Soil and big data

A recent conference in Canberra was titled "Soil and Big, Data and the Future of Agriculture", and was summarised in the Land -
http://soilbigdata.org/blog/blog/the-dirt-on-soil-data
In some ways, the idea is on the right track, and Barnaby Joyce is throwing $1.5 million at the project through CSIRO.
But somehow we have been missing something with this sort of approach. How could our productivity have been improved so successfully until about 25 years ago, then stalled since?
My most recent example has been research into liming. Questions are being asked about why the W.A. wheatbelt has not adopted what was advised decades ago, to hold soil pH at 5.5 (CaCl2 measurement). Yet during this time, there is no credible economic case that it would pay for farmers to adopt this suggestion. The assumption seems apparent that researchers say it should happen, so it will.
The liming example may be an isolated exception, and of course, such contentions would naturally be strongly contested by administrators of our R&D systems. However over the past few years, I have collected enough evidence to support my argument. The debate now should be whether to present and debate such arguments, or instead to implement a way to do the job better.
So good luck to Barnaby with his system, but I will need more than just luck to gizump Barnaby's $1.5 million.

The family business

An article in the Harvard Business Review describes how family businesses can make better decisions. The idea suggested is that the business should be considered like a family home, with different rooms for different purposes. The business should therefore have rooms for -
- the owner room
- the board room
- the management room, and
- the family room.
"  Discrete decisions are made in each room: management directs operations; the board monitors the performance of the business and hires/fires the CEO; owners set the high-level ownership goals for the business and elect the board; and families build unity and develop family talent – to name just a few of the most basic decisions made in each room."

No two family farm businesses are the same, but this idea may help deal with the inevitable conflicts between business and family interests.
The full article can be accessed by signing up for the Harvard Business Review, with a free subscription.

If no luck with Lotto, try Farming Simulator

From my U.S. contacts, here is the old joke about farming come to life. The farmer who won Lotto was asked about his plans -"just keep farming until it is all gone".
This app gives you the chance to do that in the virtual world - Farming Simulator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhkUmOViC-Q

Apparently also available to would-be farmers.

Climate change - prevention or adaptation?

UWA has suffered some consternation from involving itself with Bjorn Lomborg, who is sometimes seen as a climate change denier. This review presents a more nuanced view -
http://www.pannelldiscussions.net/2015/04/280-lomborg-at-uwa/

It seems to bottom line for policy is to assume that politics will not be able to coordinate a response to prevent climate change, so we would be better served by policy to help us adapt.

From Gulliver's Travels - "two blades of grass"

A good quote for any farmer, from Gulliver's Travels -"Whosoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.This thought must have been around in the 1960s, because it was on my father's mind at the time. At that time, farming was the place to be, in W.A. The thought was the basis for my logo when I started my own consulting business.Shame that politicians have not been held in higher regard, but maybe "t'was ever thus...

Blogs, Facebook and/or Twitter?

Why does Phillip Adams do Twitter, but not Facebook?

https://twitter.com/PhillipAdams_1/status/582423576269221888

Maybe it stream-lines access to information of interest, in the same way as a newspaper headline.
So maybe it is worth a try???

Australia as a nuclear waste dump?

Today's Classic FM midday interview by Margaret Throsby was with Bob Hawke, though it was rebroadcast from last April.

One of his views is that Australia should offer itself as a dump for nuclear waste. While recognising that this would be controversial, it would generate valuable income for remote regions and facilitate the greening of world energy supplies. Apparently, we could offer world's best of stable geology and politics.
If it is accepted that an emotional response is not the only way to make sensible policy decisions, this would make for an interesting "economic" question. For all the faults of economic analysis, perhaps it is the only way to combine financial issues with local and international cost/benefit analysis, and in this case a large negative "feel-good" factor.

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2015/04/06/4210403.htm