Grant and Naomi Sims named The Weekly Times Coles 2015 Farmer of the Year

NORTHERN Victorian cropping farmers Grant and Naomi Sims have been crowned The Weekly Times Coles 2015 Farmer of the Year.

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February 25, 2016 - 8:56PM

The Weekly Times

Farmer of the Year Finalists, Grant Sims

NORTHERN Victorian cropping farmers Grant and Naomi Sims have been crowned The Weekly Times Coles 2015 Farmer of the Year.

Grant and Naomi were tonight presented with their award at a gala event at Crown in Melbourne attended by Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford and hosted by former Olympic swimmer and television personality Giaan Rooney.

Family affair: The Weekly Times Coles 2015 Farmer of the Year overall winners the Sims family. Grant and Naomi with their children Hunter, River and Shiloh and Grant’s parents, Ken and Wendy. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

The couple, which runs the sixth–generation Sims Pastoral business at Pine Grove — a cereal, legume and oilseed cropping operation — was recognised for their innovative approach to cropping.

Their drive and passion has seen them transform their enterprise into an ultra-modern no-till controlled traffic system.

Grant, a Victorian No-Till Farmers Association committee member, has taken much from the zero-till textbook, but it’s the innovation he has introduced around that framework that sets him apart.

He has eliminated the use of fungicides to create a more natural soil base, moved to liquid fertiliser, which has led to the plants becoming more robust, and introduced cover and

companion crops including tillage radish, cereal rye and field peas.

The key to their success has been taking control of their own research and development.

Selflessly, they share the information they uncover with fellow farmers.

The couple took out the award for Cropping Farmer of the Year earlier in the night.

• Read more about Grant and Naomi Sims and the other Farmer of the Year winners in The Weekly Times next week.