The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Monday, the 23rd of October 2023

By Dwain Duxson

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

Do you need a Farm board?

I know a a handful of family Farming operations that have boards. From all reports, those that have had a Farm board wouldnt go back to not having one. They are useful for formalising things and bring in other ideas or opinions about the Farm business. We have had one in our Farm Tender business just on 12 month ago and what it does is keep people accountable. But boards can be stuffy and stifle things if they’re let to go too corporate. I spoke to one CEO of a large Cattle opertaion in Queenslandand he said the baord was holding the business back becuase some of the people had been there to long, and some didnt have the right knowledge of the industry. It’s not an easy job to find the right people, but if you started out small, say 3 and see how it went it would be worth and experiment. What’s your thoughts about a Farm Board? Reply to [email protected]

Do you need a Farm board?

I know a handful of family Farming operations that have boards. From all reports, those with a Farm board wouldn't go back to not having one. They are useful for formalising things and bringing in other ideas or opinions about the Farm business. We have had one in our Farm Tender business for just on 12 months now, and what it does is keep people accountable. But boards can be stuffy, and they can stifle things if they're let to go too corporate. I spoke to one CEO of a large Cattle operation in Queensland, and he said the board was holding the business back because some of the people had been there too long and some didn't have the right knowledge of the industry. It's not easy to find the right people for your board, but if you start out small, say 3 people and see how it goes, it would be a worthwhile experiment. What are your thoughts about a Farm Board? Reply to [email protected]

Registrar of part-time Farm workers

In our articles about finding Farm workers, a couple of people who replied have suggested that someone comes up with a registrar of people willing to work on Farms on a part-time or casual basis. It's a good idea, but I have my doubts as to whether it could work. Marketplaces are hard to get going because they are 2 sided things that need volume. Someone would have to organise it, and it would require some form of technology so you could match up Farmers with casuals that are local. Both people who pitched the idea said there would be retired Farmers that they knew would be interested. And I suppose where does part-time work start and end? Do you reckon something like this would have legs? Reply to [email protected]

Keep refining

I was in the thinking chair and giving some thought about databases. We all have databases in that we all keep contacts on our phones. Remember the days when you could remember people's number and just dial it? I mean, I had to ask my wife Paula's number the other day. So, getting back to databases in business, I reckon we need to constantly keep building and then keep refining our database. So what I mean by that, is the more we refine, the more we find our audience. An example of this is our Farmer Tender database, which has over 69,000 members, and we have between 7,000 and 9,000 unique visitors a day, roughly 12 percent unique views. Our Farm Tender Daily newsletter goes out to 48,500 people, and we get around a 45 percent open rate. Then we have this newsletter (The Farmers Club), which has 1,200 members, and we get a 78 percent open rate. See what I mean about refining. Does it matter to you if you have a database or not? Reply to [email protected]

And then there's social media

Alot of people value social media by the number of followers they have, the number of friends, or the number of likes they get. But for business, is social media an asset or a big waste of time? Personally, I think it can be both. We use social media for our Farm Tender business, and I would say it's worth putting a little bit of time and throwing a small amount of $$ into it. We do get results. And then there are the ones that do extremely well out of it and rely on it for pretty much all of their leads. But, unlike building your own database, your social media database is not really yours. They have and can take it away from you if you do something wrong. So, being reliant on it is a big risk. I think in Agriculture, Farmers respond to a few old-school mediums better, the good old phone call, an email or a text message. How much do you use social media for business? Reply to [email protected]

End of message.

Dwain Duxson

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