FORGET record beef prices, chronic labour shortages or animal welfare concerns - some farmers have bigger issues - like finding love.
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So it would seem as another season of the Channel Seven program, Farmer Wants a Wife, has kicked off.
The program sees five farmers/rural producers put themselves out there in front of an array of lovely bachelorettes, and before an entire nation, to see if magic happens and they find their life partner. Or at least, someone to help with the shearing.
There have been plenty of shots of hand-in-hand walking in rolling green paddocks, frolics through gentle livestock and swimming in remotely majestic waterholes, as is common place on most working agricultural operations.
While the program is a hit with both city and country viewers alike, there is more than one farmer out there watching it with a wry smile at the goings-on.
So we thought it was time to provide some solid rural commentary on the program.
Starting tonight, Good Fruit & Vegetables will host the blog... Farmers Watching Farmers Wanting Wives.
We've gathered some of Australia's finest rural reporters/television watchers to give a daily recap of each night's episode, plus a few extra thoughts on the show from a distinctly country perspective.
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It might be the style of Akubra worn, the mustering technique, an insight into what visiting a ute muster is actually like or just pondering who is running the property while old mate is swanning about in candlelight and champagne.
Just like the endless stream of neatly-pressed checkered shirts the lads wear each episode, there is no shortage of content to analyse.
At the end of each blog entry, we'll give a Farm Lesson of the Day which will be a practical, helpful (or maybe not so helpful) observation from the show's dealings for anyone wanting to get into agriculture. Or reality TV. Or dating. Or all of the above.
So if you've caught the hype of FWAW, add another level of experience to it by reading FWFWW.
Ashley Walmsley
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
