Farm Gate News July/August 2015

FARMGATE NEWS

Written & Published By

JUL-AUG 2014

A BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER TO INFORM AND ENTERTAIN YOU

HOW ONE FARM FAMILY Improved Sheep Production & Profitability P7

DISCOVER

The Top 2 Secrets

for Successful Farming, no matter what kind you’re in P4 - 5

FARM VISITS P3 PROTECT Your Ownership of

Personal Property, Crops & Stock FARM GATE NEWS The Farmer’s Newsletter

PHONE 1800 088 528

GRANT SHEDS PO Box 29, Monash, SA 5342

P7 EMAIL info@grantsheds.com.au

FAX 08 8583 5402 WEB www.grantsheds.com.au

What Makes Country Life So Good? ...

COMMUNITY Lush Irish Countryside

Our Holiday In Ireland In June, Ali & Danny travelled to Ireland to attend Ali’s cousin’s daughter’s wedding. Ali’s dear Mum was Irish and emigrated to Australia back in the 1950’s around the same time as 4 of her siblings.

Just one brother remained in Northern Ireland, so these Irish relatives that we visited were his family.

If we’d had more time, we may well have chosen to travel through the UK and/or Europe, but as we were a bit restricted, we just spent a couple of days in Dubai on the way there and again on the way back and decided to spend the rest of our time in Ireland. And we were so glad that we did.

Everyone we spoke to who’d been there before us said it was beautiful and it certainly was.

Our Northern Irish relatives suggested that we jump on the Motorway from Belfast to Dublin because it was just a 1 1/2 hour drive rather than a 4 hour drive on the old country roads … but did we listen? No way - we’re country folk and it’s country scenery that we love to see. So we took the old roads and took all day to get to Dublin.

Highlights of our Holiday

The Countryside: Absolutely beautiful.

Farming Areas: So amazing to see the small size of their paddocks and the stone, stick or hedge fencing between them. No massive farm machinery here!

And of course the countryside is just beautiful.

Green, hilly and luckily for us we had virtually no rain while there which is most unlike Ireland, though it was mid summer (18-20º was a hot day for the Irish) and there was rain, but not where we were.

Irish History: The vast number of stone castles and ruins of monasteries etc and the stories that go along with those.

Newgrange: We visited a place called Newgrange which is an ancient passage tomb or temple, constructed over 5000 years ago (see photo at right). It is older than Stonehenge in England and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt … yet our Irish cousins had never heard of it! It was built during the New Stone Age by a farming community.

It appears as a large grass-covered mound, but is actually a ‘corbelled’ roof made of large rocks, placed so each overlaps the previous in a way that is self supporting without need for columns or walls to hold it up. Amazingly (given Ireland’s frequent rain) it is also water proof. Grass grows in soil over the top of it.

Like some of the pyramids, light at sunrise on the few days of the winter solstice beams through a light box into the burial chamber.

The construction of this mound (and numerous others) displays a sophisticated knowledge of architecture and astronomy by the builders.

At some time the tombs became dis-used, overgrown and lost. They were only discovered again by accident about 300 years ago and restored in the 1960’s. It was amazing to be able to take a tour that took us inside the tomb passage.

This place and all the old castles and ruins makes us realise what a short history Australia has, at least in terms of white man’s occupancy and recorded history.

Lost And In Danger In Limerick: We drove into Limerick looking for a hotel to stay overnight and accidentally ended up driving through a very rough and scary part of the city.

The roads became very narrow, and we had to drive very slowly to wind in and around the parked cars. Lots of rough looking teenagers and adults standing on the footpaths or seated on their brick fences seemed to be glaring at us. We turned into the next street where half the houses were boarded up and there was rubbish and mess everywhere. Around another corner and the houses on one side were rough, while the other side of the road had a wide open, unfenced field covered in low weedy growth. There were quite a few small, untethered horses which was a weird sight in the middle of the city.

