What is Climate Change?

Sheep in the Landscape

I’m a proud member of “Farmers for Climate Action” (FCA) and really keen to promote all the opportunities that exist with a positive change in our lives.  One reason I reckon a lot of people don’t like the term “Climate Change”, is “Climate”- well that is all out of my control, “Change”- I don’t like change.

Climate change is a fantastic complex issue that has many facets, which means that it isn’t just someone else’s problem, we all have a role and a responsibility.  While we need to reduce CO2 emissions globally and that is a huge task when we are a small population on the world scale, there is many localised issues that we have the opportunity for a significant impact on.  I reckon it is such a good line of thinking to reduce our footprint on the planet and do all we can minimise CO2 emissions (as well as other harmful emissions) in our lives.  Reducing emissions will also be around reducing consumption of plastics and synthetics, instead look to plant and animal products.

By having a landscape that has green plants on it year-round, and allows improved infiltration of water, this cools the atmosphere and reduces temperature fluctuations, bringing about a more stable environment.

Land Use:

At the extreme end this is when we change the land use from a biodiverse plant dominated landscape, to a concrete pavement.  We have significantly changed the landscapes we live in, not just by putting many houses and roads over it, our farming systems are very “annual dominant” (mainly annual plants ie wheat), this means that we don’t have green plants year round keeping our soils alive.  My experience is that we have perennial plants to feed our soils and annual plants for our production.  Now it isn’t this simple from a farming perspective, there is many crossovers, that is why a diversity of plants is so important.  This thinking leads to a diversity of land-use and a mosaic pattern right across our land.

Urban Planning:

We live in a continent that has poor nutritional soils, low rainfall and poor infiltration rates.  Add to this the attachment most of us have with living on the coast or near water and we need to take all these into account when planning.  With a significant portion of our population living close to the coast with mountains between them and farming land this encourages a disconnect as we should be using excess treated water as well as stormwater in our production system.  I have heard many say to me that it costs too much to pump water over the mountains, that is only correct while we don’t value landscape health, as values change, so should our plans and ideas.

This is really about each region being responsible for their own issues they create, a cities waste, could well be an agricultural godsend, without it being an ocean problem.

How can this happen?

There are many ways to achieve a change in our land use, as I have said we need to place value on our landscape functions (infiltration, growth, etc.), whether this is monetary or not negotiable or a combination is up to us.  By having clear values and pricing on our food and fibre, that would allow us to add pricing on to imports that don’t meet our production system values, not a tariff, a values based transaction that means we compare nuts with nuts.

Let’s take nuts (almonds) for an example:

Almonds are a deciduous tree, normally grown in irrigation areas along our inland rivers.  They are usually grown in a monoculture (single species) and maintaining bare ground between the rows.  They are grown like this to maximise yields, decrease costs and increase efficiencies, so that profits can be maximised and most jobs can be done using machinery.  We all as customers drive this thinking and it is very important that farmers make monetary profits so that they value the land, water and people involved.

Now if we looked at ways that almonds could be grown in a multi species orchard, with green plants year-round and ground cover constantly.  This might involve 3-4 different harvestable crops (livestock might graze as well) while some plants might be grown for their insect deterrent properties or soil nutrition.  For this to happen consumers need to drive this demand as chances are costs to the farmer will increase, as will the benefits to us all.  As I clearly said we need to place value on aspects of growth systems so that we can all benefit from improves landscape health.

Conclusion:

We all have a role to play in this discussion, as we all consume food and fibre.  One of the key steps is to gain several perspectives on this issue, so please just add mine in to the melting pot, my opinion is by no means “right”.  Now with the thinking of animal products emitting more than plants being challenged, again we come back to this diversity of choices as plants and animals have a symbiotic relationship, it is never one or the other in isolation.

The key point is to keep asking ourselves a couple of questions:

• How can we improve the production of natural food and fibre, minimising waste and emissions?
• How can we live a connected life, close to work, minimising our impact on the landscape?

Basin Plan – My perspective on where this is taking our region.

Cawndilla Lake (Menindee) Nov 2016

There is no doubt that the “Basin Plan” was a major direction change and a big deal for not just all the residents of the basin, the whole country.  I think it was ground breaking for this to come about, my concern isn’t that the plan was initiated, I’m really concerned that nobody is willing to adapt when there are significant unintended consequences that are extremely detrimental.  Only a fool would think that they could implement a plan, getting all aspects right from day one and taking all consequences into account.  Really smart people, like say “Apple” know that regularly there needs to be updates and adaptions, so unintended consequences don’t crop up and negatively impact on the whole project.

