June 22, 2014
Monday 4th of August 9am start
Cell watering point
Would you like to look around a pastoral property set up with water cells for grazing management that has been rotationally grazing for 12 years?
We would welcome everyone to Wyndham to look around and discuss issues that concern them with running a grazing property.
· What goals have you set for your landscape, Livestock or People?
Where we go on the day and what we discuss will be directed by who is there.
· How can you place a value on the landscape when you only get paid for the produce?
Ewes all in the landscape
Happy livestock in a happy Landscape
The day will be facilitated by Grahame Rees.
RSVP 31/07/2014 BYO chair, drinks and food to share
For more information contact Angus on Ph 0350270230 or
email wyndham3@bigpond.com
June 8, 2014
We know about climate change and a change in the weather, what is different to a change of farming systems?
I want to talk about “change”, to some this word is scary to say the least, while to others it is exciting. There is lots of talk about how farming needs to change to become more sustainable, or to produce more for 9 billion people or even to cater for the change in peoples diets. Some may say that there has been significant change in agriculture over the last 50 years and there has been in components of our industry, a lot of changes are really about making what we do easier. Take for instance the grazing industry, there has been more mechanisation, using planes/helicopters, better watering systems, shedding sheep, live export; these changes have all meant we can reduce labour/costs so we can continue grazing stock. Now this isn’t saying that agriculture is bad, it is more about where is agriculture going?
I see the main reason that Agriculture (Ag) hasn’t seen much change isn’t because farmers are out of touch or uncaring, the main reason is that nothing is driving change and there isn’t a clear direction of where farming/land management is going. We depend on economic signals to direct Ag as we have done for a long time, so with the declining terms of trade (and fixed wages) the directive has been to increase scale, seeing a reduction in the number of farmers, that is still occurring.
Humans are the same as all animals to have change on a large scale (herd) there needs to be a clear direction that leaders can head towards, given support, guidance and encouragement. There also needs to be pressure from behind as most animals move away from pressure, this can be economic, environmental, peer pressure or legislation. Without a clear direction, leaders go off in a multitude of directions giving very confused signals to the rest of the group. After a while peer group pressure means everyone gets brought back to the average and it takes enormous energy and courage to shift away from the norm.
With the continued reduction in farmers that has been occurring over the last 30 years, effectively the Ag community has been culled down to the most resilient/stoic few. The farmers that we have now are very independent and they don’t look for leadership, they continue doing what they do best in order to make sure they aren’t the next to exit the industry. So we don’t have so much as a group of farmers, more a group of individuals that are extremely resourceful and staunchly independent.
We have had mobs of livestock turn up in exactly this frame of mind and we have done a lot of work with them to make sure they work as a mob of interdependent animals, this only can come about through the use of kindness.
So if we would like to see Ag change to become more sustainable, or to change for dietary habits then we need to set clear directions, put in place some clear drivers and legislative support and importantly show kindness and compassion, as we should to all.
