Dirty Bastard Pig Farmers near Canberra

[jaycamrie]

yep so true Moto
cheers

[Jason B]

Moto

The days of the farmers being the heros of this country are long gone mate. Sold out to cotton farms, canola, bio fuels etc etc, not stuff that we can eat or that is particularly good for our environment. I am not greenie far from it mate. But farmers will do whatever they can to make $$$, I am a realist and that is business so good on them.

Mining is the new farming mate, it may not be pretty to look at but it will be what takes this counrty into the future not farming.

[Janbo]

Tell me your joking ....right

Err no I am not, by and large they are greedy lot, always bloody moaning too much rain, not enough rain etc etc. At any given opportunity they jack up their prices and say sod it to the people who have supported them

[grafy82]

Err no I am not, by and large they are greedy lot, always bloody moaning too much rain, not enough rain etc etc. At any given opportunity they jack up their prices and say sod it to the people who have supported them

Ah, I think you mean the supermarkets jack up the prices, right? I doubt the farmers see a tenth of what woolies makes.
     Don't get me wrong, this practice of animal cruelty is disgusting and must stop, but sometimes we get more worked up about the animal welfare than we do about abuse against children. We sometimes need a rethink of our moral radar.

[jaycamrie]

Err no I am not, by and large they are greedy lot, always bloody moaning too much rain, not enough rain etc etc. At any given opportunity they jack up their prices and say sod it to the people who have supported them

quotes like this mean most people have no idea at all, by the way i do not support cruelty of animals either

[Janbo]

quotes like this mean most people have no idea at all, by the way i do not support cruelty of animals either

So you never hear them moan?? Actually I DO have an idea, its folk that go on about how wonderful the farmers are and that they are salt of the earth that make me sick. They plunder the water from the Murray to keep unsustainable farms growing. Why do we need to grow rice in this country - I never buy aussie rice and the bloody QLD farmers can keep their bloody bananas!!

[krisandkev]

Go for it Janbo.  Why don't we get rid of all the farms in this country and import all of our fruit, meat and vegies.  We would save heaps.  And yeah, especially stop buying those bloody Qld bananas.  They are all bent. While we are there, stop the mining, fishing etc.  Just buy it all from overseas.  Yep, just I am not sure how we are all going to afford that as we approach 100% unemployment!
And like the truckies say,  get rid of all the bloody caravans, they do not spend anything in this country, just a bunch of old people holding up traffic, free camping and not spending a cent.
Now Janbo, seriously, I hope you were joking.   

[Janbo]

Go for it Janbo.  Why don't we get rid of all the farms in this country and import all of our fruit, meat and vegies.  We would save heaps.  And yeah, especially stop buying those bloody Qld bananas.  They are all bent. While we are there, stop the mining, fishing etc.  Just buy it all from overseas.  Yep, just I am not sure how we are all going to afford that as we approach 100% unemployment!
And like the truckies say,  get rid of all the bloody caravans, they do not spend anything in this country, just a bunch of old people holding up traffic, free camping and not spending a cent.
Now Janbo, seriously, I hope you were joking.   

Actually when bananas were $16 a kilo because of the 'shortage' therewere warehouses full of em, now the prices have come down ichoose not to buy them.

Buying rice from overseas rather than tryingto grow it in a climate tht is not suitable makes perfect sense. Countries export, like we do and import.... Thats the way the world works!!

And when it comes to farmers... I never joke!!

[dazzler]

There is an interesting book to read called eating animals;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_Animals

There is some stuff about a problem that intensive pig farming has where the flesh of the pig literally dissolves or goes mushy and is inedible.  Worth a read if you like to think about these things.

Usual disclaimer - read it, make your own mind up, some propaganda, some good stuff etc

[dazzler]

and the bloody QLD farmers can keep their bloody bananas!!

I grew up on a banana plantation and I can tell you there is not much money in it for the average farmer.  We were near coffs harbour and made a living.  Probably minimum wage sort of thing.  But sweet baby jesus it was hard work and I doubt there are many that could hack it.  Due to frosts sth of Qld most bananas are planted on steep slopes.  So when you put the blue bags on them you cover every inch of the 10 acres that we had.  And ten acres is about the minimum you could live off.  Every week.  Carrying a ladder, bunch of bags, pest strips, knife.  Get to the bunch, put the ladder up, climb, cut off bottom two hands, clear out any leaves, rat nests, snakes, put the bag on, tie it, climb back down.

Try that 50 times on a saturday as a teenager let alone an adult.

Then when you harvest them, and thats every week, you park your tractor on the internal roads and walk down every single row of the ten acreas, find a bunch, knick the banana plant then pull the bunch down onto your back, cut it with the knife and carry it back out.  They range from 15 to 30kg each.  All the while rat crap, spiders and the odd snake are slithering down your back and into your plumbers crack.  Not that you have one anymore.  A few times the bunch was huge and I got trapped under it till dad came back lol.

Then take them to the shed, wash em and dehand them.  Then grade em, pack em and load them onto the truck.  Each one is about 12kg for a carton or 25kg for a crate.  Off to the rail and unload them.

(and that leaves out desuckering the unwanted plants, fertilising, cutting away the old leaves, poisoning for beetle, staking to stop them falling over and maintaining the irrigation)

Look - just pay the bloody money and stop whining okay     

And just to keep perspective.  The large supermarket chains set the prices - not the farmers. 

[jaycamrie]

..

