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Anecdotal stories, observations,comments and discussion pieces as insights into living in Rural Australia

Living Rural - February 2007

Clearing Sales

February 22nd 2007 09:58
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Cleaing Sales
Useful Junk

Clearing sales are like big garage sales and are usually conducted when a farmer is selling his property. Most sales are held during the summer months – usually the hottest time of the year – in February - many after the kids have gone back to school. Everything from machinery, tools, pieces of iron and wood, furniture, household bits and pieces and at times sheep and farm dogs are sold, using the auction method. Farm agents advertise and conduct the sales. Outside vendors – such as neighbours who want to sell something are usually permitted.

“A clearing sale is where one farmer gets rid of all his junk to another farmer, who will later have a clearing sale and get rid of it himself.” That is how one farmer described it and I think it is pretty accurate. Hopefully most of it gets used along the way!
Clearing Sales
"But does it go???"

Intending to go to a clearing sale? Expect the following:

1. It will be either hot or windy and dusty or all three.
2. There is never enough shade.
3. They always run out of water to drink and the shed is a good three hundred metres from the action.
4. Someone will want to talk to you just when you want to bid so you have to be either rude or miss it.
5. The item you came to buy will be too expensive or won’t go.
6. Just when you want to sit down, they will sell the chairs from under you.
7. The one thing worth getting comes with fifty other things you don’t want – but it is the right thing to do to take home all you bought.
8.If you go to the sale just to look at one thing – it is probably number 253 on the list, and you have a three hour wait.
9. On the day the farmer decides he is going to wear his “good” jeans to the sale instead of the old farm ones, - that’s the day he decides to buy that grease-ridden tractor.
10.If he brings the ute, he needs the truck or if he brings the truck he buys nothing.
9. The further you drive the more likely you will be bidding against your neighbour.
10. Most farmers don’t go to buy (much) - they go to talk.
Clearing Sales
You bought it, you take it home.

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Water management on Farms

February 9th 2007 07:26
Water on farm
Broad acre dams - can they be improved?

There is never one answer to the questions related to watering crop and stock on farm. We are a diverse nation with diverse needs. Our continent ranges from tropical jungle to desert. Rainfall varies from thousands of millimeters to one or two hundred every few years. Farming practices range from irrigation, stations using the artesian basin (water stored underground) and those who must rely solely on what falls directly from the skies. How does one make a policy for all Australians when there is such diversity?
Many farms require storage of their water to ensure a steady supply. Evaporation has proved to be one of the biggest culprit in the saving of water. Whether we are talking of the inefficiency of water holes in the station country or dams on broad acre farms, thousands of megalitres return to the atmosphere unused. On many stations there have been big efforts to plug unused bores and to manage the artesian basin better with troughs and careful maintenance. Solar panel power, new technologies to monitor watering needs and faster transport to and from these watering spots help to improve the management.
For the broad acre farmer, more are using troughs for their stock and pipes from one place to another are well established. Many farmers have found ways of creating drainage systems to best capture the water during run-off. But little work has been done on improving dams or establishing other means of storage of run-off from paddocks to best avoid evaporation. Perhaps there is a place for research in such things as the placement of trees in the vicinity of the dams, or are we ready for large shade cloths?!
water on farm
A nostalgic windmill

In the area of intensive agriculture where irrigation becomes part of the story, there are many concerns. Storage is not the issue as these farmers know they have a finite resource to pump from the river source, as they are supposedly allocated a certain amount from the authorities with which to work their farms. This is what a lot of the fuss is about between the States that rely of the Murray/Darling river system. All believe that those upstream from them have been allocated too much, and State Governments are not brave enough to work it out themselves. Hence the Federal Government has felt a need to step in. (That’s what I understand anyway). While many farmers are using very efficient drip systems to minimize water usage, it would appear, if we are to believe the experts there are gross inefficiencies in the actual delivery of the water to the farms. Open channels creating more evaporation, leaking channels and pipes and tampering with the gauges at the pumps from the main water flow (farmers are sometimes as greedy as the rest of the community!) are all problems. Also of major concern is the assumption that with irrigation we can grow anything - so water hungry crops such as rice and cotton – to name only two- are grown in areas where they should never have been.
There is no either/or when it comes to the question of whether we should be spending money on improving water delivery and storage or finding ways to stem the climate change. It is simple. Both need our attention – and fast. Ten billion dollars is a start for the water problems – it may not be enough, but let’s get that spent properly and efficiently first and then if more is needed well more will have to be given –it’s as serious as that.

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