Transcript - A Step Ahead - there's a future in farming
PART 1
Music – farmers, driving tractors, walking
A STEP AHEAD
The Future in Farming
Tom walking with dog.
Tom Long: Hi I'm Tom Long and I come from a long line of farmers on both sides of the family. It seems that well farming has never been easy – you are at the mercy of the weather like is it going to rain today, this week, this month and farmers have always had to be very adaptable, but it's this ability that's needed now more than ever, you know the world is changing and the climate is changing too – but some things never change and that is we will always rely on people who work the land to provide us with the food we need, and it's the food we often take for granted. So let's meet some of the farmers who are overcoming these hurdles and making the most of new opportunities….
John White (Cereal farmer): I came back on the farm when I was about 21, and been here ever since….
Vince Vigliaturo (Stone fruit farmer): I am involved in growing cherries, apricots, peaches and plums, make a bit of home made wine to keep up the old tradition…..
Jason Heap (Dairy farmer): I'm Jason Heap.
Lorelle Heap (Dairy farmer): I'm Lorelle Heap.
Jason Heap: We are dairy farmers.
Lex Fisher (Citris growers): We are just an ordinary family I guess, we have been here for a long time on this property, citrus has been our life…..
James Richardson (Farm Manager): I train horses for a guy in Northern New South Wales and just progressed into farming. One job led to another and I've ended up here…
Kerryne McLelland (Rural financial counsellor): I've been doing this sort of work now for about 15 years, and have seen a fair bit of change in agriculture over that time..
John White: I am fourth generation on this farm, I've lived here all my life. We have got a fair few farmers around here and we just share machinery if we can. The truck we just brought home yesterday - It's a mate of mine's truck. He has share-farmed all his country out and doesn't use it during cropping, so we grab a lend of it and work on the belief of what goes around comes around….
Vince Vigliaturo: My grandfather started 40 odd years ago, he came out in the early '50s from Italy. He used to grow a lot of wine grapes and made a little bit of wine, and as Dad took over he pulled the grapes out and went into the stone fruit industry. It's becoming very difficult in some senses, with the weather, the climate change, uncertainty in the markets, a little bit more competition from imports. A lot of people plan on getting into farming or horticulture to make a quick dollar, and I don't think it's really about making a quick dollar, it's more about being happy with what you do with your life and with your career…
Lorelle and Jason Heap – Dairy Farmers: Jason - We operate as a family farm, my Dad, my mother, my wife and myself…
Lorelle: We have four children, they are good kids, very independent children which I think you would find most farm kids are, because when we are busy, they know they have to put in and help out, which is great…
Jason: Lorelle and I do the main decisions, but we always pass ideas across to Mum and Dad –
Gary Heap, Jason's Dad: Unfortunately there not too many youths taking up and running with dairy…
Jason Heap: We hope the industry is financially sound to carry on, that is my main concern.
John White: In this country here, we are on pretty heavy creeky country, and 30 points of rain, on conventional stuff doesn't get down to the seed. We are not getting our Autumn break like we used to, and if we get an Autumn break, it is not a significant one and doesn't seem to be general rain, it's patchy. About five miles in front of us here, they had over two inches, they have had six inches since last November – whereas I've only had about two and a half inches. It was up this high - looking really good in August, and then the tap got turned off - and it wasn't even high enough to cut for hay or anything….
Tom Long: On the farm some days the decisions you make are pretty straightforward, and on other days, it's about your whole livelihood about the whole future of your farm…
NEXT ON A STEP AHEAD….
Gary Heap: The dams haven't got a lot of water in them….
Lex Fisher: We either have to increase our income or sell out….
Vince Vigliaturo: Hope doesn't really pay the bills at the end of the month, you have to have a little bit more than that…
PART 2
James Richardson – Farm Manager: I'm the manager of the business, 6,700 acres or 2700 hectares and we run sheep, cattle and crop. The structure works, we have the owner, then the manager, which is me and then we have the overseer, and then we have two people under him. I think one of the biggest challenges we are facing at the moment is climate change or lack of rainfall. Our input costs are rising dramatically, with fertilizer, fuel, so they are becoming very difficult aspects to manage, but we will have to manage them….
Jason Heap: Water is the main concern at present, that is the main driver of the problem….
Gary Heap: Water is a big issue now with dairying. The dams haven't got a lot of water in them…
Lorelle Heap: This year we have had to buy in all our feed, whereas last year we would have made our own, um because we had the water and we had the hay….
