Cause and
Effect:
Can we solve a problem by addressing its symptoms?
Ever tried hitting yourself on the head with a hammer? Is the pain a symptom or a cause? Obviously it is a symptom of your actions, but what if you didn’t detect that? What would happen if you kept hitting yourself with the hammer?
Depending on how thick-skinned you are sooner
or later you’d get a headache and start taking
aspirin to get rid of the
pain. You’d take
millions of them but the pain would still be
there. Then you’d
ask the professionals to tax you to do
something about this pain, and they’d come up
with Panadol or something
similar. You’d
take millions of these but the pain would
still persist. You
ask for bigger and better painkillers and be
offered codeine or the like and start taking
that but before long you’d be suffering from
the side effects of the medication with lack
of sleep, ulcers, or high blood
pressure. Could
this be an anecdote for what is happening on
your farm? Is
modern farming all about addressing symptoms
and not causes? If
so, what does this mean for your cost of
production?
The classic case is with thistles. How many farmers for example will be spraying thistles this year completely oblivious to the fact they are treating a symptom not a problem. When I ask farmers about their thistle problems they say thistles are there because of the seed in the ground. This is true but if a square metre of soil can hold up to 30,000 seeds, why is it that only thistles are germinating and surviving? What are the conditions that are allowing these seeds to germinate and thrive in the first place? Are thistles merely a symptom of something else regarding the pasture management and does spraying address that? What is the root cause of farm problems?
Lets takes this thistle issue further and assume these are Nodding thistles. You will have to spray these because the local district council policy says so. Here we have a situation where environmental consultants and bureaucrats are not addressing the cause of the problem either. What does this policy mean for the farmer? Farmers are paying to address a problem with a quick fix solution that only works for that season, yet assists the problem to persist for years to come by not addressing its cause. Over the long term the expense of meeting this regulation just adds to the cost of production.
Can we solve a problem by addressing its symptoms? No. Unless we get to the cause of a problem, treating its symptoms only increases cost of production. There are many farming issues that are not addressed because farming practices addressing symptoms not cause; parasitism, poor water infiltration, scrub invasion, and soil erosion to name a few.
How many millions of dollars in spent in business on addressing symptoms rather than getting at the root cause of a problem?
John King from Succession coaches farming families to make decisions that are profitable, regenerative, and bring enjoyment to land stewardship. More? Visit www.succession.co.nz or phone 025 6737 885.