The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Friday, the 22nd of December 2023

By Dwain Duxson

If you can, please get your family, friends and colleagues to sign up. See the website link here.

The Tom Bull movement

I spoke to a guy who has been buying up Primeline Maternal Ewes flat out whilst the price has been depressed. Like others, he is getting right into the biggest trend in the Sheep industry since the Aussie Whites hit the scene. It's amazing how the Sheep and Cattle industries go through all these different trends where Farmers see or hear something they like and follow each other (like Sheep) to the next big thing. Tom Bull, who runs and controls his integrated Sheep business, sells Primelines, Poll Dorsets, Tradies and Hamshire Downs, and is building a movement. But just selling Rams isn't enough. Tom has gone where very few have gone by creating meat markets for his client's offspring. Markets that are somewhat removed from the commodity market. He is tapping in to new markets, some of them export. They are heavily pushing the marbling traits of his breeds, and it seems to be growing. At our FarmTender2024 - Entrepreneurs in Farming event, we have Sam Van Asshe speaking. Sam is heavily involved in Tom's program, so we will learn more by talking to Sam. Are you going to stick with or change the breed of Sheep or Cattle you are currently running? Reply to [email protected]

What's next

I was talking to a Cropper today who said that in the Grains industry we have a problem. He said the problem is that the Headers and Fronts are too big, and we are struggling to keep the Grain away. He said Grain Storages are not keeping up, and turnaround times for Trucks are getting longer. He said the Bunker was a revolution for the Grains Storage Industry because it gave us a quicker turnaround time, and you could have multiple Bunkers running at once. But where is the next level of Grain Storage technology going to come from? What is the new Bunker equivalent that's going to take the Storage industry to the next level? My Cropping mate seems to think bigger Trucks might help, but that still doesn't solve the Storage issues. This is the bottleneck that filters back and then slows down the whole Harvest process. We could do more Bunkers, longer hours, more on-Farm Storage, etc; that would help, but I think a lot of those things are happening. Are you seeing longer turnaround times at the Silo? Reply to [email protected]

Make yourself niche

As Farming gets more complex, the need to simplify or outsource things becomes greater. If you simplify things, you're stripping things back. For example, if you are running 3 types of Sheep, get that down to 2 or 1. If you Crop 7 different Grains or Pulses, get that back to 4 or 3. Or you can make yourself niche by giving responsibilities to others. Perhaps you want to maintain the way you Farm, but you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by how much you need to do. It could be something like contracting out some of the tasks or giving some to others. As young guys in Ag, we start out as generalists, doing everything, and as we get older, we become more specialists; we work out what we want to do (and not to do) and focus more on that; this could be the niche thing. Once you trim up your focus and do the things you are good at and enjoy, you should get better results. What niches do you focus on in your Farming operation? Reply to [email protected]

Last minute Christmas present. 

A great present for the ultra-keen Farmer who is on a continual learning journey would be to buy them a ticket to our FarmTender2024 - Entrepreneur in Farming event on March 1st at Marnoo in Victoria. Tickets are $350 per person, and I promise you will get heaps of Farming takeaway. Click here to buy a ticket.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

Random and associated Ag articles and images.