The biggest issue when tripping is swabbing or surging the hole. Swabbing is when you pull out too fast and create a low pressure zone below the bit that draws gas into the bore fluid. This can cause the well to start flowing and kick (pre-cursor to a blow out if not controlled). Surging is when you're tripping in too fast and cause a high pressure zone ahead of the bit, unintentionally fracturing the well which can cause it to slough in and trap your pipe. Once we were in cased hole, it was go as fast as your men can keep up.
Rather odd--such a wide stance --two different boots--both right, must be a interesting looking humanoid. *
Oh, so just slightly bigger then the old percussion drill rig we used to have here that had a 5hp petrol motor on it.
Here is an old Southern Cross catalogue with one of the drill rigs they used to make back in the day.
Sounds easy enough, how long would it take to bore a 600' hole? Rock or soil, how's it do with cobbles? Joe H
I particularly like the very last paragraph. Those old timers didn’t suffer fools gladly.
Well passed in at $40 000 for that old D9H. It was an early one by the vertical exhaust and square cab. Since it had an IronFarmers sticker on it, they imported used dozers especially D8's and D9's from the USA. Contractors we had here in the late 1990's had a new to them imported D9G they bought from that mob. There was another dozer at that auction a D6R series 3. 18500 hours, system 1 undercarriage. Looked like it had been sprayed with cement and then dragged out of the ocean by the amount of rust present. Sold for $85 000. I think it had worked in magnesite all it's life at one of the local mines. https://www.tvaa.com.au/auctions/24606/lot/46366-2006-caterpillar-d6r-iii-track-dozer Had to laugh at the included service report. "Cab rusted out. Replaced Cab". Not something you usually see.
Cable tool drill rig they are really cool. Around here they would take three months to drill 3600' and many casing strings
Another one has come down.
Refurbing or retiring?
I’m sure you could sell them over here to the steampunk people, Hell, I might even buy it. Shipping would kill the deal though. The new wind mills are ugly as sin.
Retire. I do have a set of new bearings to go into it, but what is the point when a solar submersible can be had for $600. Plus those towers with the wire stays, well the wire is pretty rusty and getting thin. Sails are getting rusty as well. Will put it into storage in case it is ever needed. Yea people buy them around here for garden ornaments, you see half a wheel stuck onto someone's entrance. Amazes me what people will buy.
People here will buy the blades/wheel and hang it on the side of a building.
I had a wheel on the side of my house for a year or two
Previous house, I decided to decorate with a whole bunch of older crap, my wife loved. Old ice tongs, scrapers, the old heat up in the stove, curling irons, blacksmith tools. At first I thought it looked pretty cool, had it all over the house, kitchen and dining room, bathrooms. After a few years, I was like, this stuff just looks like old junk, hanging all over the walls. Then there was the bathroom fad my wife went through many years ago. Mounting rear view mirrors, all over the walls in bathrooms. She musta had 40 or 50, car and truck rear view mirrors.
Being a guy that goes around cleaning up this stuff and having to clean up my dads stuff I am getting to be more of a minimalist. I like some collections and like the way some stuff looks but I don't think I want to own it .
Not sure is anyone is interested in the recent floods in very rural Queensland. But here is an hour long story on them by the national broadcaster.
Very cruel, when you consider that the entire area is usually desperate for any rain they can get.
A sobering watch. I wish them all the best in their efforts to recover.
Old windmill pumps are all over around here, abandoned. *
Well this is as good as confessional as any. I have a confession to make. I got sick of the neighbours stock getting into my paddock, so today when I got one of them into the yard I gave it away to someone else.
Must be more common than you think. We had a young sow turn up and live with the bulls one winter. Later, we were mustering steers to put in the feedlot and she was with them, ended up following the mob back to the yards. Stayed with them in the pen until they were ready to go. I had to assign someone to keep an eye on the ramp in case she ran onto the truck. We called her Wilma.. she did quite well on grain and there was some talk of eating her, but after seeing her rolling in s..t for several months I’am afraid I didn't have the stomach.
Maybe the little oinkers are just having an identity crisis.
Not being political but is this like men can have babies? LMFAO!
Well the windmill I repaired back here -->> HeavyEquipmentForums Now looks like this. It is stuffed. I could repair it with parts I have on hand. But why bother. Another solar pump to install. I have no idea what caused it to jam up and break all these bits. I pulled the wheel off, it is mostly reusable. I believe I have killed a Chinaman and stomped all over his grave.
Well it is about situation normal still. Water leaks and more water leaks. I got that windmill all pulled down. Now that I have compressors I decided to blow the bore properly. So I blew a heap of crap out and the water started getting clean. Seemed to be not a lot of water but enough. Then I moved the pipe up and down a bit, then it blew out a heap of sandy gravel. I stuffed a bag down to plug the bore to try to pressurise it a bit, then air blew up in the dirt away from the bore. The 5" steel casing is old and quite rusty and a torch revealed a large hole in the casing only 3 feet below the ground level. I also suspected another hole down near the bottom as where did the sandy gravel come from? So I put my measuring tape down it with a steel coupling on the end. It went down 63 feet, then jammed a bit at the start trying to pull it back. I think what has happened is the steel casing goes down about 60 feet but it is not in hard rock and I blew out a cavity to 63 feet which is where all the gravel and sandy material is coming from. In any case in times past my father has put PVC pipe down the inside of couple of rusted out bores, so looking at PVC pipe sizes, 4" NB PVC is about 114mm OD. I ran a sand pump off a percussion drill rig down the hole first. It was 4"OD and it went down reasonably fine. So I needed something bigger so looked at this gars well production pipe. turns out the couplings on the bigger 3 1/2" pipe are 115mm OD. So cut a piece about ten feet long, added a hook to connect the wire rope to and tried to put it down the hole. It went down about two feet. After much wriggling I got it down to about five feet from the top. Next wild thought bubble was get something about the right OD that would fit down and try to scratch all the flakey rust off the sides. Something like the light 34mm scrub chain which happens to have a width of 104mm. So found a suitable length and put that down the bore, then spun it round and round by hand with a steel post and up and down many times on the crane. Not sure if I achieved much as my steel pipe still would not go down. So I got the coupling off by slitting it (they are stupidly tight and not able to be removed by normal means) then welded the slit up, then turned it down to 110mm and made it shorter and the other end of the coupling made it 113mm OD to be used after the 110mm one did it's job. The 110mm one I managed to wiggle it down past the first tight bit, then it was free and went most of the way to the bottom. Many up's and downs later it would go to 59 feet depth quite freely. I tried the bigger 113mm one but it simply would not go past about six feet down. Rather then risk getting it stuck down there I gave up with it. So ringing a couple of places I find that stormwater drain pipe is 110mm OD and about 100mm ID. I will get some lengths of that and stick it down. Plenty of room then for a 3" solar pump. Cheaper then $6000 for a new bore.
Don't be fooled by the photo above with the PVC showing. That is only a foot long as the top of the steel casing rusted off years ago. This bore will overflow in a very wet year.
Certainly worth a go. So the pipe you intend to use is your standard 100mm sewer pipe? Iam at Farmfest today so I’ll run it past any experts I come across…plenty of them here.
Spoke to both these drilling outfits, neither of which were too enthusiastic about the idea, but then, they are in the business of drilling new holes. They both said the sewer pipe wouldn’t be heavy enough to be a long term proposition and you may struggle to get it down with the extra diameter of the joint. Another pump man that we know well suggested hdpe, either in straight lengths that would have to be welded or a single coiled length. Might need a hot day to get it straight enough to push down the hole. I think it is available with an OD of 110 mm and wall as thick as you like.
Yes I would expect drilling companies to sort of say that. Was talking to a fella who was talking to another fella who is full time installing pumps and other water work and he does have a drilling rig as well and does drill holes. He has apparently done heaps of lining old steel bores with PVC, The stuff he buys is the normal bore casing style and he cuts off the flared end and cuts it into three metre lengths and gets it threaded so it screws together. The one my father did in the mid 1980's still works perfectly well. I rang up a supplier about using big diameter blue line poly pipe as it is 110mm OD, but he said the wall is that thick you are no better off then plain pvc anyway. While google might say it is available in different wall thicknesses, what suppliers actually can get and stock is a different story. It is the sewer pipe I will use, 3mm wall thickness. Cut the flare off and probably join together with that silver PVC tape. It only has to go down once. I have seen in chassis rails rust expand the steel, so it would not matter how think your PVC or poly is, it would not be able to withstand the force of the growing rust anyway. When we are getting $5000 a head for our steers like Colson is now, can always get another bore drilled then. This was today's effort. About 85ft deep, 6" casing this time. Plenty of water.
Back into repairing the old rusted out bore. Got the PVC pipe I need and decided to cut the flare off. Then cut a 300mm long piece, split it and glue it into the inside of the PVC to be an internal joiner. Then for extra strength as screws it is not feasible to try to get little screws and screw then into the join as well as extra strength I got a hole punch and punched little bits out of some 6mm thick plastic. These where then pressed into a 6mm hole drilled into the pvc with superglue. The first length was slotted. The casing went down the bore quite unspectacularly. Took three full lengths and about two extra feet. It is pretty close to the bottom. Blowing it cleaned the water up but also considerable air blew up around the ground as tere is a huge hole in the steel casing about two feet down. i feel like I will be digging down, covering the hole with something and then cementing it all up. To stop ground water contaminating the repaired bore.
Pulling all the posts out and digging with a shovel revealed quite the cavity under there, a good four feet deep. Not sure how it came about.
While I sit here having a cream bun for morning tea, here is this mornings effort. Dug down about four and a half feet. Will cement it up from there.
I’ve got to give you credit for thinking outside the box. Should be good for many years. I probably would have been (reluctantly) calling a driller after discovering that big hole and all the sand in the bottom.
I just learned that my father in law has a bore with a windmill that isn't producing. I was told it has about 6ft of water in the bottom based on them dropping a weighted line down slowly, hearing the splash and then dropping it the rest of the way to bottom. My father in law doesn't know what the actual depth of the well is supposed to be, or what the static water level was originally when it was drilled. His father had it bored back in the 1960s when my father in law was a child. I've been with my wife for 20 years, and never seen the windmill turn, but I was told it was used to fill a pond for their cattle. Today, they only have 10 cows as the farm was downsized as my wife's grandfather aged and then passed. They really don't have a need for this bore though with the reduction in cattle The well at the house is big enough to keep a pair of troughs full for the cattle. My wife's uncle talked about having it looked at as he would like it to be operational again. After watching RC's progress, I'm kind of incline to bring out the big compressor and see what blows out of the bottom. Also, have a gander for holes in the casing. Our area is known to have a lot of readily available water so I highly doubt the reservoir is drying up or the formation is too tight to flow. Dry wells aren't much of a thing around here.
How deep of a well total?
Under 100ft I'm sure. Many wells drilled in that era were only 40-60ft deep.
Only one way to find out colson. Haul that 1000 gallon air tank out there and blow the crap out of it. Metaphorically and physically. Here are some photos of the cementing. Put duct tape around the hole in the steel casing and where the steel ends and the plastic starts. Put about 0.6m or about 21cu ft of concrete in there. Should not go anywhere.
These little pumps are just amazing. I make my own caps for the top out of stainless steel. The cement is hard, the bore is blown again and clean. Lots of water.
What brand is that RC? I don’t understand why most/all Chinese manufacturers don’t incorporate a check valve in the body of the pump. I guess there’s a reason for it.
AU STOCK 3" DC 210W Screw Solar Bore Pump Submersible Well 30m Cable Rotor READY | eBay Australia NOT 'Manufacturer Refurbished'. The Pump you are looking at is 3HR210 with 30m cable. - Solar B o r e P u m p s -. L o n g e r Cab l e / Bigger Fl o w / Bigger Head / ACDC hybrid and More. The p e r forman c e cu r v e is only for reference. www.ebay.com.au Have got six or seven pumps from this seller now. No issues so far.
.RC. I've often wondered if a windmill that has worn out mechanicals be converted to run a generator and then drive an electric pump. I figure it would then have the ability to run at night even in a light breeze.
Not really. The work involved would be significant. It would be like the urban peoples fantasy dream to run countries on wind and solar. Can it be done? Oh absolutely. A lot of things can be done if you have endless taxpayers money and resources. Just expect a massive reduction in your standard of living as you now spend 70% (or whatever high amount it would be) of your income on electricity. Pumping windmills are slow reving and high torque. Also very inefficient and wind is really unreliable. What is the maintenance on a solar panel compared to a wind turbine for a small scale water pumping situation? The pump in the above photo is 210W. It cost ~$600 delivered. The panel is 370W and is about $200. That panel easily maxed out the pump today in winter when the sun is pretty dull. That pump was pumping a stream of water better then the windmill usually does and it did it for hours on end. Five years ago I was a die hard windmill fan until I then had to start fixing them all by myself and we had this influx of cheap pumps and cheap panels. Suddenly the solar pumps went from $7000+installation to $1000. Plus these pumps are repairable. Seals, bearings are just generic parts. Unlike the $7000 name brand ones which you throw away. The pole and panel here are only temporary until I get time to build a little shed in the workshop and install that there.
I’ve been mounting control boxes in these electrical enclosures. This one is two meters off the ground as the area goes under water in a big flood.
How do the cows drink out of a stock tank, that has high sides on it?
They don't
@.RC. Thanks for that, totally understand. Just thought a generator up a tower, switch gear lower on the same and a pump down the hole,she'd be apples.
Tuhorse. The bane of my existence. When i got to be on first name basis with Bobby, it was time to cut our losses. Was runnng Lonentz but expensive and not repairable. Tried tuhorse. Pulled them all up with in 2 years. Now running grunfos. Ac/dc. Built in low water probe. And does not require a controller. Just a pressure switch in series. Seem to be going good so far.
I installed several Grundfos SQF pumps on my parent’s place. They all now have over 30,000 pumping hours, and haven’t cost a dime since installed. We had one Lorentz that is no longer in service. Every couple years there was some sort of issue with the pump or controller.
