Andrea and Mark Hannemann climate action farmers who are designing their own destiny

I love innovators, doers and people who are proud to share their story. Agriculture so needs more people who can combine all three.

One such person is the wonderful Andrea Hannemann who with husband Mark, farms on 1700 hectares in the Cleve region on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia

‘We as farmers are always striving to do things better, improve efficiencies, increase yields, adopt the latest technology and maintain a healthy landscape, all to ensure our farming enterprise remains viable well into the future. This requires constant monitoring and the ability to adapt and change’. says Andrea

I first met Andrea when I joined the Climate Champions program and as regular readers know the program itself has changed my life let alone what I have learnt from all awesome people involved in it

Andrea to me is the quintessential quiet achiever. Follower her twitter feed @andyhann1 and you will see what I mean. In a phenomenally short period of time, Andrea has built up a twitter network of thought leaders who ask the tough questions and challenge each other and the system

Andrea and Mark identified water security as one of the biggest threats to their farm’s sustainability and they weren’t going to sit around and wait for some-else to find the solution

‘The Eyre Peninsula is a huge area and we think it’s up to us as individual farmers to be self sufficient and create our own renewable, reliable and sustainable water supply.’

Andrea’s story* is a testament of what you can achieve when you take a great idea and put it into action…………..

Mark & I are 4th Generation farmers from the Cleve Hills on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. We are in the business of producing healthy food and fibre and we love what we to do.

We crop wheat, barley, peas, chickpeas, vetch and canola and run 900 Merino ewes & 900 cross bred lambs.

Over the last 10 years we have found our weather patterns are definitely changing with more extremes of heat and cold and storms. And our rain events – that’s interesting in itself – we call them rain events now when we used to just call it rain.

We have catastrophic fire days now, and we’ve had some horrific bushfires here. The hot north winds are more harsh and frequent. In 2009 we had quite rigorous thunderstorms, with a lot of hail damage. I guess they’ve always happened but they are more concentrated and cause more damage than they did in the past. Everything seems to be a little bit more concentrated.

Our country here is very undulating with loam over clay soils. Historically the farming rotation used to be 2 years of pasture and sheep and then the third year we would plant a crop. During those 2 years where you had sheep running over your country, it would pack down like cement. As soon as you got a rain event it’d all run off and form gutters and cause substantial soil erosion.

To counter this our next step was to contour all our country. The contour banks gathered the water from the gullies into the dams and controlled the erosion, so we didn’t get gutters forming in our paddocks.

But it was not the answer. The contours created small lands, over-sowing and inefficiencies. They also hindered the introduction of auto steer and GPS technologies. Over the last 13 years we have adopted minimum-till practices with stubble retention and we direct drill straight into last year’s stubble

We found we weren’t getting the water runoff we used to as the moisture was staying in the improved soil profile and so adopting minimum-till practices has enabled us to grow good crops on less rainfall, because of this improved soil moisture retention. This meant we didn’t t need the contour banks anymore and so we took them all out.

Historically we’ve relied on 40 dams on the property for our water. We relied on those dams for our stock, our garden water and for spraying our crops. But we can’t rely on them anymore for stock. We’re just not getting the water into the dams. Over the last 3 or 4 years we’ve had some fairly dry years and we couldn’t rely on any of the dams. On top of this the 40 old dams lost 2 metres of water through evaporation each year, coupled with soakage and seepage loss. When summer came and we really needed the water, they were usually just full of mud in the bottom, which also created a hazard to the stock as they came in and tried to drink.Our house dam has been there 100 years and it’s only ever been empty 4 times. And 3 of those were in about the last 7 years.

Is that climate change or the way we are farming now you ask? Probably a bit of both

A lack of a “good quality water supply” for stock and farm use was identified to be the major challenge that would restrain our long term viability in agriculture. We had little chance of securing a SA Water supply connection as we are on the far western end of the River Murray pipe system, which is already an over-allocated and depleted water source and is in very poor health. ‘The Eyre Peninsula is a huge area and we think it’s up to us as individual farmers to be self sufficient and create our own renewable, reliable and sustainable water supply.

We were carting water from 14 kilometres in a little truck all summer for stock. It was time consuming and expensive. We thought the best way forward was for us to be self sufficient.

We needed to change, we did not want to change our farming practices, so we had to change the way we collected the water. We have now developed a water-harvesting scheme which is, hopefully, going to satisfy our water needs for stock, for spraying and for domestic use.

We selected a site which is the highest point on our farm and we had some major earthworks done to prepare the catchment area, which is 80 X 40 metres. The catchment area gravitates down into a 3-metre deep holding dam which is 30 X 30 metres.Both the catchment and the dam are lined with 1-mm high-density polyethylene plastic.

It’s 98% efficient in catching water. For every millimetre of rain, we collect a litre of water per square metre. Even with a heavy dew, we’re collecting water. On our average rainfall, which is a bit over 400 mm a year, we should get 1.6 million litres of water, which is enough to run our property for a year. We’d probably be ok with even 300 mm. We’re still going to get 1.2 million litres of water because we’re not losing any through evaporation and soakage.

From the dam, water gravitates down to the house and throughout the entire property. On the way, we’ve got feeder troughs going off into every paddock. We’ve got a tank at the house into which we collect and use water for spraying, for our domestic use, for gardens, and for stock. From the house, we feed water to another block, which already had poly pipes on it. We just had to put troughs on them. Now our whole farm is fed by these feeder troughs. So this one dam has the potential to service our whole property, whereas before we were using 40 open dams.

The Hannemanns’ lined catchment and dam before the floating cover was installed

The catchment area has to be lined if you want to get close to 100% runoff. The 1-mm polyethylene is reasonably stiff. We had to get FABTECH from Adelaide to weld it onsite. There’s $50,000 worth of plastic invested in the catchment and dam area.

The reason we lined the dam is mainly for quality of water and to minimise soakage. We use the water for spraying so we don’t want suspended clay particles in it. We don’t use it for drinking water, but the quality would be up to doing that if we wanted to. When the dam was full we installed a floating cover on the top at a cost of $10,000. That cut our evaporation losses by 100% making it a hugely efficient system.

Dam at capacity, awaiting the installation of the floating cover The water is then gravity fed from the dam throughout the property via a pipe system, supplying water for the paddock troughs, which are only turned on as stock movements require.

With the cover now on the dam, the quality has improved even more. When you keep the sunlight off, you get no algae. And there’s no chemical seepage into it. It’s good quality water. Better than what we had before.

Floating cover installed – job finished! Because the water scheme is based on gravitation, there are no pumps involved. No working parts. It’s minimal maintenance. You go to a paddock and switch a trough on if you’ve got sheep in there. It’s so simple.

