I know that grain isn’t the only commodity that ABB handles but a 33.6 million half year profit is obscene. Especially when your main core business is handling and marketing grain.

Rural ABC News

It gets me grumpy when the middle men make ridiculous amounts at the farmers expense - Sure those farmers lucky enough to have shares will get a small dividend but if you ask them they’d prefer a better price per tonnage than a dividend - even more so now input costs are continuing to go up and up.

This is yet another example of fat gits in business suits making money off the farmers hard effort.

I can hear the devils advocate saying ” how would you transport and sell your grain without them”.

My answer is - farmers did it before ABB and I’m sure they’d be able to organise themselves to do it again!

Lots in the media currently about the price of food and family budget of working Australians. This is due to the release of the 1st Australian budget by the Rudd government.

I guess that our journalists needed to write about something because the budget release was pretty uneventful, all the info had been leaked to the media and we’d all heard it before Wayne Swann tabled it in parliment.

During my internet surfing/reading I came across this NY Times article

One country’s table scraps another country’s meal

Something we all know we do in our modern society- waste food that is - but it’s truely staggering when you see figures like 27% of all consumable food is wasted in the US.

The most interesting thing in the article for me was the graph on the second page highlighting what share the cost of food takes of personal disposable income. Even though it refers to US figures I wouldnt doubt that Australia has a similar looking graph.

Also interesting is that medical costs are taking the a largest share these days, I’m not surprised but I doubt we’re any healthier than we were in the 50’s.

Too bad there wasnt an electronic gadgets line on the graph I would like to know how much of the personal disposable income is taken up on plasmas.

AWB has just announced that all farmers involved in their Pool will need to take a cut per ton due to competing prices with the Canadian and US Wheat market.

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200804/s2217276.html

Does anyone else out there think this is utter bullshit?

The media is currently full of stories about the shortage of food worldwide and how this shortage is driving prices up.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/feb/29/0229_wheat/

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/02/20/wheat-prices.html

And that’s just a small selection - but of course AWB are using the US/Canadian forecasts to shaft the Aussie Farmer once again.

Do we all remember the Aussie forecasts last year?? Last year’s crop was going to be the biggest ever - THE BIGGEST - then it all went pear-shaped cause it stopped raining in August.

How come we don’t see the useless executives at AWB taking a pay cut? Say only 150K a year instead of 200K - No, can’t do that, it’s much easier to just make the farmer pay once again by feeding them some bullshit line that no one will buy our crop.

We haven’t sold anything to AWB in 3 years and yet we still get the large quantities of expensive glossy marketing paraphernalia they send in the mail telling us how good they are. I always wonder how much it costs them to send that crap to each and every farmer when a simple A4 piece of paper could give the same information. I suppose you’ve got to have something keep all those useless monkeys called “the marketing team” busy.

Even though our farm has had two years of drought and we haven’t any wheat to sell, Thank God we went organic and don’t have to deal with that scum anymore.

Hey - I’ve just figured out what AWB really means

Always Whinging Bullshit

The damn water pump broke friday arvo.

Of course it’s the weekend so there’s nothing I can do about it till Monday morning at the earliest and there’s no guarantee that it’ll be fixed then. Plus to add insult to injury, we’ve had some rain so I’ve listened to the water gurgle into those big tanks of ours knowing I currently can’t get any out. Knowing there’s water in the tanks makes me want a nice long hot shower.

Our house runs completely on rain water. We do have mains water connected but it’s only hooked up to the toliet (at least I can still flush that) but the thought of filling up the kettle from the dunny doesn’t appeal so it’s outside to the garden tap.

I have a new found respect for all those people in the world who have to lug water kilometeres for their cooking and washing. I’m just lugging it a few meters, only for a few days and I’m already over it.

I want my taps back.

I understand why people are using the torch relay to voice their opinions over the events happening in Tibet. The relay is a current high profile event that is accessible to the general population and therefore people will use it to protest and show their anger with China, even-though this oppression has been happening for years (I remember the Free Tibet rallies during my uni years).

But all this talk of Olympic boycotts are starting to get on my nerves.