My understanding of the original basic intent of this Basin Plan was to:

• Address the over allocation of the river
• Restore environmental health
• Directing water to high value crops

Anabranch River eflow 2017

How are we going towards achieving these?

1. Address the over allocation of the river:

My understanding of the intent was to purchase water from willing sellers to reduce productive use and increase water for the environment.  Water has been purchased from willing sellers and then that water has been re allocated to the environment.  The major target that is spoken the most about when discussing this plan is the number, the actual amount of water taken out of production and reallocated to the environment, this has by default become the overall target.

As my language in the above section explains, water that has been purchased from production and then reallocated to the environment, doesn’t help the over allocation of river water, the river is still over committed.  Add to this the ”water efficiency” projects, where changing of infrastructure that doesn’t “lose” (read evaporate, transpire or infiltrate) as much water, where those “savings” have been turned into allocations and transferred to the environment, again all around this magical number.

If the Basin Plan was looking at addressing the over allocation, a simple way would’ve been to purchase water licences and then promptly terminate them, let the water flow down the river.

2. Restore environmental health

I don’t have any evidence that the environment is or isn’t improving, my perspective is from the Lower Darling and there is no allocation for environmental water in this area.  From what I see the water is predominately used to water gum trees at selected sites along the Murray River and there has been some fish breeding at those sites.  This is however meant to be a basin wide plan, so why should there be focus on a few selected areas?  Why too are the River Red Gum and Murray Cod held up as iconic species?  We have far too many gum trees along the river and the cod fish is going OK eating the carp, if we are serious about improving river health, focus should be on species such as silver perch, phragmites, or native willow and Murray Crays.

3. Directing water to high value crops

The thinking on paper makes sense, to make sure that the water is valued and used where it is bringing the biggest return to the economy.  The outcome of this attitude has been to shift water to a few perennial crops (currently table grapes and almonds) at the expense of a diversity of crops that use water at different times of the year and annual plants that don’t consistently need water.  This has resulted in water being used further away from the source, as more land that is suitable for these crops is mainly in the last half of the Murray, this then impacts on river flows required from upstream dams.  In the southern basin this has seen high river flows past the upstream section of the Murray for most of the summer, yet those regions unable to use any of the water, the temporary trade price is too high.

In the northern basin where there are many less dams, due to significant quantities of water being bought back and the water market isn’t as active, there is more pressure on higher security (A class water).  Large reductions in water being used to grow crops has meant significant loss of economic activity through those river towns, with every megalitre used having an economic flow on effect (Fertiliser, agronomist, herbicide, seed etc), there has been big social impacts in those towns.  These irrigators predominately grow cotton due to customer demand meaning that it gives them the highest rate of return for their water.  Cotton is really suited to the northern basin; the balance needs to be made between irrigation water and making sure that fresh water is allowed to flow to the Murray as often as possible.

What I reckon needs to change:

• Water bought from willing sellers needs to be unallocated, thereby increasing the security of water users and reducing the pressure on the river. Environmental water is still an allocation and adds pressure to the river and the communities along the river.  I would recommend around 50% of all water purchased be unallocated, having a significant increase in security of then all the other water users that remain.

• All communities need to have a role to play in improving the river health and they all need to directly benefit from it. By this I mean that each community needs to have ownership of environmental water and have rules to operate under and targets to meet, they can then utilise that in their own unique way.  We also need to especially include indigenous knowledge into our river management, the tribal groups along the river have much to teach us about river management, if only we choose to listen and acknowledge.

• I would look to encourage diversity of crops along the river, especially in the south. Some tools for this might be:

1. To have different months (eg. August water) for different water entitlements, encouraging people to use water more evenly through the year.
2. Accurately allow for transmission losses when water trading, not just either side of “the Choke”, a megalitre of water at Moulamein is very different from one at Renmark.
3. Make sure that there is a clear percentage of water that can be used for permanent planting, with a much higher percentage of water being used for annuals, maybe water licences could be tagged for the crop they can grow.
4. The basin plan should be primarily about improving river health, it shouldn’t be about securing the value of water or encouraging investors into the market. Communities benefit from water being used in their own community.

• There needs to be regular changes to water entitlements/security (reviewed twice per year) so that the agreed targets are hit and this plan is kept on a clear agreed course. The health of the river and communities along it depend on this plan being a success.

• The success or otherwise of the water efficiency projects needs to be reviewed, taking into consideration the loss of water seepage and evaporation.

• The current target, being a number with no bearing on environmental improvement needs to be erased and clear SMART targets around genuine environmental improvements need to be set. Targets need to be developed for all reaches of the basin, not just so called “icon sites”, a poor culture that needs changing.

