Australia’s best farmers for 2020 named
Among the 128,000 who feed and clothe the world, a select few stand out as Australia’s cream of the crop. See who is in the running for The Weekly Times Coles 2020 Farmer of the Year awards.
A FRUIT grower that has declared a war on waste, a dairy farmer that has grown his herd from 12 to 1900 cows and an innovative sheep producer selling his own meat through a high-end city butcher have been recognised among Australia’s best farmers.
Finalists in The Weekly Times Coles 2020 Farmer of the Year awards were announced today.
The awards, in their ninth year, honour the best in beef, cropping, dairy, horticulture, innovation and sheep farming.
This year’s finalists come from Queensland, NSW, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria.
Winners will be announced on February 26.
BEEF FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
TOM & OLIVIA LAWSON
PARINGA LIVESTOCK, MURRINDINDI VIC
PERFORMANCE and the environment are front and centre for Tom and Olivia Lawson, who operate Paringa Livestock, a diverse stud beef business running about 550 Red Angus, black Angus, Charolais and red and black composite Stabilizer cows at Murrindindi, in Victoria’s North East, and at Clarkes Hill, near Ballarat.
The business, with science and hybrid vigour as its centrepieces, sells 150-200 bulls a year to a growing client base seeking to produce born-to-perform calves that will return them a healthy premium.
READ MORE ABOUT TOM & OLIVIA LAWSON
STARK FAMILY
LAKE MUNDI VIC
ON 2500 hectares around Lake Mundi, in the border country of western Victoria, Kevin and Maryanne Stark, and their 31-year-old son Kevin Jnr, put profits front and centre as they work hard to produce a beef herd that matches the demands of today’s consumers.
The Starks, who run 800 breeding cows, are passionate about producing food as efficiently and effectively as possible. Since returning home to the farm eight years ago Kevin Jnr has overseen a switch from decades of breeding Hereford and Poll Hereford cattle to Angus crossbred black baldies in an effort to produce better-quality beef.
READ MORE ABOUT THE STARK FAMILY
TIM & ANNA WILSON
LABERTOUCHE VIC
TIM and Anna Wilson might farm just 385 hectares, spread across three properties in Victoria’s Gippsland region, but what they lack in quantity they surely make up with quality, running a powerhouse herd of 1100 purebred Angus cattle.
Farming is much more than a passion project for Tim, who grew up in Melbourne and studied agricultural science at university, before jackarooing in Western Australia for a year and later becoming an agronomist. The 43-year-old’s approach to farming is to “maximise every blade of grass” pushing production through the use of new varieties of grasses, a good fertiliser program and grazing management while going above and beyond to protect the environment.
READ MORE ABOUT TIM & ANNA WILSON
CROPPING FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
JARROD & EMMA AMERY
AMERY AG, FORBES NSW
JARROD and Emma Amery have built a solid farming business near Forbes in centralwest NSW which crops more than 2400 hectares across four properties.
Last year was a big year for the Amerys, who planted 1300 hectares of wheat, 600 hectares of barley and 450 hectares of canola. A combination of innovative farming practices and a turnaround in seasons, saw wheat average a mind-blowing 6.1 tonnes a hectare – up from an average 3.5-4 tonnes a hectare. Canola returned 2.9 tonnes a hectare compared an average of 1.5-2.3 tonnes a hectare. In addition, Jarrod was awarded a prestigious Nuffield scholarship to take his innovative farming ideas to the world.
READ MORE ABOUT JARROD & EMMA AMERY
BALDOCK FAMILY
KARINYA AG, BUCKLEBOO SA
TRISTAN and Lisa Baldock, and Tristan’s parents Graeme and Heather, farm at Buckleboo, in marginal farming country about 200km west of Port Augusta on the South Australian Eyre Peninsula.
The family’s strategy to cropping 6000 hectares in this hot, dry environment is simple yet effective: make do with what, and if, the heavens deliver. With an average annual rainfall of just 300mm, but many years falling short of this, the Baldocks stand ready to act if it does rain, and step back if it doesn’t.
Their ability to make the most of a situation, by dialling back inputs such as fertilisers and sprays if the season cuts out, has seen them harvest crops year-in, year-out.
READ MORE ABOUT THE BALDOCK FAMILY
HAMILTON FAMILY
INVERLEIGH, VIC
A DELIBERATE move by Stewart Hamilton to grow his family’s cropping operation based in Victoria’s Western District by buying land three hours away at Wycheproof, in the Mallee, is paying handy dividends.