If it sounds exciting, it looks really ordinary. It’s a lot of black plastic and tyres!

When you bring it back to dollars and sense and return on investment carting water was costing us about $11,000 a year and it’s really unsustainable to cart water in a truck up a hill on a 30-km round trip. It was leaving a huge environmental footprint. We hated that. It was very inefficient and very time consuming.

This harvesting scheme is going to cost us about $100,000 so the payback period is 10 years. We feel we can’t afford not to do it. Our water security is good for the next 25 years; that’s how long the plastic lasts.

A video of the catchment during a thunderstorm can be viewed here

We would also like to go into the area of further improving our soil and improving our soil carbon. For every percent that you increase your soil carbon, per square metre, you can hold an extra 8 litres of water. That stored moisture is productivity and profitability. It’s also sustainability. So that’s something that we’d like to work on. However increasing soil carbon by 1% is not as easy as it might sound and so we’ve just got to take it a step at a time.

We manage our sheep numbers to coincide with rainfall events and availability of feed. For example if we have a really good rain event in March, we can sow some forage crops for the sheep. If we get plenty of feed the we actually buy in more sheep. This means means the sheep had more cross-bred lambs which we can then feed on our crop stubble later this year. Farming sustainably is about wisely making the most of every opportunity

We make hay when the season’s good. If we have a lot of feed, we’ll cut that for hay and store it. We also store oats and barley seed for feed. We just do it year by year depending on what the year’s looking like.

Frost is a major issue in our region, but it’s pretty hard to plan for it. Different crops are flowering at different times and it depends on when you get hit.

Our crops do hang on here a little longer. We’d be 3 or 4 degrees colder through here on average than 10 or 20 kilometres away, so we’re always starting harvest a couple of weeks later than everyone else. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just a matter of timing with frost.

We do use different crop varieties that flower at different times. That lessens our risk. Of our 2 wheat varieties, one has a bit longer growing season, the other one is a bit shorter. So if one gets hit the other is spared. It’s like a hedge.

Canola’s the same. We’ve had canola varieties with different growing seasons and one variety did get hit with frost, while the other one got through because it wasn’t flowering. So I guess that’s how we manage frost, and that’s about the best we can do. Because even if they forecast a frost there’s nothing you can do about it.

Paddock of Canola

Our hot north winds are getting more severe. Our crops were heat stressed two years in a row in September on Grand Final day. It knocked everybody’s yield around. It would be terrific if we had new and better varieties of crops that can withstand heat stress because I guess we’re going to have more of that.

We rely on the internet a lot now for our information to run our business so it’s really important. We need accurate forecasting, long term and short term. We need a seasonal forecast. But it needs to be accurate.

We rely on the seasonal forecasts, mainly at start of seeding. A few years ago we just about did our complete seeding dry, and that worked out well. We dealt with the weed issues later on, which was good but fairly expensive. In this country if you leave seeding until late it can get too wet, and if you’re well into the middle of July with your seeding program you have a fair yield penalty by leaving it that late. So we have made the decisions with the help of forecasts to go in early. We just have to deal with the weed issues later on.

Application of nitrogen is another thing we use forecasts for. If you want a rain event to wash some urea in, you’ve certainly got to rely on the forecasts for that. It helps us plan and gives us the opportunity to use our inputs as wisely as we can and hopefully increase our yields, our productivity and our profitability. With better forecasts you can move forward with more confidence and make those decisions that are so important to your business. So, accurate forecasts are really, really important to the viability of our business.

This is why Mark and I put our hands up to be Climate Champion farmers so we could share our highs and lows, the good and the bad and have the opportunity to feed information from farmers back to researchers about what they need to better manage risk on their properties

*Andrea wrote me a short version of her profile on the Climate Champions website but its too good a story to shorten so I have reprinted the majority of it for today’s post

Andrea and Mark are also 1 of 100 Farmers sharing their story on Target 100 here

They are also inspiring thousands of school children through this fabulous study guide

‘Water our most Precious Resource’ which you can download here

Special shout out to all the women in my life

Today is International Women’s Day and there are too many women for me to mention who inspire me

So I would just like to simply use this quote to say thank you to the doers and the supporters who light my fire and keep it burning

‘Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the people who get out of shower, and dry off off and do something about it who make a difference’. Patricia Nolan

I would also like to salute our cows

They inspire me. Every day they produce that affordable nutritious nature’s perfect nutrient cocktail that is milk on our farm for 50,000 Australians

Thank you cows – the queens of the dairy industry

They are an integral part of our team. They are part of our family. They are like a child you want to give them the best possible life you can afford to give

This is why the $ a lire milk marketing campaign upsets me so much as I feel it completely devalues what our cows do and I believe we all need to reflect on what our definitions of value are when thinking about Australian grown products.

I would also like to say a special thank you to the girls on our team who worked so hard on all those record breaking hot days in January to ensure our cows were comfortable and happy. I was there and I was moved by your super human efforts.

Sprinklers in the dairy – says cow comfort on hot days

Chrissy in the dairy shows the Young Eco Champions how to milk and care for cows on hot days

The girls would like to thank John who arrived with the super cold watermelon just at the right time

Coles Please remember real people farm

Today I am re-blogging below this post from Milk Maid Marian which highlights the heartbreaking issues in the Australian dairy industry. Marian makes some very powerful and insightful comments and puts forward some thought provoking and very doable solutions. The question are the right people listening and most importantly will they act?

In my neck of the woods I spoke to my Parmalat Farm Services Officer yesterday who I know has been feeling the strain of working with dairy farmers for the past six months and struggling to deal with the devastation she is witnessing in the Australian Dairy industry. She asked me how our cows handled the heat. I said surprisingly well but then we had learnt from our past mistakes and put in 48 hours with almost no sleep to assist our dedicated team to hose our cows down (and other mitigation strategies) in the 43 degree heat to ensure they were as comfortable as possible and so far it has worked .

I also want to share this video with you.

It is powerful for a number of reasons, but mostly it highlights something Coles seems to have forgotten and that is real people farm and a lot of them are in pain because of Coles marketing strategies.

Coles remember real people farm – Photo by Sylvia Liber

Woolworths on the other hand are getting smart and recognising how important their farmers are and doing something about it . See article here. As Marian warns don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg Coles.

The video also highlights farmer should never underestimate the impact of building direct relationships with their customers which is the very reason why I instigated Art4Agriculture and the Archibull Prize

Back to Marian – this is what Marian had to say this morning ……..

