Episode 11 - Jason's Back

Wow, what a kick, and did you see Freddy Faba take that mark?

Hi it's Billie Bean again - you've dropped in at a VERY exciting moment. Freddy's about to try for his first goal ever. Footy's a big part of our life down here on the farm - it's nearly finals time and the competition's hot between the "Crop Cannibals" and the "Pasture Pirates".

Freddy's good at thinking of strategies for the "Crop Cannibals" but he's never kicked a goal before. He's got the football, he's on the burst - will he score that winning goal?

"RUN!" roared Mike Medic.
"VRRRROOOOOMMM" came the trailbike.
We all dived for cover - "Is everyone O.K.?" I asked as I pulled myself out of the mud.
"Yeah," echoed a chorus of muffled muddied voices " It looks like Jason's back."

"Hey there son," came the voice of Mr Jones "I'm over here. Have you been taking care how you ride that thing?" he pointed at the trailbike. "You don't want to ruin your school holidays with an accident."

"Sort of," mumbled Jason guiltily. "Hey Dad, how's the season shaping up?" he said, changing the subject quickly. "Will we get a good wheat cheque? Do you think I'll be able to go to Japan?"

"Lets have a look around, leave your bike here and we'll pick it up on the way back." replied Mr Jones. I managed to get on the ute without being noticed. The others got left behind and went back to finish the footy match.

As we drove around from paddock to paddock, Mr Jones explained about the rotations he'd applied on the farm. "Well the wheat's been planted in last year's lupin paddock. The lupins should have bumped up the nitrogen in the soil and that should bump up the protein in the wheat." Mr Jones went on to explain about how he was rotating cereals with pastures, canola and lupins to give him a variety of products, to control pests and diseases and to build up nitrogen levels in his soil. He showed Jason the new chickpea paddock. "If these grow well we'll have another grain legume to fertilise our soil and boost our income," he explained. "We want ours to be a sustainable farm," he concluded.

"That's great, Dad," said Jason, "but will we earn enough this year to pay for my ticket to Japan?"

"I'll tell you what, Jason," his Dad replied. "Why don't we try to work that out right now." They started calculating yield potential, prices per tonne, costs of production and income per hectare.

As for me, I'm going back to what's left of the footy match. Did Freddy kick that goal? Have the Cannibals beaten the Pirates? Now that's another story...