Time out to reflect on another world

摘要

Normally the BIA beef section in Australian Farm Journal is devoted to increasing the bottom line, after all that is what the Beef Improvement Association is all about. While we are constantly thinking about drought there is, in reality, very little we can do to make it rain. Hence, we need to look at what we can do. My first thought is to consider our attitude, and think about the positive things we can do to help us cope with what some people say is the worst drought ever. It is for this reason that I am writing about a trip that my wife and I had last August, firstly to Austria for two weeks, and then on to a little village in the north of Italy called Mantello - my parent's birth place. Our tour started in Linz (on the Danube) an industrial city in Austria close to the German border. We were lucky to be the guests of a large agricultural machinery manufacturer; we were given guided tours of manufacturing plants and also saw the latest machinery devoted to haymaking.