Never be afraid to be the only woman in the room. A hard take in Australian Agriculture but today, on the International Day of Rural Women, I’m reminded of how far women in agriculture have come, and how much things have changed for women who want to work on the land. Like just about every…
Got to say that there was immense pleasure as I drove in the driveway on Wednesday morning and saw all these puddles. It’s been very hand-to-mouth with the rainfall this season. My morning text to hubby was greeted with an immediate return phone call. ‘We’ve had an inch of rain!’ The joy and relief in…
Today sees us start seeding. The tractor is going up and back in the paddock, putting the in the oats for the hay crop. We’re five weeks later starting seeding than last year. Traditionally the canola starts to go in on Anzac Day, but this year has been a completely different kettle of fish to…
Harvest is always looked forward to with a mixture of anticipation and dread – well it is by me anyway. Anticipation because it’s our money making time. We get to see what we’ve achieved over the year, reward for the hard work, so on and so forth. Dread, because it’s dry and hot. Long hours…
I love winter. It’s my season. I love the way the wind bites at my cheeks and the sound of rain on a tin roof/window/shearing shed/ground. It’s like music to me. And rain it did last night! The deluge woke me at 12:15am and I was still listening to it drum steadily on the roof at…
Harvest! The very word seems to bring out the feral in every man, woman and child, involved in cropping. It also seems to be the time for Murphy, from Murphy’s Law to rear his ugly head. Here are a few examples. Upon jumping in the new (second hand) header, we bought this year, the Boss…
I love a good sunset or sunrise. Last Saturday evening, I was hurtling back from the other farm, after showing mum and dad the header and how it can swath canola. Coming from the mid north of South Australia and them being sheep graziers, they have no idea about cropping! Anyhow, I had Mum…
The farm is well and truly looking like it’s summer, even though we’re only in mid-October! Some paddocks have a gold/white tinge across the tops of the plants, indicating it’s done its time. Saturday was a warm 35 degrees, so the crops won’t take long to turn, ripen and harvest will be started before we…
It true. From little things, big things grow. And when it comes to cropping, Canola is a great example. It’s starts off as a tiny black seed – smaller than a grain of sea salt and just slightly larger than a ‘hundred and thousand’ (you know what I’m meaning? The things kids love to…
Introducing Ross and Robyn Lane from the central wheatbelt of WA. 1. Summary of family and farming enterprise. Our family farming business consists of Ross and Robyn Lane and our three sons Colin, David and Matthew. At the moment our oldest son Colin is working full time in our farming business and the other two…
Introducing Corey Blacksell. Corey is the fifth farmer I’m featuring in my quest for 52 farmer stories in 52 weeks as a part of our celebration of the Australian Year of the Farmer! 1. Summary of your family and farming enterprise Together with my wife Tiffany and children Brandon (14) and Lauren (13) we…
