The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Saturday the 27th of January 2024.

By Dwain Duxson

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

Welcome back Hogget

We used to talk about Hogget or Hoggets a lot back in the old days, but just recently, it's made a comeback. I am an avid reader, and I have seen it mentioned in the papers and on social media a lot just recently. This is what the Wagga Wagga Sheep and Lamb report said recently "Hoggets saw intense bidding duels over many pens, with the better-finished ones selling for prices between $100 and $195". So why the sudden interest in Hogget? Could people be waking up that it might be sweeter than Lamb? I'm going to go fishing for it next time I'm at the Butchers. I guess when the Sheep population was dominated by Merinos, and early maturing Merinos hadn't been bred yet, we had to sell them as two tooths. So there was a lot of Hogget eaten. These days, Merinos have caught up to the pack and are far quicker maturing, and now breeders sell them as Lambs. That's where the money is. And I guess there are fewer boats, so the two-tooth Wether trade has shrunk. Anyway it's just interesting it has popped up again. Can anyone taste the difference between Hogget and Lamb, or are they pretty much the same? Reply to [email protected]

Something great happened

We moved into our little 2 bedroom Farm House 3 years ago now, and when I went to plug the TV cable into the aerial socket, something great happened. It didn't work…. So, since then, we haven't seen a minute of free-to-air TV. I mentioned last week that I have given up on all things ABC, my choice. I don't expect you to be the same. But I got a few replies saying the same thing and also that people had given up watching the nightly news. A couple had given up particular websites like MSN and a well-known old Ag newspaper journo said he hadn't picked up an Ag newspaper in 10 years. Each to their own, we try to do what makes us happy and eliminating the things that don't is a step in the right direction. What have you eliminated? Reply to [email protected]

A good thing

Hay sellers aren't selling much Hay at the moment. Take a read of this week's Hay Report here. There is green grass for miles due to plenty of rain in most spots on the East side of the country. Not all, but most. I was speaking to Jake, who's agisting his Sheep on our place yesterday. Jake and I agreed that all this green grass had been a good thing because it has meant that many haven't had to feed Stock. This has been a good thing on a rising Livestock market; Farmers haven't had the extra cost of feeding, so they are able to claw back some of the losses from last year. Anything that can keep costs down is a bonus. The question now is, will our green Summer continue? 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:

• “I gave up the MSM years, actually decades, ago.  It was too frustrating.  When there was a topic I was an expert in, I knew what they were saying was rubbish and agitprop. And it was quite clear so was every other topic that I was not, and what is worse is all the topics that are real news they don’t cover.  I get my news from various net sources. For example, your newsletters.” - Giving up bad media (and adopting good ones haha).

• “Great work on your “small article” - Short suites.

• “Regarding Woolworths and Australia Day attitude, we have walked with our feet. We have two supermarkets in our town, IGA, and Woolworths only went to Woolies for the things we couldn't get in IGA but won't be going at all. We will go elsewhere to get what we want when out of town. We also have a Petstock and won't be going there either. Hubby went in and told them we won't be back as they are part of Woolies group. They were mortified as they said you are one of our valued clients you spend a lot of money here. He replied tell your hierarchy why and get over trying to manipulate us and get over your wokeness. As they say, money talks, and I'm walking with mine”. - Voting with their $$$. A strong stance.

• “Hi Dwain, I couldn’t disagree more that “spin has not entered agriculture yet”! There’s absolutely heaps of it! In the meat industry - “ethically produced”, “sustainable”, “regenerative”, etc. etc. So by implication, other producers are unethical, unsustainable and mining their farms! The greenwashing that we are seeing with the carbon story! How does Coles sell carbon-neutral Beef? It’s spin and a con, and the ACCC should take them to task. Then what about the stud industry….the spin in selling genetics?” - This reader has taken me to task on my “spin” article in the Farm Tender Daily. You can read it here.

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

Random and associated Ag articles and images.