On the farm - behind the farmgate Archives - Page 2 of 8 - Clover Hill Diaries

What does it take to reach 18 million people with your story

Farmers in this country are less than 1% of the population and number 10 on Reader’s Digest most trusted professions list.

Above us are ambulance officers, doctors, nurses , pharmacists and fireman. Why is this you ask?. The answer is easy. If you are an ambulance officer, a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist or a fireman there would be a time in most people’s lives when they would be reminded just how important their profession is.

With food in abundance in this country there is little opportunity to remind the community just how important our farmers are.

I recently had the pleasure of sharing the podium with Michael Trant at the Agconnect conference in WA two weeks ago. Michael Trant for those of you who don’t know him is the very passionate sheep farmer behind the #Hadagutful campaign

The conference was attended by WA’s most passionate young people in agriculture. Young, enthusiastic, dynamic people determined to carve out a future for themselves and their peers in agriculture in this country and bursting at the seams to be heard.

Advocacy was a hot topic and number 1 on their list of big ticket issues that must be addressed if we are going to have the dynamic, innovative, exciting and profitable agrifood sector we all crave.

As is the norm with young people there was quite a lot of admiration in the room for the French farmers model. A model we all know that involves quite a lot of militant tactics.

It was Michael Trant’s response that I believe most resonated with the audience. Michael recently had a one on one meeting with Federal Agriculture Minister Senator Joe Ludwig to discuss and hopefully find a solution to that wicked problem Live Export. A meeting which at the time was recorded as quite hostile in the media.

Michael told the people in the room that he listened very closely to what Joe Ludwig had to say and he gave these wonderful young people in the room the same sage advice.

“We can do things that will piss people off like dump wheat on the docks at Freemantle or I can let rams loose in Kings Park or we can come up with campaigns that actually resonate and generate empathy and understanding with the 18 million people on the Eastern seaboard.

I agree and so should all farmers but farmers telling their story and having two way conversations with the most important people and the white elephant in the room otherwise know as consumers and voters is not something farmers in general have the skill sets or expertise for. In the past we have let anti animal livestock lobbyists tell our story and that has been a disaster of momentous proportions and it is one of the key reasons why agriculture is currently on its knees in this country.

So how do fix this. We can do it. I know because I have found the successful model and I am going to share it with you over the next 12 months. Like any idea its not the concept but the people who make it work and for agriculture it will be our young people. They are out there. I have a whole cohort of them in Art4Agriculture’s Young Farming Champions program. Our Young Farming Champions are now working side by side with our Young Eco Champions to tell agriculture’s story in a way that DOES resonate with the 18 million people on the Eastern seaboard.

Like most farmers (and like me) not all these young people were born these skills sets and expertise. They need to be identified, engaged and nurtured and supported every step of the way. It is imperative we invest in them I know this because this is my journey to where I am today and I relive it though them by sharing my learnings, positive and negative, by introducing them to the wonderful people who support and nurture me.

I am using Art4Agriculture as the vehicle to introduce them to the people who can supply them with the necessary skills sets to deliver on behalf of industry. I introduce them to supportive industries, the key influencers, to the doers and most importantly I introduce them to the most important people in the room, the people who give agriculture its social license to operate and they are the people who buy our goods and services and the people who vote

What does it take to have young people who can talk like this, who can inspire other young people to follow in their footsteps. What does it take for our young people to be the change that agriculture so needs to have?.

I have the formula and the results speak for themselves?. Listen to the video. Follow their journey

THE 2012 YOUNG FARMING CHAMPIONS

BEEF

Sponsored by Meat and Livestock Australia Target 100 program

Stephanie Fowler
Wagga Wagga, NSW

Steph grew up on the Central Coast of New South Wales in a small coastal suburb, Green Point. A decision to study agriculture in high school created a passion for showing cattle and in 2012 she started a PhD in Meat and Livestock Science, with a project that is looking at the potential of Raman Spectroscopy in predicting meat quality.

“When I was growing up I never dreamed that I would end up joining an incredibly rewarding, innovative and exciting industry that would take me across the country and around the world.”

