24/08/2024
BUSH TALK Interview with a FARMER!!!
in the world of agriculture so many families are continually presented with out of the job real world problems focused not on growing the crops that generate them income but how they pass these assets down to the next generation at the same time as look after their own mental health!
I have here a bloke that lives and breaths agriculture!
to protect him and his operation he is anonymous and exact location not spoken but I know lot can read between the lines so enjoy.
He lives in the west wimmera region of Victoria that to be honest could be considered the forgotten part of Australia.
Forgotten from the government,
Forgotten from friends and family,
And Forgotten from their own mental health.
Albeit it has some of the most consistent and reliable rain fall in most of Australia that you could almost bank on the year as well as excellent underground water that almost is rainwater with a very low sulfur and salt content.
So with out further adue here is what I would call a conversation over beers that I had with a farmer in this area that shows the true strength and spirit of a man that is the salt of the earth farmer in Australia!
*********************************
BOY: hay big fella thanks for having a chat how long have you been involved in agriculture???
FARMER: I’ve been in ag all my life, it’s all I ever wanted to do, have lived on our family farm all my life, I watched my pa and dad work our land since I can remember, I couldn’t wait for school holidays so I could help, I finished year 12 in 1996 and completed my professional woolclassing in 1998, I am now 46.
BOY: what's your earliest memory on the farm?
FARMER: Earliest memory of farm was when we were shearing and the shearer’s stayed in our house, mum cooked them breakfast and the noise woke us kids up at 6am we would have been 3-4 years of age then, think mum would have hated us being up that early,. The other than that I can remember is when we got a new tractor delivered a fiat 110-90 front wheel assist, which replaced our fiat 1000
BOY: are these early memories happy ones?
FARMER: Yeah happy memories for sure, as a kid I loved watching everything happening, going to the Wimmera machinery field days was a favourite. Big machinery is what every farm kid wants to see. I cant remebered anything as a kid about bad or good years.
BOY: how long has ag felt like work insted of
joy?
FARMER: I think that times during the year like shearing, seeding, harvest at some point it becomes a chore especially when you have hold ups due to weather. And you can see your potential returns being affected. Farming these days is a full on business and not so much of a lifestyle, although you can always have time off or work the hours you want around weather events especially if you are the boss. Farming started to become a chore when I started doing a lot of the farm work myself in 2020. Investing in bigger machinery so that I could do this and my father doing less because of his age, health and the fact he can’t operate the bigger machinery made it harder for me in some ways but easier in others.
BOY: Tell me about your farm operation?
I can see by the way you talk about your
dirt that your pritty proud of it!
FARMER: We own around 2000 acres on the west Wimmera of Victoria close to the south Australian border, with 80% black dirt with some harder red dirt and some loamy country, all of our land is prime cropping land and attracts a high value at sale ($10000 acre) and around $200 per area lease, we own some of the most productive farm land cropping wise around here.
BOY: when it's going good does everything feel.
as it should?
FARMER: when it’s going good yeah it feels great, but it can go from all good to bad in a month with the farming job, you just have to confident in the decisions that you make, sometimes wrong sometimes right.
BOY: when does the farms feel like it takes over
your life?
FARMER: The farm takes over your life during the busy periods, lambing, shearing, seeding, harvest, but I see shearing and harvest of these make you money when pretty much you spend all year.
BOY: when does the farm feels like it's takes
away from your family life?
FARMER: It takes over your family life if you have to work when they are home, sometimes weather during the week isnt any good for spraying but it’s good on weekends so you have to go and do it when it’s right to go, or you have to spread urea well into the night to get it done before a rain. I really try to go to kids sports days and as many things of theirs that I can, because mabe they will remember me being there to support them, they won’t remember the extra load of grain I got to the silo that day or the 5t of urea I spread.
BOY: how does the wife and kids feel about the
farm?
FARMER: We all really like the farm, they help out as much as they can with sheep work and other work which I great. This year we had 3 of us working the lamb marking cradle whilst the other two were back lining sheep. Was a bit of task to coordinate but we got it all done.
One of the boys drives the tractor when prickle chaining, and can drive the header as well, the gps makes it a lot easier, he drove the 8120 header this year with a 40ft front without gps for a few hours this year without incident. The harvest before we ran a 2366 with 25ft front on gps, but he would have done 75% of the harvest. The boys play farm simulator, the cabin looks exactly the same on there as in real life, so they know what buttons do what.
BOY: what's your favourite job on the farm?
FARMER: I really love sowing and harvesting the most, you are starting new life and harvesting the rewards.
BOY: can you make it a year round job to enjoy
your land??
FARMER: Yeah you can, you just need
downtime
BOY: when did you start leasing out your dirt?