Dairy farmers gathered in their hundreds in south-west Victoria last night for a crisis meeting. What makes it a crisis? Very simply, dairy farmers are working seven days a week for free and petrified of losing our shirts.

Local agribusiness bankers tell me they are busy refinancing and arranging extra debt but land sales are at a standstill around here. Reporting on last night’s dairy crisis meeting, Simone Smith of The Weekly Times, described a “dire picture”:

“Warrnambool-based Coffey Hunt farm accounting specialist Garry Smith said across his client-base, farmers milking mostly between 450-500 cows, average feed costs were up 15 per cent – a $150,000 rise – with the cost of power for the first quarter of the year up 50 per cent.”

“He estimated across his client-base earnings would be 10 per cent down on last year with a combination of cash-flow and income down $260,000.

“Charles Stewart real estate agent Nick Adamson said better quality farms had dropped in value between 8-15 per cent, while others were up to 45 per cent down on peaks of several years ago.”

None of this is pretty and astonishingly, Peter Reith decided to appear on ABC’s The Drum website with a six-point plan that, at first, I thought was a spoof. Take a look and make up your own mind.

It’s not as simple as cutting petrol taxes and municipal rates. It’s tricky because of this conundrum: milk and dairy foods are considered so important that nobody wants to pay what they are worth to produce.

Every day I read comments on Twitter that go something like this: “My kids drink three litres of milk every two days, so I can only afford to buy $1 milk”. I know first-hand how tough it is to feed a family when you’re on struggle street, so I have a lot of sympathy for people in this predicament and it’s impossible to respond with anything other than compassion.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that there is no political appetite for an increased milk price. But the truth is this: dairy farmers should not and cannot fund an ersatz Australian welfare system by subsidising the cost of food. Welfare is the role of government.

So, while my dander is up, here’s a simple list of five tricky things that would make a big difference to this dairy farmer:

1. Deal with the supermarket duopoly
Down, Down, Down is not about you, dear milk drinker. The real reasons for the supermarket war are expressed in corporate ROIs rather than family budgets. At the end of the day, it will be the little people with the least market power – you, the shopper, and me, the farmer – who will pay.

2. Level the global playing field
Julia Gillard announced that Australia would be Asia’s food bowl but guess what? Unlike the world’s most powerful dairy exporters, the Kiwis, we do not have a free trade agreement with China, putting Australian dairy at an immediate 15% disadvantage. Nor do we receive the government subsidies that support our European and North American competitors.

3. Assist with the impact of the carbon tax
Australian dairy farmers are suffering a double whammy under the carbon tax. First, processors are passing the extra cost onto us in the form of lower farm gate prices (because the consumer won’t pay extra and nor will global commodity markets), reducing our incomes by around $5,000 each per year. At the same time, our costs – especially electricity and refrigerants – are rising in quantum leaps each quarter.

4. Support smart farming
Long exposed to the blow-torch of global export markets without subsidisation, Australia’s dairy farmers are among the most efficient in the world, according to research body, Dairy Australia. We can produce very high quality milk at a very low cost because we have invested in research and development. No longer. We are spending less and less on R&D and the Victorian government has just made massive staff cuts to our brains trust, the Department of Primary Industries.

5. Remember, I am the goose that lays the golden egg
I will not be able to continue to deliver high quality milk at such a low price while enhancing the environment and caring for our cows without sacrificing the basic wellbeing of my family and that, I refuse to do.

Coles your are breaking my heart

A few things lately have reminded me of the phrase “live everyday like it is your last” and for me that is waking up everyday to fulfil my legacy for youth in agriculture.

Today we hosted Nuffield Scholar Joe Delves and after spending this week in workshop with a number of our inspiring Young Farming Champions and Young Eco Champions I wish I had known more about Joe so I could have ensured he joined us earlier to meet and inspire the team.

What a breath of fresh air he is and excitingly just the right age to be a Young Farming Champion ( looking forward to bringing the program to UK Joe so we can extend the network and get the same outcomes in your country)

Joe Delves lifted my spirits today and I thank Nuffield for giving him the opportunity to do just that

As you might have guessed Joe hails from the UK. Here is part of his blurb on the Nuffield site

I am a third generation dairy farmer from East Sussex. We are currently running 210 cows and 160 followers ( replacement stock), …. I have a wife called Becky and two gorgeous daughters, Faith who is three and Evie who is one. Our goal as a family is to demonstrate that dairy farming can be sustainable, profitable and fun!!

My Nuffield project is to “How best to save/promote the dairy industry (UK)”

My main reason for wanting to study this topic, was to see if there was some way of linking up exiting farmers and new entrants in the dairy industry. Hoping that this would help to combat the decreasing number of farmers and the ever increasing average age of the dairy farmer. In between these two issues you have other factors such as subsidies, taxation and a lack of long term business planning. I have spent the past months travelling the UK looking at farms and talking to farmers young and old. There is a clear lack of career path for young people, they also lack those farming hero’s to aspire too. We have lost a lot of our pioneer spirit in the UK which I think is the effect of farmers becoming heavily reliant on subsidy. Through my Nuffield Scholarship i hope to reinvigorate the UK dairy industry.

One of the first things Joe said to me is “In the UK my generation likes to think of ourselves as 1st generation business men”. Joe is not only a wealth of ideas he has put them into practice including innovative ways to give young people a start-up in the industry using corporate investors to buy the land that young farmers cant afford and then finding support for them to fund purchase of cows and infrastructure

On a personal level it was heartbreaking to show Joe the farm today ravaged by extended dry conditions put to the test by our innovative efforts to counter the devastation caused by the milk price wars instigated by Coles. I have never seen our farm look this barren and in fact I took pictures but don’t want to post them

This week Coles came out and said “It not our fault dairy farmers are suffering” Well I say Coles its time you thought about the legacy you wake up everyday to leave for the Australian dairy industry because to me you must have hearts of stone to sleep at night. I can tell you, because I know Australian dairy farmers are being brought to their knees and admit it or not Coles you are part of the reason why.

Come and see my what is left of our beautiful farm, hear our story. We strive to be the best of the best and we are almost broken. How much further you can push us I don’t know, how you justify your marketing practices I don’t know. What I do know you are part of the problem and its time you become part of the solution. Here is a start Coles how about you follow Sainsbury’s lead “Sainsbury’s raise lamb prices for farmers”

The spirit lives on

I am on a roll, five posts in five days and with a sudden do or die rush to hospital shortly before Christmas I have plenty of time to think as I recuperate and reflect

Today with 2012 coming to end here is a little reflection from me on Australian Year of the Farmer which started with a bang and sadly closed with a whimper.

