The top end and the west of the country appear to be seeing one of the better starts to the monsoon season with a flood watch on many of those most northern river systems.

Here locally the adverse seasonal conditions are beginning to wreak havoc on pasture growth. All livestock markets have opened very strong in the first few weeks of the new year.

Most processors are now back on site and major centres are starting to hit their straps with regards to numbers.

Dubbo on Monday, January 9, saw a yarding of 21,000 sheep and lambs.

Both sheep and lambs met with some very strong competition in a market which was quoted as considerably dearer across the board.

Here at Troy on January 12, Dubbo agents scanned almost 2500 head with cattle prices all quoted dearer than the previous sale and also stronger than the last sales leading up to the Christmas break.

In the light of the boom in sheep, lamb and cattle prices, the major centres may over the next few weeks see a spike in numbers.

This will certainly be the case if a significant rain event does not occur in the near future.

Many graziers will see the buoyant prices on offer, note the receding levels of some of their dams, and in my opinion may decide to act sooner rather than later.  

Many of the Minister for Agriculture’s comments such as a “golden era for farmers, etc” have been worked to death in the media.

What I have not seen much mention of are some of his more, for want of a better word, innovative ideas to open out vast areas of inland Australia to large scale agriculture.

Here are some of the ministers musings: The possibility of turning some of the of the northern rivers on the east coast such as the Burdekin, Tully and Herbert rivers back over the range and into inland Queensland.

Mr Joyce also raised the possibility of piping water form the highlands of New Guinea into the headwaters of the Darling Basin.

According to the minister, authorities are already considering piping natural gas along a similar route so it would be worth looking at doing the same for water. 

The minister and others have spoken for decades about the possibility of bringing water from the Ord and other water courses in northern Australia back through the centre.

Now some of these ideas may seem fanciful and far fetched but I will wager my last dollar that when astute politicians suggested the Snowy River scheme, or the Sydney Harbour Bridge, or the Ghan or the rail across Nullabor, they would have had their knockers.

We need some of those politicians today instead of those who expect the taxpayer to fund their social junkets from the public’s purse.