Wrap up:

I have tossed my ideas down here as I have been to many so called “Basin Plan” meetings and all that happens is defence of the current situation.  All the defence is telling me is that “the MDBA and state water agencies all know that the current situation is no good, they have no idea how to change it, so don’t want anyone else to know that it is a mess.”  This is the unwritten rule of defence and certainly an area that Govt departments usually fall for.  This plan is really detrimental to most of the basin and is placing farmers against farmers in fights for water, due to inaction from water agencies, this is not OK.

As always this is only my perspective and I welcome input and corrections from others that feel strongly about this issue.

Darling River at Wentworth

Investment Advice??

No let’s be really clear here, I’m not an investment adviser’s backside and I’m certainly not pretending to be one, so please take no notice of what is about to follow.

Investment scenario 2016:  Company A current price $250

I have invested heavily (read 75% of portfolio) in “Company A” (CA) and it has returned a very good rate of return, around 20% fully franked dividend ($50) and has very strong fundamentals, a great investment.  CA is only a small company, fully subscribed and if you get out there will no doubt be a fair wait before you can back in, chances are you might have to offer a premium, thus reducing your returns.  The main downside of owning these shares are that if the company makes a loss then you are directly liable, this hasn’t happened in the last ten or more years, so you consider the risk low, besides CA have a very good management team that won’t allow a loss to happen.

2016/17:  Company A current price $260

Another good year, about 20% dividend ($50), paid only partially franked due to poor business conditions going forward, a further update will be provided at the end of the calendar year.   Book the holiday, change over the car, maybe even purchase another investment property.

2017/18:  Company A current price $210

Mid-year update came out at the end of January and business conditions continue to slide and forecast ahead no better.  Bad news to investors, they will be making a margin call of $10/month, effective immediately, with no end date.  They have had to shed 30% of their workforce and have asked those remaining to take a pay cut and work longer hours.  Expectations are that conditions should turn around soon, surely, so no need for alarm, lets just monitor the situation.  I do choose to sell down 10% of my shares.  Come June 30 though and dividend is $25 still I have had good returns in the past and I need to take the good with the bad, surely these tough conditions will turn around soon, besides I’ll make a capital loss if I sell now and I’ll never get back in at the same price.

2018/19:  Company A current price $200

The company didn’t wait until mid-year to release an update, at the end of the first quarter the margin calls were increased to $16/month, due to what they called unprecedented dire business conditions.  Certainly, many are cashing out, though I don’t want to trade shares, I bought these blue-chip shares as a lifetime investment, I was lucky to get them, mind you we will have to curb our spending.  Surely these conditions should ease soon, I’m happy to just keep persevering and we will be OK, I know we will.  CA has said that they have made some very good sales this year and due to very hard work from their core employees, returns have been good.  Mind you better keep driving the same car and cancel our normal holiday, might even need to cash in another investment or see the bank, still we will cross that bridge when we come to it.  June 30 the red ink comes out again, $84 This is really concerning now; however, I’ve come this far the company owes me, just my luck that I sell out and then the tide turns.

2019/20:  Company A current price $190

At the very start of the year CA announce that due to their good management, margin calls would be dropping to just $12/month, that is good news surely the cycle will turn in our favour now.  Mind you I probably should be talking a bit more to our bank as we have been over our limit for a while now and the wife is saying phone calls are becoming more frequent, still they have lots of money they will get over it.  Besides this tough time will all be over soon and they will want to receive our money I’m sure, nobody would have foreseen that it could continue this long.  Currently with mid-year dividends being paid we are in the red, still, $40

Footnote:

Now obviously this is a fictitious story loosely based on something that didn’t happen and many of you would say how could this happen?  Does it alter anything if I changed the company name to “Merino Ewe Ltd” and the “tough business conditions” were drought?

This is just the reality that I reckon I see and have tried to document that, without judgement.

Merino ewes (Heidi Wright)

What a Drought Policy could be….

I reckon to put together a good quality drought policy, first up you need to clearly articulate where we are and what we expect out of this policy.  So lets start with trying to explain where our community is at:

Now:

Our community has been in drought for nearly 3 years and while this isn’t as long as some other communities, this current drought is very intense.  Due to the high price of livestock most people embarked on a hand feeding program to carry their valuable genetics through, though most wouldn’t have envisaged it would stay as dry as this for so long. Due to taking on a stock feeding program without experience or correct machinery this has resulted in added costs, also in the result of people “over selling” their time, just not enough hours in the day.  Unless you consciously change, as a farmer your mood is dictated to by the weather, so most farmers have been in a poor frame of mind for a long period.  The result of this is lethargy, poor decision making (if any) and no enthusiasm for anything but getting through the day and being 1 day closer to rain.  Most farmers don’t want to be empowered to make decisions, they want to be rescued as they don’t have the energy or the ability to look forward to making decisions and turn this nightmare around.  Add to this one of the most distressing and confronting issues that happens in a drought is the smell of death.  Death is never far away, whether it is livestock, native animals, birds, fish, seeing these is a daily occurrence, it saps the life out of you.

