Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast

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Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast

A monthly farming podcast featuring Patrick O’Driscoll (Pods) and Belle Baker sharing stories of what we’ve been up to on our farm and on our clients' farms to inspire and guide you on what you could be doing on your farm or lifestyle property. To us, it doesn’t matter if you have a small property with only a single cow, horse, or handful of chickens, or you’re running a larger rural enterprise; if you’re managing land in the Adelaide Hills or Fleurieu, you’re farming. And that means we’re here to support you in planning, maintaining, and operating your property.

  1. Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast July 2023

    02/07/2023

    Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast July 2023

    Farmcast discussing electric fencing and pregnancy scanning for cows and sheep

    35 min
  2. June 2023 Farmcast

    31/05/2023

    June 2023 Farmcast

    A monthly round up of insights for small acreage farmers in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula

    59 min
  3. Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast May 2023

    30/04/2023

    Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast May 2023

    A monthly round up of insights for small acreage farmers in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula

    38 min
  4. Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast April 2023

    31/03/2023

    Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast April 2023

    A monthly round up of insights for small acreage farmers in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula

    54 min
  5. Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast March 2023

    05/03/2023

    Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast March 2023

    A monthly round up of insights for small acreage farmers in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula

    38 min
  6. Adelaide Hills Farmcast February 2023

    31/01/2023

    Adelaide Hills Farmcast February 2023

    Welcome to this month’s Adelaide Hills Farmcast or should I say Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Farmcast! In this episode of the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Farmcast, I go through our monthly almanac – a list of things to consider doing on your small acreage property and I talk with Paul Clifford from Raine and Horne Rural SA, based in Strathalbyn, about selling rural properties and what potential buyers are looking for. Also, this episode rounds out our complete twelve months set of farm management tasks in our farm almanac. We’ve deliberately made them evergreen so that any July episode you listen to in any July will be relevant to that month. And they’ll be available forever. But starting next month, we’ll take a broader look at farm operations and focus on one or two key things that small acreage farmers need to address as a part of running their farms throughout the year. We have plenty of fodder to work through, but if you’d like to suggest a topic for us to discuss, please send us an email. 00:00 Adelaide Hills Farmcast February Edition Introduction 01:00 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar Cattle February is stud bull selling season. The Stock Journal Beef Week 2023 this Friday the third with the Fleurieu, Adelaide Hills and Loxton cattle studs having their open day on Sunday 5th February. If you haven’t been to a beef field day, its well worth a look. Cattle studs are clustered into areas so that you can easily spend the day attending 4 – 5 different properties. Here in the Fleurieu, Adelaide Hills and Loxton we’ve got 11 enterprises opening their doors (or should I say gates) to the public. Some cattle studs offer the ability to buy cattle on the day, others use it as a prelude to their on-farm sales held at a later date. Of course, you will need a PIC number if you intend to make a purchase. And there won’t be just bulls on display. Many studs take the opportunity to display their breeding stock (cows and heifers) and sometimes there will be a pen of weaners there as well. Breeders generally take any opportunity they can to show what their cattle can achieve in the saleyards or abattoirs. The Stock Journal produce a guide to Beef Week so you can map out which properties are on display in your area. All this talk of stud bulls and cattle sales may have you wondering what the difference is between stud cattle and commercial cattle? Whilst I haven’t been able to find an Oxford Dictionary definition on what stud cattle are versus commercial cattle, I can explain it by saying that stud cattle are tightly held, lines of single breed cattle eg. Angus that are selected and bred with clear genetic advantages in mind. The cattle and their dams and sires will be registered with the breed association and this registration can be transferred to a person who purchases the cattle. It’s like a family tree or ancestory. Stud cattle are generally sold with accompanying Estimated Breeding Values (or EBV’s) which are measurements of genetic potential that can be used to assess an animal’s breeding merit for a specific trait. For example birth weight (low birth weights are desirable as they represent calving ease however it may also indicate a later growth pattern), docility (quiet cattle are easier and safer to handle and tend to put more weight on more quickly. Interestingly, docility is a highly heritable trait like coat colour and so can be improved genetically with good breed selection), 400 Day Weight (the higher this figure is, the quicker you can potentially get a vealer to market) and Eye Muscle Area (the larger, more positive this is the more favourable as consumers will pay a premium for this cut of beef). I have a tendancy to get a bit excited when I talk about EBV’s and it is tempting to get carried away with the data, but you must always look at the animal in front of you and take a visual assessment into account, together with the EBV’s when purchasing stud cattle. Un

