Jan Davis: Glass is full to overflowing

Farmers are nature’s optimists – they have to be, or it would be a huge struggle to get out of bed every day. Their natural inclination is to see opportunities and positives, not hurdles and negatives. They take risks you and I would find unimaginable. They believe everything will turn out well – the weather will be good, commodity prices will rise, the cheque will come in. And, by and large, they’re generally right – if not this season, then next season.

Just this week, there has been yet another report confirming this. The latest Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey has found Australian farmer confidence has bounced strongly to levels last seen three years ago.

Good autumn rains across much of the nation’s key cropping regions and southern grazing areas is behind much of the upswing, as is the outlook for commodity markets. Longer-term confidence in the agricultural sector is also sound, with farmers revealing their plans around succession. Close to two-thirds of farmers are actively looking to incorporate the next generation into their business either through transfer of asset or shared ownership.

The survey – completed last month – reported a strong lift in overall confidence levels led by the improved outlook for beef and sheep, as well as grains. Dairy farmers remained the most upbeat about their prospects for the coming year.

Overall, 40 per cent of farmers expect conditions in the agricultural economy to improve (up from 29 per cent in the previous survey) while 44 per cent expect similar conditions to last year. Those expecting conditions to worsen nearly halved to 15 per cent this quarter, down from 27 per cent.

Nelson Mandela once said, “If we have confidence in ourselves, in our country, in our future, we’re bound to succeed in all our efforts…”

There’s a great local example of what this sort of positive attitude can deliver happening right here in our own yard while you are reading this.

The new $104 million Midlands Irrigation Scheme is the flagship project in Tasmania’s massive water development program. From this week, the pipelines for this scheme will deliver 38,500 megalitres of water each year into the Isis, Macquarie and Jordan River valleys. After generating 6 megawatts of power, enough to drive the scheme’s water pumps and provide power to 5000 homes, the water will flow downstream to 68 farms in some of the state’s driest areas.

The Midlands irrigation scheme will provide many new options for the area’s traditional dryland farms to consider – including dairying and high value irrigated crops like grapes, vegetables, fruit trees and poppies. Importantly, it will also enable many farmers to drought-proof their paddocks, so they will never again experience the heartbreak they saw a few years back.

Farmers have contributed two thirds of the cost of this scheme from their own pockets. However, that only gets the water to their farm gates – the expected investment to deliver usable water into the paddocks is around $5 for every one dollar in scheme infrastructure cost. So these 68 farmers have stumped up more than half a billion dollars to secure their futures. And the Midlands scheme is simply one of many being rolled out across the state.

Tasmanian farmers are confident enough in the future to put their money where their mouths are. They have borrowed money, dug into their superannuation, cashed in non-farm assets – done whatever it takes – to stake their claim in a better future for themselves and their families.

So why have we as the wider Tasmanian community accepted that it is alright to constantly focus on the negatives instead of the positives? Is it because bad news sells, or because a politician’s platform is generally one of the many problems that need fixing in their electorate, or just because that is the way people are? If we want our communities to grow and prosper, if we want our kids to see a future, if we want to reduce the stress of everyday living, then change is needed.

Imagine what could happen if we took a leaf out of the farmers’ book and started to see the glass as half full – or even full to overflowing?

We have to start appreciating the good things around us. So let’s all start looking at what we have and not at what we don’t have; and talking things up, instead of down – and see where that can take us.
TFGA chief executive Jan Davis