No 473 - Saturday's Club Notes

The “Club Notes” for Saturday, the 29th of March, 2025.

By Dwain Duxson - An Ag Enthusiast

Guilty your honour

All the free members will get the paid version this morning...... As I mentioned yesterday, I really enjoyed the podcast with Wayne Hawkins. You can listen here. Wayne is a golfer, and it gets him away from the Farm. It used to be that when he went and played golf, he’d always get an attack of the guilts being away from the Farm. Most Farmers would know what I am talking about. These days, he has cured that feeling of guilt and is happy to have his time away from the Farm, either golfing or tripping around. I said to Wayne, that feeling guilty like this is a problem people need to get over, and he sort of agreed. Then he said something that made me think that perhaps it wasn't a bad thing to feel a little bit guilty. He said that his heart was in the Farm, so it meant a lot to him. He also said something I had never thought about before. Your peak Farm working time is from the age of about 25 to 45, those years where you go hard, but it also coincides with the time that your kids are growing up. So you seem to miss a lot of the kids growing up, and then all of a sudden, they're off to boarding school or off doing their own things, and you think, where did that go? So the full-on Farming thing and kids thing both happen at the same time. This part of the podcast is well worth a listen to, especially for those who are in that peak period described above. Did your peak Farming and kid periods coincide? Reply to [email protected] or 0427 011 900

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20/60/20 rule of Farming

Another thing we spoke about in the Wayne Hawkins podcast was about enjoying Farming. Now, Wayne is one of the most passionate Farmers I know; he loves it and everything that comes with it. We all know, and we have written about it before, that not everyone who is Farming actually likes it. Some loath it, and I have even heard of people doing it into their 60s or 70s and never enjoying it one bit. That would be an awful way to live. Wayne has a theory on this; he said that 20 per cent of Farmers are like him and fully passionate about it; they live it every day. Another 60 per cent alternate between loving and loathing it, and then you have the ones that don't really want to be there, with many feeling obligated for different reasons. That's the last 20 per cent. He said those sorts of numbers will always be the same, and I would think that other industries would be similar. We refer to the 80/20 rule for a lot of things. Perhaps we can call this one the 20/60/20 rule of Farming. I'd say I would have been in the 60 per cent bracket when I Farmed. I alternated between love and loathe. No judgment, and be honest with yourself. Where would you sit?  Reply to [email protected] or 0427 011 900

The 5 year thing

I heard a podcast yesterday morning where a young Farmer said this: "If you are not a little bit embarrassed at how you were operating in business 5 years ago, then you are not growing" I'd say this guy would be in his early 30s. It's an interesting statement, and I guess some people push themselves hard and need to be achieving all the time. Nothing wrong with that, but not everyone is built that way. I'm not really embarrassed by what I have done in the past; more proud. Could I have done better? Yes. Do I have any regrets? Not really. Have I failed at things? Many times. Has there been any clear pattern? Yes, I keep starting new things about every 5 years. I'm not saying that won't change, but I have found my passion with this Farmers Club thing. I have more so found my purpose, and I love it. I was talking to a bloke I know reasonably well, and he did a talk with a group of Farmers who belonged to a Sheep breeding group. He says what he thinks this guy, he doesn't hold back, and he said, with all due respects, that this group of breeders were pretty stuck in their ways, and their businesses hadn't really changed much for many years to the point where they were defending what they do. Are you putting yourself in a constant growth mode, or do you feel you are stagnating? Reply to [email protected] or 0427 011 900

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

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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 our story on AI and how it's infiltrating into our lives. This Farmer is right when he says it re-hashes what is already known. But as we said the other day it has the ability to get above the line jobs that humans do to below the line where a machine does it. It has its place. Good comments here, though - "Hi Dwain, So-called AI is an oxymoron, i.e. it doesn't create "intelligence". It simply re-hashes whatever is already known when that's fed into a program. It doesn't innovate what has never existed before. A new version of GIGO with the usual hype. Applications, yes, limitations, yes. It can't spot and smell a flyblown sheep in real time, know what a level and colour means on a dipstick (the tractor engine type!), the ability to distinguish between sounds out in the bush in real time, to know what bait to put on and where and when to catch a fish by reading the weather and water conditions, or to know if Fred next door is talking bullshit again about how good his paddock of wheat is yielding. It's just another slice of new technology with lots of hype but with the inherent limitations of it's programmers".