I tend to agree with you, but having said that, the photo above was taken in 2019 and that particular pump is still going, has only required a stator set replacement. We’ve been moving to Grundfos as well. I think the influx of cheap Chinese gear has forced them to be at least a little more competitive.
I do not know really and unfortunately I do not know anyone of the suppliers to trust when it comes to what to use in what application as you get the helical rotor ones, then you can get the centrifugal ones then there are cheap ones and expensive ones. Real knowledge is hard to find. My situation is mostly total dynamic head of usually under 20m. I find 200w panels a good size for these cheap 210W pumps as it forces the pump to only run at a lower speed. I just feel 3000+ RPM for these helical rotor pumps a bit fast when you consider the rubber coupling has to flex each revolution as the rotor moves side to side as it spins. It is why those big old Mono pumps used to have a long titanium rod in them to allow the side to side movement. The likes of these are centrifugal, I wonder what their lifespan and maintenance would be compared to the helical rotor type. You would need ten years of testing to find out. 3" DC Deep Well Solar Water Bore Pump Submersible 600W 48V 4000L/H Ranch Farm | eBay Australia SOLAR ENERGY NOT 'Manufacturer Refurbished'. Permanent magnet DC brushless synchronous motor, designed for solar, with 15-20% efficiency improved. Sensors are included so the pumping system can be fully automated. www.ebay.com.au
There is a guy on YT called "H2O Mechanic" who drills wells and installs/maintains pumps for a living. FWIW he only uses Grundfos pumps. Not sure if he has other social media presences where you might find some information but he certainly seems to be pretty clued up.
In early 90's I quit truck/mechanical for two years and worked for a irrigation/domestic well business as a welder building piping/plenums for pumps. At that time they sold two brands, Sta-Rite & Grundfos, inexpensive & expensive. If a Sta-Rite was installed it was assured they would be back X amount of time later to install a Grundfos. Plastic impellers vs stainless.
Yea I have watched a bit of his videos. But he installs repairs mains powered pumps. Once we get into solar we are talking about an intermittent form of electricity supply. The helical rotor pumps are positive displacement. They turn once, they pump x amount of water. Centrifugal on the other hand only pump when the motor is spinning at speed. I have a solar centrifugal surface pump and I have been there on a cloudy day and it is there spinning away but too slow to pump any water. Maybe the name brands ones has circuitry that they only spin when the voltage is high enough. Dunno.
Agree, Mono were the pioneers of surface driven, then later, solar powered helical rotor pumps in this country and had a well deserved reputation. Unfortunately, when we first got into solar they were into a second generation that were just garbage. After the fourth one died on us we gave the Tuhorse a go… might not be any better but at least they were only a quarter of the price.
How is this for competence. Our local government has voted to increase rates in my category (rural land) by over 1000%. So for me from $19 000 a year to $240 000 a year. Someone put the decimal point in the wrong spot and none of the idiots at council noticed until after everything had been made law.
I hope they're making an effort to rescind that decision...
Probably wasn't a mistake and they will drag their feet to change it, probably trying to get people to sell land
It was a mistake, but to get it fixed I was told there is a drawn out legal process. They will fix it though. But the general incompetence and malaise I see in governments all over and even in some business employees seems to be getting worse. It is like a vast proportion are living for the weekend these days.
No doubt, your council would be the same as many around the state, top heavy with admin staff… all with impressive titles, at the expense of outside workers. If the 10% rate rise doesn’t cover expenses they look to reduce services.
I'll probably be building a garage/car port this year with junk oilfield pipe, I wonder where I can find some
Oh absolutely but it makes no difference because the "outside" workers seem to be just as hopeless and useless. There used to be a council road gang and they had a loader with portable grizzly screen, two tipper trucks, one had a removable water tank and bar and a 12G grader. They used local quarries on the side of the road and the roads were in excellent condition. Now the council after forced amalgamation with the city runs a 12M, side tippers that cart gravel from 100km away, multiple rollers and lots of witches hats, signs and sometimes even third party stop go people for a road that sees two cars a day. The roads are just utter crap. the grader driver is useless and the gravel is like ball bearings. It just gets depressing as you see the real total stupidity and uselessness and I have to pay so much to fund it involuntarily. As one fellow recently told me. For him the 70's and 80's were the best times. Still heaps of it over this way going up for auction. Come for a holiday and take some back with the carry on luggage.
This resonates everywhere. Our local township voted in a new Township Supervisor many years ago. In her first meeting, she proposed a raise for herself as she felt the current salary wasn't appropriate for her responsibilities. The board all voted no against her. This is a township of 5,000 people. All of the township board members are paid, but the equivalent of a part time job as the needs of the township don't require them to be full time employees, thus no full time salaries.
A neighbouring council of ours with a troubled financial history has a meeting next week to formally adopt rate increases of up to 25%. They have invited ratepayers along so there is bound to be some spirited discussion.
Just hope it doesn’t go as far as this council…… Thurrock council hid losses as it gambled millions on risky investments Official report criticises Tory-run authority’s dysfunctional leadership and says it tried to silence critics www.theguardian.com
I forgot to take a pic but I hauled 31 joints away from a well today
We had an female airport manager here that wanted to re-number the runways 1, 2 and 3.....I kid you not.
2 3/8" or 2 7/8" ? What is decent unlined upset tubing bringing around you ?
It's 2 7/8 upset tubing but it's really bad,I think there were 9 holes in it so I'm going to use some better stuff. Plus I probably want 2" for the trusses
North is 1, South is 2, East is 3 and West is 4? Sounds good to me. Joe h
I'm sure there is a numbering system, but I don't know anything about flying.
Look at google earth of your local airport, read the numbers painted on the ends. Google Maps Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. maps.app.goo.gl Google Maps Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. maps.app.goo.gl
I get they are numbered, as I have flown commercial many times and seen the various numbers on the runways. I don't know the process of how each runway gets numbered. I'm sure there is a reason why Hastings has the runway numbered 12 one way and 30 the other. Why those numbers? I don't know.
Compass points, drop the first digit. 12 = 120 30 = 300 120 + 180 = 300 So in one simple radio transmission, the tower tells you what runway to use, and what direction as well.
Pigs are out of control here and there is no cropping. The first nights result with the trap set.
Ohh, how cute, they're all laying down together having a little sleep.
That'll be the one before the the forever sleep
Love me some wild pork!
Another one was having a nap about 150m away. The pressure was on. Had an old now mostly retird professional roo shooter with me. Two were outside the trap and I was explaining how I really like my 308 single shot target rifle (used to use it at the range from 300m to 800m target shooting) as it seems to be point in the general direction and you hit what you want. The two pigs started wandering away. There was a loud bang and they took off, he said there was a puff of dust behind the bigger one. We sorted the others out and I went back later looking and found him napping a short distance away.
Another 5. There apparently was a pig hunting competition in the region last weekend, the bloody pig hunters have been around with dogs scattering the mobs to hell. It is just entertainment for them.
I'm glad we don't have to deal with them where I'm at. The southern US certainly has a wild hog problem, but they haven't migrated this far North yet. Woodchucks are our biggest issue, and mostly cause they tear up the field digging their burrows. If left unchecked, they can destroy an alfalfa stand. Last year we shot/trapped 140 of them off our ground. This year, we're up to 16 or so. Hitting them hard last year made a big improvement for this year.
Prairie dogs in Western ks
Yeah, they're a nuisance too
So it was not really on my horizon but there now seems to be a two post hoist in the shed, I did not directly buy it but will be paying for it indirectly. Long story short our mechanic closed his mechanical business in town where he used to service our cars, and these days finding a decent mechanical shop is a hard slog. He lives not too far away and said he would do our vehicles if we had a hoist. So here we are. I had to cut squares in the existing concrete and pour new pads as the existing concrete was not up to spec. Installation was pretty straight forward despite a pretty vague instruction manual. I found out a few things since it was installed. It is amazing how easy it is to be able to work on stuff at a good height. I struggle to work on my back underneath a low vehicle as I soon feel a bit queasy like motion sickness. If I can sit up a bit like on trucks, etc I am fine. It is scary lifting something up and having a good look and finding how bad a vehicle that you thought was good is. The 2000 model GU Patrol ute we have had from new. The chassis has really bad rust in it (see photo of only one bad section). Despite it being kept shedded and never seen salty water. It had one of those "electronic rust protecter" units on it, but I now know they are just shonky items that can never work on a car. When making room for the hoist I got ruthless on old stuff that has sat for thirty or forty years and never been used. Old used steel pipe fittings were the main thing to go. dozens and dozens of them. Old thirty+ year old filters for vehicles long since gone. Tins of second hand rusted whitworth bolts. Stuffed windmill pumps and gatevalves and footvalves and troughvalves. Decades worth of them. Amazed how much extra room I got when I threw it all away. Some will go go the scrap merchants. I may even start selling off other things in the shed the way things are these days I doubt I will ever use again.
That’s going to require some work. We actually have strengthening plates sold for most vehicles, that like to rot out in certain areas. Chevy, is particularly bad around the gas tank, at the back of the cab. You can find 2 year old trucks run around that brine, with rotted out places like that.
It is nice when nothing exciting happens. Also I think my neighbour is trying a new breed I have not seen before.
We have that new breed as well. Use them as protection animals for our Dorper Weathers. It is amazing to watch how they work in unison to keep the mob together. Any that get out of line receives a quick kick and back into a tight mob. Havnt lost a shepp to dogs since.
How'd you heal after your bull-fighting attempts Queenslander? On a related note, anyone bought any bulls this season yet? How's the market? Heading to the Bunya Bull sale tomorrow, see what it's like. I need 2 this year, don't know whether to wait for the Rocky National sale or not?
Best wishes on your bull purchases. Cattle prices are absurd over here in the states right now. I really think the only folks making money are the calf producers selling them early. I talked with a beef producer the other night I hadn't seen in awhile. He said at the end of the year, they're making the same money they did 6 years ago, just the transaction amounts are higher. Feed is fairly reasonable right now, but high calf prices, high labor prices, high fuel, etc eat up any extra profit that might have existed from the higher sale price of their finished beef. Finished beef is fetching $2.19-$2.49/pound in our local market. Black Deacons (young Angus cross calves) are $1100/each off our farm right now. Holstein deacons are just over $900/each for a heavy, $500ish for a light.
Right now, we are buying beef from Brazil as our US beef is unobtainable.
Can't really quote like for like prices Colson as obviously don't have same herd. But here is the local saleyards latest results. They are live weight prices. Weaner prices look to be a couple hundred dollars/head dearer than when I sold mine back in May. Also just sent some fat cull cows direct to works. Average dressed weight 277kg Average $6.26/kg
What is a Mickey Bull? Never heard that term before.
Young bull, usually not intentionally kept as a bull. So may have been missed in previous musters and gotten to big to castrate. Stag is a male with only one testicle, usually due to mistakes while castrating. Scrub bull would be the full grown version of a Micky Bull. Not usually seen down here in the civilised country, but very common up north where you measure your country in sq miles. Also never been handled and can be very dangerous.
I bought two bulls out of the paddock a couple of months ago. With prices finally pretty good along with a reasonable season rainfall wise, I expect a bit of confidence in the market and people will pay good money for good bulls. Our rural media do a sprinkling of media reports of the situation in the US. They seemed to suggest with the massive tariffs placed on Brazil, beef from there will simply not be affordable. Australia is currently exporting record amounts of 90CL beef to the US for the burger market because you have such a shortage from the massive drought. As for price equivalents. Looking at the National Daily Cattle & Beef Summary, Des Moines, Iowa for this week. Select carcass price is US$3.60/lb. Here with our prices at what we would consider quite good we are getting around US$2.15/lb for a similar article. Something like cows (90CL market) are something like US$0.40/lb less That is where I am. 2000 miles further south the producers there are getting around US$0.40/lb more then us here because they have a shortage of cattle due to drought. One thing that is happening in the state I am in is that feedlots are ever expanding, we now have record numbers on feed, but still minuscule compared to US numbers on feed. What we are missing out on is competition in the processing sector with Cargill and JBS dominating. Of course it is hard to do like for like between the two countries as costs and regulations are totally different between our two countries. Think of most of Australia like California and you get a grasp of how wanky lefty all our local, state and federal governments are, and it is only getting worse.
Our feeder cattle prices have improved significantly over the last month, but from what I’ve read, US feeder cattle are approaching prices per pound that we are getting per kg. Almost fully recovered now, sneezing is still a bit of an issue, but getting better by the day. The rest of the crew mustered the same bulls shortly after the accident and they were doing the same sh*t all the way home. Just a big game to them, I just got in the way. So far, I’ve been banned from my 2wheeler, but I don’t think I would have been any better off on a quad.
Well I don't really know if that sale was indicative of anything or not, but it was a bit of a funny one. Single breed sale, Droughtmasters. 70 something head in the catalogue, but a bunch were withdrawn, don't know why, call it 60 or so offered for sale. Quality, I didn't think was to bad, but only 40 odd sold under the hammer, most would probably have sold out back later on. Which i really don't understand, they aren't discounted, the pass is price is the same as you'll pay out back. Having said that, there were at least 5 or so brought 20k plus, top i believe of 24k. So there were plenty of cheap bulls around, but if you went to buy a specific one that someone else was chasing as well, then you had to pay good money for him. See what the National one is like i guess.
Finally got another set of wire strainers to replace the Mengie ones that went MIA. New ones are Wireman strainers. These ones have a spring on them to stop them falling off the wire when you put them on. Not cheap but you can buy the wire clamp things by themselves and retrofit to any existing set. I modified them within 15 minutes of getting them by putting a bend in the wire clamps as they were straight and did not like going onto barbed wire. I think they were designed for plain wire. They work well now. I might get a couple of the clamps and put them on the worn out Hayes strainers I have.
You got Hayes strainers? If you ever go to NZ they have a museum in Central Otago of all Ernest Hayes inventions including the woolbale press, well worth a visit.
