Networking the Nation

John and Helen Ryan - Yarrawonga

John and Helene Ryan farm 980 hectares near Yarrawonga in Northeast Victoria. The property has a 1,200 Megalitre water right which is used to irrigate 340 hectares through sprinkler and flood irrigation. They have been members of the Lockhart Farm500 group for two years. Grain and hay production are the main enterprises and the Ryans also provide contract harvesting and hay making in the district.

MAKING INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS

One of John’s favourite websites is the www.harvesting.com/combine site. “You find out about adjustments to your machine and improvements you can make to its performance. Mainly farmers and dealers write in to the chat forum about their own experiences with their headers and how they have fixed problems etc.. It is really interesting to just read what is being said, you pick up a lot of information and tips like where to get parts,” says John.

John was impressed with the depth of knowledge that a Canadian farmer was showing through his contributions and advice to others on the website. Contact was made with the farmer via e-mail and subsequently John travelled to Canada and met the farmer. While in Canada John discussed farming techniques, machinery modifications and purchased a cage for his header. Since then John has located and ordered more machinery parts from Canada through the internet.

The Ryans have been surprised at the speed at which parts can arrive from overseas. John adds, “It is often only four or five working days. You are also able to track the progress of the item through the Fed Express and UPS websites which is very handy if you are sweating on it to arrive. They will tell you it will arrive on a flight on a date. You can even, say arrange for someone to pick it up at the airport, or something, to short circuit it.”

OTHER BENEFITS

“When you are dealing with engineering and machinery issues the internet is very handy. For example I was recently discussing the set up for the linear irrigator with an expert on the phone. He e-mailed me a photograph of the modification he was describing while we were talking and I it made it some much clearer and easier to understand what he was explaining.”

John and Helene also keep in touch through the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) in Canada. Their website address is www.pami.ca. PAMI is a research and development organisation specialising in farm machinery. The Ryan’s purchased a manual on zero tillage systems through PAMI. “We use the interenet to find these places and we follow up with e-mail and telephone calls.” says Helene.

John had not used the computer nor the internet before being connected but has seen value in learning how to use the browser. “I am a big user of the favourites list because I avoid having to type,” says John. “However, I do think it is important nowadays to have someone in the business who is computer literate”.

WEATHER

“I often lo愠k at the 5 - 10 day precipitation chart at www.agnet.com.au/wpreaus.html and I find it quite accurate. If I am looking at a crop and thinking about spreading urea, I look at that site and organise myself around what it is predicting.” The Bureau of Meteorology 3 day regional forecast is also used along with www.weatherzone.com.au. “Yarrawonga airport now has a weather radar so we will look at that more in future”.

INTERNET BANKING

The Ryans have been using internet banking for about three years. “We can access historical transactions and make transactions between accounts. The only concern is that you don’t have a running balance, only what it is at that moment. Unfortunately, we cannot download the actual bank statements for reconciling our cash-books. We feel that this could be improved but we work around it as best we can.”

“The internet banking has improved our management and time efficiency by reducing trips to town to the bank. When we were actively hedging it was very useful also, however I always print out the transaction records and their confirmation details so that I can refer back if there is any query. I would not feel comfortable without that hard copy record,” says Helene.

HARVEST MANAGEMENT

During the 2001 harvest the www.graincorp.com.au site was used extensively. “We warehoused everything so that we could keep track of all of our grain and to enable us to be just within the tolerances of grain parameters.” Helene was in charge of monitoring the delivery of grain and the tonnages to be appointed to certain contracts and found the graincorp site easy to use and very comprehensive.

THE FUTURE

John and Helene believe the role of computers and the internet is only going to increase in the future but that computers must provide real efficiency benefits - not make things more complicated. “We are already on information overload and need to be selective about what we access so that it is beneficial to our farm,” says Helene. “The Farm500 sessions enable serious farmers to share how they are making the most from technology and how they integrate this technology into their business.”

Farm Management 500 is supported by: