Welcome back to another edition of Getting the Upper Land, where we give you a rundown of some of our top stories.
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Making news this week:
Discounted electronic identification tags costing $1 each will be made available, the NSW government has announced. The program will be first in, best dressed, with producers able to access the discounted tags between November 1, 2024, and October 31, 2025, or until funds are exhausted for lambs and kids born in 2025. It's the largest contribution by any state towards the reform, which is making the use of eID mandatory.
Producers do not need to sacrifice high growth to gain intramuscular fat traits in lambs, research has found. Studs have been improving IMF for several years, but demand for the trait from commercial producers remains limited due to a lack of premiums from processors.
An enticing price and the opportunity for a disease break have created an opportunity for growers to chance their hand at chickpeas this winter. With growers in many areas only growing wheat and barley for the past couple of years, the opportunity to change the rotation is most welcome.
With NSW picking in full swing growers are keeping an eye on the weather with predicted rain this weekend that could impact and temporarily delay harvest. But that's not the case for James and Claire Frampton who wrapped up harvested Anzac Day weekend with efficient water usage resulting in an average of 11 bales a hectare.
Despite recent falls, prices at the Mudgee Angus Breeders' sale have shown a surprising upward trend. Notably, two pens of cows and calves fetched a substantial $2800, while weaner steers weighing an average of 386kg reached a top price of $1400.
Boorowa has been put on the global map within the rugby union world all thanks to a vital training aid for the game, the Enforcer scrum machine. Initially built in 1997 by born and bred Boorowa local, Matthew Corkhill, Corkhills Engineering, the Enforcer is now a familiar piece of equipment on rugby training fields the world over.
Seeing a familiar face at the John Oxley rest area
Oxley's disciple was pleasantly surprised to come across a familiar face while on a road trip via her old stomping ground at Goolgowi.
She stopped at a Rankins Springs rest area she'd driven past countless times but previously never gave a second thought.
Upon exiting the car she was more than a little excited to see a memorial plaque with an excerpt from John Oxley's diary on the 1817 Lachlan expedition.
She reflected that thanks to her time at The Land, her response of "who the hell is Oxley?" was purely in irony.
Bush art at Ballimore Pub
One of Oxley's disciples found plenty of mirth in an image of three metal cradles his sister from Sydney's inner west sent him on Sunday evening.
The sister and her hubby are bicycle touring in the Central West kicking off at Gulgong, and onto a night at the Hair of the Dog, Ballimore.
The three objects were three lamb-marking or mulesing cradles on the dining room wall. Interesting objects d'art.
Have a cuppa... please!
Oxley warns anybody that drops in at The Land's Orange office they might be offered a cup of tea.
An over-zealous receptionist made an error when restocking the kitchen.
Instead of buying 1000 teabags she miscalculated and more than quadrupled the order, ending up with a whopping 4800 teabags of black tea.
The staff have been encouraged to drink up, as it takes long enough to get through the normal 1000!