I saw this bloke at Farmfest, he has some interesting ideas. Does the little red thing help to guide the chain or just get in the way?
ha ha I thought it was there to hook it onto the already strained wire to keep it within easy reach when you are hooking on the other end, but yea it is probably supposed to be a chain guide. They are the most common style out there, but I think they are a bit outdated today. You can still buy new ones stamped Hayes.
Got an old family friend here chasing a few pigs, he bought one of those game cameras and put it up on a gate overlooking a trough. He started with photos like the first one, then got another 400 photos like the second one. Then the lens got licked and went blurry.
So then the camera got put on the pig trap. The gate was not set and a pig was coming in and eating the grain. Got photo's of birds and calves to begin with. Galahs (the pink ones) crows, pigeons, cockatoos.
Mr piggy came along and got into the trap. Had a feed and well, one side of the door assembly was not retied after the last lot of pigs we got. So he got out.
Bugger! We once had a more robust version of that trap set in the yard where we mixed feed for the feedlot. Saw a similar size pig hit the closed door at 100 mph and use it as a ramp to hurl himself over the fence.
It has been set again and tied up properly this time. Will see if he comes back. Getting that time of the year again when the money really starts to flow outwards as feeding weaners and cows starts to ramp up until it rains.
I'm glad we don't have a feral hog problem here. They do horrible damage down south, but they haven't migrated this far north yet.
I’m available for a pig shoot, if someone has an issue. I’ll buy the plane ticket or drive, will supply own ammo. lol
Make sure you bring plenty. Pigs are just a pita here but further south in grain growing areas they do real damage. This story is eight years old but these aerial shoots are common nowadays. The link isn’t going to work for me. But basically, 50 land owners covering 600000 acres along the Condamine river coordinated to hire a single shooter in a chopper. He shot 1000 pigs over four days.
A family friend who is a mechanic by trade borrowed the use of our car hoist to fix a landcruiser that came from a crop growing family. There were 308 shells stuck in every nook and cranny. He said in one night they got just over 300 pigs. Night vision equipment is pretty much standard these days. A fair few of the neighbours here seem to have night scopes on their rifles.
I have a cow that cannot count to two. And yes she is not a happy chappy.
Didn't you have a set of twins last year as well? To my knowledge we have never had a live set of twins here in my lifetime.
Had a small calf with no identifiable mother last year. Suspect it was a twin but never confirmed. About the year before had a set but one calf was born dead. Had a sprinkling of live ones over the years, I do wonder if usually like what would have happened here had the cow not been in a close paddock, the cow cannot count and does not recognise she has two so one gets abandoned and dies.
I don’t recall ever seeing twins here as well Pony… must be that quality country that RC has.
ha ha I have OK land, but nothing flash really. Pony is probably a bit down now, wondering if he should have gone another $50 bid on that bull today.
A well deserved result for the Geddes family. 13 bulls presented for a $74000 average…must be close to a record for any breed in the country.
Yeah I was there. I was going to jump in a few times around the 250k mark, but then I remembered I left my chequebook in my other jeans. It was a bit of a funny sale as well. I only went today, not the first day. I picked 4 out of the 7 that my preferred vendor had that I was happy to buy. First pick was 3rd one offered and second pick was 1st up, so his Lead Bull. Other two were later again. The lead bull only got an opening bid of 5k, so I had to jump in and ended up getting him for 6k, no more bids. My preferred one went for 22k, the other two I liked, one made 20k, other was passed in no bids. So like I said a bit of a funny one. Seeing as we all like photos, one today, one at Bunya.
I was driving back from the callide block yesterday afternoon and was passing quite a few cattle trucks heading south. About 500m in front there was a truck parked on the side of the road and the driver had the "usual" stance off to the side, then as I got closer to about 100 metres he started walking back to get into his truck but was still putting things away. I hope it was not Pony driving back from the sale. .
When you gotta go, you gotta go. No, not me mate, up and back same day. Vendor carts mine back to his place and I collect from there.
First storms of the season rumbling around now. Had one at daybreak this morning as well. 10mm in it.
Yeah saw them on the radar a little while ago. We were to far north for the ones yesterday and to far south for the ones today. We got a few 20mm days there a month or so ago and i burned a bit of grass. It's holding on, but could do with a drink.
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A day of that would be the end of me. Joe H
That is the likes of what old Scrub Puller would have been driving back in the 60's. Pulling millions of acres of brigalow scrub, and it was actually tens of millions of acres that got cleared via chain with machines like this all within 30-40 years.
I haven’t been able to get the feedlotting habit completely out my system. Here in Qld. we are able to feed 150 head before it becomes an “environmentally relevant activity” so we’ve just built two pens. In the past we used bunks and fed daily. Now we’re using these self feeders which we fill twice a week. Still do a daily walk through, this is what I found this morning.
That's a problem I don't want to have around. There are several feed lots in my area. In Michigan (and maybe the rest of the US?), 700 is the magic number. You either stay under that, or go way, way bigger.
Fat little piggies, ready for market. Will you get $8.20/kg for them? Just saw an abattoir price grid for a local processor up here. Generic jap steers @ $7.75/kg. I sold steers last week and this is 30c/kg more then I got. For US readers this is equivalent to US$2.30/lb carcass weight. For us here it is pretty much record prices, but I see you fellas are getting at least $1/lb more then us. If we were getting AU$10/kg we would be all running around upgrading all our old 50 year old equipment.
Does everyone have too much pork in their freezers or do those feral hogs carry some kind of disease? I would invest in a big commercial smoker and go into the ham and bacon business.
I don’t know about their wild pigs but ours don’t have much if any bacon on them. Heard they do sell wild pork in Texas for .50 cents a pound.
Some people will catch the younger ones and fatten them for eating. You look at what they eat out in the bush and it puts you off a bit, they often have lots of parasites. However there used to be a thriving market of sending the carcasses to Germany for them to eat. Straight out of the paddock all you did was remove the stomach and if I remember correctly you had to leave some organs attached that got checked. Heart, maybe the liver as well. It was pretty wild sending them to the "box" as it was called, just a refrigerated transport container and seeing all the feral pigs inside hanging up covered in mud and crap and they paid good money as well $1/kg and this was thirty years ago. Roo carcasses and skins went elsewhere. All gone now AFAIK. The roo skin market has been destroyed by the likes of Nike and other stupid corporations who stopped using roo skins when the urban activists kicked up a stink. Now roo's get shot and left in the paddock as they are a huge pest. With all the land clearing and pasture development that got done their numbers exploded, there are way more roos then people in Australia. When a bad drought strikes it is a disaster for the roo's but those overseas urban activists are not out here dragging their half rotten carcasses out of dams after they got stuck when getting a drink and were too weak to get out.
Not harvesting the wild animals creats another problem, wild dogs. When the do good cidiots wake up to this the issue will multiply expediently, can't kill puppies will be the catch cry
As a bit of an anecdote I remember the pig box when I was little was across a town with 50 000 people. People would drive through town with all these pigs hanging up on the back of their utes. I heard the usual spoil sports put a stop to it after awhile.
It’s always the Karen’s that put a stop to normal fun activities. Lawn darts anyone? Remember riding in the back of a pickup? Remember dogs in the back of a pickup? If deer hunters quit killing deer for 1 year, the population would double. So then, would the coyote population. So then, would your insurance premiums. People never learn.
Are bull sales as crooked down under as they are here?
In what way? I'm only playing in the baby pool, not the top end, so I don't see anything dodgy going on.
Only dodgy stuff I hear about is bull breeders keeping bulls that have genetic defects, like for example the bulls mother having bottle teats.
It's not technically dodgy, but something i really don't like is the big studs don't publish semen testing results. 99% of the smaller ones do cause it's blokes like you and me who buy their bulls. But the smaller studs who buy the middle priced bulls get shafted. Second hand i know, but have no reason to doubt it, mate told me at Rocky sale a friend of his in the game paid 100k for a bull a couple of years ago from one of the bigger studs. Never got a calf on the ground nor a refund.
Breeder A has a sale. Buddy B and C bid up a good bull stupid high to get everyone in the buying mood. B either gets a under the table rebate, or the favor is returned when B has a sale. Then A and C bid up B's prize bull. The circle jerk goes on and on.
and on.
Yeah I've heard stories about that. Whether it's true or not, i have no idea. In my limited experience, if you're paying more than 25k for a bull, he's going to stud duties. I'm guessing here, but 10k-25k, some commercial operator with a big checkbook. 5k (minimum price)- 10k, he's going to some mug like me. Rightly or wrongly, as a commercial operator, I have no interest in genetics, couldn't care less about who the sire and dam goes back to. I choose on fertility, temperament and conformation and try and get the best of all 3 up to my price limit of 10k ish. I also vote with my wallet, several studs I simply don't look at their animals as I've purchased before and the bulls don't live up to one of my 3 criteria. While there would be a flow on effect to me of what you are suggesting, I certainly have no control over it so I try not to stress about things that I can't change.
Iam the same. Don’t pay much attention to ebv figures but am a big believer of morphology numbers. We don’t buy anything under about 75 and try to aim for high 80s or 90s. One breed that we are associated with once had a reputation for fertility issues. For the last 20 years every bull sold through the yards has been tested and the results are made available on sale day. Has made a huge difference to the breed, I believe. We have also been buying only polled bulls for a similar amount of time so between that and morph. we are limited on the number we can bid on and sometimes end up paying more than we would like.
I'm the same with Morpholgy, but probably 80 is my limit, as i single sire a few paddocks, but even that is open to questions. Droughtmaster bulls, won't name names, but on farm sale, so single vendor. Going back probably 7 or so years, prices were cheap. Got 3 bulls all over 80% motility and morphology. In three years all were culled for fertility problems, bad bloodlines or dodgy vet tests? Vendor is also a vet, didn't do the testing, but looking after someone in the industry? I'm not casting aspersions but certainly looks bad. Either way, i haven't and won't go back. Polled isn't a deal breaker for me, obviously preferred, but I'll take a PH bull over a PP bull if my other 3 criteria are better for the PH bull.
Hope you fellas are getting some storms. Spending a few $$$$ on cattle supplements at the moment.
Looks like you might have got something later on? Patchy down here in the Lockyer Valley, literally nothing here, but not very far away. Looked like a decent storm up on the properties, haven't talked to the parents yet, but definitely got something. Looks like the chance for some more over the next few days as well. Queenslanders probably flooded and floating slowly towards the coast in his life-raft.
Yea 17mm, huge amount of lightning, some minor hail.
We had a wet week here last week. 3.5" over 5 days. Not exactly the weather we were hoping for during harvest season.
Up here in the Valley the trees are walking towards the starting blocks in readiness to chase the dog. Tuesday a predicted rain fall, we shall see.
I thought you might have got a bit yesterday Tones. That storm must have went between us. Plenty of reports of hail and wind around Ipswich.
I hope it's not going to be a season for bad storms. Just spoke to parents. 2mm rain Tree struck by lightning near the house and plenty of trees blown down over the road out to bitumen road. Still got no power at the property i stay at when im up there. Looks like more of the same today.
Nothing here, kinda like a politicians promise.
No such luck, 7 and 2 mm out of the last two changes, whereas a mate, who is 22km away as the crow flies, had 70 and 13. Don’t you like the way that BoM went from one of the best weather sites in Aus. to the worst in one swift movement? At least they’ve left the old one up, for now.
Ended up with 23mm here last night. It was pretty general in my area as well. Got a $2600 dog now. snake bite.
Poor guy. Hope he makes a full recovery. What kind of snake? I assume poisonous, eh?
Bet it was a Red Belly Black or Eastern Brown. Both are on the top 10 list of the world's most venomous snakes.
Yes, she will make a full recovery and has pretty much recovered already. Was most likely an eastern brown snake. They seem to mostly be the main one of the nasty snakes we see around here, it is only the second most venomous land snake in the world. Eastern brown snake - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
you would have gotten a bit more last night RC? 4mm all up, so far. Along with 1000 trees down.
Was that in the Lockyer or up north?
No that was north burnett. Drizzley rain most of the day here in the Lockyer, haven't measured it yet. Looks like another band of storms heading into burnett area over the next hour or so. Hopefully a bit of rain this time to go along with the damage. It looks like Queenslander's going through it right now.
What symptoms did she present with RC? I once lost a really good bitch, vet said most likely to a snake bite. She didn’t eat one night but was still working fine the next day. Left her out that night, still didn’t eat, definitely going downhill, I planned to take her to the vet in the morning but she didn’t make it. 43mm here just now, probably around the average for October but follows virtually nothing for the previous two months.
Ended up with an inch at parents block. Heading up now to burn a bit more grass, would've liked a bit more, but it is what it is. They're talking up Saturday A few high end high precipitation supercells capable of producing gorilla hail over 10cms and a tornado are possible.
When we got up in the morning she could not stand and was drooling pretty bad. Tail was working though. When she got to the vet a couple of hours later they did a snake bite test which I assume was measuring the blood clotting time and it was inconclusive. They did one an hour or so later and the blood clotting had changed so they administered anti venom ($1300 for the antivenom). They said her gag reflex action had been paralysed as well by that stage so she was on a drip for a few days. Apparently the venom as well as being a strong anti-coagulant binds to nerve ends and that is what causes the paralysis. You have to wait until the body clears it itself which takes days. If they can get the antivenom administered prior to paralysis setting in the anti-venom mops up the venom in the body and you have less issues. We are up to 47mm now from this rain even. Just getting small falls of 15mm or less in storms. Be a bit of smoke around here soon I would say.
Had another 20mm last night in a 2am storm pretty close to 3" of rain for the week now. It is really green now. The fire season has slowly started around here finally. Just need a few more people to get into it. It is not like the old days any more.
We snagged 38 last night, but today, which was supposed to be a big one according to all the storm chasers, only delivered 0.3mm.
Can you expand on this, please? In my 40 years of agriculture, we've never had a "fire season".
More wind. Mum's almost 80 and reckons she actually got a bit scared for the first time. Although no damage and not many more trees down, i guess its not wet enough to blow them over and the weak ones got broken off a couple of days ago. 18mm rain. So that put out any residual logs, trees that were still burning. How'd you go Tones, you still alive? Apparently Esk got belted? Colson; Depending upon the type grass you have depends on how/when/if you burn. I've got predominantly black speargrass which isn't bad cattle feed when green and growing, but looses most goodness after its gone to seed. Depending upon rainfall it also grows very thickly and can get matted after seeding, in which case it needs to be burnt to allow a good amount of feed to grow back next season. We have either hot and dry, or hot and wet summers, and predominantly cool and dry winters. Most of us are fairly careful with fire, you burn soon after rainfall so there's a bit of moisture around to put the fires out at night and also there's still a bit of moisture in fence posts, trees etc, so you don't burn them all up. So this year, we had a good body of feed and we got a bit of late winter rain. I burnt half my country back in late July or early August. Very safe to burn as it was still cool, so fires were very safe. But the danger is, burning early like that, if it didn't rain till February, my cattle would be eating dirt. As it turned out we had no rain till last week's and luckily I'd only burned half, it wasn't good, but feeding a urea dry lick gets the cattle eating the dry grass and keeps them going. They weren't happy, but nothing catastrophic. So after the second lot of rain I burnt probably half of what was left. Problem is now its 35c days, so much hotter and fires are harder to control and may not go out at night. That's what RC is referring to, there's a season as such, its late winter to Christmas'ish, but you need the rain first. If you burn to late you run the risk of not getting grass growing before you get a frost in winter. Finally, like I said most of us a pretty careful and considerant of our neighbours when burning, but we've all got a few idiots nearby. They'll light it up a month after rain when it 40c and 100mph wind blowing and burn everyone out, so it can get very serious if not done right. I'll see if I can find a copy of a DPI pamphlet I've got and post it up, might be of interest.
Managing Southern Speargrass a Graziers Guide link below. Hopefully https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://futurebeef.com.au/wp-content/uploads/managing_southern_speargrass_a_graziers_guide-LR.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwid-qjDmdKQAxWHzjgGHaU1LxMQFnoECG4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0WcFNz-_PFGe6x6-rF4sAB
Pony has pretty much spelled out what I meant. The time of the year we burn the matted grass. Generally in lesser forest country this is what you do. The native forest grasses have little nutritional value once they seed but still hold some value, some even have little value when they are green like wire grasses that are tough and have taken over more fertile areas near creeklines. There is a bit more too it and pro's and con's to burning. Here are some photos from today.
Thanks for sharing guys, I get what you're talking about now. Burning isn't much of a thing around here. We burn brush piles, pretty well year round if weather conditions are right, but I don't recall anyone burning grass pastures. Usually the brush comes from clearing out s, neglected pastures or fence rows that were over grown. Nothing enormous and a day or two of burning clears them out. I'm wouldn't be surprised if open burning is more common out west as the growing seasons and conditions are completely different compared to my region.
No need to burn grass pastures if the grass is still usable. If your rainfall is reliable you can stock your paddocks that the grass is always kept grazed to a level that it never dies off and builds up. Our seasons are highly unreliable so we stock so that in a normal year, by the years end there is still surplus grass. Then every 3-4 years it has built up to the point you need to burn. I know some say we should let the grass "mulch" and not burn it and for some grass species you can do that. Our forest grasses once it gets real matted on the ground nothing can grow up through it and I have seen big patches of just dead grass that eventually rots away and is replaced with weeds. It is sort of a two edged sword. Burning the grass exposes the bare ground and you lose moisture. When you burn you are sending nutrients that would be good if returned to the soil up as smoke. In an ideal world you would plough it in and I have done that in areas. There is another advantage to burning and it is controlling woody weeds. We still have issues with timber regrowth and fire can keep that under control to a certain extent. I have a good bit of country that would in an ideal world could be cultivated and turned into improved pasture and negate the need to burn them, but maybe one day, when I win the lottery. I got a good few patches burnt today and only have one patch left and I am pretty much done.
When you talk patches burnt, how big are your patches? 5 acres? 20 acres? I'm just trying to grasp the scale to which you guys are doing this on. In my area, most farms are confinement operations and all the good ground is mostly in grain crops. Marginal ground gets alfalfa or grass/pasture. I know several folks with cow calf operations, but most of these are 20-30 head on 50-100 acres or less. We do have fairly reliable rains and can stock 1 to 2 cow/calf pairs per acre. We don't have any grazing ability during the winter though, so hay does have to fed until April sometime.
I imagine anyone who lived/worked in the Australian outback came across these at some point in time. I finally got round to looking through Dad's book collection. I have no idea why it took so long.
Hit and miss was the nickname wasn't it Nige? Colson, usually multiple hundreds to thousands of acres. You can do smaller areas and control it with fire breaks but not all country can have breaks put in. A lot of mine is simply to rough, so you have to burn it at the right time of day with the right moisture content, at the right time of the year and hope for the best. Again, most of us do the right thing, contact neighbours etc, usually we're all on the same page and if it burns a bit into the neighbours then usually all good. If i remember, when I head back up I'll grab some photos, mine burnt a bit bigger, better and blacker than RC's. But like I said previously you get the idiots. A few years back I decided, due to weather forecasts etc (was dry, was forecast to stay dry) that i wasn't going to burn. Was discussed with neighbours, they weren't happy as they don't feed lick and burn every year religiously. Neighbour lit it up well after rain, big wind blowing, hot day, at about 10am. He lit it about 50m from our boundary fence. Burnt about 50acres of his and about 1000 of mine. Doesn't make for friendly relationships.
It was indeed. They sounded a bit like this.........
Never see many Petter engines around here. Most UK made ones are Listers with the odd Ruston. We had our own locally made diesels back in the 40's-70's, see a few of them still. Those people can be a pain, but probably I find the non burners the worse as they never want to burn and never do anything like put in a fire break to stop any fire getting into their place. I had to laugh at one idiot no longer around here. Had no idea, inherited place, typical half failed university education. Lit up on their boundary fence next to another neighbour that equally did not burn. Fire got into theirs so a bright idea was run over the fire with the slasher. Yea well that worked out well as it spread it out 30 feet as the slasher flung out the burning grass. Burnt this five days ago and already a great shoot coming back. Found a calf today that has been dog bitten. Time to break out the new thermal.
This fellow was on the road the other day. This one is a tree snake a harmless species.
My dad lives in the pan handle region of Texas now, small town outside of Amarillo. He sent me a video the other day of a 6ft long King Snake, slithering through his pasture. Nope, no thank you. I'll stay here where I rarely see snakes.
Snapped this video last night with the thermal monocular. Just a couple of hundred metres from the house. I thought it was a young wild dog to begin with, but then thought it might have been a fox. It is chasing a kangaroo rat (rufous bettong). This is what a kangaroo rat looks like, no it is not at 535 metres, more like 5 metres. Video of kangaroo rat I took a few nights ago.
Here is this evening's effort.
Your first one trots like a fox but runs like a dog. I reckon it's a young dog by the way it's hunting, it would be an older fox to be that size and should be smarter. Get any more rain? 7mm North Burnett 12mm Lockyer Valley Lot bigger falls not far away, just got to be under them.
I was looking at the tail and it looks fox like. Had another 6mm or so a few days ago. Essentially nothing on the country I burned. Found out an easy way to check the level in those plastic tanks. The dogs have a truce with the hares at night time.
That tank stand is a bit on the **** RC. Like the level checker!
I modelled it after my brain. 30mm+ here last night and this morning. Was pleasantly surprised.
Frogs are a bit quieter than they were this guy has been hanging around a few days now. Last 6 weeks we have had above average
Ended up with 6 inches of rain here over the past three weeks or so. Callide block has had 7 inches. Nice and green now.
Sounds like a great start to the growing season! We're due for some foul weather here. We had 4" of snow a week ago, but the ground is too warm yet for it to stay. It was then 60°F this past Saturday and supposed to be 28° and snowing again tomorrow.
We’re up to 8 inches now after a slow start, all but 2 inches nice steady rain. Mustered this calf this morning after breeding all red cattle for 60 years or more.
I need to be clean living blokes like you pair, see if that helps me get rain. Got up here last night, 62mm (not quiet 2.5 inches) in the gauge. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but a lot bigger falls around. Still and all, good on the burnt country. Throwback to Shorthorn by a Droughty bull, Queenslander? Looks like a Santa cow.
Yeah must be, always get the odd one with a broken face or a bit of white on the belly but nothing like this. Will make a good mat for the lounge room when the time comes!
For me all the ring in's, like mad ones are all by the neighbours bull. Prices are at record highs now as well. Meat works paying for generic jap about AU$8.20/kg or for the us readers, US$241/100lb.
What are cows RC? I haven't seen a grid in a while, got a few culls to go, was thinking of waiting til after Christmas, but if prices are that good, I might see how far they are booked out. Just been to Monto block, 46mm (just under 2 inches). Its green, but not a lot of grass. I added up the rainfall chart, 15 inches thereabouts for the year so far. Just a dry little patch in there up towards Biloela. Cania dam is about 15% and i don't think Callide is any better. On my block if we don't get run off rain before Winter, I'm going to be hurting.
That's a great price! I haven't heard anything recently regarding finished beef prices. Dairy cull cows are ranging $1.00/lb to $1.59/lb, based on condition of the cull. Our deacon calves are $1325/head, picked up twice weekly from the farm. That is an absurd price, to me, for something that wasn't worth $50, 5 years ago, and could die tomorrow just from the stress of moving them to the buyers farm. The main buyer in our area is a calf nursery about 2 hours south of us. They only raise bottle calves from 1 day old to 90 days old, then sell them off to a background ingredient operation. From what I was told, they'll raise over 5,000 calves a year. They must be buying milk replacer by the full truck load.
RC's prices are direct to meatworks, so dressed weight prices. Are your cull cows prices dressed or live weight? Either way they don't seem real flash, although i guess a cull dairy cow isn't going to be the most sought after item for a meatworks. Your calf prices are insane, that's 30% more than I got for good 10mth old weaner steers back in May.
Have not seen a grid yet, just a verbal price when I booked some heifers in. But I am guessing $7.50 or so. I think you can pretty much name your day at the moment. Prices unreal at the saleyards report I read yesterday. Steers selling for up to $3500 and cows $2600. I look at the Des Moines national daily summary when I look up US prices. it started to make a bit of sense when I found out the prices were per one hundred pounds.
Dairy culls are live weight from a local auction. If I remember right, there are 4 packing plants within an hour of the sale barn so they usually bring a fair price as the shipping cost is low. Yes, the calf prices are ridiculous. These are Holstein x Angus calves. Straight Holstein Bulls are around $1000/head, Jersey x Angus around $600/head, pure Jersey bulls around $400/head. The premium price is only if the dairy cross calf is black. We had an Angus bull that would throw red calves maybe 10% of the time. We couldn't get $200/head for them. We won't have anymore from him though. He's been gone almost a year now. The holstein x angus finish out very well by 12-14 months age in a feedlot. One producer near us was maintaining a 4.25 ADG. Doesn't take long to finish a beef at that rate.
I think I've said this before, but I spent 12mths working on a cow/calf ranch in Colorado back in 1992. I remember we lost a few calves for whatever reason and the owner turned up next day with a couple of day old calves he had bought for $250 a head. Totally foreign to me, couldn't believe it was happening. The price he paid, plus the work for us to get the cows to accept the stranger calf. Over here it's almost not viable to hand raise baby calves, 2 bags of milk replacement is more than half the price you'll get for the calf as a weaner. You still do it, if for some reason you lose a cow calving and the calf survives, but it's only animal welfare, not commercially viable.
We sold fat cows through the yards a fortnight ago, the best of which came back at 623kg and $2350 but the job has improved since then. We’ve been lot feeding our cast for age cows if the season isn’t that flash. They are notoriously frustrating to feed, some eat as much as a Jap bullock, and have really impressive weight gains and others barely eat enough to stay alive. In a dry time a skinny store cow is worth next to nothing so it’s been worth persevering with them.
Geez that's good money Queenslander. I went and had a sticky at my culls this arvo, they definitely aren't finished, I could maybe scrape together a body load, but will probably wait to get a bit more condition on them. There's green grass now and it's supposed to keep raining. The prices may not stay where they are now, but i can't see them falling to far will all the international drivers staying the same. There's only a couple that are finished now, they'll end up overfat and I'll get docked for them, but not much I can do about it.
Some pigs have started to trickle back around the ridges. Gave them a hurry up last night.
Nice work.
This thread got derailed some time ago. But the direction it's going, hey, keep it up, this thread has become better than a bunch of hands meeting at a bar at the end of the day to chew the fat.
So our mongrel $&@“#* federal govt. stealthily passed wide ranging environmental protection legislation on Thursday. Among a raft of restrictions and controls will be a ban on clearing regrowth timber less than 15 years old. Most of the legislation doesn’t come into effect until June next year but, from what I’ve read, the clearing ban is likely only days away. We would have a couple of thousand acres of regrowth that we were assured was safe from government interference so we’ll be pulling it over daylight to dark for as long as we are able.
They kept that quiet, first I've heard of it. Anything to keep the greenies happy.
I fully expected something like this to be bought in.
When the grubermint tells you something is good for everyone expect the opposite.
Queenslander should just about have it all done by now. While others were out complaining about the laws, he sorted the issue out.
We had a great run, still a bit more to do but we’ve reluctantly pulled the pin. What a weird situation, virtually no announcements from the minister other than threatening big fines, some laws apparently in place already but no one knows what they are. I am guessing they are totally unprepared after having to do a deal to rush the legislation on the last sitting day of the year.