Thankfully we found our way out and when we had dinner at our hotel, we asked the waiter what that area was. As he asked us questions to work out where we meant, his eyes became wider and wider.

“For ta love a’ god,” he uttered in surprise. “Ya were in the River Fields area. Ya were lucky ta git outta dere aloive!” (I hope you can read my Irish accent).

Turns out that is the roughest areas of the city.

Newgrange-A 5000 year old tomb in Ireland. Older than the Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid yet barely known around the world. For more info www.newgrange.com

P2 FARM GATE NEWS: The Farmer’s Newsletter

The people who live there are mostly of gypsy decent and still have feuds between families that have gone on for generations.

They are pretty much a rule unto themselves.

The local police (who are not armed) leave them alone to sort out their own troubles and will only venture in along with the armed, tactical response squad if things get really bad!!

The area is known as “stab-city”!

Although we’d felt very uncomfortable when driving through there, we do wonder … if anyone had walked out onto the roadway toward us, we’d have assumed they were going to ask us if we were lost and if they could help. We’d have stopped, wound down the window and …. Well, who knows what may have happened. Perhaps they’d have liked our friendly Aussie accents and been fine … but… we’ll never know!

Take Time Away Yourself Overall we had a wonderful time in Ireland, but if it hadn’t been for committing to visit for the wedding we may well have delayed our holiday, as business owners and farmers often do, because we always seem to be too busy to make the commitment to ourselves.

If that sounds like you, we highly recommend giving yourself the gift of taking some time off to get away - even if only for a short time and not necessarily too far away. But take a holiday to relax and revive yourself. See a bit of the world or a bit of ‘Our World’ … Australia!

You’ll come back far more refreshed and ready to take on the world again … or at least to tackle your farm enterprise once more.

In the meantime, take yourself a break with a warm cuppa and enjoy reading our July-August edition of FARM GATE NEWS. Until next time,

Ali & Danny Halupka Owners, Grant Sheds

PS: More photos from Ireland on back page.

You Little Ripper... Grant Sheds

Local Aussie Legends Recent Farm Visits & Interviews DION & ANNE ANDARY - Two Wells, SA Dion & Anne used to own and run our local Monash Store many years ago, and now live at Two Wells where they have established themselves as major SA egg producers. We’ll have their amazing story of small beginnings, hard work and many set-backs before their current success, in a future edition of FARM GATE NEWS. I can tell you, it’s one hell of an interesting story of resilience, just like our feature article about Phil & Sandy Kernich in this edition.

Dion & Anne bought a 12m x 18m x 3.6m Machinery Shed last year (below) and a 6m x 15m x 3m Colorbond Garage this year.

LYELL SCHULZ - South Kilkerran, Yorke Peninsula SA Lyell’s is another inspirational story that we’ll bring you in a future edition. Along with his family he has a grain farm, seed cleaning business and … believe it or not … a vineyard and winery all at South Kilkerran, near Maitland on the Yorke Peninsula.

Lyell is a delightful man it’s a great story of enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit. Lyell is a well respected member of his local community. He’s had 5 sheds from Grant Sheds over the past 12 years. The photo here is inside his Grant Sheds winery shed.

The Power of Personal Attention Grant Sheds is a delightfully different shed business. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the genuine care and concern you receive when you contact Grant Sheds and when you buy an “Aussie Tough” Grant Sheds farm shed.

You’ll be made to feel like a valued member of the “Grant Sheds Family.”

You won’t be just a faceless ‘sale’. We understand that you want to know that someone really cares about YOU. Apart from our Grant Sheds business, we are consumers too, and we can tell you, we are sick and tired of the complete lack of care or concern we receive almost every time we purchase a product or service.

So many sales people don’t even listen to you!

Impressed with Brenton’s Extensive Knowledge “I was extremely impressed with Brenton Halupka and his extensive knowledge. I had some ideas of what I wanted, but Brenton was able to help me bring it all together.

Nothing was too difficult for him and I was very impressed when he came up with suggestions that I hadn’t even thought about.