I know co founders Philip Bruem and Geoff Bell had all the best intentions and invested their heart and souls into their baby so I am not going to talk about all the things that went wrong but I do want to talk about some of the ways we as farmers can leverage the momentum going forward of what was a great idea executed with too little money and not enough grass roots involvement .

I’ve seen many things change for the better over the last 12 months. Colin Beetles reflects on the big picture here. I want to talk about what I see is happening at grass roots level and in particular the social changes

I am noticing more and more farmers are less indignant. We know we cant afford to sit back and say people should appreciate us because we feed them. We know it is our role to build the relationships beyond the farm gate with our communities and our customers and the decision makers and start those two way conversations. Gone is the idea that the community should wake up everyday and say “thank a farmer” and more and more our farmers are saying “ thank a consumer”

We are looking at new and innovative ways to raise awareness and build a sense of pride and support for our committed, caring and professional farmers. I for one salute our farmers on their growth in 2012.

We are seeing a new type of AGvocay leadership working side by side with our agri- politicians and they are taking on the tough issues like Live Export. Its going to be a long road but they are cutting through

There are now a lot of damned good grass roots initiatives out there stepping up to the plate and building the farmer to consumer value chain partnership and letting industry take a back seat and concentrate on what they do best Whether it be quirky things like the Great Cafe Challenge, using social media like Ask an Aussie Farmer, sharing our stories like Fleur McDonald’s 52 Farming Stories in 52 Weeks, starting campaigns or writing petitions or just great photos like this one. A great example of its not what you say but how you say it that delivers the goods

Sheep on Andrew Irvine’s verandah during Murrumbidgee Floods, Wagga Wagga in March 2012. | Photographer: | Andrew Irvine

We know farming today has moved to a new dynamic. It is all about relationships, about values and about people – its all about selling the sizzle not the steak (whilst appreciating and respecting the cow that produces it ).

We know that selling the sizzle is very often out of our area of expertise and it we want to do it well ( and we must our future depends on it) we need new skills sets. In particular it is the women in farming who are seeing this new way of farming as their area of expertise and its the grass roots who are putting together the programs and providing the training and our women in agriculture are chafing at the bit to get involved and they are en masse.

Yesterday I mentioned Women Influential, there is the great work of Georgie Somerset and the QRRRWN network, Art4Agriculture’s Young Farming Champions Network and between us I am positive we could list another 50.

And back to Australian Year of the Farmer, Art4Agriculture has been very lucky to come to the attention of one of their celebrity ambassadors Sara Leonardi McGrath. I am very excited to tell you that for Glenn and Sara celebrating our farmers and the great food and fibre we grow is NOT going to finish at the end of 2012.

Sara is a little dynamo and since I first met with her in January this year her mind has been ticking over looking at some clever ways she can use her talents and connections in the art world to build city country relationships and take them to a whole new level via a partnership with Art4Agriculture. She is great fun to work with and the team and students and schools involved are loving it

The partnership starts with an exhibition of 8 of our Archibulls at Sara’s MCLEMOI GALLERY in Chippendale in the last two weeks in January Read all about it here.

Sara is also supporting us to launch another new concept which I hope to be able to share with you in early February. The Art4Agriculture team have been investigating ways to enable all Australian farmers to be in driving seat and ensure the success of the Art4Agriculture vision and programs and with Sara’s support we think this concept is goer

So fellow farmers whether you have #hadagutfull are #proud2farm encouraging the community to support #duopolyfreefriday ringing the bell on #agchatoz telling your story on #AskanAussieFarmer or are proud #youthinag the Year of Farming Families is just around the corner so lets work together and keep up the momentum and in the words of Connie Ross

Despite droughts, floods and bushfires, the spirit lives on.

Most farmers just never give in! ‘

Cause, despite the frustration, we’re feeding the nation

And that’s a great battle to win!

and remember its our “battle” – lets do it our way

Sue Middleton nurturing people who feed people

I recently was lucky enough to catch up with the remarkable Sue Middleton twice in a period of four weeks. Sue was the “RIRDC Australian Rural Woman of the Year 2010” and farms with her husband Michael in the Wongan Hills In WA.

Sue and I share a similar passion and commitment to drive change in agriculture. Sue is particularly committed to building capacity in rural women and me in our young people.

Sue is heavily into making a difference, where it counts, at policy level. According to Sue ‘Policy is a dark beast, untraceable. to influence policy and make a difference you have to learn the skills – it takes patience and tenacity.’ Mentored by Cathy McGowan who Sue’s says ‘taught me the value of pinpointing what makes a difference to the people you want to convince to help you solve your particular issue. If you want results, discover what engages your audience, find where that intersects with what you’re after and speak to that.’

Sue’s commitment runs in the family and her daughter Lizzie Brennan together with Catherine Marriott has recently set up Influential Women to ‘recognise the inherent power women have as natural communicators and seek to nourish their infinite potential’ Lizzie and Catherine custom design training to draw upon the strengths of women and build their skills and confidence in communicating their unique story.

Sue Middleton, Jenni Hawkins, me and Lucinda Corrigan at CCRSPI conference in November 2012

We first featured Sue as part of our Art4Agriculture case studies in 2010. See here. Today I want to share with you what she had to say when asked the question ‘What do I wish non-farmers and the Australian Government understood about farming?” as part Fleur McDonald’s 52 Farmers in 52 Weeks series for Australian Year of the Farmer. Read it in full here

‘What do I wish non-farmers and the Australian Government understood about farming?”

Sue answered …….

Firstly that what we do is really risky and we are at the mercy of weather. That means that not every product we produce will look the same. Oranges with a blemish on their skin are just as good as fruit without a blemish on it. Blemish is caused by wind – it’s a very natural part of fruit. Learn to eat fruit and food that doesn’t look perfect but is identical in every characteristic that impacts your health! This one shopping habit alone will save you dollars in your pocket.

We are wasting 50% of the food we produce in Australia. We don’t need cheaper food – we need to stop taking good productive energy and turning it into waste! If people focused a little bit more on reducing the food waste from their homes, they would find their food bills dropping dramatically.

Buy as direct as you can- each week take one product that you consume and find a way of purchasing it as directly from a farmer as possible. Start reading labels – be ferocious in your food stores – demand locally produced food where you know the food production standards are high. You have all the power – exercise it – start reading food labels and start checking where food comes from. We do supermarket checks regularly and supermarkets frequently label fresh food incorrectly and say it comes from WA when it really comes from interstate – check the labeling and challenge the stores to be more accurate.