How many days/hours were you guys able to pull? How many acres/hectares did you guys cover? This story makes me glad that laws were put into place protecting long standing generally accepted farming practices before I was born. We can still clear land, though we can't touch wetland or navigable waterways. Not that big of an issue, most of the draining and ditching work was done before my grandfathers time. Today, it's just maintaining what was already put in place. Back in 2021, I was running a tree service and got contacted by a farmer that had bought an overgrown parcel. The first winter, he took down 1000+ trees, removing everything he could right up to the property line. He hired me to come in with a lift and cut any of the neighbors trees that hung over on to his property. He was in the process of moving a power line out of the middle of the field, over to the property line. I nipped every branch and stem that crossed the property line. When I was done, the power company came, set new poles and moved everything over. All of the neighbors fought him and hated him for what he did, but he had the laws on his side. He got sued by the same neighbor 3 separate times. After the third lawsuit got dismissed, he filed a counter suit for obstruction of a farming operation. I never heard the results of that lawsuit. You drive by the property and the new power line is still there, the driveway was moved to the side of the field for the easement, and his center pivot covers the entire piece like he wanted.
In this part of the world controlling regrowth timber is just regular property maintenance..if we stopped doing it many operations would be unviable within a generation. We actually had the tractors hooked up and were clearing a smaller area a week or so before all this happened. When we decided to hook in we worked four 13 hour days and covered about 1500 acres. Still no announcement from the government but we thought it prudent to pull up as they are talking fines in excess of $1mill. for individuals.
World's deadliest snakes live here. We also have contend with these buggers. https://x.com/JustKimfromoz/status/1996131782887182396?t=ZVY4F-2qgYKCH6w-UStFbg&s=19
Back to the Beattie days. Can't fault your decision .
I don't know if interesting is the right word. But it'll be interesting to see how this all works. The current vegetation management act is state legislation, obviously the new stuff is federal. I'm guessing it's going to be a clusterfu%k to try and get it to work together.
Meanwhile the clearing for "renewable energy" in national Parks will continue because it's for the greater good apparently
F They get approval for it of course. That is the thing, the federal government are saying you just need to get federal "approval" to do the clearing. Then you go and look at their list of fees for approval. Just the application for them to accept it is over $5000, then if they accept it you are looking at another 8 000-40 000 in government fees for them to look at your application. Of course this is on top of your costs to do the application and they will want third party flora and fauna reports and this that and the other. You may end up paying $100 000 in costs to get your application made and assessed by the government. of course currently small business is exempted from all these fees, because they never thought these laws would apply to 99% of small business, now they apply to every landholder in the country, the vast majority are small businesses or just private citizens like hobby farmers or home owners. $100 000 is chicken feed for these companies doing multibillion dollar wind farms. It would be less then they pay in bribes donations they make to the relevant political party.
That 100,000 still doesn't guarantee that approval I'll bet.
A late afternoon drone shot of some of the work we did. So we have had 230 mm of rain in the past month but there is almost bare dirt where the heaviest of the Poplar Box regrowth was. I fail to see the environmental benefit of leaving it there. The grass doesn’t look that impressive either but it’s almost a foot tall.
You missed a few on that next hill over I think a lot of people are still unaware about how draconian these laws are. They are really bizarre. A neighbour of a neighbour is laughing. He started 25 years ago cleaning up his place, then got his own D6C and raked it all. His place is virtually treeless except in the creeks and a few camps. He is essentially unaffected. But his neighbour. well different story. Quite wealthy but just decided to let all the cleared country he inherited grow back, not really sure why either. His descendants are stuffed now.
Hi everyone. I have been following this thread with some interest. As a small time dozing contractor in the Sunshine Coast hinterland a good part of my work has always been clearing regrowth. Wattle, Camphor Laurel, Lantana and the like. Stuff grows like wildfire here in the relatively high rainfall. I was wondering what everyone's take on the new rules. Much of the information I have read is contradictory. Can you clear regrowth up to 15 years? What constitutes a Matters Of National Environment Significance? 1 tree/1 acre/10 acres/100 acres/ particular species of trees? I have a job to do in January about 7acres of regrowth wattle up to about 10years old. I have made numerous phone calls to various authorities and also my customer, no one can tell me anything. Obviously the risks are high............. The local council officer suggested that maybe knock it down and stack it up over the weekend and get out of there. He is a farmer also. Thoughts always appreciated.
Iam sure you’ll be OK if it’s only 7-10 yrs. old. But then, Iam only going on an interview that the minister did on the ABC country hour on Thursday which you can search for. You can also search for the Protected Matters Search tool but it doesn’t seem to be much use either. Most of those are on a neighbour’s place. But that’s the most frustrating thing, with so much timber in the landscape they still want to throw a blanket over everyone and call us all environmental vandals.
From what I can gather from reading things the past week it is all 90% chock full of words like maybe, possibly and so on. What they voted on was apparently 1200 pages long and that was only amendments to the original laws. Apparently I read one article that in the original laws the regrowth time limit was going to be 50 years, but they were desperate to get the laws passed in the senate so the greens smelled opportunity. I also discovered the 15 years thing, is already partially mapped out in Queensland by the previous government. That is where this "protected regrowth" on some vegetation maps comes from. I do not think anyone even knows what 15 years means, and what exactly is significant damage to a matter of national significance. But from what I gather it is this. If you clear vegetation over 15 years old or do anything within 50m of a watercourse (what exactly is a watercourse is beyond me) it is classed as "high risk", and then that means you can either just go clear it and see what happens. Or you can go pay someone to go fill out some complex government form, probably have to do all sorts of flora and fauna surveys, etc etc. Then you send that off to the government. They then assess that, then they make your application public with your name, address, phone number etc and ask for public consultation. So I being 1000 miles away or whatever can object to your plan with some bullcrap reason. then the government decides whether you can go ahead, or if it has to go further and you have to do a heap more work and provide a heap more information and then they make a decision. If you go the route of just not bothering with the government and doing the work, then if the government find out and do an investigation and think you have caused significant harm to a matter of national significance, then they will take you to court. There seems to be zero allowances for normal routine things like property maintenance. Irony being, if you were a home owner in a city and you were within 50m of a great barrier reef watercourse, you are also caught up in this, you cannot do anything in your backyard that might cause damage to a matter of national significance. You can go look up all the applications under these laws and they are stupidly absurdly minor and insignificant what people are forced to apply to the government for assessment for. Building a shed or doing expanding a building. But these applications being all public, it is what the greens then use to go take propaganda footage of clearing. I always wondered how the greens managed to take all these photo's and video footage that were way out in the middle of no where. then when I saw all these assessment applications were all published on the internet by the government, it is like a honeypot for the fanatics who use it to harass people. What producers should do is get a hundred thousand people start putting in applications to clear one tree. You could probably get an automated program to do it all. Just to annoy the hell out of them and show how stupid it all is.
Here is a screen shot of no place in particular of a CQ region with all the what queensland calls "high value regrowth" showing up. The lines are all watercourses. Goes to show how absurd everything is.
The scary part is the amount of effort that has been put into improving the monitoring of changes in vegetation over the past five or six years. https://www.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/613507/slats-methodology-overview.pdf
Yea I noticed that they pick up stuff they never used to, plus they also get a lot of false positives now. I knocked down some lantana and it popped up on the map as "clearing".
To me that document is something only a bureaucrap could understand and give a false opinion thus making the land owner prove their innocence which isn't the way the law is supposed to work. I'm glad I don't have to put up their overzealous crap anymore
Forest fires caused by lighting are now illegal ?
Shouldn't laugh, it may become mandatory for landowners to erect earthing towers to attract lightning.
Fire wont kill it, just makes it angry and it grows back thicker.
Said right in that 15 million dollar document. Clearing by fire is not considered major clearing as regrowth is likely. What concerns me is that not only are they crawling up your ass, they are also spying on your hairline with at least 2 dedicated satellites. I imagine that this is all greeny crap where they get to spend all your money, trying to make the world a better place, all while their neighbors are burning and clearing rain forests, the size of their whole country. Where I live, all the farms got sold, so the area isn’t pasture anymore, it’s pavement and asphalt shingle.
Exactly, this is what makes our blood boil. They are demanding, and getting, more and more control of our freehold property in order to help save the planet but want us to wear the cost. Unfortunately, we produce and export far more food than we consume so they don’t see food security as a threat.
The more I look at the current narrative all I see is that farmers like yourselves are being forced off your land by hook or by crook so the corporations can have it. There is a name for this but unfortunately forum rules prohibite it's use.
The costs to landholders and farmers ae increasing everywhere, yet you can't seem to get more for your products. We might produce and export more than we consume, but this won't take long to turn around the way things are going. All of our premium products get exported and we get the crap. Corporate greed and successive governments have lot to answer for........ unfortunately it won't be them that are starving.
Great month, now all us farmers are going to get reamed over gun laws. I knew something had to go wrong. We cannot possibly have a good start to a season and record high prices and things going smoothly without government coming in to wreck it all.
My sympathy is with you. The grubermint needs to look at their own failure first.
Some random stuff been happening. Got a large pig with the thermal. This could be one we had in the cage and escaped. Then saw a non venomous treesnake taking on a good sized meal. Looks like our state government is not very interested in changing firearm laws, unlike the one next door, those poor buggers are getting reamed hard.
Now I have joined Team Red. I have been Team green the past 10 years, but their stuff is just not that hardy.
Did I win the Christmas rain comp? Finally got some rain at the Monto block. Spoke to the neighbour 42mm on the 23rd and 90mm last night. Still raining this morning. So over 5 inches in 2 days, compared to only 17 for the rest of the year. How'd everyone else go? Merry and wet Christmas to all.
We had a 37 on Tuesday night, a 35 on Wednesday afternoon and 47 so far for Christmas day although it has not stopped showering since we measured it a few hours ago. 25km from here had over 150mm last night and more today. There are some really heavy isolated falls around. There still seems to be nothing general in that everyone in an area gets three or four inches of rain, it is still storms and heavy downpours and you are lucky to get under them.
65-100mm here over the past week. Very patchy but we’ve been lucky to be under a bit of a storm path this time. 28 inches so far in a 26 inch average rainfall zone so we can’t complain about that.
We are at 36 inches here, so essentially average. Although our rain seems to be that erratic that anywhere from 26 to 46 inches would be considered average. We are due for a 60" rainfall year. It has been awhile.
Happy New Year @.RC. , @Queenslander , @Pony & @Tones ! I hope y'all have a prosperous year and may the markets be in your favor.
Thanks colson, hope you have lots of fat sows making lots of milk as well. Went for a drive yesterday and went past a neighbour of a neighbours place. Not a way I usually go. He has got his place looking good. About 30 years ago what you see in the photo was all thick trees. He has pulled and raked and sprayed and ploughed. Done a lot of work to get a beautiful pasture like this. He is still at it as well, ploughing up country to further improve it. Then you look at all the neighbours who have stagnated and done nothing and just live off the work of the previous generation they inherited their land from.
@.RC. , the girls are sure making milk right now. They love the new feed and cool weather. Only bitter side is milk prices have dropped off through the year, sliding about 25%. Calf prices have stayed strong and so are the cull prices, but that isn't enough to make up the loss of revenue from poor milk prices. Grain prices aren't anything to brag about either as they're about the same as they were a year ago. Glad the girls are liking the ration change because we needed that little bump.
The difference between farmers and squaters right there.
I dunno, squatters by definition never owned the land, they just squatted. All around me I am just seeing a complete lack of willingness to advance. Some of it I am sure is just pure laziness, like I said inherited land, never earned by the current owners, just handed to them on a platter, now going backwards at a rate of knots, but still worth million upon millions. Even I have lost a fair bit of drive when I look at the state of the country, the endless people sucking wealth off others, then there is the constant stomping on what you do, where mediocrity is rewarded. At times it makes one wonder why bother. (US readers might be shocked to learn that Australian has a bad culture of hating on people who took a huge risk and made wealth from the resources the country has to offer). It is why it is rare to see an Australian flag flown anywhere. While I see US youtube videos and see US flags proudly flying everywhere in workshops and buildings etc. In any case, here is today's picture. A common mango tree growing wild in the creek up from our house. It was not planted, it somehow got there. Beautiful trees as they grow so large and they seldom drop limbs. They like lots of water though. Not sure if you get them in the US.
Thanks Colson, best of luck to you as well, for the new year.
That sentiment is still prevalent here in the US as well by those not willing to put in the effort. I had an employee with that mentality (emphasis on had. I wasn't upset when he gave his 2 weeks notice) All he saw was the wealth disparities, but never paid any attention to the effort those individuals put in to furthering themselves and the risks they took. He was always crying the "why not me?" song asking why he was poor and broke and others weren't. All the while playing scratchers and smoking 2 packs a day, etc. There was a study done in the 90s on Millionaires. The researchers were shocked when they found over 80% of Millionaires are first generation, ie: they did it themselves. No inheritance, no outlandish gifts. Just nose to the grindstone, headstrong individuals that prioritized bettering themselves over pissing their money away in frivolous manor. I had a close friend growing up that had all the same opportunities I had up until we graduated. Instead of studying or saving, he focused on sports and spent every dollar he earned, often broke days after getting paid. At 18, I went to college and he went to a factory. By 25, I was married, owned a home, had my degree and started a career. He was at his third factory job, still living with his parents, had too many women in his life to even track. Today, I'm 40. I'm living my childhood dream farming with my family. Raising kids to be smart, respectful individuals with a work ethic. My old friend, well, he doesn't own anything. Moves from one girlfriends place to another, bumming nights on a couch with the odd friend he has left. Can't keep a steady job, can't stay off the pills. My brother tried to help him a couple years ago. Helped him get a good job, gave him rides, even gave him a room in his house. 6 months later, he was laid off and became a couch potato. When asked about seeking other work (lots available here), he said "eh, I'll get to it". My brother gave him 30 days to have a job, or move out. The old friend just moved in with his 'new' girlfriend. He had the audacity to question why we (my brother and I) have so much, yet he has so little and how it's not fair. I just reminded him that fair is not equal, and equal is not fair. As long as there are highly motivated people alongside unmotivated people, there will remain wealth disparity and contempt over it.