Gary Heap: I think it's 250 he's milking at present, he planned 300, but the season shows it's ugly head and we had to reduce the number because of the feed situation….
Jason Heap: I think that is probably one of the problems with the industry, if you haven't got your family backing, we probably wouldn't have been able to borrow the money….
John White: The first year I came home was '82 which was the big drought, when Melbourne got all the dust storms, so that was a rally good learning curve. The first year I came home, I had to borrow money, and so I've learned how to keep friendly with the banks ever since…
Kerryne McLelland: There is always that mysticism I guess that farmers didn't like to have to approach their bank manager and would feel uncomfortable with having to have a shower and get dressed up to go to see their bank manager. It's not a cap in hand situation, it's a partnership. The banks need farmers as much as the farmers need banks, and um a bank loan is just as much a resource on the farm as fertilizer and the fuel is…..
Rohan Fisher: Times are tough here – Ronan, he's gone off farm to work. The water issue has been on us and our crops have been going down and we don't want to lose what we've got…
Lex Fisher: If we are going to improve out situation, we either have to increase our income or cut our expenses or sell out.
Vince Vigliaturo: The fruit is not up to the market expectations any more. We need to replant a new tree or graft another variety on existing root stock. If you can get a good 10 or 12 years out of a variety it's viable. A lot of people make mistakes where we change varieties over and by the time they get to bearing stage the market has changed and we've wasted four years….
Gary Heap: About ten weeks ago, we had orange trees in this patch of ground. It was obvious that citrus wasn't going to give us the returns we wanted, particularly with the amount of water we had. And so we pulled all those out and we've planted these onions, and there are about 22 kms of onions here. This land will grow anything if you have got the water on it…
Vince: I think people just take chances sometimes, and hope for rain, hope for this and that, but hope doesn't really pay the bills at the end of the month. You have to have a little bit more than that…
Ellen White: When I first moved up here I didn't really know very much about farms…. After the first year of drought, I thought - well if this was a business in Melbourne then you wouldn't actually be here, you would just go 'well we are not making any money cut our losses' and off we'd go, but in this changing environment we live in, I think we have to be adaptable and so I've encouraged John to go back to school and learn some new skills…
John White: I've just finished a course of Certificate 4 in Workplace Training and Assessing and I've also got a job doing heavy machinery licensing - Excavators, front end loaders, forklifts and also truck driver training before they get their licence…
Ellen: I realised very early on we needed to adapt and we need to innovate, so that the primary producers can survive…
AFTER THE BREAK ON A STEP AHEAD
John White: Technology is changing…
Vince Vigliaturo: I felt it was a thing of the future…
Gary Heap: Either you embrace it if it fits your business pattern or don't….
PART 3
Tom Long: Change can be one of the most challenging things we face. For some people the changes they make, it's going to affect their whole lives. Those big decisions they can seem complex, and they are never easy, but they don't have to be so daunting. There are resources out there and sometimes all you need is fresh perspective….
Gary Heap – Jason's Dad: When Jason decided to leave school we said 'look the farm is there, if you are interested' and since Day One he has been following me around….
Carol Heap – Jason's Mum: He decided that 'okay Dad how about we think about looking at a new site and we go rotary'…
Gary Heap: I said to my wife 'now he's made that decision, so we have got to give him some control' – so we gave him a share of the enterprise, equal to ours. I am still here, but he is the manager….
We seeked a lot of professional advice…
Kerryne McLelland: There is any amount of support available to farmers, from just their immediate family, and their children all the way through to advisers…
Jason Heap: We use a professional nutritionist…
Lorelle Heap: A whole succession of people to help us to see we are heading in the right direction and making the right decisions. In the old dairy it was taking us three and a half hours in the morning and then three hours at night time, and it was just a nightmare, whereas now we are in and out of the shed in sometimes under an hour, and it's a lot cleaner, a lot easier, and Jason and I can do it on our own where Carol and Gary can now sit back and relax….
Kerryne McLelland: Those families that include their kids in the planning and in the understanding of where things are happening – they are such resourceful people, they think outside the square, they are a great resource to have…
Glenda Fisher: I think one of the greatest things we have as a family is that we all can communicate well and we communicate every day about what is happening on the farm, and we are always talking about what we can do better, how can we do it better,
Lex Fisher: how can we improve…
Glenda Fisher: yeah how can we improve…
James Richardson: It is very important that people can work as a team, and so there has to be good communication and you have to all get on.
