Success is a journey Archives - Page 34 of 35 - Clover Hill Diaries

God made a farmer and on the 8th day he said I help those who help themselves

In my post yesterday cheekily titled Shame on you Woolworths set to sell sex toys in the milk isle I talked about my dream for a new look agriculture that saw farmers level the supply chain playing field, working side by side with supply chain partners who showed each other equal respect and our farmers gaining the knowledge and skills sets to allow them to extract real value from supply chain.

I don’t know how many farmers feel like me and I hope the fact that when I write a post that has a dig at Coles is 15 times more popular with my readers than a post that actually talks about working on real solutions to get farmers out of this nightmare paradigm where all the power lies at the top of the supply chain is not indicative of the lack of interest in my sector in driving real change

Whilst I might get disillusioned from time to time by lack of positive feedback, it wont stop me spending the rest of my days in paradise working towards my goal of supply chain equality driven by the farmers themselves not this energy wasting dream of white knights with silver bullets

Farmers can laugh at themselves and we have all heard this joke

There was a man whose farm was located on the banks of a flood-swollen river. As the water rose, a neighbour drove up in a Jeep, urging him to leave before the farm was flooded.

“Oh, no,” said the man confidently, “God will save me.”

The water rose higher, and the man was forced to move into the second story of the farmhouse. A police boat soon came, and the officers called for the man to hurry and get into their boat.

“Oh, no, that won’t be necessary,” the man insisted. “God will save me.”

Finally the house was completely engulfed in water, and a Coast Guard helicopter swooped in to rescue the man, now perched on the roof. Again he refused. Just then, a huge wave of water swept over the house, and the man drowned.

When he got to heaven, he stormed at the Lord, asking WHY God had let him die when his faith had been so strong.

“What do you mean?” asked the heavenly Father. “I sent a Jeep, a boat, and a helicopter … and you wouldn’t budge!”

and we have all heard the phrase

“god helps those who help themselves”

Whether farmers like it or not its time we got with the program

This morning I am going to give farmers the best advice that I have ever been given

In the words of Steve Jobs

‘Don’t be trapped by dogma – that is, living with the results of other people’s thinking’,”

Shed the whingers.
Shed the below the line thinkers.
Shed the people who only want to Coles and Woolworths bash.
Shed the people who cant talk about anything but fringe groups
Shed the people who think the world revolves around them and their problems
Most of all walk away from the victim triangle and shed the people who think you are their white knight

Instead

Surround yourself with people you can learn from.
People who give you energy.
People who genuinely want to drive change and are prepared to gain the skills sets and knowledge to make it happen
People who genuinely support your vision and
Most importantly don’t be like me and wait 50 years to do it.

I know it can work and I know we have lots of farmers who think this way. We certainly have lots of highly visible young people who think this way. One great example I have the pleasure of working with is just an example of many. Celebrate them.

“For the creativity of individual creators to be celebrated, and to make a difference in the world, it has to be enthusiastically embraced by others,”

In this great article Professor Haslam (see below) poses the question of whether, if Mozart were alive today, he would be writing symphonies.

“It’s unlikely, and without a well-funded and publicly valorised group of classical musicians to nurture and encourage him, it’s probably more likely that he’d be writing jingles for laundry detergent,” he said.

An important finding from Professor Haslam’s research was that in order to get the best out of creative individuals, society needed to invest in the groups that made certain forms of creativity possible.

“Even Steve Jobs needed a group to treat his ideas seriously and to cultivate them,” Professor Haslam said.

“Indeed, it was precisely because people refused to be ‘trapped by the dogma of another person’s thinking’, that Jobs’ idea of the personal computer wasn’t dismissed as lunacy.”

My call to action.

Agriculture identify your young talent, engage them, nurture them and most importantly invest in them

BTW – Some food for thought for Australian dairy farmers in this opinion piece from TWT Dairy industry needs to act now

Professor Haslam collaborated on the paper – The Collective Origins of Valued Originality: A Social Identity Approach to Creativity – with Dr Inma Adarves-Yorno from the University of Exeter as well as Professor Tom Postmes and Dr Lise Jans from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Shame on you Woolworths set to sell sex toys in the milk isle

Newspapers pay people whose sole job is to come up with headings for news articles that will motivate people to buy newspapers. Woolworths latest foray into innovative fast moving consumer goods must be a dream come true for them. Despite the temptation to use the tongue in cheek clever line from Brian Dodd @bushboywhotweet that Woolworths maybe ‘artificially screwing dairy’ I wont go there in the name of good taste.

What I would like to do this morning is reflect on this article in The Conversation Worried about Coles and Woolworths – then look in the mirror and in particular these comments from the author

The greatest public concern has been the treatment of Australian farmers, particularly since the introduction of ‘one dollar per litre’ milk. So we should not be surprised that the major supermarkets have moved to stock more local produce and to set up supply arrangements that clearly benefit local farmers.

When customers complain, even retail gorilla’s listen!

Coles and Woolworths behaviour, however, highlights the underlying source of their marketing and their market power. The customers.

The two supermarket giants reached their current positions because people choose to shop at them rather than the competitors. We may rail against the closure of a small retailer when Coles or Woolworths opens up nearby, but the real cause of the closure is, well, us! As consumers, we choose to buy from Coles and Woolworths rather than the retail alternatives. We may complain but the low prices, the product selection, the convenience or whatever else, draws us in to buy at the major supermarkets and, in so doing, we slowly but surely push the retail competitors out of the market.