@colson,known here as the tall poppy syndrome. @RC if you ever cut it down mill it. There's some interesting grains and colours in them. If you ever travel west on the Savannah Way just before you get to the Undra Lava Tubes turnoff there's a Mango growing on the shoulder of the road. I first saw it in the early 90s and the road crews have preserved it. Amazingly I've seen the root system inside the tube. It's thought that the moist atmosphere in there keeps it alive.
Ended up with another roughly 120mm over the past couple of days from this tropical cyclone. Just steady rain, no damage anywhere. Large falls of 100-300mm have fallen over a wide area though. 24 hour rainfalls, red dots represent 100mm+ and the red dot area covers an area of around 30 000 square miles.
If there was a dot near us it would be light blue.☹️
Yeah we're about the same Queenslander, maybe a fraction more. I came home last night, they were forecasting possible falls of 50mm+ for 4 days. Probably should have saved the drive and stayed up there. Got cows booked into Beenleigh next Friday, so will be heading back up as soon as this misty rain buggers off. Looks like you were lucky RC, just a good fall, not floods like some or missing out like others. Apparently Clermont's copping a flogging.
Looks like i lied above. I came home late Sunday night just as the rain really started. Drove through decent windscreen wipers constantly on rain from Eidsvold to about Durong. Then bugger all south from there. Since, there's been about 20mm here in the Lockyer Valley, just got off the phone to the parents, been about 30mm all up and there still forecasting storms for this arvo.
Bit bloody lucky, another 30mm late yesterday arvo, just a reasonably isolated band of rain north of Mundubbera and south of Monto. Monto block missed out though, that 4+ inches over Christmas was certainly good, but didn't fill all the dams, a bit more would be nice.
Pigs are back being a right nuisance digging up roads and everything else. Got these two boars last night. Saw a few others but they were not very sporting and decided to wander off before I could get near them.
So you're not short of dog tucker.
I always seem to not have a rifle with at the wrong time. Carted one around in the buggy for the last couple of months, saw nothing. Last 2 days, never had it with me and yesterday saw a mob of about 5 adult pigs and who knows how many suckers. Went to reach for the rifle, not there, bugger. Note to self put it in tomorrow. Today, 3 half grown dingos, went to reach for the rifle, not there. YOU BLOODY IDIOT.
That has been going on forever. I reckon they smell the gun oil and hide. Deer do the same thing from my experience.
I know some people talk about our methods of land clearing and probably wonder, what the conditions were like. How big were the trees and how thick was it. Next door to one of my blocks it is totally untouched so gives a good representation of what they were going through when they were initially clearing the land. Snapped this pic yesterday. This is why when scrub puller used to tell his stories in here some years ago about using the biggest dozers available at the time, this is why they used machines that size.
I have discovered Pony is not paying his taxes down his way. I went on a road trip in his direction today to get some chain and the road was atrocious. Also by how dry it is he is not going to church either.
Wow that looks heavy. Got some pulling to do, eh?
Are the chains different size or is it just the picture? Never mind, looked again and it’s definitely different chain.
Yes different sizes, did not really get what I wanted but you have to take what is available. There is 40m of 2" that appears to be brand new. 20m of 2 1/4" and 10m of 2 1/2". I already have 100m of 1 3/4" here. So I now have heaps to make up a chain. I was chasing a 20m piece of 3", but no one wants to cut any long lengths of chain. Unfortunately I had to pay the going price of $2000/tonne for this stuff. There is about 5 tonnes there.
Apart from scrub pulling, drag line buckets and ship anchors what other uses does chain of this size have that makes it so expensive?
I'd guess because it's a lot of high grade steel and requires some special manufacturing processes with large machines.
Demand and availability. It is like railway line. It is in demand in the agricultural sector, but the railways selling the ripped up second hand line sell it all to big scrap companies who would rather sell it cheaper in bulk to the chinese as scrap steel then sell it in small quantities to farmers who would use it for fencing and stock yards. So those resellers who do get their hands on small quantities sell it for significantly more then the scrap person sells it for. As for chain they are importing it second hand from china in containers because it is so rare to find on this side of the continent any more. 40 years ago it was a different story.
You must only have small dogs?
Reading a interesting article about the history of Kangaroo Island, many species only found there.
Don't mind me R.C, just a little bit slow, I think i know where you went to now. Let's just say his yard is a little messy? I usually don't get to much there, he certainly knows how to charge, although anything you want he's usually got it. You would have went right past the front gate of my block on the highway, you could have called in and done a couple of hours work, give you a break from driving.
Yes just a little bit messy. LOL.... That place has been advertising for decades and I only knew it as a name. When I got there. Not exactly what I was expecting. Nearly missed the turnoff and thought, nah that could not be it surely. It reminded me of an old defunct manufacturing facility in Bundaberg. I bought a heap of 2" pipe out of after the old owner died. A person had owned it since forever and built it up and they made all sorts of agricultural products. Slashers, Hammer Mills, etc. Had their own foundry and forging hammers and even cut all their own bevel gears, heaps of old manual engineering equipmen some fairly prehistoric. The old fellow obviously was quite wealthy and just kept it too long and it was a total disaster area in the end, sheds falling down, huge holes on the roofs, crap everywhere, none of the machinery was any newer then the 1970's. He obviously could not let go when he was past it, then he died of old age and left a huge mess for someone to sort out. I see you should have got a drop or two of rain yesterday?
Yeah spoke to the parents this morning. Around 70mm so far. Although i think the monto block may be missing out again.
60 to 100 mm here and still showering, great rain for this time of the year. I’ve been to old mate many times over the years. He’s always had a take it or leave it attitude. Once, when I complained about the price of something and said that I would look elsewhere, he drawled, ”You’ll be back.”
Got about six months worth of fuel delivered on Friday. Looks like I picked the right time to do it.
Haven't filled my bulk tanks in a while, but saw $1.55 for diesel in Toowoomba the other day.
I guess I won't complain about fuel prices after seeing that. On-road (taxed fuel) is currently $3.99/us gallon. Roughly $1.05/litre. Not sure what our bulk delivery to the farm is, but it's less than that.
Interestingly that is only a few cents less then what we pay once you convert to our currency. About 50 cents of the $1.55 is tax, but we can claim that back for use in farm equipment. All our diesel is the same. No dye for on road or off road, but we are all really really honest and would never ever claim back the tax for on road use in the road cars.
We could probably get away with running red fuel in our trucks in town since they never check. However it would be that trip to the country that would get you. Used to have some of the cheapest fuel taxes in the southeast until Grandma aka our governor raised taxes on us to fund the dredging of the port of mobile and build a $1B road to nowhere.
Our red diesel fuel is only about 20 cents less per gallon than our on road diesel. We pay sales tax on our off road diesel. Currently 8.9% where I fuel up now. Our on road diesel fuel is around $5.20 per gallon right now.
$5.20 yikes, we are at $3.40/3.60, sam's is lower. I am going tomorrow there, to fill the truck and transfer tank, it will probably be 20-40 cents cheaper
$3.09 at the local Shell station here. We have on and off road tanks at the yard so I only use gas stations on road trips. Noticed the price today as I drove buy and thought - not too bad but needs to come down another $1.
Without getting into the P-word, I'll just say Washington is trying to out-California California.
Well looks like we are converting over the Freedom units. Bought some more chemical and have gone from 10 litre containers to 9.46 litres, which is 2.5 freedom gallons.
I bet they haven’t lowered the price. What are you killing with that? I’ve got a patch of, what we call, Emu Apple that has been annoying me for years. Grazon and Garlon will set it back but won’t kill it completely. Cutterbarring will sort it out but I’ve got some in a timbered road reserve so better not start ploughing in there.
What i call emu apple, velpar stem injection will kill it. Unfortunately your photo isn't what i call emu apple. So I am absolutely no help to you.
They actually did lower the price a bit. The story behind the bizarre packet sizing is the company underestimated demand and completely ran out of product a couple of months ago. They are importing containers from the USA and 1000l pods from Canada, as they are not selling over there due to winter. You can pick up a 1000 litre pod with a bit of a discount, only $80 000. I assume contractors are buying them. I only use this herbicide on Lantana and stem injecting trees at a 4:1 mix, 1ml per cut and space the cuts right out. Very deadly on both, but like all herbicides it kills some things well and other things poorly. I am still experimenting with it. I am not familiar with what you have there, it must be a brigalow scrub soils tree. Grazon and Metsulfuron mix is generally our other mix. We have never used Garlon 600 here.
Just to be clear for our American friends that $1.55 for diesel i spoke about was the cheapest in have seen fuel in years. This is the price in my second closest town yesterday, the closest town would be 10c dearer again.
Well somehow you timed that to perfection RC. Heading home to see the family and spoke to the bride, apparently some local servos are out of diesel and don't know when their next delivery is coming. Priced where you can get it, at around 2.10, but no doubt will be much higher soon if there really is a shortage. That's an hour from our state capital. Ah Australia, the lucky country. Import everything, that's the way to go apparently.
Yea, pretty much seems the situation Pony. I try not to think about the state of the country because it is depressing and you wonder why you bother trying as apparently everyone hates what we do except they love that sweet tax money we pay. We are so stuffed long term the way things are going. One of the most wealthiest countries in energy supplies. Oddles of coal, gas, uranium and even shale oil that no one mines, yet we are essentially Chinas bitch as we are importing our entire new electricity grid from China being solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. Only bright spot is 20mm fell this afternoon and supposedly a heap more the next few days. Thundering in the distance at the moment.
Maybe it's true about the shortage, although i really can't see how, this quickly. 1.15 in Dalby. Up to 1.20 in Toowoomba and one servo in Withcott had all 9's in the price sign, so maybe they're out? Totally ridiculous if it's true. I usually get bulk fuel every quarter, so I'm almost due. How do they expect us to continue producing food without fuel? Madness. Hey Coaldust, want a new customer? I'm sure we can get Queenslander to sign on as well. Its cooled down to low 30's C, so I'm sure it'll be like a summer vacation for you.
Some servo's have apparently run dry up here. It is more because the trucks cannot deliver there fast enough as people are panic buying. I was told one bulk supplier he would get maybe 10 orders for fuel a day. The last two days he has got 150 orders each day. Once the panic buying is over, there will be a lull in people buying as they have all stocked up for awhile, so then an oversupply. We are as a country apparently fully reliant on importing refined fuel and we have gone from eight main refineries to two, and those two operating ones are being subsidised by the government as the cost to refine crude into products is too expensive to do in Australia. The lucky country. A term coined decades ago to describe a country so obscenely wealthy in natural resources it has managed to become one of the most wealthiest countries in the world despite being run by second rate people. Like I said, think about it too much and it gets depressing.
That makes a bit more sense, for others reading along, typo in the above prices, should be 2.15 and 2.20. How much of that rain you get last night? Woke up a few times through the night and looked at the radar. Was some decent rain about. Looked to be just to the east of my Monto block, hopefully the forecast is accurate, I've got dams I'd like I le full before Winter.
38mm here. 15km away there was widespread falls of up to 100mm.
Queenslander and Pony are probably out boating at the moment with all that rain down their way. Some isolated spots have had near a foot of rain over two days.
You'd think that wouldn't you, looking the radar. Spoke to the parents this morning, 100mm so far all up down near Eidsvold. Only 50 odd up past Monto, that little block of mine just keeps missing out on the run off rain. Hopefully today. What've you had?
we were only getting small daily totals of 20-30mm until this morning starting Friday. 91mm up to 9am this morning. Now we have had 81mm in the past three hours. Just a bit of water around.
Total of 265mm here so far, not quite a foot but it’s still raining. Daily totals of 200 are very rare for us. The Burnett has some serious water at the moment so there must have been some big falls somewhere up there Pony.
Another 45 mm on top of the 81 so 5" for today. 216mm for the past five days. This is the best rainfall event we have had for ten years. Creeks that have not run properly since then are running strong. Some fence damage to start on tomorrow. Glad my chain did not get washed away.
Just got off the phone. Apparently Wuruma Dam is at 110%, so I'll be fixing fences for a bit, well, there's still a fair bit of water to come down from up towards Biloela, so it might stay up for a bit. 60mm today at block near Eidsvold, so 160mm all up. 80mm today north of Monto today, so around 130mm all up, that's a few km from my block so hopefully indicative of what I got. The next headache is getting up there, plan was to head off in the morning, but at this stage can't get through. See what tomorrow brings. Forecast was right about the sharp cut off to the south. 2 parts of bugger all today here in the Lockyer Valley, and I think we got about 30mm all up.
About 80mm combined total here, all our tanks are chockers.
Wuruma Dam at 121%, made it to 145% in 2013, so a bit to go yet. Cania at 25%, so just that little area that keeps missing out, north in behind Monto, up towards Biloela.
Well that was a lot harder than it should have been. Have to take Dad to the Oncologist in Bundy tomorrow, so really had to get up today. Can't go west and up as cant get through Mundubbera. Found out the roads washed away between Goomeri and Ban Ban, not just under water, so any chance of sneaking through was a no go. Can't get through from Murgon to Hivesville and up to Binjour. So ended up going across from Goomeri to the Bruce and up to Maryborough and then into Biggenden and then back to Ban Ban and up. There's been a lot of water getting around. Tomorrow's adventure will be getting to Bundy, apparently the river will peak tomorrow and both bridges are closed, spoke to the Oncologist and they are open and working. We can cancel no dramas but then you have to wait for another appointment which will be a pain, so it may be back over to the Bruce and up that way. Lucky fuels cheap. Diesel was 2.45 most places I drove through today, cheapest was 2.19.
Hope your dad's cancer is under control. I feel lucky I have a treatable cancer. Don't like the fatigue though.
Nah it's terminal, prostate that was undiagnosed and now its all through his bones. Having said that, Chemo brought his PSA right down and he's still fairly active, so its all good, but thanks for the sentiment.
