When we began, we had no farming experience. For the 10 years prior, we lived on a 35 acre hobby farm in the Southern Highlands of NSW. We slashed the paddocks on a regular basis, occasionally spread chook manure, and raised some show horses.
A far cry from breeding beef cattle and fat lambs on 620 acres. Fortunately for us, our neighbour, Ian and Rose Hayes , have been amazingly helpful. Ian' s mum and dad had owned the original "Dunblane". Ian had grown up in our house. The farm was split
between Ian and his sister Jo. We bought our farm from Jo. Ian owns the adjoining property to the south.
I just confessed to being ignorant and they very patiently and surpringly politely, helped us in the right direction. With their help
and the help of a local stock agent, Stuart Smith, we purchased 30 black Angus cow-calf units, an Angus Bull, 115 fine wool merino ewes and 2 Border Leister Rams. Because we were also experiencing unusually good rainfall, there was plenty of extra
feed, so we bought 56 weaner steers.
THERE WE WERE, REAL FARMERS !! Clueless, but farmers just the same.
In our district, I was told , we need to grow winter forage to carry the animals through the dormant periods of July August
and September. In the autumn of 2011, Ian drill seeded a mixture of Rape and Triticale Into a 50 acre paddock called "The Bluff" The result was unexpectedly poor. This raised the question "Why?"
THE ANSWER OPENED THE DOOR WHICH HAS
LED US TO HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT.