Peter and Renee Burke win The Weekly Times Coles 2019 Cropping Farmer of the Year
Before Peter and Renee Burke won the 2019 Farmer of the Year, they won the cropping category. Meet the others who vied for the title here.
AUSTRALIA’S top beef, cropping, dairy, horticulture, innovative and sheep farmers have been recognised at The Weekly Times Coles 2019 Farmer of the Year Awards. The following three growers vied for the title of Cropping Farmer of the Year.
WINNER: PETER AND RENEE BURKE
JERILDERIE, NSW
TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS PAYS OFF
FROM little things big things grow. Anyone who disagrees with this statement obviously hasn’t met Peter and Renee Burke.
The couple, from Jerilderie in the NSW Riverina, are not massive farmers by any stretch. But it’s what they have been able to achieve within their means that stands them head and shoulders above their contemporaries.
From just 1282 hectares, and with only a handful of water entitlements, they managed to produce a whopping 6000 tonnes of grain and 8000 bales of hay and straw in the past 12 months.
How? The Burkes’ farming strategy is as unique as it is smart. Instead of buying permanent water, they lease it. This insulated their business from poor water allocations in the Murray Valley during the recent drought years.
The plan has allowed them to grow full-potential oat, barley and rice crops in tough years when commodity prices are high – maximising returns. The Burkes have also been able to secure enough leased water to sell some to other irrigators.
Last season, the cost of water the Burkes used worked out at less than 90 per cent of the average price of temporary transfer water, and they sold their crops into a market where prices were at near-record levels.
The couple are also savvy when it comes to technology.
They were early adopters of variable-rate fertilising and GPS technology, and collect as much crop-performance information as they can, including yield-mapping.
“It’s a recipe that is working well financially so why change for the sake of it,” Peter says.
The proof is in the pudding. Last year they took out Australia’s ricegrower of the year award and they can now add The Weekly Times Coles 2019 Cropping Farmer of the Year to their growing list of accolades.
Peter and Renee Burke also won the overall 2019 Farmer of the Year.
FINALIST: PONTIFEX FARMING
GRANT AND BEN PONTIFEX, PASKEVILLE AND KANGAROO ISLAND, SA
KANGAROO HOP PROVIDES PLENTY OF BOUNCE
IT WAS a bold leap of faith. But a hop, skip and a jump from mainland South Australia to Kangaroo Island almost two decades ago has paid agronomic and economic dividends for fifth-generation farmers Grant and Ben Pontifex. Particularly in years such as 2019, with large swathes of southeast Australia reeling from dry conditions.
The brothers run Pontifex Farming, a 6800-hectare cropping business split between Paskeville on the Yorke Peninsula and Vivonne Bay and American River on Kangaroo Island.
The family expanded to Kangaroo Island in 2001 when options to grow the business locally were considered limited and costly.
Grant says for a third of the price of Yorke Peninsula farmland, Kangaroo Island offered higher rainfall and opportunities to grow different crop types to take advantage of commodity price cycles.
Pontifex Farming now farms 2400 hectares of wheat, barley, lentils and chickpeas at Paskeville and 4400 hectares of canola, wheat, barley and broad beans on Kangaroo Island.
“It works well in seasons like this when it is not as good here,” says Grant from Paskeville.
“It can get wet on Kangaroo Island occasionally and the crops suffer through waterlogging. But it is a good complement to this farm. If one farm is dry the other is usually pretty good and if one is wet the other is usually pretty good.”
This year, with Kangaroo Island ravaged by bushfire, the Pontifexes had 809ha of stubble burnt over three farms.
The Pontifexes use state-of-the-art farming techniques to achieve yields above the district average. Ahead of sowing at Paskeville each year, 6000 tonnes of chicken manure is spread to stimulate soil health. To conserve soil moisture and minimise disruption, no-till principles are employed and, on Kangaroo Island, some crops are sown from the family’s plane to improve seed utilisation.
Grant and Ben are savvy marketers. They are directors and shareholders of Kangaroo Island Pure Grain, which markets and sells grain from the island.
Soft wheat goes to Arnott’s biscuits, broad beans to Indonesia and canola to Japan. From Paskeville, pulses are sold to a packer in Adelaide while wheat and barley is sold for export.
Proving that in farming you can have your cake and eat it too.
FINALIST: AG SCHILLING AND CO
MARK AND MERRIDEE SCHILLING, CUNLIFFE, SA
SCHILLING MAKES A BOB OUT OF BEER
IF there’s anyone who knows how to make a pretty penny out of farming, it’s the Schillings.
Mark and Merridee Schilling have built a successful cropping, seed cleaning and machinery import business over 2000 hectares at Cunliffe on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula during the past three decades, and see a bright future in value-adding.
With a thirst for maximum market exposure, the Schillings added a paddock-to-pint element – the Yorke Premium beer label – to their diverse mix in late 2018.
“As producers we’ve always just thought that we needed to grow the grain and sell it to someone else,” says Mark, who is a seventh-generation farmer and the third generation of his family to grow crops on the peninsula.
“But why can’t we be the same as the wine industry? They’ve got grapes on vines – we’ve got barley on stalks.
“I like to be able to promote my product, and beer was one way I was able to do that quite simply without too much capital injection.”
Yorke Premium is produced using malt barley grown on the Schilling farms, then malted at Coopers Malting and brewed by Pikes Brewing at Clare. Their first beer – the Malbro Mid Kolsch ale – rolled off the lines for the first time in September 2018 and is sold at pubs and clubs throughout the Yorke Peninsula and Mid-North region.
The Schillings sold more than 875 cases of the beer last year – a good result given the label’s infancy.
“The consumption market is challenging because there are so many brands and you have to carve out a space,” Mark says. “We are working on that provenance story.”
Mark sees value-adding as critical to the agriculture industry. He is a director of Grain Producers South Australia and chairs its value-add committee.
In 2013, he teamed up with renowned chef Simon Bryant to sell packaged lentils, peas, chickpeas, broad beans, wakame, raw honey and peanut oil to restaurants, and has been involved in a pulse-breeding company to bring products to market.
It’s a strategy certainly worth raising your glass of beer to.
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