Sad to read that news Pony. Although we’re not particularly close to your mum and dad, we have known them for a long time and, as often happens in small communities, consider them almost a part of the family. Please wish them both all the best from K and myself.
Yeah sorry mate, I thought you would have heard it on the grapevine. Its been a couple of years now since he was diagnosed.
That is disappointing news Pony. My father had it and it was already spread when they found it. The last four months he had were not good.
Is the Childers- Bundy road through Woodgate still open or the Gin Gin Bundy road through Sth Kolan?
Those Ranchbot monitors are the cat’s meow.
Yeah wasn't that bad Tones, got a bit of luck. Road through Mt Perry to Gin Gin was open and planned on going down to Apple Tree Crk and back to Bundy that way. But, pulled up for a leak in Gin Gin and quick check showed the bridges just opened, cant get through Sharon (don't know about Sth Kolan), so had to detour through Bucca and into Bundy.
Really sorry to hear that. Glad that he can still do things.
Well this wasn't much smaller than the 2013 levels, somewhere around a couple of foot lower. This is one of the better crossings to do, its only got the two channels and flattens out on the other side. Where I've put the fence up is just under waist deep, but it's the overflow channel so the flow isn't there. In the main channel which you can just see through the trees it would be much deeper, even at waist deep you wouldn't be able to stand up. I've currently done both boundary crossings, at least one the house/yards side, there's no way to cross it, so the other side won't get done til it drops enough to cross. Neighbour must be busy as no sign of him. I've got 3 more internal crossings to go and they're ugly with a thousand tress and up and down channels. Only 1 is big and open, but it allows the sand to bank up and bury your posts and wire feet deep. You can see the high water mark just about at my feet.
My cousin sent me these. Theirs are pretty bad.
Our diesel is around US$7.94/US gallon now. Some service stations all over the country have run out.
Our road diesel jumped to $4.99-$5.49 locally. I know California is reporting close to same prices as you have. We took our last bulk delivery at the farm in mid-Feb, before everything got crazy. We'll start our spring work soon with manure dragline followed by tillage. I'm sure our next fuel delivery will be close to $10,000 for just diesel.
I did not realise they still used fossil fuels in California. I thought that state had fully transitioned to using unicorn wee.
Courtesy of Reddit….
Well stories floating around now of earthmoving contractors parked up because they have run out of diesel and their suppliers are not supplying them. But there is no shortage we are told.
I had a call from a bloke who runs a busy repair shop servicing mainly Cat gear for farmers and contractors. He was trying to drum up work as his phone stopped ringing as soon as fuel prices shot up.
The middle east bs is sure having serious flow on effects. Pardon the pun.
Yes fertilizer is a big one. The new urea plant being built over in WA is still a year from opening. Two million tonne annual production it is supposed to make. Fuel issue is a funny one. Thought we might get a top up just to fill everything up and thinking it would be a couple of weeks away added a bit more to the total when we put in an order this morning. They rang this afternoon and will deliver tomorrow. So I have been running around filling up every vehicle and tractor, a few jerry cans and a 44 so it will fit.
Fuel delivered... On guard duty tonight..
We pumped our lagoon last week. Between normal operations, and that, we had to get topped up to the tune of 1400 gallons at $4.65/gallon. Road diesel is right at $5/gallon locally. Some stations pushing $5.50 ish. Not the highest in the country, but that marks a 35% increase in the last 5 weeks in our area. Still a bit early to start tillage or planting yet, possibly start some tillage next week. Then we'll start burning 2-300 gallons a day until it's done if everything is running.
Yea it is still going up here as well Colson. The government halved one of the fuel taxes so dropped the price by about $0.26c/l but it has pretty much climbed back that much again now. But I see the weather bureaus around the world are predicting an El Nino should form later this year. That should be good news for you all over there as you might get some good rains. Not so much on our side as it means higher possibility of dry weather.
Drove up to the properties a couple of days ago, so saw a few different prices. Cheapest diesel was Laidley, $2.99/L. Further north kept getting dearer. Average for trip probably somewhere around $2.39/L unleaded, $3.19/L diesel. As RC said that's with a 26 cent/L tax discount.
I don't need any more rain right now. We got over 5" in about 12 hours on Saturday and now there is massive flooding and washed out roads everywhere. I haven't seen a rain event like that in 30 years (I was 10 the last time we had a one off rain event like that.
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goodness me, diesel is still going up... Now there is talk about drilling for oil.. I would have thought though if there was oil to drill for they would have done it by now. They say Australia is too geologically old to have much oil. That is why we have butt loads of natural gas.
Apparently we have **** loads and other deposits to make urea. As far as I can see the big secret is to keep the end products in Queensland without the need to pay world prices for locally produced products.
So Pony, how did you end up getting on with your new crate? I was talking with someone who got one built from the same place and he is a fair bit disappointed with it.
Yeah mate, no good, don't touch them. This will be long. Cause its a pig trailer, I was concerned about clearance between truck/trailer, I rough fitted the other crate and tested it and worked out that i was comfortable with the clearance if the crate didn't extend any further forward than the front of the trailer tray. I had the truck crate fitted and towed the trailer up and left the trailer with him, explained/showed, not to extend forward of trailer. Also wanted equal pens (2 of) or if bow spacing didn't allow then make the front pen bigger (sliding divider, but wanted floor grating in those spots) also wanted side/rear and divider cladding same height and front a bit higher. Gave dimensions with reference to truck crate in person, etc, etc. Few other things that weren't really here nor there. He wanted a 20% deposit up front, which is pretty standard from my limited experience. To his credit, it was done in the time frame quoted, was sent some photos upon completion. Crate extends 4 inches forward of trailer at bottom and 2 inches at top. Rear pen is larger than front and rear cladding is 6 inches higher than sides. Called him up, he said that it needed to go forward of tray to allow for the sliding divider. It didn't, they just would have had to mount it differently. Other things weren't what I asked for, but not really the end of the world. Long story short, I decided that I could live with what he'd built, rather than do my deposit or spend time i don't have fighting to get it back. Paid for it and took it down here and pulled it off trailer, its not welded underneath, multiple pin holes in welds to the RHS rails/bows at top. Slam latch on divider broken off on drive from Rocky down here. Just a badly made product. There are some things that are good. The sliding divider is the best design I have seen, it almost slide to easy, no binding, its really good. I tried calling once when I found all the shoddy work, I probably should have found them before I took possession and paid for it, but I was more focused on the major off-spwc issues outlined above, so my bad there. Anyway, he didn't answer my call nor respond to my message, so I chalked it up to a lesson learned and fixed it up myself, rather than wasting time and effort fighting with the clown. The clearance issue, hasn't been an issue, obviously it ate into the safety margin i allowed, but they haven't come together yet. The pen size issue, I spec'd no floor grates, was always going to do myself to save a few dollars, so I just cut his spreader bar under the divider out and re-welded it to suit my specs. There's a lot more issues i could outline, but i think that's enough for now.
I can see in your photo the issue the person was telling me about. The angle iron that run up either side. They are upside down. They do not sit inside the combing rail, which creates another issue they have as they have side doors at the front, so it is sticking up which means putting a pallet of stuff in the front is near impossible for the forklift as you have the height of the combing rain and then the angle iron sticking up from the floor for the forklift forks to negotiate over when putting in a pallet.
I'm in Alberta. We have one of the largest supplies of oil and natural gas in the world but still have to pay world prices. Diesel is $2.05-$2.15/L or about $8/Gallon! Alberta supplies huge amounts of oil to major US refineries.
Diesel still around $2.50/L here and currency is trading about the same value as Cad$. The previous spike in crude prices at $135 a barrel Australian diesel prices were around $1.30/L. Kinda figure there's a huge amount of profiteering
Diesel 6.39 here.
That's about what we were paying before the latest round of crap in the M.East
I doubt any of the oil companies are complaining. I didn't drive much this winter but imagine if I had to fill up a full tank in my truck it would be well over $200!
$4.89 per gallon for diesel at a Racetrac nearby here.
That's cheap compared to here!
Ahh well. I went and had a look at this crate and yea here I was thinking our TWE one was a bit agricultural in design..... I never saw any problems with the welding, just the design ideas. About the only thing I thought was better then our TWE one was the partition sliding design is far superior. Here is the way they lock the centre partition, one side is totally different to the other and completely pathetic. The height of the gap to look in is way too high. I am just an average height and I need to be a foot taller to easily see in. The side ramp is pathetic in design and very flimsy. plus it is not even the width of the side door. It is going to turn into a banana pretty quick and we use ours to jump bulls and such out and our TWE one is much heavier and it still bowed and I had to reinforce it. Then there is the angle iron facing the wrong way. Going to be difficult to get a pallet of something in and out of it. Then at the rear, there is only one locking pin on the rear door, it is not retained onto the crate by some chain and it is a very sloppy fit. Also at the rear there is a huge gap between the floor and the crate where they walk out. In these days of CNC plasma cutters and CNC tube and plate bending machines there is no longer any need for a business doing fabrication work to build stuff in an agricultural way like I would with no such sophisticated equipment. I do not like the way the grating is done with the big gap in the middle, plus bolted on is a silly idea as the bolts will just rust up and seize solid. I tried that method twenty years ago and that is what happened and just use stainless chain now to attach them.
Yeah agree with most of that, but to some extent you get what you pay for. They are cheap, so I could live with a few "lower grade" things, such as the angle iron bases pointing up. I have side load on the truck, so no need on the trailer, so I don't care which way it faces. Although 100% agree, if you have side load, crap idea. I think the apprentice on his first day must have welded mine, I had a look at a few half made ones in his workshop prior to committing and the welds were fine. But cheap or not surely you can follow instructions and build what is agreed upon. About the only thing he did as asked was the "look in" gap, it is at eye level, where you want it. Agree with the grating, I hate the stacked design, which is the main reason I built my own. I reckon all the stacked design is good for is tearing off horseshoes.
Came across this little film on youtube. Long before my time but interesting none the less. If anyone remembers the user Scrubpuller that was here some years back there is a small section in this film showing the work he was doing back in the day. The link should start at the time in the film where it shows a brief bit of pulling in the 1960's.
Pretty sketchy those guys riding up on the crane on the square platform. It almost looks like there's no front window on the dragline. Probably not a big deal if there isn't on a dragline but I read that stripping shovels have bullet proof glass 5" thick!
Ah, the good old days when everything you see apart from the Dragline was made in Australia and the fuel it burnt came out of home ground.
Yeah good old Herefords, cancer eyes and all. The salt operation is still going isn't it?
Just another indication of how far the nanny state has infiltrated our lives. The operator would be fully aware not overload the drag rope. Same with dozers without a mesh screen when a winch was fitted. Yet we survived.
Some safety precautions are good but there are some ridiculous ones eith the safety police. Place I worked built vessels. They had a woman come in as the new safety officer. She tried to make ear plugs mandatory as well as hard hats for the welders. Basically she wanted the welders to take their welding helmets off if they weren't welding and wear hard hats even if they were just going to get more rods from the rod oven. As far as ear plugs there are times when you're welding that it's a big help to be able to hear. Like when you're putting in a root pass. After a lot of push back welders weren't required to wear hard hats. If something big fell a hard hat isn't going to save you anyway.
Yes still going. The stock lick block manufacturer Olssons has or had their own plant in the same area as well.
Arghhh. We have been spoilt by reliable non computerised trucks. Our old truck. 30 years of hundreds of thousands of km fully reliable never let you down work. A modern 10 year old fully computerised truck. Another weird fault in the electronics. CAN communications failure according to the dash error coming up, but only between the hours of around 7pm to 10am. When it is cold. When it warms up, like nothing happened. No doubt thousands will be spent in repairs on some stupid unnecessary electronic component.
Yep, ain't progress wonderful.
Well it was a $2500 repair to replace this. the board did not look that complicated to justify $1700 for it alone. Then my cousin with the new truck sent it back to the crate manufacturer to get some things fixed. One of the things they asked was to get the pin that holds the rear door to be chained to the crate so the pin does not get lost. They welded it like this. You just shake your head sometimes... For those wondering, the chain should be welded to the frame not the sliding door. I have never seen anyone weld one to the door to have it flapping all over the place when opening or shutting it quickly. And with the dry weather setting in the pigs have returned so we baited the trap and something was eating the grain so we set it and early last night we got on, so we went and shot it at about 7:30pm and decided to wait until the next morning to dispose of it, then the trial camera sent more photo's later that night and blow me down if another mid sized boar had not decided to push into the trap with the fresh dead one still in there.
Wow - that's a great way to knock the **** out of yourself opening that gate. They could've at least used a hammer link or quick link to attach the chain to the pin instead of welding the chain to pin. Dolts. Haven't kept up with the thread but assuming wild hogs are just as bad down under as they are here? Game warden will let us spotlight at night and shoot from a vehicle they are so bad here.
What's the board out of, your Fuso? If so, and its actually fixed, then it probably isn't as bad as it could have been, seeing as you cant do any of it yourself anymore. The crate was made by old mate at Yeppoon? Yeah, hopeless. Like I said, I just swallowed my pride, sucked it up and fixed it myself, not worth the headache dealing with the clowns. On a brighter note, how was your preg testing this year? I won't tell you mine yet, in case yours wasn't real good. Just waiting for the vet at the moment to semen testing my bulls, hopefully some more good news once they leave.
Yes, wild pigs are a huge menace, plenty of feral animals around though. A funny story, a cousin has a block of land where the neighbour had he thought two or three deer. When I say block of land probably 5000 acres or more. The two or three deer he would see were highly protected from being shot. Then last year he got some dozers in and pulled some regrowth. Then the three deer he thought he had turned into 150+ deer once the trees were gone. It was open season on them then..... Yea, the board is from the Fuso. I do not preg test breeders here, unless they are obviously barren things. Our calving rates always seems to be pretty good. Last year was over 80%. One paddock of a hundred breeders over 90%. The tap has been turned off here. Had about an inch of rain in the past three months so am starting to supplement some breeders, loving these urea prices.
