Dear Lloyd and everybody, I suppose that dirty tactics is one way of living in the world. Just because that method of doing business is favoured by some does not mean that every one must follow it to succeed. I still don't understand how we can keep our heads down and not say anything to anybody about what we do. If there was no advertising in any way associated with an Arden Anderson or a Gary Zimmer tour how does the word get around. These tours are successful because people have worked out how to create events. Do you think that the recent tour by Hugh would have been successful without the inspiration and support of everyone who worked very hard to put the tour together? I suppose that it all depends what skills each person has in their bag of tricks and how much passion they are prepared to expend to try to get something to happen. On our refrigerator we have a little frig magnet that says that 'A life lived without passion is a life half lived'. I am passionate about what I do, for me it is my 'raison d'etre'. You also are passionate about what you do about your farming and trying to find better ways to overcome problems. One of the problems is that we have chosen to work on and with the land, it defines our philosophical viewpoints. To this extent we may tend to not be as entrepreneurial as a businessman who could take any one of our ideas and methods and make a business out of them. To get past the one man band, (if we should want to), requires the input of many different skills. It is my passion which is leading me along the path of seeing if I have entrepreneurial skills as well as problem solving skills. How is the crop planting going at Narrandera? Kind regards James Hedley.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Lloyd Charles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 8:15 AM Subject: Re: Austr. Workshop/ Was there a higher purpose? > > > Dear James, et. al., > > > . Both are studying > > their asses off learning all they can as fast as they can. It won't be > that > > much longer and they won't need me any more. It gives me a good feeling. > > > > I'll admit I'm not comfortable with the idea of going head to head in the > > marketplace with the chemical ag boys. They've got hundreds of billions if > > not trillions of dollars worth of muscle to lean on us with, and we are > > still in the pusilanimous thousands and tens of thousands. So I think we'd > > better keep our heads down a bit longer and not get them to take us > > seriously. > > > Dear Hugh - James > I have a friend who was a farmer until two years ago when he sold out to go > a new direction selling foliar fertiliser. He and I and a couple of other > guys started out several years ago using this hotmix trace element foliar > and seed treatment brew - I was the first in this area and encouraged the > others based on results I'd seen. It was a good first step away from > conventional thinking and the company behind it is using Albrecht logic in > their approach to fertilising and they are getting good results. Recently > these guys have moved into viticulture and have managed to snare a couple of > the big names in our area simply by getting better quality grapes - and boy > has that annoyed the conventional agronomy people - my mate has had these > company guys following him - waiting a couple of hours after he leaves the > client farm then going in to badmouth all the information he gave the > farmer. One company has devised a contract that they have fooled some > farmers into signing - a combination of cheap finance for purchases and low > fees for crop monitoring with a sneaky little clause that says that the > farmer agrees not to use anything not recommended and sold by that company - > my mate has hardly started but he's made the opposition mad as hell > already - you can bet they will have a lot of dirty tricks left yet - up to > and including direct sabotage of some of his clients crops if thats what it > takes. He could not possibly have done them serious damage yet but they see > a clear threat and are acting accordingly, this is only > LOCAL sales companies yet - not the big boys! > > I think Hugh is entirely correct to say keep our heads down and not make > them take us seriously - there are a lot of receptive people out there - > anybody doing cell grazing is a prospect - farmers are turning up in droves > to eco farmer seminars, phil wheeler , arden andersen, gary zimmer, we could > probably do a repeat of Hugh's tour next year and get the same sort of > attendance as recently - they're out there, some of em are ready and some > not. > Cheers all, > Lloyd Charles > > >
