CANFA Comment

Flood impacts

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:14:00 GMT

The photos below are of the flood at Michael Pfitzner’s, and his neighbours, between Griffith and Rankins Springs, (along with a bogged boomspray from Richard Langley's Greenethorpe property), indicating some of the challenges facing our farmers as a result of some of the unusual rain events of recent months (bogged boomsprays being one of them). In what is considered a marginal cropping area, well away from any river system, this amount of water entering a property has the potential to cause untold damage, both short and long term.

1. The erosive potential of clean, quick moving water is immense. The soft friable soil created by no-till farming systems, if exposed, could be easily eroded by this amount of water.
2. What has this upstream water brought onto the farm? Herbicide residues, (herbicide resistant) weed seeds, crop and pasture residue and eroded soil could all be carried by this water and deposited onto cropping country creating both short-term and long-term impacts.
3. Soil and residue deposited onto paddocks in “fans” can also create topographical changes which can impact on subsequent cultural operations, especially in a controlled traffic farming system in defined traffic rows.
4. Damage to both property boundary and internal fences can also be substantial. If stock is present, the necessity to fix these fences for stock control is paramount.
5. The damage done by stock randomly trafficking these paddocks on soils close to their plastic limit is also immense.

Let us know what’s happening on your place post-flooding and how it’s impacting on your winter cropping program. Comment below.

Photos from Argentina

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:23:00 GMT

To see an album of photos from the trip to Argentina click on this Facebook link.

Day 10 - Friday March 9, 2012: Cruz Alta - Expoagro - Buenos Aires

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:59:00 GMT

We left Cruz Alta at 7.00 am and drove for 3.5 hours to Junín City to attend ExpoAgro. This is one of 2 large expo’s held in Argentina each year. We were met by Carlos Braga and his colleagues from Cideter. We each went our own way during the day. It was interesting to see how the Argentineans ran the day, the styles of the exhibits, the extra attractions and the active displays. We all realised that we could easily have stayed another day to make full use of the opportunity presented to us on many fronts.
Neville spent much of his time with staff from INTA, doing a TV interview, holding a debrief meeting with INTA staff and then visiting precision agriculture stands to discuss the adoption and use of the technology in Argentina and Australia. One company was intending to attend Agquip in 2012.
John Lawrie spent a considerable time in the soil pit discussing the obvious soil compaction issues and ways of alleviating them. It was interesting to see a number of displays with non-inversion tillage machinery despite the message prior to our attendance of the presence or impact of little or no compaction.
Grant and Greg spent a considerable time at the Monsanto display discussing their GM technology and issues arising from its introduction. They were openly willing to discuss glyphosate resistance (particularly Johnson grass) and how farmers are managing difficult production years like 2011-12.
We drove back nearly 300km to Buenos Aires, arriving safely (but only just) around 9.30pm after another precarious trip on Argentinean roads.

Day 9 Thursday March 8, 2012: Cruz Alta

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:52:00 GMT

Day 9 Thursday March 8, 2012 – Cruz Alta
We visited two local Cruz Alta factories, Favot and Pierobon in the morning. Roberto Peiretti and his son-in law hosted us at both locations and obviously had a close working relationship with them.
Favot is a family owned business with both father and son involved in the company. They are essentially a sprayer manufacturer with self-propelled, trailed and 3PL models. They have been involved in engineering for a considerable time and were well established in the town. Whilst we had a look at their manufacturing facilities and even went for a ride in a contractors machine, the most exciting time was spent looking at the manufacture, studying the drawings and talking about a new prototype self propelled sprayer. This new machine had a quite revolutionary design which would reduce the weight of the chassis to nearly half its predecessor.
We then visited the Pierobon seeder manufacturer plants. Again this is a family owned business which was established in 1958 by a local blacksmith, Jose Pierobon. They make double and single disc planting units. These were of high quality manufacture, and featured a number of units unique to the brand – easy end-tow, dual phasing rams on each travel wheel for self levelling whilst planting, simple unit lock-up mechanisms, crimped double disc unit allowing less relief angle of the discs and internal hub for the bearing system, double disc design which enabled a longer contact length between discs and better slot shape maintenance, front bar side shift capacity, a rotatable coulter depth adjustment to account for disc wear being amongst these features.
Lunch was held in Cruz Alta at a local restaurant. The food and hospitality was again exemplary. As Cruz Alta was a town which still had a “siesta” time we returned to our motel and were picked up at 4pm to go to Roberto Peiretti’s farm, 15km from town. He remarked along the way that whilst he had carted hundreds of thousands of tons of grain over the years from his 5000ha family owned farm, he still had to endure unsealed and poorly maintained roads. He also paused at a photo point which he had been monitoring over the years for the impact of no-till farming systems – a point in a field which had been severely eroded under conventional tillage systems, had been restored and was gainfully producing crops again.
Upon arrival at their farm which had recently reduced its workforce from 22 staff back to 11, we were shown through their machinery shed which again was tightly packed with tractors (15 mainly locally produced cheaper 2 wheel drive tractors for chaser bins), 2 new class 8 Case IH headers, 2 new Pierobon seeders (he believed in investing in technology which made him money rather than technology that just looks good), numerous groupers and (surprisingly) a single Metalfor self propelled sprayer.
We then ventured down the paddock where we inspected some early sown and later sown (uncommon) maize. He explained that it was all about risk management – spreading the planting time was enabling him to potentially miss any stressful time at silking-tasseling synchronisation. We also were able to dig the soil and found our first Argentinean worms, much to John’s delight.
We again endured another traditional Argentinean “asado” BBQ dinner late into the night discussing amongst many other things, Roberto’s forthcoming trip to Australia to present at the annual VNTFA and CANFA Conservation Agriculture Conferences in July 2012 at Ballarat and Griffith respectively and then potentially at the Forbes Grains Conference in August.

Day 8 - Wednesday March 7, 2012: Rosario - Pergamino City - Cruz Alta

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:45:00 GMT

We would have loved to have spent more time in Rosario as it looked to be a wonderful place. The Parana River, their largest river, also flows through it and unfortunately due to foggy conditions we were unable to get a good look at it. We were escorted around the planter manufacturing facility of Bertini in Rosario by the owner of the business and his engineer and interpreter Louis. Mr Bertini a very proud Italian –Argentinean, who still runs the family business at the age of 76. Started his business 35 years ago with a small planter similar to standard small combine with double disc undercarriage suitable for zero till planting. This model is still in production. Mr Bertini is a very motivated individual who obviously has very strong relationship with his employees. Unlike some of the other manufacturers that we have met, Bertini is a full in-house production even building their own hydraulic rams to ensure the quality that Bertini is renowned for. Bertini also has a patented bearing assembly, designed and manufactured in-house that could revolutionise the bearing assemblies used on double disc openers.
After 4 hours having a guided tour of his facilities Mr Bertini hosted us for a large lunch and discussed the future of farming in Australia using the Argentinean model. We were then joined by Raul Abati for a brief discussion before thanking the Mr Bertini for his hospitality and leaving with Raul Abati for the trip to his factory in Pergamino City to discuss his line of planting equipment and tractors.
Mr Abati, another very proud Argentinean, although from Spanish background, presented us with another manufacturing model where his focus was solely on exporting his product. Mr Abati went on to show us the models that he has released in Australia and showed and explained the alterations he had made to suite our particular soil constraints and the need for strength in the machines to improve productivity while maintaining durability.
After a long trip with Mr Abati, 200 kms to Cruz Alta, the well known and respected zero till advocate Mr Roberto Peiretti and his family hosted us with a traditional Argentinean “asado” BBQ dinner late into the night to discuss the following days activities and the problems of the agricultural world; the squeeze on profitability, the sustainability of production and government intervention. The world of Agriculture will be a better place for this discussion.

Day 7 - Tuesday March 6, 2012: Marcos Juarez - Las Rosas - Las Parejas - Rosario

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:40:00 GMT

Day 7 – Tuesday March 6, 2012: Marcos Juarez – Las Rosas - Las Parejas - Rosario
The day started with a very early meeting with the owner of Agrotax Mr Abelardo Cuffia, a leading precision agriculture equipment manufacturer looking for us to visit his establishment. Argentina is the second biggest adopter of precision agriculture technology in the world. Unfortunately we had a full day booked and were unable to meet with him. However Neville was able to catch up with them at Expoagro.
We then travelled to Las Rosas to visit the headquarters of PLA with Daniel and Josephina, manufacturers of spraying and seeding machinery. They were in the process of moving into brand new premises and from first impressions it would eventually be a very impressive factory. The style of their equipment was quite different, far more modern and had incorporated a number of features into their design and manufacture which were more suited to today’s operating and manufacturing environment.
Then to Caiman sprayers with Alejandro, where we looked through the factory at large self propelled sprayers more than capable of handling Australian conditions. Frederico, the owner seemed more than happy to change specifications to customers’ needs. A number of features caught our eye, carbon fibre booms, space frame bolted booms, sprayer chassis clearance and track width adjustments, a very stylish boom folding mechanism being amongst the impressive range of features.
We then gave a presentation at Cideter headquarters in Las Parejas, which is the major representative body for the cluster of machinery manufacturer’s in Argentina. This was followed by lunch before we walked down to Apache to view their machinery business with their Marketing Manager. Apache make and export a range of equipment, including drills, planters and sprayers.
The Ombu factory visits with Diego Falconi, their international trade manager, were very different. They had a number of factories spread around the city, which were about to be amalgamated into one premises with work beginning shortly. They make a range of equipment from grain extraction and bagging delivery equipment for silo bags, grain chaser bins, header (corn, sunflower) fronts, mixers sprayers and other forage or pasture equipment.
We were then driven to the Rostower Motel in Rosario by a taxi and one of Andres’ friends. We arrived very late. Interestingly the waiter at the hotel restaurant was from Sydney, so we were looked after very well again.

Day 6 - Monday March 5, 2012 Marcos Juarez and Armstrong

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:37:00 GMT

Very nice motel “Portal de Este” catering for professional travellers.
We spent all morning at the INTA Marcos Juarez Research Centre with soil and breeding staff. Greg was very interested in the bio-technology and gene manipulation research. It was interesting to hear from the soil researchers on the origin of their soils and the general condition under current farming practices. We visited the field to look at some more comparative maize and soybean tillage sites, a display of past equipment (the transition from conventional to no-till technology) and the glasshouses to look at some breeding work.
We lunched at a Marcos Juarez restaurant, with the afternoon and early evening spent at Metalfor at Marcos Juarez and Crucianelli in Armstrong.
Metalfor makes self propelled sprayers, trailed sprayers, harvesters and tractors (previously the ARAUS brand). We were hosted by Anibal Martinez, their overseas marketing manager, who presented us with a “mate” set. “Mate” is a communal “tea” which is commonly shared at meetings. It is made from crushed leaves from the jerba shrub, Ilex paraguariensis, a native to South America, which are placed in a gourd shaped container to which hot water is added. The tea is sucked through a metal straw and is passed in a clockwise direction. The mate has a sour taste but as we found out, it is very good at keeping you awake!
Crucianelli make double disc planters. They export to many parts of the world and are small enough to cater for the individual needs of farmers.
Late afternoon was spent at Crucianelli, with Jorge, Dante and Fanny. They were very helpful showing us around the impressive factory and answering hours of questions. The owner of factory came down to interview us before we left and was very interested in our views on his machinery and how it could fit into the Australian environment.
The day ended with a very harrowing trip back to our motel at Marcos Juarez with Jorge through some extremely heavy rain (85 mm’s for the night).

Day 5 - Sunday March 4, 2012 Justiniano Posse

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:32:00 GMT

Another long hot day in the field getting back to the motel after dinner at midnight. We spent today looking at 2 farms with 2 INTA extension agronomists Alejandro and Frederico as well as Carlos Braga from Cideter.