This is not anti-competitive; it is the very nature of competition. Businesses who best serve customers win. But when we complain, we should look in the mirror. Because it is our choices as consumers that decide who wins and who loses in the retail wars.

Put simply, Coles and Woolworths have succeeded because they are so damn good at giving us what we want!

…………. The major supermarkets are no angels. But they do respond to customers’ demands. So if you want more small grocers, you have the answer. Shop at them. But do not call on the politicians to make that decision for you.

On my previous post Coles Show Some Respect the very wise Greg Mills commented

What I found interesting about the Coles presentations was the issues management cycle slide. Coles had a ‘process’ and they stuck to it. Farmer objections where just an ‘event’ in the cycle to be dealt with. Which makes me think about what is the farmer ‘process’ to deal with these and other consumer issues. I suspect that there may not be a ‘process’ to deal with these issues by farmers and the food system, but rather the response is simply a number of events..

While I may not agree with Cole’s tactics I have learnt from this presentation and their FOCUS – Follow One Course Until Successful. I thinks it a good thing that this presentations is out there and being talked about. I hope that it gets some discussion going about how to deal with issues in the longer term.

Greg is right and I will be blunt it is not just consumers who have to take responsibility for their actions and stop expecting the government to be their white knight. Its time for farmers and Australian agriculture to convert supply chains into value chains.

Its tough out there dealing with the big 2. Is there a better current example than the latest very sad case of How private labels helped bring down Tasmania’s Tamar Valley Dairy

This company make yogurt to die for. I love it. It is divine and it appears working with Coles may have been their downfall

As Associate Professor of Marketing at Melbourne Business School Mark Ritson says in his article on Tamar Valley Dairy in BRW .

…. while around 25 per cent of all grocery sales in this country are now accounted for by private labels, in dairy categories that figure is closer to 50 per cent.

Given this proportion, it would be almost impossible for a dairy producer like Tamar Valley to grow revenues without manufacturing private labels and they aren’t alone. Almost every major branded manufacturer in Australia now makes some private label products for retailers or is trying to get a contract to start. In the case of Tamar Valley the company had clearly become extraordinarily dependent on this kind of trade supplying Coles, Woolworths and Aldi with private label yoghurts. The scale of its dependence was revealed last year when Tamar Valley’s founder and managing director, Archie Matteo, acknowledged that around 40 per cent of the dairy’s planned growth was built on a single, newly signed contract to supply Coles with private label yoghurt.

Unfortunately, manufacturing private labels is a very tricky strategic business.Private labels depend on a winning combination of prices that are 25 per cent to 30 per cent less than their branded competition but which usually return at least the same profit per unit sold to the retailer. That means that although the volumes involved in a private label supplier contract are gigantic the margins on such products are extremely tight. The nature of supermarket negotiation also means that no matter what the initial agreed supply price, there will always be future discussions on reducing it further ….

The margin pressure on private labels also means that retailers are constantly on the lookout for alternative suppliers who can offer the same quality commodity product at a lower supply price. And as private label penetration grows, more and more companies are offering their excess capacity for exactly that purpose.

The other big problem with supplying private label is the strategic schizophrenia it creates at the heart of a branded manufacturer. Tamar Valley Diary, like any other branded producer, should have had several clear strategic priorities that drove their business. They should have been focused on understanding and responding to the tastes of Australian consumers. They should have been working on product innovations to propel their Tamar Valley brand past its rivals on the shelf. And, most important, it should have been investing in and building the Tamar Valley brand to build brand equity, create differentiation and protect its market share.

The problem with private label supply is that it runs counter to all these principles. Producing private labels means manufacturing large amounts of commodity product, at the lowest possible price, without any innovation or branding considerations It also means focusing on one or two giant customers (the supermarkets) rather than the ultimate consumer for the product (you and I). As private label supply becomes an increasingly important source of revenues for a company its switches focus from branded innovation to commodity production. Its brands consequently begin to wither and fail making the company more and more dependent on private label supply to stay afloat. But, as Tamar Valley Dairy learnt this week, that’s a very fickle business to depend upon.

It would be naive to suggest that any supplier should avoid any and all private label supply. But it would be equally naive to become as dependent as Tamar Valley Dairy to sustain your business. Any company that builds their business on significant proportions of private label supply is making an enormous gamble in my opinion.

Very smart man Mart Ritson. I would love to sit around the table with him and a group of like minded farmers

In reality just how do we deliver the change that agriculture must have? For farmers this will mean working beyond traditional boundaries and challenging the conventional thinking of primary industries and individuals. It will require a paradigm shift in thinking and a collaborative re-allocation of resources and responsibilities amongst all stakeholders in the value chain.

It will require deploying agriculture’s young people into schools to build relationships with the next generation of consumers. It will need innovative and fun ways of engaging the next generation of consumers in considering the issues affecting sustainable food and fibre production.

I have set up Farming Ahead of the Curve to do just that with a a suite of programs, training and networking opportunities that will change the way farmers and consumers interact, increasing value across all sectors.

These programs will provide a supportive environment, professional development, access to inspiring leadership, first class mentoring and training.

The legacy of these programs will allow farmers of all ages to participate in, and extract greater value from the fibre to fabric and paddock to plate supply chain.

