Aidan’s Story.
“From a local born and bred Loxton lad perspective, I’d imagine majority (if not all) community members would know, or feel the ripple effect a drought has in Loxton.”
How have the tough farming conditions been affecting your business this year?
“We’ve been impacted in several ways, mainly with farmers watching their spending habits and not replacing tyres when needing to - rather they’ve had us out to repair them, even when the tyre is no good. There is even a few select farmers who have tried to fix their own tyres rather than calling us out for assistance, just because their budgets are tight with spending.
It also affects us at store level, by not being able to ‘hold’ some of the main sizes (given the price some of these tyres are), it affects our cash flow if we are sitting on tyres not being sold / fitted. And we can’t keep every size on the shelf either ‘just because’ in a year like this.
Spending habits have definitely changed in 2025 with the farmers more so, as their input costs are so much greater to put their crops in vs that of some of the other industries we service. It’s not just tractor tyres they’re watching their spendings with, they are also watching what they spend on their everyday car and 4WD tyres. Some, who have put good branded tyres or patterns on in the past, are now opting to go back to a budget or mid range tyre, just to get them through until they can get some more money in the bank!
What’s the flow-on effect when primary producers tighten their belts AND How does that impact your BUSINESS?
When farmers spending habits change, the ripple effect definitely goes right through the towns and regions, even right down to sporting clubs and organisations within the town. I personally didn’t realise how much it can affect a town in a year like this, until I started with Goodyear Loxton nearly 10 years ago. You see vehicles and customers out the front of stores, or inside them, and you just expect it’s ‘business as usual’, until you start hearing around the town just how it affects everyone. And it’s not just our industry, it’s dealerships who service tractors, machinery, implements, and equipment.
As our team here at Goodyear Loxton aren’t from a farming background, it is probably a bit harder for us to converse with the local farmers and just ask them a simple question like “how are you going”, not knowing how they are going to respond. We have a great group of five guys who work very close alongside one another, where there is always that friendly banter day in day out, and we just continue to do our jobs and service our customers with high priority. Taking a few minutes out of our day just to have a basic conversation with them, you get the feeling that by having a quick chat, they are happy you’ve taken time out of your day for something so simple.
As for our suppliers, one of the first questions they generally ask when Adelaide has rain, is how much we have had. Once you tell them we haven’t had a drop, when they have probably received over an inch of rain in a couple of days, they are surprised we didn’t get anything. And of course, our replies aren’t always going to be on the positive side straight away. Some of our staff who work in the call centres of our suppliers, have been instructed by the travelling reps to not even talk about the weather, knowing it can be a reaction point with some stores.
“Given Loxton is a tight knit community, I would have faith in our town to band together to help our farmers liven up their prospects, if only just slightly.”
What would you like the wider community to understand about how farming fortunes impact towns?
I think if there was a ‘flowchart’ giving an example of a farmers life, in an average year with what they have to outlay to grow their crops right through to harvest time vs a year of drought, people in the town would probably realise just how hard farming is. It’s not as simple as filling the tractor up with fuel, hooking up the air seeder, and going round and round in paddocks and waiting for the seed to grow - it’s the massive risks associated with not being able to predict the next six or so months of growing, and conditions until harvest later on in the year. You can’t just magically turn a switch on and receive 10mm of rain on a certain paddock or two. It would be nice if we could, but unfortunately we can’t change the weather system and have an above average harvest every year, as much as we would all like too!
We are remaining positive here at Goodyear Loxton, now we can start to see greenery appearing in some of the paddocks. Knowing it will probably be a quick harvest, we will still be here to help service the needs of the farmers. For the months ahead, we will do our best to haggle our suppliers down on tractor tyre pricing where we can, even if we can get $50 off a tyre, it’s got to be somewhat of a help!”
Aidan Lipacis
Store Manager
Goodyear Loxton