Local sheep farmers are experiencing calcium deficient ewes known as hypocalcaemia. This is a common calcium disorder for ewes that becomes more frequent at lambing time.

This condition is common as the lamb is entirely dependent on the ewe to provide calcium to build strong bones for the first few weeks. The peak demand for calcium for a lamb is at 10 days of age, but that demand on the ewe steadily increases from midway through pregnancy, as the lamb’s bones begin to calcify.

Inadequate calcium supply by a ewe to her lamb means the lamb has lower bone calcium stores, and as an adult will be more at risk of hypocalcaemia when lamb- ing, perpetuating the risk into the next generation.

The disorder is more common in transported sheep and those in stressful situations, such as when yarded for shearing in winter.

Fortunately, if recognised early, a simple treatment with a calcium solution injected under the skin and oral supplements will affect a recovery in most sheep.

Farmers can influence the risk of hypocalcaemia by ensuring the ewes get fed a balanced diet, which contains at least 3 gm/kg DM calcium, and up to 5 gm/kg in ewes with multiple lambs. Legume forages are great sources of calcium, and cereal grains are poor.

Sourced from agriculture.vic.gov.au

During the sowing season farmers are reminded to continue to think about safety first.

Farmers and machinery operators need to be aware and consider the electricity network safety on their property prior to undertaking work.

Regional manager northern, Mark Summers said Essential Energy was trying to avoid a repeat of last year’s spike in statewide incidents involving tractors and cotton module makers contacting the network.

“The safety of our farmers, their workers and our electricity network are our top priority,” Mark said.

Reducing the risk of fatalities or injury of agricultural workers is a high priority this year.

“We are spreading the message to improve planning of activities which may re- duce the risks to agricultural workers. Mapping out safe traffic paths and monitoring machinery movements around powerlines and poles can help avoid costly network incidents, unnecessary power outages and damage to electrical infrastructure.”

If machinery does contact overhead powerlines, operators are advised to stay in the cabin and contact Essential Energy immediately on 13 20 80.

“Bystanders should always remain at least 8m away and treat powerlines as if they are live,” Mark said.

Property owners can access maps of Essential Energy’s overhead electricity net- work by calling 13 23 91 or visiting essentialenergy.com.au/overhead.

Healthy soils are essential for primary production and sustainable landscapes.

Would you like to find out how to understand your soil and improve your soil health?

The Soil Pits and Kits workshop is your key to finding out more about soil chemistry, soil physical characteristics, soil testing and management techniques and options.

There are also opportunities to take home a soil testing kit (conditions apply).

The workshop will be held on 23rd July including a delicious morning tea and lunch. For more information or to book your spot, contact Marg on 6862 4914 or email cwllpo@hotmail.com

Held since Landcare’s inception, the Landcare Awards acknowledge and celebrate local Landcare achievements at state, territory and national levels across Australia. Nine diverse categories showcase the achievements and history of Landcare and Coastcare, and above all recognise the in- valuable contribution of tireless volunteers to both initiatives.

Nominations invited from Landcarers across the country with awards events tak- ing place in each state and territory later this year. Winners from the nine national categories will go on as finalists in the 2018 National Landcare Awards.

Subscribe to the monthly Landlink enewsletter for all Landcare Awards updates.

Farmers in the region are happy with the recent rain making it perfect for sowing canola and the early varieties of wheat.

“Based on last year’s yields low protein, we can expect the nitrogen profile to be quite low so be sure to pay good attention to soil tests and think about sowing with applied nitrogen in case we run into dry weather,” said Brad O’Riley Canowindra Produce Agronomist.

Canola and early varieties of wheat are planted from late April up until early May as it is the ideal sowing time. Other vari- eties of wheat will then be sown, as it is the ideal flowering time. There is a recommended depth of 2-4cm when sowing, but is very dependent on the seed type.

“Smaller seeds such as canola are usually sown quite shallow and closer to the surface. We don’t expect moisture to be a problem this year with a brilliant start to the season so far.” said Brad O’Riley.

Farmers are advised to keep an eye out on their crops around June for mites and look to spray broadleaf herbicides. Canola is a popular crop in the Central West with ideal conditions allowing for a good yield.

Australia produces approximately 2-3 million tonnes of oilseed each year with canola and cottonseed making up 90% of that.