Then you look around our local community and it has been shrinking for many years, lots of “pull to the cities” for the opportunities that exist there.  With the terms of trade declining in Agriculture for so many years, margins are very slim and there isn’t any fat left to help go through an extended drought.  Many had thought that with the advent of the MDBA Basin Plan, that would provide opportunities, as you might expect with the spending of $13Bill in the region.  This unfortunately has had the opposite effect, decreasing opportunities and putting extra strain on our communities, due partly to the rigid remote way the water is being managed.  On top of this economic signals have been very weak, this is made up for in cities by the population growth, with declining population, poor economic conditions are worse.  As was pointed out to me at the Australian Rangelands Conference in Canberra last month, “never in the last 30,000yrs has so few people lived in the rangelands of Australia”.

This picture shows that it isn’t just farmers doing it tough, it is whole communities and as “primary production” is essentially where the economy begins, it is super important for all to help these farmers and communities through this.

Gus’s Drought Policy:

1. Focus on healthy communities that can support farmers through droughts.

• Provide much needed R&M to aging regional roads, bridges, rail, make regional infrastructure the total focus for one year.
• Ramp up the building of Mobile phone towers
• Make sure that communities have quality sporting facilities as well as Mens sheds, opportunities for art, music and multiple hobbies.
• Tour sporting hero’s through regions giving coaching opportunities that most cities don’t have.
• Make sure that communities are empowered to help themselves.

2. Providing more options and support for farmers:

• There is the ability to connect farmers to urban businesspeople so that they can partner together to help the farm out of this tough situation, especially when animals are involved.
• These businesspeople might only need to provide some helpful business advice or they may need to provide an equity arrangement to help put the farmer back in control
• Provide multiple water options for farms and urban areas.
• Provide the farming community with advisors to help them get through this tough time and stay healthy, reduce the number of “professionals” going around looking for sick farmers.

3. Manage and value our scarce natural resources

• Halt the foolishness of creating floods in the Murray when there is a drought on, regional communities have had enough of silly games and water wasting, time to be serious about water management.
• Look to place value on the soil, plants, streams etc. so we can make decisions that take into account potential damage to environment by continued production through dry times. Only valuing the products we produce is no longer the best way to make decisions, we need to change as we gain knowledge.

Anyway this is my crack at what I reckon should happen, I’m aware that this only one persons opinion and so please correct me where I have got it all wrong.  Regional communities are gold and we all need to make sure that they feel that love, if you have the opportunity to visit regional towns, please I urge you to take it,  spending some money and handing out kindness.

So the Drought rolls on…..

I wrote a post about the drought last year (Drought – Just my thoughts) and looking back thinking hasn’t changed too much, just it is now more dire.  I would like to now take an in depth look at an approach to drought/climate variability.

The way I see this is that you don’t need to be a believer in “Climate Change” (I choose to, no judgement either way) to actively manage a changing climate.  As a farmer we can only manage what we are faced with, there is very little we can do to control the weather, economic climate or even consumer demand, we just need to manage our way through changes.  We use a combination of making decisions that take us towards where we want to go and avoiding business crippling risks.  It can be very difficult to use this strategy if you first; don’t really have a clear direction or second; haven’t made a clear decision to arrive at where you are.

I would like to focus on the second part of that statement first.  Why do we call “business as usual” no decision in a changing climate?  Business as usual in an ever changing climate is going against the grain and the flow of Mother Nature and therefore needs to be acknowledged as a poor decision.  The main point here is that if you don’t acknowledge this as a decision, when you find yourself in a dire situation you have no idea how you got there and then it is really hard to work out how to get yourself out.  I’ll give an example below:

No decision:

• Mid 2017 and shearing comes along, bit dry she’ll be right no need to change.
• End of 2017 crutching comes along, still very dry stock really are sliding backwards, better start feeding, most other people are.
• Mid 2018 shearing again, ewes doing it really tough, country bare, feed getting hard to come by and expensive, we just have to keep going this drought will break.
• End of 2018 we didn’t get many lambs really sick of feeding, there is no option we have to save our genetics because it will be too expensive to buy back in after the drought breaks.
• Mid 2019 another dry shearing, very few ewes in lamb even though we fed them well. Feed really expensive now and most of our loans are maxed, people have had enough of feeding stock.  There are no options though, as a livestock farmer you must hang on to your stock, that is the choice you make.
• End of 2019 not many sheep left to crutch as ran out of money to buy in adequate feed, hardly any lambs and the thought of another dry year ahead………………how did we get here? Surely it has got to rain soon?  Why doesn’t the bloody Govt do more to help us?