The government needs to understand the huge impact of policy changes. The banning of live trade to Indonesia has rippled through WA agriculture and caused huge impact not just on northern Australian cattle farmers. We now have $500k of straw in our paddocks we can’t sell because the bottom fell out of the pellet market. The knock on effect of decisions like the cessation of the trade has been gigantic. The government doesn’t pick up that tab, and they need to be VERY cognizant of the impact of their decision making. We do not need them to add to our market risks.

Finally I would like people to know we are in a very technical game. It is very science driven and we utilize all knowledge we can to improve our sustainability constantly. Looking after the land and our animals is a priority for us. But we are in a marginal game and we are unprotected in the world markets competing against countries that are highly subsidized. It is not a level playing field in this globe! To keep our noses ahead we need more investment in research, development and most importantly extension so we can keep learning and driving our businesses productivity and profitability further.

And what does Sue love about being a farmer?

It is great to drive around the crops doing a crop-run when they are growing well. There is no greater pleasure than growing a great crop. Conversely in the dry years it can be tough when the rain doesn’t come and the crops get compromised. It is also very satisfying to see our animals grow well and we love to see them in good condition.

Growing things is what we love.

First rule of negative social media Woolworths

Its interesting isn’t it? There is lots of wise advice out there about how to handle negative social media and one would think Australia’s biggest employer could afford access to the right expertise in this area? Apparently not. Case in point my post yesterday on the fallout from Woolworths CEO Ralph Waters insensitive comments about Queensland dairy farmers See here.

Now I am confident there is not one person out there me included who hasn’t said something or done something they later regret especially when it affects innocent people en mass. A recent and horrifying example of this is the death of the nurse involved in the Prince Edward Hospital debacle kick-started by a prank by a Sydney Radio station

Now one-one is suggesting Ralph Waters comments fall into this category but they definitely were insensitive and unnecessary and kicking farmers in the guts who are doing it tough through no fault of their own and especially when it is a campaign heavily supported by Mr Waters company Woolworths that he is Chairman of the Board of that is significantly adding to their pain

So Woolworths any Google search will elicit the first rule of negative social media

“Be honest. If your brand makes a faux pas, apologize publicly to your fans. Ignoring the issue often makes it bigger, adding fuel to the fire”.

Ignoring the issue or hiding the fallout in this case see here has launched a campaign that is the brainchild of one very passionate young dairy farmer and super AGvocate Stephanie Tarlinton @duofreefriday and @proudlydairy

Stephanie is a young lady people listen too and I would not be the least bit surprised if Duopoly Free Friday doesn’t build to a point where it does impact on Woolworths sales on Fridays such is the innovative thinking behind the idea and the passion, genius and support networks of the founder

Hello world meet Stephanie Tarlinton

Stephanie with her #soproud parents at the recent Dairy Research Foundation Symposium where the audience voted her their favourite speaker.

This what Stephanie had to say at the symposium that reduced many in the audience to tears

Today I’d like to have a conversation with you,

But firstly so you know who you’re talking to, I’ll tell you a little about myself

I am

Firstly a proud dairy farmers daughter
The 2011 Land Sydney Royal Showgirl Runner Up
An Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champion
A National Junior Dairy Judging Final winner
A Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholar
A Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Rural Achiever
A NSW Holstein Youth Exchange Awardee

And a young women who has a degree in Agricultural Business Management, loves to travel and feels just as comfortable in a pair of high heels as I do in my gumboots

My story started growing up on my family’s dairy farm which is located on the far south coast of NSW just outside of the township, Cobargo. My family has a long association with the region and in particular the dairy industry.

I have the deepest respect for the humble dairy cow which has provided for my family and wider community over the last 148 years we have been dairying.

So you ask with five generations of dairy farmers behind me what is it exactly that I am going to talk to you about.

No it’s not the quickest way to move a strip graze fence nor is it the best way to dry out the inside of your gumboot when you misjudge the depth of the creek (however Mum’s good hair dryer can perform this task if she isn’t home)

In fact the reason I am here today is to share my experiences of having conversations of change;

Conversations that inspire & engage.

Conversations which have the ability to empower another individual by sharing knowledge and experience.

Such conversations we all have the capacity to have as a way of connecting with those in the community who have not experienced a business/way of life, which is common to us all in room, dairying.

I’m referring to what is more commonly known as a way to help bridge the rural – urban divide.

The Bridge has been built however we need to open the pathway for consumers on either side to be able to connect with those involved in producing our food and fibre products.

With a considerable amount of Australia’s population living in urban centres, those classified as rural including the country’s farmers have an important role to play in reducing the separation between communities.

Engaging in a conversation with someone who has little knowledge of how their food moves from the farm gate to their plate has the potential to give them insights into the real story of modern agriculture.

Connecting with consumers on shared values increases the possibility of forming trust in farming and those whom participate in agricultural business.

Sharing personal stories allows consumers to gain insight and confidence in farming systems, ultimately building connections and breaking down barriers in society which further decreases the divide.

Members from either side of the divide consume food in order to survive and this is a fundamental feature of unity and mutual dependency. A simple discussion on the origin of a food product has the potential for rural person A to connect with urban person B to produce an outcome of greater understanding C.

A + B = C highlights the impact a single conversation can have if society will allow itself the simple pleasure to connect and challenge perceptions.

To quote Ghandi, “be the change you want to see in the world” reinforces the challenge that in order to create ways in which to build relations between the two sectors of society one must accept their role and be prepared to create opportunities for conversation.

For the agricultural sector to develop positive images and perceptions of farming practices and lifestyle, individuals who align themselves with this segment must be prepared to participate in the dialogue.

This is something that after hearing on numerous occasions the comment “oh you don’t look like a farm girl” I regularly seek out opportunities to participate in the dialogue others may see as a waste of time. As the quote behind me states I am the being the change I would like to see and that is having a greater number of consumers with an understanding of just who is putting the milk in their latte and the process it took to get it from the cow to the city cafe.

One opportunity I recently had which allowed me to participate in conversations with next generation of consumers was through the Art4Agriculture Archibull Prize program as a Young Farming Champion. In September last year I made my way to a primary and then to a secondary school in Sydney which saw me become their face of farming.

A face which they were not expecting which was clearly indicated to me “oh so YOUR the farmer” with an intrigued look up and down at my business suit and heels, with a laptop and mobile phone in hand.

I see dairy farmers as business people who work in the food supply sector and although we spend time in gumboots they are what I call “tools of the trade” much like my heels I guess!

I took this role on as it allowed me to challenge the stereotype of farmers which is so often poorly portrayed in the media, and provided me with an opportunity to share my experience of growing up on the dairy with children who do not have such a luxury and to share the great story that is dairy.