I was very happy with the total cost and am looking forward to the completed construction. I have been very impressed all the way along.”

Chris Boyce, Loveday SA

We are determined to make a change to that ... starting with us!

And here are just a few customer comments that show proof of that. These ones relate to the help given to people by sales manager, Brenton.

Chris’s shed was built at Loveday, while he was working at Yalata in the state’s far west.

Brenton (right) chatting with Andrew Whitehorn of Koolunga in the mid North of SA

IT’S THE SMALL THINGS that show a business is interested in their customers “Recently we started the process of purchasing a Grant Shed and dealing with Brenton.

We’d like to thank all those we’ve had dealings with in this process. The parcel of treats and hat that we received once we decided to order a shed and all the quirky little things along the way (the teabags and minties etc). A lot of the time it’s the small things that are the things that show a business is interested in what they do and their customers.

Thanks so much again and please pass this on to Brenton also.

Jill & Murray Dunn, Finniss, SA

If you would like the same pleasure and peace of mind, let us help you plan your new farm shed. Phone us on 1800 088 528

FARM GATE NEWS: The Farmer’s Newsletter P3

Farming Requires Two Great Personal

RESILIENCE & A POSITIVE space to store any grain under cover. Instead they had to dump it on the ground, with straw bales for bunker sides and the top just left open. 1200 tonnes was stored like that until they had time to clean it after seeding. Despite it being rained on, they only lost around 25 tonnes.

That year they had 23” of rain in an area that normally gets less than 10”.

e at Yamba.

The Kernich’s Minimal Till Farm Enterpris ,000 to put their crop in. $300 over well ing They crop around 8000 acres annually, cost is showing promise of a bumper crop!

They’ve had many difficult years but 2014 back in April.

Above: Phil Kernich seeding their 2014 crop Phil, Sandy and 13 year old Chelsea Kernich run a 15,000 acre mixed farming business “Burrundi Acres”, near Yamba, just outside of Renmark on the border of South Australia and Victoria. They grow wheat, barley and oats as well as breeding sheep.

How I Stole My Wife!

In an interesting opening to this story, Danny asked Phil & Sandy how they met. With a sly grin, Phil answered, “I stole her from my brother!” Well that opens up a whole new conversation doesn’t it…? “Sandy thought I was the better looking one or something,” Phil adds with a cheeky grin.

That was when Sandy was just 16. Sandy & Phil married in 1993 and have now been married for 21 years.

Forced Succession Plan Phil and his father Maurice, were in partnership with the Yamba farm before Phil & Sandy married.

Sandy started doing the books and, when Maurice’s second marriage hit the rocks in 2002, Phil and Sandy took over the Kernich family farm.

“It was sort of forced upon us,” says Phil, and Sandy adds, “It wasn’t the best succession planning, but we didn’t want to lose the property and something had to be done.”

Tough Drought Years That was 20 years after Phil had been on the land with his father already. Phil left school in 1982 to work on the family farm (at Monash at that time) and that was one of the biggest droughts.

By coincidence, 2002 was another big drought period. “We only averaged one third of a bag per acre that year – basically just enough to get seed back for the next year. We didn’t sell anything.”

“I remember at that time driving the header with a 25’ front and only a 5 tonne box, not real big, and I could only fill it after 5-6 hours of driving time.

Normally it would take only 20 minutes to fill a box. It was ridiculous.”

In 2003 the grain harvest rate was around the average 4-5 bags per acres but the price was really low, so they didn’t make much money that year either. 2004 was another flop year, averaging only 2 bags per acre.

But in 2005 they got way above average at 8 bags per acres, but still poor pricing. That year they buried about 250 tonnes of barley underground.

With grain prices low and no other grain storage options on farm, they hoped they could store the barley like this until prices improved.

Being so far behind already, that one relatively good year didn’t do anything to help their financial situation. 2006 and 2007 were more flop years, of a couple of bags per acre, but at least the prices were starting to lift.