Went to Justiniano Posse and met with Ricardo and Regina Vasconi and their son. This was a very tidy farm with obvious pride in their property and their machinery. Everything was in its place and there was a place for everything. Interestingly the farm sheds were locked and alarmed to stop theft. Also the move to Roundup Ready soybeans had relegated their seed cleaning business to the “cemetery”. Ricardo was very business orientated and had joined with a number of local farmers to lease more properties and build marketing and other agriculturally related businesses to add value to their farming. This is becoming more common with 60% of famers leasing their farms and moving to the city to enjoy better schooling and social environments.

A number of things became particularly evident today, following on from yesterday’s farm visit.

1. The complete lack of any stones in any farming paddocks. This is important in relation to the use, acceptance and importance of disc openers in the no-till farming systems.
2. The high erodibility of their soils. This is most evident on their side roads which are often cut 2-4 metres deeper into the profile than the surrounding country. The movement of grain trucks along these roads created dust storms as soil was disturbed and blown away very easily. Corners and intersections where vehicles turned were always deepest.
3. The absolute trust by farmers of INTA staff and their recommendations. My observations would be that Australian farmers would be more dynamic in their decision making being more instinctive and trusting their own judgement more. As was said publicly at the Coolah GRDC Update recently, many farmers don’t trust the data that researchers are presenting!
4. The farmers are complete businessmen. This apparently had been a significant change that has taken place over the past 10-20 years.
5. They are very proud to be Argentinean and put considerable emphasis on using Argentinean made equipment when possible.

Went to Justiniano Posse and met with Osvaldo and Hector Vitale and their sons and workers who showed us over their machinery and took us to the paddock where they were harvesting maize with a 12 row front.

We also visited the local grain receival depot. All the delivery trucks are very similar with a 28 tonne gross weight on delivery. One feature which was most eye-catching was the automatic grain sampler which sampled each truck as it approached the weighbridge.

Clockwise from top left: Automatic grain sampling at silo; Grant goes for a ride; Giorgi planter with leading tine; Giorgi planter (rear view); Giorgi planter at Vitale's.

Day 3 - Friday March 2, 2012 Manfredi

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:41:00 GMT

We had a very interesting day. We spent the first 2.5 hours presenting a powerpoint on Australian no-till systems to staff at INTA Manfredi. INTA is the national agricultural research and extension body for Argentina; there are no state bodies. It was evident from the enthusiasm shown amongst staff and their willingness to link with each other across Argentina that this model was working very well. INTA currently has 8000 staff (and increasing) nationally, with 52 extension centres, of which Manfredi was one with 250 staff on a 1200ha property which had research, extension and commercial production (including a dairy).

Our presentation again required an interpreter and so was a little laboured but was very productive with a great exchange of information. We supported our information with textbook examples from "Mustering Moisture", "Disc Seeding in Zero-Till Farming Systems- A Review of Technology and Paddock Issues" and various WANTFA monthly journals.

We then went into the field to look at a soil pit of their loess sandy silt soils and a long term (since 1996) experiment comparing conventional, minimum and no-till systems with maize-maize, maize-soybeans (and a triticale cover crop in the no-till). As expected the results were very conclusive in favour of no-till.

We then went to look at some experimental planting machines, involving precision agriculture technology. This discussion was led by Mario Bragachini who is considered a legend worldwide in precision agriculture. Argentina is the second biggest user of precision ag technologies in the world behind USA. The first planter, an Agrometal, was a double disc opener preceded by a turbo coulter (off a Great Plains drill), with inter-row capacity to either apply solid fertiliser of plant wheat on narrower row spacing.