Read Steph’s Blog post HERE

View her video HERE

Bronwyn Roberts
Emerald, QLD

Bronwyn is a Grazing Land Management Officer with the Fitzroy Basin Association. Her family has a long association with the cattle industry in Queensland and her parents currently run a 5500 acre cattle property near Capella.

“I believe consumers have lost touch of how and where their food and fibre is produced. In these current times where agriculture is competing with other industry for land use, labour, funding and services, it is important that we have a strong network of consumers who support the industry and accept our social license as the trusted and sustainable option.”

Read Bronwyn’s Blog post HERE

View her video HERE

Kylie Stretton
Charters Towers, QLD

Kylie Stretton and her husband have a livestock business in Northern Queensland, where they also run Brahman cattle. Kylie is the co-creator of “Ask An Aussie Farmer” a social media hub for people to engage with farmers and learn about food and fibre production.

“The industry has advanced from the images of “Farmer Joe” in the dusty paddock to images of young men and women from diverse backgrounds working in a variety of professions. Images now range from a hands-on job in the dusty red centre to an office job in inner city Sydney. So many opportunities, so many choices.”

Read Kylie’s Blog post HERE

View her video HERE

COTTON

Far too much crawling on Easter Sunday

As you know I lay claim to living in paradise. Yet there is so much of paradise I am yet to visit. So this weekend I decided it was time to start to tick of that bucket list and enlisted the assistance of my neighbour Jenny who is building up her stamina to do a week’s trekking in Morocco.

Over 50% of our farm is rainforest and it is very steep. Much of the the region’s ecological communities are endangered and we follow the RRR principles of bush regeneration and work closely with Landcare Illawarra who collect seed from farms all around our region to help increase the genetic diversity of our magnificent rainforest.

So off Jenny and I went where not too many people have ventured over the last 200 years

and how gorgeous was it

and an hour later it was time to come back to 21st century

thanks to our forefathers and lantana that proved to be quite tricky.

There was a lot of this

We were pretty happy when we found the paddock

and just to show you what RRR principles can achieve in 12 months

It was pretty rewarding to see these trees grown from locally collected seed flourishing 12 months later

Caging the 900 pound gorilla

Everyone who reads my blog (including Coles) knows that since milk went down, down, down to $1 per litre at Coles I have done a lot of Coles bashing. After 30 years in the very switched on world of retail pharmacy I am well aware that it is not smart business to bash your customer and with 80% market share the Australian supermarket duopoly are indeed a very important retail customer in the farm to glass story.

So why have I chosen to ignore this wise advice. It was Mick Keogh of the Australian Farm Institute who first introduced the term, “900 pound gorilla”, in reference to the dominance of the two major supermarket chains.

Furthering the analogy, he said for farmers, dealing with the supermarkets was like being hugged by a gorilla; the initial embrace may be warm and comforting but over time the oxygen gets squeezed out.

That’s just how I feel like my life blood is being squeezed out. Like most dairy farmers I feel helpless, undervalued and in the current climate of relentless supermarket discounting of milk it’s so hard to feel positive about the future for NSW and Queensland dairy farmers and indeed the ongoing availability of fresh milk in both of these states

Should I be feeling this way?

Yesterday one of the speakers at the Dairy Innovators Forum in Queensland said if we have 134,000 farms in Australia we have 134,000 CEO’s and 134,000 CFO’s and its time we got together and found our inner strength and found out just how powerful we could be if we all worked together.

So what’s stopping us I keep asking myself? Highly frustrating to me the Australian dairy industry just seems to be sitting in a rowing boat waiting for the wind to change in its favour rather than determining the place they want to be and buying the biggest and most powerful motor to take us there.

So is the ACCC announcement that they are launching an investigation into Coles and Woolworths over possible misuse of their market power and “unconscionable conduct” going to help save the dairy farmers? Is the ACCC a toothless tiger no more? Will they cage the 900 pound gorilla?

