Lightening Online

This time of year around here is a vitally important one. It’s the time that we need to harvest our crops. Timing is crucial because at the ripe stage is when our grain is at it’s most vulnerable. Once the crop is ripe, there is the potential to lose thousands of dollars in a day.

As a farmer’s wife you tend to become a “harvest widow” as all focus is turned toward the harvest and getting that crop off and delivered to the silos. When I was a young bride, I was stunned at the blinkers my husband seemed to wear during the busy seasons on the farm. Nothing existed in life other than the job at hand (whether that be seeding or harvest or shearing….). He’s a bit better these days and it helps that we’re not currently doing as many acres (and it’s been quite a few years now since we’ve had a big crop to reap due to low rainfall issues) but it’s still a busy and high pressure time of year.

The Header was reaping in the paddock next to the house a couple of days ago so I took some photographs to show you.

This Header doesn’t belong to us (no way we could afford it). We have an agreement with Farmboy’s father which allows us to make use of his header to reap our crop. One day we’ll have to buy our own header and it won’t be anywhere near as big or as flash as this one.

In some parts of the world (ie the US) these machines are referred to as Combine Harvesters. Here, we call them Headers.

Basically they cut off the top part of the crop (where the head is that contains the seed) and thresh out all the seed. The seed goes in the box (which is rather full in this picture) and the chaff gets blown out the back.

This is what the header looks like from the front:

I find these machines quite intimidating. Front on they look like a monster that’s just ready to eat me up (and I suspect I’d come off second best if I did end up being run over by one).

And here is the rather full Header pulling up to unload into the truck:

The Truck IS ours. This is only our second harvest with it and Farmboy is still in love. He’d been wanting to get a truck for a very long time and our old one really wasn’t up to the task of carting the grain. This one makes the job a lot easier and can cart more in a load (meaning we need to take less trips to the silo).

Harvest is currently the only time the boys work in together (Farmboy, his brother and his dad). It’s kind of a bittersweet occasion this year though as Farmboy’s brother has decided to leave farming so it’s their last season together.

It’s also a horrible time of year for me because I’m allergic to grain dust. I have no one to blame but myself really. I knew this before I married Farmboy. While we were “dating”, I climbed up onto the header they had at the time and ended up coming out in hives. Great idea to go ahead and marry a farmer knowing I’m so allergic to grain dust. At least it’s something treatable. But it does leave me feeling rather drained at this time of year as my body fights the allergens in my system.

Once upon a time it was also a fun time to watch the bank account as most of our year’s income would come in within the space of a few weeks. Of course, most of the money coming in goes out again to put the next crop in but it was still fun to watch. Not so much in the past years with poor yield’s and other factors affecting our income. Hopefully that fun will return again one day. Right now we are very thankful to have the crops that we do have. While they may not be fantastic, they’re a definite improvement on nothing.

I’m a bit behind when it comes to news. I don’t watch it as a general rule. Too depressing really. While we were away, I visited a news website in search of something and the headlines greeting me were along the lines of “SA farmers watch crops die”. Oh good. We went away figuring at least we wouldn’t have to watch our crops die. See, news is bad. Not knowing is much better!!!

Of course, the down side to not watching the news is that I never really know what’s going on. However, most of the “important” stuff tends to filter through in blog posts, conversation and of course, those great comedy shows we have here that are based on news headlines.

In fact, I was watching one last night (okay, half watching). One I haven’t seen before. Something to do with the question or along those lines. And I happened to catch a question about the renaming of the drought.

WHAT?

Yes, apparently some very bright (and possibly overpaid) bunny has come up with the idea that if change the word “drought” to “dry”, farmers won’t feel so bad.

GOVERNMENT experts say the word “drought” is making farmers feel bad and want people to use the word “dryness” instead to describe Australia’s worst “lack of rain” in a century. Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24540442-5009760,00.html

Of Course!!!! Why didn’t I think of that???? That changes EVERYTHING!!!!

“Words like drought … have negative connotations for farm families,” the report said.