I don’t know about you but I have had enough of others defining my future for me. I say its time to take control and get my dignity back and farm ahead of the curve

How can we meet community expectations if we don’t know what they are

Following up on my post The real story about Animal Abuse I am in this space at the moment because I am on two industry peak body committees whose role is to set policy to help achieve the best outcomes for farm animal well-being in this country.

The federal government Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) is currently in the process of working with stakeholders to develop Australian Standards and Guidelines for Welfare of Livestock

In this case the stakeholders are

government and non-government organisations
veterinary and community groups
animal industries
animal welfare groups, and
farmers and stock handlers

The development process has recently undergone an independent review by Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) and they have released their findings which can be found here

The Business Plan for the development of Australian Standards and Guidelines for
Welfare of Livestock states the following as the objective of the Standards and Guidelines:

… the national livestock welfare standards, with complementary
guidelines, provide welfare outcomes that meet community and
international expectations and reflect Australia’s position as a leader in
modern, sustainable and scientifically-based welfare practice.

This objective includes a requirement for the Standards and Guidelines to meet
community expectations and what the review has found is there is currently a relatively low understanding, or agreement, on what these expectations are.

This gap according to PwC is apparently contributing greatly to the problems of conflicts within the process. Without a strong statement of objective, each party involved in the process has their own benchmark of what the Standards should be seeking to achieve – a common complaint from Animal Welfare organisations is that the Standards are not sufficiently ambitious and do not ‘raise the bar’. Conversely, industry supports the establishment of processes which reflect practicalities of agricultural business.

According to PwC and I couldn’t agree more that what is needed is greater articulation and consideration of the broader community expectations in this area, which are likely to be something of a balance between these two polarised viewpoints.

PwC go on to say this identified gap in understanding of community expectations should be addressed through focused social science research. Outcomes from this research can then be balanced with industry input and scientific knowledge on animal welfare matters.

Hooray to that I say. For too long government and the food supply chain, that is farmers right through to retailers have been second guessing consumer images and perceptions of modern farming practices and getting bogged down by lunatic fringe highly vocal agenda driven campaigns

I am pleased to report Dr Heather Bray see previous post and the team at Adelaide University had received funding through the Australian Research Council to do this absolutely pivotal social research.

This ARC Linkage project LP 130100419 aims to

and has the following specific objectives

with the following outcomes

Some of the previous ARC Discovery Projects have used focus groups to explore consumer understandings of ‘food ethics’ and they found for example that categories (such as organic) are defined in various ways, if values are taken as key drivers of purchasing patterns.

So although ‘organic’ for example has a scientific definition, some consumers associate it primarily with nutrition, some with purity/natural products, some with sustainability, and some with elitism.

Hence as the research teams have found it is critical not just to ask what they think, but why they think that (associated values)

At an industry level I would also like to applaud the Sheep Meat Council and Meat and Livestock Australia for developing A producer’s guide to sheep husbandry practices which provides information from a range of research and on-farm experience that will enhance animal welfare and potentially improve production outcomes.

As NSW RSPCA Chief Inspector David O’Shannessy recently shared 99% of animal welfare issues are caused by ignorance not malice and the key to change is to raise awareness of, and commit to best practice education. Just like the community (over 60% of animal welfare complaints relate to companion dogs and horses) farmers often have wide ranging views on what is acceptable best practice

The Sheep Meat Council and MLA are setting the perfect example for industry by leading the way through education. Its is my understanding that the dairy industry in Western Australia is also heading down a similar path and I am very keen to hear from other livestock industries who are also moving in this direction.

It is pivotal that farmers have these resources available for their use and adaptation, and utilize numbers from credible sources in order to show consumers and animal welfare groups the true side of farming today.

It is also imperative that we communicate our commitment to do it better and better and encourage our farmers to reach out to their networks in local communities – business associates, neighbours, and friends to share our knowledge and set the record straight about our industry, our work, our goals and commitments, our challenges and our successes.

Doesn’t this gorgeous picture of sheep being moved to ‘higher ground” during the NSW flood sum it all up. Farmers do love and care for their animals

Great follow up blog by Milk Maid Marian One Woman’s Kindness is Another’s Cruelty

Water water everywhere. Just who are we kidding

This year we have been able to send Young Eco Champions as well as Young Farming Champions into schools as part of a Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry supported Archibull Prize

This has been particularly rewarding for me as I know just how much our farm has benefited from working with natural resource management professionals and it has given me great joy to be able to partner our Young Farming Champions and the next generation of consumers and decision and policy makers (school students) with these bright young minds.

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Clover Hill paired with Next Gen to look after the farm’s scarce natural resources

Whereas our Young Farming Champions have their individual food and fibre industries behind them our Young Eco Champions don’t have an umbrella organisation that supports them financially and/or provides them with the type of personal and professional development Art4Agriculture offers and it’s been mind-blowing for me to see how they have flourished under the Young Eco Champions program.

Going into schools the Young Eco Champions have discovered that the knowledge base of students about natural resource management varies widely from school to school from almost nothing to exceptional and seems dependent on the culture within the school with some primary schools in the Archibull Prize 2013 leading the way.

