Australian milk production is still falling due to drought there

We are both good travellers, and I only get mildly irritated by passengers who insist on doing their 'stretching' exercises too close to where my seat is.

I do my deep vein thrombosis bit, by rapidly moving my right arm to savour the many drinks available, and then both my arms as I eat everything on offer.

Luckily, we had four seats to ourselves for the first leg as the aircraft was half empty; quite a bonus.

After hanging around Kuala Lumpur for three hours or so, we boarded another aircraft bound for Sydney, which was full.

On arrival I found that just like the currency exchange desk I had been robbed of a further eleven hours or so. Luckily, I had not adjusted my watch, so I just needed to turn it back an hour for the right time (eleven hours ahead)

The weather here is rather good (30 degrees or so), with some heavy showers every now and then, keeping us from feeling homesick!

We've already been to the excellent (and huge) fish market, which I really enjoy; this time buying a fair sized 'red snapper' for which I have a rather good oriental recipe.

Nothing like cooking on a proper Barbie in Australia. Elin (our daughter) has taken time off work, and we have walked miles around Sydney, visiting the botanical gardens (where the fruit bats hang out), the opera house, various restaurants, parks and beaches.

It really is a great city, undulating, green and leafy, with trees and shrubbery everywhere, water all around, and bridges to cross with great views.

It's a very friendly place, breakfast on the pavement, water taxis to take you to different parts of town and plenty of birds; some of them exotic and some less so; such as the magpie outside my bedroom window.

The Queen Mary 2 sailed into Sydney harbour on Sunday, stopping off on her 101 day world cruise, which was quite a spectacle... 19 cruise ships visited Sydney in February, which shows how in demand Sydney harbour is to cruising passengers.

Sailing past the Royal Opera house and up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge is quite a spectacle, and it's easy to see why it's so popular.

Bondi beach is pretty crowded at the weekends, but a pleasant place to walk around and laze in the sun during the week.

The one feature of most beaches is the shark nets, protecting bathers from becoming snacks, as helicopters keep a watchful eye out at sea. A

ustralians are very active, swimming, surfing, running, cycling, which means that on average I don't need to do any more than stroll around.

Plenty of fresh fruit and fish makes this a nice place to be, and it's odd to see Woolworth supermarkets everywhere; thriving.

Old fashioned (or should that be cutting edge?) paper bags for the groceries and no alcohol can be carried unless it's in a brown bag.

Wine is not cheap, and considering the volumes produced here, that is disappointing. Mind you, with the current exchange rate, everything is expensive

Elin is very happy here and I can see why. She has a good job, a nice lifestyle and after two and a half years, has settled easily into her new surroundings.

With plenty of friends and work colleagues to mix with, and no shortage of things to do and see, Sydney has a great deal to offer young people.

The newspapers carry very similar stories to the one's at home; Prime Minister struggles to reform National Health Service, concern about bullying in schools, climate change sceptics on the increase, and pre-selection vote between two prominent Labour lady contestants involving more than a little scandal. How terrible is that!

n Australian milk production is still falling due to drought conditions, but a deluge of rain, high winds and hailstones the size of golf-balls fell on south west Queensland last Friday, spreading down as far as Melbourne, causing chaos everywhere as rivers burst their banks, evacuations, cancellation of major events and damage to buildings.

Over an inch of rain fell in less than one hour at one stage, and four inches in Wagga Wagga over a twenty four hour period. The whole surrounding farmland area has had a good soaking, which will at least do some good.

Back home I am reliably informed that the milk has gone up since I left. This I tell myself is testament to good management.

I hope to really get stuck into organising the grazing and dirty water applications on my return, as my information tells me that the weather has been predominantly dry. The bio-digester is exceeding all expectations, and is now running at 0.9mw/hr; only 10 per cent down on full power, and we are still running on one tower.

n It looks as if we will easily achieve our megawatt/ hour maximum, and having reached it we will allow things to settle before we look at cutting the costs of production; such as the wheat tonnage currently being put into the system which is responsible for the boost in performance.

Having endured such prolonged agony during the build, and tremendous loss of income due to the project being so late, its good that our choice of equipment at least, is proving to be the right one.

The Germans have at long last got all the gas metering working properly, although we still have a gas cleaner and cooler which remains out of action due to it being damaged on delivery many months ago.

This will boost production when commissioned, as it will introduce a cooler and denser charge into the engine.

Goodness knows when they will get around to sorting it out, but my preference would be to have the damaged unit replaced.

We will be heading down to Melbourne in a few days to see our dairy farming friends, and it will be interesting to see how the season has worked out, and how they have fared with low milk prices.

I suspect that in true Australian fashion, they will be relentlessly optimistic, and positive about the future. We will see.

Farm

Diary

by Gwyn Jones

Australian milk production is still falling due to drought there