The latest is a letter in the Age Newspaper by Alastair Lucas AM.  He criticises Nicolle Flint’s recent letter regarding the particular section of ABC television which increasingly looks like an unquestioning mouthpiece for animal rights extremists.  They are not presenting the full facts regarding Australian live exports, so the general public can make their own minds up. For example, the incredibly significant point that Australia has the ability to improve animal welfare standards in countries it exports animals to (and has made huge improvements) has been downplayed to the extent it’s barely noticeable. As is the fact that Australia is the only country to sink resources into improving livestock welfare standards offshore, and that other countries will simply export their cattle with absolutely no animal welfare standard strings attached if we cease exporting ourselves.

Alastair says: “the ABC has never argued for the cessation of live exports” – they don’t need to! Some ABC programmes (7.30 Report, Lateline and 4 Corners, in particular) simply provides – repeatedly – the platform for animal rights activists to broadcast what they want to broadcast, when they want it broadcast! How very convenient – great way to keep your own hands pristine!

Questions regarding the timeliness and precise origin of film footage, broadcast by the abovementioned ABC programmes, remain unasked/unpursued by the ABC.

There are other issues, such as the fact that Tony Jones discussed banning live exports at length but completely failed to mention he’s married to the journalist who (controversially) ran the first story. But I guess non-disclosure might not be something Alastair concerns himself with, either? (See point below.)

Alastair Lucas AM is a Collins Street investment banker (Goldman Sachs) up the top of many trees, including being a Director of Fauna & Flora International Australia. Curiously, he forgot to mention this at the bottom of his letter in the Age Newspaper; which seems a rather glaring ‘vested interest’ ommission.  His ‘letter’ includes a great many emotive terms. For example: ‘rant’, ‘shocking’, ‘sinister’…you get the drift.

Alastair is also Chairman of the Burnett Institute for medical research.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty certain that the Burnett Institute has been involved in doing research on animals.  And probably still is.  This is makes it incredibly odd to read Alastair Lucas’s  statement: “But behind her rant about ABC bias lies a profound lack of understanding of animals, their sentience and capacity for suffering.”

This piece of hypocrisy is particularly hard to take given that animal testing is something most livestock producers – including live exporters – would be very uneasy about, if not directly against – and certainly would be if they knew the facts about how this animal testing was undertaken.

Alastair is apparently choosing to ignore the fact that if Australia ceases live exports, South American countries will fill the gap, and animal welfare in the receiving countries will be completely unmonitored. Is it only Australian cattle that are worth worrying about? NIMBY at it’s worst! Surely infinitely better for livestock worldwide, to keep our foot in as many doors as possible?

Livestock producers all over Australia have voiced disgust with animal cruelty that occurs anywhere, any time, and do whatever it takes to stop it. At no time did Nicolle Flint suggest cruelty is acceptable, and to claim she did is ridiculous.

That someone as supposedly well educated and supposedly well spoken as Alastair Lucas, and presumably working in fields requiring traits such as:

• objectivity
• respect for the opinions of others
• rational thought and speech
• ability to consider a wide range of issues to aim for the best long-term outcome

wrote a letter like that – is just amazing. Talk about lose the plot!  His emotive letter is far less objective than that which he criticises.

PS: And here’s an excellent Australian Farm Institute letter , written by Mick Keogh, in response to Australian Financial Review journalist Tony Boyd’s recent article in which he stated: “Ludwig’s subsidy of the rural sector is in keeping with Australia’s long-held tradition of propping up uneconomic rural operations. No other sector of the economy is given the latitude to run itself into the ground and then stick its hand out for government assistance.”

Quite a few of the parks being considered would already have (feral) cattle in them, and all would have been cattle stations at one time.  They were made National Parks due to the abundance of native flora and fauna existing there, in harmony with the extensively grazed cattle.

Media statements from organisations such as Bush Heritage Australia have remained completely unchallenged by journalists and editors; with Bush Heritage Australia media releases repeatedly published and broadcast verbatim. Bush Heritage has crowed long & loud about how many species have been found on Ethabulka Station, for example, while at the same time deriding the environmental impact of pastoralism. Which begs the question; where did this plethora of native animals come from, if decades of cattle grazing is so detrimental to the landscape? Did these native animals, large and small, walk in from surrounding areas…(also cattle stations)? Or did they drop from heaven? Or were they actually there all along, uncounted and unstudied, happily co-existing alongside cattle, and even benefiting from the provision of permanent water supplies?

I also can’t help wondering what these conservation groups do regarding water supplies when they purchase a station like Ethabulka, in such a low rainfall area.  Do they disconnect all the windmills/bore pumps and drain all the dams, thus leaving the native animals that have benefited from the provision of a reliable water supply, to tough out months or years with next to no rainfall, as they would have done prior to white settlement?

Journalists have absolutely not been doing the job they are theoretically trained to do on this issue – not even asking the most obvious questions (not to mention the less obvious but equally important).

