Woomargama Station

13/11/2023

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO BE HOSTING THIS NATURAL CAPITAL ACCOUNTING FIELD DAY. La Trobe Centre for Future Landscapes is doing fantastic work in this space.

27/06/2023

24/06/2022

AT ZQ MERINO, THERE IS A TRADITION THAT YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF BY YOUR NAME, YOUR RIVER, AND YOUR MOUNTAIN. We are so fortunate to be part of the ZQ Merino Family and to be working for the good of the planet. The pillars of ZQ, ZQ growers, and ZQ customers are: animal husbandry, environmental sustainability and community engagement. We are held to this by our annual independent audits. Thursday saw a gathering of the clan at Mt Hesse’s historic wool shed with ZQ senior management, growers and the Presidents of Icebreaker and Sustainawool. It is a rare privilege to bring the growers face to face with our passionate customers. Icebreaker is going plastic free by 2023 and now makes a great wool puffer with no live plucked down. (If you must buy a puffer 🤨 make sure it is North Face with the Responsible Down accreditation). Wool, the perfect solution to the fast fashion crisis.

21/06/2022

A SHAFT OF AFTERNOON LIGHT AFTER THE RAIN AND DARK CLOUDS OF THE MORNING. It is a wet and muddy Winter with the creeks running fast and the dams full. We are feeding out silage to keep condition on the stock; in this weather, they need full stomachs. Today, as the longest night, it seemed as if the dawn would never come. The wintery sunshine of this afternoon has been a delight, but short lived. The deciduous trees have lost all their leaves and the oranges and lemons are thick on the fruit trees; a good time to light the fire and make marmalade.

10/04/2022

SO GREAT TO BE BACK HOSTING LANDCARE FIELD DAYS AT WOOMARGAMA STATION! This time it was West Hume Landcare along with local farmers, people from the Biodiversity Conservation Trust and other Landcare areas. We discussed the management of the Covenant at the Station and how it fits into our whole farm plan. We took a look at the containment yards we used to put sheep during the 2018 - 19 drought for their health as well as to preserve ground cover on the farm. Kylie from Landcare also gave us an overview of the carbon and biodiversity markets which are opening up to farmers. Emma from ZQ Merino gave us an overview of the wool accreditation program we use in regards to animal husbandry and environmental sustainability. It is always great to collaborate and meet fellow travellers on the path.

17/03/2022

It is a stunning morning on Woomargama Station with wisps of fog around before the sun came up. Thanks to an extraordinary season, cattle are still grazing green feed which is a blessing.

07/03/2022

THE BARKING OWL IS DRIVING US BARKING MAD!! In the city, there is the background hum of the freeway which is wearing at night. A way away from main roads up at the Station, one would expect the sounds of silence at night. But no! Our barking owl gets on the job at all hours sounding like a dog barking. Tonight he started well before dusk at 6 PM and has been having a good go after dinner. Does he never eat?

Bruce, who is part of the Birds on Farms group, comes to do early morning bird counts four times a year with his team. The Barking Owl seems to sense their presence and remains silent. (They are terribly hard to spot in the trees during the day). Consequently, they have yet to be added to the bird sighting list.

Word from the bleary eyed residents next to your trees: give over mate and let us get a bit of shut eye!

22/02/2022

BUYING BULLS AT INJEMIRA IS ALWAYS A BIG DAY IN THE STATION’S CALENDAR. Here are some of the buying team: Nick, Georgia and Bruce - the wise heads that are picking the bulls which are structurally sound, have a good temperament, have the wonderful Poll Hereford colouring and have the data to support their progeny’s estimated birth weights and growth rates. Despite this, it is always about the strong relationships you build in the industry and the reputation you have for your breeding program. Woomargama Station enjoys its long-standing relationship with Injemira and the fellow farmers in the substantial Injemira orbit.

Also, (big) hats off to the team in the photo; in the end buying the perfect bull is as much an art as it is a science. And then, like all those of the masculine species, there is a deal of mollycoddling we need to undertake to keep the fellas happy once they are at the Station!

17/02/2022

STILL WEARING PLASTIC TO GO OUTDOORS?

As a wool producer who sells wool to Icebreaker, I just don’t get it.

As I have heard said in the wool industry: “micro plastics are a crime against humanity.”

Wool: the perfect solution to the fast fashion crisis.

26/01/2022

OUR BRAND PARTNERS IN SUSTAINABILITY CAME TO THE STATION: Jon Hopper from Icebreaker/North Face (VF Corp), Nigel Jones from the Biodiversity Conservation Trust, myself and Emma Subtil from ZQ Merino. It is said that it takes a whole village to raise a child; let me tell you, it takes a whole supply chain to preserve a landscape. At Woomargama Station, we have critically endangered grassy box woodland which you can see in the valley behind us. What I can vouch for is that conserving this landscape has not only been the right thing for us to do but we have had the financial incentives to do this from both the BCT and ZQ Merino. VF Corp and ZQ actively and scrupulously source brand partners who meet their high sustainability and high animal welfare specifications. As a farmer, there is nothing more demoralising than growing wool to an exacting standard with exacting values and then to see it sold at auction to a random mill in China with unknown standards which manufactures for an unknown client. Whole supply chain shared values are a game changer!

Again in my soapbox: farmers are a critical link in the climate, carbon and biodiversity crises - as are consumers. Know the provenance of your clothes. This matters.

