For those who love or hate Dick (Smith)

[SDQDI]

I see ONLY corperate owners making money in farming. Some are family corperates but bottom line without capital an investment only the banks win.Feedlots are a littl different, firstly they buy and sell, someone is producing for them both cattle and grain, making profit and taxes etcetc. If the final stage is a nil result not too bad

 

We are seeing more integrate from ground upwards.

 

A tax free and nil debt farm in Australia will do very nicely, well above the odds for anyother investment.

A few posts before yours jet someone said that generally corporates are less successful at farming which IMO is just as wrong as your post. In my limited time farming I have seen both corporate and family owned farms both succeed and fail and IMO most of it comes down to bad management, yes weather can play a big part and has ruined a few but nowhere near as many as mismanagement has. In our local area most of the farms are family owned and are quite successful.

We also hear a lot about about farmers being big gamblers and big crybabies always looking for a handout at the first opportunity. I personally don't think that is generally the case, actually most of the farmers I know (and yes I am one myself) could be better described as conservative in the sense that they don't take big risks.

 

Yes we are more susceptible to weather events than most industries and yes commodity prices can and do change drastically overnight which can all make a huge difference in our income but the majority of farmers IMO take all that into account and still manage to turn a profit in the long run.

 

As for foreign ownership, someone mentioned they buy up all the broke places and make a go of them which I also think is a bit optimistic. I've on,y been close to a few foreign purchases and they were ALL viable farms to start with. Why weren't they bought by locals? Well in those cases the money paid was well above what the locals could or would pay for them. Can you blame joe blogs for selling to foreign owners when he is retiring because the kiddies don't want the farm? Not at all, every extra dollar he can get will help him in his retirement.

 

As a side note, I think the days when you could purchase a farm and pay it off from that farm are well and truly gone, now you need to have a good viable farm to start with before you would even think of it let alone before the bank would give you a go.

 

 

[Robbo]

Oh, I dunno mate,. . . .When I lived in Mellbourne in 1972, I thought that "Franco Cozzo" Furniture stores, and his radio ads were brilliant and funny, he couldn't speak much English, but his line at the end of each ad :. . . . "Franco Cozzo - ina Norda Melbon ana Fuddiscray. . ." Priceless,. . . 3XY radio DJ Rick Melbourne even wrote a song about him. . .I don't think this did Franco's business any harm ! ! ! ! ( Might have terrified the ad agency guys though )

https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Franco+Cozzo&safe=active&tbm=vid

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix90TQ9vXOU