The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Thursday, the 22nd of February, 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

8 days to go - over 170 tickets sold so far

Our FarmTender2024 - Entrepreneurs in Farming event is not far away. Click here for more info. See the media release here. Read some of the questions we are going to ask Danny Thomas, Rob Dawes, Claire Booth, Andrew Weidemann, David Jochinke and John Gladigau.

Multi uses

See the first image below. John Pascoe is asking on Twitter what it would cost to replace his 7-stand Woolshed. Some said $700k, $800k and sure, you could pay more. For those who are attending FarmTender2024 - Entrepreneurs in Farming will be treated to a lovely big and shiny new Woolshed at Glendemar. You can ask Brother Ben how much it costs because he hasn't told me yet. Anyway, a Woolshed can just have a single use. Say you Shear twice a year for 8 days, that's 16 days for the year use. My view is that when we build one of the state-of-the-art monstrosities, we need to be thinking of multiple uses. Three quarters through the build, Ben thought it wasn't big enough and added another bay, and now they can hold the Ram sale in there; we are having FT2024 there, and I am sure they will have other events; it could be a lunch/meeting place for staff if you had a not separate office. Some would have it so they could do all their Sheep work in the as well. We can't only think of today; we have to build these things for the future. When you build some infrastructure for the Farm are you thinking multi-use? Reply to [email protected]

Marketing brilliance

We wrote a piece in the Farm Tender Daily about having to tell our story to the non-Ag people. Take a read here. We had replies of, yes we have to, and, no I can't be bothered. One person said we have to get them when they are young and he pointed out how John Deere does the toys thing. That got me thinking, and yes, he is exactly right. The John Deere toy thing is a huge success, and I am sure it will massively reward them when those kids grow up and can afford the real stuff. It is a piece of marketing genius, as the kids are exposed to all the Green Gear from an early age. It's a bit like how the Commonwealth Bank had the savings bank books for the school kids. Same thing. So my replyer guy is right, and you can see his reply below. So what do we have to do so we market Ag or tell out storeis to the young ones? Reply to [email protected]

Lambs West to East

I keep a bit of an eye on the Sheep and Cattle prices in WA, and we do record them in this newsletter each week. Prices for Sheep are very ordinary over there. Most would say they are ordinary here as well. When the market conditions are right, it's been a thing for the Eastern Staters to journey across and pick their eyes out of the Ewes and Wethers, bring them across and do pretty well out of them. Conditions might be right now, but on a falling market, most might not be game to do it. Yesterday on Twitter (X), I heard a guy talking differently. See below in articles and images. He is talking about bringing his Sheep across and putting them into our markets. I'm sure it's been done before, and to do it, you would have to line your ducks up. You would have to have the Sheep or Lambs well finished, and then they would need a week or so on good Feed in the East for it to work. Anything is worth a try. Have you heard of any West Aussie Farmer sending Sheep East to be sold? Reply to [email protected]

Your replies

Below are snippets from some of the replies you sent in. All quotes will remain nameless. See a few current ones below:

• “In reply to your question, Dwain. We have to start back at the grass roots. For example, John Deere has toys for the young ones, so they’re planting the seeds for later on in life. All Ag industries have got to start with the basics, and also, the current Gen Y, X, Z or whatever the year they fit into, we need to give them a Rural education. - In reply to our Farm Tender Daily question of should we be bothered telling our story to the non-Ag people. Read it here. Great answer, and I like the John Deere bit. See the story above.

• I'm sure you'll get the same answer a lot, but you can't get 700hp to the ground without weight. Most guys with Tractors that big won’t be on CTF. But arguably, they'll have fewer tracks with wider Machinery. Hard one. - In reply to our Farm Tender Daily story on the weight of Tractors and how it affects compaction. Read the story here.

• “I’m a little surprised you’ve even asked as I’ve always thought of you as someone who not only has common sense and solid understanding (and experience) of many, if not all, things Ag? And a good understanding of the power of knowledge sharing, especially in the digital age”. - In reply to the telling our story article. Someone was a little surprised that I even asked the question.

• “Hi Dwain. I have one Cat 95E. 2 x NH 8770 Genesis. 2 x NH 8870, Genesis and 2 x NH 8970 Genesis, of which one has a Front-End Loader. Hours range from five thousand to over fourteen thousand hours” - In reply to our Tractors Note and how many you have.

• “Hi Dwain, as you say, we have just about been caught up in the Tractor for each job, and that’s because everything has got so big that you also need the small, medium and large tractor. So now we have 12. All green, of course, ranging in age from a 66 model to new, but all have their own jobs”. - In reply to our Tractors Note.

• “It’s not how much the Machine weighs but the pressure per square cm it puts down. The more rubber on the ground, the less weight to compact the soil”. - In reply to the weight of Tractors and how they affect compaction.

• “Years and years ago, before DJ became famous and the NFF president, he was a guest speaker at our local Landcare Group AGM. I remember him telling us this, “Aussie farmers fear drought, flood and fire, but these are nothing in comparison to ridiculous government policies.” - He was talking about current NFF President David Jochinke and his prediction from years ago. He was right then. You can hear David speak at our FarmTender2024 event on March 1.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

Random and associated Ag articles and images.