Sub clover pastures that were sown more than 60 years ago are 20 centimetres tall already and most haven't been top-dressed for several years as ground spreaders can't get onto boggy ground.

A real eye-opener is the lack of growth on paddocks that have been virtually ignored for at least a decade.

These paddocks remind me of post-war conditions in the late 1940s when a common comment was "the only thing you could raise on native pastures is your hat".

Different grazing schemes rely on heavy stocking and long periods of pasture rest to assist in regrowth and farmers hope that the slower spring growth will result in sustainability.

WEATHER forecasters are confidently predicting a continuation of La Nina conditions to register three consecutive events of this nature.

Records tell us of this occurrence happening three times (this would be four) since the start of the 20^th century, so it is hardly a phenomenon.

Many country people talk of climate change as a hoax, but we see and read of thousands being drowned in Pakistan floods, 53 degrees in Death Valley, USA and 40 degrees in Great Britain.

We should leave politics out and take care with our own Australian environment.

RECENT RURAL NOTEBOOK COLUMNS:

STOCK agents tell me that fears of a foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Australia have eased, and some confidence has returned to the cattle market.

However, everyone involved in the industry must remain vigilant as most producers who attend an auction sale aren't discussing FMD as they were before and media outlets have hardly mentioned the possibility of a disease outbreak for several weeks.

Agents are still very aware of the risk of FMD, but emphasis is being placed on how we might control an outbreak and on what vaccines are available.

ONE of Bathurst Regional Council's original Living Legends was Mrs Marge Townsend of "Dreamland Farm", Evans Plains and she recently celebrated her 98th birthday.

I'm told that she still does her property's cattle muster on her four-wheel lawnmower and says "the zero turn on the mower gets me to the spot where I need to be with a mob of cattle".

Every good stockperson knows exactly what she means.

Happy birthday, Mrs Townsend; that's what Legends are made of.

HAPPY birthday to John Bestwick of "Euarra", O'Connell who is celebrating a milestone birthday.

John has been at the forefront of the sheep and cropping industry in Bathurst all his life and many times our contract team thanked him for having hundreds of lambs ready for marking, often at 6am on a long weekend.

Not many farmers would draft a mob very early, but John always did. Thank you for your efforts, John.

FORMER Wallaby fullback Jim Lenehan died in recent weeks and others tell of his rugby test ability.

The Sydney Morning Herald paid tribute to him in a feature article and talked of his sporting prowess: "Six feet tall and 14 stone, he was a frightening figure as he thundered onto centre Mike Hardie's passes when he joined the backline."

This was in reference to the First Fifteen at St. Ignatius' College, Riverview and refers to Bathurst's own Mike Hardie, who was a pharmacist and farmer in our district.

STORIES of electrically driven vehicles are raising more interest as the new Federal Government puts strong emphasis on EV passenger vehicles.

We know that charging stations, compact storage batteries and price structures will gradually evolve in favour of EV vehicles and that a lot of research work must be done before large machines used in moving, earthmoving, farming, trucking and bus lines reach a stage of being viable.

The future seems bewildering for heavy machines, but we know that success will be achieved.

Just hang on tight and marvel at the science.

WEEK nine of wool sales had a national offering of 35,534 bales.

It was a designated superfine wool sale in Sydney where Italian interests were very active on the better style, strength, and lower vegetable matter (VM) types.

To give an example, the spread between the best 18-micron fleece types with very good strength and low VM and the 18-micron Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) was up to 170ac/kg clean on some clips.

Chinese interests were relatively quiet as they have their own problems in China, ranging from real estate issues to ongoing COVID lockdowns due to their zero policy.

In the sub-17-micron types, there is now up to 200ac/kg clean difference between the Italian types and the lower Chinese types.

At week's end, 18.5-micron and finer types were up to 50ac/kg dearer, and broader types only 5-10ac cheaper.

Crossbreds were unchanged to 5ac cheaper for the week.

Week 10 has an offering of 37,000 bales with week 11 and week 12 showing fewer than 40,000 bales in initial forecasts.

A WOMAN rang police.

"A man knocked on my door and said he'd give me a bottle of red wine if I showed him my chest," she reported.

Police quickly arrived and asked for directions.

"Hold this bottle of red, officer," our woman said, "and I'll show which way he ran."

***

FOR 22 years, George and his wife were deliriously happy; then they met each other.