The Farmers Club

The “Club Notes” for Thursday, the 28th of March, 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

Where the best Farming decisions are made

We penned a great story about a great Agricultural inventor called Austin Ryan in our Farm Tender Daily newsletter during the week. You can read it here. Austin was an inventor, and I'd say it occupied his mind 24/7. But one thing that was mentioned in the article struck a chord with me. It was when Austin invented his first Airseeder that he came up with the idea whilst on a family holiday in Portarlington. I am of the belief that we don’t give ourselves enough time to think, and when we do, it’s in our usual workplace domain. When we need to do some real serious thinking, we are best to remove ourselves from the workplace, I mean off the Farm and somewhere you like going, a place where you feel relaxed. It could be the beach, it could be at a waterhole in the River, it could be anywhere you desire. It just needs to be anywhere other than the Farm. Why? Because you will get sidetracked. I personally love time away from my home office to work from a different location for a few days. It just freshens you up, and it does get the great matter going. So in 2024, make sure you plan for a few days away of thinking time; you will be amazed at what you come up with. Where is your relaxing place? Reply to [email protected]

Cash Flow or Equity you choose

If you are lucky enough to own your Farm or even part of it, you have some kind of wealth, and it’s called equity. A great thing to have in your corner. As Farmers most build a business around that Land asset, which some run as a separate entity and some don’t. Our equity has been growing with the appreciating Land and without much input from us. It’s a magical thing. The business side of things needs to make revenue and also turn a profit. It’s a lot more hard work than the equity thing. Now, equity can be leveraged to manipulate cash flow, and many Farmers do that. But a good Farm cash flow business is mainly about growing products from the Land, and remember the Plumber in town only has a cash flow business that is generated by a service. The best-case scenario is to have both, but If you had to choose between the two (and it might depend on what stage in life you're at), what would you take? Lots of equity with negative cash flow or less equity with a thriving cash business? Reply to [email protected]

Looking after the wannabe Farmer

We live in an area an hour and a bit out of Melbourne. Our area is more of a tourist area; people flock to the area, especially on Weekends. Many of our neighbours are what we call Melbourne or wannabe Farmers. There are heaps of them; they might have 20, 50, or 100 acres to sorta potter around in. Most have a Tractor, some Sheep, some Cows and maybe a Horse. Many are absentee in that they work in Melbourne and reside there during the week. These people are smattered in between real Farmers. Most have a reasonable amount of money to spend on their Property. What they are are wannabe Farmers. They are pretty keen to learn even though they really have no idea. And if any of them ask for help, we are happy to teach them a few things about Farming and give them the pros and cons of running Sheep say. They all spend money at the local Ag Stores and buy Machinery through Farm Tender or the local Dealers we have around here. Most have a Ute or a Side by Side (UTV). Even though they aren’t real Farmers, they are still important to the Rural community. Sure, like us, they are never going to make a living off the Farm, and sure, if this Land was in the hands of real Farmers, it would be better utilised. However my way of looking at it is that we should encourage these people as they really are interested in what we do. There is a bit of a trend now of cashed up Tradies buying small Farms also. Do you know of any wannabe type of Farmers in your area? Reply to [email protected]

Fortnightly Hay Report

See here the latest Hay Report. Hot off the keyboard today.

Your replies

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

• “I think when you get to 30 to 40 years of age you want the Ute or car that you grew up with when you were a small child”. - In reply to our note on how the older Machinery and Vehicles become more valuable. But we question whether the current Gear will ever become collector’s items.

• “I have always benefited from supporting my local community and I would recommend it to everyone”. - In reply to our story on different types of Rural communities.

• “Pitching in as a volunteer at a busy (working) bee teaches everyone, particularly the kids, that you don't always do things for money - an important life lesson”. - How very true, there are always kids at the working bees. Great reply.

• “I have a few clients that are heavily into Cattle (I’m no expert though!). I am not sure that Angus is superior to other breeds in production terms (perhaps they are). But I do think the person (people) that devised the Angus marketing strategy deserve a statue somewhere. The marketing of Angus as a breed has been extraordinary”. - We have had many conversations about this and they really have done a great job. Good comment.

• “I bought a house in Perth to educate the kids and joined the local tennis club. I and a couple of others were the only ones to sit down at the end of the day and socialise. It took a couple of years to convince the others that having a few drinks didn’t mean you were an alcoholic, and at the end of that period, the club became more focused on the get-together at the end of the day than the tennis. It became a lot of fun, and I got to know people from very different walks of life and are very good friends with so many of them to this day. The socialising is still the main attraction of the club, and it attracts new members like a magnet. Making the commitment and time is so worth the effort”. - Agree, like when we played Cricket, it wasn’t all about the Cricket, we went better talking about the game for the six hours after…. People need to have fun

• “It always amuses me when I see this stuff, having been through the demise of our own National Grain marketer and the comments of a younger group of farmers who seem to think AWB was working for someone else, that our industry is now completely under the umbrella of these giants (GrainCorp, ADM, Louis Dreyfus, etc) who have the ability to clip your ticket every time a tonne of grain is produced”. - One Farmer talking about how the Grain Marketing side of things has changed.

• “Hello Dwain, We ran Herefords for as long as I can remember. We switched to Angus when we moved South for the price plus they were everywhere around us. I found most Herefords an easier breed to work with but the Angus seem to be better mothers. They are super protective and consistent in milk production”. - Another replier talks about how Angus is becoming the dominant breed.

• “I suggest the major turning point was when Maccas introduced the McAngus. Immediately, literally millions of non-farm people knew a breed of Cattle. It’s absolutely priceless advertising”. - A Farmer talking about where he thought the turning point for the Angus breed was.

• “Here's a photo (see below) of Dad's twin box hydraulic Woolpress, which he made before the Lycos became popular. If he could do some form of self-pinning, we would still use it today”. - The self-pinning Woolpress was a great Aussie invention. See the image of the home made Woolpress below.

• “Good Morning, Dwain. Your correspondent touched on a nerve.  Angus and Angusx are now what is promoted as the ideal in today’s cattle markets - to the exclusion of all other breeds. As a Limousin breeder (the breed that consistently out-performs the others in carcase competitions)  I fail to understand why livestock auctioneers are so reluctant to use this as a selling point.  The Angus Society deserves full credit for the incredible progress in modernising the breed from the rangy black Friesian (American Bloodlines) to an animal now so closely resembling a Black Limousin”. - A Cattle Breeder who loves her Limosins but acknowledges the progress of the Angus breed.

• “Hello Dwain. There is a lot of nostalgia in people wanting to relive their childhood or perhaps those of their parent's era. (I’m included here to some extent!) So you will find that about 40-50 years after something is produced, it becomes popular again as a collectible”. - That’s pretty right, and history just keeps repeating itself. It's funny how us humans work.

• “I thought 1980s and 90s plastic junk Cars wouldn’t ever be popular, but look at some of the serious money Holdens, Fords and even Datsuns are pulling now! I don’t know how they go about repairing plastic dashboards and electronic instruments, but that is not deterring some people”. - More on the topic of what is old is new again.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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