We then went to a farm (Ivan Labotti and family) about 40k from Oncativo. Ivan was farming 4000ha of soybeans, maize and wheat. He is into precision farming with variable rate application and, as such, had excellent record keeping. He was obviously a close collaborator with Viktor the local extension agronomist. We inspected a couple of soybean crops and then their machinery (jointly owned by his family and several neighbours). An abandoned maize crop was also evident as a 40 day period without rain had caused a degree of crop failure across Argentina. We did ponder the question as to whether there were some underlying soil issues adding to the failure of this crop.

Clockwise from top left: Dusty roads in Argentina; soil at Manfredi Research Station; Manfredi with Cristiano, Eduardo and Eugenie; and Ivan Labotti with brother & father

Day 4 - Saturday March 3, 2012 Manfredi - Marcos Juarez

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:36:00 GMT

Up early again and back to the research station to have a very close inspection of the commercial side to the Manfredi Research Station. We were very impressed with the coordination of the research and extension of INTA. The approach is so logical and the commercial arm of the operation ensures that the staff members are working with the same limitations as the other farmers in the area, including market prices and taxes.

Throughout Argentina the INTA experimental farms are controlled by advisory boards consisting of farmers, staff, private agronomists/ engineers, private manufacturers and other interested parties and is strictly overseen by the government. These advisory boards also develop strategies and directions for the stations, for their general running from day to day as well as into the future. All funds raised by the research station’s production systems is returned to the institution’s budget. This cooperation instils good morale and pride in the station and at Manfredi this was evident and exceptional. Good results mean an economic return for the station as well as the aid to experimental results. A recent invitation to farmers to view the station focusing on precision farming saw 3000 farmers attend the station’s expo. The station has an expo hall which can seat up to 5000 and a “cafe” nearby capable of catering for such a crowd.

In this area, the central part of Argentina, the crops are summer dominant. Winters are almost completely dry, but wheat and triticale are grown as double crop options at times. The main crops are maize and soybeans. When soybeans has good prices it can make up to 70% of the crops grown in the area. Dryland maize yields are around 8t to 13t per ha., with soy yields are commonly in the 3 to 4 tonne range, although this year the yields are expected to be down as with the maize yields because of the lack of rain through the season. Both crops are GM modified with the RoundUp resistant genes making up 98% of crops grown. Typical rotations are Maize and soy bean with variations of this, maybe with a winter crop of wheat to get cover for the following soybean crop.

Agriculture is Argentina’s largest industry and as such is a big part of the national agenda and is highly valued. The Argentineans are very nationally conscious and are making a great effort to be self sufficient with development and manufacturing of technology and machinery beginning to be exported throughout the world, particularly into the Ukraine and other countries in South America.

John Deere, Case IH and New Holland have the market for harvesters (combines) and tractors covered, while the Argentineans are focused on seeding equipment and crop spraying equipment. Research topics at the institute focus on development of precision farming techniques through paddock zoning and variable rate systems for fertilizer and seeding.

The Manfredi Research Station also houses many laboratories, working areas such as soil analysis and bio technology; these areas are currently being upgraded. All facets of agricultural staff are housed together and work in a cooperative nature. Extension and researchers all work together and work is very integrated. Productive profitable agriculture is the key focus.

Extension officers specialise in what is relevant to farmers and work very closely with them. An example is helping them get the most out of current technologies.

A key area of work is that the government station do independent evaluations of new technologies and machinery. There are close links with the manufactures; this is seen as a real plus for both researchers, manufactures and farmers.

Staff are young and old but so enthusiastic and passionate about agriculture and helping farmers it is all farmer focused.

83% of farming is done using the zero till system. Virtually all planters use a double disc ground engaging system similar to the John Deere Maxi Emerge.
Controlled traffic is almost unheard of and is not practised at all.

Soils are very deep windblown soils called “loess” which has blown from the Andes over millions of years. At Manfredi, the composition is 75%is silt and 15%clay with 10% sand. It is like farming on the banks of a river for hundreds of kilometres. Soils are non abrasive, non compacting deep soils with high water holding capacities. John Lawrie made the comment that he has never seen soils with silt content so high.