So I can set another pig trap a fair way from home and not have to physically check it every day, I got a trail camera that sends you photo's. I set it up last night on a road where there are always dog and other tracks and I caught a panther walking past.
Enlighten me; what is this "panther" ? I am not aware of large cats down under(native, anyway)
A feral cat. They are a huge ecological disaster because of all the native animals they kill.
Ah, ok. A "panther" in North America is a much larger animal
I've been doing some damage control this past week. The woodchuck population has just exploded and they're tearing up our fields something horrible. We mowed the fields on Monday and started chopping on Tuesday. Once the fields were cleared, I started setting conibear traps on the dirt mounds. I ended up with 7 this week. Got 3 out of one hole in under 24 hours. That's a record for me. Usually it's only 1 per hole, then move to the next hole. Not as good of results as i was hoping. It got hot here (mid 90s), so the woodchuck tend to stay in their holes more, lowering the success rate. I also had one fired trap that was empty and another had a safety catch the frame during firing and the chuck got away. I'm going to pack the .223 this week. I could have picked off another 3 or 4 easily if I had carried it last week.
Im guessing they're a native species, therefore there is no push for a biological control method? I remember as a kid we had a massive rabbit population, I used to take the old .22 and go shooting most afternoons. Over the years there have been 2 major biological control releases that im aware off. And while there are still rabbits around, you don't see any major warrens at all, at least on our properties. Yea im aware of the cane toads and other biological control methods that have failed spectacularly, but you hope they have learned to be a bit smarter.
I can't speak to @colson04 area but in PA woodchucks are a real nuisance. Some of the holes they make are big enough to cause equipment rollovers on the hills and more then one wheel spindle has been broken by them. You could check and see if you have guys in your area that specialize in eradicating them. Some will inject propane into the burrows and ignite it. Kills and buries them. It sounds like mini bombs going off when they're doing it...
Savage .17HMR is the perfect tool. Joe H
It may be fun, but shooting any feral pests is never going to be a long term, large scale control method. Same as invasive weeds. Where i live Lantana is a major issue. I have 40ac at the front and 600 at the back, I purchased this 10 yrs ago when I moved here to work and is separate from my cattle properties. Property is very steep. I have never owned land with Lantana before so was a bit naive about it. The plant itself isn't that hard to kill, so I sprayed the entire front 40 with a 15 litre backpack sprayer (to steep for a spray trailer etc) over a few months on weekends etc. Killed it all, bit of follow up and all gone. Work got busy, forgot about the Lantana, fast forward 7yrs, Lantana is back, now getting very overgrown again. Could I have kept on top of the 40 acres? Yes. Do I have time to do so, no. And that's not even trying with the back 600. Same with shooting, short term you might make a dent, long term, large scale. No.
Yea, woodchucks are a giant nuisance, and they're native. No protections for them as they reproduce like rabbits. Open season to trap and shoot them as needed, all year long.
Doing some boundary fencing.. Digging has been a bit ordinary in a few places..
^^Ya know, they make a thing called a hydraulic auger........... Says the guy who lives on a rockpile, and only owns "severe duty rock augers"...
Rock augers are useless here. We have always battled with rocks when digging post holes. So a decade or two ago I went and bought a rock auger and thought all my troubles will be over. I can finally throw the crowbar away.. The thing was more useless that the augers we had been using. The reason being, rock augers are for solid rock or shale that is soft and drillable. We have no shale or solid rock but rather it is either gravel or just really hard rocks and dirt mixed together. Now we just run plain augers with plain flat Pengo style teeth. We do not even bother with tungsten carbide as it lasts until the first good rock, then it just all chips off.
Looks like the perfect application for driving in drill stem….strainers at least.
That idea has been tossed around a bit but we were not sure how long they would last before they would rust off. We had the half wit dig those holes, he only gets paid in food so it was cheap enough to dig even though it took half an hour per hole for three of them.
I'm sure that hole would take me more than a half an hour. Joe H
I'd give them a big bonus if they could drill 3 holes like that in only half an hour each! That would be tough digging with a backhoe.
Have you tried shaped charges ?
Well I have a pointy crowbar. That is a shape.
Wont be pointy for very long, belting it into that stuff.
Things are starting to get dry now. No rain at all for three months and only 23mm in the past five months.
Helped out some people this morning who were a bit short on helpers. Had enough dogs though...
Another year, another bull sale. Bunya Bull sale was a bit different to last couple of years. Seems like a bit more money around this year, at least for the ones I wanted. Went to 11k twice on 2 separate bulls from my preferred vendor and lost both. Went to 12k on another one and missed again, then only made it to 8k on another that ended up in the 20's. Those bids of mine were more than I really wanted to spend, but I have to take dad to Bundy for more doctors appointments on the same day as Rocky National sale, so I wanted to get one at Bunya. Ended up with this bloke, he was down in the bargain range but his fertility figures are pretty impressive, so we'll see how he handles going onto dry speargrass and what type of calves I end up with next year.
By the sale reports I have read there must be a good bit of money around at the moment by the sale averages. I have to get another one this year and was going to go to that national sale but I bet it is going to be very expensive since they have cut the number of bulls for sale.
Mate, talking to a few of the vendors at Bunya, they are a bit pessimistic about how Rocky is going to go. Opinion is that cause they have cut it back to a 1 day sale with roughly same numbers as last year, they are going to have to pump them through and auctioneers won't spend any time trying to chase bids. There may be some merit to it cause I reckon the big boys will get plenty of time spent on them, so the little blokes may be short changed and there may be a few bargains around. After missing the two I really wanted at Bunya, I would have waited til Rocky if I was able.
My first new vehicle, 2002 Landcruiser Ute. Just finished changing the rear brake pads (4 wheel disc brakes), original from factory, 338k km and there was still a bit of meat left on them. I reckon I got my moneys worth out of them.
That is pretty good. I used to work for a chap who had a very hilly place over a range and he would drive there all the time. He always had a newish Nissan 4WD as he traded them in all the time when they got 50 000 or so km on them. Going downhill he would just put his foot on the clutch and ride the brakes all the way to the bottom. Lucky they were all disc brakes. But the good news is now you are up to speed on brakes you could come replace the pads on the front wheels on our UD truck for me. It is an old mid 80's model so comes with asbestos brake dust.
Yeah I'm sure we could go on about interesting driving styles. My first job was picking buffel grass seed by hand for an old bloke (long dead now), would have been mid 1980's. He used to have a little suzuki (stockman, I think they were), anyway he grew up riding horses and driving buggy's, so not real mechanical, manual gearboxs were witchcraft. He'd start off in first gear, then straight to 4th or 5th. The local mechanic used to keep a clutch in stock for him, he'd go through them pretty regular. But the funniest part was, he'd get to a hill and instead of changing down a gear, he'd get his knees and legs moving like you would on a horse and try and get the little suzuki to go better up the hill that way. My grandfather wasn't much better, come to a downhill section in the road, put the old series 2 landrover in neutral and turn her off and coast down the hill.
Calves starting to come thick and fast.
I went today and it was a bit of a buyers market for the sort of bulls I am after. If weather conditions and cost of expenses were different I may have got another or two for very reasonable prices. The auctioneers were all over the place with bids though. If you put a bid on you had no idea what amount you were bidding. I saw the auctioneer start at 6000, then the next bid he said 10 000. Then others went up $2000 from starting and others only went up $1000. It was bloody stupid and it puts you off bidding. I paid 7000 for this chap and am really happy with him. Heaps of good ones went for around the 8-10000 mark.
Our beef market has stayed pretty strong all year locally. I sold a Jersey/Angus cross heifer this summer for $2.50/lb, she was over 1200 pounds. I felt that was more than fair considering how little I had in to her. Deacons off the farm are staying strong. Jersey x beef are over $800/head Holstein bulls are around $1400 Holstein x beef north of $1800. For those keeping score, that's nearly double from a year ago. Finished beef hasn't gone up as much though. I can't believe folks are paying this for new born calves, but they are. A friend of mine has a beef farm. He said their profit at the end of the year has stayed the same; they're just handling larger transactions to get there.
Yes, we often read about the large shortfall in US production in our rural papers. Mainly as your shortfall is helping to prop up our prices as we export lots of grinding beef to the US to make up the shortfall. Some of out other major markets like China have decided to slap 55% tariffs on our beef for the rest of the year and all that beef now has to find a home elsewhere. In other news I have set the trail camera up over a dead carcass and been catching videos of dingoes and foxes. I think I have three different dingoes coming in and I cannot tell the foxes apart so do not know if there is only one or multiple foxes. I do not think I have ever seen a fox here in the day time. Since being able to see in the dark, I have seen quite a few.
Driving through Toowoomba today, saw diesel at $2.98, fun times.
A mate on the Far Sth Coast NSW said yesterday that diesel was over 3 bucks a litre. He's moving to WA in 10days so is watching the price on the Nullarbor which is over 5 bucks.All up he expects the trip will cost $1000 more in fuel than he had budgeted for in his Ford Ranger.
To be fair, that was the highest i saw, the rest were "only" $2.70'ish.
ONLY, about $1.70 to much
Fencing this morning, clearing the line in some rubbish wattle country. Using one of my big old saws cause the smaller ones were blunt, got a bit complacent in some small stuff, must have snagged it and ended up putting it into my leg. Not badly and I was almost not going to bother getting it looked at, but I thought i had better. Bit over an hour to get to hospital, another 2 waiting for the doctor, half an hour to get 16 stitches and now I'm shouting myself the rest of the day off. Hopefully right to go back fencing tomorrow, but definitely have to be riding a horse putting bulls out next week, so that could be fun.
Loggers chaps are definitely worth the investment.
Yeah mate, I've got all the gear (obviously wasn't wearing them) and the experience to know better. Just complacency/stupidity.
Don't feel so bad, last week did same thing. Cut down 2 decent size dead trees along the driveway, cut both up into hunks and at the last second decided to cut up some small branches, while heading in for 1st 1/2" branch caught another sapling and put the chain into my shin, barely even ripped my jeans but opened up 2 parallel gashes worthy of 11 staples. Same reaction, Dumbass, Dumbass, Dumbass. When the nurse asked what happened replied Chainsaw vs. Dumbass. Yes I also have all the gear that usually gets used when felling trees in the woods, but this was a small job in the driveway, what could go wrong? Keep your saws sharp, makes for cleaner cuts.
That is why you have two legs. A spare for when you chop one... I have a few scars from youth stupidity as well.
I think we all have scars from our youth but with age comes wisdom apparently. Which proves I'm still young.
Not a drop of rain here for four months now.... But I did hear some thunder today....
Yeah mate, up on the mountain where I'm fencing, the trees are getting stressed, leaves are starting to turn. There's nothing in those "storms", had one come over me yesterday, rained like buggery for about a minute, couple of bangs of thunder and it was gone. Got wet as a shag on the fence line for absolutely no benefit. I'm a bit concerned about fires this year, I reckon we might be dry til November or so, then we'll get a storm and then the decision is to burn or not. We've got a pretty good body of dry speargrass, but that late in the year, once you light it, it'll all go, be no controlling it. The risk is then, there's no more rain till February or so and your cattle are eating dirt for 3 months. I hope I'm wrong.
The next few months will be nerve racking for sure. All the experts agree that a record breaking El Nino is forming in the Pacific but none are willing to predict the outcome. Some are saying that a big drought is likely and others say be ready to head for higher ground. Some of our most productive years have been during El Nino events.
I hope you guys get all the rain you can handle We, in SE New Mexico, are currently headed for higher ground Got 5' last week, remnants of Hurricane Polo are predicted to hit Monday night A bit late in our growing season, but we'll take it
^^^That's supposed to read five INCHES.......
Ha Ha...Five foot of rain over a week would definitely have us looking for higher ground but five inches now would be ideal.
Jal, Hobbs, Carlsbad, or not quite that far to the SE? I spent the better part of three years drilling wells in that area, and crossing south into Texas towards Pecos, Kermit, Orla and Toyah. Lots of oil leases in that area, and nothing else.
As for rain, we've had plenty this past month as we're trying to bring our harvest in now. Corn silage went alright, even with two rain out days. We started cutting soybeans on Sunday, but put everything back in the shed this evening as we're supposed to wake up to rain. Experts are calling for somewhere from .1” to 1". They can't make up their mind whether it'll be a drizzle or dump.
...5 feet of rain, and the animals would be pairing up......
You got me curious now, I know Tully, a small town in Far North Queensland is one of the wettest places in Australia. A Google search shows an annual rainfall of approx 160 inches, with the highest yearly total being 311 inches in 1950. That's a bit ridiculous, comparable to around an inch a day for 10 months of the year. So 5 foot, bring it on. I actually spent 10yrs up in FNQ and regularly went through Tully, coming from dryer country growing up, you would never think of mowing your lawn if the grass was wet, always let it dry. Going through Tully, you'd see people mowing just after rain, during rain, basically whenever. Then I finally worked it out, it rained so much, you simply had to mow, otherwise you'd have a jungle in a few days.
We farm in Roswell, ranch 35 miles west of town, in the foothills If you haven't been in the Wolfcamp Shale area, you wouldn't even recognize it anymore.......Hobbs to Carlsbad, seems like one solid string of lights at night
Gosh, you weren't that far from where I was working. I was on a lease 20 minutes South of Carlsbad in 2020 when I got laid off. I haven't been back since, though I want to take the kids there someday. I've travelled most of New Mexico, really enjoyed the northwest area.
Well we know it is getting dry when all the good things happen. My days at the moment, a good bit of time is spent feeding supplements. Then after that the checking and finding a stuck calf that I had to pull out. Then the first calf heifer would not get up, massive calf so I suspected calving paralysis, so a tractor and car job to drive to bring her back to the yards. Then relief when a few hours after getting her home she stood up. So a good end result, saved two lives. What will tomorrow bring???