The Farmers Club

No 156 - Friday's Club Notes

Dwain Duxson
March 15, 2024

The “Club Notes” for Friday, the 15th of March, 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

Strategy needed

Most Farmers and Agronomists have the Winter Cropping plan already mapped out. Much of it will be determined by rotation. It's getting to that point now where Farmers start to think about outcomes and whether sticking to that rotation will be the best thing to do. At Farm Tender, we get a bit of a sideline view into what's going on becuase we sell Seed. And there are always some last-minute changes of mind. The change of mind can be wide and varied and might have to do with the moisture levels, current and forecasted prices, and, like what happened last year, long-range weather forecasts. At around $600, there is not a great deal of margin in Canola, but if you have subsoil moisture, and it's critical to your rotation, you might run with it. It's also one of those Crops; all it takes is a downgraded Canadian Harvest, and the price starts rising again. That's just and example of one of the many things going through the Cropping Farmer's head right now. Do you stick to your Winter Cropping plan, or do you find yourself making changes? Reply to [email protected]

The power of compounding

Discipline savers of money know the power of compounding. Money gets put away, interest or dividends are earned and reinvested, and in 20 or 30 years time, you have something decent. But I reckon compounding in Ag is huge; we don't have to look too far to find examples. Land ownership is the greatest example. It's great because it is not that liquid; Land can stay in the family for generations and grow in value each year. In the last 10 years, we have had Farm land appreciate exponentially, and those with Land have been rewarded; it's allowed some to buy more and go through that cycle again. We have spoken about how anything we do in Ag is incremental and how a little bit at a time adds up. That's compounding but in a different form. Those of us who have been around Ag for a while know that there are no quick wins in Ag; most good things take time. I know of a youngish Farming couple who are Farming 5000 acres and want to get to 30,000 acres in 25 years time. Instead of putting undue pressure on themselves to get it all quickly, they have broken that 25 years into 100 quarters. So they work on their big plan a quarter at a time. To get there, compounding will play a role. Do you use the power of compounding? Reply to [email protected]

The Small Square Bale comeback

It's actually not square, it's rectangular, but whatever it is, anyone that's in their 50s and older can remember those hot Summer days loading them onto Trucks and unloading them into a Shed. It's memorable because it was bloody hard and dirty work. Some called them idiot bricks. They went out of favour for a while as we went more bulk. But the market and the technology for small Squares has changed. So much so that they have now made a comeback. The Horse and small Acreage market has grown over the years, and the demand for small Bales has increased alongside that growth. Now we have Bale Stackers that can get the Bales from the Paddock to the Shed and then onto the Truck mechanically; we also have the Bale Baron, which presses the Bales and then stacks them in 21 Bale lots. This and other tech have changed the whole market. Do you still consider Small Squares hard work? Reply to [email protected]

Your replies

Below are snippets from some of the replies you sent in. All quotes will remain nameless. See a few current ones below:

“Hi Dwain. My favourite tractor is a 9G Chamberlain tractor that I spent a lot of time driving as a kid. I have completely restored it and go on Tractor treks with it. Pity you haven’t still got the old Chamberlains. Good Super 70s and 90s are worth between 15- 20 thousand. Multiply that by 13. Pity your old man sold them back then”. - A Farmer who loves their 9G.
“My family had a large property on the Murray River from the 1800's to recent days. It had River flats and hills and thousands of Rabbits. They employed a full-time Rabbit trapper for many years, who lived in a hut in the bush. Rabbits were sold for their meat and skins. A lot of money was made in those days. Rabbits were a source of meat for many families back then. We caught them at one stage live, to be sent away for the myxomatosis virus to be injected, which was a very cruel disease. My cousin and I used to have Rabbit races up the hall of the house with some of them at times, great fun. Nothing nicer than a bunny casserole”. - In reply to our Note on how the Rabbit Industry at one point was Australia’s biggest employer.
“Great memories of walking the hills in South Australia with ferrets, nets and bags (and a piece of foil and butter to cook a nice one while we were ferreting). We cleaned the skins, nailed them on the Southern wall of the Shed and dried them out. We sold them for 2 bob a pelt to the Akubra man. Great memories 🙂”. - Another replied talking about the Rabbit days.
“We had folks who would buy the clean carcass - that was always worth more than the skin - especially in Winter when the carcasses were at their best. Early Spring kits were also highly sought after. We used to make great money every Saturday”. - More on the now-dead Rabbit Industry.
”My parents bought a 446-acre block of gorse by a major South Island River (NZ) when they were in their late twenties. (Today we have 1200 dairy cows on it after buying the neighbour and expanding it to 350 Hectares). My mother used to shoot Rabbits out there with a short-barreled Winchester pump action 22(left-handed) off the back of a horse until one day, she put a hole in the horse's ear; the horse was never quite the same after that🤪! They took 7000 Rabbits off it in the first year. I can remember the Rabbiter's houses dotted all over the district when I was around six years old,--I'm now 70”. - A Kiwi talking about the Rabbiting days.
“I operate on drawings. Why do I operate on drawings, because I’m happy doing that, and don’t go without”. - In reply to our Note on how Farmers should take a wage. But in this case, it doesn’t suit.
Morning Dwain. One of my favourite subjects is Trees; I've planted over 80,000. 25% of my Farm in Creeks, Gutters, laneways and boundaries is made up of Trees. But the old ones are the best, 100 years plus, magnificent”. A Farmers reply to our Note on what your favourite Tree is on the Farm.
“There are ruins of a old Rabbit factory in the hills of a block we Farm would have been a big employer back in the day”. - More on the Rabbit industry.
“On one occasion, my grandfather; who was one of the diggers on the war front in France, crawling between the lines at night, bullets whistling over them constantly as they dug a trench to protect themselves, survived all that; but then on one of these Hare shoots, rested his gun on the toe of his boot and blew off his big toe”. - They had Hare runs as well as Rabbit runs.
“It’s not really a young bloke thing. It’s about employees who just don’t care. Doesn’t matter how much you pay them. On the old John Deere 2-row cotton Pickers, I built my own grease banks so that it would be easy to grease the hard-to-reach ones. Pickers get greased every morning. I was very particular. I didn’t like downtime when Cotton was White and ready to go”. - A Cotton Farmer in reply to our Farm Tender Daily story on grease. You can read it here.
“My husband hadn't been paid a wage all his life until recently, like most of that generation”. - A Farming couple talking about taking Drawings for most of their Farming lives.
“I don’t reckon you would have had too many replies about Kubota’s, but I think this is my favourite Tractor, Dwain. My Dad bought it new when I was 15, and I thought I had made it in life driving it around. Years later, I bought it from him for my Farm, and now it’s my little runabout. Despite the fact that I barely fit in the cab, it’s simple and bulletproof, and I’d be stuck without it. You wrote about Farmers having a Tractor for each job, but this little rocket covers all the odd jobs….fencing, feeding, slashing, raking, wood cutting, etc”. - In reply to our favourite Tractor note.
“There are greasers and non-greasers. And they marry each other 😅” - True that.