I hope the good times will keep rolling and that steady hands will continue to control the nation's finances in coming years.

Concerns are currently being shown for the serious price rises for fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides and these come on top of big rises for fuel and gas.

Rapid price rises play havoc with family household budgets and they are causing farmers to debate the logic of sowing cereal and oilseed crops.

No-one can turn a profit if crops are not sown, but we all need an incentive to commit the funds, take the risk and do the work.

TO step back in time, I read a chapter of The Australian Merino about the decade-long droughts 1890-1902 and 1940-1950 and the breaking of those droughts.

The years that immediately followed those events were similar to what we have seen with the breaking of our most recent drought, with severe floods in most rivers.

The two generations before me often said that "during the 1940s we thought it would never rain again but Mother Nature always evens up the score".

We have to wonder what those people, Labor, Liberal and Country Party, would think of young people hanging off cranes and disrupting the business of our nation.

I know a staunch old friend who would likely say: "I'd like to climb up there with an 18 volt cattle prodder."

FAREWELL to one of Bathurst's most respected citizens.

When Bob Alderman passed away recently, he left great memories of a real family man, a supplier and fitter of tyres to a legion of customers, a bookmaker who often led the ring at Bathurst races, trots and greyhounds and a long-time staunch supporter of his Catholic Church.

You are being missed, Bob.

THE Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival was once again a great success and a credit to all involved.

Three of the biggest events were won by locally owned and trained horses and the carnival brought lots of outsiders (and their wallets) to Bathurst.

On the same weekend, the Panthers played Newcastle at Carrington Park and drew a great crowd.

Bathurst Regional Council played a masterstroke some years ago when the Panthers signed an agreement to play an NRL match here on an an annual basis.

A generation of local youngsters are growing up as loyal fans of Penrith Panthers and we must say well done BRC and thank you.

The demand for light restocker lambs seems to have quietened as the bag lamb export to the Middle East does not put a bottom in this market.

Quotes from the regular Bendigo sheep and lamb sale last Monday mentioned little Merino lambs at $8 and very light, small crossbred lambs at $14.

Factors that have slowed demand for the very light restocker lambs include seasonal timing, restocker caution, COVID disruption to kill space and limited air space and demand for bag lambs from Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Auctions Plus conducted a feature sale last week that offered 1010 Angus female breeders, all of TeMania blood.

The sale grossed over $4 million and averaged $3965 per head; 24 PTIC (pregnancy tested in calf) cows 32 to 40 months topped the sale at $5360 and the same vendor sold 20 PTIC heifers, 19-20 months, for $5000.

An agent said it isn't that many years ago that 100 Angus bulls averaging $4000 was a good sale.

AT a Sydney funeral recently, the two beautiful black hire cars were Genesis Limousines.

These are the prestige arm of Hyundai and follow the Lexus-Toyota, Eunos-Mazda and Infiniti-Nissan ventures that were only successful in one instance.

The Genesis lines seem to compete with the best of the Germans, the BMW, Mercedes and Audi offerings.

WEEK 38 of the Australian wool selling series had an early offering of 45,149 bales.

At the finish of the week, 37,501 bales had been sold, with 16.1 per cent of the offering passed in.

The Australian Dollar (AUD) strengthened by up to three per cent week-on-week against the USD and the Euro, thus causing a retracement in the wool market by 24ac/kg or 1.7pc to see the indicator close at 1384ac/kg.

Merino fleece descriptions were up to 40ac cheaper and crossbred types were easier and the lower end was very irregular, with some of the bigger players very quiet.

Funding and logistical difficulties continue along with reports of bigger COVID-induced lockdowns in China potentially bearing down the market.

The AUD/USD rate at the time of writing this report was 0.7491, which is not much change on the close of the wool market last week.

Week 39 has an early estimated offering of more than 48,000 bales Australia-wide, with a three-day series in Melbourne.

There is an estimated offering over the next three weeks of around the 140,000-bale mark.

THE little bloke had learnt a trick at school.

"I know the whole truth now," he whispered to Dad.

Dad gave him $20 and said: "Please never tell your mother."

Then he tried Mum, got another $20 and promised to be quiet.

All excited, he told the mailman: "Now I know the whole truth."

The mailman was thrilled and said: "Come and give your daddy a big hug."

***

A FARM couple were at the counsellor and Mrs Farm said: "I really can't remember when we last made love."

"Oh, yes I can," Mr Farm added, "and that's why we don't make love now."

***

HE said that the doctor told him if his romance didn't stop now, he'd be buried in three weeks. He's been seeing the doctor's wife.