The Farmers Club Newsletter

Thursday’s thinking and trends for the 14th of September 2023

By Dwain Duxson

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Farming Partnership ends on a good note.

The high-profile Bulla Burra collaborative Farming outfit is no longer. When John Galdigau and Robin Schaefer and their families combined all their resources to form the Bulla Burra Collaborative Farming outfit, they had an exit strategy in mind. Today that came to fruition. And best of all, it ended on a good note. I spoke to John a couple of months ago about speaking at our FarmTender2024 - The Business of Farming event (we have locked him in), and he alerted me that the partnership was ending. It will be an interesting interview with John to uncover all the pluses and minuses of such a partnership. Well done to both families. Read the article ABC article here. See the image below.

Governments messing with Farmers margins.

This is a classic case of Governments setting policy without knowing the outcomes to the most important stakeholders. One of our Farm Tender staff was talking to an SA Farmer who was looking to buy some Irrigation Water for a Crop. He was expecting to pay $30 to $50/ml but was told it was $200/ml because of the $3.1 billion in buybacks from the Government. Because of that, they said there is a shortage, even though everything is full. Hence the price rise. So, at $200/ml, compared to $50/ml, takes a lot of the margin out of producing things. You just have to shake your head sometimes.

Counting the Rams

I was talking to a Ram Breeder the other day, and we got talking about how the Ram sales have been this year (mixed bag, but mostly positive). Like all breeders with an upcoming Auction, they were nervous but thought they had it covered. I said why is that? He said, "because I have rang all my existing clients and have a count on how many Rams they are buying in total. I just don't know how much they are going to pay, but I can live with that". I think all stud stock breeders should be doing this every year, no matter the market conditions. Do you ring all your customers before your Bull or Ram sale each year?

Going back to simple

It's interesting how things go full circle. Before I start, I am not anti-tech, quite the opposite. I am about things that work. We wrote in our Farm Tender "daily" back in March about how there is some resistance to tech. Read here. I've kept my ear to the ground on this subject since we wrote about it, and I am seeing more examples of it. Even some young Farmers have admitted they went to Bull at a gate with tech and, in many instances, have ditched in exchange for things they know that work. I was listening to a Podcast (The Modern Acre, episode 300) on how the Nuss boys have turned their back on Organics because it's too complex and the margins were higher with their conventional Farming. A Text, an email, and, best of all, a good old phone call still does the trick.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson - [email protected] 

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