ome of our raw materials prices have continued to decline in price so we are able to drop our prices for the second month in a row, admittedly the price drops aren’t large, however we are pleased to pass on what savings we can.

December and January Prices

High Octane Plus 40 x 25kg - $656 + GST & Freight - (decrease of $8 per tonne)
Low Protein Plus 40 x 25kg - $618 + GST & Freight - (decrease of $10 per tonne)

Off season

Our feedmill does operate all year round, although some months in the off season production is very light, we keep very little calf meal in stock (maybe a handful of bags). However we keep a small stock of raw materials and we are usually working on farm, so more calf meal can be made reasonably quickly. If required we can also do custom mixing during this period especially for older stock or calves that are 100+kg.

Pallets

If you have a reasonable number of pallets (say 5+) that are either ours or suitable for us to use please let me know. Preferably I need to pick up 30+ per trip to make it worth my while. And while I don’t want to spend too much time in the summer driving around picking up pallets I do need to build the numbers back up again, there is over 500 pallets still missing at the moment.

Overseas travel ribbing

Writing a newsletter solely about calf meal and calf rearing for 6 months each year is a bit tough, so it’s time to talk travel. I get a bit of ribbing about travelling overseas, though like a lot of farmers, working 7 days a week is the norm even if it is only part days in the weekend (rest of the weekend often revolves around riding mountain bikes or building mountain bike tracks) so to get a break where you really switch off requires travelling a bit further away and even better if there is no cell phone reception. Last June Shona and I flew to Cairns, hired a motorhome which was a new experience and one we really enjoyed, and did a bit of a road trip. Highlights were spending Queens Birthday weekend in Cooktown (about 300km north of Cairns - population 2300) where they were holding a Cooktown Discovery Festival.

This was a lot of fun, with lots of action from tug of war, billy cart racing – which was old style with complete disregard for health and safety, which made it more exciting and dangerous for participants and spectators. There were also talent quests, street parade, James Cook arrival re-enactment, fire dancing and fireworks with crowds that you would count in the hundreds rather than the thousands.

Chillagoe was a fascinating outback town (200km inland from Cairns, population 200) with its caves, historic mines and the spectacular limestone ridges that continue to gradually dissolve from the rain. I enjoyed the drive to Chillagoe though at times we had to travel very slowly as the corrugations in the road weren’t kind to the drawers and cupboards.

We also stayed two nights at the Eureka Creek Bush Rodeo which is held on Eureka Creek Station. The Rodeo was great to watch and carried on under lights finishing at about 10pm which was when the band started. Most competitors and spectators arrived on the Friday and camped bush style for two nights. Seeing all the different styles of campsites and all the campfires going at night was a real eye-opener.

Wherever we stayed we mainly met Australians, with some real characters amongst them, they were all friendly and great to talk too. Australia is an easy country to visit, with driving on the same side of the road, talking a similar language, easy to get away from the crowds (we love the outback) and the weather is normally good. The campervan cost about $100 a day plus fuel, some nights we freedom camped and others we stayed at caravan parks. Travelling by campervan meant we were able stock up with groceries at a supermarket keeping our food costs to a minimum. If you are patient and wait for the specials holidaying in Australia can cost similar or less than holidaying in NZ.

Even though we were off farm I couldn’t help taking notes and photos of the different types of farms we were seeing, talking to people we met about farming, plus we stayed 2 nights on an organic beef farm.

New Newsletter

Our next newsletter will be in June 2016. And I look forward to visiting a number of you either late summer or early autumn. We thank you for your support this year and look forward to doing business with you again. We wish you, your families and staff a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Cheers

Ken Buckingham