Spring has finally sprung on the Monaro with welcomed rain in the first week of October.
Most farmers reported falls of 25 to 35 millimetres.
This has provided a lot of joy in the district to what has been a dry year and now we are waiting for the follow up to grow pastures.
Producers are busy marking lambs and calves plus shearing wethers and dry sheep.
The only positive from the dry weather is that the shearing teams have managed to catch up and now running on time.
As regards to marking, the lambing's are not the highest but are reasonably consistent to be better than average. The cows reportably have calved out very well.
A positive aspect is that new season lambs are selling reasonably well considering the circumstances of an oversupplied market.
This has finally brought some confidence back into the market with restockers and finishers chasing the better quality store lambs.
This is where breeding comes to the fore with producers getting paid for quality stores or better doing lambs finishing quicker for the kill job.
The Monaro has long been said to ride on the sheep's back.
The returns from wool are more important now with lower carcase prices. Most Monaro flocks now test between 16 and 19 micron which seems the right place to capitalise on wool sales.
As an industry we need to influence politicians to do whatever it takes to keep live export industries open and operating.
The government has a duty to protect the rural industry and they need to realise this and put farmers first. We can only hope that commonsense still exists somewhere.
It is very pleasing to read an article about exploring the opportunity to fly live sheep to China.
The Monaro ram sale week is in fill swing.
The rams have presented well and here's hoping the studs get well rewarded for their hard work and commitment to the wool industry.
- Tim Schofield is the director of Schofield Livestock and Property, Cooma.