They have found in the main that urban schools have their heads around sustainability in the context of reducing personal carbon footprint through recycling, reduced waste etc. because that’s what is driven through a lot of local council initiatives and some of the students with a rural background understood weed management issues and why it is important to manage weeds however knowledge of what it takes to farm sustainably and wider catchment management issues where almost non-existent.

Last week I joined Young Eco Champion Megan Rowlatt who returned to one of her schools to conduct a bush regeneration workshop with the students.

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Young Eco Champion Megan Rowlatt and students attacking the evil asparagus fern

I was recently reminded just how important it is for us all to have a wider knowledge of what is happening to our scarce natural resources beyond our front fences when I came across this article Where the world’s running out of water, in one map by Brad Plumer in the Washington Post

Brad asks the question

And with the global population soaring past 7 billion, this is one of the biggest questions the world is now facing. Can better conservation practices and new technology enable farmers to keep feeding the planet without depleting its most important water resources?

Its pretty scary to know that approximately 1.7 billion people rely on aquifers that are rapidly being depleted and would take thousands of years to refill, according to the study in the journal Nature.

The report, “Water balance of global aquifers revealed by groundwater footprint,” identifies aquifers in the U.S., Mexico, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India and China as crisis zones where groundwater resources and/or groundwater-dependent ecosystems are under threat because the use of water vastly exceeds the rate at which aquifers are being refilled by rain.

The underground reservoir in north-western India, for instance, would need 54 times more rainfall to replenish the water that’s currently being used by farmers and the local population.

In the map below, the blue areas mark where rain can replenish the amount of water being used by humans. Orange or red areas indicate places where people draw out more for irrigation and drinking water than rain can refill.

The grey areas show the extent of the “groundwater footprint” by representing how much water people are drawing from the aquifers compared with how much water each holds.

When we know Australia

is the driest inhabited continent on earth, with the least amount of water in rivers, the lowest run-off and the smallest area of permanent wetlands of all the continents.
and one third of the continent produces almost no run-off at all and Australia’s rainfall and stream-flow are the most variable in the world.

And then you see the big picture problem the world is facing due to an ever increasing scarcity of our precious natural resources its very rewarding to be able to work with and share our Young Farming Champions and our Young Eco Champions and their knowledge diversity and expertise with our school students

Its also very rewarding to be able to provide the schools they visit with the amazing resources our food and fibre industries are creating to show how farmers are doing their bit and striving to do it better and inspiring the next generation to look beyond their front door and get actively involved as well

Examples of some great industry resources can be found on our web page here

In particular

Target 100 http://www.target100.com.au/Tips-resources

Cotton Australia Education Kit http://cottonaustralia.com.au/uploads/resources/Cotton_Australia_Education_Kit_-_Secondary.pdf

A Wool Growers Guide to Managing Streams and Creeks

http://www.wool.com/Content/en-GB/lww_Rivers_Managing-rivers-creeks-streams.pdf

Dont tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Fear is at the root of so many barriers that women face. Fear of not being liked. Fear of making the wrong choice. Fear of drawing negative attention. Fear of overreaching. Fear of being judged. Fear of failure. And the holy trinity of fear: the fear of being a bad mother/wife/daughter

Without fear, women can pursue professional success and personal fulfillment- and freely chose one, or other or both

What would you do if you weren’t afraid – Sheryl Sandberg CFO Facebook

I am what is known as a big ideas person and sometimes I have a “big idea’ once a week and that’s a bit scary. Even I question my focus on a regular basis. Now it’s one thing to have a big idea it’s another thing entirely to bring it to fruition.

Every now and then I have a big idea that my gut tells me is winner and some very smart people tells me it’s a winner – yet I continually question and get very frustrated by lack of belief in myself to take it beyond the big idea.

As it turns out it appears I stand beside far too many women who are doing the same

My good friend and mentor Victoria Taylor is currently reading Sheryl Sanberg’s book Lean In

Little bit of background See here

Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, common-sense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.
Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TEDTalk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which became a phenomenon and has been viewed more than two million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto.
In Lean In, Sandberg digs deeper into these issues, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through the layers of ambiguity and bias surrounding the lives and choices of working women. She recounts her own decisions, mistakes, and daily struggles to make the right choices for herself, her career, and her family. She provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having it all.” She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfilment and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women in the workplace and at home.
Written with both humour and wisdom, Sandberg’s book is an inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth. Lean In is destined to change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can.

That TedTalk

I just wonder how many women like me are afraid of success and just what will it take to give us the courage to take that leap of faith and believe in ourselves.

Sheryl says it starts with 3 basic rules

always take a seat at the table – no-one gets where they want to be by sitting on the sidelines
Make your partner your partner – successful people have partners who share their vision or are divorced
Don’t leave before you leave – keep your foot on the gas pedal

So in my drive to achieve professional success and personal fulfilment I have made a start and downloaded Lean In on my iPad . Looking forward to Sheryl inspiring me to keep my foot on the gas pedal.

‘Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon’ Paul Brandt

Cotton opens the champagne bottle

There is no denying that farming is tough and getting tougher and plenty of people in agriculture have sad authentic experiences and stories to tell that remind us of this.

The problem is too often they are the only stories we’ve been telling for decades. Nobody wants to discount those stories, but it is imperative we put some balance in the equation by sharing the good news too.

So when I got a call from a newspaper yesterday wanting comment on what agriculture would like the next government to deliver I asked them to ring back as I wanted to give my answer a lot of thought and I am still thinking – more about that later.

