I see on the weather forecast there was 42mm of rain there over the last couple of days and the agronomist tells me theres a full profile of moisture which means perhaps the possibility of being a bit cheeky and double cropping all the black soil country with sorghum and then back into wheat.
Playing around with some district averages for 6.7t/ha of sorghum and a lock in price of $220/t Im pretty keen to get as much country in as possible - on a back of the envelope budget 800ha would give a gross income of almost $1.2 million, take away costs etc etc there should still be enough for couple of beers and a steak sandwich. It just makes sense to 'farm moisture' through summer and turn the saved moisture into cashflow instead of letting it sit for a wheat crop next year....maybe with enough rain we can get the sorghum off and get a wheat crop in - move to the coast for winter and back a winner for a change!!
Ive also been looking at whats happening with budgets for our new New Zealand lamb finishing enterprise. Ive looked at the NZ experience as a risk management tool, and also a pressure relief valve for what we are banking on in Australia if the proverbial hits the fan!
We've got access to around 15,000 acres of lucerne country in South Canterbury/North Otago and the aim is to buy and fatten around 100 - 120,000 lambs over there. The NZ lamb market is a bit different to the Aussie market in that the prices are very easy to track year in year out - so this takes a fair bit of work out of looking at overpriced and underpriced lambs, its a bit more a case of buying as many 28-32 kg liveweight lambs and get them through to 43-46 kg liveweight as quickly as possible. Buying in mid autumn and turning off late winter is a fantastic trade with this year showing around $65/lamb and then taking off cost of carry etc still ends up around $33 per lamb net cash.
The most intruiging thing in NZ is its possible to finance a finishing/backgrounding animal by just using the animal itself as collateral - unheard of in Australia I would have thought!! Anyway, for thinking right outside of the square and not being afraid to jump on a plane to see how things are going can certainly mean a lot less stress (I hope!) on things in Australia.
Isnt it stupid though - we live and farm in Australia and in order to safeguard things here we end up looking outside of the nation to income opportunities. I know Ive written it before but I really do wonder where things are heading for this country. I dont expect a handout, I dont expect subsidies but it would be handy for a few changes to make the game a bit less problematic!
Dorper ewe prices seem to have come off a bit the last month or so which will make it handy for stocking the new farm, we sold a load of cast for age ewes the other week and it might have been good timing before the price slide. Im thinking sheep prices will stay up for a while yet but they were a bit overheated for the first half of 2011.
Anyway, theres a few random thoughts with whats happening in my little corner of the world at the moment, hope everyone else got a good splash of rain this week
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