In this month's Farmcast, Belle Baker from Adelaide Hills Farm Services talks about the upcoming sheep or ram sales season and where you can get some more information. She also talks about what you can do to prevent blowfly strike in your sheep - and did you know it's fox mating season right now?

Pods chats to Richard Pascoe the Adelaide Tech Guy about the unlikely yet possible risk of your ag-tech equipment submitting to a harmful cyber attack and Belle talks with Jackson Adams, their senior workman about fence posts - the varieties on offer and the unfortunate truth when working with this natural product.

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au

You can play the episode, below, or search for Adelaide Hills Farmcast in your favourite podcast app, on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast September Edition

Introduction

01:51 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

• September and October is the main selling season for sheep and rams in South Australia. Most larger sales also list on Auctions Plus so this is a good catch all to find all sales (for all sorts of livestock) near you.
• We live in hope that the weather will start to warm up however with that its time to start thinking about preventing blowfly strike in your sheep. According to a factsheet published by the Victorian Farmers Federation, flystrike occurs when the causative fly feeds off damaged skin caused by urine, diarrhoea or by the continual wetting of fleece resulting in a condition known as fleece rot. Flystrike isn't hard to prevent however it is horrid to treat - both for you and the sheep! Get in first, stay vigilant and shear, crutch, manage their worm burden regularly.

 Predators - Foxes

• Did you know that Landholders are responsible for the control of foxes on their properties under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019? And did you know that its Fox mating season right now?There are a number of legal ways you can manage foxes including shooting, cage trapping, coordinated baiting, soft jaw leg-hold trapping and den fumigation. This may not be as easy as it sounds so the best thing you can do is lock up your chooks and make sure of the integrity of their enclosures.Alpacas can be used to ward off potential predators of young lambs however there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly, you must introduce the Alpaca to the flock before lambing so that they have an opportunity to bond and hence protect the herd. One Alpaca to around 20 sheep is fine. If you have too many Alpaca's in one paddock they will form their own herd and not be inclined to protect the sheep and lambs. Its also important to have an Alpaca with a good attitude - nothing too aggressive (definitely not a job for complete males) as you must be able to work with the sheep and Alpaca for the usual animal health jobs (drenching, shearing, feet trimming and teeth trimming for Alpacas).

 Weeds - Salvation Jane (Patterson's Curse)

• Salvation Jane emerges in Winter and dies down in Summer. Honey producers love it - all hail the power of the pollen - however your pastures will suffer under this prolific weed and it has the potential to be extremely toxic to horses.There are a number of control methods that can be used including slashing, spraying and probably the most effective is a spray/graze program. We talked a lot about Salvation Jane in a blog post we did in November 2022. You can read it again here.

 In Other News...

The Hills Small Acreage Field Days will be held at the Echunga Recreation Grounds on the 24th and 25th of September. You can find out more by going to their website. You might even see us there with our recording equipment...

07:16 Farmcast Interview: Pods Richard Pascoe talk about the security of your Ag-Tech products

There's been a fresh round of media coverage about a hacker getting into a John Deere tractor's computer and installing a game.

This raises the question of Ag Tech security.

The Adelaide Techguy, Richard Pascoe, has a chat with Pods about how to keep your farm-based technology safe.

18:15 Farmcast Interview: Belle Baker and Jackson Adams discuss posts used for rural fencing

Are all fence posts the same?

The answer is no.

As we discuss in this interview with one of the the Adelaide Hills Farm Services team, Jackson Adams, natural fence posts come with natural variations in size and width and manufacturers have a knack of burying a few brumbies in the middle of the strapped up bundles we buy.