We (Stirling Alberta Canada) have had 5 hot summers and last year grass was brown from May-November, The irrigation Canals shut down early too and the climate was 30-38 centigrade for months without rainfall.
Jacarandas bloomed early, bush turkey is nesting higher than normal, and mango tree is absolutely covered in bloom..... three signs of a wet season coming...I have noticed all 3 of these signs this year, so maybe we will get some rain....chin up!....I just hope that it doesn't all come in a flood!
Australia’s always heading for, or coming out of drought, Ben on my place southern WA for 32 years, and can count the average years on 1 hand, and the above avg on 2 fingers, part of the joys hey!
Im doing a rain dance for ya mate. Im not much of a dancer so itll either work n send you rain or the rain will come to stop me dancing 😂 All the best. Ian
We got smashed in the bushfires. I doubt very much that it will stay dry for to much longer. Usually they are completely wrong. I remember last year it was going to rain forever. As soon as they started talking like that it stopped raining and this dry weather begun. If we hadn’t got smashed by the fires we would of been fine. Expecting the wet to kick in by end of November.
They get it wrong a lot thats for sure. If we get rain by the end of November we will sail through. Sorry to hear you had fires. I hope I can make a video about how wrong the weather forecasters were. John
all the cattle look fit and well.i hope you don't have to wait to long for rain.never knew you had to give cattle so many mineral's.hope the price of beef swing's in your favor.stay safe. gary.
That paddock that you’ve held back looks pretty good, mate. Family have been telling me how dry it’s been up there for months, absolutely terrible, John. Not so long ago it wouldn’t stop raining. I really hope it improves and soon. Best of luck old mate. Sorry to hear about the price of beef, someone always wants to make it harder for you. Hopefully you can get some rain and soon…. Just a quick note. I was wondering how your Perla Barb 71cc was going? I’ve just ordered one and it’s just been shipped this morning.
@farminglifeaustralia6716 Thanks for that, John. I hope mine goes as well as yours does. I wish I could send you some of this rain that we are having right now. It's pouring. We haven't had a lot of rain either lately. Thanks again, John.
We have had only 2 inches of rain all of the summer, June into Nov in the part of Louisiana we are in. We are still under a burn ban. Light rain today. less than a quarter inch. Better chance for Tuesday, and Wednesday.
We only have about 5 sunspots atm. Solar activity causes sunspots and makes it rain. The solar wind was just 600 klm a sec. Just had a huge hurricane in Mexico so it hasn't forgotten how to rain. The current solar cycle hasn't peaked yet so just a lull in rainfall in some places. In 2019 we had no sunspots for 281 days and severe drought in many places right at the bottom of the solar cycle.
dry everywhere and add to that we have been attacked by pasture dieback mealy bugs....cattle prices are 1/3 of what we got can't even sell a few older ones to make room as feed is getting scarce and expensive. Only 1 storm lasted 50 seconds and a decent rain for 2 days in 7 months is all we got in Northern Rivers.
Hope you are both doing well. Yeah cattle that were selling for $4 a kilo live weight you would be lucky to get $1.60 for now. It really sh##s me that the prices in the shop are the same pretty much. I get it that we are price takers not price makers and its all about supply and demand but give the public a break. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 yeah it makes no sense that there isn't a bigger drop at the supermarkets if the farmers aren't getting as much. I know there are other costs in between farmer and shop, like transport etc, but still....... I hear IGA and butchers have been passing the reductions on more than the coles/woolworths stores have. You're probably not looking to change up how you do things much these days, but I've seen other farmers go around the supermarkets and do their own food packs they sell direct to public now, which is much better for everyone - but a bit more work in it for the farmer, like you'd have to find a way to have your meat butchered legally to go to the public from the farm which has rules around it - but much more money for the farmer too. I often think we should find a local farmer that does this for our won meat. I know of quite a few closer to melbourne that do it. It's fairly innovative (or rather more like how things were done in the past), but also you have to deal with the public yourself more, which isn't always what people want to do lol.
@@theadventuresofzoomandbettie We had a look at it and it was just too much cost and red tape also we are not close to a town where we could set up a farm shop. We are more looking forward to getting out and just play about at home and go fishing. John
We are not worried about income or the price to the producer much. I just don't like to see the cattle missing out on plenty of feed. Also it irks me that the processors retailers don't pass on the lower prices. John
The government allowed consolidation and take overs so there are now retail monopolies the can dictate the access to the market. Coles and Woolworths and who…..
