My old mate Bernie Hoch, Landmark North Queensland manager, gave me a wrap-up of conditions in north Queensland.
“The unofficial first day of summer arrived on October 1 and with it came the first storms which were very welcome in the areas they occurred,” Bernie said.
“The main belt of rain was in a line from ‘The Belyando Crossing’ through to the SE corner of the state. Good falls of up to 100mm were received on the western side of the Belyando at Mt Douglas but very little rain was received on the eastern side of the river.
“Around Clermont falls of between 25-50mm were received with the best of the falls from Emerald through to Bauhania Downs and Theodore, which received up to 100mm.
“This rain should not cause too much disruption to the current chickpea and wheat harvest happening in Central Queensland,” he said.
Bernie added that last week in Gracemere, Brahman week came and went, with 834 Brahman bulls selling for an impressive average of $9258 for a Gross of $7,722,000.
Top price of the sale was for a Grey bull (Lot 187) from John Kirk’s Carinya Brahman Stud at Gayndah for $115,000 selling to Ruan Grazing – Owen Scott and Family, Mt Coolan.
Bernie described the sale: “The top 20 per cent of bulls were very expensive and were competed on strongly by major studs, but the general run of herd bulls was considered a buyer’s market with most herd bull buyers very happy with their purchases for the money.”
Vic/NSW border update
My good southern mate and avid QCL reader Bill Grant, Moama, gave me an update on the state of affairs in his region. Bill said that the season in the Victorian grain area south of Horsham in the Wimmera to Warrnambool onto the coast is good. “They are all very wet but they also hope the frosts are gone and when it dries up the season will be a beauty.”
Bill added that they get up to 30 bags of wheat and barley to the acre when the season is good.