The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Monday, the 18th of December 2023

By Dwain Duxson

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The X9 addiction 

We have seen and heard alot over Harvest about the John Deere X9 Headers. To those that have or drive them they are something that has never been seen before, such is their capacity and ability to stip some massive tonnages. See some snippers from an article below. These guys (The Farmers in the article) used 8 John Deere S series Headers last year and had 3 X9s working this year and got the job done just as quickly and saved 50,000 litres of Diesel over 8900 Hectares at North Star in NSW. We have been a bit critical of the amount of tech in the newer Gear, and that doesn't change, but this is a story about capacity, and these Machines are next level. I bet Case, New Holland, Gleaner, etc, would be scrambling to replicate this sort of capacity and efficiency. There is a bit of an X9 addiction going on. It's a free article from Farmonline, you can read it here. Reply to [email protected]

Scarcity makes you think

I can recommend the Boots Off Log On podcast featuring Chris Wheatcroft, who is the CEO and founder of a business called Rural West. There are so many takeaways from this podcast that I am going to listen to it again this week. Chris is a student of Human psychology and executes his skills to work out how Farmers think. They are business and financial counsellors for Farmers. One comment during the podcast caught my attention, and it might have been from the host, David Egeton-Warbuton, who is the CEO of Agrimaster. It went something like this, "When times are a little tougher, people go looking for a way to get better. Scarcity makes you think. You generally make dickhead decisions with money in your pocket". We do see this in Farming; as long as the Farmer isn't under the pump completely, we do see better decisions being made when there is a little bit of pressure. Complacency can set in when things are going good. So the question is, how do we keep that "edge" working consistently? Reply to [email protected]

The post-Harvest review

I saw a good idea the other day, and it was a post-Harvest review. Charlie Blomfield, a Farmer from Canowindra in NSW, summonsed his team in for a post-Harvest review. Down the bottom of this page, I have put Charlie and his team's sticky notes with all the successes, failures, improvements, and opportunities. It's something you should do within a day or two after Harvest when it's all fresh in your mind, or it could be something you do over a few beers in the initial stages of the cut-out. If the beer is on, you know all the team will be there, but make sure it's the first thing you do, as a couple of hours in, things could get a little messy. This sort of review gives the business owner and decision-makers some fodder to use for next season. It's not too late if you have been finished Harvest for a while now to do some form of Harvest review; it could even be done over email or on Zoom if people have moved on. Just ask your crew to give you 3 successes, failures, improvements and opportunities. It could be something you do at every major farming period during the year. Eg Shearing, Cropping,etc. Do you do a Harvest review? Reply to [email protected]

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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