So lets try and change this outcome, giving someone who is in this position a way through and a future direction.

• First step is for those in this predicament to seek outside advice, it is too difficult to solve this when you are right in the middle of this looming disaster, too much pain.
• Then we just work through what resources they have currently, money, grass, livestock and people.
• Then work out just what outcome they want out of this, is the family committed to stay on this farm? What are the most important components of this business?
• From there you can generate some options.

*Example:

• The family in this example seek advice from a grazing consultant as they realise they need someone with a much broader knowledge base than just livestock or business.
• The advisor very quickly works out that they have no grass, no money and very few saleable stock, as most are too light.
• The family love being part of the community and have the next generation really keen on a future in Ag. The house they live in and their land has a lot of history and significance for them, they have strong roots here and don’t want to leave.  Up until the last 18 months, they have had very little debt and now they just seem snowed under and spiralling out of control.
• Important points – The land is the most valuable asset and the people are the most important. These 2 can’t be compromised.

Options:

• Sell all stock after feeding to put back in healthy condition – how to cashflow?
• Identify top 20-30% of ewes and sell balance, again feeding until healthy – how to cashflow?
• Slaughter all stock on farm to minimise costs going forward.

In order to maintain the mental health of the people the slaughter option was dismissed, so then it was a mater of working out the cashflow of feeding up and selling all or a portion of the sheep.  Options to achieve this – contact rural financial counselor and enquire about innovation loans to build confinement feeding sites.  Then approach bank and or stock agent with a plan to feed to sell, so requiring short term finance.

After going through these processes it was just a toss up about how many to sell and after looking at future budgets and the costs of feeding it was easy to work out then when there is grass in the paddocks, regardless of animal price you can always identify animals that will make profit.  When there is no grass, there is no business, it is that simple.

In closing I would really like to reinforce the point that for our livestock industry to bounce back well after this drought then sell as many animals now that you need to so that the land and importantly the good livestock farmers (you) are in good shape to rebuild when the season turns.  The people, the farmers, are the single most important asset to the Livestock sector.

*Please remember that this is only an example, I’m not suggesting it is where people are at, nor is it based on any actual situation.

Kangaroos – An emotional discussion

Kangaroo management is such an emotive subject, they are such a magnificent iconic animals, pride of place on the Coat of Arms, Australia’s own symbol.  The sight of a full grown red kangaroo bounding along is awesome.  The sight of a mob of a few hundred eating the last remnants of vegetation that you have been looking after is appalling.  So how can we manage kangaroos in a way where the whole of our community are proud of them, rather than just those that don’t see them very often and their management not ruined by them.

Kangaroos are causing a lot of environmental destruction currently and not just across the Rangelands, over many land types.  Yes the poor management of domestic livestock causes landscape degradation as well, that is inexcusable as we have ability to manage them.  Roos on the other hand aren’t that easy to manage and it can become a major burden on farmers that are already stretched dealing with an extremely dry period.

To me it comes down to the simple question; What is more important, environmental health or kangaroo welfare because you can’t have both?  Now by far and away the most important issue is environmental health, so we need to put a lot more focus on that in this discussion.  Currently good land management comes from going outside the law to reduce roo numbers down to levels that can allow for recovery and rest for the landscape.  With minimal acceptable tools that a landholder has to reduce the population, compromises on animal welfare will need to happen.  This will help drive our society to come up with better more acceptable methods of decreasing numbers.

Animal Farmers love animals and really dislike to see waste, so when Roos are shot and left to rot, then this is again just demeaning to the farmer and the species of roos.  With kangaroos being a choice meat for the last 30,000yrs in this country and the skins being fantastic leather (why is synthetic material even suggested to be more sustainable or healthy to us or the planet?), to see both go to waste is upsetting.  No doubt, commercial harvest of Roos is the most socially acceptable way of controlling roo numbers, however the way it is managed, it is unable to achieve any reduction in population.

Kangaroos are currently seen as a major problem in our landscape and with populations reaching such high numbers, they can be seen as a very real risk to themselves, with a high densities attracting disease.  The “boom bust” cycle (Numbers in western NSW have been >3 times higher than pre livestock grazing levels) that their species goes through is very harmful to the landscape as well as farmers mental health that have to watch them die through droughts.  Enabling a much more significant market to develop would then mean that kangaroos can be part of our landscape solution and be valued by many more of our community.

