Scott Vaessen

Young ewes in the feedlot trying their best at patriotism. They lose marks for dropping off Victoria & Tasmania.

There’s been a lot of chatter from Agritechnica this year & the products that were on show. I’ve had several conversations over the last few weeks with farmers & industry people about what I think is an industry transition happening at present & will continue over the next few years. The buying dynamic of the Australian farmer is changing. Cost of machinery is getting way out of reach, technology is great when it works, cost of inputs to grow crops is ridiculous, insurance is up, commodities are down, labour is expensive & good labour hard to come by & depending where in Australia you are rain in the right amount at the right time determines a hell of a lot! Not to mention the cost of water if your an irrigator & a Government who cares little to nothing about Agriculture. I’m seeing a lot of guys who used to be new equipment buyers now becoming good used buyers because of the above. The new buyers market is however shrinking which in turn means less good used equipment coming onto the market which is where the demand is growing. The new Ag guys in the market at Agritechnica (Zoomlion, LiuGong, etc) have product offerings that use common (well known/proven) components that the known brands also use. There fit & finish seems pretty good on all accounts. I’m told from someone that attended that a 250hp tractor by one of these brands is a 1/3 of the price of the major brands. I feel this will be like when Hyundai & Kia came to Australia, people thought they were ok but they were great value. Several years later & they have some of the best vehicles available in Australia with styling, tech & finish to match any big brands or legacy brands as the car market is calling them. A friend of mine who owns a Toyota dealership is also seeing this change in his industry with more of these Chinese brands entering the market, to say he’s concerned is an understatement. And with this dynamic change farmers will start looking at alternatives when they can’t find what they want in the good used segment. For the major price difference & quality components farmers will give these brands a go, & like the car game if they prove reliable & half decent they’ll take off! There is a caveat to all this…..they will need to setup good warehouse support for parts & service & a dealer network which is not as easy as it sounds, particularly with the existing dealer agreements a lot of the known brands have in place (read all in their favour, not the dealers…) will make it difficult to add a competing brand. There will be push back. Brand snobs will continue to do what they do but their bottom line will keep decreasing. But if the equipment can do the jobs & do them well, if these manufacturers can support the products satisfactorily & keep the pricing significantly cheaper than the majors then I think they will fill a space in the market & more & more farmers will go down this path. Time will tell…

Wonder why farmers are shitting themselves when they aren't getting the rains? This gives you a pretty good idea. In the past 13 years farmer inputs have increased by 68% Equipment costs up 75% Commercial seed up 49% Fertilizer prices have doubled. This is not sustainable.

Deep-sowing experiments at Tabbita and Condobolin investigating soil moisture and temperatures to ensure wheat coleoptile elongation and reliable seedling emergence with long coleoptile wheats sown at 12cm depth ⁦@theGRDC⁩ #longcoleoptilewheats ⁦@TabbitaFarmCo⁩

Albury area :Could you keep a eye out for my truck .. stolen 2 am this morning from central Albury Rego DWF53W. Didn’t have trade rack on Thanks .

@DJWatt Well deserved retirement mate. Your impressive property & enterprises are a true credit to your management.

We have decided to retire from farming and begin the next chapter of our lives and are offering our property for sale realestate.com.au realestate.com.au/property-mixed…

Whiny. Little. B!tch

Griffith Sheep & Lamb Market Report 11/4/25

@JJfarmequipment @TheParraEels As they said on the tele, when your back 5 are smashing the metres gained by the forwards there is something not working. Stepping stones for Ryles but we will get better in 25 🤞🏼

@TheParraEels who is running the team on the field? Seriously!! Dumb mistakes at this level….. Zac only player that played like he wanted it, but Riles not using him to his full potential. Where were the players when we had opportunities? The few we had & only one parra player & several bulldogs. White line fever from dummy half was not on - why, no leadership! Lane doing his best impressions again of a baby giraffe, can’t catch a cold let alone a ball. Still to slow in attack, defence was an improvement especially in the 2nd half.

Fought to the very end. #PARRAdise

@Eckfarming Upside to no power mate was that you couldn’t watch the Parra game. 😕

Nice way to end a Sunday just no power to cook dinner

Facts matter.

