Election time is coming up for the LLS | Rural Notebook

We must not look back to a time when the rural board system was controlled by well-known local farmers, who were elected by their peers who respected them enough to vote for them.

The election of board members is currently being carried out and three members of a seven person board will be elected.

We must wish the LLS system every success.

REPORTS tell me that auction prices for processing cows are now at their lowest level in 2024.

Heavy steer prices came back a bit during April, but have steadied as we got into May.

April is nearly always an awkward month, with a couple of short weeks and often being pretty dry.

An agent from Bendigo was commenting on the dry Autumn and said: "It's not panic stations yet but we had a false start in early March and the hoped for Autumn break has not happened. Many in the south are now supplementary feeding where they haven't needed to in the last three years."

As I write on Sunday, it seems that our district falls have ranged from about 15 millimetres up to 30mm.

THE price of many animal health products has increased gradually and producers are stunned by the cost of some of the drench/lice pour-ons for sheep and cattle.

Of more importance is the effect that a lot of these products can have on human health.

If you notice watery eyes, breathing difficulty or "sunburnt" skin after using one of these pour-ons, then you should be wearing long gloves, long waterproof pants, glasses, a hat and mask.

Our health is at stake every time we carry out one of these tasks.

WE should all raise our hats to Hill End shearer Jeannine Kimm for her mighty effort in shearing 358 Merino ewes in an eight-hour day.

She reached this record tally in the big wool shed at "Dalkeith" in Cassillis last Saturday in front of a very excited crowd.

The Rotherwood bredewes in the event have evolved from Severn Park blood around the turn of the century, to Mumblebone blood and recent infusions of Richmond blood from Quandialla.

A lot of that type of sheep are prem shorn, either six or eight months, and they carry the type of skins that have changed much of the wool industry.

Congratulations, Jeannine.

Bathurst farmers are proud of you.

MINISTER Tara Moriarty's announcement of a state government subsidy for electronic identification (EID) sheep ear tags will cause a rush of orders.

The money bucket to help implement the use of these tags is not overflowing and a case of first in first served will operate.

It seems that Local Land Services data on property sheep numbers will govern the amount of tags that can be ordered and $1.75 tags will probably sell for $1.

Please order promptly as this subsidy is not unlimited and the minister has stressed this point several times.

For sheep producers who have purchased and set up one of the new generation of sheep handlers, EID tags are proving to be indispensable.

The information they carry blends so well with the modern handlers.

During the past half-century, we have seen handling machines from a basic David Payne, Moffat Virtue, Gun Crutcha, then on to the V Beltmachines.

Most of those machines were used for foot paring or crutching as farmers with a serious back injury could do the sheep jobs while standing up straight.

The current generation of machines are costly: not much change from $30,000, but they are invaluable to stud operations and to the best of the commercial operations.

BEFORE I leave the issue of sheep handling equipment, I know how most of the shearers hate crutching, especially big framed, 100-kilogram animals that have to be caught and dragged out of deep pens.

With all the wisdom of some "modern" breeders, we now see lots of Merino sheep that have to be crutched twice per year, at double the dragging and the cost.

We see a lot of videos that show big mobs of ewes spreading across fresh pastures and a big percentage of the mobs would be too dirty to offer for sale.

This must be progress shown from a different angle.

ON the social scene, I note that long-time Bathurst resident Ray McKechnie has just celebrated his 92nd birthday with his wife Helen and their extended family.

Ray was a highly regarded accountant with Alan Morse and Co before the business became Morse Group, and he was always active in the Bathurst community.

Many happy returns, Ray.

FURTHER to last week's mention of cauliflower growing in the Bathurst district, I note that vegetable growing was big business along the Campbells River at The Lagoon, at Gilmandyke, Fitzgeralds Valley, Grove Creek near Trunkey, and right along the Macquarie River and Vale Creek flats.

The market gardens provided employment for a lot of casual workers.

Many of them were wool industry employees who appreciated the winter work that filled the gap until the shearing season started in early August.

IT was a tough week for wool,

There were 39,000 bales offered for sale, in which 91.3 per cent of the offering was sold.

Following three positive weeks of sales, in which traders were able to sell to their customers, not only in China there has been other voices in the room which have pushed things along.

As forward commitments were completed, the market fell off quite severely to finish the week 30-60ac/kg clean to the indent buyers bid prices.

The EMI was 20c/kg down for the week in Australian cents or minus 1.71 per cent to 1152ac/kg, which is what we saw in late March and early April.

Week 45 has an early estimated offering of 41,475 bales.

GEORGE was on the escalator and heard, "Free ice cream", on the public address.

He hurried down two floors to find he'd heard, "Free eye screen".

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DAD had a bout of serious man flu and his long suffering wife bought him a hot brandy toddy.

He took a tiny sip and reached for the brandy bottle with, "Good Lord, woman, I'm much more crook than that."