F E A T U R E D

Pilbara Working Dog

If you’re a dog lover, you’d be no stranger to the impressive intelligence, agility, and loyalty of working dogs. But these special animals gained a whole new fan club with the hit TV series Muster Dogs. One of the viewer favourites was pup ‘Gossip’, owned by Teesh Grey from Pilbara Working Dogs. Teesh is the first to admit, there is a lot to breeding these amazing canines that are so highly sought after on farms, that some are worth a small fortune. Happily, for those of us who don’t own one, she also photographs life on her station for us all to enjoy.

Teesh moved to the outback property when she was just 5 years old. While it was a traditional working farm, dogs never featured heavily in their operation. Teesh had the opportunity to do an advanced livestock and working dogs course in 2013 and hasn’t looked back since. She put together a team, which at times can be up to 20 dogs in her care.

Perhaps the most famous of them all is Gossip, who had a starring role in Muster Dogs. “It was a lot of fun. How it’s been embraced by Australia has been amazing. She’s a celebrity, and I’m the supporting act,” Teesh laughs. Gossip enjoys meeting new people, doing stock-work and has a huge personality.

“Gossip is still gossiping!

It has shed light on the working dog industry as a whole. “I would not be on a property now without dogs. What they can contribute – helping with the mindset of the stock and replacing several staff. It’s massive. It’s also good on a mental health side because you always have a mate there,” Teesh shares.

The Australian record for the sale of a working dog is $49 000, sold in the NSW Central Tablelands. The vast majority are not worth anywhere near that, making them very cheap employees if you put the time into training.

They love going to work. They get very upset if you leave them behind.

“You can’t teach a child to write an essay if you’ve never taught them to spell. So, you do need to help them learn the basics and then get their natural instinct to come through,” Teesh cautions.

On farms around Australia, you’ll usually see Kelpies or Border Collies on the team. Teesh is team Kelpie all the way. “There’s just this draw to me. They both do the same job, but it’s how they think and their independence,” she explains.

Teesh runs all the dogs every morning and night, and on a daily basis selects a smaller team to work on the farm for the day. The dogs are selected based on their skill set for the given day, with jobs ranging from clearing a yard, to doing a meal run, checking water and moving cattle. She always has a dog or two with her, no matter the job.

When Teesh isn’t working the farm or dogs, she’s taking beautiful photos. It started with a smartphone to show off what the dogs can do and has grown into a professional side-hustle with prints available for sale.

The Pilbara is harsh but beautiful.

If Teesh is a little quiet on the dog content on social media currently, it’s because she’s busy raising a little human baby as well as her dogs. Safe to say, it’s cuteness overload at Pilbara Working Dogs.

Pay In-Time Finance

Early Signals for Farm Finance in the New Year

We’re only just into the new year, but a few early developments are already giving farmers a clearer picture of how 2026 is shaping up.

Interest rates have stayed put, and the tone coming from the finance world is consistent: there’s no rate cut expected anytime soon. For farm businesses, that certainty is important. Borrowing costs are known, lenders are operating normally, and it creates a window to put funding in place without waiting for changes that may not arrive.

On the ground, there’s been early movement across several sectors. Patchy rainfall in parts of the east has helped pasture conditions and taken some pressure off immediate feed planning, while other regions remain cautious and focused on conserving cash. Livestock markets have opened the year with steady processor demand, particularly for heavier cattle, suggesting buyers are confident enough to stay active even this early.

There’s also been renewed discussion around agricultural infrastructure and supply chains this week, with continued interest from large investors and corporates in storage, transport, and export assets. While that’s happening at a high level, it reinforces a broader theme: agriculture remains a long-term priority sector, even while individual farms still face tight margins and timing pressures.

What this means in practical terms is simple. Input costs, freight, wages, and seasonal expenses still need to be funded well before income lands. The farms that feel most in control are the ones planning finance early, rather than reacting later when options are fewer and timelines are tighter.