The area around Manfredi and Cordoba has a 700mm annual rainfall. Grant felt that all in all that it was not really quite fair; to have rainfall soils and climate all being normal and not the exception. However the land values vary from $15,000 to $20,000 per ha which brings things back into perspective. And it is not traded regularly. The less efficient farmers and farms held by estates or farmers that no longer wish to be in farming lease their farms out and while only getting about a 2-3% return per annum, they are able to have a very nice lifestyle in the cities without working or selling the farms. 75% of farmers have been rapidly displaced this way and moved to the cities, with the land being taken over by bigger growers. Some bigger growers may have land leased up to hundreds of kilometres away to obtain the size of enterprise required.

The government enforces a very large tax on grains exported, at the moment 35% on soybeans, 25% on maize and 20% on wheat. In better years soybeans levy may be lifted as high as 90%.

We ended this day by driving to Marcos Juàrez.

Day 2 – Thursday March 1, 2012 Buenos Aires to Oncativo (Cordoba province)

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:43:00 GMT

This was the official start of the trip as we flew in the afternoon from Buenos Aires to Cordoba (the second largest city in Argentina with around 1.2 million people) The flight of 700km took us initially along the La Plata River and then the Parana River, the major river in Argentina (pictured above). The most outstanding features of these rivers apart from their size was their colour - brown - carrying a huge amount of silt to the Indian Ocean.

We were met at the Cordoba airport by INTA staff and an interpreter. Whilst many Argentineans with contact with English speaking visitors are able to communicate with us there are still times that neither are able to understand sufficiently, especially when talking technically, and an interpreter is needed. We were driven 70 km to the INTA Research Station at Manfredi where we were met by many of the department heads and the meeting soon became a very interesting exchange in no-till farming philosophies.

By the end of the discussion it was late and we then travelled a short way to Oncativo, a town of 30-40,000 people, to our motel, where we were joined by INTA staff member Cristiano Casini for a very late dinner. Cristiano, who had travelled to Australia last August to attend Agquip (where he had met me), was able to outline more about the trip over dinner.

Day 1 Dubbo Australia to Buenos Aires, Argentina

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:45:00 GMT

We flew from Dubbo to Buenos Aires on Day 1. The touring party consisted of Grant Byrne (pictured at left - a farmer from Peak Hill who was the CANFA Conservation Farmer of the Year in 2011 and CANFA Committee member), Greg Brooke (NSW Agriculture District agronomist, Wellington specialising in no-till agronomy and weed control), John Lawrie (a soils expert currently working for GSS Environmental as a consultant to the agricultural and mining sectors but with 40 years experience in government departments in soils and NRM and a life member of CANFA) and myself (Neville Gould, CANFA Executive officer with 30 years experience as an agricultural engineer in no-till farming systems and machinery). The group has most no-till farming bases covered in soils, agronomy, weed, machinery and on-farm experience.

The trip in total (Sydney - Buenos Aires) was 12056 km and took 12.25 hrs, which despite a very pleasant flight with Qantas, will perhaps be one impediment to closer Australian - Argentinean relations. It is much easier travel wise to go to the USA or Europe (as many carry dual citizenship passports and use their (commonly Spanish or Italian in regional centres) joint citizenship to gain easier access into other countries. The closer relations between Australia and Argentina, requiring no visa entry either direction, which was only changed late last year, is seen as a huge advantage and is likely to generate more travel though.

It was evident upon arrival in Buenos Aires that they are in a rebuilding phase. At the airport and later as we travelled around the country, money is being spent to upgrade infrastructure like airports, roads, motels. In fact the road (many of which have tolls) from Cordoba to Buenos Aires is two lanes both ways and makes travelling at high speed (130 kmh maximum) very easy. We did however suggest, after our first experience in Buenos Aires traffic, that they could have saved a lot of money by not spraying white lines on their city roads as no one took any notice of them and just drove where and when they wanted.

