Rain Anyone?

[M O P]

I'm not trying to sound like a miserable, whinging farmers wife here, but how is everyone's seasons turning out and has anyone been getting any rain?

Not too bad here for now, no rain really but enough every now and then to be scraping through. We've plenty of dam and bore water for Mums and lambs but as the feed gets more scarce they have to walk further from the water for it. Don't think, once again, we'll have heaps of sheep to sell this year.

:fingerscrossed: I hope everyone's getting through but I know it's pretty bad every where this year.

[doin'mybest]

Hasn't been much rain here. My Dad is really looking for a rain on his property south of Hawker. It's looking really dry there.

[M O P]

Very happy to report since Friday morning we've taken 28.5mm from our rain gauge. We were meant to start lamb marking Friday but obviously that has been put off for a while. It is still really wet and wild here so can't see the guys getting out to muster for a day or so atleast.

Hope everyone else has had something:fingerscrossed:

[vegie]

Well, we live in the Daly river region, and all I can say, is that the rain is here, but keeps by passing where we live. Can't complain about the lack of water, (bore) but the humidity is enough to send ANYBODY around the bend. Especially when you can see it, but don't get it. good to hear you got some though, I really hope you get some more soon. Hang in there.:thumbsup:

[M O P]

:laughing: Vegie- that rain we had was in July!
We did have a few spots last week, it was very frustrating cause it tried raining all day.
I even hung the washing out to try and encourage it. :laughing:

PS welcome to Bubhub:wave:

[misskittyfantastico]

Hey country girlies!

Sometimes farming just drives me nuts!
We have had very little rain this season (dryest winter on record) but we have been lucky enough to get a crop out of the ground.

We started harvest last week and, yup, it rained. Not enough to do any good, just enough to stuff things around.

*sigh*

[M O P]

:banghead: I know MissK,
how is your harvest going then?
My bro's being doing very well given the season but my Grandpa's in a more marginal area and some of his crops are not going to be reaped.:(

[misskittyfantastico]

It's not too bad considering. We won't get a big yield but the prices are good so we might break even.

We are lucky though, so many didn't even put a crop in.

How's your situation? Have you had to get rid of stock?

[M O P]

We're really lucky we have enough feed so far, that rain in July really helped, it went a looong way :)
We have sheep being sold next week- wether lambs and cull young ewes- and of course their price has dropped considerably, sheep we sold for $40+ last year we'll be lucky to get $10 for this year:eek:
Angus is still deciding what to do with our old girls, 6 year olds, they have to go but they look really good and he doesn't want to sell them for nicks, but if we keep them and sell them in the New Year we might get even less- who knows.

Be really nice to have a crystal ball sometimes!

[Funkychicken]

Not technically outback or even remote for that matter but still on the land. We had a day and a half of what I would call 'good rain' on the weekend and I thought this would have at least given us half a tankful of water and made a visible difference to the dam, but nooooo...we are down to one foot of tank water and the dam barely changed! We will have to order a truckfull of water by next Monday if no rain gushes down before then.
Having said that, I really feel for you guys out there waiting on rain for things so much more important than us. You need the rain to grow your grain and we need the grain and hay! Our local feed store is limiting each customer to three bales of hay. Our grower has promised (:fingerscrossed: ) us 250 bales from his next cut but so many people want it we just have to hope he'll keep his word.
Time for a rain dance, me thinks!:smiliedance:

[Duchessa]

We started off so darn well in early winter but its pretty stuffed now... Fortunately we are only 50% stocked due to very poor season last year and also we renovated about 800acres of pasture (which still lives! YAY!), so only have about 3200 head of sheep now otherwise we would be really struggling.

Thank goodness we don't have to sell sheep now :( Good luck with the sales next week Kazza - its been so awful lately :(

We got 3mm yesterday though (woots!).

[ToTeenyTots]

Hi
We havent had alot of rain just 8 or 9 mm here and there which is keeping things going we are also lucky that we havent got alot of stock at the moment. (cant afford the fencing yet)
I really feel for those reliant on rain for crops etc not just pasture. It must be such a gut wrenching decision whether to put in a crop or not in the bad years due to cost but I suppose you are damned if you do and damned if you dont. At least in station country you can generally keep a small number of stock but in farming country if there is no feed then thats it. I take my hat off to you in that respect.
Cheers
Anna

[M O P]

Good luck with the sales next week Kazza - its been so awful lately :(


Thanks Duchessa-
there is a silver lining- got to have something to be happy about!- the sheep we're selling of course were shorne (is that a word?sic) a month ago and that wool is being sold next week and the price has been going through the roof- well as much as it ever will again for wool!

[Duchessa]

Yes! Yay for the wool price. We are crutching now and shearing in Jan so hopefully it keeps going up and up - ours are going to shear heavy this year as they have had good pasture, being so heavily understocked...

Hopefully the wool price fills the gap a bit for you guys...

[M O P]

Yay indeed, :fingerscrossed: lets hope it can hold up. We do our regular shearing in Feb so it'd be good.
We were lucky again this year as when it sold in March it was up too :smiliedance:

[Cupcake]

It has not stopped raining here since yesterday

[M O P]

well we had thunder all day then a very spectacular lightning show last night for a whole 2 mm!!

[Duchessa]

haha we beat you - we got 6mm!!! Take that to the bank...

Hope you're getting more now, Kazza. How did the sheep sales go?

[M O P]

haha we beat you - we got 6mm!!! Take that to the bank...
Kazza. How did the sheep sales go?

:laughing: wow, watch you don't get flooded out there!

D our sheep sale went much better than we expected thank you. Not as good as last year but we couldn't have expected it to be. Our 1 & 1/2 year old ewes made $65 so that was a nice surprise!

[Duchessa]

Not bad! We will need to sell some old whethers off shears in Jan/Feb - they should be fat so fingers crossd...

Its hard to find time to pray for another hike in the wool price with all this praying for rain :)

[ToTeenyTots]

Hi
on Sunday we were shifting the last of the cows and bulls from one paddock to another and on the way home it absolutely bucketed down. I had the trailer on with the bikes and I couldnt see it for rain. Tashie was wetting herself "waining Mum waining". Not sure how much we had as we dont have a guage at any of the mills in the paddock we were in but I would say about an inch . Grass had already shot from the last sprinkle so this should get it going!!
None at house though....
Hope everyone else gets a drop. Has anyone heard the cyclone forcast for this season? We get most of our summer rain from the tail ends of them so I hoping for another big year.
Cheers
Anna