At Pay In Time Finance, we’re helping farmers start the year from a position of strength — locking in funding while rates are stable, structuring repayments around real seasonal cash flow, and setting up working capital so opportunities can be acted on without pressure.

If you’re planning upgrades, restocking, infrastructure work, or simply want a stronger buffer heading into the year, now is a sensible time to review your options and get things lined up.

WEEKLY AUCTION DATES – 2025

INPUTS & COMMODITIES

THE YEAR AHEAD 2026

Australia's 2024-25 agricultural year saw strong production, with forecasts for 2025-26 pointing to record-breaking values (near $100bn), driven by rising livestock/product prices and steady, high-volume crops like canola and barley, despite mixed commodity prices and high input costs

. Key themes include favourable seasons boosting output, a shift towards livestock value, strong exports (especially for livestock), and an anticipated return to steady growth after recent volatility, with a weaker Aussie dollar supporting farmgate prices, as detailed in ABARES and Rabobank reports. 

Key Highlights (2024-25 & Forecast 2025-26)

• Overall Value: Record-setting gross value expected, potentially reaching $99.5 billion for 2025-26, up 6%.

• Crops: Strong production volumes for barley, canola, and sorghum, with higher area planted for canola.

• Livestock: Rising prices and strong demand, boosting overall sector value.

• Exports: Forecasted to rise, driven by livestock products.

• Conditions: Generally favourable seasons, with near-average rainfall expected, supporting strong output. 

Commodity Snapshot

• Barley: Value up 7% in 2025-26 due to increased production, notes ABARES.

• Canola: Production forecast to jump 13% in 2025-26, supported by good conditions in WA, SA, and Vic.

• Wool: Supply projected to drop (10.2% in 2025-26), tightening markets, but Chinese demand remains a key variable, says Rabobank.

• Beef: Positive outlook with higher production, prices, and strong export demand. 

Key Factors

• Climate: Favourable conditions underpin record production, with a neutral ENSO outlook suggesting normal rainfall.

• Global Demand: Strong export demand supports prices, but global economic uncertainty persists.

• Input Costs: High costs continue to pressure farm margins despite revenue growth, says Bendigo Bank.

• Australian Dollar: Weaker AUD supports farmgate prices, making exports more competitive. 

AG MACHINERY

Ag Tech and Machinery Trends to Track for 2026

If you had to choose one phrase to describe how to approach farm machinery and ag tech solutions in 2025, it would be “get creative.”

So far, that looks like being open to mixed fleets of equipment, looking at retrofit technology versus buying new off the factory line, and even some nontraditional options coming to the North American market via Europe.

“We are seeing growing interest in avoiding being ‘captive’ to fewer brands,” says Seth Crawford, senior vice president and general manager – precision ag and digital, AGCO. “We see farmers continuing to buy machines and technology, even if they only have $15,000 to $20,000 to spend. That’s still enough for impactful improvements.”

What’s Coming from Ag Tech

On the heels of a record harvest for most key row crops, a dead cat bounce for commodity prices is not likely.

“Farmers are going to have to continue to manage seed costs and fertility costs,” Crawford says, noting precision ag technology as a key cog in helping farmers do so. “We’ve got to show where they could be losing yield and offer solutions that pay off quickly.”

There is an emerging technology that many experts are excited to see hit the market in autonomous grain carts. OutRun.Ag, AGCO’s retrofit kit that enables autonomous grain cart operation will be widely available for the first time after extensive beta testing. New Holland will also have OMNiDRIVE, its Raven grain cart automation kit, on the market this year.

Farmer interest is growing for autonomous grain cart retrofits, with multiple brands planning releases. According to Paul Welbig, New Holland director of precision technology, swarming this technology will help growers capture more ROI and value.

