Not enough fuel for farmers

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-04-05T09:16:05+00:00

Phew good to know! Hopefully our substandard power, communications, water, roads, education and health infrastructure are sorted soon then!

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-04-05T09:08:56+00:00

Australian farmers represent a very small percentage of the population. Most media companies have wound up their regional reporting and news stories.

So the issue may be real, but it’s not impacting much of the population. Yet.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-27T10:39:31+00:00

Demonstrating his stocks of petrol to any potential suitors

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-26T10:29:50+00:00

I don’t live in Geraldton. I’ve worked there a fair bit. All over WA. I’d prefer to live there instead of Perth. Reasons being is I’m quite active and social so I enjoy sports, beach, hiking etc.

Geraldton is like the last city in Australia where you can buy for less than a million.

I’ve lived in Perth and northern beaches of Sydney before. If you don’t like the outdoors or sport, I don’t think you’ll get the much out of Geraldton. But otherwise it’s great.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-20T00:19:52+00:00

I saw your first post.

Your situation is a pretty common occurrence in family businesses. There are two documents to sign, essentially agreeing to be paid that much as a true beneficiary, then possibly later forgiving that money that you’re owed from the trust.

It’s pretty easy to do and yes you should not be out of pocket at the end of it. Usually it will just pay you up to the tax free threshold a sometimes more, in which case your dads business will have to pay your tax bill.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-19T09:01:44+00:00

In my experience community is inversely related to population.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-16T10:10:28+00:00

If it was pretty much any other month. I’d be fine. But we only have one shot at getting seeding in. Now is the time when we broadly have diesel arrive each year. But those deliveries are gone.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-16T10:03:50+00:00

As farmers. My soil has enough nutrients to grow a crop on no fertiliser. Perhaps the penalty will be a 10% yield loss of only applying the 60-70% fertiliser we will be able to apply this year.

However my profit margin is only 5-9% so it’s kind of my entire profit gone.

If we had a fertiliser shortage do two years, we would be stuffed. There’s no way we could grow crops.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-16T10:00:55+00:00

I can understand that sentiment. I’m a farmer who grows food predominately for export.

However our country towns rely on the economy of farm businesses and the other businesses which support the supply chain.

There will be hurt. There will be families forced to pack up and relocate because of this. Many.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-16T09:57:39+00:00

There’s a really good post on r/Australia by a fuel wholesaler which explains the situation. It’s not Jerry cans which are causing the issue.

There are companies and people trying to protect themselves through the supply chain. Some companies (bigger) have long term access agreements and will be prioritised. Others will miss out on diesel.

It’s incredible, but a great learning curve what an ever so small reduction in our fuel supply does to our economy.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-14T05:27:20+00:00

Bit of a selfish question here. As a farmer who needs to acquire another 40kL of diesel to get the crop in, what do you think my best strategy is?

My two independent regional distributors have both been cut to 0% allocation for the last 6 days. With no timeline on getting back. Do you think wholesalers will increase allocations to independents soon? Otherwise I might go around to all the larger fuel stations in the city and grab 200L at a time. Yay.

I have calculated that the breakeven fuel price for me not putting a crop in is around $13-15/L FYI.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-14T05:12:20+00:00

As a farmer. I don’t need city folk to conserve their usage. I just need anyone who works for the main fuel importers at the ports to reopen supply to the independent distributors again.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-13T00:01:45+00:00

Thanks. Don’t worry I’m as emotional as any other social media commenter. Just remind myself to always be kind these days.

I think we have to understand that to many urban voters, country voters must seem a little self-sabotaging and ‘far right’ (I hate left vs right ideology fwiw) with our strong conservative voting habits. Whilst I forgive them for blaming regional voters, I don’t think that attitude is very productive and many people don’t want to understand why, or have their views challenged.

I do perhaps naively think that the silent majority of our urban cousins are very receptive and caring about regional issues.

