It is almost time to start Christmas shopping and as far as a really handy gift for the male or female in your life, have you ever thought of a Lever block (come along)?
They come in various sizes, but for versatility and compactness you cannot go past a 250kg or even a 500kg lever block. For about $100, it is possibly the most useful bit of kit you will carry in your ute toolbox.
It is right up there with my favourite carry, the Leatherman Charge multitool. You will thank me the first time you use it – and the second – and the third.
You can get them at large chain hardware stores and I am pretty sure they are probably available at Sharmans.
British farmers are not amused!
Last week British farmers descended on their nation’s capital in protest of proposed changes to tax laws in Britain. Pictured here are farmers’ tractors, five-wide and around 200-deep, equating to around a thousand tractors, as the protest descended into Whitehall in London.
Whilst it showed up on mainstream media on ITV and GB News, the BBC chose not to cover it.
UK farmers are protesting against the introduction of inheritance tax whereby the government will tax family members at 20 per cent of the value of land when the family farm is passed on to the next generation, once the land value reaches around 2.6 million pounds (about $5 million Australian).
Working that back to say an average-sized farm in South Australia of around 2500 acres with a land value of $7500 per acre, equals $18.75 million. That would mean a farmer who handed his land onto the next generation would also be handing them a tax bill of $2.75 million.
Obviously, I have simplified this quite a bit, but take into account the cost of machinery and other overheads which makes farming unique, this would put enormous strain on any business and the narrow margins of farming simply would not be able to support it.
Resulting land sales to pay the tax bill would also mean governments would get a double dip of stamp duty as well. Australia had death duties right up until 1979 when they were abolished by the Fraser Government, and many farms went to the wall in attempts to pay this tax.
Watch this space.
Harvest wrapped up in time for Christmas
Well, that’s a wrap for 2024 with pretty much every farmer across the Mid North either done and dusted or certainly expecting to be done in the next week.
It has been a challenging season, with the lowest rainfall on record for many farmers. Whilst a lot of farmers did not bother with a header at all this year, there were a lot that managed below average or slightly above for some paddocks.
All up a season to forget for most, and one to reflect on with your grandkids who no doubt will be riveted by your stories of the SA drought of
2024.
