Lifetime farming the land
A COLOURFUL character and a favourite regular at the sheep and cattle markets around Warwick is Bill Pentecost. Now, well into his 80s, Mr Pentecost has been farming the land in the Southern Downs region for many years.
Mr Pentecost said these days his lot is more of a hobby farm, but still maintains more than 2000 hectares near Tara, with the help of his nephews.
“It’s a tough game,” he said.
“Battling the weather is always a major factor in how things go.
“It’s always a lot of work, and whether it works out or not is up to a lot of different factors.
“There’s an old joke that goes, ‘a farmer won the lotto, and when someone asked him what he was going to do with the money, he replied that he’d keep farming until it was all gone’.” Mr Pentecost said his nephews leased the Tara property and ran 300 cattle and 400 sheep.
“While it’s been a pretty bad season here, it hasn’t been too bad out west,” he said.
“I had to sell a lot of my stock here.
“Just to be able to afford feed to feed the rest and keep them from dying.
“They tell me it used to rain in Freestone before I moved there.” At 86, Mr Pentecost is still doing all the work on the farm himself.
“I have to, there’s no help,” he said.
“And I can’t afford to pay anyone.” Mr Pentecost said he had one major issue with society today.
“They expect farmers to work 22 hours a day, as well expecting us to manage box thorn and tree pear, ” he said.
“Then you’ve got dole bludgers walking around doing absolutely nothing and getting paid for it.
“They’re the ones who we should be cutting all the box thorn.”