03/01/2022

JUST A WEE DOG WINNIE ENJOYING THE EVENING LIGHT. My husband, Andrew, is a seafarer and so felt compelled to build a jetty on the lake to launch two small rowing boats. Rowing on the lake is the best way to see it and a very romantic way to reach the island. Our accountant, Richard, had a Famous Five adventure camping on the island this Easter with his young son. Apart from midgies, it was a very satisfying experience but two days were quite enough. I have swum in the lake as a child but it is brown and muddy and my mother had a hissy fit as she felt she would never see me again if I sunk to the bottom. There are plenty of Eastern Longneck Turtles which call it home along with big fat wombats digging up its banks. We even had a pelican land on it one day - it is just long enough - but it didn’t stay. It seemed lonely without its mate. In Summer, it provides a sanctuary of coolness and calm on hot days and in Winter mornings it can steam in the cold air. Winnie has the right idea to stop here and just sniff the breeze.

21/12/2021

OUR WATERING HOLE IS RETURNING TO HER RIGHTFUL PLACE! The Woomargama Village Pub has had a lean old time of it in recent times but is coming back to her former glory days. Each village needs a pub as a gathering place and it is sad times for the community when the pub closes. It was all systems go on Sunday night when we had 30 people at the Woomargama Station Christmas party at the Pub. Slow cooked rolled shoulder of lamb was the go and it was delicious. It is the hard work of so many people that makes this property something of which we can be very proud. We are but stewards for a brief time but we are definitely making the most of those moments.

Happy Christmas to all and may I wish you a good season and a bright future ahead.

24/11/2021

01/11/2021

“THE GREAT SILENCE” HAS SNUCK UP ON MANY OF US AND WE ARE UNAWARE OF THIS TRAGEDY. Like the frog in slowly increasing hot water, we don’t see what is coming. Farmers have been “too tidy” over the years and cleaned up dead trees like this one. And with this clearing up comes the loss of habitat for birds to build nests in their hollows and thus the birdlife and the beautiful dawn chorus diminishes. (I have always wondered what birds do after dawn; having woken us up, they seem to settle down for a quiet kip). Whilst dead trees such as this one can send a chill down my spine as they remind me of some of our terrible droughts, I think “happy thoughts” and remember one of our old timers from over half a century ago who was furious when we cleared up an old tree such as this one as it was his sheltering spot when he was riding back to the village in the rain! In this photo our heifers even seem to be attracted to this spot.

19/10/2021

IT IS A TRUISM THAT FARMERS ARE NEVER SATISFIED; but, today, we need to just stop and smell the silage. We are having an amazing (and very wet) Spring. The contractor has appeared at just the right time and we can cut the pasture for silage. Last year, he was all over the country and, by the time he arrived, it was too late. There is no better feeling than to fill up those silage pits ready for top up feeding in Summer or, more importantly, the next drought. Meanwhile, let’s enjoy this weather and extraordinary cattle prices while they last.

22/09/2021

WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. We speak today about women in farming but, sometimes, we forget to stop and think about those great women who came before us. These women were not forging careers in non traditional jobs, they were forging new ground and trying to put together a livelihood and a life in farming. This photo is pre 1910 (when Homestead which now stands was built). I am not exactly sure who the women are, but they are beautifully groomed and the woman on the right has the whitest of aprons. This house no longer stands but I remember from my childhood where the stone chimney stood amongst fruit trees.

You don’t own the land; the land owns you.

06/09/2021

IF IT RUNS THREE WEEKS A YEAR, IT IS A CREEK. This is what a “three weeks a year” creek looks like after a particularly wet weekend. This “creek” didn’t run for years during the Millennial Drought. Things can be hard to classify but rain this time of year is good. In the One in 100 Year Flood (2011) after the Ten Year Millennial Drought (and no! I am not making this stuff up), we had a huge wash hole below this photo. We had to restore this erosion with stones and soil and tree and grasses planting (all under the strict guidelines of NSW Water). As the clouds build over the romantically named Okey Bolga, Nick checks the watercourse.

17/08/2021

LET ME GET ON MY SOAP BOX AND SAY THAT AGRICULTURE IS A GREAT CAREER FOR WOMEN. (May I hasten to add that this photo is not taken at Woomargama Station). I have just read in Outback magazine their issue on women in agriculture. It is inspiring! Young women have worked at Woomargama Station in the role of jillaroo, wool classer, Landcare advisor, wool broker representative and more. And Fiona, on the property, has had a stellar career as an agricultural journalist. It is a great time to be in farming. People are more and more interested and concerned about where their food comes from, and innovative farmers are now presenting with high animal welfare and high sustainability options which are part of the climate solution rather than the climate problem.

01/07/2021

My father Gordon always used to say that when cattle are sitting down by 11 AM you know that they are content and not hungry. Here we find the picture of contentment; one of our girls enjoying the winter’s morning. We love Poll Herefords for their quiet nature. They are always handled in a low stress manner. What better than to see a cow chew her cud?

06/04/2021

Perfect evening with Autumn (!!) silage going into the pit. We have been blessed with a wonderful season in 2021.

08/03/2021

The countdown is on. All roads lead to Holbrook this weekend for the town’s triathalon. It’s a big event for Holbrook and we are proud to be one of the major sponsors. Not only that - the station is fielding its own team made up from the younger residents on the station .

23/02/2021

We are pretty excited to have been at Injemira Beef Genetics today to see a new Australian record price of $160,000 for a Poll Hereford bull. While we didn’t spend quite that much, we are really happy to have bought three new sires to continue to improve the herd. Congratulations to Injemira for their commitment to breeding high quality genetics for the beef industry.