Marlborough Man's Farm Experience

Here is a promotional video that I prepared of a farm experience at "Bald Hills".

Branding and the Start of the School Year

We were fortunate enough to have my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and my cousin to come down and help out to brand, it was very much a family affair which makes it special, creating memories for all the kids. Everyone helped out wherever possible with both Leah and Andrea in the back forcing yards, bringing the calves up, Kurt and Ty to help out in the calf race, with Dave, Ray and Vince working on the calves in the calf cradle.

We were blessed on the last day of branding to receive some rain which continued over the next four days receiving a total of 180ml. The Branding crew left on Saturday, leaving Leah and the kids preparing to head into Rockhampton for a two day cluster with Capricornia School of Distance Education Rockhampton Campus. The two day cluster enables both home tutors/teachers and students an induction and training process to allow them become familiar with their teachers this year and also the curriculum. Kurt is now in Grade Three with Kayla starting Prep this year.

Sarah came back to Bald Hills to help with the transition for the new Governess/Teacher Emma-Leigh. Emma-Leigh has settled in already and the kids are enjoying their school work so far!! Fingers crossed their enthusiasm continues!!!

Leucaena, Christmas and The Granshaw Family

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I was busily preparing approximately 60 acres to plant Leucaena, the Wondergraze variety. I have planted it in double rows, with eight metres between each dual row. Not only does Leucaena, improve your soil quality, but also has the ability for cattle to gain weight of 1.1kg per day.

Since planting, we have been very fortunate for the paddock to receive 110mm of rain. This section is the start my plans to have a wagon wheel rotation with approximately twelve paddocks in the design. In the future, this design will be a self-monitoring weighing and drafting system in the paddock.

Leah, myself and the kids headed up to Mackay to spend Christmas with all the family. As always, there was plenty of presents, food, drinks and even a special visit from Cowboy Santa and Mrs Clause!!

We were lucky enough to have Bryan, Sue and Riley Granshaw spend a couple of days with us. Bryan is also a 2012 Nuffield Scholar who was in my Global Focus Group. The Granshaw family own a sugarcane farm near Ayr, where they have implemented dual row sugarcane along with intercropping with soya bean, and modified all harvesting and planting machinery accordingly. We had lunch down at the beach which was enjoyed by all.

Starting tomorrow, we are going to make a start on branding this year's calves. Pictured below is one of the first cab off the rank, one of our stud calves.