Let’s have a look at some of what Mick Keogh for the Australian Farm Institute has to say on this announcement here

The recent announcement by ACCC head Rod Sims of the supermarket investigation gained wide publicity (see here, here and here ). The response from the major supermarkets has been tinged with surprise and indignation (see here and here ).

When both major Australian supermarkets are listed amongst the largest retailers in the world despite Australia’s relatively small population, it gets a bit hard to argue that their market share is actually less than everyone thinks!

Unfortunately for the major retailers, however, their responses to the ACCC announcement directly contradict their own actions and advertising, so are unlikely to garner much public support or sympathy.

By demonstrating the reality of their market power through, for example, unilaterally declaring that from now on the price of a major staple such as milk will be $1 per litre or the price of bread will be $1 per loaf the major retailers have sent a very clear message to consumers that they have the power to set the price of goods they retail, even though it is clear that the major retailers don’t actually produce those goods.

Complex explanations that the retailers have funded these price cuts from their own businesses and not as a result of lower prices being paid to suppliers simply don’t sound believable in the face of evidence that dairy farmers are leaving the industry and dairy processors are reporting major operating losses while supermarkets report major increases in profits.

No amount of slick advertising based on images of retailers and their moleskin and Akubra-clad celebrity spokespersons standing arm in arm with smiling farmers will be sufficient to contradict the raw display of market power that is repeatedly demonstrated to consumers every week, when they pick up their $1 a litre milk or the $1 loaf of bread.

It doesn’t take a great deal of thought before consumers make the connection between the extent of the market power that major retailers have demonstrated, and the potential to misuse that market power unless there is adequate regulation and transparency. When reports emerge from the ACCC that 50 suppliers have come forward with complaints this hardly comes as a great surprise to consumers.

Ultimately, the major retailers have promoted their market power as a major benefit for consumers, so to then try and claim that in fact they don’t have that power, and even if they did have it they would never misuse it is simply not likely to pass the “smell test” in the court of public opinion.

The Conversation also had some very interesting commentary here and here. Let me share some of what resonated with me

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced last week that it is investigating claims that Coles and Woolworths are bullying suppliers. The issue is serious, but the ACCC investigation only treats the symptom and diverts attention away from the real cause of the problem: supermarket power.

That’s right this is all about power and it’s time for the dairy farmers to use their power and get serious and smart about how we deal with the supermarkets. The good news it is starting to happen. Tomorrow’s post will share with you some of what is happening in NSW

In the meantime check this out from clever young full-time vet student and part- time dairy farmer Cassie MacDonald. Cassie has created her own infographic to counter the half truths in the Coles version. Cassie says “Coles it’s clear you don’t give a buck” The video is averaging 1500 views and it’s pretty impressive

Update: Cassie Macdonald has not had 50% more hits on her video in 3 days than Coles have in 2 months

A tornado of a week Part 1

I was offline most of last week bunkered down in Sydney with some bright minds looking at innovative ways to fund Art4Agriculture over the next 5 years but more about that later

Lots of Archies

The week started with an early morning call from ABC Illawarra to do some press generated by this story in the Illawarra Mercury on the roll out of the Archibull Prize on the South Coast,

I for one m very excited to have local schools involved this year

From there it was off to Sydney to NSW Farmers HQ for the official opening of their new offices in St Leonards and a great night was had by all. On show at NSWFA HQ are two of our Archies and wow did they spend some time in the spotlight

‘Sweetie Pie’ with NSW Farmers CEO Matt Brand

Hon Katrina Hodgkinson MP Fiona Simson President NSW FA and Hon Andrew Stoner Deputy Premier cut the ribbon

Jamison High “Jules” on display in the foyer

Lots of controversy

Then there was the controversy around the results at the Royal Cheese and Dairy Produce Show

Having spent three days as a steward at the show the previous week what I can say is the judges take their roles very seriously. The addition of iPads to tally the results was very impressive and certainly added a new dimension to the judging process

If anybody doubts the RAS dedication to the process of getting it right just come and watch the Haloumi judged. Each piece is cut to exactly the same size and fried for exactly the same amount of time and three stewards on hand to ensure each entry is presented to the judges in perfect continuity. I must admit I felt a bit under pressure for that one

Getting ready for the judging of the best non-bovine dairy product

For all cheese lovers check out Channel Cheese TV here

About Channel Cheese

Join cheesemonger Alison Brien as she goes behind-the-scenes and under-the-rind of the cheese world.

