Get Organised NOW for an Autumn Change Over of Your Farm
The view many Australian farmers seek to enjoy in January.
Wow, what a Christmas break, made all the better by many rural properties in drought stricken areas of the NT, Queensland and western NSW receiving welcome rain.
The 10 day period from Christmas Day, 25 December until Sunday 3rd January saw just three “business as usual” days across most of Australia. Even then, many professional services simply kept their doors closed.
And for many, January is not much different. The annual migration of farmers from the bush to the beach has just begun. There will be lots of “cocky’s tans” showing up on our beaches alongside the more appealing all-over bronzes and questionable tattoos of Australia’s youth. (For those who don’t know, a cocky’s tan is as dark as any you’ll see, until the V on the neck gives way to a luminous white torso right through to just above the elbows and, in the case of a tractor driving farmer, below the bottom of where his shorts reach and then again below the sock line; in the case of a horse riding, jeans wearing grazier from the hills, everything other than dark brown forearms and head & neck above the V is ghostly pale).
All this rest and relaxation, however well deserved, can lead the best of us to lose track of the calendar.
I have long held the view that, along the New South Wales tablelands grazing areas at least, autumn is an ideal time to change over ownership of a farm. It especially tends to suit the grazing systems. Ewes are finished joining, calves are weaned to be sold or grown out, cull and empty cows have been identified and pregnant cows are single units again. This all simplifies stock movements off the old property and on to the new before the depths of winter.
So, if we aim for say a late April or May changeover, a six week settlement period would see contracts entered into sometime in March. Wind back a further six weeks of promotion and inspections and all of a sudden we’re in February, which is just around the corner.
While risking sounding like a kill joy, if you’ve decide to sell your farm, but you haven’t given much time to thinking about the sale process of your property, and you want to capitalise the benefits of an autumn changeover, jump on the phone to your advisers, including rural property agent, soon. Word them up on your thoughts and start bouncing the ideas around.
Then go, have a break and be rested, fully tanned and ready for the journey that is the sale of your farm.
May 2016 bring happiness and prosperity to all!
Graham MacDougall
MacDougall Rural Property
02 6772 4200
Graham MacDougall has a lifetime association with rural property. In addition to over 30 years in the cattle industry, for the past 10 years he has been specialising in the marketing of commercial agriculture and rural lifestyle properties in northern New South Wales.