(New Holland, PTx Trimble)

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AG NEWS AUSTRALIA

Show-stopping Il Trattore Concept Tractor Celebrates Style that Underpins Substance of New Holland’s Italian Heritage 

• Il Trattore (“The Tractor”) styling concept to take pride of place on the Agritechnica stand

• Styling inspired by the original 702, the first full production Fiat tractor

• Reflects New Holland’s evolution from Fiat roots through Italian design to meet today’s farmers’ needs

New Holland’s heritage of innovation and style will be spotlighted at Agritechnica 2025. The show will see the debut of the T5.120 ‘Il Trattore’ styling concept tractor, celebrating the enduring legacy of research and development, engineering, and design expertise that began with the first Fiat tractor, the Fiat 702, which will be displayed alongside.

The Il Trattore name signifies the importance of streamlined technology that defines the general-purpose tractor, which can take on any task, the essence of that first Fiat tractor and of today’s T5 range. The tractor also underlines New Holland’s commitment to crafting farm machinery that blends style and innovation.

Il Trattore is New Holland’s homage to the iconic 702, one of the earliest mass-produced tractors. Developed to address the labor shortages created by World War I, the 702 introduced a design that marked a turning point in agricultural mechanization. With a four-cylinder engine and load-bearing powertrain, it answered the demands from European farmers for mechanical power to ease physical strain and improve agricultural output. Its success helped establish Fiat’s enduring reputation for agricultural excellence alongside that of Italy’s engineers for innovation and design.

Based on the range-topping model designed and manufactured at New Holland’s Jesi factory in Italy, Il Trattore bears striking green and red coloring and styling inspired by the original Fiat 702. A restored 702, on loan from a Bologna-based collector and dating to 1918, will be displayed alongside the one-of-a-kind special edition, illustrating the sheer level of progress made in engineering technology over the past century. It highlights the influence of this tractor and its heritage on the style and technology that ensure today’s New Holland brand matches the pace of farmers’ advancing demands.

After the 702’s launch in 1918, Fiat continued to innovate, producing iconically styled tractors such as the Piccola of the 1950s. In the 1970s and 1980s, Fiat demonstrated how style could enhance engineering substance, developing the 80 and 90 series in collaboration with renowned Italian styling house Pininfarina. This design philosophy continued through the 1990s into the era of Fiatagri, as the Fiat agricultural business had become – right through until it eventually evolved into today’s New Holland brand.

Today, New Holland carries forward this legacy, blending Italian design heritage with cutting-edge technology to meet the evolving needs of farmers worldwide and underscoring New Holland’s focus on creating machines of which customers can be proud.

“Our styling of Il Trattore was inspired by the simplicity and iconic face of the Fiat 702. We took the essence of the original design and recreated it for today’s farmers while retaining some retro touches,” says David Wilkie, CNH Head of Industrial Design. “From the Fiat graphic on the front grille to the saddle leather toolbox and seat, there is a wonderful link through form, color, and materials in these two iconic designs. It’s been wonderful to be able to reimagine such an important machine and celebrate the essence of ‘Made in Italy’.”

We Have Been to Your Town! We don’t just sit in an office; we are hands-on with our Farmers! 🙌

Seasonal Businesses Still Need Year-Round Signals

January is when plans get sketched. Budgets pencilled. “This year we’ll be more organised,” said without irony. Which is fine. Necessary, even. But if you are already planning the year, it’s worth being reminded of something most seasonal operators still resist.

Being seasonal does not excuse going dark.

I see this every year across agribusiness, stud sales, harvest-driven operations, and regional suppliers. Activity ramps up. Sale day hits. Phones buzz. Then the season passes, and visibility drops off a cliff. Everyone shrugs and blames timing.

That shrug is expensive.

Buyers do not think in your seasons. They think in their own. They are watching when you think nobody is.

What they look for is not constant selling. It’s continuity.

Signals that say: this business is active, credible, and still paying attention.

When those signals disappear, doubt creeps in.

This is where seasonal businesses get tripped up. They confuse activity with noise.

But just to be clear: You do not need year-round campaigns. You do not need to be posting daily. You do need to maintain a baseline that proves the lights are on.

Here’s what that baseline usually looks like in practice.

First, your website cannot be frozen in the last season. Outdated dates, expired offers, or a homepage that hasn’t moved in twelve months tells a story whether you like it or not. It suggests neglect. Buyers assume operational neglect follows digital neglect. Often correctly.