1. Most National Parks have been declared National Parks because of the diversity of native flora and fauna which exists there already.
2. Most were cattle or sheep stations, usually for more than 100 years.
3. Speaks for itself really, doesn’t it!

Groups such as Bush Heritage Australia love to paint themselves as saviours of Australian native animals and the media have happily conspired to help them along this path.  What an injustice, when it is actually pastoralists – who love the environment they live on – who have been the real, long-term, unpaid and unrecognised custodians.

There are many benefits in keeping land in the hands of primary producers:

• Family ownership and steady company ownership of these properties ensures people are living there 24/7 week in/week out year after year; even in the case of company ownership, the same managers can be living there for many decades.  This is typical in Queensland’s Channel Country, where an unsurpassed depth of climate and environment knowledge has built up over generations. Compare this with the public service-type employment of conservation groups; (short term tenure, many holidays/days off and very defined hours of work) and there’s absolutely no contest to determine who has the greater environmental knowledge for that specific area.
• Where does the money come from to eradicate weeds and feral animals?  If a commercial enterprise such as livestock grazing is in place, then it’s a win/win for all.  1. The business makes money to re-invest back into the property, in terms of dealing with weed infestations and   feral pigs, dogs, horses, donkeys, camels, rabbits, foxes etc.  Many roo shooters also dispense with the feral cats they see hunting native animals at night. 2. The livestock grazing business has a vested interest in keeping up these types of environmental practices, and the vast majority of people who live on large cattle stations absolutely love the land they live on and do the best they can to look after it on a daily basis anyway (not just for commercial reasons).
• Well respected rangeland grazing management experts such as Alan Savory and Terry McCosker, run programmes showing well managed, controlled grazing is far better for the environment than under-grazing.  And uncontrolled undergrowth build-up in National Parks has caused environmentally catastrophic, intense bushfires – decimating native flora and fauna – time and time again.
• Employment and numbers of residents in rural/remote areas – Cattle stations in northern Australia usually have a whole family living on site year-round; many have several employees as well, and some have as many as a dozen or more people living there all year round.  Their business circulates large amounts of money through surrounding businesses, helping to keep Australia’s whole economy rolling along, and our population less urbanised and centralised than would otherwise be the case.
• De-population by expanding National Parks is a particularly significant issue in areas such as WA’s north Kimberley region and Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, where pastoral residents are an unpaid but invaluable biosecurity/quarantine front line against illegal smuggling activities (native animals, and people) and pest/disease incursions (via air, birds and water) from South East Asia.
• Australia is in the top 3 red meat exporting countries in the world – these cattle stations earn a huge amount of export income – that is reinvested back into looking after the environment, paying for infrastructure, etc.  So isn’t it ironic!  The export income earned by cattle stations is paying the wages, costs and for equipment used by research scientists visiting cattle stations that are no longer commercial enterprises, such as Ethabulka…while at the same time cattle station residents nearby are also managing their own natural environment in a responsible manner, but all the while unpaid and unrecognised!

For goodness sake, when are Australian journalists going to wake up, do they job they’re paid to do, and start examining the facts objectively rather than swallowing whole propaganda emanating from Bush Heritage Australia etc?  This farce has continued for a ridiculously long time!  Here’s a couple of the most appalling examples of poor treatment of cattle station owners – which have virtually been ignored by Australia’s media:

• Lifetime Cape York Peninsula residents, the Shephards, were forced to sell their family home for generations back to the Queensland Government as they were refused a pastoral lease renewal. This is despite Lilyvale Station being the only long-term profitable cattle station on the whole East coast of Cape York Peninsula, supporting a whole family, and it being conservatively managed – with a pristine environment.  The Queensland Government had no plans for Lilyvale Station. They just wanted it back in public ownership, for no particular reason.  Elders in the local aboriginal community, who the Shephard family had a good relationship with, stated at the time they were not interested in owning it or living there. Lilyvale Station was located next to what was already Queensland’s second largest National Parks, Lakefield  (now also known as “Rinyirru“).  Despite the massive size and location on what is a smuggler’s paradise coastline, Lakefield National Park was flat out having a single full time ranger there to look after it!  It is closed to the (lawful) public for 5-6 months of the year over the wet season.  After wandering around indecisively the Queensland Government asked the Shephards if they were interested in leasing back the family home of more than 80 years, and Lilyvale Station ownership has now been handed to local aboriginal people, with the Shephards engaged to show them how to run it as a profitable cattle business over a decade.  A google search on the topic brings up a plethora of breathy media releases (most repeated verbatim, as usual) regarding the hand back to the Lama Lama people…but not a single question regarding the justice of it, let alone a single mention of the fact that there’s a truckload of other ex-cattle stations there already in aboriginal hands so why the desperate need for one more, when locals weren’t clamouring for it themselves?
• The family on Riversleigh Station (Gulf Country) were kicked off their cattle station because ‘cattle would damage the fossils’… only to discover that huge chunks of rock were then being blasted apart and loaded onto roadtrains and transported to a southern university for examination.  The cattle and fossils trapped in solid rock co-existed happily for more than 100 years, and could have continued on doing so, with areas deemed sensitive carefully fenced off and university researchers being allowed access to study the fossils on site.  Didn’t hear a lot about that travesty in the news either, did you!