NEWS FLASH: It’s not the WORDS that have negative connotations for farming families. It’s working your butt off all year for NOTHING!!!!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with farming, drought is actually a NORMAL part of the weather cycle. Most farmers are reasonable business-people and will be prepared for a drought. It does depend on where you live as to how normal weather patterns in terms of drought might affect you. Around here we work on 1 in 7 years being a severe drought. We also work on 1 in 7 years being when we’ll actually MAKE any money. The other 5 flutter around the “average” mark. In other parts of Australia, it’s not uncommon to have more years of drought and perhaps more in a row.

The problem in recent years has been EXTENDED drought. Most farmers in this area coped fine with the first drought. Many even managed to survive the second year of drought (actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that - the 2nd year here wasn’t actually a drought - we were badly affected by very low grain prices). When you tip into a 3rd year of going backwards in terms of the farms cash flow balance, the stress starts to show. In all honesty, I’ve lost count of the number of years in a row where we have either gone backwards or simply “survived” (enough to cover the bills and not really go backwards but not enough to catch up from the years we’ve gone backwards).

I’m kind of confused though, as to how a panel of “experts” can come up with the idea that changing the word “drought” to “dryness” is part of the solution to the ongoing problem Australia is facing right now in terms of rainfall. Yes, drought has a negative connotation. But aren’t we only playing with semantics here? Will changing the word Earthquake to “a little shaking” change the devastation that an Earthquake can wreak? Perhaps we’ll change Tsunami to “oversized waves”?

In fairness, I went to check out the report being quoted by various media. The media love to grab hold of the tiniest snippet and sensationalize it. I hope they don’t feel like they’re “helping” because in reality they’re not. All they’re doing is removing the focus from the real problems and possible solutions.

I’m trying to wade my way through the actual report but it’s 160 pages long and I’m tired.

Here’s what I DO know:

• We live in a very blessed country that works hard to look after ALL of it’s citizens. While the system may not be perfect, we are grateful for the assistance that has been given by the government to date. Like all systems, there are those who’ll go to any lengths for a “freebie” even if they don’t need it. Those kinds of people make me mad and in all honesty, I hope Karma comes and bites them on the bum at some point. There are others who fall through the cracks for one reason or another. They are a concern. As are those who are so connected to the farm that they feel living in such circumstances is just no longer a viable option and take their own lives (thankfully we haven’t seen too much of that around these parts this time around).
• I know many farmers are nervous because past Labor governments have made it quite clear that they don’t value farmers as a vital part of our economy or community. Let’s hope the current Labor government doesn’t share that attitude.
• Farmers are incredibly adaptable people. They’re constantly adapting to the conditions set before them. Given time, if these conditions are here to stay, they will adapt. Assistance may be needed in the interim and funding into research and technology can help in the long-term.
• Name changes really isn’t going to get to the heart of the problem. While solutions are complex and will vary from situation to situation, I think the suggestion to change the terminology from “drought” to “dryness” is just plain stupid.

You can read more on this at National Review of Drought Policy.

Lambing season is drawing to a close here on Farm Lightening (hee, hee, wonder what Farmboy would think if he knew I’d renamed his farm????) .

The other day Farmboy and his brother had all the ewes in with their lambs and Farmboy was able to count how many lambs he has this year. He was extremely happy with our final lambing percentage for the year which was well over 100%. Meaning we had a lot of twins born this year.

Twins are great. You kind of get two for the price of one.

Of course, they do come with their own risks. It’s not unusual for Farmboy to have to assist a mother with giving birth to a second lamb.

It’s a busy time for Farmboy as he needs to keep a closer eye on the sheep than usual. Not that he’s out there with them all the time or anything but he likes to check them at least once a day.

This photo shows two very newborn lambs that Farmboy delivered. It’s not very clear because it’s been taken from quite a distance back. It’s important not to get too close to newborn lambs and their mother. But if you look closely, you can see that the lambs are still partly covered in blood and afterbirth.

Lambs are one of my favourite part of living on a farm. They are so cute running around after their mums in the paddock.