Farmer of the Year Awards winners, finalists do incredible things

THE finalists and winners of The Weekly Times Coles 2018 Farmer of the Year Awards announced at a function in Melbourne last week are people doing some incredible things, as ED GANNON explains.

Winners of The Weekly Times Coles 2018 Farmer of the Year Award Phoebe and Tom Bull. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

THERE are undoubtedly a lot of farmers doing it tough at the moment.

But there are some farmers who are doing good things.

And unless you stop and take notice, it is easy to be swamped by the constant doom and gloom of drought, floods and irrigators supposedly killing the fish.

On that latter point, cotton growers in NSW say they have been forced to give up on social media because of the level of abuse and threats levelled at them after recent fish kills in the Darling River.

But there is good out there. Actually, there is fantastic.

Last week the winners of The Weekly Times Coles 2018 Farmer of the Year Awards were announced at a function in Melbourne.

The finalists and winners are people doing some incredible things.

The overall winners were Tom and Phoebe Bull, from Holbrook, north of Albury-Wodonga.

The Bulls are sheep breeders. Yes, I know, their surname is Bull.

They are serious sheep breeders.

So serious, in fact, they recently bought every stud of an entire breed of sheep.

And the reason they did that is they are determined to produce the best tasting lamb chop in the world.

They proudly say they are seeking to make their breed the Wagyu of sheep.

Wagyu, of course, is the Japanese beef breed that has become synonymous with the best tasting steaks.

This is due to its high level of marbling, or fat. Forget the rubbish advertised as Wagyu on fast-food menus and most pub blackboards, a real raw Wagyu steak is almost white it contains so much fat. And fat is flavour.

The Bulls’ is a scientific business, conducting their own research to determine what rams will produce marbling in lamb, and selling the genetics from their stud to clients who produce nearly one million lambs a year.

It’s this sort of business acumen that farming needs to showcase, for farming is big business.

And few are as big as the horticulture category winners, Pinata Farms, which runs farms across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

It’s numbers are staggering. Each year Pinata produces nine million pineapples, 13 million mangoes and a mind-blowing 130 million strawberries.

Yet it is a family business, albeit one that turns over $50 million a year.

The dairy industry is copping a whack at the moment, not least its image.

But look at the dairy category winners, Clint Theodore and Brooke Lane, from Alvie in southwest Victoria.

They have grabbed technology by the horns and have 300 cows that each produce 11,000 litres of milk a year. That’s close to double the Australian average.

Oh, did I mention Clint is aged 32 and Brooke is just 23?

Rosemary grower Anita Watt from Balmoral in the Western District, is another amazing story of persistence. She has been growing rosemary for 20 years, and now runs one of the largest rosemary operations in Australia.

Anita lost her business partner to cancer along the way, but has continued on their joint dream, just recently producing a unique rosemary roll-on product, called the memory stick, which is being marketed as a herbal memory aid.

Each of these winners couldn’t understand the fuss being made over them at the awards. I am yet to meet a farmer who does expect a fuss.

It is sad that the only time most people hear about farmers is when there is drought, flood or fire, and they appear to be only putting their hand out.

There are some absolute gems out there who would run rings around a lot of people sitting in tall buildings.

It is just that we rarely hear about them.

• Ed Gannon is Editor of The Weekly Times

MORE FARMER OF THE YEAR

MEET OUR FARMERS OF THE YEAR

ON FARM: TOM AND PHOEBE BULL

ON FARM: PINATA FARMS

ON FARM: CLINT THEODORE AND BROOKE LANE

FARM MAGAZINE: ANITA WATT