The sights, sounds and smells were intriguing as we entered Buenos Aires and whilst not a beautiful city in a classical sense, it was full of charm. The overwhelming thing we have noticed in the first few days is the friendliness of people and their willingness to assist us. Their hospitality has been tremendous so far and the atmosphere very congenial leading to exchange of information at all levels. It has also been interesting to notice people’s interest in us as we have walked the streets. They are a reasonably short people and perhaps the imposing size of Grant (in particular) and John has attracted the attention of people as we have passed by. Our facial appearance does not stand out however as we have on more than one occasion been asked for directions!

One major disappointment over the first three days has however been the inability to gain consistent internet access - whether this is an aberration or will be a constant source of frustration, we are yet to find out. Every motel we have stayed at has however had free wireless service which is easy to access.

Notes about the photos above:

Top photo: Carlos Braga (one of our hosts) from CIDETER, the foreign trade department, interpreting some technical points in typical Argentinean fashion (through gesticulation) to Grant Byrne. Ricardo Vasconi, a local farmer and businessman, and Frederico (from INTA, the national Department of Agriculture) are listening intently. Grant's (aka Grunt) imposing size is very noticeable in this photos and generally as we have travelled around. He doesn't fit easily into their small vehicles here!!

Bottom photo:This is one of the major reasons for the adoption of no-till technology in Argentina. See blog posting coming your way soon. The loess soil is so easily eroded and blown away. You can see how deep the road is now in the profile caused entirely by erosion through vehicle travel!

Delay in reports from Argentina

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 01:19:00 GMT

Due to internet connection issues, reports from Neville Gould's tour of Argentina are unable to be posted at this stage. We hope to bring you updates as soon as possible.

CANFA

New releases a feature of 2012 Conservation Agriculture Field Day

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:49:00 GMT

Three new machinery releases were a stand-out feature of the 2012 Conservation Agriculture Field Day held at Parkes on 23 February. They were all single disc units - from NDF Disc Planters (NSW), Milne Industries (Qld) and Grizzly Engineering (Vic).

Download a PDF copy of the media release from the day. Below are photos of the new single disc machines demonstrated or shown at the field day.

Farm performance 2007-08 to 2009-10

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:35:00 GMT

I recently was forwarded a very informative report written by Roger Crook, former Manager of ICI. The whole article (http://justgroundsonline.com/group/the/forum/topics/china-the-oecd-and-australian) is worth reading but I bring your attention to a particular part of the report which really grabbed my attention.

In 2010 ABARE funded by the GRDC produced a report called Australian Grains - Financial performance of grains producing farms, 2007–08 to 2009–10.

To the best of my knowledge this report, conducted by a federal government agency and funded by the GRDC, which in turn is funded by grain growers, received no publicity.

The lack of publicity is not surprising when the financial performance of all grain farmers is examined. Over the three years 2007/8, 2008/9, 2009/10 the percentage of growers showing a negative farm business profit is 50%, 60% and 61% respectively.

As far as the holy dollar is concerned the numbers are even more disturbing. Over the same three years all grain farmers showed a farm business profit of minus $1,500, plus $24,500 and minus $15,500.

The year 2009/10 was an estimate based on the average yield over time and the ABARE forecast price. As we all now know Mother Nature interfered with the economists view of the future. WA, our biggest grain-growing state, suffered a drought. For many on the other side of the country too much water at the wrong time played havoc with yields. So the numbers above will probably turn out to have been optimistic.

The OECD represents the 30 most industrialised countries of the world, including Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. and most members of the EU, but not China or Japan.

Farm subsidies in both the EU and the USA amounted to somewhere between 20% and 23% of farm receipts in 2010 according to OECD figures.

There has been little change over the last eighteen years. In the OECD, farm subsidies as a percentage of GDP have remained at about 0.35%.

Dollar values are hard to determine due to currency value fluctuations, but there is a new book out called ‘A Billion Dollars a Day’. So maybe that gives us some idea of what the rest of the world, including China, pays to their farmers to keep them in business. (I have it on order.)

The latest figure available for OECD countries, which is an estimate, is a staggering US$281 billion in agricultural subsidies for 2008. OECD subsidies increased in 2009.