We take for granted how much hope is a driver in our work. As employees, we show up in the hope and promise our employer won't be broke by the time our fortnightly wage and super is due. In business, we are striving for a return over a longer timeframe. When we build...

We have encountered an era where productivity and Producers are far out numbered by consumers and voters. We have an online Eco chamber where anyone can find their niche of like minded people, where they can comment on anything they desire. This has created voters...

Having ownership of the outcome of your work is one thing (skin in the game), but incentive structures are another. How are you rewarded for your work? In recent discussions with a farmer, he made the comment “I don’t get paid to feed sheep”. It’s true. Businesses...

A lot of farmers are discussing the quality of their service from suppliers and service providers recently. From what I’ve observed, it’s larger businesses with employees lacking care for the service they provide. Which got me questioning, are our agricultural service...

When I go to an agriculture conference or field day, there’s normally a speaker talking about the importance of, and need for, farmers to feed the world. There is plenty of discussion around increasing production, how we can get marginal gains through a new practise...

We can’t talk agricultural development without talking scale. The invention of the hoe meant a farmer could hoe more land and successfully produce more food for his work. The plough did the same. And so did the tractor. Economies of scale is a pretty simple concept to...

It’s always good to consider where market analysis comes from. Forecasts have about the same probability of being right as a monkey winning a darts competition. But that’s not the point. The point of marketing decisions for farmers is in managing the risks they take....

When we plant seeds or invest in a crop or sheep, we have an expectation that the harvest won’t be for some time, maybe even several years. Most capital and commodity markets, however, have an expectation of some sort of return straight away. Markets, by and large,...

If you spend anytime absorbing media at present, it’s quite easy to feel appreciative of our current situation in comparison to the rest of the world. Geographically, there’s not too many places better than country WA to be right now. Financially, there’s not too many...

While much of the world sits idle, agricultural workers continue business as usual, seeding, spraying, fertilising. I talk a lot about meaningful work. Does your work have meaning? Or is it just filling in the day and paying the bills? Farmers probably don’t think...

What an amazing week. The powers that be will be trying their best to "flatten the curve" of those being infected with COVID19 so as not to collapse our healthcare system. The human and political reaction is nothing like any of us have ever seen or experienced....

I have an issue with benchmarking ourselves against potential unknown and out of our control futures. But for the sake of this riff, I’ll run with it. If we sold barley last month at $290/t, and now it’s market value is $310/t, have we lost $20/t? And if we have, have...