Not backyard farming but farming in general
Had a couple of Perthites visiting yesterday and discussion at beer o'clock started on the old whinging cocky (farmer) one visitor said farmers are rolling in cash have you seen the price of Meat, Bread, Milk etc, as I have lived most of my adult life in the farming zones, this was like a red rag to a bull
so started my rant.....I actually have seen the prices of the things we need most, as we like everyone else have to eat as well, but to put things into perspective..............
Lamb is around $30 - $35 per KG farmer is paid $1.65 KG live weight which converts to about $2.50 kg Carcass weight.... Farmer has to feed, shear and water the lambs for 6 - 9 months, pay for transportation after sale, abattoirs have to kill and process them which would take about an hour..........the meat works make a little bit more than the farmer so who pockets the profits? same is for beef which in Coles the other day was as high as $42 per KG for decent cuts and 1 avg T bone was $15 ea, farmer gets slightly more for cattle and they take longer to cut up hence the higher KG price at the shop............ who pockets the Profits, the cheaper beef cuts are not generally farm beef, wild station cattle or even buffalo from NT, it is why it is so tough, Pork is reasonably cheap but you will find most is imported
Last year the farm gate milk price was about 40c a litre, again the farmer has to feed the cows, milk the cows and supply all the plant and equipment and pay for transportation
A ton of wheat makes just over 2400 loaves of bread, the farmer gets about $200 per ton, a loaf of bread costs on Avg $3 or about $7200 per ton of wheat, the farmer has to transport the grain to the receival point, then the freight from the receival point to either the port or local mills is deducted from his $200 generally around $15 per ton as are other storage costs, the machinery needed to put the crop in and take it off include
Tractor up to 450hp (chillidude and Faye got to play with the bigger one on there visit) cost up to $475,000
Seeding equipment cost approx $150,000
Spray equipment cost $100,000+
smaller tractor to tow spray equipment $100,000
Front end loader $100,000+
Truck and bin to load seeding equipment $50,000+
Harvester $660,000
This is bare minimum equipment, but not yearly outlay
other costs yearly
Fertilizer $200,000+
Chemical $150,000+
The 450hp tractor burns 1000lt of fuel a day for around 6weeks so even with subsidized fuel $42,000+
Crop and Machinery insurance
Most farmers employ casuals to drive equipment during seeding and harvest
Tax
Bank loan and Overdraft repayments
A 5000 acre farm harvesting 5000 tonne a wheat after freight and other costs would earn about $800,000, but take off even the yearly costs, doesn't leave much.
And if it doesn't rain or we get severe frost, outlay is the same return can be less than half to $0, you can't insure against no rain or frosts
Whinging Rich Cocky
I think not, sure there are some rich farmers but certainly less than the old days, farm land is worth good money down here, avg $1000 per acre, 5000 acre farm = $5m, but if you had a spare $5m would you buy a farm? not me I would party up for the rest of my days, so really the Whinging Cocky has huge unsalable assetsThat ended my rant to them and I doubt they could see where I was coming from, don't blame the farmer for prices, find the fat cats that are raping the system.
I was surprised they actually knew that milk came from a farm, we have had a few similar discussions over the years and have asked people if the did know where milk came from and many times the answer has been Coles, woolies, Deli
true story, mainly from the younger gen y's So ends my big rant here, I have at least one a year
))
now almost the best time of the day...........Beer O'Clock
they are a bit dearer than the thirsty camel, bottle mart etc but we rack up up enough points a year for some xmas bottles we wouldn't normally buy, i.e expensive bourbon and some flash woobla for the missus, and also support locals and keep local money local, I must admit the hotels that have Bottle Mart etc are also locally owned but they pay for the privileged of using the name and also get dictated to what specials they can have, more and more these outlets are pushing imported beer and wine, our local liquor store buys in local and other western Australian wine the others sell only eastern state and imported stuff as with beer our local shop puts on special what the locals drink, the others South American and European beers mainly, I would love to know who owns TC and BM may check when time permits, BWS is Woolies owned