One thing that worries me greatly that definitely needs fixing is, I believe agriculture in the main has forgotten how to celebrate success and we now have a culture where we have thousands of silent farmers, too frightened to put their heads above the trenches.

There is one industry I have been interacting with over the last three years who have certainly bucked the trend and wow do they know how to celebrate their industry and the people in it and that is the Australian Cotton Industry

I recently had the opportunity to present Art4Agriculture to Australia’s cotton farmers at the Cotton Collective event in Narrabri

For those of you who like me (until recently) know very little about the cotton industry in Australia, cotton is grown mostly in Queensland and NSW

Whilst Cotton has had a bit of a bad rap over the years I have discovered a number of things that have certainly opened my eyes

Cotton farmers see Cotton as an opportunity crop. By that I mean they grow it when there is plenty of water and cotton prices are good. When the moons don’t align they grow something else. In reality Cotton uses about the same amount of water as other summer crops and on top of this it is pretty drought and heat tolerant.

Almost all the cotton grown in Australia is genetically modified. Biotechnology has allowed the cotton plant to turn on its natural insecticide which has meant the industry has been able to reduce its chemical usage by around 90%. Some cotton farmers also use this awesome thing called integrated pest management where beneficial insects fend off the insect pests and they don’t need to spray their crops for bugs at all.

The Cotton Collective was an opportunity for Australian cotton farmers to catch up with the latest advances in the world of biotechnology and I must admit I was blown away by their knowledge

Now I did a science degree and whilst I admit I was fascinated to learn how and why medicines work when I see the squiggly diagrams/graphs et al that show the minute details my eyes just glaze over and that was okay for me because my role was to explain the science in a way that the non-scientific world could understand.

Cotton farmers on the other hand live and breathe this stuff and the questions they asked the scientists clearly showed there was extreme rigor in the system at farmer level

The Cotton Collective was also the place to celebrate the industry’s best and brightest and their rising best and brightest

I would love to share these exciting stories with you so you can celebrate them too

Lets starts with their young people

Meet Sophie Gulliver. Wow does this girl know how to frock up for a big occasion. Divine dress and even more impressive wow can she deliver a speech. This is a young girl going places fast

Here is just some of Sophie’s story.

After graduating from a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree at Sydney University in 2009 with First Class Honours and the University Medal, Sophie headed to the Darling Downs in Queensland where she started her cotton and agricultural career.
Sophie joined AgBiTech in 2011 as its Technical Specialist. Her role involves providing technical, extension and sales support for the company’s product range, management of the research and development program for new and existing products and quality control oversight at AgBiTech’s production facilities.

Sophie’s main area of interest is the biology, ecology and management of the Heliothis caterpillar, the cotton industry’s number one insect pest. Sophie is involved in projects investigating new ways to control Heliothis and other devastating caterpillar pests, to meet a growing community and global desire for fewer pesticides.

“Australia leads the way in sustainable agriculture and I want to to ensure that our cotton growers have access to an
increasing range of tools that allow them to continue to grow profitable cotton crops for as long as possible,” Sophie said.

Like her friend Young Farming Champion Liz Lobsey, Sophie is also working with kids in schools

As part of the Gateway Schools to Agribusiness program, Sophie has developed the “Caterpillar Classroom” initiative, which distributes Heliothis rearing kits and provides online technical support and a discussion forum for participating teachers and students. The kits will be used in primary and secondary schools as a practical way to understand and enjoy science. She is also working on a website project called “Primary Roots” to encourage young people from both rural and urban backgrounds to consider careers in agriculture. The website provides an audio-visual snapshot of the diversity of
careers available within agriculture and demonstrates what current agricultural employees do on a day to day basis in a range of workplace settings (e.g. the field, laboratory or office).

Please take the time and read more of Sophie’s story here

But it doesn’t stop there when you meet Glenn Rogan you can see why the average age of cotton farmers is 39. This is one exciting industry.

Glenn and Julianne Rogan and family won the 2013 Cotton Industry Awards for Innovative Grower of the Year! .

The Rogan family farms 2,760 hectares at “Benelong” St George, including 900 ha of irrigated cotton, gritting corn, sunflowers, wheat and mungbeans. The Rogans are great industry collaborators and innovators, growing long staple cottons for niche sustainability
markets.

Glenn is a visionary who saw an opportunity in linking his family’s story with the products that consumers purchase at retail
via “ingredient marketing”. Coupled with a point of difference, in growing a variety different to most growers, Glenn
partnered with Australian Weaving Mills (AWM) who produce a line of towels using 100% Glenn’s Australian Super Cotton.
AWM has attached Glenn’s story to its DriGlo towel range, with swing tags, magazine articles, a website and in-store
appearances all helping to build brand awareness.

. You can read all about Glenn and his family here

Then there is the character that is John (Cowboy) Cameron of “Kintyre” Bongeen, QLD

John and Ros Cameron won the Cotton Grower of the Year award. They are dryland cotton farmers and this means all their cotton is rain-fed.

They have a big focus on looking after their soils

“Our soils are the most important asset in our dryland system. We’ve got one metre below the soil to work with and we
need to know exactly what’s going on at any point in time. Everything above the soil goes out the gate,” John said.

