Annual Border Leicester Show & Sale at Dubbo

We are off to Dubbo on Tuesday for the Border Leicester Sale to buy our stud rams. Hoping to buy three or four if the price is right but recently the market has been very firm. Having bought the best ewes though we wont be trying to be too cute on price. A good purchase now will pay off in two years. We could have taken a good ram from Sylvia Vale's last sale in December 2009 but it is vital that we introduce new bloodlines and vigour to our flock and give ourselves the best flock rams possible for the Daramalan inaugural sale in 2010.

We will also have to match the best ram for the best ewe in our flock of 230. We'll be monitoring and measuring number of lambs born, lambs weaned, yearling fleece weight, weaning weight, yearling weight and making regular notes on the 'look' of the animals. Our aim is the best that we can produce for the prime lamb producers. Not sure yet whether we will submit data to Lambplan or Superborders.

This year it seems that first cross ewes are in short supply so we have been fortunate to have held on to our 490 until our sale in December. Recently $195 per head was paid in Temora to the west and $125 in Narromine to the north. We are expecting somewhere in between and will be happy with anything over $150.

Each year Merino farmers buy a selection of flock rams, usually Border Leicesters but sometimes an other breed like the East Friesian. A ram can be used for about four years so each year's client list is slightly different.

We are hoping to have about 80 rams for sale in 2010.

Our first cross ewes are ultimately selected for meat production but their wool is not too bad. We sent our wool to the Sydney auction through Bryton's and expected $4.20 c/kg for 25 micron wool. Hardly Merino standard but we were thrilled to receive $4.92 c/kg.

It is a lucky omen for the business so long may it continue.

The image above is by Yusio Katoh of a wood pigeon...reminded me of the Daramalan wood pigeons and is a calming print!

188 and counting....

Having shorn the first cross ewes we went straight on to marking (tagging) the Border Leicester lambs that will be the core business activity throughout 2010. We marked 188 lambs, about 100 ewes and 88 rams, and still more to come. Expecting 200 from 170 ewes so that is a lambing percentage (before weaning of course) of 1.18 which is pretty good. They are all in great condition and Sylvia Vale has plenty of feed. We will finish marking in November when we shear the stud ewes. It is certainly the busiest time of the sheep farming year.

All lambs have their tails docked to prevent fly strike at a later date. A few days discomfort rather than being eaten alive from the inside out. All lambs are also vaccinated with Guardian 6 in 1 and Gudair to protect them from some of the serious infectious diseases and to boost their immunity to others. Guardian protects against the clostridial diseases pulpy kidney, tetanus, blackleg, black disease, malignant oedema, swelled ram head and cheesy gland. Gudair protects against Ovine Johne's Disease (OJD) which can cause significant mortality, particularly in fine Merino flocks. Self injection is a serious no no and can cause extreme and prolonged swelling that will require surgery to fix. I left the needle to Butch but did single handedly catch all 188 lambs and lift into the lamb marking cradle and put in the ear tags.

Seemed to me that the ewe lambs were calmer about it all but none of the lambs were in any pain an hour after being in the cradle. I was amused to find that ram lambs get tagged in their left ear and ewe lambs in their right ear. I am told that is because just like in the human world women are always right....

Wind power and dam water

Our nearest major settlement is Crookwell, in the Southern Tablelands. In the 2006 Census, Crookwell had a population of 1,993 people. The town is at a relatively high altitude in Australian terms, over 900 metres, and there are heavy frosts and snowfalls during the winter months. Most employment is based around the local agriculturally based economy. The district is renowned for potato farming so residents are often referred to as 'spud diggers'.

Crookwell is also home to NSW's first wind farm. The wind farm consisting of 8 600 kW wind turbines is located 8 minutes south of Crookwell on the Goulburn road. The "windmill" operates automatically when there is 15 km/h wind and shuts off when wind speed reaches 72 km/h. Locals either love it or hate it. I like it and it is a curious sight with sheep safely grazing beneath the turbines.

It has a capacity of 4.8 MW and was the first grid-connected wind farm in Australia when built by Pacific Power in 1998. It is now owned by Eraring Energy, and currently supplies electricity to Country Energy's "GreenPower" customers of which we are most definitely one. Each year it saves 8,000 MT of CO2 and powers 3,500 homes. Planning approval has been received for phase two of the Crookwell Wind Farm, which will have an installed capacity of 92 MW.

It will be located near to Pejar Dam, constructed to supply water for the city of Goulburn. It is one of three water storage facilities serving the city, and is used to augment the water supply when Sooley Dam is unable to maintain enough water in Rossi Weir, from which Goulburn's water filtration plant is supplied.

The dam can store 9,000 megalitres over 1.55 sq kms collected from a catchment of 142 sq kms. The dam wall is 25 metres high. In theory Pejar Dam represents 60% of Goulburns’ water, because of its size in proportion to the total storage. In practice Pejar Dam does not perform near this level because it is not catching and then delivering that amount of water to Goulburn because Pejar Dam has no engineered link to the City nor to the river. It has become evident that Pejar Dam doesn’t yield as much water as it was originally estimated to yield, particularly in drought years. Pejar Dam was last full in November 2000. Five years later, in May 2006, it was empty.

With some recent rains it is fuller and at Daramalan even the new Archie's dam is filling nicely and the Tarlo River is flowing audibly. Long may it rain!!