When looking for another farm 15 years ago, Stewart had one unusual criteria – it had to be within a daylight’s tractor driving time from the home base. It has taken some fine tuning to settle into farming two vastly different cropping environments but there’s now a regime that maximises profit, manpower and machinery.
READ MORE ABOUT THE HAMILTON FAMILY
DAIRY FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
RAPHAEL FAMILY
GLEN EDEN HOLSTEINS, MUSWELLBROOK NSW
JOHN Raphael, his wife, Catherine, his brother, Doug, and Doug’s wife, Amy, run the 1000-cow Glen Eden Holsteins business on 420 hectares near Muswellbrook in the NSW Hunter Valley.
The dairy farmers have set an ambitious goal of their herd producing 10 million litres of milk off grass, a move that would normally require a significant increase in fertiliser applications.
But the Raphaels did the opposite – cutting back their use of urea to a third of their normal application rate. The result has surprised even them. Not only is their herd healthier and more fertile but their country grows just as much grass as ever.
READ MORE ABOUT THE RAPHAEL FAMILY
GLOWREY FAMILY
SWAN HILL VIC
ORIGINALLY starting out in the 1940s with 12 cows on 100 hectares and supplying milk to a Greek café in Swan Hill, the Glowrey family has built a powerhouse business that now milks up to a whopping 1900 cows on 570 hectares.
Third-generation dairy farmer Matt Glowrey says the meteoric rise from family farm to family corporate business has been the result of resourcefulness, lateral thinking and plenty of hard work. The business, which employees 10 full-time workers across, places a strong emphasis on genetics, having a healthy and productive herd and growing the most cost-effective feed possible.
READ MORE ABOUT THE GLOWREY FAMILY
MATT & ALLI REID
OTWAY MILK, CARLISLE RIVER VIC
MATT and Alli Reid run a finely tuned dairy operation at Carlisle River, near Colac, milking 675 cows in a system more focused on profitability than it is on production.
Since relocating from drought-ravaged irrigation districts of northern Victoria less than 20 years ago, the Reids have more than doubled the size of their business, switched from supplying the global to domestic fresh milk market to reduce risks associated with fluctuating prices, lifted annual returns on assets to almost 10 per cent and are on track to more than triple their admittedly low equity.
Their return on assets last season was a whopping 9.7 per cent — almost double the 5.8 per cent average return of southwest Victorian dairy farms.
READ MORE ABOUT MATT & ALLI REID
HORTICULTURE FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
BELL FAMILY
MOUNTAIN BLUE, TABULAM NSW
MOUNTAIN Blue, at Tabulam in the NSW Northern Rivers region, has grown into one of the largest blueberry breeding, farming and marketing businesses in the world.
Managing director Andrew Bell is charged with the enormous job of overseeing 147 hectares of its plantings grown on four properties in two states, a commercial nursery, 27 new varieties registered worldwide and grown in 24 nations, as well as 80 permanent staff ranging from geneticists to lab technicians to pickers and packers.
Mountain Blue is also seeking to expand its berry basket, growing 80,000 raspberry plants since 2018 and working towards a breeding program for blackberries.
READ MORE ABOUT THE BELL FAMILY
BUSCH FAMILY
BUSCH ORGANICS, LINDENOW VIC
THE Busch family will this year notch up a century of continuously farming horticultural crops in Victoria’s East Gippsland region, with the past two decades certified organic.
Fourth-generation Kane Busch said the cumulative power of generational knowledge had led to farming efficiency and for four years they have posted an annual growth of 30 per cent.
Busch Organics grows six vegetable crops – beetroot, broccoli, beans, celery, cabbage and leek – year-round on 120 hectares over two properties, at Lindenow and Stratford. Harvested vegetables are daily to wholesale markets in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, as well as through pre-packers in Adelaide, who on-sell to export markets.
READ MORE ABOUT THE BUSCH FAMILY
GIBLETT FAMILY
NEWTON ORCHARDS, MANJIMUP WA
NIC Giblett, the director of her family-run Newton Orchards, which produces about 6000 tonnes of apples a year at Manjimup about 300km south of Perth in Western Australia, has declared a war on waste.
Nic estimates that about 1000 tonnes of fruit, worth about $1 million, from her family’s business is discarded each year due to not meeting exacting supermarket specifications.
To counter this, and help recoup financial losses, she has launched a suite of value-add products from waste apples – such as apple juice, craft cider, apple spirits and brandy – now supplies craft cider makers with 500 tonnes of apples annually and has embraced new avenues for “flawed-but-adored” produce.
