Every Family needs a Farmer

The title above was a common catch-phrase when we were living in Brisbane more than 10 years back. Being city folks, we don't realise where our food comes from and how farmers do the hardyard to produce it.

We were fortunate to meet the S family when we first embarked on our trip. They camped next to us on Fraser Island and invited us to visit their farm if we do pass through. Sure enough 7 months later, we were there, on our way up north to NT.

We had a lovely stay at "Merlwood", a cattle and piggery farm. Its my first time to a piggery. RS took us around the farm and explained the process. Cleaning and looking after 1000 pigs is no easy task and this was scaled down from breeding over 4000 pigs a year ago. The smell do stick on you.

Another downside is the price. Unlike us consumers where we only see price increase in our bacon or pork, pig farmers are subject to price fluctuations. And, according to RS, the price has been on the down for the past couple of years. Not that this was reflected in the supermarkets for us.

Farming is definitely hardwork. There are no weekends or public holidays. You work from sunrise to sunset in all weather conditions.

It was a good experience for me and we want to thank the S family especially RS and the lovely JS who invited us to share their home even though they only met us for 3 days. We hope your trip to Europe in July goes well and the beginning of more trips to come.