Yes. I know its wrong to give producers very little for a product. Then charge a small fortune for the same product. Then they hide behind the statement WE HAVE TO LOOK AFTER THE SHAREHOLDERS. John
Why can’t the BOM have a dependable system of allowing graziers to plan for the prevailing conditions? They seem to be able to predict the doom of humanity due to the farts from cattle but nothing that is helpful to the cattle industry.
I wonder how much the BOM costs each year. There is a bloke on YT from New Zealand who does a reasonable forecast for Australia and NZ. As far as having a accurate forecast method for long term, so we can plan I think a old lady with a crystal ball would do about as good. John
Talking to my stockie today, blokes sending ewes to yards, getting a $3.50 per head, before transport, so a loss of $2 per head. Lambs are better, but mutton is a loss.
i am ignorant on water management. But It's a shame that in a dry country the farmers seem to be an after thought. *Wouldn't be against installing a modern compost pooper and a water tank if it helped (not sure how the other 25million arseholes would like it though😅). *Wouldn't be against the states offering to improving/build new dam structures to improve on capacity and reduce evap/leakage if significant either (i'm sure the 25 million arseholes would agree on that one). *always been curious on how those fodder systems fair when used on a small to large scale outback property. all the best from shaun.
Thanks Shaun. When the rain was on and prices were good I spent money on extra bores so at least we wont run out of drinking water. I kept some paddocks locked up that has helped. I plan to plant some quick growing fodder when it looks like rain is on the way to get the cattle in as good as condition as quickly as possible. I think we are in for a few bad seasons with Elnino so as soon as I can I will sell a lot. John
damming rivers and creeks isn't all it's cracked up to be, in fact a lot of the flooding issues from the past couple of years is because damming up rivers reduced the regular flows further down the line, and the ground would get too hard and too dry to actually absorb the water when it came during the heavy rains, so then it floods. I reckon there needs to be more water tanks at every residential house that is used for gardens/toilets/etc. The farmers doing rice, cotton and other crops that just aren't normal for australian conditions tend to use a LOT more water than most farmers and there needs to be more thought on how they can be more self sufficient with their water use coming from captured rains rather then from rivers. It's a bigger issue than most realise. Damming always seems like a good solution until you see the other issues that causes.
@@theadventuresofzoomandbettie Agree. A dam may help in short term water management where you can push some excess to a dry part of the cycle, but when the average rainfall goes down the dam levels soon follow. And it takes a lot off water to irrigate a pasture for a year so the farm storage is for stock to drink. The feed has to be grown where they have the water and will sell the hay. Dams have never increased the amount of water available, they are only useful for timing and allocating. My dams are going down quite fast despite stock levels being very light - so it's mostly evaporation. The soil was too dry for any runoff in the most recent showers and today's hot dry wind has probably taken any soil moisture benefit away. As for the cotton growers, they used to be the big water hogs, but their water allocations are less and well policed so many are moving to dry land cotton. These varieties rely on rain but you get a very high value crop when it does. And this without paying megabucks for gigalitres. Cotton started as a desert plant - quick burst of growing to set seed after a rainfall event. Adaptation! The times they are a changing.
@@user-xh9pt8zu2l That's cool to know about! Didn't realise it started as a desert crop! We are lucky here, with only an acre and we have town water (though we do have 4 small tanks and another slightly larger tank coming when our shed goes up too. But as much as I love the idea of being off-grid, having town water connected does give a sense of security (until we all go back into the inevitable strong water restrictions again)
You been getting your geographical perspective from those Brisbane-based TV "experts" mate? 😉 "Fires in South West Queensland"??? 🤔 South perhaps (Tara is something like 150km from the NSW border) but it's only about 280 from Brisbane. Birdsville is about another 1100km West and (I think 😜) is still in Queensland! 🤣 Still not as bad as 1 little dollybird reporter I remember reporting on something "from North Queensland" - FROM Gympie! 🙄
You are right I guess it depends on what you call west. If you live in the valley Ipswich is probably out west. Yeah I could never figure out Far north Queensland, you would think it would be up the cape not Mackay or Bowen even Townsville is a long way from the top. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 won’t happen Jon unfortunately most of the Australian consumers are are dependent on foreign owned processors and major retailers.