2008 was not a good year. “2009 was OK with around 3-4 bags per acre but prices were getting so high that it was like getting a 5-6 bag crop anyway. We were getting nearly $400 a tonne for feed barley which is nearly double what it is now,” explains Phil. But they also had a calamity which is covered further on in this story.

2010 was a great crop with 12 bags per acre … but… “that was the year when the Australian dollar went silly and there was so much rain around. “We were still harvesting at the end of February,” laughs Phil. That’s 6 weeks later than normal and they were getting ready for seeding as they were still finishing harvest. It was so wet Phil bogged the header 8 times in the mud and had problems with Potato Weed, which had set seed, being harvested with his grain. But their silos were already full and were surrounded by water, and their Machinery Sheds were also flooded. The big machinery stored in the sheds was fine because it’s off the ground, but they couldn’t use the shed

P4 FARM GATE NEWS: The Farmer’s Newsletter

In 2011 they didn’t get much winter rain, but the sub-soil moisture from the previous summer rains ensured they got a pretty good crop, and 2012 was ‘not bad’ either. In 2011 and 2012 they were able to seed early, before May, which gives a longer growing period, albeit with a bit more worry about frosts at the end, and the potential of getting higher yielding crops.

2013 was a ‘pretty good’ year again, so for the last few years Phil & Sandy have been ‘quite happy’ with their results. That may be an understatement, but like most farmers they weren’t saying any more. Understandable really when at other times they can have years of unreliable crops and tough times.

Lost $250,000 Barley Money – Resilience!

In 2009 they sold a significant amount of barley out of the pit they’d stored it in since 2005, to an interstate grain buyer … then never got paid! “$250,000 we’d lost and we already had plans drafted with a builder to get our new house underway, so we had to postpone building until 2011!”

There were 9 farmers in this area that all got stung by this big grain buyer. From that experience, Phil says he learnt never to sell as much as they did through one buyer. “That was my biggest parcel,” he says.

Refer page 7 of This Edition of “Farm Gate News” For A Solution Now Available To Avoid This Problem Most farmers would agree, as Phil states, “Unfortunately the person on the land has always got to give their commodity to the buyer before they get paid… We can’t say ‘send me the money first’.

s were 2010 was so wet, the Kernich’s farm shed in this surrounded by water. They got 23” of rain 8-10”. dry mallee area that usually averages only

lity Traits...

E ATTITUDE And Sandy continues, “People say to us, ‘How did we cope with losing that much money?’” because that had been buried for the drought years. You’ve just got to have that positive outlook. You can’t let things get to you. That’s a learning experience.”

Phil says, “We lose money every single year on our farming business. We lost a lot of money last year because it didn’t rain at a certain time of the year. But you can’t do anything about it. No point worrying about it. Every year you’re spending a heck of a lot for your fertiliser, fuel and everything to put a crop in the ground. But you don’t know whether you’re going to get a crop. It’s the same thing.” Sandy says,

“As farmers, we’ve just got to have that resilience and a positive outlook.” $300,000 To Put Crop In The Kernich’s crop about 8000 acres annually and it costs them well over $300,000 to put their crop in each year.

‘Burrundi Acres’ is run as a minimal till farming enterprise where they work the ground up 2-3 times before seeding, and there is no long-term fallowing.

They are always planning ahead for the next year.

Once this year’s seeding is done, they are already starting to clear the fallow ground for the following year’s crop. “I like that system because we’re reducing our chemical usage and I think that’s a good thing, whereas continuous croppers rely heavily on chemicals for weed control,” says Sandy.

