Life lately has just been a constant succession of lambing beats and shifting breaks on crops for the cattle. But that is what plenty of us do at this time of the year. However my head has finally resurfaced and I’ve survived another lambing but it gets tougher as the body ages.

We are just back from listening to one of John Kirwan’s talks on dealing with depression. Well done to JK for the excellent work he has been doing on this over a long period of time and good on Westpac for sponsoring him and these events.

Like many I’ve been giving a great deal of thought about our colleagues in the dairy sector. It has not been so easy being a sheep and beef farmer in these past decades either with low prices, volatility, droughts, floods and all the other farming challenges.

I’ll tell you about someone special who has just died. Unless you live here In Hawkes Bay, you are unlikely to have heard of her. She was quiet, modest and unassuming. But a remarkable women none the less.

Leadership is a lot about rallying the troops and giving a hopeful and optimistic view of the future.

It’s easy to become too preoccupied with the problems and difficulties of life. My golfing mate Alastair was complaining the other day of the worm casts on the odd green

El Niño. None of us had ever heard of this or La Nina for that matter until 1982/83. Not that this climate phenomena hadn’t been around for a long time. At least the last six thousand years and probably a lot longer.

“What’s wrong with your back?” asked Raj my golf partner as I stretched it after a particularly vile golf shot. I told him I lived with a crook back but one mustn’t grumble, it could be worse.

Here is a photo of John Ormond who died on the 1st September 2014 taken in Mid May at Wallingford.