End of March already….where’s it gone??

“The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't�.

Henry Ward Beecher

Last I wrote Harriet was just off to boarding school for the year, back at the end of January, and now she is due home next Thursday night for the Easter break. Hard to believe the pace this year’s going at times, although when you sit back and think about it, it has tended to have been quite full and busy as per usual.

We pulled up with the fencing….not because Harriet went back to school either!! After getting half the place done we decided to take stock & hold off spending any more money as this economic climate has me worried, and I’m not sharing our prime ministers philosophy of thinking we can spend our way out of a problem that was caused by over spending in the first place.

Those who have followed my blog from the beginning may remember my comments regarding a visit to some politicians in the States last year (before the world economic meltdown) & how I questioned their handling of a burgeoning debt issue which was then around US$10 Trillion. Seems like a while ago now & borrowing off our children and devaluing currencies seem to have become almost fashionable around the world since then, & I worry that the craziness has actually become addictive.

At least we have been spending (without Ruddy) on infrastructure such as fencing, water & the accommodation enterprise which add to our asset value & improve our ability to generate cashflow, rather than Gerry Harvey’s plasma TV’s, I-pod’s and other crap that Ruddy was pleading for recipients of his ‘generosity’ to splurge on ‘to help the economy’, and loses value 5 minutes after the purchase.

Pity our short sighted politicians, ably aided & abetted of course by voters wanting something for nothing, could not think of a few infrastructure projects to spend ‘our’ Billions on that would drive real productivity for generations rather than waste it absolute rubbish.

Remember… “A government that is big enough to give you all you want, is big enough to take all you have�

You can take money of those that are productive & give it to those that are not for only so long before you run out of money, as those that earn lose incentive to work & those that take continue to want more.

After that good Feb rain we did take more cattle on, and there is now just under 700 in the mob & I’m really pleased with the effect on the landscape as well as the amount of grazing ‘days’ we are now generating out of the paddocks. Cows are going really well & with the grass drying off they are even improving and are completely at ease in the system and the ‘one hot wire’ scenario is proving to be very effective. The increased herd impact being achieved by the smaller paddocks & bigger mob has been phenomenal, and I’m excited by the prospect of what is going to happen after the next rain event. We have another eleven paddocks to go before we move back into the country we have not done the extra fencing in yet, but I’m still hoping we will get a chance to do some of it by about June / July. With the possibility of getting some decent April / May rain I’d be very inclined to lift our numbers again and have my eye on one day breaking that 1,000 head barrier. An improvement in the pasture capacity will be needed yet and also a lift in the flow rate of water to the troughs, which I think is still less than ideal, but I don’t believe we will be too far away over the next twelve months.

Given adequate rain of course…

Though our ability to utilise what we get is far more important I believe. At the end of March (assuming no rain in the next few days) our twelve month “rolling rainfall� total will be 325mm or 13 inches. That is over 20% less than our long term average yearly total, so although we have had some good rain since Xmas, it was on the back of another quite long dry spell. But our carrying capacity is sitting at about 50% above the long term average over the same period of time & we can also see ahead possibly ten months in our current grazing plan. It’s great to be finally getting some measurable improvements in the lands capacity to go with the visual evidence that has been my focus for a while now.

We had a terrific group of lads staying here for a few weeks working for Telstra, & after being caught out with rain & boggy roads they managed to get the company to purchase some gravel for our road which the local council here at Brewarrina has matched. Not enough to do all the way in of course (we have 4.5klms of dirt access road), but enough to fix up quite a lot of the worst areas & we are extremely grateful for the generosity. Had about 500 cubic metres dropped here during last week & now we are just waiting on the grader etc to level it all out for us……then some big rain to test it out!!

Cathy has quite a lot of advance bookings for groups over the next few months which we don’t normally have with the Bokhara Hutz, including a coach load coming from the Central West CMA this Friday that are checking out what we are up to on Bokhara Plains. We went down to Menindee in the south west of NSW last week for an Outback Beds ( www.outbackbeds.com.au ) annual get together & its always inspiring to see what our fellow tourism operators are up to and pick up a few more tips. We also caught the opening of a NSW Tourism initiative for western NSW called the “Darling River Run� which is promoting tourism from the top of the system in Walget right down the river to its junction with the Murray.

And of course….Brewarrina just happens to be the best water hole along the entire length of the iconic waterway.

I’ll try to keep on top of this ‘blogging’ set up for the remaining couple of months, if not longer now that I’ve got on top of some other pressing issues. One of which has been my report for the Nuffield association following my study trip last year, as a requirement is to have it completed and also a presentation to the ‘Autumn Tour� in Cairns next month. Was difficult to get into it, and then even more difficult in deciding what I should leave out & I think I blew the 10,000 word limit by about three thousand. Still have a little editing to do there & some photo’s etc to slice into it, and hope to resend it this weekend.

Enough for now on this update….cheers till next time!

“The difference between

genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.