It has been a long summer, resulting in dry dams and yellow paddocks that are visible to everyone. And in an unusual development, agriculture has featured recently in world headlines thanks to discussions of world trade and tariffs. Results of a national survey (as summarised in last week’s Tarrangower Times of Friday 28 March) suggest that Australian farmers remain optimistic, but the TT [Tarrangower Times] wanted to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, by chatting to some local farmers about their work and challenges.
Baringhup farmer Rob Jennings (not pictured) said he and many farmers grow a mix of products. “We run livestock, sheep and cropping grain and we’re growing quite a bit of hay; you need a fair bit of machinery to produce hay,” he said, explaining that while the season has not been catastrophic, it has been challenging.
“In Victoria, most grain farmers, livestock farmers, hay farmers have had their worst year in four years. We’re normally hoping for a ‘break’ in the second half of April, a change in season with enough rain to soak in and things to germinate. When farmers say they are optimistic it’s because they’re hoping that this year will be better than last year.”
While drought and fire risk are obvious and significant challenges, Rob described the greatest challenge as seasonal. “If there is a good spring and good grass and your livestock are marketable, things will go well,” he said. “You’re selling a product and you’ve got to have a product that’s up to scratch. If they are on the lean side they are hard to sell and margins are quite thin.” He talked about farming as a business. “Grain is relatively easy to upscale, you buy a bigger tractor and one person can go out and grow a bigger crop, while with livestock you need more people. It’s a matter of keeping the cost of production under control and you’ve got to be able to market your product. It’s all difficult in a dry year but people are getting much better at cropping.”
Farmers are known to be hardworking and they are also innovative. Rob said: “Look, if you’re not open to new ideas you’re left behind. You can’t go back to the way it was done a generation ago; it’s too expensive, we had a lot of erosion, we had a lot of dust. The soil was depleting itself and the soil structure was breaking down. I think we’re doing a better job now, we can grow a crop now on the rainfall that we couldn’t 30 years ago.” New approaches are making a difference. “We have better equipment, better science from the point of view that we’re testing things now, better chemicals to get rid of weeds in summer and we’re more aware of what we’re doing at harvest time in Autumn. It’s about looking ahead instead of just at the job you’re doing at the time.”
There is sharing and community spirit behind the improvements, too. “Someone goes to Birchip Cropping Group (an innovation and research organisation), people go there and talk, then that information comes back, we all look at what’s working in the other farmers’ paddocks. We’re not competing with each other, everyone’s prepared to share their knowledge — most people are prepared to share their knowledge— and we’re all better for it,” Rob said.
Regarding news about international tariffs, Rob said it’s a matter of wait-and-see. “The trade blocks may change how commodities are marketed but the world will need food and that’s what we produce,” he said. “We’re all small businesses. You rely on averages and you hope your customers keep coming and you can produce a product that will be saleable at a price that you can turn a profit from. The world’s getting more uncertain at the moment but you’ve just got to go on the averages and stay optimistic.”
As the federal election approaches, Rob suggests farmers will have agricultural issues in mind but are still reliant on the weather more than on the government. “Federally it’s keeping access to world markets, keeping biosecurity measures up and stopping pests and diseases come into the country. Keeping terms of trade so that we can trade with other countries in a relatively free manner. The most important thing is the rainfall!”
The ability of folks in the farming industry to keep going during tough times is notable and commendable, because we need them. Rob reflected on the year ahead: “I’m still optimistic about farming. We produce a reasonable product at a reasonable price. The world will need food.”
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 11 April 2025.
