How the small town of Ouyen grows barley to fund its footy club

Sponsorships are hard to come by in Ouyen, so the community funds its footy club by growing barley and driving trucks.

Sponsorships are hard to come by in the small Victorian town of Ouyen, so the community focuses on what it knows best — growing crops and driving trucks — to fund its local footy club.

Ouyen grain grower Jarrod Munro at the Ouyen football club's community crop on June 20, 2022. Picture: Else Kennedy

Ouyen United Kangas football and netball club vice president Jarrod Munro said the club’s cropping initiative brings the community together, and after one of the best autumn rainfalls on record, he was hopeful this year’s crop would be a good one for the club.

“I’ve never seen a start to the season this good,” Mr Munro said.

“We’re normally pretty happy with (a yield of) two tonnes per hectare. I’m hoping this year we could get 2.5 tonnes/ha.”

This autumn has been unusually wet, with Ouyen recording 158mm from March to June — 150 per cent of the long term average for the same period.

The Kangas club seized an opportunity to lease a 260ha block of land in 2014 when a local farmer moved out of the district.

The club’s fundraising efforts now bring in about $500,000 in a typical year, with cropping making up about one fifth of the revenue, Mr Munro said.

The club’s volunteers also transport grain and offer seeding and harvesting services to farming properties in the area to raise money for the club.

Ouyen United Kangas football netball club seeding their barley crop in April 2022. Picture: supplied.

Most of the cropping funds go towards infrastructure projects like maintaining grounds and netball courts, while some money goes towards player fees and transport, he said.

This year, as the war in Ukraine caused input prices to skyrocket, Kangas supporters had to dig deep to make sure the barley crop didn’t miss out on fertiliser, with four agricultural suppliers and a number of farmers eventually pooling their resources to get enough fertiliser for the crop.

Mr Munro, who also farms a 10,000ha broadacre cropping property with his family, said volunteers donated everything from equipment, meals, inputs, seed and hours of their time to give the crop a good start

In the lead up to Anzac Day, club volunteers donated the use of three airseeders and sowed the property with barley in about five hours.

Ouyen United Kangas football netball club harvesting their lentil crop in 2021. Picture: Supplied

“It is amazing how much you can get done in a short space of time,” he said.

The club has chosen to grow barley because it can typically be planted and harvested early — minimising disruption to its volunteers’ cropping programs.

Last year, the club grew a break crop of lentils to give the soil a chance to rebuild. Faced with the prospect of lower revenue, volunteers donated their time and the use of about a dozen trucks to cart the lentils to port in Melbourne, bringing in a premium of about $60 a tonne.

Halfway through the season, the Kangas, whose team includes former Hawk Dallas Willsmore and star midfielder Kane Stevens, are third on the ladder of the Sunraysia Football Netball League, and have only lost two games, putting them in a strong position to make it to the finals.