Plenty of our readers will no doubt be glad to see the back of 2019 - extreme drought, regular dust storms, Murray-Darling water woes, bushfires everywhere, fish kills, two general elections, dairy price squeezes, high feed costs, and the Wallabies ... sigh!
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Oh, and did we mention the drought?
While that one is definitely still with us, there have also been some positives to take from it into 2020, so let's look at those.
Firstly, the drought made a lot of producers take a critical look at their businesses.
For many, this has involved the introduction of drought containment lots or temporary feedlots. This allowed them to hone in on their stock's performance while also taking the pressure off their paddocks.
Among the many examples was earlier in 2019 when we took a look at the Coddington's Merino operation near Dubbo.
They had not only introduced containment lots, but also reduced their ewe numbers while consecutively increasing their lambing rate and wool cut.
This sort of adaptation, be it for Merino, prime lamb or beef, has been considerably helped by the high prices for livestock, especially for finished stock.
The way prices have held up has been one of the most repeated aspects of this drought in conversation throughout the past year.
And one of the positives we'll be taking into 2020 is the scope for price upside across all commodities, be it lamb, beef, wool, goats, grains - and even milk.
Dairy farmer groups were happy with new mandatory code of conduct, which gives producers more protection in price negotiation, as well as flexibility with their marketing - now for that pesky $1/litre milk!
Another win was the Right to Farm bill, which included tresspass and biosecurity protections, creating an avenue of recourse for farmers that previously didn't exist - but remember to get that biosecurity sign up if you haven't already (you can get these from Local Land Services).
Farmers must display these signs if they are to seek prosecution for trespass.
We also saw the town of Lockhart show what's possible for a country town with the approval for its community-owned solar energy generation plant.
And property prices. Even if you've had to sell your stock, or haven't grown a crop for a few years, at least your farm has most likely increased in value, as most land types have at least doubled in value since 2013.
That shows confidence in farming.
