Happy Peak-Summer Season

The sun is out, kids have been on holidays, cicadas are buzzing, hoop pines are dropping their seed, and it’s now hot and humid with the grass growing before your eyes. Occasionally a random King Parrot drops in. The days are long and the nights humid. Hope that you’ve been having a good Peak-Summer Season.

Our western four seasons of Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring don’t do justice to the subtle but significant changes throughout the year. So, for a while I’ve been thinking of this as the Peak-Summer Season. When I was younger, I use to think of this as Sunburn Season which I’ll go into a bit more later.

If you are wanting to connect with the land where you live, I think it is essential to recognise the changes happening through the year with Nature around you, rather than a specific date on the calendar. Nature and seasons are fluid. While there are similarities from year to year, they are same- same, but different. And this is one of the reasons why I’ve been thinking about seasons differently, to connect with the land on which I live and of which I’m the current custodian.

For me, Peak-Summer Season starts sometime in the second half of December, before the solstice, includes Christmas and New Year and goes through the peak grass growing period of January and into early February. The change from Jacaranda Storm Season to Peak-Summer, coincides with my Green Date / season break.

While I said that Peak-Summer for is mostly green, with grass growing madly, a Tropical Peak-Summer (hot, humid, lush), there is an occasional year that it doesn’t rain during this period, a Western Peak-Summer Season (hot, dry, dusty). And then there tends to be a couple of years that Peak-Summer starts as a Western Peak and good rain falls, transforming it to a Tropical Peak-Summer Season.

From a feed budgeting perspective, I will budget my grass through to this season. I match the animals I have during Winter so that they have plenty of dry grass to get through to the beginning of Peak-Summer. I am quite conservative to this point and sleep well, knowing that I can confidently get through to here. If I’m not under some handy rain and I end up having a Western Peak-Summer, I still have enough dry grass to get me through to mid-January when cattle sales start running again and I can do some further destocking as needed. My paddocks will have been chewed a bit harder, however this is only occasionally, and I still will have good ground cover.

From a grazing management perspective during a Tropical Peak-Summer, which is what I am having this year, there are a number of things that I do.

·       The first thing is that because the grass is growing very quickly, I will have quick moves so that paddocks are grazed, and then the mob moved on to fresh feed, and that the grass can regrow before the mob re-grazes that paddock.

·       Liveweight gains during this season have the potential to be the fantastic. To reach this potential, I am very conscious that I don’t want to be limiting in anything.

·       Water needs to be good especially with hot weather. Forecasts are good with giving a heads up about heat waves. When this happens, I will avoid using a couple of paddocks that have very little shade and/or paddocks that my water flow rate to the trough is sub optimal.

·       Cattle Ticks and/or Buffalo Flies can be in high populations and can limit animal performance, so I keep an eye out for these parasites and manage as needed.

·       Minerals during Peak-Summer can be the limiting factor from an animal nutrition perspective, so I use either free-choice minerals or a broad-spectrum mineral with extra sulphur. The sulphur also helps with parasite management.    

In the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Northern Europe, Mid-Summer is celebrated. Midsummer, also known as the summer solstice, has been celebrated for centuries as a time of abundance, fertility, and connection to nature. The holiday has its roots in ancient pagan traditions, where bonfires were lit to ward off evil spirits and ensure a successful harvest. Over time, Midsummer became associated with feasting, dancing, and rituals honouring the sun and the Earth. Today, Midsummer is still celebrated in various forms around the world, with traditions ranging from Maypole dancing in Scandinavia to bonfires in the British Isles. It continues to be a time of joy, community, and celebration of the natural world.

When I was younger, I use to think of this season as Sunburn Season. It’s hot, and for many people having a break over Christmas, it’s the first time in the season they go swimming. Hence, Sunburn Season. It’s not hard to spot those from the land, or those on the tools, with their farmer tan: V neck, tanned forearms and distinctive boot and sock bare feet. And then you the bright red bodies that are a few days into their holiday and think, that’s gotta hurt!

As a kid, we didn’t get to the beach very often. While I loved playing outside in the Christmas School Holidays, the best shade we had was under a couple of 100-year-old hoop pines. These trees provided beautiful shade on hot days, however they also provided millions of small, winged seeds with an extremely sharp spike. Not good for bare feet.

As my kids were growing up, Peak-Summer was a time that as a family we would sit down as a family and work out some goals for the coming year. Importantly, these goals were captured on paper via words, pictures and colour.

I’ve described what Peak-Summer is for me and how it relates to where I live. Some of you will be able to relate to most of what I’ve said. Others, however, living in different parts of the country, will have different observations for this Peak-Summer Season. Therefore, your challenge is to observe what is happening around you, and then work out how to use these observations to make meaningful decisions.

Whatever season you are having, and in the tradition of Midsummer, I wish you all the best for this coming year.