The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Wednesday, the 20th of December 2023

By Dwain Duxson

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

The data dilemma 

Collecting data for Breeding values is bloody hard work, and I am sure there are times when Seedstock Producers ask themselves if it's all worthwhile. Yesterday, I was speaking to my brother Ben, and I asked what he has been up to, and he said they had just finished Foot-scoring 4000 Ewes. So, assuming they all still have 4 feet, that 1600 bits of data they have to submit, or maybe it's just an overall score for the quality of the 4 feet, I will have to ask him. Anyway, they did it all with a Peak Hill Handler, so at least it wasn't across the board. Most buyers of Rams and Bulls now demand this data, so if you don't provide it, then they will go to someone who will. You would want to be selling a few Rams or Bulls to justify the time and expense. And they keep finding new traits to collect for. It's the old adage: if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Are you finding there is more and more work in collecting data? Reply to [email protected]

Farming with a different motive

I was listening to Mark Bouris's The Mentor podcast yesterday morning, and he had Justin Webb on from Agriwebb, which is our second favourite Livestock Management software platform behind Mobble. No, seriously, it was a pretty good interview about a data company that is starting to make an impact globally. But it was the host, Mark Bouris, who pricked my ears with something he said. Mark has a Farm at Lismore in Northern NSW and runs Cattle. He said this, "I make sure I sell enough Cattle each year to maintain my Primary Producer status so I don't have to pay the Land tax. That's his motive for running Cattle. It would be interesting to know what his Land Tax bill would have been and whether he had to attribute that saving as income to the Cattle business. So, for a sharp-minded business guy, he has no idea how his Cattle business is performing, and he doesn't seem to care either, just as long as he meets his main objective. What is your main motive for Farming? Reply to [email protected]

No set path

When we write an article on our Farm Tender website's new section, we just grab related images off the internet. Once, I wrote an article about Cattle and just grabbed an image of a few Bulls from a stud here in Australia and put that article on our social media pages. I then got an email from Janine, who does the marketing for this particular Cattle stud. She kindly asked me to take the image down, and I replied with an apology and immediate action. We had a site at the Bendigo Sheep Show, and Janine called by. We got chatting, and she said she was the lady who asked me to pull her client's photo down. So, after we had a chat, we agreed to have a meeting to see what they could do for our Farm Tender business from a marketing perspective. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Janine is now on a 6-month contract to build our new Banner Advertising system for our Farm Tender website and is doing a ripping job. So, the moral of the story is that people can come into your life in many different ways. There is no set path. Has someone come into your life from somewhere unexpected? Reply to [email protected]

Ballarat Sheep and Lambs - A bit of pre-Christmas slowdown at Ballarat.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

Random and associated Ag articles and images.