Maryland Too: Learning and adapting to changes in the industry

WILL and Margaret Carmody’s farming success story is an inspiring one of rags to riches.

Good Will hunting: Will and Margaret Carmody grow about 4650 hectares of crops near Esperance in Western Australia.

WILL and Margaret Carmody’s farming success story is an inspiring one of rags to riches.

A tale of how, with a perfect mix of technology, techniques and timing, a highly profitable farming operation can be built from next to nothing — in this case inhospitable scrub country.

The Carmodys grow about 4650 hectares of canola, wheat and barley at Cascade, about 800km southwest of Perth near Esperance, in Western Australia — one of the last areas in the nation to be opened up for large-scale farmland development.

2017 CROPPING FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

MARYLAND TOO

Will and Margaret Carmody

CASCADE, WA

Over the past four decades, they have fine-tuned their management practices in an effort to get the most out of their high-rainfall, sandy soil country.

These minor, but critical changes, have led to a dramatic increase in production and had a positive impact on their bottom line.

Pioneers of new cropping technologies, the Carmodys were among the first in their district to adopt no-till farming practices to counter erosion and maximise soil moisture following severe droughts in the 1980s.

They’ve since built on this with variablerate technology for targeted fertiliser and chemical use, a move to more expensive, but efficient, liquid fertiliser, and the adoption of infra-red technology to analyse the health of plants.

The Carmodys have also introduced apps to record key production data, allowing for information to be shared with their agronomist and farm consultants. If that’s not enough, they’ve also modified machinery to assist with things such as weed control.

The results speak for themselves: canola yields have doubled to 1.8 tonnes/ha and wheat and barley yields have increased 50 per cent to three tonnes/ha in the past five years.

But don’t think for a moment the business, which employs two full-time staff, is resting on its laurels. Will, a former member of the West Australian Precision Agriculture Steering Committee, is always keen to learn the latest advances in the industry.

And new and unique ways of making dollars from their dirt.