Oh the 50's were grand

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By Dwain Duxson dwaind@farmtender.com.au

Oh the 50's were grand - I had an interesting conversation with a Farmer from Mangoplah in the Eastern Riverina of NSW earlier in the week.

They grow a lot of Clover Seed for some of the Seed companies, and the family has been growing it for generations. The area is a renowned Clover Seed growing region, although many have dropped the enterprise off because it's tedious. Just this year, these guys spent 3 weeks in one paddock harvesting Clover whilst old mate over the road in his big John Deere, harvested an equivalent-sized paddock of Wheat in 3 hours.

He was telling me that back in the 50's when Wool was a pound a pound, Clover Seed was also a pound a pound. I stupidly asked why Clover Seed was so expensive. He said the Sheep would grow more Wool on Clover pastures, pushing demand through the roof. Der me.

And in that time, he said his family had stockpiled 100 bales of Wool, and hear this, 1000 bags of Clover Seed, at 140 pounds per bag. So the Wool, assuming the bales were 150kg or 330 pounds, was worth around 33,000 pounds, and the Seed was worth 140,000 pounds. He said they lived off the proceeds for decades.

He said Woolgrowers would buy 8 bags of Clover Seed, costing them over 1000 pounds. You could buy a new Car for similar money back then. He also said that many people came to the area in the 50's, bought a 500 acre Farm to put in a paddock of Clover, and paid for the Land with the proceeds of the Clover that same year.

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