We are based in Kellerberrin and are a cropping operation consisting of wheat, lupins, canola, oats and a small amount of barley for hay.
I grew up on the farm with Mum, Dad and my older brother. When it came to the farm, Mum and Dad had a rule that you cannot knock it until you try it. I came back in November 2022 for harvest to drive the chaser bin, I found a passion for farming and continued on from there.
For the last growing season we received about 305mm of rain. We have had a really good start this year, probably one of the better ones, with 45-57 mm around the place.
We started seeding canola a week earlier this year due to the promising rain from Cyclone Narelle on top of our good sub-soil moisture. We however worked out quite quickly the cyclone was all show around here, with little rain relieving the worry about the canola washing away.
Over the last few years, we have been looking at how technology can help us day to day. AgWorld has been a reliable record-keeping system. The flexibility to receive recommendations from the agronomist through the app and then implement them.
It’s been easy to set up but it takes time getting everyone onboard with using it. We have been using it for a few years and it has improved the accuracy of dates for spraying, spreading and seeding.
Implementing it really evolved from the fact I didn't like writing in Dad's book and Dad liked his book! When I sprayed there wasn’t a decent record of it, and when he sprayed, half the time the record was stored in his head.
So we said, ‘Right, we'll make it easy to access’ - you can access AgWorld anywhere. It provides us with good records of machinery and it is a bit of a bible on the farm to know what is happening and where.
I have been lucky since coming home to the farm to learn from Dad and a good agronomist. He's always keeping us up-to-date and Dad's pretty progressive in some of his thinking and willing to try new ideas.
We have been down the deep ripping route and are continuing to explore this path – it is a tricky one.
Mum and Dad were winding down gear-wise so we've had to slowly ramp things up. We've just changed the point system on our bar and that's made a huge difference. This is allowing us more accuracy than we had in the past, something we had found was missing.
Since upping our canola hectares, we have added an SP (self propelled) to our business for late canola sprays
Once you make one change it leads you into another, which opens up endless opportunities.
There’s so many different avenues out there but we’re taking baby steps. With more accuracy, we’re looking at more ideas like section control. We’re leaning towards section control for our seeding setup due to the rocky country we have. We feel that with a 60 foot bar, this may be more beneficial than setting up a liquid system.
One of the best pieces of advice I received when I first came home and was trying to learn everything was: ‘You don’t need to know everything, you just need to know how to source the right people for the right information’.
I love the challenges that come with every day, and there are definitely physical challenges you have to overcome, being female in a bit of a male-dominated field. But I love that side of it.
I'm lucky enough to have the backing of my immediate family and our on/off farm contractors and advisors – I’ve learnt so much from all of them during my time on the farm.
The first year I came home was quite a successful and productive year. Everybody was happy with the harvest outcomes and it was visible within the town.
But the second year, my first full growing season, I noticed a sort of shift, come harvest time.
I was talking to Dad, and I kept saying, ‘It’s really weird, you can sort of feel this weight.’ People who were usually a little bit more chirpy weren't at that time. It had been a challenging year for the community for a variety of reasons.
I have always been taught you don’t complain about something unless you're going to do something about it, which is how “Volley Together” started.
There were already community events of mixed netball, basketball and bowls, but I wanted something that could get a broader range of people involved, so I chose volleyball.
I made a few phone calls and shortly had a team of locals willing to help, including Glen the local mechanic, who quickly became my go-to person for the event.
The initiative was named “Volley Together”, starting in 2023 as a night of round robin volleyball games to encourage people to come out and talk about mental health, trying to remove the stigma.
The initiative was met with positivity from everyone I approached to support us, and we managed to run it as a free event, being the goal of the evening. Throughout the evening, we had over a hundred players plus spectators. We have continued successfully to grow the event and now hold it yearly.
“Volley Together” sparked the idea to hold a car cruise in 2025, quickly becoming known as “Cruisin Country”. Remembering those who lost their battle with mental illness and creating a safe space to prevent losing more.
Working with family is something I love to do and I am grateful for the opportunity. Most people won’t experience this in their lives. I feel incredibly lucky to be farming!