Great video. Thank you for sharing. fr south west NSW 👍
Thanks for watching! John
We (Stirling Alberta Canada) have had 5 hot summers and last year grass was brown from May-November, The irrigation Canals shut down early too and the climate was 30-38 centigrade for months without rainfall.
Sounds pretty dry and hot. Hope it improves. John
Jacarandas bloomed early, bush turkey is nesting higher than normal, and mango tree is absolutely covered in bloom..... three signs of a wet season coming...I have noticed all 3 of these signs this year, so maybe we will get some rain....chin up!....I just hope that it doesn't all come in a flood!
The last day three people have told me it will be a big wet. They say things happen in threes we will see. John
Australia’s always heading for, or coming out of drought, Ben on my place southern WA for 32 years, and can count the average years on 1 hand, and the above avg on 2 fingers, part of the joys hey!
Yes pretty right. Seems like all my life it has been drought bush fires or floods. They talk about climate change its different every day. John
Im doing a rain dance for ya mate. Im not much of a dancer so itll either work n send you rain or the rain will come to stop me dancing 😂
All the best. Ian
Thanks Ian. Even if you are not a good rain dancer its the thought that counts. John
We have been dry here until 3 days ago. We had a weekend of rain. It has been raining buckets and we needed it.
hope you see some rain soon. Jim
Good on you. We went from to much rain to none. John
Good video, mate. May you get some rain upon you. Cheers.
Thanks very much. John
Just like Fuel prices John.
Yes its a bit past a joke. John
We got smashed in the bushfires. I doubt very much that it will stay dry for to much longer. Usually they are completely wrong. I remember last year it was going to rain forever. As soon as they started talking like that it stopped raining and this dry weather begun. If we hadn’t got smashed by the fires we would of been fine. Expecting the wet to kick in by end of November.
They get it wrong a lot thats for sure. If we get rain by the end of November we will sail through. Sorry to hear you had fires. I hope I can make a video about how wrong the weather forecasters were. John
Really enjoying your videos John.
same here.
Thats good its a bit of a struggle sometimes to get the time to make them. John
all the cattle look fit and well.i hope you don't have to wait to long for rain.never knew you had to give cattle so many mineral's.hope the price of beef swing's in your favor.stay safe. gary.
Thanks Gary So far things are ok we just need rain in the next month and it will be ok. John
Its dry here too, best of luck, hope yoy get some rain soon. I've made to decision to try hold onto my cattle, cant sell them anyway.
Thats what we are doing. I hope it works out for you and me. John
I Like the shovel comment . Just sound Fair Dinkum about your life style .
Probably not politically correct but pretty accurate. John
That paddock that you’ve held back looks pretty good, mate. Family have been telling me how dry it’s been up there for months, absolutely terrible, John. Not so long ago it wouldn’t stop raining. I really hope it improves and soon. Best of luck old mate.
Sorry to hear about the price of beef, someone always wants to make it harder for you.
Hopefully you can get some rain and soon….
Just a quick note. I was wondering how your Perla Barb 71cc was going? I’ve just ordered one and it’s just been shipped this morning.
All my Perla Barb saws are going good have not done anything to them other than put fuel and oil in and sharpen the chain. John
@farminglifeaustralia6716 Thanks for that, John. I hope mine goes as well as yours does.
I wish I could send you some of this rain that we are having right now. It's pouring. We haven't had a lot of rain either lately.
Thanks again, John.
@@wayneberry8703 It just proves it can still rain. John
We have had only 2 inches of rain all of the summer, June into Nov in the part of Louisiana we are in. We are still under a burn ban. Light rain today. less than a quarter inch. Better chance for Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Glad you are getting some rain at least. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 Maybe more coming Tuesday.
@@charlescoker7752 😀😀
We only have about 5 sunspots atm. Solar activity causes sunspots and makes it rain. The solar wind was just 600 klm a sec. Just had a huge hurricane in Mexico so it hasn't forgotten how to rain. The current solar cycle hasn't peaked yet so just a lull in rainfall in some places. In 2019 we had no sunspots for 281 days and severe drought in many places right at the bottom of the solar cycle.
