HAVING been through 10 consecutive years of drought puts NSW farmer Bruce Simpson in a pretty good position to be handing out advice to WA farmers suffering from the dry season.
Mr Simpson, who is also an agricultural consultant in his home town of Deniliquin, told farmers at last week's Westpac seminar in Merredin about his experiences with prolonged drought and how he, and the community, survived.
Thankfully for him this year, after 10 years of doing it tough, the heavens opened and Mr Simpson's Deniliquin farm is experiencing one of its best seasons, although he and other irrigation farmers are currently fighting for water allocations.
Mr Simpson said he was passionate about agriculture and it was a great industry, but given its nature it was one that would always have problems associated with the weather.
"It's how we deal with those problems that matters," Mr Simpson said.
"One thing we learnt from 10 years of drought is that you have to confront the problem, and that problem may not just be a lack of rain.
"How do you recognise what you need to do?"
Mr Simpson said the approach they used in his advisory business could be applied to coping with the season in general, and helping others cope.
He said he was fortunate enough to have the benefit of working with a colleague who had a degree in psychology so one of the fundamentals of their approach was empathy.
He said it was important to understand that people were not capable of making rational decisions while they were in a highly defensive frame of mind.
"We're very conscious of people's mindset and we won't proceed in any kind of process until we understand where that mindset is," Mr Simpson said.
"We then talk about engagement.
"It's very important to talk to the right people, the people who can assist you with factual, hands-on decision making.
"It's also important to engage with the family, and understand their mindset as well.
"You might be okay, but how is your family feeling?
"Be respectful of where other people are."
The evaluation process can then commence, which allows people to take a good look at their farm business and helps them decide where they want to be.
In his area, Mr Simpson said 10 years of drought and no water allocations had unfortunately taken its toll on some farmers, and had left them wanting to do something else with their lives beyond farming.
Thankfully, he said, that scenario was not the common one.
"Drought is a reality of agriculture," he said.
"You need to prepare yourself as best you can.
"Understand the financial operations and what you're doing with cash flows and forecasts.
"Arm yourself with information.
"That allows you to be in a much better position with your bank, because it demonstrates a sense of knowledge and they'll be a lot more comfortable with you."
After evaluation, Mr Simpson said he sat down with clients and developed an action plan of how the farmer was going to move forward and using what approach.
Looking at the balance sheet and ways of restructuring it that could help move forward was a good strategy, he said.
In fact, it was a method which Mr Simpson used in his own farm business and it helped significantly.
"It's a principle that any business has the opportunity to adopt," he said.
"For my family, it allowed us to move onto safe ground and achieve what we wanted to achieve."
He said WA was fortunate that it had a better structure than the east in terms of how strong the planning/advisory and accountant network was, and people should use it to their advantage.
"The irony of all this, is that what we've learnt over the last 10 years is all basic, fundamental stuff like the value of good communication," Mr Simpson said.
"But we just tend to forget about them when things are going well."
At the initial meeting with clients, Mr Simpson said they were usually very apprehensive about the process they were about to undertake and what would happen, but they were completely different by the end of the process.
He said more often than not, they were relieved to finally have a sense of clarity about things to consider and the direction they needed to go in.
"Because you always have somewhere to go," he said.
"It's about not getting transfixed on one thing.
"Be lateral in your view of the problem, because it's how we solve that problem that matters.
"If you develop the right mechanisms and strategies to cope, then you can deal with whatever the climate throws at you."
On a community level, Mr Simpson said his area fared pretty well thanks to strong support for farming families and a shire that was proactive in obtaining funding for activities and organisations.
One of those was Network Watch, a low key initiative which involved people within the community simply observing others quietly to make sure they were doing okay.
"The community is critical in terms of keeping people engaged and we found Network Watch to be a useful initiative," Mr Simpson said.
"From an individual perspective, my wife and I kept engaged with the community via our children and watching and being involved in their sport.
"It really helps by not staying transfixed on problems.
"If you are in a state of feeling trapped, consider getting away somewhere you can talk to others about different things.
"So not just going down the pub and talking to the same blokes about how bad it is, look for opportunities to go out of your immediate network and allow yourself to think differently."