• In reply to our story on how you see so many run down tennis courts on Farm - "Hi Dwain, We had one at home which was well used by us and our neighbours. My grandfather built it after the war to give everyone an interest (had a lot of scrub being cleared) "Idle hands breed mischief", he used to say. (Tennis was very affordable - Harry Bouchier made mention in his memoirs). Tennis was very strong (so was Cricket). In fact, everyone played sport in Mundulla, and you were the odd one out if you didn't. Back in the '70, our district had many 2 x court setups in 9 locations, which was great socially. Teams of 6 men and 6 women, a lot of husbands and wives in the same teams, the afternoon tea, the banter of Harvest stories and other day-to-day banter. I can still recall the Dunlop Volleys getting the white paint treatment and being left in the sun to dry before heading off. We would go in the Valiant Ute with our bikes and slug guns and play with other kids and sometimes have to "fill in" if someone couldn't make it. Back then, everyone made time for summer sport - the biggest Wheat grower never missed a game of tennis, nor did his wife and his brother and his wife - not anymore!! Ah, the good old days".

• This one is in relation to the calling of the election - "Well the starting guns fired to get rid of the Socialists, yay."

• In reply to our story on over and below the line jobs where we used AI as an example. I'm not a Bill Gates fan but he would have knowledge in this area - "AI. Not to sound too wanky, but I read an article in the NY Times yesterday about Bill Gates saying at a conference that he firmly believes that AI WILL, not MAYBE, take over ALL mundane jobs within the next 20 years. Issues aplenty there with social cohesion as in what will all those people do? Oh yes, Bowen will employ them to wash down solar panels, haha. I may not be here to see that but if Gates said it, that's good enough for me. Buying some AI penny dreadful stocks tonight. BTW: amazing prize you have there, pity I'm such a tight arse!😬".

• Thanks for your kind words. Much appreciated - "Great podcast with Wayne Hawkins Dwain. I really enjoyed listening. I did some contract Harvesting for Wayne on his Nhill and Frances Farms back in the drought. He was great to us".

• Someone sent this through on the text. We have been hearing the Rice Harvest is going well this year - "Well into rice harvest here. It's going well 👍".

• In reply to our story on the above and below-the-line tasks. This Farmer makes some very good points. How do young people learn the basics if a machine is doing it? In Farming, you have so many skills you need to learn, and in many cases, that will still be the same because it physically needs to be done, and a machine can't do it (at this stage). I would be more worried about the non-Ag youth, and this situation mentioned below might push more young people into Ag because it's interesting and diverse. Interesting times ahead. Some very good points in this reply - "Hi Dwain, You raise the topic of technology replacing humans. It is a significant consideration; in Australia, humans are expensive to employ. Using AI/tech devices to undertake the mundane tasks makes some sense as it takes those tasks off the to-do list. However, it does raise the question: how are youngsters going to get involved in AG if entry-level jobs no longer exist? Whether it's mustering Cattle and droving them to the yards, sitting in a Tractor for hours a day slashing and Spraying Vineyards, busy in the Chaser Bin, checking the troughs, or so many more examples, there are so many seemingly mundane jobs which are the entry to those industries. The employer can take someone on and give them an opportunity, during which time both parties can get a sense of whether it's a business, industry and team that can work together. Where the new person can observe and learn. How well will someone understand animal health and behaviour if they never see the stock behaving normally in the paddock under multiple, varied conditions and interactions? Will you be able to notice a stressed or ill animal at a glance if water and pasture are monitored by devices? A similar observation was made about self-checkouts at the supermarket; that's where some teenagers get their first job. It's engaging with the checkout person where some folk get a small but vital piece of social interaction every now and then. Humans are indeed expensive to employ, but the more technology replaces humans it makes one wonder what the humans of this world are going to do in the future".

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