Farm Diary

Again this meant only 30 minutes in Hong-Kong, which suited us just fine, and we remained seated whilst the bossy 'redcoats' insisted on a single file queue from the hundreds of passengers wishing to get back on the plane. They were not pleased when we got up at the end, not having stood for ages in a pointless queue. Heathrobinson airport excelled itself on our return.

Not only was our flight deemed unworthy of a proper terminal for disembarking (having travelled half way around the world), but they changed their minds about the location for disembarking, remembering to cancel the buses from the first, but forgetting to order buses for the second. Result? One hour on the plane from landing to disembarking.

Well done indeed '“ I'm sure our international visitors are very impressed with this 'busiest' airport in the world. Fifth terminal? Forget it, they can't run four properly.

As for the import controls; non existent. It is amazing that we do not find many more disease outbreaks in our livestock and plants. It is an appalling and quite unacceptable state of affairs. If government thinks that farmers are going to involve themselves in 'cost-sharing' of exotic diseases, they had better get their act together at ports and airports.

Getting up at 2.00am is the order of the day, but I am happy with that because I have a mountain of paperwork to do '“ and the hour goes forward next weekend, and I am geared up for that already.

The last four days in Victoria were all above 40 degrees, which is incredible in autumn, and Adelaide had their hottest heat wave for over 60 years I'm told. Victorian dairy farmers were enjoying cool wet weather until we arrived with our demands for a suntan; we certainly were rewarded, and I think that secretly they were glad to see the back of us.

We were certainly looked at with curiosity at Pakham whilst waiting for Elin to arrive on the train from Melbourne; we found the only bench in town that was not in the shade, and sat in full sunshine whilst we waited.

Looking at the globe, Victoria is south of Spain, and the drought stricken north is around where Syria is in the northern hemisphere! No wonder that irrigation is so important in most areas, with the exception of a few 'reliable' rainfall districts, which have become unreliable as the monsoons of Queensland push the weather fronts further south, causing the rain to fall in the sea. It is a wonderful country though, and the people are great (if a bit mad), with a welcome wherever one goes.

Australian sophistication knows no bounds, and we were introduced to 'Tim-Tam slammer'. This is an interesting way of consuming 'Cointreau'. With an 'Arnott's' original chocolate covered wafer biscuit in one hand, and a hefty measure of Cointrau in the other, you nibble adjacent corners of the biscuit, which then allows you to immerse it in the Cointreau, and suck on the other corner, using it as a straw. One finally consumes the bloated biscuit. Too many of these 'slammers' are not recommended if you are watching your weight, or wish to walk home!

Their idea of motoring laws are bizarre; a blanket speed limit that is far too low, policed with the zeal that only revenue collectors possess (in the interest of road safety you understand), ensures that speed limits are observed, but with trucks allowed to drive at the same speed, using all lanes, you just cannot get away from them '“ which I feel is truly dangerous. Road charges are also commonplace in cities, and Elin spends $50 a we

ek on road charges, electronic tags picking up the charge as she drives over the harbour bridge, or the freeway in certain areas of Sydney. Melbourne is the same as I found out with my hire car.

A vast country, rich in minerals, means the economy looks strong for the future, but with all that cheap yellow wet coal from open cast mines being burnt in power stations, they do have an emission problem.

The big question is will 22 million people be allowed to inhabit such a vast area of land in the future, given the pressure of population growth and climate change? The answer is probably not. Others whom are well adapted to living in areas that even Australians consider uncomfortable if not inhospitable could live in areas that are uninhabited at present.

Back home, I attended a farm walk at Jim Harrison and his family farm in Rudgwick, and I was instantly struck by the difference between milk production in the two countries.

Jim and the rest of us have massive capital investment in concrete, sheds, silage clamps, slurry storage and all the labour and machinery that goes with all of that, where in Australia you have a dairy for milking the cows and storing the milk and that's it (cows stay outside all year). Some do have concrete feed pads, and of course the irrigation takes capital and extra work; but the costs are vastly lower and we could never compete on milk price.

What we do have however is a massive market both at home and in Europe. Australia and New Zealand need to export most of their milk production, and are involved in basic commodities in the main, where we have huge opportunities to add value and supply a sophisticated marketplace, which is always wanting something different or more convenient. The disconnection between our consumers and farming is far greater though, and represents a constant challenge for us.

Last Sunday Lewis Hamilton walked away with the Grand Prix in Melbourne whilst the others fell apart or ran into each other. Only 6 out of 22 cars finished in the 40 degree heat.

Today in Malaysia the 'Ice Man' (Raikkonen) demoralised his team mate, and ran away from the others, leaving Hamilton a scrappy fifth, having been rightly penalised for getting in the way of Heindfeld's BMW during qualifying yesterday. This is becoming an interesting battle now that BMW in finishing second (Kubica) has joined Farrari and McLaren at the top.

This first appeared in the West Sussex Gazette on March 26. To read it first, buy the West Sussex Gazette every week.