To explain their system further, Phil adds, “We spray a pasture paddock off in September so it doesn’t set seed and that’s the paddock we’re going to crop the next year. Because we also run sheep we don’t have to spray too often – we graze the sheep on what’s coming up and we usually end up spraying twice before we have to seed it. Hopefully we get a rain around February and then we work it up and then prickle chain it to get it level. We seed it conventionally, with a 44 foot bar, when we get a break in the season around April-May, and then run another chain over it to flatten it out. Then we don’t go in that paddock until the crop is at tillering stage, which is 6-8 weeks later, to get rid of some of the broad leaf weeds and that’s all we do until harvest time unless we get a rust issue.”

When they seed, they go 24 hours a day. Phil does the night shift and his brother comes out and helps do the day shift. The tractor doesn’t stop and it takes 3-4 weeks of around the clock work to finish.

Family Farm Life Chelsea, Phil & Sandy Kernich Chelsea attends school at Renmark which is 27kms from the farm and her bus stop is 15kms from the farm. .

Like most farm kids, Chelsea has been driving farm vehicles for years. She was 4 when she started driving cars, 6 when she got her first motorbike and 7 or 8 when she really started to drive all by herself... and they were all manual vehicles.

Her ambition, for now at least, is to be a farmer or a vet.. or both.

Divided On The Subject Of Genetically Modified Grain

Changing Sheep Production System Improves Profitability

Phil & Sandy are a little divided when it comes to the subject of genetically modified grain. Phil is still unsure, but Sandy is quite convinced that it is not a path she likes. Sandy believes, “The worst trouble is that chemical companies own the seed, and chemical companies are in it for profit. We can’t retain our seed and have to keep buying seed from them. They’ve got their fingers in your pockets and when we lose control of our seed bank, we lose control of our production, and I don’t really think that’s a good thing at all.”

Phil & Sandy also run sheep. They moved from the Merino’s to SAMM (South African Meat Merino’s) sheep back in the early 2000’s when wool wasn’t worth a lot of money and they were looking more closely at the meat market. The SAMM wool is still classed as Merino but they are also a bulkier, meatier sheep. “We ran pure SAMM rams over our Merino ewes and just kept building up the genetics. We have a self-replacing flock so we keep our own ewes from year to year and build up our genetics from that,” Sandy explains. So then they had pure SAMM ewes but the wool was getting shorter and shorter while wool pricing was now getting better.

“Farmers are looking at it because there is Roundup ready wheats already available. You can spray Roundup over it and it won’t kill the crop but it will kill whatever else is in there, and they say it’s not genetically modified, but how can it not be?”

Sandy questions passionately, “They can’t get away with genetically modified wheats in Australia.

That’s why they class it as non-GM.”

Continued on page 7 ...

Farm Sheds Are An Important Aspect of Farm Asset Protection Expensive farm machinery must be kept under cover to protect it from our harsh Aussie environments.

The Kernich’s Main Machinery Sheds are chock-full of valuable farm machinery and equipment that they recognise is important to be kept under cover.

Keeping their farm machinery in good nick and well looked after is also important to Phil & Sandy. “It’s gotta be in the shed,” states Phil. “If the tractor’s finished the job, it goes in the shed.” Phil and Sandy have quite a few Grant Sheds farm sheds now but say it’s still not enough as they still have some items that won’t fit in despite neatly cramming in as much as possible into the existing sheds.

“Things like the big prickle chains are still out in the weather, but anything with a cab on it, or anything that’s really important, like the header, must be in the shed,” according to Phil.

All, bar one old shed, on the ‘Burrundi Acres’ property are “Grant Sheds” farm sheds.

Shed

Size

Shearing Shed* Old Machinery Shed* 30’ x 40’ x 10’ Main Machinery Shed 12m x 27m x 5.1m Chemical Shed 3m x 6m x 3m Main Machinery Shed #2 15m x 27m x 5.1m Colorbond Garage 9m x 10m x 3m

Year c1960’s c1960’s 2001 2004 2008 2011

*Built prior Kernich’s ownership of the farm.

