Minimising transition stress
The Weekly Advertiser welcomes new contributor Craig Altmann to the newspaper’s monthly Aglife feature. Mr Altmann, who grew up in Jeparit, attended Longerenong College and has gained extensive industry experience in business and general farming, is a seed and marketing sales agronomist with Australian Grain and Forage Seeds, AGF, and has volunteered to provide his thoughts on the industry and season throughout the year.
It was in the Coonawarra area, mid 2000s, at a producer group meeting where the farmer guest speaker – let’s call him ‘John’ – spoke about the management side of his business.
John shared his secret to successfully reducing stress and not making decisions on the run.
His story has remained with me and since been reinforced many times.
Where John farms is relatively reliable compared with the distribution area of The Weekly Advertiser.
Still, around this time he had endured the rare experience of all but missing out on a spring.
Since then, there’s been repeats of this experience to varying degrees, bringing with it business and personal vulnerability and anxiety.
Similarly, autumn 2019 sees farmers, agronomists, consultants, advisors and so on considering production and financial aspects such as timing of the break, seasonal rain forecasts, when we’ll need feed, hay and silage requirements, disease and weed control, herbicide residuals, marketing issues – for example commodity price forecasts, varieties, sowing seed availability, fertiliser and pesticide prices and availability, giving input suppliers time and commitment, labour requirements, optimal flowering periods, cash flow and gross margins.
The reason I’m sharing this story is because it is a story of transition during the seasons and the flexibility and resilience required.
Whether you’re cropping or grazing, currently, decisions are being made, and changed just as quick in some cases.
So, John’s message of monitoring, measuring, flexibility and using strategic trigger points, is again relevant this year to minimise last-minute decisions and reduce stress.
Funny coincidence – I was just about to finish and email this column, while stepping out of an event, only to hear presenter Simon Vogt of Rural Directions begin talking about the management traits and characteristics of the top 20 percent of farm businesses. There were six key points: • System focus; • The ability to take a big-picture overview when under pressure; • Internalise and take responsibility for key business decisions; • Focusing energy in circle of control; • Being able to implement against key profit drivers; and • Be observant to emerging trends.