Right now farmers need support to make sure that the right decisions are made around this issue, the roo is too important to the country and the landscape health is really vital.  We need to view this issue using consensus, if there is no other workable solution provided it is deemed that society agree and support landholders.  This again will put much needed pressure on our whole community to develop more workable option, or failing that simply provide good support to those managing the population for everyone.

Kangaroos, their management and total environmental health go together and are critical to our future, we all have a role in making that happen.

Time to Restock??

When is the right time to restock, that is the question many are asking, they may have had a couple of rains, might nearly have a green pick, livestock prices are increasing?  There are always tempters to “pull the trigger” early, “shop early avoid the rush”.  “Imagine the story I can tell my mates in the pub buying ewes cheap before everyone else and then watching the price go up”.  The real question is; “When can I restock so that I don’t risk any more money (or heartache) and don’t degrade my land?”

Most farmers know their land really well, how much feed they need to have on it at various times of the year, “gut feel” of how many stock they can run, some of us even try to put objective measurement around that.  With this in mind most farmers would have a fair idea of when they would have enough grass to start restocking, though they might be tempted by stories from others….

The next thing is “are we at the end of the drought, or the next chapter?”  This is a bit more difficult to gauge, however we need a series of rains that start replenishing the soil moisture for us to be more certain.  We had a really good rain event in Dec 2017 (up to 100mm), on the back of that with the grass we grew we brought a road train of sheep.  Now we bought young ewes so we didn’t lose on them, we may though have eaten grass that our sheep would have been better off getting.

The way we would look at this issue is, primarily we are a grass based business, simple, no grass, no business.  The current price of stock and the risk of price rise is just “white noise”, we will look to fill our inventory with grass before any steps are made.  Now this will take some time, especially after our paddocks have been swept bare and we are going into winter, so no timeline is set.  Add to this we have had 1 rain event in a row of 12mm, so much more rain with regular frequency needed.  For us this dry spell started in November 2016, most didn’t have drought on the radar until the end of 2017, so we snuck into a drought, chances are we will sneak out.

When we grow grass we will reach a point where we have the combination of grass above ground and below ground (soil moisture), that will trigger a start into restocking.  We will look at restocking over a period of time, maybe 6-12mths and we may even look at agistment to fill a gap, especially if stock prices are high and there is a capital risk for us.  When we restock we will look at a range of stock, with an emphasis on being able to turn some over within 3-4months and start generating cashflow, this will also reduce our capital risk in the marketplace.

We have spoken to our bank last September to organise extra money should we require it.  We also keep in touch with our stock agent so he knows what we are thinking and where our grass is at.  As we use Maia Grazing for our record keeping we use a grazing consultant that we check in with monthly (Dick Richardson), so he knows where we are at.  Having your key business partners up to date on where you are at will mean the process to purchase stock, what type and how many will be well thought out.  On this note we are also members of KLR Marketing, so we have the spreadsheets to work out our trading margin on livestock.  We have all done Low Stress Stockhandling (LSS), so we are comfortable if we bring in stock that we can settle them down quickly and have them putting on weight ASAP.

There are many more factors about biosecurity and infrastructure that you also need to take into account when purchasing stock.  With biosecurity a quick call to your local LLS office (or similar) should be able to make sure you understand your obligations.  As we have done LSS we have the ability to make our infrastructure capable of handling most breeds and temperaments even though most of our fencing is 3 wire electric.  We have happily taken on dorpers, damaras, plenty of pastoral WA cattle and been able to keep them home and together.

So in closing the key point here is don’t be tempted by stock agents or mates to jump into the market as this may really compound your risk, which right now most farmers that have been in drought are in a very fragile state.  Another point is don’t worry too much about buying stock that you will breed from, there will be a succession for you to get back to having a good flock or herd, now we need to focus on finding low risk ways to turn our grass into money.  I would think that it would be a very good time to reassess your enterprise mix and so with a lot of really important decisions going on, having a livestock or business consultant help you might be a very good investment.

NB I’m not a consultant 🙂

Resource Management in a Drought

At all times it is important to manage your resources as a farmer, especially when you are in a drought and pasture is in a non-growth phase, stock have reduced production and cash is steady or dwindling. While farmers are usually good at managing money, also at looking after livestock, pastures can sometimes miss out in the calculations.