FARM GATE NEWS: The Farmer’s Newsletter

P5

We Welcome New Members To Our

GRANT SHEDS FAMILY

1952-2012

We are delighted to welcome the following people into our “Grant Sheds Family”. As you can see our members (shed buyers) come from a broad geographic area and buy a wide range of shed types. And there are lots who have bought multiple “Aussie Tough” Grant Sheds over the years. I’ve marked those with a red asterisk *. It’s quite amazing to see how many repeat-buyers we have and we thank you sincerely for your ongoing support and appreciation of the efforts we put in to give you great communications, service and strong sheds. That is our forte and we promise to continue to do just that.

Greg Klopp Maitland Machinery Shed 21m x 48m x 6.8m Shaun Taylor Bordertown Garage 9m x 24m x 4.2m Jeff Kew * Barmera Garage 6m x 3.5m x 2.9m Nathan Jericho Barmera Garage 7.5m x 9m x 3m Paul Burrows Maitland Machinery Shed 18m x 36m x 6m Anthony Combe Crystal Brook Machinery Shed 21m x 48m x 6.4m Greg & Linda Wilkins Yaninee Machinery Shed 18m x 36m x 6.3m Jed Keller Tintinara Hay Shed 12m x 27m x 5.1m Kevin Steinert Paringa Industrial Shed 24m x 32m x 5m Maria Morgillo* Barmera Machinery Shed 9m x 6m x 4.2m ext John Kennedy Renmark Garage 6m x 9m x 3m Lee Buller* Winkie Garage 6m x 9m x 2.7m Dean Wurst Loxton Garage 7.5m x 9m x 2.7m Steve Jolly * Minlaton Machinery Shed 15m x 24m x 5.7m Trevor Neal Monash Carport 6m x 7m x 2.4m Ken McDonald Boinka Garage 7.3m x 7.3m x 2.7m James & Lisa McLeod Renmark Garage 6m x 12m x 2.7m Howard Andretzke * Angaston Machinery Shed 12m x 18m x 4.2m Robert Hoepner Balaklava Garage 7.5m x 15m x 3m Kara Lang Naracoorte Garage 7.5m x 9m x 2.7m Chris Stoeckel Monash Garage 7.5m x 12m x 3.6m Peter Schulz Saddleworth Machinery Shed 9m x 15m x 4.2m Craig Wheare Lock Machinery Shed 15m x 15m x 6.3m Peter Hibbert * Daveyston Materials Chris Mosey Saddleworth Machinery Shed 12m x 24m x 3.6m Ian Webber Monash Garage 5m x 6m x 2.7m David Biele * Loxton 4 x Sliding Doors For existing Grant shed David Miller Morgan Garage 6m x 12m x 3m Rob Pocock Lameroo Garage 9m x 7.2m x 3.2m Greg Schaedel Jabuk Machinery Shed 12m x 18m x 5.1m Tom Barlow * Yorketown Bulk Grain Shed 12m x 24m x 5.1m Lyndal Allen Lyrup Garage 6m x 6m x 2.7m ire Protection Services Barmera Garage 4m x 5m x 2.7m Bill & Margaret Rowett Kapunda Machinery Shed 9m x 21.6m x 4.2m Ken & Jean Cole Winkie Verandah 7.5m x 9m x 2.7m Steve & Jo Gilgen Barmera Extension 9m x 4m x 3.6 David Eckert Meningie Hay Shed 24m x 48.6m x 6.9m David Schenke Barmera Garage 5m x 10.5m x 2.7m Wayne Stoeckel Loxton Hay Shed 12m x 18m x 5.1m Callum Sommerville Lucindale Garage 7.5m x 12m x 3m Adam Oster Pinnaroo Machinery Shed 15m x 12m x 5.1m Ext John Richardson Eden Valley Machinery Shed 12m x 18m x 4.8m Steve Liebich Cadell Machinery Shed 9m x 20.4m x 4.2m Leon Bartlett Cleve Machinery Shed 12m x 24m x 5.1m Barry Trewren Berri Garage 5.4m x 16m x 2.7m Matthew Hampel Loxton Garage 9m x 15m x 3m Trent Smith Balaklava Machinery Shed 15m x 36m x 6.3m Greg Hutchins Ceduna Carport 4.5m x 12m x 2.7m Jim Richards Crystal Brook Machinery Shed 15m x 27m x 6.3m Brad Thomas Ceduna Machinery Shed 15m x 30m x 6.3m Annette & Andrew Cass have 3 Grant Sheds Bulk Grain Sheds on their Loxton property that hold 6000 tonnes of grain. And with their smart farm Dion & Anne Andary * Two Wells Garage 6m x 15m x 3m Dean Carter Robe Machinery Shed 9m x 27m x 3.6m business practiceRenmark of “cycling” grain through their sheds it can &equate to 12,000Winkie -15,000 tonnesMachinery or moreShed of on-farm Mark McMahon Garage 6m x 6mduring x 2.7m harvest, Ramon Kerry Mason* 12m storage. x 18m x 3.6m Rob & Tracie Broad* Angaston Garage 7.5m x 10.8m x 2.7m * Asterisk shows people who have bought more than one Grant shed.

