The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Thursday, the 30th of November 2023

By Dwain Duxson

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Boring budgets but…

Most people aren't great at budgets. It's a unique individual that lives their personal life around a budget. But business is a little bit different, especially if you owe the bank some money. However, I still think it is a weak point within our Farming industry. Most can do a back-of-the-envelope statement of position, which can get you by, but a detailed budget takes a bit of putting together. Within our business, we have started doing a budget in the last 2 years, so we are late to the party as well. And we have someone from within the business to do all that for us. But I agree, they can be boring, and like the personal budget brigade, it takes a certain kind of individual to actually make up a budget that is useful. You almost have to be one of those spreadsheet lovers. Do you run a budget for your business, and are you very good at it? Reply to [email protected]

Wiser about being wiser

I was at a funeral last Friday, and you end up seeing a lot of people you haven't seen for some time. The rule is that when people get older, they either go greyer, balder or fatter and if they have got skinnier, then they must be crook. That's just an observation. But as a few more grey hairs start populating my head, my thoughts are that we should be listening more to the wise people around us. And on the back of investment legend Charlie Munger, who died yesterday at the ripe old age of 99, Charlie was one of a very wise man. I mean, I only listened to an interview with him from a couple of months ago, and he was one person that made practical sense. See 10 of his wise quotes below. When we were young, we thought the old people in the industry didn't have a clue or weren't up with it, and we tended to dismiss their points of view. I know I did to a point. But as you get wiser, you get wiser about which wise people to listen to. In other words, I now don't dismiss the grey hair brigade; in fact, I listen intently, especially to those whom I respect their point of view. How much more can we learn from the older, wiser people we know? Especially in Agriculture. Reply to [email protected]

Jim's cue cards

Speaking of wise old Farmers, Jim from the Riverina, who has just completed his 56th Harvest, emailed me yesterday about a story we wrote in the Farm Tender Daily titled "How do we not listen?". You can read it here. When Jim hears, reads or watches something he might think is important, he goes through the sequence, and it goes like this. Listen, hear, think, weigh it all up and decide. It's a pretty good set of cue cards to follow. So, every time we hear something that we think could affect us or our business, we should remember Jim's cue cards and their sequence. How do you filter out all the noise we hear today in this information-overloaded world? Reply to [email protected]

Overstressed

I was just on the Farm Owners Academy (FOA) webinar about stress and burnout yesterday, which was another successful event run by the FOA crew. In a straw poll of the audience, 57% said they had the onset of stress or were chronically stressed. Then, another 34% outlined they were at the burnout stage. I was shocked by the result and came away thinking that some people are doing it tough and don't really know how to break the cycle. They did an interview with a Dairy Farming lady who was at a level of Farming stress I never thought was possible. It was a very courageous effort to talk about it, and obviously, she is in a better space now. She outlined that at one stage, she was so exhausted that she slept for 2 days. I have heard some people who have been busy Harvesting and just had a rain break have spent a similar time in bed. Are you feeling stressed right now? Reply to [email protected]

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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