The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Tuesday the 30th of January 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

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

Burning off

As a Farmer we need to have plenty of tools in the toolkit, some we only use them sparingly, and others we use all the time. Burning paddocks/stubbles is one of those tools we now pull out occasionally. In these days of no-till, we like to retain the trash from the year before, but sometimes we have to burn for a disease break, if there's too much trash, and a host of other reasons. Back when I was on the Farm, we burnt every paddock we Cropped because we didn't have trash Equipment. I remember the Massey Ferguson 80 Combines, where all you had to do was spit in front of it, and it would block up. You end up spending more time on your back unblocking the undercarriage than sowing. That's why it was very important to get a good clean burn, a hot burn, as you knew it would be a nightmare come Sowing time if there was any sort of trash around. Burning paddocks can also be a bit of fun too. And we would all have that Farmer locally, who was a little carefree with burning. A dodgy fire break or letting the paddock go before it was safe to. You know the one? Do you still use burning as a tool? Reply to [email protected]

I don't like the sound of this

I was just talking to a Farmer mate who was telling me something I thought was a bit sneaky. He has a property near Simpson in Southern Victoria, and it's pretty good Country with high rainfall. Dairy Country. His main Farming operation is in the South East of South Australia, and they use this Simpson block as a high-capacity finishing block for Lambs. They have been looking to buy some more country in this area but keep getting outbid. Apparently, a German company is buying up all his surrounding Land, planting Bluegums, and harvesting the Carbon Credits to use back in Germany as offsets. This sounds dangerous to me as it means it's quite easy for Foreign companies to buy up tracts of Australia Farming Land for this purpose. Obviously, the Land is much cheaper here, so they are buying the Land for the wrong reasons in my book by taking it out of Farming production. Imagine if this was a regular occurrence. I am sure they will Harvest the Blue Gum one day, but then again, can they? Doesn't sound right to me. What's your opinion? This Reply to [email protected]

What's your verdict?

Social media has its good and bad points. I do use it for business and to find information for this publication. It's good for keeping up with things at, say, Sporting Clubs, and there is a heap of groups that you can join. The amount of time that some of the younger generations are spending on their phones scrolling through all the social media channels is mind-blowing, I am told. It's now got to be classified as another form of addiction. I read the other day that it's affecting people's mental health. And I read in a seperate article it's creating a generation of people that have trouble solving problems. Life and business are all about solving problems, as there are plenty that present on a daily basis. How do you rate Social Media, and have you seen someone who's been affected by too much of it? Reply to [email protected]

Lamb ad vote

Thanks so much to those who took part in our Lamb ad vote on Australia Day. The winner was No 1, the Richie ad, with 52 per cent of the votes. Ad No 3 was 2nd with 40 percent, and the older style No 2 ad only got 8 percent of the vote. Thanks also to those who commented. There were some nice compliments there, too. We had over 100 people contribute. Long live the Lamb ads, minus the wokeness. 

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’m going to add PhD (Post Hole Driver) to my business card. Classic”. - In reply to our Australia Day hero story about Trevor.

• “Doesn’t get any more Aussie than the voice of cricket, Richie, one of the driest wits and insightful blokes to ever speak into a tv mic. Would have been an awesome bloke to play cricket with.” - In reply to our Australia Day Lamb ad vote.

• “Number 1 takes some topping, but number 3 sums it up at the moment. I would love to see all those celebrities again now do another ad, but they’ve been brainwashed. Anyway, Coopers in hand, loins on the BBQ; keep up the good work Daryl”. - In reply to the Lamb ad vote. PS Daryl is one of my nicknames. Long story.

• “Gday Dwain, Like land transactions, this is public record and should remain so, particularly where the government is concerned. Imagine what they could do if the information regarding buyers, sellers and dollar amounts could remain secret”. - In reply to our story on releasing the names of the people who sold Water to the Government through the buyback scheme.

• “G’day Dwain. Regarding the gov releasing the names of those who have sold water into their buyback scheme, I can't help but think it is all part of their agenda to create division – A bit of a divide-and-conquer strategy. Then again, I might be giving their ability to think too much credit”. - More on the Water buybacks story.

• “Hogget (particularly Merino) is the best-eating meat, in my opinion. Especially that from the Riverina, which has grazed those natural herbages and grasses. Nothing like it for flavour, texture and all-round good eating”. - On our story about Hogget making a comeback.

• “We have around $800 million of Grains lost during harvest in Australia”. - A quote I saw in an article. That’s a lot going out the back of the Header or falling off the stork.

• “They told me they need more used Baling Twine to keep up with their demand, Bunker Tarps, Silage Wrap, Grain Bags and Hay Netting also. They will take whatever you’ve got - even B Double loads”. - A lady was telling me about this Aussie company turning Farm plastic waste into resin. They require more used plastic waste. Their website is here.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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