Ground Control to Major Tom.

Commencing countdown, engines on. Check ignition and may God's love be with you.

Now before you go any further in this blog, you must watch this video from Commander Chris Hadfield, from his time on the International Space Station.
While you are watching and listening, I want you to reflect on, well........... just about everything in your life.

I will get back to you in a few minutes after you have seen the video.

Please, you must watch this video first, and full screen it to get the full effect.


How do you feel?  What are you thinking now?   Isn't this place earth absolutely amazing?
I don't need to hear your answers to those questions. Those answers are for yourself.

But I do have a question I would love to hear your answer.

What are you doing to take care of your little patch of Planet Earth?

On Monday night on the ABC TV, Commander Chris Hadfield was on Q&A. Quick, get on iview if you haven't seen it. What an amazing inspirational leader.
A question from the audience asked Commander Hadfield, "So many of us want to change aspects of ourselves, or our life, how do you, or how did you fundamentally change your self with the challenges you faced?
His response resonated with me so much, I couldn't wait for a couple of spare moments to write this blog.

To summarize his answer, he spoke of the fact the he spent 5 months in space, 5 months, but 50% of the risk was within the first 9 minutes. The Launch is Risky. (I will come back to that in a minute)
Commander Hadfield went onto talk about Fear. How do you face up to danger in your life? How do you overcome the fear of taking the next step or doing something that is out of your comfort zone? "We just basically say, I wont do that because I'm afraid."

"All of those experiences you deny yourself from doing, have a richness, that maybe make them worth doing." "How do you change yourself to over come that fear, to do something that is, taking a risk for?"
His comments were, "early on giving yourself a definition what success might look like. If these things go perfectly, how am I going to end up? What am I really trying to accomplish with my life? Because that, then lets you choose what you want to do next."
"Set the pathways in place you need to make your outcomes happen. The key question is not what to do in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, The real hard question is what to do next. That's the real key to change your self,"
"Give your self long term definitions of how you want this to turn out, so it helps you choose the small things you need to change about yourself, so that you can separate danger from fear, and work out the risks worth taking. It's amazing where each of those little steps can take you."

Click here to see the full interview
He tackles that question around the 30 minute mark if you want to forward to that part only.

"The Launch is Risky" Commander Chris Hadfield

Launch - Definition

: To set going, to initiate.

: To give (someone or something) a start.

: To begin a new venture, or phase.

The first step in any new venture we take on, is invariably the hardest step of all. Sometimes we think things can be too daunting, or we fear too much on what may go wrong, or what people will say.

So to, is that feeling for a many number of Primary Producers, when it comes to looking at Biological Agriculture or Nutrition Farming Practices. It need not be that way. You need to take the blinkers off, peel back the layers of your thinking and take action. You must take the first step. The Launch.

As we have just seen above the outcomes from Commander Chris Hadfield, once you have set your goals in place, your outcomes can be achieved.

So take action, take the first step, launch your self into your next challenge. 

And know that the support structure is right there with you.

I have a network of like minded producers all through the broad acre sectors of WA that have "launched" on there journeys, and are seeing things from a very different, but a very achievable outcome.

We as a collective look forward to you joining our network, to build relationships, knowledge and solutions, in agriculture in WA.

So what are you doing to take care of your little patch of Planet Earth?

Now That's Smart Thinking, Smart Farming.

Keep Your Green Light On.

A New Future Ahead

• Change the Mindscape before the Landscape
• Our mind is a powerful tool. A change in mindset, or a paradigm shift, can be the most powerful thing you can do, In all aspects of your life
• It’s not all about doing things right, It’s about doing the right thing.

Ok, for some of you that attended a Conference that I organized in Guildford a few years ago, I had a speaker there, a friend of mine called David Koutsoukis.
His theme outlined the Red light, Green light concept.

In a nutshell this means that as a Red light farmer, everything that goes wrong is someone else’s fault. A good example of this, is to blame the local chemical supplier of not having the chemical you want the day you want to use it. He blames the supplier, when in fact he should have made sure he organized this before he needed it. Therefore blaming the supplier and taking no responsibility of his own.

A Green light farmer who can’t get the chemical the same day either, realizes that yep, I should have pre-ordered and will take responsibility of the outcome.

What do you reckon is the mindset of the two farmers that would have left the supplier that day?

Mr Red man would have probably been abrupt and angry and gone home and kicked the dog.
Mr Green man would have been disappointed, but ok with it, and gone home and patted the dog.
So for the love of your dog’s guys, make sure you are a Green Light Farmer.

Maybe I will go deeper into this another time.

Right……, now to make the “Paradigm / Mindset Shift more relevant to us about soil and plant health. Let’s look at our Biological Farming Approach.
I have shown you over many years now that our Biological Farming practices, i.e. the use of Mineral Based Fertilisers, Microbial Soil Inoculates, Humates for nutrient uptake, Microbial Stimulants and Liquid Fertilisers for precise nutrient uptake can and do give you yield, and net profit returns.
So I don’t need to go on about that. Please contact me if you want to discuss this further.
For those of you who are reading this, and not following Biological practices, but are still farming profitability with your current system, this is “now” where your mindset needs to change.

In 2015, I cannot, and will not deny the fact that your current fertiliser systems, i.e. Acid based fertiliser, high Salt based fertiliser and high Nitrogen applications will give you a profitable return if the season is kind. My biggest concern with this is twofold. What’s the quality of the end produce, and for how many more years can we farm like this?

As primary producers, it is our role to feed the world, rich nutrient dense food.
Yep big statement, I know, but really think about it, what is our purpose?
You may not really care about this, but that’s the fact.

But here’s the biggy. Ever heard of Peak Phosphorus, as one example?
Do you think that at some time in the near future, 20 – 80 years we are going to face shortages of our natural resources?
Can our future families farm under our current thinking, if our resources are in short supply?
What will happen to the price of our resources when the supply is reduced?
Then what do our next generations use to grow our crops or livestock?

Do you really care?

Now, they are some pretty confronting questions there, and I apologize to you if you think I am up a Wattle, or up s#!t creek without a paddle, but we need to consider these questions.

Here is a question to you.

What if right now you could grow the same, or more yield, or produce the same, or higher livestock figures than you are currently producing, but using less of some our key natural resources (Phosphorus, Potassium, Nitrogen, Water) for the same or less input costs?

Ok, now change your mindset, go back and ask yourself that question again.

I haven’t even touched on the quality of your produce, or the change in your soil health in that question. We will just leave those to be added benefits in that question.

Yes we are farming for the here and now, but at some stage we have to think of the future. And the future ain't that far away.

All I am trying to say here is please do not dismiss anything. Do not just pigeon hole something because it is different, or you have “heard” that stuff just doesn't work?

Be very careful to not just follow the so called experts in the Agricultural Industry. By all means take on board all that is said, but don’t be afraid to question it.

See that’s “The Mindset Change needed.”

Keep your Green Light On.