"Terryc" wrote in message
...
fair statement - but many things are cheap or free.

They are the easy ones. For this farm and I guess many others, the major
changes are not free. e.g. sodd seeder is ~$500K, which farm can not
borrow without absolute guarantee of water to grow crops to make sales to
make repayments.

yes, i understand. in fact, have a similar problem myself - we don't have
the capital atm for better fences & other inputs & so forth in order to do
things to bring forward the day that the farm pays its own mortgage (never
mind making a profit!!) so i realise how impossible the situation can be. it
doesn't stop anyone from starting to do the cheaper things, though, which is
where i suspect the solution lies more effectively if everyone got involved,
however, the time that's already passed while a fairly conservative
community wasn't doing very much due to being in denial has now been wasted.

it bothers me that any govt programs about farming don't seem to reward
looking forward, it's more about propping up what's already not working.
but, don't get me started on governments g it's absolutely not their
fault, but the glacial pace of change they pursue (or not) just makes me
insane sometimes.

lastly, even though i grew up in an irrigation area, i can't claim to know
masses about the subject, however, it seems odd to me that for so long
people have had faith that irrigated water would always be available despite
the inherent lack of logic in thinking that. which doesn't mean it's not
entirely unfair that people have been promised access they can't now get
(etc etc). the other thing i notice about our home town is that most of the
farmers there are really backwards g, & i wonder if access to irrigation
has created a mindset that is part of the problem - i.e. just take your
water & grow rice or grapes & everything's sweet. instead for clamouring for
a share of something that's no longer there to be had, it might be more
effective to think about different types of crops or livestock instead,
instead of everyone getting involved in fighting for access to something
it's becoming clearer that nobody has absolute right to. signing a piece of
paper doesn't mean the river is going to be full. this is the sort of thing
i mean.

I know there are plenty of famers who are doing the right thing, but I
also know there are quite a few that are trapped by current circmstances.

BTW this farm actually had shelter belts and salt bush planting, plus
other stuff well before it was even widely considered. It is also
returning one area to native vegetation.

well, good luck to your relatives, i hope it goes all right.
kylie