Farm Manager

Kevin Marshall

Kevin.Marshall@education.wa.edu.au

With winter rainfall delivering good volumes the farm at present is very wet. June gave us 110 mm and July another 130 mls. Add to that the recent downpour of near 100 mls brings the yearly total to  667mm. Although this is desirable it certainly causes issues with soil erosion and pugging and difficulty getting fertiliser spread etc. The early crops have all been grazed several times and with the cool conditions pasture growth is slow. Hay and silage are being used where needed and overall supply of supplementary feed is still good for this time of year. Having the crops established early contributed to conserving vital feed supplies.

Dairy ATO finally allowed to come to WA

We welcome Jason Frankham-Eade to WA and to fill one of the dairy positions. Jason comes with fifteen years’ experience in various dairy positions and has a good understanding of the industry. We are very happy with his ability to adapt to our system and demonstrate skills with machinery and equipment. We are now in the process of advertising for the original dairy role to replace Ms Quilty and thus far have not had any suitable applicants. I would like to acknowledge the outstanding work by Terry DeVos to maintain the dairies operation for the past four weeks.

Agricultural Trust Submissions

I would like to thank Denmark Agricultural Advisory's Chairman Mr Owen Sounness and Murray Montgomery for travelling to Perth and representing the farm at the recent Trust Allocations. We did very well with our requests receiving $107,000.00 in support for new machinery considering limited funds available. We received; $26,000.00 for the speed tiller which has been purchased and used already, $24,000.00 for a larger hay tedder, $30,000,00 for another tractor lease and $27,000.00 for the Animal Breeding package for the dairy herd.

Recently we purchased a Pottenger Speed Tiller from McIntosh Albany. It is three metres wide and has been used to cultivate the Rubbish Tip Paddock prior to sowing a late crop of oats for late season hay. The machine went straight into heavy kikuyu thatch and cultivated easily. It will require a second pass to break up clods before sowing. 

Disappointing A.I of beef herd

Due to unknown circumstances the first round of A.I was very disappointing particularly with two specific sires. As a result Terry DeVos and myself A.I’d most of the Simmental and Angus heifers and achieved a much better take second time round. Due to the poor result I have purchased a young Simmental bull from Mubarn Simmental Stud in Pinjarra. He was used immediately over the remaining stud cows. He was semen tested and will be collected for our own insurance. It is intended to not AI any Simmental next season and produce a group of calves by this bull and assess their quality as a group. Preg testing of stud and commercial cattle will begin shortly.

Cattle Yards

Construction of the new yards is nearing completion however extreme wet weather has really hampered progress. The yards are all concreted in position and the roof and crush are being installed. A concrete floor will run the length of the race and out to a loading ramp.