The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Friday, the 10th of November 2023

By Dwain Duxson

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Where's all the Agro's?

20 years ago, every young kid in Ag wanted to be an Agronomist. The Ag Colleges were chock full of these wannabe Crop Doctors. As a Farm kid, it wasn't cool to go back on the Farm back then, Agronomy was a much more desirable profession. The opposite applies today. Almost all the Farm kids at college who are off a Farm are heading back to the Farm. I was told by someone in the game that if you want a new Agro in your organisation, jump in line, wait 12 months and be prepared to open the cheque book. Agronomists were created when Farming started to become complex; Farmers realised that chemistry Farming was difficult and required a professional to help. And so the Agro was born. Now, the Agro is a crucial part of the Farm business. Very few Farmers have the time to keep up with all the changes happening in the Chemical game. If you've got a good one, make sure you look after them as their knowledge about your Cropping program is so valuable. How important is your Agronomist to our business? Reply to [email protected]

Esperance and area

I've only travelled through the Esperance (WA) Farming area once. I stayed overnight in town on a trip back to Victoria from the Dowerin Field Days and a visit to a Farming mate near Katanning. It's an impressive area and place. I'm sure the first Farming people who went there thought it was more a Farming nightmare than a mecca, which it is today. I listened to the Boots Off Logg On Podcast that featured Andrew Fowler. Andrew and his family run a large Farm in the area, and he explains how they built up their business by learning how to Farm the unique soils and get their enterprise mix right. It's worth a listen and has some great takeaways. As for Esperance, it's one of the most isolated Farming areas in the world, being 700km from Perth. But speaking to Farmers there, they are well-resourced with Ag Suppliers and Machinery Dealers in the town. There are plenty of options, and despite the distance, they are pretty competitive. It's also classified as a safe Farming area where rainfall is pretty reliable, very rarely is there a big long drought. Does anyone from Esperance want to add something? Reply to [email protected]

50 cents a Hectare

We all want to do what we can to make sure our local community is a thriving one. In the Andrew Fowler podcast mentioned above. Andrew said that in their local community of Condingup (70km East of Esperance), all the Farmers in the area pay 50 cents a hectare, and all the money goes to improving the community. Whether that be sporting facilities, Health facilities, a playground etc. He says every Farmer in the district pays the fee and is more than happy to. They also use it as bargaining power with the local shire to, say, match it dollar for dollar for those new Tennis Courts, for example. The first thing that would come to mind for many people is I pay my rates; why doesn't the shire do this for our community anyway? That's a good point. But I think sometimes you have to go above and beyond and create things yourself. And as I said before, you can use it as bargaining power to say look, shire, we pay our rates, and we are doing this, this and this, and you need to come to the party. How could they say no…. Have you ever heard of a scheme like this in a Rural community? Reply to [email protected]

Good marketing or sleazy tactics

The Optus outage was felt by many businesses and individuals on Wednesday. It makes people edgy, and they get a bit stressed about it when they have no connectivity. I remember being at the Airport once, and somehow I hadn't paid the phone bill, so they cut me off. Because my phone and internet were down, I couldn't get Telstra's number, so I had to ask a complete stranger for the number so I could ring them (which they will let you do to pay the bill). Anyway, we got the bill paid, and I was back in action. But for an hour or so and with some important calls and emails that I had to deal with, I felt as stressed as I had felt for a long time just because I couldn't communicate with anyone at work. So it's easy to say, just get over it when it doesn't affect you. I am with Telstra, so right on cue, I saw some social media advertising about how Telstra was reliable (which they are not), and Kogan was doing stuff too. Is this good marketing, or is it kicking someone when they are down? What do you think? Reply to [email protected]

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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