Farmers can’t be expected to be good at all issues around running a farm, usually to cover all angles more input is required, this is maybe where use of consultants is important.  For instance here, we use a cashbook program and we benchmark to look after our money resource.  We employ stock agents and sheep classer to look after our stock, as well as other professionals around preg testing, marketing and handling skills.  Then with our pastures, that is my strong point, we still engage a consultant to help us budget our grass and give a distant perspective that is very valuable.

The same basic rules apply to managing each of these resource “pots”, that is making a budget and monitoring use towards that, so that each can be maintained at or above agreed minimum levels, until they can be refilled.  This is just part of the balancing act that successful livestock farmers need to do in order to run a quality sustainable/regenerative business

What I see is most people managing their money well, making sure that a drought doesn’t erode their equity levels, there stock too are normally well looked after, although the severity, the length and the cost of fodder has tested many this time around.  While some farmers have been proactive and placed stock in containment areas or sold them prior to their pastures being degraded, unfortunately many have placed their livestock and money inventories at a higher priority than landscape.

In a rangeland environment there isn’t the ability to either fertilise or re-sow pastures, so if you graze until you lose some species, then it may be many years of careful management before they return.  Usually after a significant drought through rangeland areas, stocking rates are lowered, partly due to a lack of confidence in the seasons and also due to reduced production.  The reduced production normally comes from reduced water infiltration and pasture composition, weeds and less palatable species tend to flourish.

Of course, we all know the tell tale signs of degraded pasture, with wind and water erosion and weeds going crazy, reducing these impacts potentially could be the best innovation in your business with long lasting returns.  Imagine being able to catch dust storms rather than start them, reducing runoff and catching rain where it falls to grow grass and “drive the soil”.  The result would instead be an increase in carrying capacity and the ability to grow plants for longer due to improved soil function.

I see management of pastures being an issue across vast tracts of landscape, overuse of pastures, even in areas where they can be improved, results in increased annual pasture base and green grass for less of the year.  The result of this is an increase in short term annual grass production, a spike that has wonderful weight gains, only until rain stops then grass dries up.  Increasing the growth season for grass and also the weight gains might just be a great step for some businesses.

A change in pasture management can also incorporate more pasture diversity so that it wouldn’t matter when rain fell, valuable plants would grow.  This would reduce impacts of climate change and securing your ability to run livestock through tough times, reducing hand feeding.  The result may also mean healthier livestock as they might be able to access more nutrients and medicines in the variety of plants.

Like most changes, the first step is to see that another outcome is achievable and then work out steps to move your business from where it is now to where you would like it to be.  There are many options and we can all improve the management of at least one of these inventories.

Drought – Just my thoughts

Painting the picture – Well hey it is very dry across a large area of Eastern Australia and doesn’t matter if you call it a drought or not, things are bloody dire across NSW, a lot of QLD and a big slab of SA (Parts of Northern Vic and south eastern WA as well!).  This has been much drier and longer than most people thought or had planned for, that is why the impact now is so significant.  The shortage of hay and reasonable stock feeds, combined with water storages running or have run dry, rivers too like the Barwon Darling are at extreme low flows. This is also supported by higher saleyard and kill numbers, especially of breeding age livestock.  When this starts to happen then there are many other issues going on across our regional communities.

There is reducing groundcover, which in turn reduces water infiltration and also allows the soil surface to heat up and cool down (temp fluctuations), this makes for a hostile environment for anything to grow there unless there’s good growth conditions.  This loss of groundcover also means that there is more erosion, faster run off and added nutrients, salts and sediments to our rivers.   There are farmers and those providing services to them also looking at the parched land and under nourished animals daily (Native and domestic), this has a significant impact on your thinking and ability to make good decisions.  With reduced spending through rural towns and people with less time and energy to put into community groups (sport, Ag shows etc), the impact is long lasting as well.

Managing through this – Now isn’t the time to be talking drought management strategies, the time for that is when there is lots of grass in the paddocks.  Now is the time for “disaster mitigation – damage control” by this I mean just helping communities deal with this as best they can without judgement.  I reckon if we can work with those that can help themselves, support them and encourage them as much as possible then the small number of farmers that are in a bad way can be helped along by the majority or they can be given special individual support.

Here are a few ideas that I have:

• I would like to see an increase in the number of Ag advisors that can give good advice and help farmers put together disaster strategies and manage what they have from now forward. They could work with bank managers to help put together budgets for money and grass.
• I would like to see more funding put towards sustainable Ag and Landcare, the last round of NLP2 funding due to its demand meant that lots of community groups put in applications (430) and only 15 were funded, that sort of funding lowers morale at a time when the other was required.
• Maybe there could be an increase in sports stars going out into the regions and working with clubs, that would boost morale
• Important time for R&D now to understand requirements for now and future droughts, if this is done in rural Australia rather than being done remotely from large cities it would have a really positive effect too.