I would now like to share with you one tool I used which has allowed me to engage in conversations;

This is a conversation I have not only shared with you here today and at my schools last year but it has also been shared with the rest of the world via YouTube, In fact my video has been viewed by over 2500 hundred people, an audience I would have not been able to reach with my messages if it had not been for my desire to connect with others in the community who have been labelled on the urban side of the divide.

I believe that challenging stereotypes through highlighting our connections has the ability to show that as people we both have a mutual dependency on food and therefore on one another as a producer and a consumer

I am proud to come from a dairy farm, to be a small town girl, a rural consumer and I see this as one of my greatest assets, I have firsthand knowledge and experiences of food production and therefore I have something to share through conversation with those whom are classed as being from the bright lights of the city.

One girl who calls the bright lights of Sydney home is Year 7 student Sophia, standing second from the left in this photograph. I would now like to take a moment to read you an email I received from this young girl after being to her school

Dear Stephanie,

My name is Sophia and I met you when you visited our school. I am writing to you to tell you how inspiring and amazing your visit was.

My sister Olivia and I both attended your visit and it truly was a life changing experience. As we both live in a very suburban area we don’t get to see a lot of Australian Farmers. What was so incredible about your visit was that you taught our school that farmers are real people too. Your visit and video showed us just how important Australian Farmers are and just how much farmers are like us.

So I am writing to say Thank you. My family and I are originally from NZ however we moved here 5 years ago. I feel like I now understand that the foundation of Australia is made up of Farmers. You have really changed the way I think about farmers and I will now make it my mission to help spread the word, “Farmers are real people too” oh and that “farm girls love their shoes”

Regards Sophia

After reading this email I was touched at how my simple video which showed nothing more than my life on the farm, our girls aka the cows, a few pairs of shoes and some creative dance moves had the ability to inspire a young woman. I was touched at the response I received as for me I was just having a conversation about the everyday things that form life on our farm however for this particular girl my ordinary wasn’t so ordinary.

I chose to share Sophia’s story with you as I believe it is an example of how it only takes a small conversation or connection to create big outcomes. For me knowing I had planted a seed in one person’s mind regarding the way she thought about farmers provided me with the greatest sense of satisfaction and determination to then tell others about my story and encourage them to tell theirs.

In my dealings with people in the agriculture sector I have often found farmers to be very humble people, my parents are a great example of this, however I challenge you all to be inspired by the words of William James –

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does”

I believe as dairy farmers we make a difference, everyday. Everyday there is fresh, safe healthy dairy products available to consumers which have all originated from the only true white gold, milk. It does make a difference to people’s lives that is because the nation’s dairy farmers got out of bed this morning that have food on their table, jobs to go to, communities to live in, someone to call a neighbour, a friend.

I am confident there are many other ways which you all make a positive difference to someone’s life simply due to your actions as a dairy Farmer.

As farmers if we would like others in the community to acknowledge this difference we make to their lives we must be prepared to share with them, to build trust by finding common values and to firstly acknowledge and be proud of the role we play.

I see no easier way to do this then by having a chat with someone. Whether its a taxi driver, the person next to you on the plane, the person at the supermarket checkout, your hairdresser, or your child’s teacher. Share with them your story, challenge the stereotype, leave them with notion that today they met someone who is PROUD to be a dairy farmer or working in the dairy industry.

Conversations provide a key to reducing the disconnect between the farmers who grow the food and the people who buy and consume it. By acquiring education from individuals like ourselves who have firsthand knowledge in agricultural fields, it will enable those divided by urban boundaries to have informed opinions and increased understandings of what it is exactly that you do.

Actively participating in the conversations is essential for progress to be made in reducing the disparity of knowledge because if we don’t take the initiative to stand up and tell our own story someone else will. And I personally know I’d rather tell my side of the story then have someone with extreme views or uninformed opinions reaching the consumer of a product I’m proud to say I produce.

So I would now like to ask those in the audience who are proud to dairy to raise your hand…

Congratulations! I too, am proud to dairy, proud to be a part of a great industry and proud to have such a long family history associated with dairying.

I would now like to ask you all to have a conversation of change, to share your experience and wisdom

And remember every individual has the power to share knowledge regardless of which side of the classroom divide, they take a seat during story telling.

So I challenge you all to be the change we need to see to bridge the divide,

To seek opportunity to engage and educate,

Act as if what you do makes a difference as it does to the consumers of Australia

And finally

Be proud to Dairy, Always.

So in 140 characters “Stephanie stepped out in her black business shoes and her pink lipstick and wowed them with her #proud2dairy message” and she bought many in the audience to tears including me.

Those shoes

This wont be the last time you will hear from Stephanie Tarlinton.

Disappointed Woolworths

Even as a kid I was pretty vocal and I always remember this little saying my dad would flick my way from time to time “ if you cant say something nice don’t say anything”

Well, it well and truly appears Woolworths Chairman Ralph Waters needs to have a conversation with my dad.

Mr Waters has copped the wrath of dairy farmers, their supporters and the wider community who despise “big business” tramping on the small business when he apparently made the suggestion that Queensland dairy farmers should “get out and do something else”, or be “weeded out” as impractical

You can read the story in Australian Dairy Farmer Magazine here

Now when one makes comments like this, one would expect if you are a caring, sharing person that you would upset a few people and that these people would get quite vocal and these people have taken to social media to tell Mr Waters exactly how they feel

Comments like this on the Woolworths Facebook site.

You can like this post or make a comment here https://www.facebook.com/woolworths/posts/420710038001133

and this

You can support Stephanie’s comments here

https://www.facebook.com/woolworths/posts/420703384668465

What is disappointing is Woolworths have removed these comments from public view. Picked up by the ever vigilant Kylie Stretton of Ask an Aussie Farmer fame See here

You can comment on Kylie’s post here

https://www.facebook.com/woolworths/posts/421133374625466

Now hiding is not a smart strategy Woolworths because articulate, well educated, passionate people will find other ways to air their views and this is exactly what is happening

Woolworths have not ventured into the twittersphere space yet but everyone else who wants to get their message out has

Twitter is now abuzz with @Duofreefriday which is the Twitter handle of Duopoly Free Friday campaign and they wont be able to hide this from public view. 30 followers in 10 minutes and climbing

Own up Mr Waters you made some comments that you must have known would be red rag to a bull. Wear the consequences. Hiding from them will only do the Woolworths brand more damage.

Twitter reveals all

New gig takes me to Western Australia and salt country

Part of my prize for winning the Bob Hawke Landcare Award is an honorary position on the Australian Landcare Council.

