What interesting times we are living in. With all the chaos that is Covid-19, how great is it to be in Agriculture!! Its also extremely important we all support local businesses when we can as they will be doing it a lot tougher than us producers.
With recent rain, commodity prices holding, land prices increasing and a ripping start to the winter cropping program, it is a satisfying position to be in Ag. Unfortunately, irrigation water is always a challenge to access and there is a lot of runoff required in the hills for NSW general security to receive an allocation but with the wet start, the outlook is more positive than it has been for a bit.
We held a very successful half yearly branch meeting at Pretty Pine where we awarded 50 year growers. Thanks to Nutrien Ag Solutions (Ruralco and Landmark combined in 2019 to become Nutrien Ag Solutions) for supplying the drinks and BBQ for the evening. Congratulations to these farming families:
Alexander Allitt
Kenneth Crossley
Donald Douglas
Ian Douglas
Terry Duffy
John Hogan
Francesco & Anna Morona
Elsie May Pocklington
Evan Thomas
John Vagg
Also, congratulations to those growers that were able to grow a crop this year. Results sound positive and although it is a challenging harvest period, I hope the results are excellent.
I would like to thank all people in the water advocacy space who have been working so hard to bring to light issues we are facing in the southern connected system. While we all might not agree on the smaller details of process and procedure to obtain outcomes it is always important to remember we are all fighting for the same cause and any publicity or lobbying is welcome. This is not an easy task and it is easy to criticise but very difficult to produce results so I urge growers to reach out to these resources for any information you may need and get involved where you can.
Antony Vagg,
President Deniliquin RGA Branch
CLICK HERE for a full list of the 50 year growers and those that delighted us with their stories of rice growing in years past.