----- Original Message ----- From: Allan Balliett
> The A.P. figures are always thrown around as something impressive. > This is neither here nor there, really, but it does fall on a > reporter to investigate their facts. It seems that this 2,000,000 > acres of BD in Australia is unsubstantiated. Allan I have just been informed by one of the AP disciples that the group puts down well in excess of 200,000 horns of 500 each year. You can do the sums on that lot. He must have some big operators out there somewhere! It seems pretty much a secret society deal with AP in total control ( he also OWNS the Demeter trade mark for all of Australia) Our BDFGAA (Cheryl Kemp) has 0ver 600 members - predominantly horticulture and viticulture but gaining numbers of broadacre farmers - wheat , sheep and cattle so you would probably be able to substantiate the 2 million ?? Incidentally the informant above says he had three or four wonderful years then a gradual decline of productivity and has now (after about 8 years) hit the wall, hay cuts down to almost nothing, poor animal health, no feed so the cattle are away on someone else's place, soil colour and structure gone, its not working anymore! We had some posts from Hugh Lovel on the list about this last year ( or maybe further back ) Hope this is of interest Lloyd Charles
