farmdoc's blog post number 382

In the 6-7 years I’ve been farming, one important lesson I’ve learnt is that the time spent planning a task is more than repaid – by the task taking less time, with less chance of things going wrong. In the not-so-good old days, Sharon – my sharefarmer, friend and neighbour – and I didn’t plan much. And we paid the penalty, with Sharon frequently frustrated, and me upset by her frustration. But over the years we’ve both become wiser, so nowadays we plan more, with the result that we’re much calmer because chores are quicker and only rarely go awry. But in farming, as in all human endeavour, the outcome’s not always optimal – sometimes for reasons within our control, and other times not. And so it was last Sunday when the Mole Creek and Chudleigh Fire Brigades went to do a hazard reduction burn of about six acres of head-high blackberry near Mersey Hill Road [1]. With two appliances and a dozen well trained and equipped fire-fighters, we planned our burnoff tactics carefully. But try as we did, using all the tricks we knew, we couldn’t get any fires going – the blackberry was too damp and green, and there was no breeze to fan the flames. We gave it our best shot, and we failed. But we didn’t get frustrated or upset. After a nice barbecue lunch, we packed up and left. We didn’t take it personally. Conditions were agin us. As they sometimes are. That’s all.

farmdoc's blog post number 199

‘To be or not to be, that is the question’ spake Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play, written about 1600. Some 400 years later, a modern Hamlet might ask ‘To burn or not to burn, that is the question’. After every major bushfire there’s an inquiry, and invariably a resultant recommendation is more hazard reduction burning. Such burning reduces the fuel load and therefore the intensity of future bushfires, However in this era of global warming and climate change, it produces CO₂ – a major greenhouse gas. No-one knows if all the hazard reduction burns produce more or less CO₂ than all the bushfires. Additionally there’s the smoke factor – people with asthma and other respiratory illnesses are at higher risk in the burn-off seasons, i.e. autumn and spring. Whatever I think about hazard reduction burning, I’m an operational member of the Mole Creek Fire Brigade, and so whenever we do a hazard reduction burn, I’m obliged to participate if available. Last Wednesday evening we did one in South Mole Creek, with two appliances and six members. Conditions were perfect – still, cool, not humid – and it proceeded uneventfully. It was a good chance to work under operational fireground conditions. I enjoyed it, as I did the barbecue and drinks supplied by the landowners to thank us. What would Hamlet have thought of a sausage and tomato sauce on bread?