Trevor Giles Langhorne Creek Machinery Shed 12m x 21m x 5.1m Levi Hansen * Georgetown Machinery Shed 15m x 27m x 5.1m

Grant Sheds can be supplied as kits for you to build yourself or for your local builder to build for you. Our sheds have been designed to be easy to build.

Alternatively, our professional Grant Sheds builders travel throughout the state building our ‘Aussie Tough’ Grant sheds for farmers.

The builders have most of the building equipment they need including hyrdraplats, scissor lifts, hole digging equipment etc and look after themselves for meals and accommodation.

P6 P6 FARM GATE NEWS: The Farmer’s Newsletter

“We’re very pleased with the design of this shed ..

One of the best I’ve seen. I cou ldn’t wish for anything be tter.

I like the sturdiness, the actual strength and the way it’s finished off.

To me the impressive thi ng is it’s robust … it’s a “shed” shed. I think it’s an absolute credit to you.

John Faint, Saddleworth SA

Discover Risk Management Strategies To

PROTECT YOUR INCOME

Continued from page 5

So in the last 3 years they’ve started moving to the Dohne breed which is still a meatier sheep but with longer, whiter wool to try and get more length back in the fleece of the ‘Burrundi Acres’ flock.

The Kernich’s have established an ongoing market with a local butcher, Muller’s Meatstore at Monash, who now buys 90% of their lambs and that cuts out the costs of the middle man and the markets – the commissions, yard fees and freight. The butcher buys 8-15 sheep each and every week. “It’s awesome for cashflow!” enthuses Sandy.

A tight production system is run with the ‘Burrundi Acres’ ewes as they aim for 3 lambs every 2 years from each ewe. Lambs are born, tailed at 6 weeks, weaned at 12 weeks and then rams go back in, so it’s quite a closed up system now compared to the tradition of only one breeding per year with a May drop.

Changing Sheep Breeds To Keep Ahead Of The Flock Kernich’s A Rural Business Management course undertaken by Sandy in 2001-03 made the breeds sheep their g changin to led This income. farm their improve could they how consider ion. product wool and meat d improve for from Merino to SAMM’s and then to Dohne’s

Today’s Farm Enterprises Must Be Well Managed

“We also have to spread our breedings out to keep the supply for Muller’s going as well,” explains Sandy, “so we’ve really tightened up that production system on the sheep, which makes it more profitable as well.”

While talking with Phil & Sandy we noticed that they constantly call their enterprise a ‘business’ rather than a farm. “Well it is,” says Phil, “And a heck of one it is.”

“We couldn’t really manage without the sheep. If we’d been croppers only, we would’ve been done in the early years,” Sandy says of those many dry drought years.

We’d totally agree with that. Today’s farmers certainly are not just small time ‘dirt scratchers’.