    22 min
  7. Adelaide Hills Farmcast January 2023

    31/12/2022

    Adelaide Hills Farmcast January 2023

    This month, our Adelaide Hills Farmcast is a joint recording with Steve Davis from The Adelaide Show Podcast. We still cover our monthly almanac of things to focus on during the upcoming 4-6 weeks on your property but Steve also gets us to reflect on what it's like to be farmers for his city-based audience. The almanac has been structured into five things to think about over the summer break. Plus we also announce that we've moved to Currency Creek and can now work with propery owners and small acreage farmers on the Fleurieu Peninsula. We hope you find this helpful and we wish you a prosperous New Year. 00:00 Adelaide Hills Farmcast January Edition Introduction 03:26 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm CalendarWater Security For Summer If you’re planning to go away over the summer, please ensure you have someone available to check your stock water every day or every second day. Some problems can be assessed from a distance, but not all. There are a number of remote water level sensors on the market and if this is the direction you want to go down please do your research. Some are better than others. We have been very impressed by the Water Rat sold by Farmco. Clean out troughs regularly and slip in some Copper Sulphate tablets. Bushfire Risk Have you done what you can? If a bushfire goes through your property can you honestly say that there was nothing more that you could have done? Spraying/slashing fencelines. Farm fire fighting units are invaluable.  The CFS has a Farm Fire Units Handbook on their website and we would encourage every landowner to read it – even if you haven’t got or don’t intend to have a farm fire unit. We would encourage you to install both the Alert SA app and CFS app on your smartphone. And only drive diesel vehicles around paddocks during the fire season. According to the CFS website – vehicle and engine exhausts cause about 25 fires each year in rural South Australia. Summer Weed Spraying If you’ve cut your grass for hay, now is the ideal time to spray glyphosate to clear up the residual weeds. Basically keeping the paddocks brown to conserve moisture for the following planting season. Continue to spray your box thorns, blackberries and gorse. Paddy melons can be sprayed or spray-grazed. Soil Testing. Home Garden And House Paddock Mulch your garden beds and fruiting trees – careful to leave an area at the base of the trunk to prevent rot. Always water plants at the base and consider where the water is running off. Creating a small dam to prevent water wastage is a great idea. Clear debris, limbs, old wood – anything flammable from around buildings. Not only does this reduce the likelihood of burning your dwellings, but it also reduces the spots that snakes can hide. Rooftop sprinkler systems are invaluable. Mosquitoes – we are about to put a small fountain in our lagoon to reticulate water which should prevent or at least reduce the amount of mosquito lavae sitting on the surface. Going Away? Let Your Neighbours Know As we mentioned above, if you’re planning to go away over the summer, please ensure you have someone available to check your stock water. Also, having someone monitor for any unusual activity is crucial. We hear far too many stories, including a friend of ours recently, who have had their animals stolen and house and sheds ransacked. Consider putting locks on external gateways. 37:01 Farmcast Interview with Steve Davis In this interview, Steve Davis from The Adelaide Show Podcast chats with Belle and Pods about what life is like on a farm over the summer holidays. He also delves into the impacts of the River Murray flooding, and other topics. Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    59 min
  8. Adelaide Hills Farmcast December 2022

    30/11/2022

    Adelaide Hills Farmcast December 2022

    This month, our Adelaide Hills Farmcast spans topics from goats to Salvation Jane to horse racing. To be more specific about horse racing, we shine a spotlight on turf preparation at the Oakbank Racing Club, with Pods taking some time to talk with Oakbank CEO, Shane Collins, about what it takes to get the track ready for summer racing. I also sit down with the lovely Megan Miller. Megan has several breeds of goats including dairy goats and miniature goats. One of the things I love about goats is they have a tendency to eat unusual things – including Salvation Jane, despite it being moderately toxic to them! We’ll cover that, plus your summer preparations in the Almanac so lets stop kidding around and get started! 00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast December Edition Introduction 01:32 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar 01:37 Water Security For Summer If you’re planning to go away over the summer, please ensure you have someone available to check your stock water and monitor for any unusual activity. We hear far too many stories, including a friend of ours recently, who have had their animals stolen and house and sheds ransacked. It’s an awful situation to be in but you can reduce the chances of it happening to you if you have someone to take on caretaker duties. You could work in with your neighbour or have someone to stay for the time you are away. Early detection of problems with your irrigation can prevent harm to your animals and even if the person keeping an eye on your property can’t fix irrigation problems, they can call someone who can. There are a number of remote water level sensors on the market and if this is the direction you want to go down please do your research. Some are better than others. We have been very impressed by the Water Rat sold by Farmco. It is by far THE EASIEST water sensor to set up, you literally just pop it in the trough! It recently won Gold in the product design category of the Australian Good Design Awards earlier this year and other than the absolute simplicity of the design, the other magnificent feature is that you simply pick it up when you move stock out of one paddock and take it with you and drop it in the trough in the next paddock. It’s a subscription product however you do get a 30 day free trial. And what better time of year to give it a go. I think the Water Rat has a lot of potential and if you give it a go, please let me know! 04:05 Mosquitos And Encephalitis I don’t know what the official record will say, but I don’t think we’ve had a Spring at all! It’s still wet under foot and you can see runoff seeping out of hills and flowing down roadsides all over the hills. The Bureau of Meteorology is telling us that it will be a wet summer and Pirsa and the Department of Health have highlighted the increased risk of contracting Japanese Encephalitis. The main high risk areas will be around the flood plains as the storm water runs through the Murray River and out to the mouth, however increased levels of pooled water on properties together with hot summer weather will mean there is a real risk for all property owners. Encephalitis is rare and in most cases if you contract it the symptoms will be mild. Sadly that wasn’t to be for my Dad, who contracted Encephalitis seven years ago. He’s still with us however he can no longer farm, drive a vehicle, his fine motor are greatly impaired and he has short term memory loss. I always say that outwardly it looks like dementia, but it is so much more. Unfortunately due to the scarcity of the vaccine, vaccinations are only available to people who live in identified high risk areas. However, if you reduce the opportunities for mosquitoes you’re half way there. The other really important thing to do, particularly in rural areas is to remove any water-holding containers where mosquitoes may breed. So, old feed troughs, watering cans, clogged gutters, unused garden pots etcetera. I wouldn’t wish it on an

    45 min
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About

A monthly farming podcast featuring Patrick O’Driscoll (Pods) and Belle Baker sharing stories of what we’ve been up to on our farm and on our clients' farms to inspire and guide you on what you could be doing on your farm or lifestyle property. To us, it doesn’t matter if you have a small property with only a single cow, horse, or handful of chickens, or you’re running a larger rural enterprise; if you’re managing land in the Adelaide Hills or Fleurieu, you’re farming. And that means we’re here to support you in planning, maintaining, and operating your property.

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