Ag Bureau steps back in time

Laura Ag Bureau recently celebrated 100 years with the restoration of a 1926 Sunshine auto harvester.

What a cracker!!! I love it.

I thought this was a brilliant idea, I loved seeing the vision of the old girl reaping the crop and the lads sewing up the bags of wheat. Wish I could have attended.

Thanks to my fellow Ag Bureau Board member, Andrew Kitto, for this footage, but there are more videos of this historic event available on uTube.

Internet 'Speed' on the Farm

'Speed' is probably not the right word to describe our internet.

I decided to compare our satellite internet with the rest of the world. This is what I found:

'Average' Internet Download Speed:
South Korea            14.2 Mbps
Japan                      11.7 Mbps
Hong Kong              10.9 Mbps
Australia                   4.7 Mbps (although average peaks were 30 Mbps)
Global Average          3.1 Mbps (117 countries)
Our Farm                 1.8 Mbps   (speed test - not sure of our average)

Indonesia                1.5 Mbps
India                        1.4 Mbps

So to put this speed into perspective for anyone who doesn't understand. I recently tried to watch an episode of a 'soapie' I had missed. Without adverts the show is 20 minutes long and I attempted to watch it in 'blibs and blobs' in between frozen moments of several minutes. After an hour I gave up and logged off without seeing the end. Now, of course, my 'soapie' obsession is not important, but what about University studies, viewing farm machinery demonstrations and trials and don't even go there with Skype!

My husband and I have always had a bit of a bad taste joke 'we live in a 3rd world country'! Well, the above figures seem to suggest we actually do, or many farmers do!

Now, I don't mean any disrespect to developing countries, but I live in Australia, the country that was built on the 'sheep's back'. Surely in this modern world of 'entitled' people, our farmers would at least be entitled to the 'global average' of internet speed?

Thankfully, the Liberal Government are back with their mobile phone black spot program. I am putting my faith in Malcolm Turnbull to improve the communication access of farmers and rural/remote communities.

In this world of 'immediate communication', many farmers are left behind and I have no doubt it is affecting our 'bottom line'. 

Sad thing is, I don't think we'll ever catch up!

Some random photos below

It took about 5 minutes to upload these 2 photos and the mornings are usually the quickest time to use the internet.

Old Shearers Quarters on the Farm

View on my way into Tumby Bay on a hot day in January this year

Cross Slot Seeder, John Deere Air Cart & CAT Tractor

This is where our new seeding rig is up to. 

My husband and brother in law still have to mount the 'liquid system' so we can apply liquid trace elements while seeding.

The CAT Tractor will pull this rig at a slower pace than our previous seeder but we are anticipating an upgrade to more horse power in the next few years to enable the seeding rig to work at a faster pace. 

As farm equipment is very expensive, we stagger our large capital purchases over time. 

The cost of this Cross Slot was comparable to a DBS (Digs Big Stones!), but obviously, people need to choose which seeder best suits their farming ground.

More photos to follow once the Liquid System is installed.