Long term, what is going to happen to these huge tracts of land removed from pastoral production?  Keeping on top of weed infestations and feral animals is a constant and expensive battle.  Where is the ad infinitum money going to come from to manage these vast areas properly?  It is infinitely more sensible, in every way, to run most of these places as cattle stations, and put the money into assisting the landholder with specific conservation-related management projects, while setting aside particular parts of the cattle station for public visitation.  Vital management includes not just managing feral species, but fencing off different land types (allowing much better grazing management) and creek/riverbanks; providing carefully managed artificial water supplies and capping artesian bores, etc.  What is so often forgotten is that only tiny areas of the largest national parks are accessible to the public – there are few roads, and often they’re only open during the dry season anyway.

How much better would it be to run these vast areas as cattle stations! Creating an income that helps pay for conservation, and providing employment; with sensitive areas fenced off and specific areas set aside for the public to visit.  A current resident could be paid to work as a ranger; working part-time but living there full-time. How much better than a public service short-tenure ranger would that be!

There’s a very, very obvious ‘we must own it at all cost’ mentality amongst Australian conservationists that I just don’t understand.  At the heart of it, it seems to me to be sheer, chip-on-the-shoulder jealousy. As in ‘how dare these people own this beautiful piece of countryside; they don’t deserve it, we’ll use whatever argument we can find to take it from them’.   As a consequence conservation money is being squandered when it could be so much more efficiently and effectively used.  The overall conservation result is far below what it would be if a collaborative approach was undertaken.

• Most people live on large cattle stations because they love the bush – i.e. most care about the plants, animals and land and want to do what they can to preserve the natural environment for future generations. Urban residents who belong to conservation groups don’t have a monopoly on caring for the environment (in fact, judging by the backyards of many – so often devoid of native flora and fauna – it could be argued it’s NIMBY at work; a very shallow level of care anyway).
• Conservation is a middle class luxury.  You won’t find a lot of people scraping by on the poverty line, putting thought into whether or not the Night Parrot still exists. Conservation is expensive. The money has to come from somewhere.  How much more intelligent it is to keep businesses functioning, which creates a larger pool of money to be sunk into conservation capital works.  This would be win/win for all involved (people and the natural environment).

NAPCo owns Australia’s (and the world’s) second largest cattle station, Alexandria, situated on the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory. (The largest cattle station in Australia is Anna Creek, in North-Eastern South Australia; owned by another large and very old pastoral company, and which is the most like NAPCo, S Kidman & Co.)

NAPCo cattle stations are not for sale but a share package in the company as a whole, is.  While there is often some drama or another in agriculture; the ongoing animal rights extremist/live export disaster plus a looming drought make it a very poorly chosen time to sell.

It would be nice to see majority ownership of NAPCo remain in the hands of Australians, but given the amount of capital involved/the price, this probably won’t happen.

Gresham Partners   (an investment advisory company) are handling the sale of NAPCo shares.

I feel for the uncertainty this brings to all the people who work for NAPCo; many of whom have worked for the company for many years or even most of their lives.

One thing is certain. If someone buys NAPCo as a whole, it’s highly likely they’ll follow the path of the vast majority of other corporate owners, and only own it for a few years (rarely for much longer than 5 years). It’s incredibly sad to see such continuity of ownership end.  I’ve never seen rapidly changing ownership have anything but a negative effect on these large cattle stations, where knowledgeable, experienced and caring staff are the biggest but most undervalued asset.  This is a very sad day for the Australian cattle industry. Here’s hoping shares are mostly redistributed amongst existing shareholders, rather than sold to a corporate investor.

Some of my favourite photographs have been taken on NAPCo-owned Alexandria Station. Two of them are included amongst the website header images; ‘To Gallipoli’ (outstation) and ‘Camp at Bore number eighty-three’ (near the northernmost point of Lake Eyre’s catchment).  A number of Alexandria images are included in the book ‘A Million Acre Masterpiece’, including the cover image, ‘The Barkly Breeze’.

There’s two main types of dodgy accounts rural people are likely to encounter. One is the group that everyone on twitter has issues with – spammers (trying to sell you something iffy).  The second are animal rights extremists.

Today someone queried an account they came across with the words ‘Beef’ and ‘Australia’ included.

It’s a dodgy account; animal rights extremist-related.

How do you tell? These are the obvious signs of a dodgy account:

• Odd account name
• Odd bio wording, or none at all
• No location, or stupidly vague (eg ‘world’)
• Dodgy profile image, or no image at all

The above is why I encourage everyone one in agriculture to include their real name (at least their first name), plus a location, bio and image (which can be a landscape or whatever else illustrates personal interests); to avoid being mistaken for a dodgy account holder, up to no good.