Thats interesting I haven't studied the sun spots at all. I know a bit about the moon and its effect on things. John
Wow that’s pretty dry mate don’t know how those farmers do it up the top end with their dry season.
Where are you situated
We are in northern Queensland. John
Are the paddocks you put biochar faring better than those that did not get the biochar?
No I put the char up on the hill where it is driest so it is not doing good. I should have put some down lower. John
Now that would be different Australia having a drought.
Yeah unheard of. Ha Ha . John
YES!
Unfortunately I think you are right. John
dry everywhere and add to that we have been attacked by pasture dieback mealy bugs....cattle prices are 1/3 of what we got can't even sell a few older ones to make room as feed is getting scarce and expensive. Only 1 storm lasted 50 seconds and a decent rain for 2 days in 7 months is all we got in Northern Rivers.
Its a bit tough alright. I know the northern rivers fairly well. Lived there for 20 years. John
My work mate runs sheep on the family farm, and he reckons last year he was getting $250 a head, now $50. So crazy.
Hope you are both doing well. Yeah cattle that were selling for $4 a kilo live weight you would be lucky to get $1.60 for now. It really sh##s me that the prices in the shop are the same pretty much. I get it that we are price takers not price makers and its all about supply and demand but give the public a break. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 yeah it makes no sense that there isn't a bigger drop at the supermarkets if the farmers aren't getting as much. I know there are other costs in between farmer and shop, like transport etc, but still....... I hear IGA and butchers have been passing the reductions on more than the coles/woolworths stores have. You're probably not looking to change up how you do things much these days, but I've seen other farmers go around the supermarkets and do their own food packs they sell direct to public now, which is much better for everyone - but a bit more work in it for the farmer, like you'd have to find a way to have your meat butchered legally to go to the public from the farm which has rules around it - but much more money for the farmer too. I often think we should find a local farmer that does this for our won meat. I know of quite a few closer to melbourne that do it. It's fairly innovative (or rather more like how things were done in the past), but also you have to deal with the public yourself more, which isn't always what people want to do lol.
@@theadventuresofzoomandbettie We had a look at it and it was just too much cost and red tape also we are not close to a town where we could set up a farm shop. We are more looking forward to getting out and just play about at home and go fishing. John
It can be a tough gig on the farm but keep positive, as you are. Least you have plenty of pork on the go.
We are not worried about income or the price to the producer much. I just don't like to see the cattle missing out on plenty of feed. Also it irks me that the processors retailers don't pass on the lower prices. John
Yep we got one here already..
The government allowed consolidation and take overs so there are now retail monopolies the can dictate the access to the market. Coles and Woolworths and who…..
Yes. I know its wrong to give producers very little for a product. Then charge a small fortune for the same product. Then they hide behind the statement WE HAVE TO LOOK AFTER THE SHAREHOLDERS. John
Nice videos
Thanks very much Gerald. John
Here we only give cattle calcium and phosphorus not sulphur.
We give them Salt Calcium Phosphorus Sulphur and some areas that are deficient in other minerals give extra minerals. John
Why can’t the BOM have a dependable system of allowing graziers to plan for the prevailing conditions? They seem to be able to predict the doom of humanity due to the farts from cattle but nothing that is helpful to the cattle industry.
The BOM can’t even accurately record the daily temperature, humidity and rain in Gulgong NSW.
I wonder how much the BOM costs each year. There is a bloke on YT from New Zealand who does a reasonable forecast for Australia and NZ. As far as having a accurate forecast method for long term, so we can plan I think a old lady with a crystal ball would do about as good. John
what minerals? agricon 10 urea? what sulfur?
Sulphur salt calcium phosphorus the main ones. John
A leg of lamb for 9 bux a kilo that price slump flowed through to the consumer.
Ok thats getting better. John
Talking to my stockie today, blokes sending ewes to yards, getting a $3.50 per head, before transport, so a loss of $2 per head. Lambs are better, but mutton is a loss.
@@stevebowman421 Thats a kick in the whatsits. John
Have made a video on straining a fence yet John?
Yes I have a video on how to use fence strainers. Its called HOW TO USE WIRE STRAINERS. Thanks for watching. John
@farminglifeaustralia6716 Awesome, thankyou!
