The Farmers Club

The “Club Notes” for Saturday, the 23rd of March, 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

My thriving hometown….not….

I'm sure we all want our hometown to thrive. It's just a natural thing, and I know plenty of you put in hours of effort to try and make that happen. The measuring stick is usually an increase in population; this means that it's a desirable place to live, and we must be doing something right. See below in the article and images section the 3rd and 4th item down, and you will get an understanding that population increase is not a measure of how your local is tracking. Well, not in this case. Corbin is saying his hometown has doubled in population in the last decade, yet all the organisations are struggling to attract people. So those who are coming to town and not contributing from a community sense. In other words, they don't really give a rats. Many might come from the city where that sense of community is next to zero, so they don't know how to act when they move to a rural setting. Corbin also mentioned the community strategic planning forum the Council ran and advertised, and only 3 people turned up. I suggest this scenario is not an isolated case, but there are communities out there where the new people are contributing. We lived in Yarrawonga for a decade, and it's a growing town and many people who came into our Cricket Club turned out to be some of the best contributors. What are you seeing in your hometown? Reply to [email protected]

Is it a Steel Post or Star Picket?

The humble Steel Post or Star Picket as we know it has been one of those Farm inventions that has revolutionised what we do. Fencing has become so much more efficient and less time-consuming because of it. They are something we probably take for granted rather than look and say what a wonderful contribution they have made to Agriculture. I Googled the Steel Post, and it gave me this: "While T-posts are more common in the United States, Y-posts are more common in Australia and New Zealand, where they are sometimes called either star pickets or "Waratahs" after the company registered a patent for them in 1926". So, it sounds like Waratah invented them and they are still the main beneficiary today as they make the best quality post. Is the Steel Post or Star Picket your default post when it comes to Fencing on your Farm? Reply to [email protected]

The Daryl Duxson story

I mentioned above that we lived in Yarrawonga, a Vic/NSW border town on Lake Mulwala, for over a decade. We have lived in a few different spots over the last 20 years, and when you move to a new area, you can sorta manipulate how you present yourself. Sport is a great way to meet new people, and I was lucky enough to be still playing Cricket when we moved there. So I would introduce myself as Dwain Duxson, but just call me Daryl. I also wrote a little gossipy column in the paper (The Square Leg Files, it was called) that used to take the piss out of people, mainly from the Cricket club, and I would give everyone a nickname, and when I took the piss out of myself, it was under the name of Dwain "Daryl" Duxson. So I am known as Daryl up that way. How the nickname came about was we had a Horse once with a few mates and it won at Hamilton one day. The race caller was Brain Blackmore, who happened to live in Marnoo when I was growing up there. He had a nuts and bolts business in Marnoo as a side hustle to race calling. Anyway, after the Horse won, he said, the owners are, hold on a sec, I know these blokes; we have Nick Bush, Sandy McGregor, Damian Drum Jock McGregor and Daryl Duxson. So that's where the nickname came from, and I ran with it. Is there a story behind where your nickname came from? 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:

• “We use Phoenix Live. My wife does the books, but we have regular meetings to go through actuals to budget. We enjoy knowing our financial position throughout the year”. - In reply to our Note on what Farm Accounting software you use.

• “Hi, Dwain. I must commend you for including the comments from some of the readers of your newsletter regarding the subscription fee”. - It’s been an interesting exercise announcing the subscription fee for this publication, and we have been publishing some or the negative and positive replies we have been getting.

• “Like your emails bud. Farming is a funny game, bud. I’m an Agronomist and a Farmer (just a farmer now), and If I spend too much time looking at COP and ROI not a chance that I would continue to be a Farmer. I know many successful business people that say we are crazy and would invest elsewhere and make more money ROI on the same capital.. and I find it hard to argue. But I know Farming, I’m good at it, and I’ve built wealth in a career I love with industry people who are kind, thoughtful and are mostly not that shifty! Spend too much time thinking and planning on COP and ROI, you may as well sell up go to the suburbs and complain about the pies rough start to the season”. - Haha, in reply to our Farm Tender Daily story on Cost Of Production. You can read it here. Good reply, bud.

• “Hi Dwain, I love your take on the social media expert and the value of their consultation”. - In reply to our Note about how Social Media experts sit in the same category as SEO experts, of which I am a massive sceptic….

• “We've used consultants on our farm a few times, but most of it has been short-lived. My take is a consultant is useful if you need to be told the time, but they will always borrow your watch to do so they recommend you buy a new watch and charge you a hefty sum for their time. Unfortunately, in Ag, there are a lot of people trying to get rich without raising a sweat, and they need to be held at arms’s length”. - A Farmer who is not a fan of consultants.

• “With the Farm, I have used Quicken and Reckon; when we purchased the Stockfeeds business, they used MYOB, so we switched the Farm over, too. MYOB was very slow moving into the cloud, which I needed to be able to do book work from anywhere. Now, in Stockfeeds, we use Vend front of counter, which feeds through to Xero, so we again switched the Farm to Xero. I find Xero is a great program, but of course, it is not solely set up for farming”. - In reply to our Note on what Farm Accounting software you use. For the record we use Xero at Farm Tender.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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