Farm Manager

Finally a little sunshine to warm the grass up. At present the Denmark rainfall is hovering at 1000mls and with 133 in August and 55 in September already, there is no doubt the pastures have been wet. Things are drying out though and with fertiliser spread on all grazed paddocks the growth has accelerated. Broad leaf weed control has been very effective this year and pasture quality is good. Surprisingly the pastures have tolerated the wet soil with minimal damage to waterlogging. 

We have been supplementary feeding all livestock through this period and have nearly exhausted our hay and silage reserves. We are fortunate to have had a large enough quantity on hand. We now begin conserving the quality pastures for hay and silage production.

Equipment

Trust allocations have been finalised and we were allocated the following equipment:

• Purchase of a 100/110 HP tractor.  This requisition has now gone to Perth and the tender system will be implemented. Unfortunately, this will take time and supply and availability will no doubt be a challenge.
• Purchase of hay rake. We have secured a Pottinger 7.2m rake which is ready for delivery. The critical factor in purchasing this equipment was availability.
• Forward planning for February 2022 includes budgeting for two side by side dual cab FWD buggies. If the funding is approved these vehicles will be purchased. Once again, availability is an issue in addition to price changes from the time of quoting.
• Also planned for February 2022 is the purchase of a Kubota 26HP tractor for the Horticulture/Avocado enterprises. After speaking with our supplier we can secure a tractor now for delivery in February.

Dairy Calving

Midyear winter calving is nearly complete. It didn’t start too well with three calves and two cow fatalities, but thankfully it levelled out and has finished without complications. We are currently milking 120 cows and will separate off several older animals to go to Western Meat Packers. All our dairy cows now have the monitoring collars fitted which is a strategy to improve the next AI program. There is still a lot of training required to achieve the required outcomes.

Agricultural Shows/Excursions

We have had several excursions including Beverley Show, Katanning Sheep Expo, Open Day and the Perth Royal Show.

Farm staff took twelve cattle students to Beverley along with eight stud and trade cattle. We had a great result, again winning Champion Junior and Grand Champion Bull with a Simmental sire. Along with that, several students entered and did very well in the Parading and Judging events, qualifying them for the State Finals to be held at the Perth Royal Show.

Roger Schulz took students to Katanning to spend time with individual sheep studs. The students learnt about merino sheep and wool judging and enjoyed the overall experience.

Open Day was a huge effort for farm staff to prepare the grounds, livestock and machinery for the College’s main event. The weather was kind on the day and the exhibition was very successful. The trade steers were led and exhibited by students and were mostly well behaved.

Perth Royal Show is approaching and we have thirteen students and fifteen steers to travel up and compete in the Cattle events. Our teams will be competing on Saturday 25 September in the Parading, and the Steer Judging is on Sunday 27. Steers are sold off on Monday, so here’s hoping the butchers are willing to dig deep for some quality animals.

Roger Schulz will take sheep students and some Corriedale rams up to the show along with the AWI wethers to compete in the AWI Wool Challenge. We have won this event two years running, however, after such a wet season the wethers' wool has suffered serious water damage.

Challenges Ahead

As we go forward into spring and summer these are the most important farm challenges and developments ahead of us:

Silage and hay production.

Fit new silo for storage of pellets at the dairy.

Priority 1 - Gravel to be crushed.

Tracks and roads to be graded and levelled, gravelled and rolled.

Drains installed where necessary for the new roads.