Having watched a family member toil and train for years to get to the level required to attend the Olympics, (which she did), the idea that all their  effort should be ignored and forgotten so that a bunch of other people/politicians can feel self righteous about their political views seems to miss the mark. China is just the location this year that all the athletes will meet at to compete and that decision was made a long time ago.

Maybe the French and the Germans have a point with their dignitaries stating that they wont be attending the opening ceremony (Can I have their ticket instead?) but if the world really wants to make a statement about the injustices happening in Tibet they should just stop buying China’s goods.

That’s right - Trade embargoes hit the point much more clearly than what a few no-attendees would.

Although I can’t see the world giving up it’s cheap t-shirts, TVs and DVD players.

Can you?

Quick couple of facts for the city slickers who read this.

4 points equals 1mm

100 points equals 1 inch

1 inch of rain equals a major celebration here.

We got 11mm last night (45 points) - that’s the second time it’s really rained all year. First time was in January now in April.

All the reports say that we live in an area that should expect 9-12 inches a year - looking at my neighbours personal rain log, the average over the past 20 years has been 7 inches.

Ain’t it grand living in marginal farm country.

Its a crazy digital world!

Levi testing spychips in their jeans

I thought I heard clucking.

I did. I did hear clucking and it was close.

I peered out the window.

I couldn’t see them but I knew that they were near by.

I went outside and sure enough, there they were, hiding under the caravan near the beans.

Then, as quick as a flash, out popped a hen.

It was Red the oldest surviving chook on the farm. She scuttled out from the dark safety beneath the caravan. Over to the fence,  towards the leafy haven of the bean patch.

I had a win this year with that bean patch. The vines were lush and leafy, covered in little flowers and plenty of pods. The oldest pods were almost ready for the picking. We had planned a big bean and lamb roast in honour of the harvest.

I wondered what Red was going to do. I didn’t like her being so close to my prized beans. I didn’t mind her scratching away at the base, but she could accidentally snap one of the vines.

When she reached the beans she stopped.

Red has a quick look round, eyeballing all the beans and then, UP she jumps and a big fat juicy bean is plucked off the vine.

With her prize secured in the beak she dashes back, under the caravan to eat the bean.

Cheeky chook

But as soon as she returns it’s all on!

Suddenly all the other hens come charging out from under the caravan, hoping to score their own prize bean.

I was gob smacked by the bean eating frenzy happening in front of my eyes.

I grabbed a large stick and promptly made my way towards the patch to defend what was left of my Sunday lunch.

Suddenly the rooster calls out.

Damn - he’s seen me.

All the hens stop.

They cock their heads in unison and I find 12 pair of yellow eyes all focused on me.

So I did what anyone else would do.

I said “BOO”

In a cloud of clucks and feathers they all scuttled back to the coop to hide. Leaving me standing next to the remnants of my bean vines.

Cheeky chickens

About to tackle day 9 of our current heatwave although it should only reach 39, unlike the past three days where it has been 42.

Needless to say - not much getting done around here.

I have been following this GM debate - Thankfully South Australia will continue with its
moratorium (for now), but unfortunately the moratorium has been lifted in VIC.

As a Organic farmer you hope that the measures taken by the writers of law/policy of this country to ensure no cross contamination occurs will be more than sufficient, and that no farmer will incur any problems from the introduction of these crops.

But when you finally hear some of the measures that are in place - all hope disappears.

.9 percent allowable contamination - Who’ll pay for those tests? Not Monsanto I bet.

400m barrier between properties -I bet that they’ve never felt a hot north wind whip, anything from dust and pollen to pieces of corregated iron, past their eyebrows.

and of course Monsanto want to accept no liability for contamination but payment if your crop
contains a “significant percentage” of their patented property (note the quotations - no figure given) - even if it’s from cross contamination

Thankyou Michael Mackenzie from the Bush Telegraph for asking Monsanto reps “why hasn’t Monsanto figured out an action plan for cross contamination especially after previous experiences of releasing GM crops in other countries”

ABC National - Bush Telegraph

4March - Speading the Gospel of GM

Have a listen.

Hopefully Monsanto will also have a listen to their interview and Michael’s questions and then take the time to create a cross contamination plan which can be open and exposed to the nation so that no farmer will be caught out and have their business destroyed like the Canadian famers.

Here’s another thought..

GM crops, biotech companies, global warming….hmmmm