Alison was one of the judges at the Sydney Royal Cheese and Dairy Show and I noticed she had her videographer there so you should see some insights into the judging process loaded on Channel Cheese TV shortly.

The week just continued to get more ‘interesting’ with the ACCC announcing it was launching an investigation into Coles and Woolworths over possible misuse of their market power and indications of “unconscionable conduct” in relation to deals with their suppliers. and on top of this a mini tornado hit our region last weekend with some devastating consequences more on this in my next post

So excited the cows are back

I was so excited when I woke up this morning to see the cows were back and wow what a picture they made.

Mystical Jamberoo Valley after the rains

For too many eastern seaboard farmers sadly last week’s rain was a calamity. For us it was like we had won lotto. My office window overlooks this paddock and every 14 to 21 days up until 6 months ago I could reliably look out the window and for three mornings straight watch the cows strip graze their way down the hill. It has been so long since the cows were in this paddock I had almost forgotten how magical it was

As you can see this morning they were already well down the hill and there was no strip grazing fences to be seen as there was only enough grass for just one feed from the whole paddock

But there was grass none the less and it wasn’t long before the water trough beckoned and I could see the gorgeous girls up close and personal

Below in the distance you can see our young girls grazing on the fresh new shoots on one of our lease properties

The girls wandered off to the midday milking

and it was all action – men and machines everywhere

Making the most of every opportunity to grow the next round of lushest, sweetest grass paradise can deliver to produce nature’s perfect nutrient cocktail for 50,000 Australians every day

Maybe even in the not too distant future it will look like this again

and as HT said its just great to feel like you are farming again

Transparency and integrity Coles that is all we ask

As drought morphs into floods I reflect on the week that has been. I popped into ABC Illawarra to do an interview on the Archibull Prize launch and of course got asked for a quick grab on the Milk Price wars. Just a little quid pro quo what harm could that do?.

I haven’t heard the interview but it has almost necessitated me going into hiding. I was inundated by calls from radio stations and newspapers wanting to follow up my comments and then when I declined industry bodies who were asked to comment on my comments.

Coles is in damage control and the consultants have been engaged to tell Coles side of the story. Let me tell you mine in pictures. Pictures, I can now only bring myself to share because I know the rain will bring the grass and a little sanity back

Months of almost no rain has meant we have no grass to feed our cows and this has meant we have had to buy in feed to hand feed all our cows – all 1000 of them ( and yes that is very very very expensive)

Bare hills not much clover to be seen here

This means this mixer wagon goes up and down the road every day, all day bringing feed mixed at the Lemon Grove farm to all the cattle on the home farm and our young stock on our leased properties

In the last week we have had to feed the cows along this fence line as our mixer wagon went in for repair and the loan machine didn’t fit on the feed pad, so we had to sacrifice another paddock for the greater good

Not a pretty site

I look forward to sharing the good news that comes with the rain but back to the $1 dollar milk.

Coles what we need here is transparency and integrity then you wouldn’t need consultants to interpret and press releases for spin.

Firstly acknowledge that consumer well being is not your first priority, in fact your tills and your shareholders are front and centre all the way as this story reiterates ‘ Sydney drivers get slugged as supermarkets sweep profits’

Secondly that what your Down Down Down campaign and the subsequent Milk Price Wars is doing is setting a national artificial floor price for milk that is preventing the true market price of milk being realised. You can blame the export market, the processors and the drought and farmer inefficiencies ad infinitum. Cows are not machines and farmers would all be doing something else if they wanted to make a motza. Please remember Coles real people farm and we just want a fair price.

Transparency and integrity Coles that’s all we ask

Whilst this is a little light hearted relief thanks to @guswhyte it makes sense doesn’t it – after all milk is cheaper than water

The dangers of putting everyone in the same basket.