John had what he calls a light bulb moment in the early 90s when he was running out of
cash after a few lean years. He decided to spend $150 on a soil test rather than $30,000 on fertilisers that he wasn’t sure the soils needed. What followed was five years of no fertiliser costs and a practice that has held, and been improved upon to this day. Soil tests are conducted at regular intervals across the farm, and nutrients added only when and if
they’re needed.

You can read John and Ros’ awards case study here

These are all great stories worth telling and certainly worth celebrating and you can read all about the stars these people just pipped at the post here

Agriculture does have great stories to tell. What can the next government do to ensure they become the norm – its time for this little black duck to give this some more serious thought

Nobody loves me – Get back to me

This video is currently doing the rounds and it worries me that many in our industry think it is important that somebody makes videos like this because we desperately need to feel good about ourselves

Whilst I can understand why farmers might feel the need to cheer for the hero in this video sadly all it does is promote the ‘them and us” mentality.

As farmers we tend to spend far too much time focusing on our detractors. We close our ears to our supporters and turn up the loud speakers when the activists come out to town.

We are not victims and people do loves us. Its time to party with the people who energise us

I asked one of Australia’s leading marketing experts what would be an example of best practice in this space and she suggested this as a great example of positive messaging and inclusive language

Some great feedback in this article from video creator Ashley Walmsley and farmer extraordinaire Georgie Somerset

For Bessie Thomas life in the outback is often Clear as Mud

Today’s guest blog comes from the very talented Bessie Blore city girl and journalist and now wool producer and Australian Wool Innovation Young Farming Champion.
Bessie writes the very popular and often very funny blog Bessie at Burragan. Bessie recently attended her first YFC workshop

Whilst Bessie

anticipates many obstacles along the way: rain, muddy roads, missed flights, inflexible bus company policies… But in the immortal words of Unique II “Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride.” I will take the motorbike cross-country through the mud, if it comes to that to share my farming stories with the world.

IT IS EASY to feel isolated when you live 110 kilometres from the closest small town – or even if you live in those small towns. It’s true that things like phones and Facebook combat the loneliness, solitude and other mental aspects of isolation. But as one of the 11 percent of Australians who don’t live in “urban areas” – that’s cities and towns of more than 1,000 people, according to ABS – it’s still reality to sometimes feel as if you are out of sight, out of mind, and out of touch.
Of all the various issues surrounding living on a relatively remote sheep station, when Shannan (ST) and I first moved to Burragan I was most constantly anxious about the possibility of being “rained in.” There’s about 35 kilometres, give or take, of dirt road between the Burragan house and a bitumen highway, and although 35km isn’t much in the scheme of things, the thing about dirt is that when it rains it turns to mud. And the thing about mud is that it’s pretty much impenetrable by man… or woman. So when it rains you either get out quick (not always an option), or bunker down at home in preparation for a period of house and shed-bound jobs.
ST always alleviated my fear by telling me that if we ever simply had to get out after rain, we could take the motorbike cross-paddock to the highway. Over time my anxiety eased as I became used to this plan, and when people asked what happened when we were rained in, I simply answered, “We really could get out on the motorbike, across the paddock, if we needed to.”
In my mind this was acceptable. I would never be totally trapped. Obviously I hadn’t given it much further thought. You know, about, like, exactly what happens when we get to the highway and only have a motorbike to travel on and are still 80 kilometres from the closest town? Yeah, that bit… hmmm… interesting you bring that up… I hadn’t really thought about that bit.
So it was part traumatic and part wild adventure last month when we had 50 millimetres (that’s 2 inches for the oldies out there) of rain overnight and I was due to catch a flight out of Broken Hill. Then the true physical issues behind the motorbike-cross-country plan finally became clear… much clearer than mud – yet still with the exact same colour, consistency, and chemical structure. So yeah, pretty much as clear as mud – except actually clear. Are you with me?
I was due to catch this flight to Sydney because of my #3 Super Exciting Amazing News that I’ve been busting to tell you about for months now. I’ve been chosen as a 2013 Young Farming Champion to represent the wool industry as part of theArt4Agriculture and Archibull Prize programs! (Insert claps, cheers and wolf whistles here!!) If you haven’t heard of this, then let me explain…

