In looking back on 2021 in reflection, we've said to our kids, make sure you remember this year, as we're not sure you'll see the likes of it again.
For a large portion of the country, there has been a stellar break to the season.
While some lament rather sodden wheat fields and the odd bogged harvester, green grass is the best Christmas adornment I can think of.
There's not a piece of tinsel or a fairy light that can match it.
Prices have been nothing short of stratospheric - for land, for cattle and for almost all commodities.
I think this year will be one they talk about in the history books.
The cattle prices have been underpinned by enormous demand for beef, which is such a boost for all of us in the beef game and flies in the face of a tide of anti-meat rhetoric.
In fact, the single food item to take a plunge this year seemed to be fake meat.
Bravo to our consumers for seeing through the spin.
Who knew that modern Australians loved to cook so much.
As an industry, we'd lamented the demise of the home kitchen for the past 30 years.
With restaurants closed, consumers dusted off the cookbooks, rolled up their sleeves and fell back in love with good old fashioned home cooked produce.
It's not often the stars align with rain and prices.
In fact, often it is just the opposite, and 2021 was the year the stars, the moon and even the ducks all managed to get in a row.
The magic of our agricultural industry is the level of investment in the good times and I see that happening all around us.
People are investing in infrastructure, in people, in genetics and in innovation - and not just the computer kind.
The investment in people excites me the most.
I see so many agricultural companies out there engaging with youth and talking up the opportunities in agriculture.
It is great to see.
Unfortunately, our produce isn't the only thing rapidly rising up the X axis and 2022 may well see increasing challenges in supply of many inputs that are essential to farming.
Let's hope we stay in front of it and that these supply chain issues don't dent confidence or investment.
I'd also like to point out the great efforts by the Red Meat Advisory Committee (RMAC) this year to take the activist narrative head-on.
I think that's been a stand out for me this year as well.
They have been well supported by some very pro-active agricultural senators.
I'd love more of that in 2022.
I won't mention the "C" word that has dominated our headlines once again in 2021 and seen some of our families divided.
We have had young people here unable to visit their families for fear of crossing a state border.
I hope that 2022 brings us all back together, back to a united aim for smaller and accountable government.
It's my Christmas wish that 2022 brings more green grass, more consumers enjoying our great Australian produce and bullocks that grow so fat you can eat your Christmas dinner on their backs.
Merry Christmas.
- Josie Angus is a Central Queensland beef producer.