The more cunning fanatics/spammers choose a twitter account name that sounds plausible, write a likely-sounding bio, and include a plausible-looking image or logo.  So what are the signs to look out for?

• A massive number of tweets in relation to the number of followers the account has.  For the above-mentioned account, only 2 people are being followed, there are only several dozen followers, but nearly 20,000 tweets have been sent out.  That’s a huge amount of tweets to hardly anyone listening!  This fact alone, for this account, screams ‘very, very dodgy’.
• Check who is following the account, and who the account is following. You’ll usually find a raft of very dodgy accounts, some particularly nasty, usually mixed amongst some genuine ones (who have either been careless, or who have set up an automated ‘follow back’ system. Some politicians, very unwisely, do this.)  Dodgy account holders-unlike genuine account holders-just want sheer follower numbers, there’s no concern for quality or safety, so no weeding out of followers occurs.  (It’s also likely they’ve got multiple accounts, so they don’t have time anyway).  Most importantly, go right back to the very first few dozen people the account followed, and the first few dozen followers.  Often this will lead to a whole web of dodgy accounts, all following one another, to boost numbers and increase the impression of credibility amongst casual observers.  You’ll see the same automated tweets being sent out by these linked accounts.
• Read the tweets. Is the account holder having any conversations with anyone else, or is it just one-way broadcasting?  Most importantly of all, are the same messages being sent out multiple times? Dodgy accounts holders often use automated systems to send tweets out at regular intervals.  (Hence nearly 20,000 tweets sent out, for the above-mentioned account, though there’s only a few dozen followers!)
• Lastly – never click on the links anyone tweets unless you’re sure they’re from a legitimate source, and sound plausible. Often you can google the topic and find the link that way, thus avoiding clicking on a link included in a tweet.  Many people have had their accounts hacked by clicking on a dodgy link (‘did you see this photo of you’ is a classic account hacker tweet people find hard to resist.)

The most important rules:

• Always check who is following you.  Immediately block and report any you are certain* are spam-this helps rid twitter of people up to no good. If not sure, keep an eye on the account and see what tweets are sent out in future. (* Do take care when blocking & reporting – obviously only do so when you’re certain.)  You can also ask other people you trust about whether they think another account is genuine or not. Or send the account holder a public message asking them to identify themselves.
• Always check very carefully before following anyone else. Are they having conversations with people you know?  Don’t presume that because people you know are following them, that the account is legitimate…because others may have been careless. As is the case with the dodgy account discussed above – which has a number of legitimate rural account holders as followers, amongst the trash. Some rural people have seen the account title and presumed it was legitimate, without checking more carefully.
• Trust your gut instinct. When you’ve been poking around on the internet for a while, especially on twitter, you develop a good sense of what’s written by someone with a genuine interest in and understanding of the bush and what has been written by someone pretending.

Does it matter if you follow a dodgy account? Well it’s not the end of the world. You’ve accidentally helped boost their numbers, and someone you know may end up following them too because they’ve seen you do. And obviously it’s not a good idea to associate with anyone getting up to no good; you’ve probably increased your chances of encountering a dodgy link leading to having your account being hacked.  And, of course, you don’t want anyone to mistakenly think you are supporting animal rights extremism.

Bottom line: we all make mistakes, this is relatively new, so it’s still evolving. Don’t forget to ask questions and help others.  Twitter is a fabulous bush grapevine that’s having a hugely positive effect on people involved in agriculture.

This farm tour includes visits to a range of beef, dairy, sheep and cropping farms in various locations. Plus an Irish horse stud, woollen mill and much spectacular scenery in between visiting places of historic significance – castles, grand houses and gardens, ancient ruins etc. Plus – two special late additions – farmers markets; one in Dublin, the other in England.

I’ve gathered together some fabulous photographs and a couple of excellent videos of just a few of the many places we’ll visit here on Pinterest. Clicking on the photographs takes you to the source websites, where there are more photographs and information.

The Australian dollar reached a 28 year high against the British pound recently, and is expected to remain around the same rate for most of this year; while at the same time the $USD exchange rate is slipping. Great news for US/China (etc) exporters and great news for anyone who’d like to sneak in a bit of shopping in Ireland or the UK, while it lasts.

Best of all, we get to lodge a postal vote 2 weeks early and miss the last of the Federal Government electioneering.  Most people in rural Australia already have a good idea of who they’re itching to vote for. So what’s not to like about getting in early then scarpering before media saturation?

In the meantime, I am continuing my *cough* essential research, which fortunately I started years in advance.  I recommend other tour participants continue to do likewise!  Currently this vital “work” involves watching period dramas such as: “Downton Abbey” and “Midsomer Murders”, plus contemporary ‘reality’ programmes such as Kevin McLeod’s “Grand Designs”, “Restoration Home”, “Escape to the Country” and “A Farmers Life for Me”, featuring Jimmy Doherty (rare pig breeder, amongst other things). Previous compulsory ‘education’ included watching every royal wedding and programmes such as “James Herriott” (Yorkshire Dales), “Upstairs/Downstairs”, “Ballykissangel” (filmed at Ballykissane, close to the ‘Ring of Kerry’ route we take), all films based on Jane Austen and Agatha Christie’s  books (“Pride & Prejudice”, “Sense & Sensibility”, Miss Marple, Poirot etc), plus James Bond (“Skyfall” was fabulous for London sky-scapes and evocative Scottish landscape).  The Irish and British realised years ago that featuring beautiful landscapes, expansive gardens and historic homes etc in TV and big-screen films encouraged tourist visitation!