Farmers in NSW will now receive free quad bike training in an attempt to significantly reduce the number of deaths on rural properties across the state.

The New South Wales Government ex- panded a multi-million dollar education program to drive down the number of quad bike-related injuries and fatalities.

Four people have been killed in quad bike accidents across the state so far this year, including a six-year-old girl.

Minister for Innovation and Better Regula- tion Matt Kean said farmers who complete an approved training course would also re- ceive a free helmet – worth around $120 –

suitable for use while they are riding their quad bikes. The changes represent a further saving to farmers of up to $230.

From 8th May, free training will also be available through authorised Registered Training Organisations.

SafeWork NSW has partnered with Tocal College to deliver up to 100 training events in regional and remote areas across NSW.

Previously, farmers attending an approved training course (costing up to $510) received a rebate of $310.

It comes in addition to existing safety rebates, which were doubled in March this year for farmers who want to buy a safer side-by-side farm vehicle, retrofit safety equipment to existing quad bikes, and/or buy an approved helmet.

Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, Matthew Kean, said boosting training opportunities was vital.

“We’ve seen over 200 people take up the training course available to date.” he said.

“This is about removing a barrier to ac- cessing that training.”

“That’s why we’re rolling out a free train- ing package and a free helmet for those who access the training package, saving farmers up to $230 and making sure that they’re safe in the workplace.”

Nufarm delivers the pinnacle in lucerne weed control with Terrain, a unique and versatile group G herbicide that is ideally suited for lucerne weed and fenceline control, providing residual control or suppression of 17 hard to kill weeds.

Applied early, Terrain delivers excellent, economical residual weed control of a range of broadleaf and grass weeds including annual ryegrass, flaxleaf fleabane and sow- thistle.

Terrain is a non-volatile, UV stable herbi- cide that can remain on the soil surface for up to three weeks. Rainfall is required dur- ing this period to incorporate Terrain into the soil. Once incorporated by rainfall, Terrain binds tightly to the top layer of soil, forming a concentrated band of protection.

As Terrain binds tightly to soil and is not translocated by roots, Terrain has excellent safety to trees and adjacent crops. It works best as an autumn cleaning application prior to the main germination of weeds.

Plant biologists at the University of Western Australia (UWA) have revealed the relationship between plants and the parasite that causes malaria is close enough to mean many antimalarial drugs are effective her- bicides.

The work offers a new take on an evolutionary connection made in the 1990s when herbicides were shown to interfere with processes in the malarial parasite.

The research, published in Scientific Reports, shows that the extensive knowledge of antimalarial drugs could be applied to creating much-needed new herbicides.

This line of thinking began in 2008 when Dr Joshua Mylne, a plant geneticist, enlisted in the Army Reserve and was assigned to the Australian Army Malaria Institute in Brisbane.

Dr Mylne said almost 20 years ago, researchers used herbicides to prove that the malarial parasite Plasmodium contained an organelle that was essential and did many of the same things plant chloroplasts did.

“Subsequently, herbicides were used as starting points to develop new antimalarial drugs, but thinking seems not to have extended in the opposite direction,” Dr Mylne said.

“There is an urgent need for new herbicides and in particular ones that work differently or have different targets; a feature called the mode of action.”

Dr Mylne, now a principal investigator with UWA’s School of Molecular Sciences, affiliated with the national ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, said herbicides were integral for modern day agriculture, but the success of glyphosate and spiralling costs to develop new herbicides had stymied progress.

“In the past 30 years no new herbicide mode of action has been brought to market during a time that over 500 new cases of herbicide resistance have appeared,” he said.

Co-author and organic chemist associate professor Keith Stubbs said antimalarial drugs were ideal as starting points because they were non-toxic to humans and often had the right chemical properties to also af- fect plants.

Lead author and PhD student Maxime Corral said the finding would enable researchers to use knowledge about antimalarial drugs and even the drugs themselves to develop new herbicides against weeds.

“Making this connection doesn’t just mean working with antimalarials such as herbicides, it also means you can think about what antimalarial modes of action are not being exploited by herbicides and whether they could be.”

“Despite decades of use, the way some antimalarial drugs work remains unknown,” Dr Mylne said.

“Plants are easy to work with so we might be able to use plant genetics to reveal how antimalarial drugs work”.