DianaAustralian Agriculture
March 6th 2008 00:43
The Australian media is full of stories of continuing drought at the moment and in particular the question of drought assistance. Farming families have been able to claim through Centre Link for a year or so now, providing them with an income to ride out the bad seasons. Last season in Victoria was better than the one before, or at least many farmers were able to break even or possibly make a profit instead of going backwards. so far this year, depending on the area, rainfall has been low and of course now we are heading into the long dry autumn where farmers long for rain and animals are hardest hit.
My last post gave a personalised account of how drought has been affecting my immediate family. The type of comments it attracted made me realise, yes, maybe it was just another 'sob-story', a depressing recounting of living a lifestyle self-inflicted.
A close neigbour, fourth generation farmer, owner of zillions of acres, told me once that farming was a huge gamble, that every year he and his dad threw thousands of dollars at the paddocks (cropping) and then one hoped like all-hell you got a win. At my surprised look he laughed ruefully and said he may as well put it all on the Melbourne Cup, better odds!
At the time I was very new to the business side of agriculture (still fumbling my way through) but even I thought that surely one should have a bit more control? But of course he was talking about all the unstable elements in agriculture: weather, commodity prices, value of the dollar, subsidies, the Asian market, now mulesing. Such a lot to consider. Yet if you visit the local famers they are all relatively simple, burly types working every daylight hour and more, and not necessarily (but sometimes) focussing on all the other elements, just hoping like crazy the grain price or the wool price or the oat price will hold good until they sell theirs.
Someone commented on my last post (thank-you!) about people in too-small farming enterprises getting out if they can't make a living. Clearly it is a view shared by the Australian Government and of course it has its points. But what happens when you 'force', 'entice' or encourage families to sell their farms?
-the property will most likely get bought by their bigger neighbour, not necessarily a problem but what if it is a 'tree farm'?( massive tree farms are emerging in the western district of south-east Australia and, cos no people live on them, causing whole communities to collapse!)
-there will be one less farming family in that district
-less people to attend the local schools
-shrinking community in a sparsly populated area with all the attendant problems we now know that creates
Plus, the last time I looked countries in Europe are actually subsidising their farmers to stay on the farm, to help create diversity and competition in agriculture and to add to the 'tourist attraction' of rural scenery. It is a complex issue with many layers of possibilities, none of it helped by the interesting attitude of the city to the farmer and vice versa.
More on that anon! Tell me what you think!
My last post gave a personalised account of how drought has been affecting my immediate family. The type of comments it attracted made me realise, yes, maybe it was just another 'sob-story', a depressing recounting of living a lifestyle self-inflicted.
A close neigbour, fourth generation farmer, owner of zillions of acres, told me once that farming was a huge gamble, that every year he and his dad threw thousands of dollars at the paddocks (cropping) and then one hoped like all-hell you got a win. At my surprised look he laughed ruefully and said he may as well put it all on the Melbourne Cup, better odds!
At the time I was very new to the business side of agriculture (still fumbling my way through) but even I thought that surely one should have a bit more control? But of course he was talking about all the unstable elements in agriculture: weather, commodity prices, value of the dollar, subsidies, the Asian market, now mulesing. Such a lot to consider. Yet if you visit the local famers they are all relatively simple, burly types working every daylight hour and more, and not necessarily (but sometimes) focussing on all the other elements, just hoping like crazy the grain price or the wool price or the oat price will hold good until they sell theirs.
Someone commented on my last post (thank-you!) about people in too-small farming enterprises getting out if they can't make a living. Clearly it is a view shared by the Australian Government and of course it has its points. But what happens when you 'force', 'entice' or encourage families to sell their farms?
-the property will most likely get bought by their bigger neighbour, not necessarily a problem but what if it is a 'tree farm'?( massive tree farms are emerging in the western district of south-east Australia and, cos no people live on them, causing whole communities to collapse!)
-there will be one less farming family in that district
-less people to attend the local schools
-shrinking community in a sparsly populated area with all the attendant problems we now know that creates
Plus, the last time I looked countries in Europe are actually subsidising their farmers to stay on the farm, to help create diversity and competition in agriculture and to add to the 'tourist attraction' of rural scenery. It is a complex issue with many layers of possibilities, none of it helped by the interesting attitude of the city to the farmer and vice versa.
More on that anon! Tell me what you think!
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