so whatever happened to:

"We have bred roos to the point of indolence, no speed or height in their leaps. They are plumper, basically more stupid, as most domesticated animals tend to be."

i thought this thread was going somewhere.

Yabby,

definitively that would take pages and hours of research both of which Neither of us has either the time or the inclination.

There are a number of advantages given to farmers to help their profitability etc.
Drought bonds, assistance, Loans etc. super bounty, tax benefits et al.

I read a CSIRO report a few years back that talked about issues like erosion, salinity, over grazing, over use of marginal land, desertification etc. This report showed Landsat pictures to and around stock watering holes and showed the marked land degradation that extended to tree denuding etc. On the ground testing showed that the cloven hooves caused soil compaction, less ground cover, cow pies smothered natural veg and the spreading of inedible weeds.
This lead to exposure of wild life , decrease in birds etc. In short the slow death of marginal- to medium productive land. They pointed out that in these areas top soil is 3-6 inches deep as opposed to average (Europe) of 2-6 feet (there are exceptions rocks i.e. Greece).

Given the annual loss of topsoil therefore usable land and giving it a price all this briefly adds up to we are using up our capital and the return is not= to replacement.

The conclusion was on accounting basis each tonne of wheat costs AUSTRALIA more than it gets. Beyond that there are heaps of supportive background research.

Foxy,
I got off the plane and at his car he gave me a shovel! $#*$&@

While your last site was interesting it was a trifle un-objective but it did confirm some of my previous reading.

It's position didn't have enough husbandry info to support it's conclusions. Roos can be habituated to human contact.

As discussed veterinary/ controlled breeding could ameliorate many of the cited objections i.e. Why must they be take from a wild environment? Chooks aren't, neither does that mean battery roos. My dad raised semi free rage chooks. Shedding them at night because of big pythons (4-6 meters).

Hard and fast either way without reasonable research/facts always worry me.

Examinator, you are clearly out of touch with today's agriculture.They got rid of the super bounty when Whitlam was
prime minister. Some EC is paid in drought areas, which is basically
the dole, mainly in NSW/Qld for political reasons, it has little
do with with good farming. If they cancelled it tomorrow, we might
land up with better farmers over east. In WA its a non issue, for
nobody claims drought year after year.

Today WA is the largest wheat growing state and also the most
advanced state, when it comes to new technology, like no till.
That means gone are the days of erosion etc, over cultivation
and the old European methods of farming, which caused it all in
the first place.

You can never compare our soils here with Europe, for ours are
some of the oldest, most clapped out in the world, they were
buggered long before white man tried to cultivate them. That
is certainly the case in WA. There never was 2 ft of topsoil to
start with.

Yes, cattle and sheep cause erosion, if they are overstocked.
Reduce your stocking rate, your problem goes away. Compaction
can be caused by vehicles running around, it does not need
stock. But we've solved that one too. Most compaction by stock
or vehicles, occurs at around 4". With no till we cut slits
into the soil, at about 6-7". Rainfall collects in those slits,
you can grow crops with much less rainfall then before. You
also solve your compaction problem.

To sum it up, the WA wheat industry, which is not paid Govt
handouts and is the largest in Australia, does so whilst at the
same time improving clapped out soils and does it sustainably.

So your opinions are years and years out of date.

examinator,

Of course the website I gave was unobjective.
More then just a 'trifle,' as you politely told me.
(Sweet man). The author is very anti-Kangaroo farming.

I merely thought it might add to this discussion to
present another point of view. Stir the pot - so
to speak.

Now, I'm off for my evening jog around the park -
with my neighbour. Have a good week-end!