I will be the first to admit winning Australia’s newest and most prestigious award for sustainable agriculture does not make me an expert on sustainable agriculture everywhere and paradise is a long way from the salt plains of WA for example and has very different issues and needs.

So when I found out this board gets out of the boardroom and visits every state and goes on farm ( commercial and lifestyle ) and talks to people and has two way conversations I knew this was for me

My first board meeting was in Katanning the home of host board member Ella Maesepp

Ella is one of those people I labelled instantly as a “doer” First and foremost Ella is a broadacre farmer. She is the District Landcare Officer with the Katanning Land Conservation District Committee as well as the winner of the Environment Category of the 2004 Western Australia Youth Awards.

What a champion she is. We took a small bus from Perth to Katanning with a number of stops along the way and Ella managed to arrange “great coffee” at just right moment everywhere we went. #legend

In this part of the world salinity is a huge and heartbreaking problem.

The first stop was Wagin the home of the Big Ram

This ram certainly has some assets that make him stand out don’t you think?

Here is some background

We learnt about this region’s endangered species the Red Tailed Phascogale. We have a similar marsupial in Paradise that likes to eat my little chickens. So cute but very pesky

As you can see from this map this little guy was once quite prolific

We also got a first hand report on the community driven Wagin Food & Fibre Hub an excellent example of the risk that comes with a pilot project, and the struggle for funders to balance innovation against that level of risk. ,

Our first farm stop was “Tamar” the property of Adrian and Jill Richardson. Jill also happens to work with Ella in the Landcare Office

Adrian Richardson sharing his story

Located 20kms northwest of Katanning, Tamar runs approximately 3000 Merinos and crops mainly oats, barley and wheat.

This property has got to be seen to be believed. Amazing. They work with the guru that is Ron Watkins.

Ron Watkins runs “Payneham” farm, 15km north of Franklin in south western WA. Ron has looked beyond the traditional farming practices of the area, toward sustainable and integrated farming systems that work within the local ecosystem. He isolated several factors to address but gave priority to turning a salinity problem into an asset.

Ron set out to fully utilise the natural shape of his terrain and harvest surface and sub-surface water flow, aiming to store a large volume of water to combat waterlogging, salinity and erosion. He installed drains along the contours of the property, planted up to 1,000 trees per kilometre protected by electric fencing and fenced off all remnant bushland. Ron also had the foresight to include his neighbours in his projects early on, enabling a complete sub-catchment plan to be implemented. His initiatives have been such a success that he has around 60 farmers nationally seeking his advice on landcare best practice strategies.*

This is what using Ron Watkins farming principles looks like at Tamar

Tamar Farm showed the benefit of whole-farm planning, and implementing according to the plan.

Then it was on to Ella’s farm – Dunbar Farm

Ella and her husband David Potter. Firstly we were treated to a tour of Ella’s house which was designed by Solar Dwelling and owner built between 2010 and 2012. The external walls are straw bale and with two stone mass thermal walls. All stone, timber and straw have been sourced from the property

A feature is the room with a view

accessed via this spiral staircase

From the distance the problems are well hidden by good farming practices.

Up close we saw the devastation caused by salinity and the use of saltbush to help manage the problem .

At Dunbar Farm perennial pastures, mainly Lucerne and saltbush have been introduced to the system since 2005 with improvements in salinity and productivity. Tall what grass and puccinellia have since been added with 4 paddocks currently under a perennial phase, and 6 areas of saltbush have been established and fenced out from the paddocks since 2005

Next up was Craigmore Farms the property of Ian Knapp.

an has also made extensive use of saltbush with excellent results as shown below. Craigmore had a large, flat expanse of bare, eroding, salt affected land.

Before

Following on from the success of saltbush planting of their neighbours ( Ella and David) next door at Dunbar a massive saltbush establishment program was undertaken in 2010 with 20,000 seedling alone planted in that year. Drainage lines were fenced off and planted with tress the following year.

After

The result has been a significant stabilisation of the soil, visible increase in grasses, and a massive splash of green across a once bare area as pictured above. Impressive isn’t it

Adrian Richardson and Ian Knapp however have completely different views on trees, as a result of their different landcare approaches and financial capacity. As Ella commented when there are such different views locally, how do you communicate a shared view to the wider community? Methinks this is a fairly standard issue in all regions. Nine out of ten farmers learn from other farmers and as long as you have farmers like the Potters, the Knapps and the Richardsons prepared to open their doors and share their successes and failures progress will be made

All the farmers highlighted that it is relatively easy to get funding for trees & seedlings, but support for salt-tolerant species is hard to get.

This is because

a) salt tolerant are not the plants that grew there originally, but have to adapt because the soil & groundwater conditions have changed

b) there is often a production benefit to salt-tolerant species e.g. saltbush for grazing.

The majority of the content for above is part of a report by Ella on the field trip and there are at least two more blog posts in this report that I will leave for later. Both are an excellent opportunity for guest blogs posts from the key stakeholders who I know would do a very entertaining job

Ella made the following insightful observations on Drought-proofing

There is a marked contrast between the outcomes that the Drought Reform Pilot was aiming for and actual on-the-ground drought proofing. The Pilot was more concerned with economic / business planning and identifying viable alternatives for when the drought happens, than actually establishing whole-farm systems to prevent on-farm water shortages in the first place.
‘Drought-proofing’ is a diverse term, and the language surrounding it needs to be better defined. It could be interpreted to mean ‘storing water’, or ‘providing sufficient water to crops & livestock’, or ‘building resilience into a farm business’ or many other things!
Full drought-proofing of a farm (improving water capture, store and use) costs big money! (and from me in most cases the kitty just ain’t big enough when the community wants quality food and fibre at rock bottom prices)

Priorities

Salinity still exists and is still a major issue that landholders are struggling with in WA!
Opportunities could be facilitated to share learnings regarding salinity adaptation and management across Australia eg WA, SA, Vic, NSW.
Solutions to problems are diverse and it is important that government / funders / policy makers are prescriptive.
Assessment panels etc need to be aware that their decisions affect people (not just projects) and therefore need make sure there is clear information as to why decisions are made, so volunteers et al understand and feel valued.

Well said Ella

* Extract from http://www.stepcommunication.com/images/pdfs/2004%20National%20Landcare%20Awards%20Booklet.pdf

Farmer Vicki Jones is living the dream

As promised in an earlier post I am now delighted to share Vicki Jones’ presentation from the Naturally Resourceful Conference in Mitchell this month.