Photography in Ireland and the United Kingdom:

I’m especially looking forward to visiting farms and meeting Irish and UK farmers, because this is of course something most independent travellers are simply unable to arrange.  Already I have lots of questions to ask and – of course – many photographs already in mind to take.  I’m also really looking forward to meeting fellow travellers, and helping anyone who would like a hand to capture the best images they can.

Of course there’s a few challenges with taking photographs in Ireland and the United Kingdom.  Even though we’ll be there during a fabulous time of year, late summer, we’re unlikely to strike a month of solid sunshine.

• The most obvious photography difficulty is low light and grey or hazy skies. In Australia we’re accustomed to a clear atmosphere – only occasionally dimmed by bushfire smoke or dust; in the tropics, extreme humidity; and in inland Australia, heat haze. In most parts of Australia it’s relatively sunny most of the time. So we’re used to sharp shadows, bright colours, easily visible detail in landscapes, a clearly defined horizon and the ability to capture images at a fast speed. Talk about spoilt!

• The second photographic challenge I’ve discovered via my extensive loungeroom research, i.e. television programmes. Everywhere you look in the English landscape, particularly, there seems to be at least one powerline dissecting the bucolic scene. And when skies are blue, there will be at least one plane’s vapor trail disrupting the view of pastoral bliss. There are nearly 70 million people squeezed onto the British Isles, and despite good ferry services and under-channel trains naturally there’s a lot of planes passing overhead! Lairy advertising billboards and a lot of the other commercial blights on Australian landscapes are banned or highly regulated in the most historic parts of the UK, but not much can be done about essential infrastructure such as power supply lines and roads!  So the challenge will be to do a great job of composition – cutting out the hard-to-love bits to ensure top-drawer memorable photographs. I enjoy challenges, so I’m looking forward to it a great deal. If there’s drizzle, mist or fog, we’ll be doing our best to turn it into “atmosphere”!

Quadrant’s Aug-Sept 2013 Ireland & UK agricultural tour information:

• Overview
• Itinerary summary
• Request a more detailed itinerary from Quadrant
• Map of Ireland & United Kingdom (Google)
• Pinterest page with images of a few of the many special places we’ll be visiting

Kerry Moss is the guide on this tour, and what a mountain of travel experience she has! Kerry has visited more than 35 countries so the list of countries she hasn’t visited is probably shorter!  She has worked in the travel industry for more than twenty years in various roles – Tourism Commissions in WA & NT, airlines, plus retail & corporate travel agencies; and travel-related TAFE teaching.  Kerry has worked for Quadrant since 2007, runs the Coffs Harbour office and is Quadrant’s  Outbound Operations Manager.

If you have any queries don’t hesitate to contact Quadrant online or Kerry Moss in the Coffs Harbour office, or Quadrant’s Brisbane or Armidale office, or myself (particularly for photography-related questions, or agriculture. My contact details are below).

Quadrant is a member of Agricultural Tour Operators International (ATOI)

It is the biggest Australian event of it’s kind and has a special buzz about it; helped by the fact that it’s only held every 3 years, thus efficiently concentrating attendance and the money involved. Here’s why I think every Australian with an interest in cattle should attend Rocky’s Beef Week:

• Excellent quality seminars, workshops, tours etc – great speakers; interesting discussions; useful, new information.  It’s always a full-on programme, day after day. Tough choices have to be made between enticing options!
• Networking – around 85,000 people attended Rocky’s Beef Week in 2012.  They came from other countries and all over Australia, and all have one thing in common – an interest in the beef industry.  And you’ll know at least some of them, possibly dozens or even hundreds.  Each time I attend, in addition to meeting people in person that I’ve only corresponded with by mail or over the phone, I catch up with people I haven’t seen for years (sometimes decades).  They are scattered all over Australia, and make a special effort to attend Rocky’s Beef Week as it’s only on every 3 years.  Miss one, and you have to wait another 3 years to attend.  It’s one big gab fest of the most enjoyable kind – mixing business and pleasure; talking with people you have a lot in common with, but that you see infrequently.
• Tradefair – Around 300 exhibitors are included in the tradefair. Most people who sell anything specifically related to the Australian cattle industry can be found at Rocky’s Beef Week.  You get to meet suppliers etc that you may otherwise never meet in person – a great way to negotiate a good deal.
• Social events – because I’m working on a trade stand for long hours daily I don’t get into the entertainment side of things (night time is for recovering!) But I know most people love this aspect, as there is a huge range of functions and events on offer, day and night. Many companies involved in the beef industry seize this ideal opportunity for Australia-wide staff to get together, for both meeting and social reasons.  The one event I make sure I always attend is the Queensland Rural Press Club breakfast, as they always have a first class speaker and it’s amongst great company (at a time of day I can squeeze in). I have noticed the eateries have improved a great deal over the years – I had some excellent takeaway tucker last year!
• Competitions – there are various well-attended competitions held.  As far as I can tell, every single breed of cattle found in Australia can be seen at Rocky.
• Overseas visitors – quite a few overseas visitors attend Rocky’s Beef Week, along with Austrade staff etc who hold special gatherings to help Australian exporters make connections etc. So it’s ideal for anyone interested in exporting genetics or beef industry-related goods as well as businesses that already do so.

