The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Monday, the 20th of November 2023

By Dwain Duxson

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We'll form a human Chain

We lost a great mate on Saturday, Don Murphy. A true bush legend and former Livestock Agent. I will write in detail about the life of Don Murphy in our Farm Tender "Daily" email, which comes out at 9 pm (EDST) tonight. This is a story from years ago when the O'Sullivan boys at Wal Wal (Vic) were splitting up the Farm. I and a few others were helping Don do an independent split up of the Sheep in the yards. Now I remember the yards weren't great, a bit fragile in spots. We had all the Ewes sorted, and it was time to split up their Wethers. It was a pretty straightforward operation, through the draft, with one each way. We got them done and counted, and it all worked out fine. Then, for some reason, we had to shift a mob out of the shed, down the ramp and into a yard off the side. But there was no gate and Sheep down the bottom. If you ran them straight out, they would just get boxed up. Anyway, Don yelled, "I sink (he said sink instead of think) we'll form a human chain", so Don, myself and another stood at the bottom of the ramp to guide these big Merino wether off to the side. You guessed it, the big Wethers just ran down the ramp and jumped through our human chain and got boxed up with the others, so it was back to square one again. Lesson for me. No more human chains in the Sheep Yard. See below a photo of Don Murphy with our son Raleigh. RIP Don. Reply to [email protected]

Can't live without

Have you ever bought something or created something where you have thought, how the hell did we operate without that? We only have a small 120 acres here and have just sold the Sheep Agistment rights out to a young builder who is super keen on Farming. When we first got here, there was a lot of work to do, and my brother-in-law kindly lent us his Backhoe. So with that, we watered the joint. We have a bore, which has pristine water that we put through the house. It's magic stuff. We also pump it to a header tank on the hill, and it gravity feeds to all the troughs in the paddock. So the Backhoe was the best thing. They needed it, so that went back. We then bought a Can-Am UTV, and that has simply been the best thing for this little Farm. It's very undulating and has a bit of rock in place, and you would stuff a Ute in no time if you drove around in the paddocks here. So without doubt that is the best thing we have ever bought. What's the best thing you have bought or created for your Farm? Reply to [email protected]

Buying up Aussie bush icons

What's with our billionaires buying up our iconic bush clothing brands? Gina is set to buy the Driza-Bone and the RB Sellers brands. And big Twiggy has just bought Akubra, the iconic Kempsey (NSW) based Hat business. Twiggy also bought the RM Williams Clothing brand a few years back, and my wife Paula tells me some of the new line of RM boots are to die for. I've heard from others that they have taken RM Williams to a new level. Bega bought back Vegemite from an International conglomerate. So it's good that we have these household name brands stay or come back into Aussie ownership. The more manufacturing we do here, the better off we will be. What's your go-to clothing brand? See the story below. Reply to [email protected]

Get your Monday off the a great start

I’ve sent you this before and I played it a couple of time over the weekend. Just play it once and turn down the volume or put the headphones on and a guarantee it will get your working week off to a great start. You will bounce out the door. Thanks Joe Merino. Click on the link here. Reply to [email protected]

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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