Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.

[Farmer Roy]

yeah, you really need to be scanning your peripheral vision more so than in front of you

my wife is from the city & she hates that I'm always looking out the side rather than at the road itself

 

[Blaithin]

you are certainly blessed with wildlife up there

Yep. There’s lots of neat critters around

But I do miss the Australia Flauna. There’s something about a Kookaburra.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

roos are much more widespread & general across the country. Emus seem to be more on open plains / grassland

emus are tall & leggy, if you in a lower vehicle they can come through the windscreen then kick the sh!t out of you in their panic , although not so likely now in modern cars with sloping screens & toughened glass

taking an analytical look at you times, id say the 13.30 incident was unlucky or the roo was camped in the shade near the road & was panicked. The other 3 - morning, late afternoon & night time, definitely high risk times

there is an old theory that I always adhere to in a Toyota but am a bit wary of in a bike , that you are less likely to hit a roo at 120km/hr than you are at 80km/hr. Most roos you hit are coming in from your side or crossing the road in front of you. At higher speeds you effectively out run them That's the theory anyway

on a bike, its just constant observation, alertness, risk management & a fair degree of big balls n good luck

If in doubt, flat out?

Hit a wild cow in the old Subaru rally car one day in a forestry stage, hell it made a mess.... what you said about kicking you in their haste to leave the cockpit is just nasty in 5 point harness when it's a c.600kg Hereford
NZ only normally has deer and dairy cows gone walkabout to watch for hence the high proportion of hoons over here

 

[CornishTone]

But I do miss the Australia Flauna. There’s something about a Kookaburra.

Absolute favourite bird!

 

[CornishTone]

taking an analytical look at you times, id say the 13.30 incident was unlucky or the roo was camped in the shade near the road & was panicked. The other 3 - morning, late afternoon & night time, definitely high risk times

Yes, the early morning one I caught in a road cutting with a car coming the other way. Poor bugger didn’t really have anywhere to go.

The midday one was the last of 3 crossing in front of me me and he just threw himself into my drivers door. I saw the first two and slowed to let them cross, then BANG... I lost a little bit of wee!

The other two were both just leaving cover by the side of the road.

Ya live and learn!

See a few emus round here but usually they’re not near the roads.

 

[Blaithin]

Absolute favourite bird!

I bought a Kookaburra call at a market before I came home. But it’s quit working and my Kookaburra now looses its voice mid kakakaaaaa

Volunteered at a wildlife hospital for a bit and there was a wild Kookaburra that would ambush you when you came out of the enclosures and steal the dead baby chicks. It was so fast by the time you knew what happened it was in the tree laughing at you!

 

[Farmer Roy]

turn the sound DOWN

 

[Blaithin]

How the heck would it even eat that entire snake

 

[CornishTone]

Tiger Snake? I like this a lot!

 

[Farmer Roy]

How the heck would it even eat that entire snake

hang it in a tree & have a snack when hungry

we have birds called Butcher Birds, so called because they hang their catches of small lizards etc off branches for later . . .

 

[CornishTone]

The horror!

 

[Farmer Roy]

err, I posted this comment on another thread discussing fertiliser, but I thought I'd repost it here as its relevant to this thread, my farming & my general attitudes . . .




MX7 said: ↑
Now Anhydrous Ammonia has been mentioned, I assume it is be a cheaper form of N, but is the gas detrimental to earthworms and soil bacteria etc.
I have just read on the American "No Till Farmer" website that some farmers have stopped using Anhydrous because of its negative effects on soil life. That said I wonder if in the Canadian prairie provinces and in USA Northern States e.g North Dakota ,whether there are that many earthworms any way due to the frost penetrating so deep.
I would have had a job finding a worm in the soil we farmed (for 2 years) at Bonanza,Alberta!!!
Click to expand...