Art4Agriculture is the brain child of Illawarra based dairy farmer Lynne Strong. At its heart Art4Ag aims to bridge the divides between food and fibre producers and consumers, through awareness and participation. Just one aspect of the program is the Archibull Prize, where participating schools are provided with a life-size fibreglass cow statue to decorate in the theme of a particular primary industry (think cotton, wool, beef, dairy etc). The Archibulls, along with blogs and video projects, are then entered in the annual Archibull Prize competition against all the other schools. Part of the program – and this is where I come in – is to train up young farmers as champions for their industry, and partner each school with its own Young Farming Champion to help inspire their themed Archibull entry, but also to teach students all about how fun, innovating and exciting Australian agriculture is as a whole. Doesn’t it sound great!!??
So, there I was, at home, due to catch this flight to Sydney for my very first meet and greet with this year’s fellow Young Farming Champions (there’s a few of us –check us out HERE) and our initial training workshop. We’d had a little bit of forecast rain the day before and the usual protocol here, when no more rain is forecast for the immediate future, is to hope for some warm and windy weather to dry out the roads. With 24 hours still to go before I was due to leave for my 4pm flight from Broken Hill, we decided to enact this kind of watch and wait plan. And while I went to bed hoping for a windy night to harden up the muddy track to the highway, ST, I’m sure, was secretly hoping for a heavy 5inch downpour to fill our drying dams.
As I lay in bed I heard the rains tumble down. In June.
Fifty-millimetres had fallen by the time we woke. And it wasn’t warm and windy and dry. It was cold and still and wet. ST was delighted. I was anxious… and a little bit peeved. And feeling extremely traitorous for not being delighted.
But everything would be OK, because we could just push out through the paddock on the motorbike, right? Right. Except, then what? Our bikes are only ever used on the property, so they’re not registered for use on main roads. It would be illegal, not to mention highly dangerous given the amount of fuel (and my luggage) we’d need to strap on for the trip, and too slow going anyway, to take the motorbike all the way to Town. And asking a friend for a casual old lift to the airport is just a fraction more than your average favour when the airport is 330km away.
Plan C? ST braved the freezing rain on his motorbike to check the state of all our roads, to see if there was any possible way of me making it out to the highway in the car. Now that is love; having one billion other things to do and dropping everything, to ride 70km through mud and slush, in awful weather, all to make his new wife hap… Hang on a minute – it has just come to me that all this time I thought he was doing something super-sweet, when really maybe that’s just how much he really, really wanted to get rid of me for a few days!? Hmmmm…
Anyway, ST returned two hours later bearing bad news. The road turned to soup closer to the highway and it was more than likely any attempt to escape by car would end with me stuck not only a long way from the airport, but also a long way from the house.

Plan D? Call all the neighbours for a road report on all possible access points through their properties – perhaps I could make it the back way? But as I rang around the neighbours, the time was a-ticking. With at least three and a half hours of travel between Burragan and Broken Hill I was going to have to leave soon, or risk missing the flight altogether. Of course, the neighbours were just was rained in as we were…
Plan E? Helicopter? Ours was still at the mechanic, being serviced. Damn! (Hahaha, I wish!)
Plan F? As it slipped passed midday and I lost my window of opportunity to reach the departure gate in time for take-off, I was left with no other option but to call the Art4Ag crew in Sydney and apologise in advance for missing my flight. I disappointedly began dialling.
Plan G? Plan H? Plan I, Plan J, PlanKPlanLPlanPlanPlanlanananannnnnnnnnaaaarrrggghhh!!! Plan Z?
There was ONE other option ST and I could come up with. Every night a bus stops at the local roadhouse on the highway about 50km away, journeying from Sydney to Broken Hill. If my flight could be changed to the following day, there was a possibility I could somehow catch that bus and make it to Broken Hill, stop over at a friend’s place for the night and be at the airport early the next morning.
It was going to be risky, first relying on the possibility of changing the flight at such late notice, then relying on the availability of seats on the bus, then being able to make it all the way to the highway on the quad bike – with my luggage – without being covered in mud by the end of it, and then the dilemma of making it a further 15km on the highway to the roadhouse, given the aforementioned dangers and illegalities of riding on the road. It would be a battle of determination and strength, a test of will and cross-country quad riding skills, a trial of friendship and mud-proof luggage wrapping abilities, a journey of epic proportions, a story of courage and undying lo… Oh, have I gone too far?
Following the all clear for the flight to be changed with the proof of road closures from the Road Traffic Authority (easy done!), I rang the bus company to see if they could make an exception for me and stop at our turn off on the highway. They said no. I didn’t argue the point. Instead, I calmly hung up and I may, or may not, (but most likely may) have cried at this point. It was beginning to look like the universe was trying to tell me something, and that I was not supposed to make it to Sydney.
But I had one final card up my sleeve, or more accurately, business card stuck to my fridge door. I phoned the owner of the local roadhouse and begged for a favour. If she wasn’t too busy, if it was not too much trouble, only if she had the time, would she please, pretty, pretty please be able to meet me at our turn off at sundown and take me back to the roadhouse in time to catch the bus? I’m fairly certain I heard angels singing in the background as she said yes.
And so ST and I prepared for battle, fuelling up the quad, donning 70 million layers of winter clothes, and wrapping my luggage in plastic bags, before setting off through the paddocks, highway headed.

True to her word, the lovely roadhouse owner ferried me to the warmth of the roadhouse, where she fed me delicious cappuccinos and hot chips as I waited for the bus for two hours.
And then I sat on the bus for three and a half hours while my feet numbed from the cold, arriving in Broken Hill around midnight.And then I sat in the airport for three hours the next morning while my flight was delayed and eventually diverted via a longer route.
Oh Sydney, you tried to avoid me, but ain’t nobody gonn’ stop me! You can attempt to delay me for approximately 24 hours, but you will never evade me completely! I showed you! So I eventually made it to Sydney, and loved my first training weekend alongside a fantastic group of fellow Young Farming Champions. I am really looking forward to my time with them and in schools across the country.

This is an opportunity I am embracing with both hands, not only to excite urban audiences about Australian agriculture, but also to break down the barriers between those who grow our nation’s food and fibre and those who eat and wear it…
To traverse that gulf, between you and I…

And to fade that feeling of isolation, for the 11percent. It can take us a little longer to make it to where the action’s at, but that doesn’t mean we’re not trying hard to get there.
I anticipate many obstacles along the way: rain, muddy roads, missed flights, inflexible bus company policies… But in the immortal words of Unique II (because I think we can all agree the original Matthew Wilder version is just a little too weird), “Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride.” And I warn you, I will take the motorbike cross-country through the mud, if it comes to that.