Second, proof needs to stay fresh. Recent sales. Recent work. Recent outcomes. Not everything. Just enough to show momentum. A single updated case or result does more than a dozen generic pages written years ago.

Third, communication cadence matters more than frequency. One considered update a month beats a burst of noise followed by silence. Seasonal operators who do this well treat visibility like farm maintenance. You don’t rebuild the fence every day, but you don’t wait until it collapses either.

None of this is glamorous. That’s the point.

The businesses that win long-term are not louder but steadier. They understand that trust is built in the gaps between transactions.

If your defence is “most of our work comes from word of mouth,” that’s fine. Word of mouth still sends people somewhere. Usually, your website. Sometimes your social presence. Often both. When what they find feels stale, word of mouth loses its edge.

January planning is the right time to decide what signals you will maintain when the season is not doing the talking for you.

If you want a second set of eyes on what your business is signalling right now, we do that work quietly and properly at RD Creative Studio.

You can reach us at [email protected]. 

Women in Ag

Women are farmers too: changing the gender divide in agriculture

It seems an impossible statistic to fathom when you consider women account for about half the population. And the efforts of women in rural Australia in the past 200 years are well documented. 

It wasn’t until 1994, when the Australian Law Reform Commission redefined women’s legal status, granting them the title of ‘farmer’.  

Before then, women were simply called domestics, farmers’ wives, or helpers. 

Gisela Kaufmann, the producer of the Visible Farmer documentary series that has a focus on highlighting the work of women in agriculture, says one story she heard several years ago sticks in her mind. It’s the tale of a father taking his daughter for a ride in the tractor at their grain farm in Western Australia.  

“The eldest daughter, about five, was in the tractor with her dad, and he asked her, ‘Do you think you want to be a farmer someday?’ The little girl turns to her dad, and she says, ‘No, because girls don’t do tractors. ’ This was unbelievable,” Kaufmann says.  

The city girl who knew she wanted to work the land

Cattle producer Debbie Dowden, 54, celebrated her third birthday on the ship transporting her family from the United Kingdom to their new home in Australia. Dowden was born to city parents in the market town of Macclesfield, not far from Liverpool. But it would be in Western Australia where Dowden would fulfil her life’s ambition – to become a farmer.  

“Where other girls had Barbie dolls, I used to have little farm animals. It’s just something I love, and I don’t know where it comes from, because my family are not farmers,” Dowden says. 

Change is happening

Agriculture is a dynamic, innovative industry; it’s perfect for smart, educated women seeking a challenge. And there’s no shortage of women interested in working in agriculture. 

That’s according to Western Australia government minister for agriculture and food, Alannah MacTiernan. 

“Women have obviously always been important. There’s certainly now a lot of confident, educated women taking on roles in farming, and women are much more involved,” MacTiernan says. 

“There are the challenges, the opportunities, the technology and the environment. There’s an intellectual excitement there. 

“You’re always learning, there’s a real sense of excitement.” 

In her role as agricultural minister, MacTiernan interacts daily with people from across the diverse spectrum that is agriculture. 

MacTiernan spent eight to nine years away from politics before returning to the role of agricultural minister in 2017.  

She was shocked – pleasantly so – when she returned and found a boost in the number of women sitting at the boardroom table at farm group meetings. 

It’s about attitude, not gender

The separation of men and women within agriculture is arbitrary, according to Dowden.  

The only thing which ought to mark you as different is your attitude, not your gender. 

“I don’t think anyone really cares whether you’re a man or a woman, you just get in there and do the job,” Dowden says. 

“You’ll be ridiculed or ostracised if you’re incompetent, or uncaring, or cruel or rude. But if you’re an honest person who’s getting in and doing a good job, I really don’t think that agriculture has separate agendas quite as clearly as the stereotype may indicate.” 

Kaufmann remains inspired by the stories of the women she features in her documentary work.  

Simon Cheatham
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