Welcome to the December 2019 Boundary Rider’s Report blog post from Sam and Kirsty White at Bald Blair Angus.

We would like to send all our love & support to the farming families in our district and beyond that have been devastated by bush fires and to all the volunteers fighting these fires.  These families face unbelievable challenges with incredible resilience, as well as the challenge of drought.

Snapshot:
Bald Blair Angus is located East of Guyra on the Northern Tablelands of NSW.
We have an elevation of between 1280m and 1420m above sea level.
Area: approx 2283 ha over 4 properties.
Enterprises: Angus Stud, commercial Angus herd, crossbred and merino sheep.

Seasonal Challenges:
We remain in one of our worst droughts on record.  We have received a quarter of our 850 mm annual rainfall .  Our soil moisture is depleted significantly.  Most of our dams are dry.  Like all our colleagues we look forward to rain.
Our next crop of bulls is doing well considering the challenging season.  They are regularly rotated on remaining pastures and supplemented also.  They weigh themselves on the Optiweigh automatic scales so we can monitor their progress via the app on our phone.  However, we did bring them into the yards for a full vaccination and drench regime and weigh them again to submit their 400 day weights to the Angus Society to update their Breedplan EBV’s. We have forwarded the weights to Optiweigh to compare the two systems.


A Big Thank You
Thank you to Henry and Jess MacDougall, of Wattletop for sharing their time and experience in feeding cattle.  Thank you to Stuart and Erica Halliday of Ben Nevis for sharing their knowledge and experience and allowing me to observe, note and copy, their confinement zones.  Thank you to Rob Buelle for his support, encouragement and assistance in ideas and sourcing feed.  Thank you to our Local Land Services team who have been inciteful and helped with clarity of ideas and drought feeding strategies.  Thank you to our local Elders team , Wayne Jenkyns and Paul Harris for helping us sell our stock.  Thank you to Amanda Lockyer, Landmark for your nutritional advice and assistance.  Thank you to all our friends and colleagues in industry, Bryan & Lucinda Corrigan, Rennylea that have kept in touch, Kirsty & I have appreciated all your support and encouragement.  To the team at Angus Australia and our the board thank you for your support.  To Keith Howe, Andrew Malloy and the team Rangers Valley Feedlot thank you for your continued support of our business. A big thank you to all those families that have purchased our stock as we have had to destock, we truly value your support.

Reading
Alice Mabin’s “The Winding Road” This is an amazing read – you will not be able to put it down once your start – wonderful story about this amazing lady and what she has created.  Some incredible lessons and really useful resources in the sealed section. Check it out at http://almabin.com/buy/the-winding-road/

Social Media
#Buyfromthebush https://www.facebook.com/buyfromthebush/ https://www.buyfromthebush.com.au/
#stayinthebush – https://www.facebook.com/Stayinthebush-114257640010434/
We are very grateful for another positive review from a recent guest of “Kelly’s Cottage” our farm stay at Bald Blair.
“Really great place! Beautifully renovated, whilst keeping the farmhouse feel. We wished we could have stayed longer! Many thanks to Kirsty, an excellent host!”
If you are looking for farm stay accommodation on a working farm – please consider Kelly’s Cottage at Bald Blair – check it out at https://www.baldblairangus.com.au/farm-stay-with-airbnb

Contact us:
We wish everyone reading this a very happy, healthy and wet Christmas and 2020.  Enjoy and value time with family and friends; and like us I know you will not be far from the feed wagon. We look forward to it raining soon.

Best Wishes: Kirsty, Sam, Abbott and Arthur.