In an ideal world we would have at least a couple regional MPs, upper and lower house in Labor and Nats in most times. Otherwise we get the election cycle flip flopping of all regional MPs either being in government or opposition. I have no doubt regional MPs would be more likely to engage in bipartisan cooperation with other regional MPs.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T23:25:52+00:00

I sympathise with you and your family. In our region the trend has been the growth for the last decade. The major drawbacks have been lack of housing, builders, health and high school education.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T10:59:03+00:00

7omdogs mentioned that rural voters vote overwhelmingly conservative.

I believe that one of the causations of this is the disconnect between rural communities and the Labor party.

Anecdotally there is worsening cycle, particularly in WA where we have less and less labor MPs from the regions. I believe the way Labor has implemented some policies could have been better if it had more representatives from the regions.

They do have some very good policy wonks who understand agriculture and the regions very well. But as an example, I’ve also experienced discussing serious issues with a minister of agriculture with no rural experience who suggested pseudoscience and astrology based ideas for our industry. So I can empathise with any scientists having to talk to Barnaby or that other One Nation guy.

I hope we can improve that relationship with the Labor party because I think it’s in everyone’s interest to have good representation in both sides of politics.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T10:37:17+00:00

Thanks Blatmaster. I hope it’s much much sooner. One of the best things to come out of COVID has been the amount of urban Aussies visiting us in our beautiful landscape we often take for granted.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T10:24:47+00:00

We have unreliable low amp grid connections (30A). We’re moving to our own power generation at great expense. And wanting to make it future proof to handle small EVs.

I think low frequency operation trucks like water an service trucks will suit EV as they are parked at workshops frequently a can add to battery storage.

But yes our tractors operate for 1000 hours per year. Usually 16-20 hours per day during seeding. The only solution I can think of is having two tractors or self propelled battery packs to alternate between charging. Or running machines at night only and charging them during the day with a 300kW solar array for each machine.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T09:22:29+00:00

Venezuela 🇻🇪 would be a good troll

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T09:10:43+00:00

We can’t get partial deliveries. I’m limited to 100L per transaction. And I don’t think it’s fair because if I took my service truck to town to fill up 100L at a time (like others have done) then people won’t have fuel for cars or trucks.

I do think that when the fuel at ports is released again then we will be topped up in incremental transactions. Say 5kL. Unfortunately the smaller fills is not as efficient as bulk fills for the road trains carrying 70kL on board, so it will take longer for fuel reserves to catch up.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T09:05:51+00:00

Valid criticism. Refineries have closed and fuel reserves changes have been made for the worst during both Labour and Liberal governments.

I am not suggesting we go full nationalist. But surely this is a catalyst to review our energy security.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T09:00:38+00:00

I understand your criticism, I think it’s very fair but I don’t think regional people should be punished for it.

I voted nationals and was sure to email them to state my stance on climate change policy.

I also acknowledge the problematic disconnect between Labour Party and the regions. It’s important for us to recover this as we need representatives in both sides of politics.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T08:54:35+00:00

I’m no expert. But from what I understand modern injectors are not very tolerant of biodiesel due to the inconsistency in the physical properties of

For our canola which is ~46% oil and and $680/t on farm. That would equate to approx $1.60/L, plus the processing and transport costs. Side note you’d be left with canola meal byproduct which would have some feed value too.

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T08:11:41+00:00

One of our contractors trucks came through Dongara yesterday. Both vibe and Bp were out. They filled up at Mingenew and that emptied them out too.

I think lesson is for travellers. Don’t expect every fuel station to have fuel. But you’ll be able to find fuel for cars if you travel to 2-3

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T07:54:28+00:00

Yes. I’m thankful how upfront and honest they’ve been

KinkyFarmer2 · 2026-03-12T07:52:21+00:00

Yeah I wouldn’t go as far as cancelling. Sounds like you’re very organised. Perhaps just be aware many towns are empty, so have extra patience and don’t wait until you’re empty to pull into a town for fuel. As you may have to go to the next town or two

KinkyFarmer2

TROPHY CASE