As a result of these days, we see clear support from Europe. Even more unity, even more willingness to cooperate. Everyone is united on the main issue – for peace to be real, we need real security guarantees. And this is the position of all of Europe – the entire continent. The United Kingdom, the European Union, Türkiye. Of course, we understand the importance of America, and we are grateful for all the support we’ve received from the United States. There has not been a day when we haven’t felt gratitude. It’s gratitude for the preservation of our independence – our resilience in Ukraine is based on what our partners are doing for us – and for their own security. What we need is peace, not endless war. And that’s why we say security guarantees are the key to this.

My very talented wife made a video of Harvest 24.

@oversw Brilliant mate! Canada flag at half mast & those red machines looked like they were peeling it off 😉

@agronomybrady Our shearing was always in January & in our zone it felt like the dumbest start to the year possible. Sprinklers on roof & we also installed an old swampy on roof dropped temp inside >10 degrees. The occasional shearer put a flanny back on! Dorpers have solved the issue now.

A win for shearing. Shearer’s reckon the temp dropped by 5-7 degrees as soon as the tap was turned on. That was on a 39 degree day outside. 12mm Garden hose and 3 wobble tee sprinklers Tec screwed to the roof.

@turbosteve21 You are on the right track with Haloxyfop early. When it is fresh after rain, that will give it a very big bellyache & should do the job. I’ve knocked over fresh tillered plants with haloxyfop but it will get through if just a little bit stressed so double knock if you have to.

Bloody Rhodes grass in the mallee has gone nuts. Had trifflurain before planting wheat but with all rain after crop is dead. What is everyone’s go to kill this shit and it ain’t roundup or paraquat was thinking verdict

@mjrowland68 More power to your elbow Michael. Ultimate professional & a massive gap to fill.

Some program news:   I will be leaving News Breakfast at the end of next week.    I love this job but after 15 years of 3am starts, my body is screaming ‘Enough!’ It’s time for a long break before turning to other ABC projects. Thanks, everyone!

@rebetzke_0 @gsandral @BreedersPlant @kalyx_australia We only ended up with 13mm on our side of the highway where the trial is Greg. Seemed to want to sit on other side & farms closer to Griffith on that side ended up with 70-90mm.

@gsandral @BreedersPlant @TabbitaFarmCo @kalyx_australia Yes mate. Nasty!

Rushing to finish harvest index cuts at Tabbita - assessing grain number response in new dwarfing genes to plant growth regulators (GA blockers) @BreedersPlant @TabbitaFarmCo @kalyx_australia

@russtybloke68 Top spot at that pub Russ. We did a quick camp trip there recently - camping by the river with a good feed and cold beer ticks a lot of boxes.

My mental health day! It's not until you have a day off the farm that you realise how much you need it. Awesome ride around the hume wier with lunch and a beer at Jingellic pub #justwhatineeded

@MaurieStreet @agrarianliberty Bugger mate. The percentage of the state whacked is big!

@agrarianliberty Up to 75% wipeout in the lower paddocks

Could have been a lot of grain here.

Do you remember the first time you listened to Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits? The song was written by Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and inspired by his broken romance with Holly Vincent, leader of the band Holly And The Italians. Some of the lyrics indicate that Knopfler felt she used him to boost her career: "How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals." The line, "Now you just say, oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene withhim," came from an interview where Holly Vincent was quoted as saying: "What happened was that I had a scene with Mark Knopfler and it got to the point where he couldn't handle it and we split up." The lyrics of the song describe the experience of the two lovers of the title, hinting at a situation that saw the "Juliet" figure abandon her "Romeo" after finding fame and moving on from the rough neighborhood where they first encountered each other. In addition to the reference to William Shakespeare's play of the same title, the song makes playful allusion to otherworks involving young love, includin the songs 'Somewhere' -from West Side Story, which is itself based on the Shakespeare play-and 'My Boyfriend's Back'. Here's your song, Mark Knopfler performing "Romeo and Juliet" live at A Night In London, recorded in BBC building, on April, 1996.