Back home, it's all going to plan -we could be drilling in a month

BEFORE returning from Australia, I was fortunate enough to have a look at some dairy farms.

Things are pretty tough with a poor (although improving) milk price, and many farmers have fed less grain due to the unfavourable milk to grain price ratio.

Feeding less can also have the effect of both lower production and less condition on the cows; this needs to be watched carefully, as it could well affect next year's production as well (I know because it has happened at home).

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The latest flood-irrigation on the more progressive farms now involves a 'tsunami' system.

When I did my Nuffield Scholarship in 1995, I took great interest in the flood irrigation system, with all the laser grading and the right gradient allowing the water to flow on to the paddock, and off again.

It was important then for the water to clear in about eight hours or so, with Frank explaining to me how it must flow on evenly and then off again to prevent water-logging the roots.

With the 'tsunami' system, the irrigation canals or ditches are much bigger, with bigger gates, allowing vastly more water to flow on to the paddock.

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The water is on and off in two hours with this new infrastructure, minimizing any risk of water-logging the root zone of the plants.

Of course flood irrigation is a pretty crude and wasteful way of watering, and many dairy farmers, where the layout of the farm permits, have gone for the spray irrigation with a 'centre-pivot'; that is a huge beam that is driven by the pumped water, slowly covering a vast area accurately.

In the dry country where there is no irrigation, the farming is simpler without the further complication of irrigation, but is far from easy.

After the rain, there was rapid growth, and this needs managing.

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More rain would be needed in a week or so to sustain such growth, or the land dries up again and all growth ceases.

Silage as well as grain has its part to play here, and many farmers would employ a system more similar to the UK, albeit with no cattle housing of course.

This drives up cost, but having said that, irrigation licences are not cheap either, and water allocation varies according to the weather; cut back severely in many areas over the last few years.

n Over at Max Jelbart's farm where I spent a very interesting day (as always); Barb Jelbart was telling me about her tree planting programme.

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She has been planting hundreds of trees in order to provide shelter for the dairy cattle in the hot summers. They are all native Australian trees, and the ones which have now grown to a decent size are providing welcome relief to the cows, both in the summer and winter.

Having had the ground ripped up by a tractor, Barb can plant a hundred trees in a day very easily, which is impressive; it certainly is changing the whole aspect of the farm.

I found the driving as usual both boring and frankly less than safe! With a 100km (62mph) speed limit everywhere, policed vigorously by revenue collectors in blue uniform, but with everyone including trucks all going at the same speed and using all the lanes, it is certainly different.

Most drivers seem to set their cruise-control on about 102km/hr in order to make sure that the slow lengthy journey did not take any longer than necessary, but then were not really concentrating, and as the speed is so low, carrying out some questionable maneuvers.

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Many drivers did not seem to pay attention to traffic behind, pulling over to the side, only to come back into the road suddenly.

When I compare this to the very high speeds of Germany, with the disciplined and high standards that go hand in hand with such liberty, and also the speeds and skills here (although not as good as the Germans), I can't help thinking that revenue collection is the main driver of such ridiculous speed limits.

It certainly takes the fun out of driving, but fuel economy is certainly better, and you have all the time in the world to work it out in your head to twelve decimal points!

n We like to beat ourselves up in this country sometimes over our most spectacular failures; remember the Millennium Dome?

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A magnificent structure actually and now seems to be thriving in private hands. On the way into Melbourne I saw a section of football stadium standing amongst a housing estate. Apparently, a brand new magnificent stadium was built in the Waverly district of Melbourne, but the fans did not want to travel, and did not turn up in any significant numbers; hence it has all been pulled down and re-developed apart from one section that looks like the last piece of a giant cake left on a plate.

There's more. Further into the city, there is a very large triangular white stand, which was the Australian equivalent to the '˜London Eye', only it cracked due to the extraordinary hot days experienced in the last two years.

It has been dismantled and taken away, leaving only the stand behind, showing where it once stood. Given that both Sydney and Melbourne have some magnificent buildings and structures, I found this very surprising, but it does show that things can go wrong.

Lorayne and I had a wonderful time in Australia with all our friends and Elin of course, and we are very grateful to everyone who showed us such generous hospitality.

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n Back home, spring has at last arrived; daffodils, primroses in the woods, pussy-willow, hawthorn greening up and the grass all a darker shade of green.

James has been taking advantage of the dry weather and he has started spreading dirty water on some of the fields, and it is making a difference. We need to get all the nitrogen on at Crouchlands in the next week or so, giving the grass plenty of time to grow for silage and grazing.

The maize fields are still being sub-soiled and ploughed as we follow the muck-spreadersaround. Its all going to plan, with plenty still to do.

We could well be drilling in a month therefore we need to keep it all going.

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I also need to organize the re-drilling of the failed grass seed in the autumn; that also needs to go in soon. Tillington was glad of a drink at the end of last week, and is beginning to motor having had some nitrogen two weeks ago.

Spring is here and its all systems go!

Back home, it's all going to plan -we could be drilling in a month

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