I have been writing my two blogs for over 12 months now and have yet to have anyone send me a comment that would cause me offence. Now it would be highly unlikely that anyone would take umbrage at the activities of Art4Agriculture. But there is the chance that like the divine Milk Maid Marian this blog may attract the “haters” every now and then. The “haters” in this case being those extremist vegans who think all livestock farmers are the right hand of the devil and its their right of passage to tell you so at every opportunity.

Now apparently the “haters” from both sides have been active on twitter this week which has prompted these excellent posts from Alison Fairleigh and Milk Marian Marian ( note the comment by @JohnKeily1)

Lets not forget the world is full of bizarre people and a couple of things that have happened to me in the last 48hours have highlighted this very strongly.

Just check this out I will guarantee it will have you shaking your head as well. Today I was out and about like last Sunday walking the gorgeous Kiama Coastline this time from Bombo beach to Minnamurra with my trusty camera to add to my weight load . Along the way we spotted this painted on the front of a house.

Obviously some extremist “nature lover” was very unhappy that the occupants of this house had done something?? to a tree in their front yard. Also in front of this house was this little car

It too had fallen victim to the wrath of the “nature lover”. Whilst I was taking this photo the mother of the owner of the car approached me and I got the real story. This little car belongs to her daughter who just happened to be staying with friends next door and had nothing to do with the occupants of the house her car was parked in front of. Well “nature lover” who is the real vandal here?.

After our walk we ventured down to the Kiama Markets. Can there be anywhere more beautiful to hold markets?

You can get 2 bunches of roses for $10, buy extraordinary eclectic pieces made out of spoons and all the gorgeous produce you could think of from the South Coast as well as enjoy food cooked on the biggest barbeque I had ever seen.

You can buy anything and everything at the Kiama Markets

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Well I was walking along minding my own business, taking lots of pictures with my beloved camera.

And out of no where this man invades my personal space and starts haranguing me about what an abomination cameras are. According to him it is an absolute to disgrace to reduce the world to “rectangles”. Well I did engage him for just a moment sharing with him how much pleasure its gives me to be able to record my journey on my camera. But he wasn’t listening and continued to rabbit on in a very loud voice and I walked away.

Now what does all this have to do with animal welfare and vegan extremists you ask. Well yesterday afternoon I had a call from a friend who told me something that really distressed me. Apparently a local farmer parked his ute in the main street of my gorgeous little village of Jamberoo in front of the newsagency and remained there for a least twenty minutes. Now here comes the appalling bit. On the back of his ute he had a dead cow just lying there for all the world to see little kids included. Just what was he thinking you ask and just how much damage was he doing to the reputation of our other local farmers I cant even begin to think

As I said the world is made up of bizarre people who do just don’t think before they act. All I ask vegan extremists is that you don’t lump all livestock farmers into the one basket. Like 99% of the people in this world, most livestock farmers are good, caring, sensitive people with values and it hurts when you attack us.

As for the farmers who feel the need to fight back like Alison says

Some of the best advocates for Australian agriculture and farmers are people living in cities. You don’t have to be a farmer to “get it”. Give credit where it is due and don’t lump all “city people” into the same basket.

and this sage advice from the US

Be proactive, not reactive.

It’s not about engaging activist crazies in fire fights where everyone comes back bloodied. We can reduce their clamour by building a wall of trust with our customers. It’s as simple as talking with them on an ongoing basis, joining them in conversations about food and addressing their concerns.

• Build bridges with people influential in the food community, who drive opinions and are willing to engage in a conversation about food.
• Meet customers on their own turf and invite them to ours. Answer all concerns they have about food, whether the issues seem real to us or not.
• Talk about our desire to continually improve sustainability, quality and safety on the farm.
• Tell your personal story about how you use fewer resources to produce more, and let them know how you care for your land and animals.
• Be transparent. It builds trust. Share values with your customers.

To move public opinion… to counter the activists… “We must open our doors–and maybe more importantly, open our minds–to consumers and their perspectives about food and agriculture,”

as Marian also rightly says

The ethics of food is so complex. Vegans following a conscientious diet are told they are inadvertently starving Peruvians, causing deforestation and even eating with blood on their vegetarian hands. It’s not easy being green and I don’t blame vegans for being so passionate about their choice.

