The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Tuesday, the 2nd of January 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

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The 2024 planner

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Failure Beans no longer

Some of you would know there is a company out there called Australian Plant Proteins that grinds down Faba beans and turns them into Protein Powder. We have written about it before, and what a wonderful value add for the Faba Bean industry. So much so that they are partnering with a number of Food companies that use their Bean additive as a protein source. One of the company directors sent me a photo of one of the products they support in Faba Bean Milk; see the image below. Now, before we go further, I have a bit of an issue with these guys and others using the word Milk because it's not. That's another story for another day, but with the success of Soy, Almond and now Oat products that go into Coffee, it's fitting that a new Faba Bean version has hit the market. And don't forget that of all the above mentiioned products, Farmers grow these and should be proud to do so. IT will be interesting to see if it takes off, and I am assured that the Beans for this product have been sourced from the South East of SA and the Wimmera/Mallee area from Vic. Faba Beans have had a chequered past, hence the nickname Failure Beans. But now, they are a valued rotation Crop for many Farmers, are great for Livestock and now they are entering the Human consumption space. Failure Beans no longer. Reply to [email protected]

The old Granite Rock trick

I have heard some stories from the past about how Woolgrowers have added weight to Wool Bales. The water trick was famous, and adding Dags to the bottom of the Bale was one that many used to follow. All this adding weight to Wool Bales through artificial means has been scaled back over the last decade or more. You can no longer get away with it, and now Woolgrowers realise that it's harming the industry as a whole. But the best story I heard came from a reply to one of our stories about Wool where one of the replier's forefathers put a Granite Rock in a Bale, and it was back in the time when we used to send all our Wool to England. Well, the guys in England weren't too pleased with the Farmers attempt for extra weight, so they sent the rock back and docked the Farmer all costs out of the Wool proceeds for doing so. What else has been added to Bales to increase the weight? Reply to [email protected]

The essential yearly planner

Plans are good, and I think it's a good exercise to go through to set out a rough plan for the year ahead. As most Farm businesses have more than one person involved, I think it's very important that we mark key dates down in the calendar for important events. One key event which we fully encourage is holidays. I think each Farmer involved in the Farm business needs to plan their holidays in advance so that everyone else knows exactly when it all happens. Like we do in non Farming businesses. Our people at Farm Tender have 4 weeks' holiday, and we make sure everyone takes their 4 weeks and nominates the times, but we also have to match it in with our needs and wants as a business. In other words, we can't have 2 out of the 5 salespeople off in the absolute peak periods. It's a balancing act that one. Back to the Farm business, it's probably not feasible for anyone to be off when it's Harvest or Shearing time, but when it's not, it's open season. Have you planned for key events to happen in 2024 already? If not, January is a great time to do so. 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 read with interest your article on lease rates. I am involved with a Yorke Peninsula cropping business. Lease rates of $400 per acre in good cropping country are getting more common”. - In relation to $250 Lease rates we reported last week.

• “I also use soil tests that are done from GPS sites, which is why I found out that the fertility was being run down”. - On the topic of Leasing Country to Farmers.

• “Why is it always Farming and industry that must make the production

  improvements to cover the never-ending rises in government and government agency charges?” - General question.

• “Yes, it's Lentil central. Some amazing gross margins over the last couple of years”. - Talking to a reader about growing Lentils on the Yorke Peninsula.

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End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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