READ MORE ABOUT THE GIBLETT FAMILY
FARM MAGAZINE INNOVATIVE FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
BETHUNE FAMILY
BETHUNE LANE DAIRY, LAKE BOGA VIC
PAUL and Sally Bethune have spent the past 26 years finetuning their 900-head milking herd to produce some of the creamiest milk in the business, while maximising water efficiency and keeping costs under tight control.
Impressive in itself for an irrigated dairy operation near Lake Boga in low-rainfall northwest Victoria.
In the past two years, they have added another string to their bow by establishing their own brand – Bethune Lane Dairy – to showcase their traditional tasting, full-cream milk.
Launched in late 2019, the boutique business produces milk, yoghurt and chocolate milk, selling through farmers’ markets and retailers from Mildura to Kerang.
READ MORE ABOUT THE BETHUNE FAMILY
BECKY DART
BIG HEART BAMBOO, BELLI PARK QLD
YOUNG bamboo grower Becky Dart, from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, is well on target with her desire to build for demand for edible bamboo.
Following the footsteps of her father, Durnford Dart, who first planted species of the giant grass on his Belli Park land in 1989, Becky is now reintroducing bamboo to Australian chefs and diners, as a premium, Australian-grown vegetable.
On her own eight-hectare slice of the Dart family’s 40-hectare farm, Becky manages two main varieties, harvesting up to eight tonnes of shoots a year. More than proficient in the kitchen she makes a range of award-winning value-added bamboo preserves and chutneys sold under her Big Heart Bamboo brand.
PHILLIPA & SKEET LAWSON
THE PINNAROO FARMER, PINNAROO SA
PHILLIPA and Skeet Lawson have spent the past six years running a 1600-hectare grain and lentil operation in South Australia’s Mallee, where they are slowly taking the reins from Phillipa’s father, John Angel.
The couple strives to maximise production and soil health while reducing chemical use and have wasted no time making positive additions to the business. Last year they launched a paddock-to-plate brand to sell their pulses directly to consumers as high-protein, gluten-free flour. The venture was inspired, in part, by their frustration about what happens to high-quality lentils that don’t make export grade for cosmetic reasons.
READ MORE ABOUT PHILLIPA & SKEET LAWSON
SHEEP FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
RICK & JENNY ROBERTSON
GRACEMERE MERINOS, BENGWORDEN VIC
RICK and Jenny Robertson have drawn inspiration from zero-till croppers, who work with the earth instead of against it, to revolutionise the way they run their Merino operation.
A second-generation wool and sheepmeat farmer, Rick took over his family’s 1000-hectare farm, home to their Gracemere Merino flock, at Bengworden in Victoria’s East Gippsland region in 1989.
But it wasn’t until 2009, following a period of dry weather, that he and wife Jenny took stock of the way they were running their business and wondered if they could be doing things differently.
READ MORE ABOUT RICK & JENNY ROBERTSON
KARRAWARRA PASTORAL
WANTABADGERY NSW
LEO and Vanessa Herbert run Karrawarra Pastoral, spread across 4455 hectares in the rolling hills around Wantabadgery in southern NSW, which in the past five years has been transformed into one of the most progressive and successful sheep businesses in the nation.
Five years ago the former Dorper breeders steered their sheep flock towards increased lambing survivability and production, introducing the Highlander and Focus Prime breeds, developed by New Zealand’s Focus Genetics.
In the first year of using Highlanders, noted for their mothering abilities, the Herberts increased their ewe scanning rates from 120 per cent of lambs to 140 per cent. “Now we’re doing 180s,” Leo said.
READ MORE ABOUT KARRAWARRA PASTORAL
DARREN & KYLIE SCHURMANN
KINGAROY PARTNERSHIP, HAMILTON VIC
DARREN and Kylie Schurmann run an innovative commercial sheep business across 5000 hectares at Strathkellar, near Hamilton, in the rolling green paddocks of Victoria’s Western District.
They run 5000 ewes, which in turn produce 7000 lambs and sell 14 lambs or 360kg of lamb they sell per hectare.
For the Schurmanns their success has been achieved through a focus on genetics and efficiency.
A portion of the flock is joined to Hampshire Down rams, known for their marbling, and the Schurmanns sell 20 lambs through a specialist butcher in Melbourne each week.
READ MORE ABOUT DARREN AND KYLIE SCHURMANN
Picture gallery: All the action from Farmer of the Year awards
The best and brightest in Australian agriculture were crowned at The Weekly Times Coles 2023 Farmer of the Year awards. See all the pictures.
2023 Farmer of the Year winners revealed
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