The Boundary Rider's Report November 2022

The Boundary Rider’s Report November 2022

Thank you for taking the time to check out our latest Boundary Rider’s Report.

Our thoughts are with the farming families and communities that are dealing with flood upon flood. It is hard to know what to say or do from a distance, however if you are considering making a donation to a suitable flood appeal for affected farmers, here is a link to the NSW Farmers page shorturl.at/cdlo2

This is also a good link from the MLA - it provides a list of alert services, relevant contacts and support as well as resources for managing and recovering from flood.

https://www.mla.com.au/flood-recovery?utm_campaign=364675_The%20Weekly%2018%20Nov%202022&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Meat%20%26%20Livestock%20Australia&dm_i=4PKB,7TDV,93J5T,UJVZ,1

Season: Bald Blair has received 1035mm of rain year to date. We have also experienced a couple of frosts and zero temperature mornings. They say don’t plant your tomatoes before Melbourne Cup! We may need to change that to Remembrance Day plus some. Needless to say our soils are still saturated and we are tentatively driving through paddocks and being very aware of getting bogged.

Weeds: We are playing catch up with the nodding thistles and have called in reinforcements (spraying contractor) - any spare moment we get we are spraying nodding thistles. If you would like to learn more about this introduced plant check this out https://weeds.dpi.nsw.gov.au/Weeds/Details/95. We have spray kits set up on utes, buggies and bikes to access all areas. The blackberries are also going to be epic this year and are well and truly on our radar. 

Trees: We have 1000 mixed native trees waiting for us at Black Mountain Nursery and have slashed, ripped and sprayed three new tree guards ready for planting. Last year’s tree guards are out of control and we can hardly see the trees for the grass. We need to brush cut and spray these trees and replace the ones that have died. 

Female Sale Thursday 27 April 2023

https://auctionsplus.com.au/auctions/cattle/bald-blair-angus-female-sale/109912

https://www.angusaustralia.com.au/event/bald-blair-angus-2023-female-sale

Are you looking for new genetics in your stud or commercial cow herd?

Are you looking for a proven pedigree with generations of selection pressure?

We are providing an opportunity for stud and commercial producers to purchase Bald Blair Angus Seedstock and Commercial genetics at our Female sale on Thursday 27th April 2023. 

The sale will be held on property at Bald Blair Angus, Guyra NSW and live streamed online with AuctionsPlus.

An Open Day prior to the sale will be held to provide the opportunity to inspect females being offered for sale. 

Inspections prior to the sale are also welcome by appointment.

• We will have on offer - subject to change closer to the date….
• To be confirmed 30-40 Bald Blair Angus APR stud cows PTIC joined to Bald Blair sires
• To be confirmed 24 Bald Blair Angus commercial maiden dams PTIC joined to Bald Blair Angus S86
• To be confirmed 50-80 Bald Blair Angus commercial weaner heifers

More specific details to come closer to the sale.

Please contact us on 02 6779 2141 or 0427 722 908 or email kirstywhite@baldblair.com.au if you would like us to send you a catalogue when they are printed.

Artificial Insemination: AI has finished for this joining season and the bulls are out. We have also conducted an embryo program and have stored embryos on hand for future programs. It has been a difficult AI with rain, mud, clover and more mud. However our team has done a fantastic job and we really appreciate the support we receive from the team at Bovine Breeders.

We have commercial semen available for use in your herd and are happy to provide more information about these sires to ensure they suit your breeding program https://www.baldblairangus.com.au/semen-sales.

Lamb marking is nearly complete! Just one more mob to do. The lambing percentages were down this year and we think that may be due to the very wet conditions for the lambs to enter this world.

Calf Marking has commenced. Starting with a small commercial mob at our Aberfoyle block, followed by another commercial mob at Gatwood. With the huge supply of grass for these calves, they are somewhat larger than this time last year and the calf cradle was under extreme pressure. Ideally we should have processed these calves a month ago and need to ensure that we do this in 2023 - even if we are in the middle of AI.

We use allflex nlis tags and matched up with our management tags. We also still do a fire brand with the gas burner and use Buccalgesic when marking. Here is a link to a short video about the use of Buccalgesic https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1738176279568086. Buccalgesic is is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) for the alleviation of pain associated with routine husbandry procedures in cattle and sheep. 

As soon as our stud tags arrive we will commence marking the stud calves and take a DNA samples at the same time. 

Low Stress Stock Handling School

See details here https://www.lss.net.au/dates.htm

Link to pdf insert jpg.

We are hosting a low stress stock handling school with Chook Kealey on Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th. We already have a number of people booked in, so places are limited. If you are keen to attend please register asap. At our last school we focused on our team and also school aged students and will do this again.

New Carbon 101 training package available

A new learning module, Carbon 101 has been released via MLA’s free eLearning platform, The Toolbox.

The Carbon 101 module provides information about carbon farming, greenhouse gases relevant to agriculture – including the carbon cycle – and explains the language of carbon. This is the first of four carbon eLearning modules to be released over the next six months. 

This learning module is perfect for producers to start to learn about carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and are trying to get their head around what seems like a whole new language. Even for those who have a little more understanding, this module will explain some key concepts and terms.

Read the full article featuring Greenham Supply Chain Manager and Red Meat Ambassador Jess Loughland

https://elearning.mla.com.au/courses/carbon-101/

Tullimba Field Day: 2022 marks the 12th year of the Angus Sire Benchmarking Program (ASBP) and you are invited to the University of New England’s (UNE) Tullimba Research Feedlot to hear about the latest research developments from Industry Collaboration. 

Collaboration partners are Angus Australia, University of New England, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Meat & Livestock Australia and Vytelle. The gates will open at 10.00am with morning tea and lunch provided. Presentation on industry R&D projects will commence at 10.30am. The presentation session will finish at 1.40pm followed by time for ~150 Cohort 11 steer inspections up to 3.00pm. When: Thursday 24th November 2022 from 10.30am – 3pm Where: Tullimba Research Feedlot, Torryburn Rd, Kingstown, NSW RSVP below by Monday 21st November to attend.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=T0wQPvKOFE2D2L19O0a42-54r8-u3z5HmiLbd4F4wAtUQkoxT1JDNlpZTEZZNUpKTEZTRDVOSDJGMy4u&wdLOR=cAE3E95E7-027F-4D8E-9207-1AF5A256BD63

Commercial Semen Available : We have also collected semen from a number of our leading bulls for our own commercial heifer AI program and to provide to clients. Please check out our Semen Sales page on our website https://www.baldblairangus.com.au/semen-sales and if you are interested in ordering semen please fill in the form and give us a call so we can assist you with your breeding program.

Bald Blair Merch: Bald Blair Angus Trucking caps are back in stock - check out our website store if you would like to order one.

https://www.baldblairangus.com.au/store

Kelly’s Cottage : We have cut back trees around Kelly’s Cottage that were starting to fall into the garden and possibly on the cottage. We now have a much safer environment to host guests. Kelly’s Cottage will be open again for accommodation soon - so please check out our listing on Airbnb for availability or contact us directly. We are in the process of upgrading our website to manage our own bookings and we will let you know when that is available.