I can’t recommend it highly enough. For anyone involved in the beef industry, if you have never been to Rocky’s Beef Week, it’s more a matter of ‘why not’ rather than ‘why’.  The only tricky bit is finding accommodation. Book early.

The next dates when the office will be closed are:

• 28th March to 20th April (office reopens 21st April); Trip through Western Qld, Western NSW & Victoria.  Emails and phone messages will be checked every few days, and Twitter most days.
• 28th August to 25th September (office reopens 26th September); I will be on a Quadrant farm tour to Ireland and the United Kingdom.  During this tour contact will be just for urgent matters, as one of my jobs on the tour is taking photographs and these 4 weeks will be exceptionally busy.  However if you send me an  email I will respond as soon as possible when I return.  The best way to stay in contact with me at this time is to come on the tour! We are visiting more than a dozen farms in Ireland and the UK, and visiting at least two Farmers Markets (one in Dublin, the other probably in England).  I’ll be helping fellow travellers capture the photographs they are after, so if you are looking to improve your photographic skills, this is a great opportunity!

Overseas Christmas orders are ideally ordered many weeks before Christmas, to ensure delivery in plenty of time. The standard airmail delivery time is 10-14 days to most countries however the delivery of some parcels can be delayed by 2 months, late in the year. That said, I have sent books to New Zealand just a week before Christmas, and they’ve been delivered before 25th December. But the shorter the transit time allowed, the riskier timely delivery becomes, due to massive volumes at this time of year.  If ordering gifts for overseas residents for a particular occasion, I recommend ordering as early as possible, whatever time of year it is.

As soon as I return from being away, orders are packed and mailed out in the order they were received.  When there is a special offer deadline, all orders received prior to the specified deadline receive the special offer.

When I am away phone messages & emails are checked as frequently as possible however it is sometimes difficult.  I work long hours when away and in any case am often a large distance from the nearest phone connection or mains power supply.   Please note the suggested contact methods listed above.

If you are purchasing a gift for an upcoming event please note the above dates when I will be away and don’t forget to order in plenty of time.   If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me.

How does the Farmers on Film project work?

Consumers download a specific app (application, i.e. small programme) onto their smartphone, aim their phone’s camera at the ‘augmented reality’ image printed on the specially produced postcard, then after a couple of moments (depending on download speed) a film about the farmer and food production starts to play. The real background is visible behind the phone  (the ‘reality’); while the ‘augmented’ bit (the short film clip) plays on the screen.  So in this instance ‘augmented reality’ means adding something extra to reality, in the form of information and/or entertainment, via your smartphone.

The Farmers on Film project appears to have been aimed at the influx of tourists due to the Olympics, but clearly it’s a fabulous idea in our increasingly urbanised societies, for all consumers to be able to learn who grew the food they’re about to purchase.

The potential uses for this ‘augmented reality’ technology are very exciting indeed for farmers worldwide. It presents an absolutely brilliant opportunity to bridge the ever-widening gulf between city-country food production and environmental management knowledge.  The astonishing thing is that augmented technology hasn’t taken off in Australia yet, despite the huge uptake of smart phones (phones able to access the internet). AR technology is a sleeping giant.  I suspect few understand what it is, let alone how it works or what the potential is. That was me too, yesterday.

How does ‘augmented reality’ work?

My head is hurting after trying to choke down a plethora of jargon and waffle online.  It would appear there’s no-one who has written about it in a practical and simple manner so a lay person can easily understand exactly what it is and how it works.  Here’s my very basic summary – especially as it applies to the Farmers on Film project (at least, as I understand it!)