@@richo083 Hope it helps. John
i am ignorant on water management.
But It's a shame that in a dry country the farmers seem to be an after thought.
*Wouldn't be against installing a modern compost pooper and a water tank if it helped (not sure how the other 25million arseholes would like it though😅).
*Wouldn't be against the states offering to improving/build new dam structures to improve on capacity and reduce evap/leakage if significant either (i'm sure the 25 million arseholes would agree on that one).
*always been curious on how those fodder systems fair when used on a small to large scale outback property.
all the best from shaun.
Thanks Shaun. When the rain was on and prices were good I spent money on extra bores so at least we wont run out of drinking water. I kept some paddocks locked up that has helped. I plan to plant some quick growing fodder when it looks like rain is on the way to get the cattle in as good as condition as quickly as possible. I think we are in for a few bad seasons with Elnino so as soon as I can I will sell a lot. John
damming rivers and creeks isn't all it's cracked up to be, in fact a lot of the flooding issues from the past couple of years is because damming up rivers reduced the regular flows further down the line, and the ground would get too hard and too dry to actually absorb the water when it came during the heavy rains, so then it floods. I reckon there needs to be more water tanks at every residential house that is used for gardens/toilets/etc. The farmers doing rice, cotton and other crops that just aren't normal for australian conditions tend to use a LOT more water than most farmers and there needs to be more thought on how they can be more self sufficient with their water use coming from captured rains rather then from rivers. It's a bigger issue than most realise. Damming always seems like a good solution until you see the other issues that causes.
@@theadventuresofzoomandbettie Agree. A dam may help in short term water management where you can push some excess to a dry part of the cycle, but when the average rainfall goes down the dam levels soon follow. And it takes a lot off water to irrigate a pasture for a year so the farm storage is for stock to drink. The feed has to be grown where they have the water and will sell the hay. Dams have never increased the amount of water available, they are only useful for timing and allocating.
My dams are going down quite fast despite stock levels being very light - so it's mostly evaporation. The soil was too dry for any runoff in the most recent showers and today's hot dry wind has probably taken any soil moisture benefit away.
As for the cotton growers, they used to be the big water hogs, but their water allocations are less and well policed so many are moving to dry land cotton. These varieties rely on rain but you get a very high value crop when it does. And this without paying megabucks for gigalitres. Cotton started as a desert plant - quick burst of growing to set seed after a rainfall event. Adaptation! The times they are a changing.
@@user-xh9pt8zu2l That's cool to know about! Didn't realise it started as a desert crop! We are lucky here, with only an acre and we have town water (though we do have 4 small tanks and another slightly larger tank coming when our shed goes up too. But as much as I love the idea of being off-grid, having town water connected does give a sense of security (until we all go back into the inevitable strong water restrictions again)
You been getting your geographical perspective from those Brisbane-based TV "experts" mate? 😉
"Fires in South West Queensland"??? 🤔 South perhaps (Tara is something like 150km from the NSW border) but it's only about 280 from Brisbane. Birdsville is about another 1100km West and (I think 😜) is still in Queensland! 🤣
Still not as bad as 1 little dollybird reporter I remember reporting on something "from North Queensland" - FROM Gympie! 🙄
You are right I guess it depends on what you call west. If you live in the valley Ipswich is probably out west. Yeah I could never figure out Far north Queensland, you would think it would be up the cape not Mackay or Bowen even Townsville is a long way from the top. John
Many regions are already drought declared so I would suggest your video is a bit late.
We are not in drought but I think we are headed that way. John
Shit mate ya got that email late
It might be me who is slow on the uptake. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 things are dry on both the east an the west. Lamb an beef prices are devastating atm it’s all a little odd.
@@brucerae5522 What gives me the SH##s is if they lowered the price at retail a bit more people would buy more meat and create more market. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 won’t happen Jon unfortunately most of the Australian consumers are are dependent on foreign owned processors and major retailers.
@@brucerae5522 Australians are brainwashed like most of western society. John
If you want better pasture you need to increase stocking density and rotate regularly. Not hard
Thanks for that. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 If you are interested my old forebear left a little notebook containing a lot more tips on evacuating eggs? 🤔😉
@@theoztreecrasher2647😀🤣