Farmers Still Suffering...another 3 months go by.

[ramblingboy42]

Please do not take this as a politically biased thread.

It is about the plight of the farmer.....the people who provide our sustainance.

It is the same for every govt.....every drought affected farmer.

We need to perhaps look at this forever problem in this country and instead of throwing money at it try a different perspective.
Weather News - weather events around Australia and the world (http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/)

ps. I couldn't separate the droughht thread from the rest , so you got the lot.....sorry.

I need lessons in MacBook,hehehe

[weeds]

Friends of mine are dairy farmers who also do a bit beef cattle..........

It's a tough going for them.........the $1/litre milk make the market place tough, the big supermarkets will tell you different. They are a out to switch to a non super market supplier to get a few more cents per litre.

They reckon the writing is on the wall for fresh milk to be the norm.........powdered milk and UHT milk take the place of fresh milk.

There are already consortiums exporting our milk to get farmers a better price.

[Jazzman]

I've got no doubt farmers are doing it tough. And the giant supermarkets making it harder, coles myre and Safeway/woolies combined get on average 40 cents of each dollar earned from Aussies. Big numbers hey. But drought is not new. Farmers are well aware it will happen. What i have not been able to work out is why don't farmers prepare for it. Why so they always rely on the government to bail them out?

[Slunnie]

The supermarkets are pushing all of the Australian farmer to the point of being unsustainable. The apple farmers here are just about done too.

[Mick_Marsh]

But drought is not new. Farmers are well aware it will happen. What i have not been able to work out is why don't farmers prepare for it. Why so they always rely on the government to bail them out?
The big supermarket chains screw them down on price so hard, they cannot make the profits needed to keep them afloat for the bad years.
If you believe the weather pundits, we are heading for another drought starting this year.
I pay $5 for a 2 litre milk. My mum pays more. She gets hers from a small corner store that sells milk from a local dairy. I try to avoid shopping in the big supermarket chains.
The big supermarket chains are trying to put our dairy farmers out of business so they can import that cheap Chinese "killer" milk.
Oh, the Chinese love our milk products. They can't get enough of it. You have less chance of dying when consuming it.

[olbod]

If you shop at woolies or coles you get what you pay for.

[AndyG]

We are heading towards Agro factories with a few mega farms and no rural communities of note.
FIFO mining does not help, suck the wealth out of a region and flick back to the coast.

[ramblingboy42]

it's not just cattle and grain farmers affected though....

Australian beekeepers have a real problem with bees dying due to lack of food for themselves , let alone making honey.

then you have the flow-on from stock and station agencies

How do they prepare? El Nino may or may not worsen the situation here. And the merry go round continues.

Instead of the govt giving money is there something else they can do?

This is our food.....are we going to import all our food as well?

[superquag]

I've got no doubt farmers are doing it tough. And the giant supermarkets making it harder, coles myre and Safeway/woolies combined get on average 40 cents of each dollar earned from Aussies. Big numbers hey. But drought is not new. Farmers are well aware it will happen. What i have not been able to work out is why don't farmers prepare for it. Why so they always rely on the government to bail them out?





They'd love to... however, our taxation laws are such that they can't, to put it bluntly... AFAIK, in other western countries, there are provisions for putting aside, lower tax rate or concessions.

Regarding government assistance or bail-outs... same story. Governments de-regulated such industries as dairy... have sold off/are selling off/running down such supporting industries like rail.
Then there are decisions such as starving previously useful Govt. research arms, CSIRO, Ag. Departments like plant breeding. Or selling them off... and the sheer brilliance of opening the floodgates to GM crops.... which are selling for less than their non-GM counterparts.

Based on the damage 'governments' do to primary producers...and I'm looking at farming families, not corporations which move in and buy up bankrupt farmers... so the government should pay for these policies when times get tough.

And if you think the Aussie farmer is subsidized .... have a good look at the EU, and the Americans.

Edit:- "Australian beekeepers have a real problem with bees dying due to lack of food for themselves , let alone making honey."

- Remind me how GM crops feed and sustain bees..... or are the reduced numbers amongst the US crops down to some other cause...

[rovercare]

They'd love to... however, our taxation laws are such that they can't, to put it bluntly... AFAIK, in other western countries, there are provisions for putting aside, lower tax rate or concessions.



Farm Management Deposits Scheme » atotaxrates.info (http://atotaxrates.info/farm-management-deposits-scheme/)

There is

[Mick_Marsh]

are we going to import all our food as well?
We already are. Try getting some of that delicious South Australian tuna. It's all "Product of Thailand" now.

[superquag]

Good to hear, and I trust they are the equal of any similar subsidies in the US of A and the EU. Especially USA, a growing (sorry, not intended) source of fruit being dum . . . - er, sold to Australian Supermarkets.:wasntme:

(By 'Farmer' I don't just mean broad-acre grain production, all primary production down to small orchards and veggie gardens)

[Ean Austral]

This is something I know something about from my prawn fishing days, our family spent many a coin dealing with this issue.

The problem is majority of people will buy milk at $1.00 a litre regardless of how, where , why, then complain when they can't buy Australian.

The biggest issue with Australian primary producers is we don't sell our story, thus the average person don't know what the Aussie primary producers are really struggling thru.

I posted a link to Australian prawns which took 5 years to develop, I know cause I was part of it, the problem is the average joe public buys the cheapest thinking quality is the same , but sadly anyone who is involved in that industry knows better.

I can only hope that people look at the bigger picture other than price when making their shopping decisions.

Cheers Ean