And after....

New fence going in...

Before...

A 60 second, early morning vista...

This was taken from the ridge in Tank Paddock.  It shows the upper part of Boomerang; the lower part being shrouded in mist.

The water issue resolved

It appears the poly water pipes expand and contract with the heat of the day and the cool of the night.  One of our main 2" pipes had come off a joiner so the water from the main tank was filling up a paddock rather than the cattle troughs!

The rest of Thursday morning was spent ear tagging and drenching the cattle; the cattle crush was a breeze to use and we had the guidance of one of our neighbours to give us the right techniques.

We were planning to go back to Sydney in the afternoon but the Pig Paddock we planned to put our beasts in had a dam surrounded by broken star posts and old wire netting.  The next two hours were spent cleaning up the paddock to make it safer for the wee beasts.

The poor dog got covered in sticky beaks... a pest of a weed that covers you in sharp, irritating spiky seeds.

The cattle arrive...

The cattle crush gets re-positioned.


Late on Wednesday afternoon we took delivery of our first 24 Black Angus steers.  Unfortunately, we also discovered we had no water going to the water trough in the cattle yard.  As it was close on dark we determined to find the cause of the water issue the following morning.

The cattle seemed to be very quiet and docile, which is just what we wanted.  They are all black, no white socks or faces.

The best laid plans...

We were due to come back to Sydney on Tuesday BUT the cattle crush arrived.  So using the tractor we moved it on to the concrete slab.

By the time it had been secured we ran out of time to make the trip back to Sydney.

During the evening our stock agent rang to say he had found a potential source of cattle for us and he had arranged for us to go to Walcha to look at them, early on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning we packed up uber early, hitched up the trailer (which was full of split timber) and headed in to Tamworth to pick up our stock agent.  We intended to go on to Sydney after looking at the cattle but ended up striking a deal, organising transport ready for delivery that afternoon - so back to Boomerang!

Concrete going in...

Jeffrey - ever watchful!

There's no better place to watch from...  the back of the 'Gator, in your own bed!

Cattle tags...

Our first batch of ear tags...

Preparation of concrete slab...

We took the old cattle crush front gate off and needed to prepare a slab to sit the new cattle crush on.

This is the formwork prior to the reo going in...

Yours truly getting a sweat up!

Bikes...

We treated ourselves to a Yamaha AG200.  A purpose built farm bike with lots of useful features like hand grip protectors, a side stand on each side of the bike, a fully enclosed chain, a clutch lock so that you don't have to fiddle around with finding neutral when you are on a slope etc.

Then we decided we needed a 2nd bike so I bought a cheap Chinese 250 through EBay.  It came in a box with no instructions!  Took me a while to figure it out but here's the before and afters...

John Deere 'Gator

What a useful little machine this is!  And it's safer than a quad bike...

New cattle crush

It's not often we are the recipients of a Govt rebate but we couldn't pass on the $2,000 they are handing out for capital purchases related to Work Cover and improved safety in the work place.

The existing cattle crush is a home made monster and would present a challenge for even the most experienced cattleman.  Here's the new one...

Boomerang clearance sale 22/03/2014

There's dry and there's dry

Our new toys...

Here is our John Deere 6630 with 4 in 1 bucket and our Gator next to it.  Can't wait to get started...

Outline of Lots 191 and 192 - Boomerang

One of the assignments as part of the Dip. Ag. is to create a Whole Farm Plan.  You start off with an aerial image and then create a series of acetate overlays to show the infrastructure and geographical traits on the property.

This particular image shows the creeks and dams on Boomerang, which we will call the more "usable" part of the farm i.e. Uriari being a mountain block, I am not including it as part of the overall exercise, even though 200 acres of the 800 acres could be utilised for grazing.

Scale of operation

It's about 1.5kms from the road to the house and over 7kms from the house to the back paddock.  Can't tell you where the back boundary is 'cos we haven't found it yet!

Uriari Mountain is close to 600m above sea level.

Average rainfall is 611mm (24 inches)

Rainfall chart from Bureau of Meteorology

Dip Ag

Thought I might as well get serious about this farming lark so have enrolled in a Diploma of Agriculture at Tocal Ag College.  This will be a major step in moving on to a Bachelor of Agriculture with the University of New England. 

This will eventually tick an item off my bucket list - a Uni Degree.  Something I have harboured a desire to complete since I left school in 1977 to join the work force

The secondary driver behind this is simply the desire to know that we are doing the right things on the property and not just relying on other people.

For example. just before Christmas we had the 38ha front paddock sprayed for weeds.  Our agronomist assessed the quantity and types of chemicals we required for the different types of weeds and then our spray contractor did the rest.  

Whilst it's difficult to manage from a distance it would have been nice to have had a deeper understanding of just what weeds were growing and which chemicals were used on which weeds.

Still, won't be too long before we are up there and doing it all first hand.