EVERY now and then we need to stop and take stock of the positives around us.
The rise of Farmer Power, despair among dairy farmers, the continually high Australian dollar, rising production costs and the growing dry stretch are all things that occupy much of Australian agriculture's mind.
But it is important we don't ignore the good news in farming.
That is why The Weekly Times, along with Coles, last week staged its Farmer of the Year awards.
They were a chance to celebrate the great things in farming and the people making a fist of things, who are earning a quid and leading by example.
Their stories need to be told just as much as the tough issues that seem to dominate the rural landscape.
Stories such as that of our overall farmer of the year, the Jacometti family's Boomaroo Nurseries.
What originally started as a vegetable farm at Werribee has grown into a multi-million dollar business at Lara supplying 300 million vegetable and flower seedlings to growers across Australia.
Theirs is a remarkable story of determination and hard work, of building a business from nothing at a time when agriculture was meant to be too hard.
Then there is Grant and Kim Archer, Tasmanian dairy farmers who have structured their business to cut costs and achieve an incredible return on investment, which is the topic of the nation's dairy industry.
Or Jason and Belinda Hagan of Tooborac, who farm Berkshire pigs in a system they describe as "beyond free-range".
These awards really are a celebration of farming.
Every finalist and winner in The Weekly Times Coles Farmer of the Year deserve our congratulations.
They also deserve our thanks, for being role models that all farmers can look to.
