Alan Kohler and Robert Buckland

Alan Kohler interviewed Robert Buckland over the weekend. Though we know nobody has a crystal ball, you can follow trends, and use them to help direct your own affairs. (Of course it has to pass the common sense test, which usually means the idea confirms what you think anyway!)
Robert Buckland works for Citibank, and what (I think) he was suggesting was that we have passed the cycle of good returns from equities (shares) and now should invest in bonds (which I take to mean term deposits). Investment returns will come from cashflow - dividends, interest earned etc, rather than capital gains.
For farming, that would mean getting more from existing assets, rather than expanding to benefit from potential capital gains, as well as economies of scale.
Is this "common sense" in today's environment?

Remember copper deficiency?

Copper may only be needed every ten to twenty years on our soils, but that is long enough to forget. CSBP found a site near Jerramungup this year, and looks like they have confirmed a response. Note the weak stems, and heads which are more floppy. Maybe you can also see the first signs of poor grain fill.  At a later stage, accumulated sugars in the stems will make the crop darker.

The Denmark wind farm is happening

With enough of a government handout, you can make water run uphill.

Farewell old friend

Amazing how good cars are these days. The Magna has been farewelled at 324,000 km. This has been my second one with similar mileage, and neither has ever let me down.

My new "friend" is similar - a Mitsubishi 380. this time with spoiler. Not sure why you need a spoiler with a front wheel drive!

Shame they don't make Magna's or 380's anymore.

Tilting at windmills - frustrations of economists

An article by Satyajit Das reviewing a couple of books on economics.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/satyajit-das-tilting-at-windmills.html

Maybe the final sentence sums it up - "The ideas in both books – sensible economic management and efficient investment behaviour- are probably beyond the human race in its current stage of evolution."

But worth reading to remind you about the esoteric complexities of economics.

How good are our economists?

A Bloomberg survey found that nine out of 28 economists predicted the interest rate cut. A grade of roughly 30 per cent, but not enough for a pass!

Watch out for MRI's?

Today's radio talk by Norman Swan - watch out for MRI's. Apparently two studies have shown that knee MRI's can do more harm than good. Most older people will find they have something awry, but only few have associated pain. Operations to clean and wash out can do more harm than good. Apparently also applies to back problems.

What grows a good crop?

A couple of observations from this years crops confirm our theories about what grows a good crop. The key is plenty of nitrogen, but this can come from release of nitrogen from soil organic matter - not necessarily from nitrogen bought from the fertiliser company.
Firstly, the harvest rain last year provided warm, moist conditions for extra release of nitrogen. This showed up in soil tests. However the differences evident in crop growth are being acheived in various ways. One is from a good history of liming, and another crop I saw seemed to be benefiting from deep cultivation that had incorporated organic matter from the topsoil.

Hopefully, a couple of pics show this story, though there are a lot more examples that support this theory. Just that you don't realise what is going on when you first see it. It only becomes evident when you reflect on what you have seen.