Belt-buckle Aristocracy

Mrs W and I were invited up to Townsville to present at an agricultural event called Next-Gen Ag Forum, by A Place To Call Home, which is a podcast run by event organiser, Sam Fryer.

This was our 3rd time up in Far North Queensland.

Our first visit was in 2022, we flew up with Otto & Theo, then 5 & 2.

We hired a Ford Ranger and a 25 foot caravan. I, who had barely ever driven with a trailer before, set off on our FNQ adventure. I'd like to think I did fairly well, except one caravan park really put me at my limits.

Walking up to our site neighbours with hat in hand, I said "How are you? I'm Jake, and I'm here to eat humble pie".

Our neighbour responded "Want help reversing mate? No worries! We'll get this sorted out".

Impressively, our site neighbour - a father travelling with his wife and 3 children - backed the unit in on his first attempt from where I had it parked. Maybe I was on the right track!

We were venturing to Mount Pleasant for Australia's first Nguni Field Day, and had a great time seeing how cattle were run up in this land.

My second trip was to Rockhampton, to present at the Central Queensland Landscape Alliance. A fantastic event and great group of people, sponsored by Nutrisoil.

This event left the same impression.

FNQ is a vast, wild, wet, hot and relentless place. Ticks, flies, typhoons, large wild game, humidity - more production pressures than you can poke a stick at.

This pressure cooking environment has done more than create specific genetics and management styles, it's created a unique culture and class of Aussies.

When I'm with these folks, I feel like I'm hanging out with belt buckle aristocracy.

When I'm invited to different groups around Australia for a keynote there's a couple questions I ask the event organised.

"What would you like me to speak on?"

It's generally a select few topics. Our origin story, our production models, value adding and fit for purpose livestock concepts.

Then I ask, "Friendly crowd? Or am I here to get a reaction?"

I'm not deliberately provocative. I try very deliberately to not let outside pressure, commentary and criticism affect and change the way that I do things, while still keeping an open mind and being hungry for information. I protect my muse.

It's a fine line.

Some crowds that I present to are "my people". They have been on a food healing journey of their own. They have mixed enterprise farms. They celebrate organic farming and local food solutions.

Others are stud breeding societies, or government groups, looking for interesting and engaging presentations but not necessarily on our same page. I don't change my presentation to pander to different groups, but I do appreciate a heads up as then I know what kind of room I am walking into.

I would think that my message of stacked enterprises, direct to market sales, vertical integration and value adding is probably the least applicable to these broad acre pastoralists than anyone else in Ag.

Their scale is immense, the environment brutal and access to markets is far. They have every reason to dismiss my talking points and thought exercises as small time fluff - but they don't.

The people I've met on my FNQ trips are sophisticated, intelligent, curious and supportive. 

The conversations over beers at the end of the day are always a highlight. There is lots of diversity of practices and mentalities, underlined by a tight community spirit and camaraderie.

If I could handle the heat and humidity I'd try to get my foot in the door up here. I'd love to fly to work in a helicopter!