Combines Rolf

Hi Tom, ROM here [ Rolf's Old Man ] Yes we are still very dry around our area in western Victoria in the SE of Oz. It's the same across a good proportion of our eastern grain belt. Some areas like central South Australia [state ] have had very good rains so far this year 2007 but we are still in drought here. The country looks like a desert when you fly over it but then to a lot of Americans it would probably look like a desert in any case regardless of the season! We have now had over 10 years of very dry and drought and included in those years is a total wipe out from drought in 2002 and 2006. Frost very nearly wiped us out in 1998 as well as well as another localised drought around us in 1994. I think we scored about 9 inches of rain last year with a good part of that falling in April May when we sow but from then on it was bad, particularly towards the critical September October period when our crops are flowering and setting seed. We finished up like nearly everybody around us and across most of the grain belt, only bothering to put the combine into only a few of our paddocks and that was mostly to get seed back. Our minds boggle when we read that you guys can get frost insurance for frost damage and all sorts of other and etc's. Our fed government is kicking in drought relief but it is only on interest rate subsidies and some part local government taxes relief. Some farm family payments equivalent to the dole are also available IF you can jump high enough through the few dozen hoops. At least the present sea surface temperatures and situation in both the eastern Pacific in the El nino and la nina areas as well as in the Indian Ocean from where we get most of our weather here in the south east is looking fairly good for some very decent rains starting in another couple of weeks. The long range climate forecasts are generally indicating that we could finally be about to break this horrible 10 year long drought and dry with some good rains right through the year for us. You have to be a mug to be a farmer. Definition of child cruelty; leave your farm to your kids! Ask Rolf!

Hi, R.O.M., we wish you folks the very best and lots of rain soon. It is almost impossible to visualize only 9 of rain for an entire year. I can remember having more than that in one afternoon. Maybe we can send some of it your way. Good luck to you, Rolf, and the rest of the good folks who are lucky enough to be your neighbors.

Thanks Tom.R. for your kind thoughts. We actually had only 6.5 inches in the 1982 drought and some guys a bit further north of us got down to less than 4 inches that year. Australian droughts are real fair dinkum ones that are not a very pleasant experience when you are trying to make a living by farming. 250 kms north of here, west of Mildura, the average yearly rainfall is only 10 inches. They grow wheat there and in an average year, they will get about 1.2 tonnes _ Ha. [ 18 bus _ ac ] average yield. After the opening winter rain break from about mid April on, they spray once to knock out the weeds and then sow. One man operations here can often sow 5 or 6000 acres a year as it is light, sandy soil which takes very little rain for crops to grow compared to the heavy clay soils where we are. I think you have a somewhat similar area up in the north of Montana which I have seen. Anyway we hope that this year is better and the long range weather guys are saying they think we are through the worst of it. Trouble is that nearly all of us are now carrying huge debt loads that are going to take years to climb out of unless and until there is a very big lift in prices. You guys seem to be working on that aspect with your ethanol plants. Anyway, again thank you for your good wishes, Cheers.

In Reply to: Re: Re: Rolf posted by Tom Russell on April 14, 2007 at 05:13:53: G'Day Tom ROM covered most things, So I will say that I'm still young enough to be optimistic about farming And they claim that there will be 9 billion people in the world by 2050! Ours and the next generation of farmers will be needed to feed some of those people! We've had 83 mm so far since the start of the Year. Instant farm, just add water! Ive been a bit quite on here due to the fact Iv got into Radio control Helicopters! and they have been keeping me sane for the last 6 months, and they are as complicated and sophisticated as a combine. Thank goodness Combine don't fly!!! Rolf

Those machines are fascinating aren't they! Played with a few, have a very basic one, but Jr. and I have been looking at moving up. Haven't decided on how many $ we want to put into this just yet. Very addicting.

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Rolf posted by Irv on April 18, 2007 at 18:01:31: G'Day Irv If your interested in Helis! have a look at the Aussie Heli Site archeli.com.au lot's of Good info, Heap's of US sites as well Runryder and helifreak Rolf