After heavy rain well into Saturday morning, the skies cleared for the afternoon and night and then gave a Sunday to dream about.

Many thanks to everyone who helped to present this year's showpiece of all that our city and district has to offer.

It obviously takes more than a couple of inches of autumn rain to dampen the spirits of Bathurst people when it's show time in our region.

During the almost 30 years that Rural Roundup has been contributed to the Western Advocate, we haven't seen pastoral conditions across the district in better shape.

As winter looms, we note that sub clovers have stayed green throughout the summer - they had lots of tall grasses and weeds to protect them - and early sown fodder crops are almost ready for grazing.

We can tell the grandkids that in 2022 Bathurst got to May without a frost.

The widespread rains in central and western Queensland will put confidence in the national cattle market as many of those districts were looking at a pretty tight winter.

Markets for weaner cattle in three states had softened by around $100 per head because of the tightening season in inland Queensland and this lack of demand will now be reversed as result of the improved conditions.

Some great career opportunities are being currently offered to young people who are ready to climb the ladder of Agricultural Australia.

Jobs are advertised in rural media and two standouts are for hands on, capable, literate people who want to work with some of the top operators in rural industry.

One position is with JBS Agriculture at Warren. Another position that's available is with JAD Speckle Park at Yeoval.

Young people on the way up will need to be ultra reliable and trustworthy as these operations are at the cutting edge of modern Agriculture.

With the current federal election campaign closely fought the winners reward will be to govern a country that is seriously divided on many issues and a big section of our workforce that isn't very keen to work.

In a nutshell, who would seriously want to be prime minister?

With greatly increased fertiliser prices, it was of real interest to hear Limekilns producers John Toole and Gordon Nash recently outlining their positive experiences with using BioSolid as a pasture and cropping supplement.

Both men spoke highly of the product's results when interviewed on ABC Rural Radio last Monday morning.

China's policy of COVID Zero has brought further lockdowns to a lot of their major cities and a subsequent log jam of shipping lines both into and out of supply ports.

The long delay in delivery of our export commodities into China must have a price effect on raw wool auctions as buyers have to pay in full for the product and hope for quick processing at Chinese woollen mills.

When almost 80 per cent of our raw wool is sold to Chinese processors, we can readily see the seriousness of the current situation happening overseas.

Last week's edition of The Land had an article on the spate of fully electric scooters, bicycles and farm bikes.

The farm bikes are of special interest with 18 and 36 volt batteries claiming to hold a charge for a full days' farm work.

Silent operation around farm animals is a strong point when considering an electric bike, and ease of servicing and every day maintenance are also important.

Electric tools and vehicles are evolving quickly, with the Wheels Magazine's Car Of The Year award being fought out by two fully electric cars from South Korea.

The Kia EV6 claimed the top gong, with Hyundai's IONIQ5 the runner up.

These are great cars and I hope to live long enough to see a 4WD electric ute being produced in their factories.

Rapidly rising inflation in many countries (seven per cent in the United States and five per cent here) will cause interest rates to quickly rise in stages.

Borrowers with fixed interest rate loans will need to be vigilant when renewing those loans.

When it comes to self funded retirees, they will appreciate being offered a more reasonable interest rate on their cash on hand.

For those who have been booked for speeding by a roadside speed camera - please raise your right foot.

Adam and Eve were the first to ignore Apple terms and conditions.

Motel sign: Dogs are welcome; we've never had a dog that smoked in bed and burnt our blankets, or a dog that stole our towels, played the TV too loud, got drunk and broke furniture. So, if your dog can vouch for you, you're welcome, too.

Returning from the Easter break, there was some slight trepidation entering into week 43 of sales with an early estimated offering of over 51,000 bales, which everyone thought may test the market.

However, with business being done over the break and the weakening off the AUD/USD rate by 4.76 per cent compared to the close, this buoyed the market and we saw the Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) lift by 10ac overall for the week.

Supply chain issues continue to hamper our wool market.

For example, the time lag from shipment to receival to China has increased from three weeks two years ago to now an eight week period on average.

This five week increase is affecting exporters' ability to do business and also our trading partners' ability to get wool processed and on to the racks.

All parties seem to be doing a fantastic job at managing these issues and word is that the problems will continue for some period yet.

Most merino types were up to 20ac dearer, with the better style wools most effected as there is a higher percentage of weather damaged wools on offer compared to normal.

China, India, and Europe are all active. Demand is good, with exporters reporting that they could sell more, it is only the hold up in shipping and payment that is restricting them.

The offering is starting to drop after large receivals in March and April. The Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) forecasts an average offering of around 40,000 bales in the next four weeks of sales.