Farm Diary

I saw a little bird jumping into a bucket of water in the garden, several times, presumably to cool down, not something I had seen before.

I can see how the bush fires would rage with this sort of fiery wind behind it, and Frank was telling me that the wind direction can change dramatically, taking a fire in a completely different direction, which not only leaves fire-fighters with an impossible task, but making it highly dangerous.

We visited Nuffield Scholar Max Jelbart at his farm and the whole district is bare, scorched earth with not a blade of green grass in sight.

This is South Gippsland; dry country (no irrigation), and it is early Autumn which means the dairy herds are calving down to the 'autumn break' (rain), due on March 15 usually.

Max's cows will be fully fed with silage and concentrates for at least a month, although he has not grazed his paddocks too short, and the ryegrass is there waiting for moisture. I also saw his new American direct seed drill, which is a very impressive bit of kit indeed, and in action drilling grass seed ready for the rain.

Max was his usual philosophical self, stating that the drought of the last few years has been very costly, but that no one forces him (or anyone else) to be a dairy farmer '“ a pretty healthy attitude (British dairy farmers take note!).

The other dairy unit he runs with his eldest son has a public gallery above the rotary parlour, and a restaurant to cater for those who drive in. They also have irrigation from a borehole on this unit, and I saw the new 400 metre 'centre-pivot', which irrigates 124 acres. On Friday in the searing heat, the centre-pivot was turned on for the first time, so that the cows could stand under the spray in order to cool down. They liked that.

These large irrigators need to be set up so that they can cross paddock fences, ditches and any other obstacles as they slowly rotate around the farm, but it is a much better and more efficient way of using water than 'flood-irrigation' as used in Central Gippsland, and although expensive, the land does not need to be laser graded as is the case with flood irrigation, which is also very expensive.

Grazed grass is by far the cheapest feed, even with irrigation costs, and with the high cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel for silage making, it is essential to maximise the use of grazed grass on all farms.

Up in Northern Victoria the drought still persists, with little rainfall, severely rationed water allocation for irrigation, and high temperatures.

Some dairy farmers are selling their water allocation to dairy farming neighbours for huge money, opting to buy in all the food for their cows, and pocketing the spare cash. Whichever way you look at it, there is no money in Northern Victoria dairy farming.

When will this drought break? No one knows for sure but La Nina is now the dominating force and should bring rain to fill the irrigation dams this winter. These dams are huge though, and can last two years or more once filled; filling them (now they are empty) does take some doing though.

We spent a few days in Sydney with Elin our eldest daughter, which was very pleasant. We saw the Formula 1 powerboat racing in Sydney Harbour, walked miles around the botanical gardens and went to the opera at the Opera House which was wonderful.

We also had a go at showing the Aussies how we Pom's barbeque! We got up early and went down to the fish market which is a great place to see all the marvellous variety of fish caught in this country. My favourite is Kingfish, Butterfish and Barramundi. We eat out a lot, and I am always spoilt for choice, but the fish is so good here that it is the natural choice.

Cost of living is high, although fuel is much cheaper, which ought to have a much bigger effect on other goods, but doesn't seem to. I guess that can be put down to retailing and margins.

The speed limits and police surveillance of motorists is oppressive, and quite frankly it would not be worth owning a powerful car here; mind you the Aussies are bad at tail-gating, and are aggressive drivers.

The nanny state is alive and well though, and the hard, tough, pioneering Aussie gene is struggling to survive under the wet, smothering blanket of political interference in the individual's life. Did you know that you are barred from donating blood in Australia if you happened to lived in the UK for more than six months between 1980 and 1996 (900,000 Australians fall into this category (out of a population of 21m)); reason being the perceived danger of having eaten 'contaminated' meat and contracting CJD!

Back on the coast with Frank and Barb and their family (Elin has joined us for the weekend), we have been attempting to surf, without much success it has to be said, although it's great fun, and refreshing.

We have also been cycling, with Frank stopping to point out interesting wild birds (such as the Wedge Tailed Eagle) and mammals; pinning snakes down with a branch so we could study them in more detail! Unfortunately there are only two days left, but I will be at least returning to the UK with a sun-tan, ready for the good weather just as soon as it arrives; re-invigorated and ready to get stuck right into it (as they say here).

This first appeared in the West Sussex Gazette on March 19. To read it first buy the West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.