Rural Australia

If you thought all would be OK in the water stakes with a new federal Government, think again! The past mob might have been totally useless but this crowd still has to prove they are different. Ignoring this deadline doesn’t seem like they care .

Scientists say the lower Murray that includes the Coorong, may be now ruined for good. Vegetation has disappeared, some fish species may be gone and salinity is king. Apparently things could be better if the Government deemed increased flows.

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If as Murray Arnel at Stock and Land (Fairfax) (May29) reports, NVD’s are not being completed up to 50% of the time then where does that place the LPA program that relies upon NVD’s?

It’s not news that NVD boxes aren’t being ticked and animal breeds aren’t being completed. While NVD’s have become the default transactional document they are by no means mandatory to transact livestock.

And now it seems the claims made by processors and their membership body, MLA, that NVD’s must be completed, is not absolute and agents are working with processors to attempt to get their client vendors to rectify the situation. This then raises another question about whether agents should be working for their client vendors or the processor buyers – who is paying whom for what services here?!

There’s no doubt NVD’s have served a productive purpose over the years. Is it just since MLA and the processors have interferred with the free market that they are buggering up?
What do you think?

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Rabobank’s latest quarterly survey apparently found that rising input costs and inconsistent rainfall has caused a drop in Australian farmer confidence. Gee, I wouldn’t have thought you would need to be Einstein or run an expensive survey to work that one out!

The survey, apparently questioned around 1200 farmers, found that 38 per cent of farmers expected the agricultural economy to improve over the next twelve months, down from 52 per cent last quarter. Despite the drop, the number of farmers who believe the situation will improve was still above the amount who believe it will deteriorate, which was at 22 per cent, up from 15 per cent in the last survey….And apparently Rabobank’s general manager of Rural Australia Peter Knoblanche said, “without significant winter rain, growers may be prevented from taking advantage of good commodity prices”. (businessspectator.com.au)

This type of meaningless drivel could be of use in a shares stock market that operates to a certain extent on emotion and herd mentality. However, in regard to Australian farming and farmers, it makes me think 3 things;.

1. Whoever is spruiking this type of media release (in this case, Rabobank) is simply looking for a ‘respectable’ excuse to market their brand and gain some additional marketplace credibility from it.
2. Banks have way too much money to be able to waste it this way and perhaps should look at decreasing their rates by cutting their marketing spend.
3. Australia’s farmers are in a valuable market niche segment that deserves more respect from so many brands and marketers, whether local or city-based.

What are some surveys you would like to see performed?  Who agrees with mandatory standardised meat quality assessments? Succession planning? Whether the weather is going to be all rosy at your place within 3 months? Whether your representative farmer groups are representing you well enough? What methods you might be able to use to decrease input costs?
Let us and your mates know via the ‘Comments’ link below.