User Profile

Speculation mounts on farmgate milk prices

As farmers nervously await a definitive autumn break, speculation is concurrently intensifying around 2018–19 farmgate milk prices. Some processors have made early announcements, and more are likely to follow suit, as the battle to secure milk...

John Droppert

17 May 2019

Machinery & Products

For sale: wear and tear on patience

Buying things is easy, most of the time. Not as easy as it should be, of course. I for one have had far too many experiences along the lines of “Sorry mate, is me coming here to spend my money at your establishment an inconvenience to you?” In...

John Droppert

19 Apr 2019

Machinery & Products

I don’t need a compact tracked loader, do you?

With the new year well and truly upon us, the festivities and possible excess of the Christmas period are a fast-receding memory. So too, are the bold ambitions associated with new year’s resolutions. Paying down debt, simplifying the operation...

John Droppert

15 Feb 2019

Markets

Don’t forget global markets

WITH MANY eyes focused on the current feed shortage in Australia and resultant surge in feed costs, global markets have taken something of a back seat. Apart from helpful depreciation of the Australian dollar, there hasn’t been much to jolt our...

John Droppert

13 Dec 2018

Machinery & Products

Wrapping up a hypothetical silage venture

I’D BE willing to wager that every machinery enthusiast has their share of ‘aspirational’ purchases. The machines that you don’t strictly need, but with whose hypothetical selection and applications you preoccupy your spare time. I have...

John Droppert

13 Dec 2018

Machinery & Products

Should it be this hard?

SIMPLE THINGS please simple minds — or so the saying goes. That probably explains (at least partly) my decision to purchase a Chinese wheel loader. Simplicity was a major selling point. After all, who needs a 35 point suspension with 243 moving...

John Droppert

12 Oct 2018

Markets

South America starts to stir

SOUTH AMERICA, with its abundant natural resources, is an oft-cited land of opportunity for agricultural production, including dairy. However, volatile climatic and political conditions, together with widespread infrastructure challenges and...

John Droppert

12 Oct 2018

Machinery & Products

The toy for big boys

ONE OF my favourite toys as a child growing up was a 1:16 scale Case 580D backhoe, a proper, quality Ertl piece made to withstand the rigours of childhood play, and last. I wore the paint off that thing not only carpet farming indoors, but sandpit...

John Droppert

21 Aug 2018

Machinery & Products

Another diamond in the rough

AS REGULAR readers may know, there’s something of a restructure happening in both my thinking around machinery, and actual ownership. I don’t want to over-sell this: I’m a hobby farmer. But with a few projects nearing completion, a few...

John Droppert

13 Jul 2018

Markets

Tide turns but more needed to lift confidence

THE NEW dairy season has just commenced, and there is already plenty to keep track of. We have seen some of the highest opening prices ever announced coincide with farmer confidence hitting a multi-year low, more farmers than ever changing processor...

John Droppert

13 Jul 2018

Machinery & Products

A new era of grunt

SOME MONTHS ago, I wrote a column on these pages musing about the potential merits, or perhaps potential for merits, of Chinese tractors. Subsequent to that column, I had an unexpected need to do some extra earthmoving work to fill in for the...

John Droppert

15 Jun 2018

Machinery & Products

Considering the 2WD lifestyle

TWO WHEEL drive is a lifestyle I never really understood. Calling it a lifestyle (rather than simply a drivetrain configuration) may seem a little far-fetched, but bear with me. I grew up in a family that did earthmoving contracting with large equal...

John Droppert

11 May 2018

Machinery & Products

Isuzu SBR tipper keeps on truckin’

I don’t know much about trucks. Never have. In my orbit, they’re good for shifting tractors and machinery around. More generally, while trains are pretty awesome we don’t all live and work next to a railway siding, so it’s trucks that get it...

John Droppert

22 Apr 2018

Machinery & Products

Isuzu SBR tipper keeps on truckin’

John Droppert

12 Apr 2018

Machinery & Products

Why listen to warning signs?

Free advice is a wonderful thing. Everybody knows how to make a great ad; people who watch sports always seem to know from the couch where their team went wrong; everyone can tell you an ideal price for milk. Some say talk is cheap, but if the case...

John Droppert

06 Mar 2018

Markets

A mixed bag for Australian farmers

After the usual lull in trading activity over Christmas, dairy market participants are again taking stock of the supply and demand dynamic to try and get a read on the prospects for 2018. From an Australian perspective, it’s a mixed bag...

John Droppert

28 Feb 2018

From the Experts

Prepare for global milk surge

THERE’S STILL a month to go, but dairy markets aren’t spreading much Christmas cheer at the moment. Swelling milk production across major exporting regions has again been leaning on dairy commodity prices, a year after the most recent recovery...

John Droppert

28 Dec 2017

Machinery & Products

Replacing contractors with pure grunt

Recently, I have had cause to review my policy on ‘DIY vs hiring contractors’. Several times. A Council-ordained requirement to move around 300 cubic metres of fill for a construction project looked well in excess of what my venerable...

John Droppert

16 Nov 2017