How does a business create an ‘augmented reality’ experience:

1. The creator must download an ‘augmented reality’ programme. As I understand it, the app used by consumers must (at least at this stage?) match that used by the creator, so it is vital that creators use the most commonly used AR app by the target demographic.  So rarely used at present the door is still wide open on this now, but that won’t always be the case.  There are a number of apps, with pros and cons, such as file size.  If consumers already have a different app on their phone they won’t want to download a second one; not just due to time factors, but because apps hog phone space. This is the typical type of weak link in the chain that marketers will stuff up – failure to consider whether customers will actually follow through.  Pointless having a fancy car if few can be bothered to drive it.  It must be as quick and easy as possible.
2. Scan the image to be used to take consumers to the film clip.  Simple text (such as a standard business card) isn’t good enough, for this image technology to work properly, it must be a reasonably complex (unique) image (eg a photograph of someone – with text as well, if desired).
3. The creator must make a short film clip (that will be associated with the above image). This is the second most likely area to fail – neglecting to objectively consider what’s in it for consumers (why they’ll want to watch/listen, as distinct from what farmers think they should be told!). Obviously films of food producers must be well filmed, short and well edited; but also personal and informative from a consumer’s point of view. If too much poor quality AR content is created, consumers will stop bothering to take the time to check AR codes when they’re rushing around shopping.
4. Cards (labels, documents, whatever) are printed with the ‘augmented reality’ image on them, for people to scan with their smartphone.

Most businesses would obviously engage an in-house or external specialist (eg graphic designer) to create the ‘augmented reality’ image and produce the cards; and if it’s a sophisticated (potentially high profit) campaign, to make the film and everything else from go to whoa.  Although it wouldn’t be hard for anyone who is comfortable to tinker around with technology, filming, editing etc.

Ideally farming organisations will engage a company or in-house staff to help members produce these AR postcards and associated videos.  The benefit for the farming organisation is that they are able to help ensure the quality of the end product is high, and not in anyway open to negative interpretation (by animal rights activists, fanatical environmentalists and others quick to find fault).

What does a consumer have to do to use ‘augmented reality’?

1. Consumers download a free ‘Augmented reality’ (AR) app onto their smartphone.
2. Consumers then point their phone’s camera lens at the specially produced image – in this case, on the FarmersOnFilm postcard. The image on the postcard will be recognised by the app on the phone and after a few moments the phone will start playing the film that has been linked to the AR image.

‘Augmented reality’ images are effectively replacing the ugly and ad space-hogging Quick Response (QR) codes. So in the case of Farmers on Film, the postcards just have an interesting photograph of the farmer on them.

It’s amazingly brilliant technology and the potentially fabulous uses for agriculture are obvious!

Launch of the ‘FarmersOnFilm’, ‘smart postcards’

Video showcasing several Staffordshire food producers.

Free range chook, family farm (12,000 Rhode Island reds laying around 10,500 eggs daily)

Award-winning cheese producer (some of the films have subtitles, for example this version has French subtitles)

Sarah Gayton, the driver behind the FarmersOnFilm project.

I would absolutely love to see augmented reality cards linking to farmer films used in Australia! 

And used not just in conjunction with produce sold by farmers direct to customers via farmers markets, but also on produce in supermarkets.  A special image could be printed on every produce container (box  or packet label) containing food produced by a single farmer (eg cheese).  A ‘smart postcard’ could be included in every box of fruit and vegetables, which is then slotted into a card holder beside the fruit or vegetables when it’s put out for sale. Every customer who is interested can use their smart phone to see exactly not just where this particular crop came from, but who actually grew it!  Products containing food produced by a number of farmers (eg milk) could have a general video showing several typical farmers from the same region. Brilliant!

Something vital for Australian food & fibre industries to consider right now:

Ideally one app/programme would be chosen for use by the whole of Australian agriculture. This would make it far more likely that Australian consumers would download just that one app and use it to view farm production films across a wide range of food retail outlets – from farmers markets to supermarkets.  It must be made as easy for consumers as possible, to maximise use.  It would be disastrous if there were a plethora of AR programmes in use, because at the moment it looks like there is not yet a standard.  Everyone is busy and it would deter consumers from taking the time to use AR if they have to fiddle around downloading additional apps. AR potential and issues should be being discussed by national farmer groups right now!

Accurate origin labelling – at long last!

Potentially, the Australian Federal Government could make AR labelling compulsory – at least for all products purporting to be Australian in origin. (Absence of an AR label could be used to indicate non-Australian grown/produced items.)  On the other hand, market forces may work to encourage it anyway. The age-old problem with labelling is that it’s very hard to fit all the necessary marketing and legal information (eg an ingredients list) onto what is a very small space – let alone extra detail. An AR code enables EXTRA detail to be provided. (Extra information – to supplement what should remain compulsory on all food & product labelling.  The public must not be required to use a phone and internet access to view basic labelling information.)  Smart Australian food producers and manufactures would embrace this as a marketing bonus. In relation to agricultural products, a compulsory AR code could include:

Where the food or fibre was:

• Grown
• Processed
• Packed

Plus:

• Whether the company is Australian owned, or what percentage is Australian owned; eg 100%, >75%, >50% or <50%.  This is the vital bit of information currently difficult to ascertain on many food products on supermarket shelves. Such as the rice bran I was looking to buy recently. Sure the company had an Australian office listed on the label – but it looked very much like a 100% imported product by a 100% overseas-owned company, based who-knows-where.
• As well as what is currently included on standard labels – the full name of the company and contact details.