yes, and I will admit I am a bit conflicted with using it. But, I have reduced my use quite a bit & ultimately will abandon it altogether.
yes, highest concentration / cheapest N
logistics / ease of handling for a one man show make it a no brainer, especially not needing storage & handling facities or labour
yes, very detrimental to soil biology in the immediate zone it is applied, hence my conflict.
A lot of the negative issues in relation to it in NA is due to their application in narrow rows / bands, high N rates & cold soils.
Currently, I only use it on my summer row crops, which are grown in 1m wide rows. My soil is high clay, high OM & neutral to alkaline PH. I operate a zero till system, aiming for high levels of groundcover / surface residue.
So, I only apply NH3 in a narrow band every metre ( as in my picture in my previous post ), in warm moist soil ( moisture is crucial, as NH3 is highly attracted to moisture - that's one of the reason it burns human flesh ) Yes, this nukes everything in that row about 50mm wide, but there is 900mm of active biology between those rows which soon repopulate it. Warm moist soils with OM are crucial to this. Besides, we rely on the biology to convert the NH3 to a plant useable form. If I was using urea banded in the same situation at the same rates of N, I would expect similar toxicity levels within that fertiliser row.
My actual rates of N applied this way would vary from a max of 120 kg / N / ha to 50 kg. My average rate would be about 80kg N / ha ( 80kg N = 100kg actual NH3 product )
The main reason I use it in my summer crops is so I can side dress N in established crops once it appears to be minimal risk of crop failure, rather than spending the money / taking the risk prior to planting the crop. I could side dress or " drill " urea similar to how I apply gas, but then I run into all the logistical / handling & labour costs mentioned earlier. Spreading urea ( AN was banned in this country after 9/11 ) is not really an option in our summer time climate, although is widely used in our cool season ( wheat, barley, canola etc ) crops.
Ultimately, I am moving away from reliance on synthetic N anyway. I grow legume / pulse grain crops. From a risk management perspective ( financial risk, production risk ) I have adopted a low input / lower expectation model, rather than trying to chase the maximum yield. This year I am going to introduce cover crops or green manure crops into my rotation, purely for the purpose of building N, soil OM & soil biology. Eventually, if I can overcome the hurdles of supplying water, I would like to run cattle in short term mob grazing over these cover crops. I don't have any fences, not even boundary fences or along roadsides, but that is easy fixed with a temporary hotwire. I don't have any cattle either, but the plan is to just buy them in then sell them when I need to. As long as they gain a few kg & make a few $ in the process, then I am ahead Or maybe, just get big mobs in on short term agistment. My next door neighbour is a stock agent for one of our large national livestock / merchandise companies ( Landmark, used to be known as Dalgety's, some may be familiar ), so accessing cattle shouldn't be a problem. Water - now that is the problem, but not insurmountable. I just don't want to be carting water everday . . .

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

We don't use urea here at all (which is quite a rarity for a dairy). It just kills your soil. Many get locked into using it because it seems to work (for growing grass) , then they find they have to apply higher and higher rates to get the same results. Poison's the soil so no legumes will grow. Interestingly, our nutritionist told us that the dairy company we supply sends our milk plus another farm that also doesn't use urea, to a cheese maker in Melbourne. He tried to use milk from somewhere else (cheaper too i suppose) at one stage , till he worked out that his cheese would not set properly. From then on he went back to our company and said it had to come from the farms he was getting it from before..

 

[Steel]

I would like to back off on my Urea, but seem to need more if I want higher protein wheat.
I have grown a small area of wheat beans combination to see if that will help. It went over 6 t/ha without any urea this year, but I have not tested the wheat protein. Last years beans wheat was a bit of a disappointment in Canola this year. Could not pick any yield increase and it possibly yielded a little less than what was just wheat last year.
Retaining stubbles has also upped my Urea requirement ove when we used to burn. The second wheat crop quickly goes yellow without an early hit of urea.
A neighbour bought a farm with a piggery just for the sh!t so he could cut back his fertiliser. He has stopped using Urea but his yield and quality is well under mine. Posibly he is doing the right thing with lower expenses and better soil health. Lower yielding winter crops need less irrigation meaning he can also save more water for more summer crops.
I would like to go the pig manure method too, but I don’t have a piggery and there is not much excess pig sh!t from other farms.

 

[CornishTone]

@FarmerRoy - saw this and thought of you!

Please ensure you’re sitting down, have no sharp objects in close proximity and a strong drink close to hand!

Enjoy!

 

[Steel]

@FarmerRoy - saw this and thought of you!

Please ensure you’re sitting down, have no sharp objects in close proximity and a strong drink close to hand!

Enjoy!

And here is where they stole those figure and claims, word for word.
http://www.houndsoff.co.uk/hunting-faqs/fox/

 

[CornishTone]

They fact that they were quoting DEFRA figures in an Australian article, as though it had all the relevance in the world, made me actually spit my tea across the lunch room!

What utter stroke puffins!

 

[CornishTone]

What utter stroke puffins!

Stroke Puffins?!?! Pretty sure that’s not what I wrote TFF!!!

 

[Steel]

Stroke Puffins?!?! Pretty sure that’s not what I wrote TFF!!!

I thought that must be a South Australian term.

 

[CornishTone]

I thought that must be a South Australian term.

Nope! TFF’s auto correct system needs to allow certain descriptive phrases where there is a clear and obvious necessity! W.A.N.K Puffins was the actual term!