I personally have seen my vegetarian friends attacked by perfect strangers asking for justification of the choices they have made. Like my gorgeous vegetarian friends I am doing my best to walk away from the battles I cant win.

Come on everyone its time to fight the good fight

Picture Perfect

Recently the farm hosted Rural Press journalist Matt Cawood ( @matt_cawood) and I have discovered he is an awesome photographer ( he did have a pretty impressive camera with him)

You can read Matt’s story in The Land here

So I thought I would take this opportunity to share with the you some of beautiful photographs he took at the farm

Firstly me with the absolutely adorable Mandelyn Paradise Chime. Chime was a twin who came out backwards and I raised her from the day she born and she is just so friendly and she just loves having her ears scratched.

This is Louise bringing the cows home for the midday milking.

This is Chrissy in the pit milking the cows at midday milking. Note the very curious cows in the background

The calves in the front paddock. Wow how fantastic is that view

Picasso Corner which 5 local schools revegated in 2008

The entrance to the dairy

and look at these two divine photos

How special is this one

and last but not least our drum art which are hosting some of our endangered or vulnerable species trees

Matt is an very interesting story himself and there are some wonderful insights here “Australian agriculture reporter leaves isolation for London’s meeting of minds” which includes this quote that I like

“Agriculture is the most fundamental human activity. Without it, we don’t have cities, the Internet, cappuccino. And we are quickly realizing that how we conduct agriculture determines the health of the planet.”

All photos by Matt Cawood .Thank you so much Matt for sending them to me

One of those days that makes your heart sing

We used to host lots of school visits which was pretty full on when you are milking 500 cows three times a day.

These these days we restrict the tours and host extra special children. Sometimes that’s preschool tours for children of our staff and friends and overseas visitors with children. Today we hosted an extra, extra special group of students and they were super excited as Win 4 was coming too and they knew they were all going to be on the news

On top of that yesterday we got 18 mm of much needed rain and today we all woke up to perfect sunshine.

There were some really special moments

As you can imagine Peena the lamb didn’t just fascinate the cows

Look at this shot of the cow licking Peena

The kids had a great time feeding the very well behaved calves

Peena assisted the camera man whose name was Attila and yes he got teased at school

I got interviewed

We visited Picasso Corner and Megan and Renae got interviewed

and the cows on the hill made a superb backdrop

Well done Emma who does a great job of making all this happen smoothly and here is the WIN 4 footage

Defining Excellence

Today is Father’s Day and it is the simple things in life Michael is enjoying today. Now that the infection in his knee is gone just to see him being able to walk without pain is a joy to behold.

Michael’s eyes lit up when Nick arrived at the back door and suggested he join him on the gator to round up the cows for the midday milking.

Then he spotted her, his favourite cow

This is Mandelyn Damion Simola. She has this fancy moniker like all our cows that is made up of three parts. The first part is the name of our stud ‘Mandelyn’ (Mike and Lynne) the second part is a reference to her father who is called ‘Erbacres Damion’ and the third part is in honour of her mother who was Parabel Broker Simola. Before we started milking 3 times daily in 2005 we used to show our cattle quite a bit and we did very well with the Simola family.

Now Damion Simola ( we call her Damion for short) is result of the technology known as Embryo Transplant which is explained rather impressively here.

In the dairy industry we have two ways of getting our cows acknowledged as setting a standard of excellence

You can take them to beauty pageants aka shows and/or you can participate in the classification system (explained here)

Michael puts Damion Simola under microscope

From the front

Comparing Damion to a herd mate “Don’t look at her, look at me I’m the best” says Damion

From the side

What do you think Lynne. “Am I the best one”

Damion has made Michael’s day and he climbs back in the gator and yells out to me ‘ Nick is going to ring the classifier I am positive she is going to go ‘Excellent’ (highest accolade)

I hope so Michael you deserve a few wins, things have been pretty tough lately BTW Happy Father’s Day