MACHINE pruning is ongoing – with still a fair way to go.
And, at the same time, trying to do a tidy job to lessen the inevitable and expensive hand clean up job, is important.
The annual wine grape crush figures for last year are also out (you can see a feature in this issue on pages 6 and 7), and most of the journos picked up on the fact that Chardonnay is now more popular than Shiraz – because more were crushed.
It is much simpler than that simplistic observation – it’s just that so much of the Shiraz crop was unwanted and left on the vines.
That’s really why the variance occurred.
Water is also the topic at the moment, with the ridiculous Federal Government water buybacks and the associated ramifications for domestic food production – and the proven devastating impact it will have on the surrounding communities.
Grrr.
There may also be two types of white pointers to watch out for this summer in one of the local water storage lakes, as a high level of salty water there is now causing grief to local irrigators.
Damaging salt levels have been showing up in potato and zucchini test results in recent months.
But if the salinity does continue to rise – and the crocs and sharks duly turn up in the lake – it might just create a few headlines then, I guess.
I also managed to play a bit of golf at Royal Murrabit recently – it’s truly an underrated course and very similar to Royal Lakeside at Boga, having its typical sand-scrape greens.
Lakeside celebrates 100 years next month with a two-day tournament and I would encourage everyone who ever teed off at one thing or another – and a golf ball – to get involved in this amazing local milestone.
On a lighter (and often much tastier) note, some local snails are currently en route to the Olympics.
Sprint trials have now been held in each state to determine finalists – and it was a demanding trial, where they had to cross a highway to become eligible.
Surprisingly only the Victorian snails, going flat out, reached the opposite side unscathed. The rest were simply left flat.
It’s not proven, but it’s suspected the number of potholes in the Victorian highway may have actually contributed to the success of the local snails, acting as safety refuges as they crossed.
The snails have been invited to a flash restaurant on arrival in France – we will see how that goes.