We have approximately 250 hectares that is not grazed and is used for repairing damage that has been done in the past, but also to try and prevent any nutrient run-off into the creek and so we try and protect the environment and we encourage the bird life and the fish, because we have quite a vibrant creek system. You have got to keep abreast of what is going on, with new technologies and either you embrace them if they fit your business pattern or don't. There is a great challenge to be able to deal with all the environmental issues as well as all the cost pressures that are being brought to bear…
John White: If it is global change then we are really going to have to change our practises significantly – that is why we have gone direct drilling, we have got to catch every bit of moisture we can in the ruts we leave where the seed is. We have made furrows, and if we get 20 points in a thunderstorm, it will all run straight to the seed…
Ellen White: You have to take up new technologies so that you can maximise your outputs for all the inputs you have….
John White: We have got GPS and it's on 2 centimetre accuracy, so we can nudge it across next year five inches and we know we will be within 2 centimetres, and so far it's been working well. The technology is changing, I probably spend half an hour to an hour on the computer every morning – and there is a site my son sent me, on what time of the day satellites are not going to be over the top of us, and so we can fill up at that stage, and so that saves a lot of downtime….
Vince Vigliaturo: The computerised irrigation system frees up a lot of time. It's more efficient with the water. I felt it was the thing of the future…. So I invested in that.
We have got a computerised system that allocates the water to the appropriate blocks. We have a temperature sensor here. We had a very severe frost in late September - the pump was programmed to come in. The temperature dropped to .2 above zero and it initiated the pump, and saved the crop…. A lot of people don't have this sort of system, which basically pays itself off with one severe frost…
AFTER THE BREAK ON A STEP AHEAD
Vince Vigliaturo: Knowing where you want to go, where you want to go what makes you happy in life...
Kerryne McLelland: You can't afford not to plan…
Gary Heap: We now make money instead of losing it….
PART 4
Jason Heap: I will hope that our children do have an education first and then perhaps make the decision to come home and farm. Our youngest at this stage is showing a fair bit of interest, so whether he comes home, that's his decision, we don't want to force him…
John White: We actually said to our third son, you have to come home by 30 if he wanted to come home on the farm, so he has a few years up his sleeve yet before he has to decide….
Kerryne McLelland: The rate of change is so rapid on farming now, you can't afford not to plan. Going back to my Grandfather's Days the rate of change was a lot slower, and you could afford to go with the flow and do what his father had done and those sort of things – these days it's so much more important to focus on where you are going and make a plan on how to get there…
Ellen White: Don't be scared to take a risk, but always do your research first….
John White: The arrangements we have with supermarkets is that we know the buyers, and so we can say to them 'what are the weight ranges that you need the sheep in' and so it's up to us to hit the targets. We know the yield of our sheep so we can weigh and hit those targets pretty simply….
Kerryne McLelland: I meet daily with people where the fear factor is huge, there are so many things that could go wrong and are going wrong. So I work on the philosophy if there are risks to be taken then calculate them and take them and move forward…
John White: Four enterprises were too many and so we decided to cut one out. So we analysed the figures to see which was the worst producing enterprise, and that was merinos. So we sold all of the ewes and the money that was left over we then went and bought the cross-bred ewes we wanted to buy and that was the best decision we ever made, very good decision. We are now making money instead of losing it…
Jason Heap: Farming has changed. It's a real business now, a business like any other business.
Lorelle Heap: and you have to run it like a business
Jason Heap: and make the right decisions…
Gary Heap: I am a great believer in that if you don't have the skill set then go and employ someone to help you do it…
Kerryne McLelland: Get as much information accumulated as possible, information is power…
Vince Vigliaturo: Knowing where you want to go and what you want to do and what makes you happy in life too. I think if you can answer those questions you have a better chance of knowing what you are going to do next week, next month, next year…
Lex Fisher: Success is not really something you just arrive at, it's something that is progressing all the time, it's a whole lot of little steps along the way….
COUNTRY SHOTS
Tom Long: Life on the land is not as simple as it used to be, but it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom either. Like we have seen with John and Ellen and the Fishers, the Heap Family and Vince, just knowing that you are not on our own and by talking about things with someone else can make a big difference and by making small changes and taking small steps there can be a brighter future out there…
END TRANSCRIPTION
