"The Scientist" - Cold Play

Friday is Music Day around here and I wanted to post Cold Play singing "The Scientist"
to commemorate the passing of my good friend and Tech guru Nick Hatton.
Nick passed away after a short illness at the age of 39 leaving his wife Bron and son Will.
He was a selfless person with skills that will not be replaced.
Some of you may have had the occassion to have Nick fix your computer remotely,as when a client had a problem, all I would have to do is call Nick and the response was "not a problem we'll get that sorted".
So thanks Nick, you were truly one of a kind.  Rest In Peace.

Sam Promotes Aussie Lamb

Sam Kekovich has released the annual Lamb advertisment just in time for Australia Day.

Are you having lamb on Australia Day ? Is it Grass fed Lamb ?

Watch this clever video promoting Australian Lamb.

Sheep Farmer Rob Shares More

This is the 2nd half of Rob's Talk at Nourishing Australia's Event in Armidale.

Rob - Walcha Farmer talks about Health

Rob Blomfield from Walcha was one of the speakers at Nourishing Australia's event at Armidale NSW. Even though I have never met Rob he is a typical sheep producer passionate about both his land and his sheep.Over the next 2 days I will feature 2 videos of his talk about some decision he made about his health and how that changed his life.

Young Aussie Farmers with Allan Savory

I know I have featured this before but I think it is so great it is well worth revisiting in 2012 Australian Year of the Farmer. Allan Savory was the guest of Graham & Cathy Finlayson in July 2011.
This is a great example of how young Australian farmers are seeking knowledge from Allan savory Father of Holistic Management.
Even though Allan has a lifetime of experience,he quite often would answer a question on that day by saying "I don't know I am still learning". That to me is a key to success,never close yourself off to learning.
This video is a short 12 minute video from our visit out in the paddock where Graham and Allan are speaking to a group of around 100 people.

The Boys From the Bush - Lee Kernaghan

Those of you who followed my blog in the past will know Friday is Music day and I will select a you tube video on someone for some reason, mainly because it is their birthday.
This week I am featuring country music start Lee Kernaghan and his song "The Outback Club" from 1992.
According to Wikipedia : 

Lee Kernaghan
Country musician Lee Kernaghan
Background information
Birth name	Lee Raymond Kernaghan
Born	15 April 1964 (age 47) in Corryong, Victoria
Origin	Australia
Genres	Country
Occupations	Songwriter, composer, musician
Years active	1969–present
Labels	Universal, ABC
Associated acts	The Blue Devils Fiona Kernaghan Ray Kernaghan Tania Kernaghan
Website	http://www.leekernaghan.com.au/

Lee Kernaghan OAM (born 15 April 1964 in Corryong, Victoria) is an Australian country music singer and songwriter. He was the 2008 Australian of the Year.

Farmers Taking a Holistic Approach

Farming has always been a moving organism if you think about it, yet we have tended to farm in a linear fashion using methods that come from another environment.This can work for a while however eventually environment will win out, you cannot fight nature.
When Allan Savory came up with Holistic Management with decision making tools that reflected working in harmony with nature,he recognised we have many many balls in the air to manage at once.
I have over the last 15 years seen some quite amazing results for the biodiversity of the land,where farmers have taken on a Holistic approach.Today many of these farmers run a low cost very profitable business,yet they are building topsoil,increasing carbon,carrying capacity has increased and the people are living the life they love.

Over 20 years ago Terry McCosker of RCS introduced this concept through his 7 day "Grazing For Profit School",People like Bruce Ward and Brian Marshall introduced Allan's Holistic Training shortly after.Now there are also many others here in Australia teaching these concepts.
Here is a recent video produced by the Savory Institute that will give you some insight in to Holistic Management.

The Sheep Farmer & His Banker

First let me thank Jesse for comments on my choice of video posted last night,that video does not represent my views on how farmers should be perceived.The creator of the video however had some perceptions on farmers and I think it is always good to know what others are saying.
Sometimes however you will find I post the often weird off topic things just because......

Ok that said today I am posting a video that tells a story about a sheep producer at Moulamein and his relationship with his banker.Even though the video it was put together by a bank, there are some great things spoken as well as some great images into one sheep producer.

What is a Farmer ?

So in this Australian Year of the Farmer let's start with the defintion of a Farmer ; according to Wikipedia :
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain. A farmer might own the farmed land or might work as a labourer on land owned by others, but in advanced economies, a farmer is usually a farm owner.

My take on it is this every human on the planets is a consumer of food produced by a farmer, when it is the food they produced themselves then they are the farmer.Farmers make up a small demographic yet they feed 100% of the people on planet Earth.

So a Farmer is a "Food Producer" who not only feeds the world,he/she also manages most of the land resource on planet Earth.Farmers have great respect for the land and water resources and I like to think of farmers as caretakers of the resources for future generations.
Here is a short animated video of What is a Farmer :

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Australian Year of the Farmer

This picture has so much meaning to it with the father of Holistic Management Allan Savory during his visit to former Young NSW Farmer of the Year : Graham & Cathy Finlayson's property at Brewarrina in 2011.
Education and succession planning are just two important parts of designing a positive,sustainable and profitable future for farmers.
2012 has been designated the "Australian Year of the Farmer" which I think is a huge opportunity for Farmers or Food Producers to display the diversified array of daily life as they go about managing the land resource and producing food.
During the last 12 months I have come to realise the importance of food and it's relationship with health issues.
This is a real opportunity for everyone to engage in real meaningful dialogue about the one thing that as humans we require besides oxygen and water and that is food.
Over he last 18 months I have had discussions about food with people from around the world, many many people who reside and work in the city and each and every one of them left me amazed at their attitude toward farmers.Sometimes the noisy lobby group leaves us thinking everyone is against farmers,I don't believe that to be the case at all.
I was sitting in a crowd of 1,000's in Disneyland 18 months ago when I got talking to lady while we waited for the fireworks.She was there with her young son and resided in Manhattan yet all we talked about was food and how important to her healthy food was for her young son.
So I am going to get the blog out in a more regular fashion this year and help take the message of what Farmers or Food and Fibre Producers do to manage the resource they have to produce healthy food.
Get involved subscribe on the right to receive my post updates or send me photos,stories or videos so I can feature them on my blog.
Watch this video featuring Glen McGrath on Australian Year of the Farmer.