I am confident Vicki’s story will move you just as much as it did me

Hello my name is Vicki Jones……………………

Yes Jones one of the most common names in the phone book and I am married to a farmer, so I am Mrs Jones the farmer’s wife. I love what I do as a farmer’s wife and am very passionate about the land.

I suppose this came about at a very young age as I grew up on a cattle property on the western downs and even though I initially chose a different path, I have ended up just where I wanted to be. Lucky I guess or you could say well planned.

For the last couple of years as my involvement in the local land care group grew, I found myself volunteering to be the Chair of Mitchell & District Landcare. I did this because I believe in the foundations of land care and not only does it give us access to factors that affect our land scapes and environment it also allows us to be a part of a very important group of people who also have the same goals and love for their land.

For those of us who are fortunate to own a piece of this wonderful country, land care is a major part of our lives. Most of us get out of bed every morning with the intention to care for our land and to make it better for our future generation. We do this because we have too…. we are the ones with the money on the line, we can’t afford to get in wrong, we have to keep searching to make things better. It is easy for others who do not have any money on the line to have an opinion of what we as farmers need to do, or better still what not to do. However it is those of us that are the resourceful ones that are in the pilot seat of our future and chose this life because we can and it’s what we as people of this land do.

I will just give you a brief background. After leaving boarding school many years ago I went on to study dentistry and worked for Queensland Health on and off for 20 years having breaks for children and other pursuits. Dentistry is not all it’s cracked up to be as nobody likes you and it actually has the highest suicide rate of all professionals.

I did have a career, but as a wife and mother I always put my family first. For the first 10 years of our marriage we worked and lived on Bruce’s family dairy farm near Toowoomba and as seeming to be the theme of a couple of the speakers I heard yesterday, this was also not what it was cracked up to be.

Bruce had always wanted to have his own cattle property. It was his lifelong dream and as I had grown up on the land it soon became mine as well. After working on the family dairy farm for 15 years it became apparent that his dream was not going to happen unless he did it himself.

In one of a few heated discussions with Bruce’s parents, about our decision, we decided to walk away and make it on our own. Bruce’s dad told him that if he left the family farm to go west, that he would go broke.

So with these words from the man he admired most still ringing in his ears he packed up his young family and moved west. We bought all that we could afford, a small cattle property south west of Mitchell.

Just to give you an idea of the scale of how small. The surrounding properties and the regional average is about 20 – 60 thousand acres and we had purchased 2500 acres. So we don’t have a very big ship, but what we do have is our own boat and we can paddle it where ever we chose. And we chose to do the best with what we have. We could not buy this place and run it like both our fathers would have, because it was not big enough and it needed to pay for itself. If it was not profitable it just became and expensive place to live.

“Oolandilla Park” was the beginning of our dream. The only thing a bit tricky was that it only ran 80 head of cattle. The house had never been lived in, the fences / yards were all falling down and in terms of type of country, south of Mitchell was not a best street kind of suburb. As we found out from all of the comments from the locals. So we had some work to do. We were wondering what we can do to give us the biggest bang for our buck, as we realized that something had to change or our dream was not going to happen.

With the help of MDLA, Queensland Murray Darling Catchment & farmbis my husband and I were fortunate enough to be involved in a pilot study being participants in RCS’s Grazing For Profit School in early 2007. Sixteen local farming enterprises attended the course and up to 4 enterprises continued on the Graduate Link and Executive Link modules. We were privileged to have Terry McCosker as our facilitator. We took on this information with great enthusiasm and applied the grazing management principles immediately. This has since proven to not only change our business forever, but also our personal lives. It heightened our awareness of our environment and taught us to love our grasses just as much as our cows.

When we started to measure our ground cover & grasses in March 2007 we found that we had 23% ground cover and 5% desirable grasses.

We immediately changed our grazing management to include rotational grazing of livestock, fenced off dams and boundary fenced for feral goats and kangaroos. Don’t get me wrong we still have some kangaroo’s, we just now have a sustainable level. Before they were in plague proportions and not very healthy. The rotational grazing has allowed us to rest each paddock for 12 months of the year every year.

By changing our grazing management for only 2 years we had been able to increase our desired grasses by 1000% and the litter has improved by 350% giving us an overall ground cover now of 90%. While doing this we were also able to increase our livestock numbers by 325%.

After a while the wattle suckers and a few other species started to come up pretty thick and we became a bit concerned. We had neither the time nor the money to address them.

We left them alone and concentrated on what we did want and not want we did not want and that was grass. As we were monitoring our grass we discovered that the suckers were changing. A scale/moth/grub or something was getting into them and they were slowly dying. Where the woody weeds had been the grass was higher and thicker.

We also noticed that due to the higher stock density that the cattle were now changing their diet to include some of the woody weeds. Things were happening that we know not much about, but however were changing for the good.

During this time we have also been monitoring our microbial activity and water cycle. The microbial activity and fungi within our soils are becoming more evident and the water cycle is increasing positively. This has allowed us to have an increase, in usable rainfall. Rather than having water running away, we now have moisture retention with less rainfall.

We are always on the lookout for worms and what’s happening in the soil and until this year we had not found any live worms, but when we did we celebrated. These things are the life blood to our soils and if we can have an increase in cattle numbers and have worms popping up in the paddock then we must be doing something right.

Until a few weeks ago we did not know that this map existed. Our eldest son was doing an assignment at school and he found the map. As you can see it clearly shows what’s happening with the ground cover and the moisture retention.

Other things that we have done to increase our profitability have been courses such as

KLR Marketing
Low Stress Stock Handling
Advanced Stock Movement and Dog School

One of the courses that we have been attending for the past 4 years is the Livestock Movement course which introduces the working dog into the enterprise. We have learnt so much form these courses and implementing the strategies, has made such a difference to our bottom line that we have fallen in love with the working dog an now have our own registered stud “Dunyellan Working dogs” and have been training and breeding kelpies and collies for sale as a hobby. Like we needed something else to do.

So, the big question is, are we there yet, have we achieved our dream? Well not quite, with everything that we have implemented we are not quite viable, but are pretty close. We do realise that we need to have a larger scale, however with what we know now, we definitely know it’s not about how much land you own but what you can do with it.

Bruce and I have always built our lives on goals and trying to work out in what direction we need to go next, which is the most beneficial to our lives and our business. We know that it does not matter where you are today in this state of your lives or business because that is only a temporary indicator.

This conference is helping to provide the tools for you to take the clay of your life in your hands and mould it to your dreams. Just like moulding real clay, it’s not about the results but the process of the moulding that counts. Look and speak in the direction that you want to be and never look back.

Without these opportunities and courses we would not be where we are today. So, thank-you to MDLA and QMDC for allowing us to move our business forward.