Are we clear?

Editor’s Note: Yes, I am aware the next line of the song is, “Nobody’s gonna slow me down,” and that that contradicts my previous statements about delays/interruptions/lags/minor hold ups etc… But for the sake of me really needing to end this blog, can we allow some poetic licence and let it slide?

Getting past the ‘them’ and ‘us’

In February this year I was approached by WWF to share a story for their new 2 Degrees Initiative

I said yes and you can read my story here

Perhaps not all farmers will be happy with me for a number of reasons. See footnote

WWF was recently described as an “EXTREME green lobby group attacking Queensland farmers” by the Queensland Country Life when WWF launched this video.

But lets not forget at a basic level, farmers and WWF want the same thing – a sustainable environment that we leave in better shape than we found it.

We have to acknowledge that we’re all this this together, we share the same planet. We all want to support our population while leaving the smallest possible footprint.

Farmers are stewards of over 60% of Australia’s land mass. We take our role in managing that resource for future generations very seriously. We all prioritise the well-being of our environment and animals in our day-to-day operations. Most farmers would have in place practices that respond to variations in climate, none of this is new. But often, the only people who know about it are our neighbours – usually other farmers.

As a Climate Champion I have seen many amazing farmers doing incredible things for the environment. We need to celebrate this loudly.

It’s important for farmers to share our practices with audiences that may have some queries about the way we operate. I am committed to seeking out these people to engage in meaningful ways to create understanding and partnerships. These people will not come to us. In many instances, they wouldn’t know where to look! So by sharing my story with WWF, I am able to engage with an audience I may not normally encounter. I am hopeful this will encourage a discussion around how farmers can work with everyone to build a future in which people and nature thrive.

For too long agriculture has promoted ourselves to agriculture. We need to expand our reach to engage all participants along our supply chains, to create awareness and understanding that will underpin sustainable production into the future. We cannot afford to turn out backs on those who may be uncomfortable with agriculture. They are too important to our future to ignore.

Footnote

Some interesting research on farmer attitudes to climate change found here

Overcoming the climate change sceptics

Many primary producers are resistant to the challenges of climate change. In a study of Australia’s Farming Future the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, surveyed 1,000 farmers in relation to their attitudes towards climate change. They also surveyed 1,000 people from urban areas.

While 58% of the urban population believed climate change was real and caused by human activity, only 26% of primary producers held this view. As illustrated in the following diagram these farmer groups were segmented into different types of sceptic. Some were sceptical but had been hit by drought and therefore were prepared to start taking action. Others were sceptical and had not yet felt any environmental impacts so they felt no need to take action.

Primary producer segments in relation to climate change Donelley, Mercer, Dickson and Wu (2009)

The ‘strugglers’ were not only sceptical but had no resources to apply to any remedial action. Even those who accepted climate change science were of the view that government assistance was required to allow them to take action.

These attitudes amongst rural producers are important as they will determine how readily many farmers adopt more sustainable farming practices, reduce new land clearing and introduce programs such as enhanced biodiversity of cropping, interlocking crop cycles, dense polycultures, biochar and carbon management.

The best revenge is happiness

When I looked out the window this morning two hours after letting my chooks out I had a gut feeling today was not going to be a great day for soul. And I was right (sadly) not a pretty sight when I ventured outside

I wont be forgiving this fox anytime soon but I am not going to lump everyone in the same box as this creature so I thought I would share this wonderful post from Bushbelles found here which adds to my series on Success is a Journey

So talking about forgiveness (you weren’t? Hmm maybe that was me). We all have times when traumatic and difficult (crazy, bizarre) things happen to us (or our children).

Its a process (believe me), but here are some great ways to hopefully, eventually, when enough time has passed to forgive and move on.

Some snapshots

Stop trying for a while

If you’re trying hard and haplessly making zero progress, stop trying.

Stop trying and start being.

Instead of believing that you are not there yet, be grateful that you are right where you are meant to be at this moment.

Yes, by all means set goals and take steps in the right direction, but don’t disregard the steps as you take them – these steps are your life’s story.

Love

Feeling sorry for yourself and sabotaging the present moment with resentful thoughts of the past won’t make anything better. Hurting someone else will never ease your own inner angst.
If you’re disappointed with yourself or frustrated with someone else, the answer is not to take it out on the world around you.

Forgive the past, forgive yourself, forgive others, and love the present moment for what it’s worth.

There are plenty of beautiful things to love right now; you just have to want to see them.

Loving is never easy, especially when times are tough, yet it is easily the most powerful and positively enduring action possible.

If you’re feeling pain, don’t take action that creates even more pain.

Don’t try to cover darkness with darkness.

Find the light.

Do something that will enable you to move forward toward a more fulfilling reality.

There is always something good you can do.

Fill your heart with it and act in everyone’s best interest, especially your own.

Seek positive revenge by living well (I love this one)

Are you contemplating revenge?

You know that’s a negative thinking getting the best of you.

However, there is a way to seek revenge positively.

How? Forget about them. Remember you.

The bottom line is that the best revenge is happiness, because nothing drives your adversaries more insane than seeing a fresh smile on your face.

and the Pièce de résistance

If all else fails go shopping

Original inspiration found here