In Goondiwindi on friday I attended a meeting on pulse crops (Chickpeas/mungbeans/faba beans). The highlight of the talk was discovering what some of our crops are used for overseas. In Taiwan for example they use red sorghum for bird seed. This high quality grain is for the racing pigeon industry where a reasonable pigeon can set you back $25,000.00. The best birds can command prices of up to $200,000.00. When not feeding our exported sorghum to birds the Taiwanese use it to make a 100% pure alcohol wine that apparently tastes like the Fijian version of karva! Over in the Phillipines low quality barley and wheat (weather damaged or low protein) is purchased for the cock fighting industry. Birds are tethered at nearly every home in local villages and there are reports that often children will go without food to ensure that birds are kept alive and healthy. There is a lot of money in cock-fighting which in turn can bring money into local households. Whilst in Goondiwindi David purchased a new engine for the property boat. The river is still high and walking through thigh high water over our access bridge -only one of many points, is becoming a bit annoying. All of us on this side of the levee need to be able to get in and out a little more easily and for David and I motoring down the river to the bridge where a 4WD is parked on the other side will make things a lot easier. We’ve cancelled our long weekend party however we are still boating a few friends in on the saturday for a bit of a house party. The boat will be handy to ship in a few extra supplies! I’m blogging at http://australianromancereaders.wordpress.com/ this week so please join me on this entertaining site!