[Janbo]

I do not want to inundate this topic with exapmles of where farmers have moaned, perhaps a search for farmers + moan in Google would suffice but believe me they do. They believe the world owes them a living... it doesn't! Many people are doing it tough business closing and thousands of workers being made redundant.... the farmers seem to think they have a monopoly on hard times!!! If I dont produce I lose my job, I could lose my house and would have to find a job doing something else - I am not owed a living and neither are they!!

[kranky al]

without getting into slagging the farmers off as i think woolies and coles are forcing them into unsustainable practises - growing rice in this country is inexcusable - the murray is knackered and we are drawing water off it to grow a crop that is so out of place its not funny - recrop with something else more suited to the climate, export that and import our rice that isnt grown in suitable areas.

[Jason B]

So you never hear them moan?? Actually I DO have an idea, its folk that go on about how wonderful the farmers are and that they are salt of the earth that make me sick. They plunder the water from the Murray to keep unsustainable farms growing. Why do we need to grow rice in this country -

agree x 50 million. Part of my job is enforcing environmental legislation, farmers are a fair portion of my business. They feel they have the right to do whatever they like on their land, including depriving those down stream of water, by erecting illegal, weirs, block banks, re diverting water through channels etc. Not only is this selfish, its unsustainable, does major damage to habitat and prevents fish passage for migration and spawning, not to mention leaving the neighbours downstream with no water. These are not isolated incidents. And when you talk to them, the attitude is its my land I should be able to what I want on it, you are preventing me from making a living. What a joke. If you doubt this get in a plane and fly over the Macquarie Marshes, this is how we catch them. The damage is very obvious from the air.

[tjrobbo]

It appears some of you have a problem with farmers in general. This topic started as a comment on the animal cruelty inherent in some intensive pig farming operations, and I agree fully that this is disgusting and needs to stop. But why some of you feel the need to move away from this topic to attack farmers in general, and more specifically those involved in crop production I do not know.

Every industry has a percentage of people who do the wrong thing and need weeding out. But I would say the majority of farmers has sustainability and the long term viability of their farm at heart, which often ties in with environmentalism, just not the extreme green version we often see in the news.

Also, farmers are price takers, not price setters, which means they must take the price they are offered or destroy their crops. On-sellers such as supermarkets set the price.

To fully disclose my stake in this argument, I am a farmer myself.

[jaycamrie]

Agree %100 TJ good and bad everywhere,
does one bad cop mean the whole police force is corrupt
people who do the wrong thing need to be sorted out
But as others have said reporters can make things look a lot worse through editing of a video then they are
cheers

[Janbo]

going by that argument, one bad Pig Farmer doesn't mean they are all bad..... I stand by the comments I have made about farmers in general  moaning, rice, bananas etc!!

[olddigger]

Hang in there, Janbo. I'm with you. I have long maintained that if farmers were anywhere near as good at farming as they are at whingeing about everything, they'd all be millionaires.
If they don't like their subsidised rural lifestyles, maybe they could try getting real jobs.

[grafy82]

Hang in there, Janbo. I'm with you. I have long maintained that if farmers were anywhere near as good at farming as they are at whingeing about everything, they'd all be millionaires.
If they don't like their subsidised rural lifestyles, maybe they could try getting real jobs.

C'mon then, tell us all what your super hard profession is so we can all have a laugh. You seriously need a wake up call. Up here in the north there have been far too many farmers commit suicide due to the huge pressures they face within the industry. You probably wouldn't last a week on a real farm. (Sorry, getting off topic)

[jaycamrie]

going by that argument, one bad Pig Farmer doesn't mean they are all bad..... I stand by the comments I have made about farmers in general  moaning, rice, bananas etc!!

I have to diagree with you Janbo,
but your right about one thing no one owes me nothing i chose farming
I mean i could not resist, all that  fast cash from stock piling banana's
was so attractive
Geewhiz its gettin dry could do with a spot of rain
cheers

[LJs GU]

I have to diagree with you Janbo,
but your right about one thing no one owes me nothing i chose farming
I mean i could not resist, all that  fast cash from stock piling banana's
was so attractive
Geewhiz its gettin dry could do with a spot of rain
cheers

[rotare]

I don't condone the mis-treatment of animals, as shown in that video.  However I'm really suprised by some of the comments and attitudes shown in this thread towards farmers in general.  As been mentioned already, there is good and bad in every industry and I think it's naive to think one industry or profession is more or less important in our society, than another.  Maybe it's just an Austalian thing, but there is always someone ready to sink the boot and happy to see your demise, regardless whether you work as a fisherman, miner, manager or farmer.

I just wonder whether all those people who are critical of every other job, and every other industry, ever complain about how tough their own industry is or working conditions are, are themselves working for not for profit organisations and being paid the minimum weekly wage, whilst their organisation gives back to the community as much as it takes, and the work they perform is totally sustainble and does not generate any pollution....



     

 

[lov2getaway]

I have to diagree with you Janbo,
but your right about one thing no one owes me nothing i chose farming
I mean i could not resist, all that  fast cash from stock piling banana's
was so attractive
Geewhiz its gettin dry could do with a spot of rain
cheers

[Janbo]

I have to diagree with you Janbo,
but your right about one thing no one owes me nothing i chose farming
I mean i could not resist, all that  fast cash from stock piling banana's
was so attractive
Geewhiz its gettin dry could do with a spot of rain
cheers

Enjoy your bananas, must be my lucky day, I have found a farmer that does less bleating than his sheep!!!

When you finish counting all your fast cash, you could perhaps share some amongst your fellow farmers and stop them pleading poverty!!!

[Big Nath]

Welcome to intensive pig farming. Remember that video the next time you have a pork chop or bacon. How exactly do you think they farm pigs? What about Chooks, they are the same.

Have any of you ever had anything to do with pig farms?