The Right-to-Repair issue is largely driven by American farmers needing to be able to maintain equipment that is critical to their existence.

However, here's another side of farmers' reliance on sophisticated computerised technology, close to home :

QUOTE: Tractors have ground to a halt in paddocks across Australia and New Zealand because of a signal failure in the satellite farmers use to guide their GPS-enabled machinery, stopping them from planting their winter crop.

What pisses me off about the SMH is the publishing of all those childish comments about the predicament the farmers find themselves in. This is one of a few reasons why I don't read that rag these days. The brand is cheap and nasty. They have a hide to demand visitors to the site sign up and pay for this rubbish.

I suppose it is fair to say that there should be an adequate back-up system in place but none of the dolts who are bagging the farmers have offered a mature solution, just scorn and ridicule. Then there is the usual left-wing tripe about diesel fuel subsidies - there is no subsidy for diesel fuel. What farmers receive is a rebate on the fuel excise, a fair measure since the excise funds road repairs and farmers don't drive implements on the roads, except shifting them across the road from one paddock to another.

Addressing the issue itself, farming, like any industry, is subject to 21st century issues such as the failure of state of the art technologies. It could be satellite guidance for machinery, Internet modems, weather prediction/measurement equipment or even a bore pump that runs on a solar panel instead of the old fashioned windmills, most of which we see idle and rusting away as electric motors have taken over the operation of many bores.

When I lived in the bush some years ago I did electrical work for several farmers - a lot more difficult than typical domestic work as cabling often had to be upgraded so the current carrying capacity could be maintained. In one job, the cocky ran 2.5mm2 power cabling from his home to a shed where he did a lot of welding. The welder would drop the voltage at the shed to around 160V when it was being used, blacking out his fluorescent lighting. The cable run was around 200m. I had to upgrade the cabling to 16mm2 to stop that happening. His substation was also a bit on the small side to handle the induction but the end result was satisfactory enough - a larger substation was not on the radar due to cost.

I never bother to read readers' comments on any newspaper site.

I wish I knew how to resist that.

I could fill a page on what we have to put up with. City people in their sheltered workshop have no idea of the crap we have to put up with and think all food comes from a supermarket.

They have no idea of the tyranny of distance;

Inferior roads: That's why people die on country roads: They are a mess. It has cost me nearly a new car in suspension repairs. Most will be damaged within 30,000 Km;

Inferior rail to transport goods; Tearing up roads.

Inferior Mobile phone: Been like that since its inception. Telstra will not fixit and I have paperwork to prove that. Mine connects badly to a tower 40Km away. It is clear that they are hanging out, for you the taxpayer, by way of the Blackspot funding rort; will pay for any infrastructure if its ever built.

Wireless NBN that can a lot of the time, if its actually working properly has a speed below that of a carrier pigeon.

If you are pension age and want to retire to the farm you're a special category of bourgeoise and will be penalised and special taxed like over 150,000 plus farmers like me with changes made by the last government had their pensions brought below the poverty line, probably to force them into sell out & loose the pension eligibility, OR as pointed out by the Royal commission move into care & get bumped off.

We really are in the lucky country aren't we: Lucky to survive.

I have just found on Youtube a report that a state in the US has now passed a "Right To Repair" law that allows operators to be able to repair their equipment. I hope this continues in the US and flows onto Australia.

While I have been fortunate so far that my tractor has not required an authorised serviceman to delve into the internal "gizmo" of the tractor to find the cause of the problem (15 yo model), the tractor does have error codes that show up on the dashboard screen which are then attended to by a "non authorised" mechanic. One time the mechanic told me a farmer had a tractor get stuck on 4WD and couldn't switch it off. When the farmer asked what the likely cost to begin with, as the authorised mechanic had to travel from the Hunter area in NSW up to the Mid North Coast, he was quoted $2000. The farmer said "Forget it, he will stick with 4WD".

Recently my brother required a truck repair company to look into his truck as it was going all over the place with the gear changing. It is automatic and uses electronics for pretty much everything. The mechanic attached a cable to link up with the computer to interrogate the system to find the cause. Found it was faulty electrical motor that pushes/pulls gears into place. One of a number. Was quoted at least a couple of thousand dollars for it. My brother said leave it. He has ordered a replacement part for less than a thousand from someone else. He has a friend who is a truck mechanic who will fit the part.

Being brand exclusive on repairs of machinery allows the businesses to put whatever price on parts they like, to take advantage of the situation. Not very cost effective for the farmer/ truck driver. The additional fact of being exclusive also increases the service coverage area and reduces the number of mechanics which creates a lot of downtime and that costs money and loss of productivity. A number of tractor businesses in NSW have been acquired and consolidated over a large area has contributed to limiting authorised mechanics.

https://youtu.be/fNmWO4qlhQY