I am really looking forward to being able to point my phone at a label beside a box of capsicums in our local supermarket, and see – on film – exactly which Burdekin farmer grew the food I’m about to buy!  And the education possibilities re geography, climate, seasonal differences, the growing cycle, packaging and transport – etcetera – are mind boggling.

Please contact me if you have any suggestions for additions or clarifications of the above information.  This has been evolving over many years but the use described above is very new.

•  National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC, Australia) 2013 Dietary Guidelines. Page 3: “Most Australians need more….lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds and legumes/beans (except many Australian men would benefit from eating less red meat).” And page 21: 1-3 serves per day are recommended from this group; 455g lean, cooked* read meat is recommended per week; and children and young women may need to increase their intake. *Page 22; 65g cooked read meat is estimated to weigh 90-100g raw.
• George Monbiet, UK Guardian Newspaper “I was wrong about veganism”
• The Atlantic newspaper “The healthiest people eat a moderate amount of red meat & poultry but as little processed meat as possible.”  This research has been widely reported in Australia and elsewhere and is often deliberately misquoted as ‘all meat eating is bad for you and can cause cancer’ when in fact it is specifically processed meat (salami, ham, bacon etc) that has been implicated in negative health effects if consumed in large quantities.
• Lierre Keith’s “The Vegetarian Myth” book & Lierre Keith  Interview on YouTube (USA).
• “Meat – A Benign Extravagance”; info on the book by Simon Fairlie (UK) in ‘Permaculture’; and an interview with Rhys Southan
• “Let them eat meat” blog by ‘ex vegan’ Rhys Southan; includes interviews with others who have given up veganism.

Here’s some positive views about the good domestic livestock can do for the environment:

• Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms (USA).
• Terry McCosker’s Resource Consulting Services (Queensland).  Many Australian farmers have attended RCS courses and land condition improved as a result, for example.
• There is a large number of farmer and livestock producer groups on LinkedIn, especially in America, whose members discuss improved livestock and land management practices on a daily basis. There are too many of these groups to list!
• There are also a number of permaculture/sustainable management groups on LinkedIn; also discussing improved food and fibre production and environmental health improvements daily.
• There are a huge number of blogs now directly written by hands-on farmers in Australia; as well as Facebook groups and a huge and expanding network of rural residents on Twitter.  Ask An Aussie Farmer is an excellent Facebook page where agricultural questions can be asked and answered by hands-on people working in the farming and livestock industries.

All of the above sources include the writings of very thoughtful people; who know the complexities of their topic well.  I recommend anyone who remains sceptical after reading the above sources, arranges some genuinely open-minded visits to a range of Australian farms (including a far northern cattle station).  Anyone who does this would discover how much the average farmer loves the land and animals.  Farmers are hands-on environmentalists.

I haven’t read Lierre Keith’s book (only found out about it today) but this television interview is very interesting.  Lierre explains how being vegan “becomes who you are” and that vegans close their ears to any evidence put in front of them that doesn’t fit in with the beliefs they’ve adopted. This is of course a classic human trait – denial – something most of us do when we want to continue believing we’ve made the right choices in life, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.  When someone comes along with facts pointing out we are wrong, there is a tendency to want to shoot the messenger; especially when we’ve invested a lot of ourselves.

Lierre explains the human body adapted to be dependent on nutrients obtained from meat over millions of years of evolution, and that not eating any meat can have severe health consequences.  Of which she can speak from first-hand experience.  She is against factory farming and in the 24th minute of the above interview describes cattle grazing on native grasses, in harmony with native animals and birds, as an ideal and permanently sustainable food production environment. Lierre doesn’t know it, but she’s described the average cattle station in northern/inland Australia perfectly.

During the interview the term ‘agriculture’ is used to describe crop growing; and America’s corn industry and relationship with feedlotting features quite a bit. This is quite different to the Australian situation, where feedlotting is relatively new and not a huge part of Australian livestock production.  Especially in Australia, (due to limited soil fertility and unreliable rainfall) there are very good reasons for not growing grain specifically to feed to cattle (as distinct from feeding livestock underweight or grain otherwise unsuitable for human consumption for whatever reason, or hay to feed out in times of drought).

What is the same worldwide, however, is that crops are usually grown as monocultures. By necessity, no native flora or fauna can be found existing amongst crops. This is something consistently ignored by those who keep saying meat eating hurts animals whereas eating only plants does not. The latter negatively affects animals, it’s just that most aren’t cute and cuddly domestic species, and they’re killed or displaced indirectly.

Lierre doesn’t mention how crops should be grown – and we do need to grow them. Crops should be done on a rotational basis and amongst belts of preserved native flora – home for native species.

Oddly, permaculture isn’t mentioned at all in the interview though permaculture principles fit in perfectly with what Lierre Keith believes. Permaculture principles are what we all should be aiming to follow as much as possible, for our own survival and that of the environment.

Unsurprisingly, the internet is filled with vitriolic, derisive comments from vegans about Lierre’s book and beliefs.  No doubt why her twitter account is dormant.