Warwick area relies heavily on beef, we don't need activists

LET there be no doubt, country people want to care for their animals

A sheep from Carey Brothers Abattoir in the back of a vegan activists four-wheel drive on Monday morning at Yangan. Picture: Michael Nolan

OPINION with Gerard Walsh Dry As A Bone column in Bush Tele

IT MAKES my blood boil to see these vegan protesters in our area to have their say.

They don't have to move on to farms and abattoirs to get their point across.

You only have to look at the number of farmers in this area, the number of people working in abattoirs, to see the massive impact the beef industry has on this region.

You can probably triple the benefit once those of us involved with the beef industry start spending money in town.

If farmers are so bad, why am I paying $250 a week to supplementary feed 60 cattle?

And soon they will be requiring hay as well.

I can remember many times putting a paralysed heifer in a sling, and feeding and watering her three times a day so, after about six weeks,

she could return to perfect health.

We wouldn't do that if we didn't care for our cattle.

Perhaps we should all get one of those biosecurity signs telling visitors they must call before entering our properties.

The cost to our community from the vegan protesters includes the cost of extra police at the scene.

Yesterday morning, police were taken away from their core business of fighting crime and the like.

After the worst drought in history, the last thing this area needs is vegan protesters coming here in the wee hours of the morning.

Trees dying in dry

MANY people have talked about the number of trees dying due to the dry weather.

At least half the trees in Greymare Creek above the Springs Crossing are dead.

There are even more trees dead in thickly timbered areas.

Government rules that stop people from thinning the number of trees in some areas are now resulting in more dead trees.

There is just not enough water for all the trees.

I have never seen trees dying as much as they have in recent weeks.

We have had some rain but a tree that has died doesn't just revive the minute it starts to rain.

At our farm, we have had two breaks in the season, 28mm rain each time and 1mm in between.

We are at the lower end of the rain in the Southern Downs region but the reality is if you missed the heavier rain this autumn, you might be at the high end of the falls in the spring.

Sometimes it is better not to look at the weather outlook for the next seven days when the reality is rain is unlikely to fall.

Originally published as Warwick area relies heavily on beef, we don't need activists