Hi,

I've been thinking about purchasing about 40ha of land between Mudgee and Wellington. The land backs onto the Cudgegong river, but the pasture doesn't look to be improved at all. Unfortunately, I come up about $20,000pa short on repayments with my current income, so I was hoping a small farming enterprise might be able to make up the difference.

Does anybody have any comments on weather monitoring stations?

Moved into the new home at the start of the year. Its the best move we have done. Learning alot and got our first flock of sheep this week. 6 three year old ewes with 9 ram lambs at toe. Also went to a field day today held by landcare for small farm owners. Its the first time they have held a field day for small farms and it covered things from weed management, fencing, bee keeping to livestock handling and more. Its alot to take in in one day but the information was excellent. It was held in the north east of tasmania but they indicated they wanted to do this all over tasmania.

My husband has worked on dairy farms for 20 years and we are in a good financial position, owning our home and a small lifestyle block (well by owning it, having a mortgage on it). Husband has managed a small dairy farm for the last 10 years (220 cows) and earns a salary of around $75k (NZ). Our accountant recommends that we step up to either 50:50 or equity share, the farm owners are unsure but are prepared to listen to our proposal.

Had a problem trying to post on Internet Explorer so had to rep-post, hope this works.

We're about to move onto a ~40ha property near Bathurst, NSW. Currently it is separated into 3 paddocks however I want to develop this futher into 6-8 ~5ha paddocks.

We are looking at purchasing a 10acre property on the NSW Northern Rivers. The property has approx 800 mature macadamia trees, a dam and silos/ dryers. 

We are complete novices and could really use some help with answers to the following

* what would be the best type of mower, a zero turn or a tractor/slasher? We have a budget of around $5000 - $6000 max and need to keep the hours of mowing to a minimum. 

Anybody got comments on these type of tanks for cattle.

Does anyone know of a water meter for 25mm p/pipe, that can report to a house computer so the flows can be monitored on a daily basis? 2 of my padocks are watered only by troughs , and im not always on the farm to check. Have talked to various experts and none have a cost effective solution. ( one guy quoted $30k)

What is the best time to super . Most of the best rain comes (usually) in winter. But 2nd best time is summer, (storms, mostly in Feb). Has't been done for 4/5 years and most of the pasture seems to be Kangaroo Grass, But there are patches of Phalaris and various clovers. Feather grass abounds and there are scaterings of others i can't identify.