Overall we need to encourage communities to help themselves and provide what is needed for communities to function through tough times, by working with the majority and keeping them healthy, this will reduce the number that are at crisis.  We do and should always help those in crisis, I would like to see more effort put into keeping people out of crisis.

Long Term thinking – As I said now isn’t the time to be talking drought management, things that I reckon we should discuss when we are out of drought are:

• Better adoption of grass budgeting tools (plenty out there) and management systems that operate within the constraints of the ever-changing seasons.
• A value placed on groundcover this needs to be valued by all of us as can have a significant impact. If a monetary value was placed on ground cover, soil carbon whatever it might be this may have an impact over adoption of the dot point above.
• Advisors actually understanding the cost of feeding vs selling and buying back in, most in this current drought have just spruiked on about feeding strategies due to a lack of understanding of selling/buying strategies this certainly has compounded current issues.
• FMD’s have been fantastic and they are well utilised, farmers being very much like the rest of the community, dollars talk. Now however there is very little being said about money, it is all about the people, the stock and the land, how can we put in place FMD’s for them?

In closing – Remember good leadership is about being respectful, kind, good natured and having real empathy.  Now is the time that our rural communities really need those traits to be shown, so please do your bit.

Technology in Pastoral Systems Field Day at Wyndham Stn

On a cool and windy September day, a total of 60 plus people gathered to have a close look at some of the helpful technological tools that they could use on their properties.  The day started in the woolshed talking about how to tell the difference between a really valuable tool and just something new and shiny that is cool.  A strong focus of the day was about developing a plan to make the most of new technologies and examining how they would fit into each producer’s management system.  The answer to this question would be different for each individual and that there is no one right (or wrong) way to manage a pastoral business.  In fact, it is much better for the whole community to embrace a diversity of methods, in line with a diversity of products they produce.  The focus should be more on the outcome or implications of different methods, here the talk was around increasing profitability and/or production also improving the resource base (environment, people and money).

As chairman of the regional SAMRC committee Gus Whyte encouraged everyone to provide feedback on RD&A needs for the region and how that can be considered by research groups, extension providers and consultants.

After a wonderful smoko provided by the Pooncarie Outreach Centre School, we divided up into 5 smaller groups so that we could hear about each product/service and have time to ask questions to see if they would suit our respective needs.

(If you would like to know more on the issues, click on company names to bring up their website)

 Group 1

Drones

Uses, mustering, water, fence monitoring

JSL Drones

 Group 2

Electronic ID

Hardware

Software

Data use, stock selection

Gallagher, Sapien, Sheepmatters, Leader Products

 Group 3

Electric fences

Multi species fences

Westonfence  Gallagher

 Group 4

Telemetry

Satellite based monitoring

Farmbot

 Group 5

Planning & Record keeping

Mapping

Livestock records, chemical diary

AgriWebb

After every group had been around to the 5 work stations (40min), then we all came together for Ash Sweeting to put some perspective on the uses of technology in a rangeland environment.  Ash spoke of the importance of gathering relevant data, turning it into useful information, the payback however wouldn’t come until after you had made changes and acted on that information.  Attendees were also asked as to what their R&D requirements might be and some of the benefits of working as groups to resolve issues.

Below are some key points out of the day:

•  There is a range of tech for a range of purposes. Identify the areas of most potential gain in your business and look for tools to best address that.
• Getting involved in tech isn’t necessarily expensive or overly difficult and potential returns can be huge. Just an investment of $2,000, could save/make you 10 times that.
• There is the risk of being overwhelmed by available tech and the data produced from it, if tools are purchased without a clear goal in mind.
• When it comes to technology (and other issues) “it’s much easier to keep up, than catch up”. Lack of skills shouldn’t be a barrier with lots of training programs (and grants through Local Land Services) available.
• Forming groups to deal with issues is a very effective means of resolving problems, whether it be eliminating pests or R&D on sheep genetics for example.

The day finished up with a few refreshments and lots of talk about the opportunities that the day offered.

Thanks to Western Local Land Services, SAMRC and the Pooncarie Field Day Group for their generous support of the field day.  Also a big thanks to all the companies that made a huge effort to come out here and show their goods and services off so well.

If anyone would like to run a field day similar, or have another idea, they should contact Jasmine Wells (LLSWestern) 0417 488 496

This day was made possible by the generous support of:

Western Local Land Services

Pooncarie Field Day Group

Southern Australia Meat Research Council (SAMRC)