The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Monday, the 1st of January 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

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

Tractor vs Horse

Firstly, welcome to 2024. I hope you all have a ripping year ahead. Lance, a Farmer near Warracknabeal in the Wimmera, sent in a long article, which you can read at the very bottom of the page (there are 4 pages). We have deliberately shied away from the long-form articles as you, the reader, have voted with your feet. However, from time to time, when there is a good one, we will throw it in. Besides, it's New Year's Day and what better way to start the year than reading something interesting? The article comes from a speech made by a Farmer (Mr A. W. Sefton) who Farms near Tungamah in Northern Victoria, and he talks about the comparison between his Case 15-27 Tractor against the real Horsepower, Horses. We think the article was written in the mid to late 1920s. Mr Sefton must have had one of those mathematical minds we write about because he goes into great detail with the numbers. It's well worth a read, just for perspective. Enjoy. I would be very interested in your comments. Reply to [email protected]

A grade pests

Hands up if you are having issues with Cockatoos. I have a Farming mate who sent me a photo of a big mob that he is having trouble with at his house in town. He had a scaregun going, and that was working well until someone reported it to the council, and they had to stop. I remember living in Yarrawonga, and they were always along the River and screeched from daylight to dusk. They also had a tendency to strip all the trees; they were destructive on Ovals, Golf Courses and Lawns. At a Farm level, they can be destructive to Crops and have even been known to pull the nails out of corrugated Iron Sheds. And just their screech can send you half batty. Does anyone have any tricks as to how to move them on apart from a couple of obvious ways? Reply to [email protected]

Farmer average age. Not what they tell us…

After hearing the average age of Farmers in the US was 58 and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is telling us it's something similar here, we thought we would call on you, the audience, to give us a bit of the straw poll. We twisted it a little by asking what is the average age of all the people who worked in your Farm business. And our small sample size (compared to the ABS) revealed that the average age is slightly over 43 years. This is very encouraging, and I think it's a better representation of Australian Agriculture. I would also say that anyone that works on a Farm, whether they own it or not I would consider a Farmer. Reply to [email protected]

Your replies

Below is where we take some of the most relevant comments from your replies. All quotes will remain nameless. See a few below:

• “I don't know if you have the platform to be able to do this, but I would be really interested in reading Farmers replies (top 5 or 10) from all over Australia”. - This is where this new addition stemmed from.

• “Waiting can cause a lot of frustration in a business”. - In regard to succession on the Farm.

• “We came to the conclusion that the Prime Lamb industry would breed the Wool off, and the Merino industry would become more of a high-quality product”. - In reply to the Wool on Wool off Note.

• “Oh, and also, this week, we were blessed with a few falls of poor man’s Super. Hail” - A Farmer describing Hail on his Farm.

  Reply to [email protected]

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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