FARMER: We started leasing in march 2024, our lease term is 5 years. It seems a long time but time will pass quickly.
BOY: how did it feel to let another farmer take
your land?
FARMER: it hasn’t worries me at all, the family that are leasing are really good farmers, and neighbours so I’m sure the land will be just as good if not better in 5 years time when the lease term ends, what will happen after that who knows at this stage
BOY: do you have brothers and sisters?
FARMER: I have one sister 3 years younger
than me, she not into farming.
BOY: did your parents have a succession plan
for your generation?
FARMER: Not the best succession planning, when I left school I went into a partnership with my mum and dad. I always wanted to go farming so pretty much I would inherit most of the farm when mum and dad pass on, except a small parcel of land that will go to my sister. The newest blocks we have bought are in my and my wife’s name so I they are ours. It’s in mum and dad’s wills that the above will happen but not written down anywhere else.
BOY: if you plan to stay in agg do you have a
succession plan for your kids??
FARMER: We hope to pass the farm land down to them, but what they want to do as a job is up to them, there is not pressure from us to go farming, we are pushing for them to do a trade of some sort, so that they have something to fall back on if farming isn’t for them if they decide to come back or their circumstances change.
BOY: what would make you call it and sell the
lot of your dirt?
FARMER: That is a tough one, I like the idea of still owning it even if you are not the one working it, but if you had to sell it would be for financial reasons that interest rates went super high and you couldn’t afford the repayments or you were going to completely leave farming here and move to somewhere else to farm or buy another type of business
BOY: do you ever feel like you were made to do
something different in your life?
FARMER: I’ve never really considered doing anything else other than ag, but I do like driving machinery so even if it wasn’t agricultural machinery I would still be interested, I did think it would be pretty cool to work at an airport on the ground crew. We run a takeaway shop in our local town, I do like the being there and helping out which is more than I like farming at the moment
BOY: since you live and breath agg so much is there other sectors out there you could happily work on if you didn't farm your land?
FARMER: Im not into office jobs, so would have to be something outside that, but I don’t like working with morons either so that makes it difficult. I’d like to think jobs apply to me not I apply for jobs
BOY: I see your a lot bloke, you do a lot of running and swimming!
How does it make you feel when you’re in the middle of these activities??
FARMER: I havent done much running in the last couple years, been too busy and not made time for it, but I have run a marathon and a ultra marathon in the last 6 years, which I loved training for but also a lot of time consumed, Sunday runs were 3-4 hours plus weekday runs, but being fit and motivated is the best feeling. Yeah I also swim in the mornings at our local pool, 6.30-7.30 am 2 mornings a week, I’m not much of a swimmer but have some 1000 laps of our local pool twice now, usually swim 50 laps in an hour, it’s a good workout.
BOY: does it help you with your mental health??
FARMER: I find that getting up and getting something done gets you into the day, plus running, gym, walking or what ever your into is really good for you, mind, body and soul.
BOY: how can we help the next generation of farmers with their own mental health??
FARMER: I think that we need to support all farmers in what they do, as said above some decisions will be good some bad, but I feel the people who know nothing about agriculture not only the fact of food but also financing would benefit from knowing what actually goes on to produce what they eat. We need to get around watch other and have a chat, it’s what we are good at as farmers having a chat, but also we need to recognise any sign of another not going so well and ask the question are you ok and be prepared to listen, also it’s up to the individual to put there hand up and say I’m going s**t I need some help, that is the hardest thing to admit your not going well cause you are dependent on.
ag is not understood by most even those who finance it, sometimes it big wins sometimes it isn’t, financiers still want their money, not enough emphasis is put in mental health the the ag sector and there is a huge amount of emotions that can go through a person, and knowone wants to admit defeat or say there going bad especially if they are male. The ag sector is less people and more aces these days, I can personally not see anyone other than my family for a week, as you can get nearly all you inputs delivered in farm these days. Sent your mate a message when you see lights on over the road and offer help if you can, chances are that he’s struggling with things too and is happy to reply a message or could do with a hand .
BOY: thanks for the chat man! People like you make me excited to be involved in the world of agriculture and makes me feel at ease to know our food supply is being moderated by actual people and not robots!
*********************************
And that's it!!!!
My goal was to ask some really tough questions.
Ones that people avoid.
Questions that really tip your head upside down and see where the cogs are turning!
People are more connected now more than ever.
We have piles of information at our fingertips and to be honest with all this A.I. it's scary to think that some of it is just pure imagination that we consider fact!
We need the face to face contact more than ever to involve ourselves in our local community and having simple conversations with fantastic blokes like this gives me butterfly's in my tummy!!!
Thanks again Mr farmer man!
Once again I am completely in awe of your talents!!!!
A boy and his truck