The amount of funds invested in infrastructure, farm machinery and input costs is enormous and the amount of knowledge they need to grow

crops and breed animals profitably, along with financial knowledge to budget, predict cash flow and deal with accountants, bank managers and finance companies would blow the mind of many small and medium business owners.

Our interview with Phil & Sandy Kernich included a lot of other interesting information which we couldn’t fit here, but would be useful to other farmers, so we’ll include some additional articles in future editions of FARM GATE NEWS.

Protecting Your Personal Property While it has been in place for some time, many farmers are still unaware of the important protections offered by the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). The PPSR is a listing of security interests in any item of personal property.

Personal property is basically property other than land and buildings, such as crops and produce, livestock, motor vehicles, agricultural equipment and machinery.

The PPSR has altered the law of personal property securities including how they are dealt with, how to decide ownership and which party has a security interest if there is a dispute.

There are many and varied areas of risk that can be minimised through the use of the PPSR. You may wish to consider:

Supply of Agricultural Products nn Read your customer supply contracts nn Understand when title of your product changes hands nn The existence of retention of title clauses in your supply contracts nn The risk of customers of your agricultural products not paying nn You may wish to register an interest on the PPSR

Location of Personal Property nn Do you store any plant and equipment on another’s property? (such as a harvester in the neighbours shed during the off season etc.)

nn Do you store any stock (such as wine and/or wine barrels, hay, grain etc.) on another’s property?

nn If so, have you considered that your personal property could be at risk unless you register your interest?

Purchase of Personal Property When purchasing plant and equipment or motor vehicles from a fellow farmer understand when purchasing whether they still have finance owing on the equipment and whether an interest has already been registered in the property as there may be risk to you of repossession.

There are finance facilities where you can borrow specifically against crops, livestock and other agricultural products. These interests will be registered on the PPSR. Broadly if plant and equipment, motor vehicles, crops, livestock and other agricultural products are not located on your property, it is paramount to lodge details on the register if you wish to protect your interest in these items.

Should you wish to discuss the areas of risk for your particular circumstances, and ways of mitigating those risks, please contact your advisor or Agribusiness Specialist Ben Trengove at William Buck on (08) 8409 4333. williambuck.com

FARM GATE NEWS: The Farmer’s Newsletter P7 P7

More Photos from our trip to Ireland

Plenty of grass and long-tailed lambs (above).

We saw a few of these stick fences (right) but I think they might be heritage style rather than particularly practical. There were also lots of stone and hedge fences

Sea cliffs in Northern Ireland (above) & windrowed fields (left) – note small paddocks and stone fence (Above) Danny on the ‘Giants Causeway’ in Northern Ireland an immense area of hexagonal volcanic rock with of course, an Irish legend to explain it.

(Right) Monastery ruins in the south of Ireland

MONTHLY HUMOUR

An Irish lass, a customer: ‘Could I be trying on that dress in the window?’

Shopkeeper: ‘I’d prefer that you use the dressing room.’

What is the difference between BSE and PMT? One is Mad Cow Disease and the other has something to do with beef.

Touring in Ireland could have been like this but (a) we didn’t have a caravan and (b) while Danny drives slowly in hilly, winding roads so Ali doesn’t get car sick, he does pull over often to let cars pass. Nothing worse than the front car being oblivious or uncaring to those behind.

Two Irishmen, Pat and Murphy, saw sign saying “Tree fellers” wanted. Murphy said to Pat, said, ‘If only Seamus had been with us we’d have got that job.’

‘O’Halloran,’ asked the pharmacist, ‘did that mudpack I gave you improve your wife’s appearance?’ ‘It surely did,’ replied O’Halloran, ‘but it keeps fallin’ off.’

“QUOTE” . It is a splendid torch,

me “Life is no brief candle to nt to for the moment; and I wa which I have got a hold of g it on din han ore bef le sib as pos make it burn as brightly to future generations.”

56–1950) Irish writer George Bernard Shaw (18

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FARM GATE NEWS: The Farmer’s Newsletter

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