Hi, I’m Sam. I am a fourth-generation farmer and I manage my farm together with my brother and younger sister. My father is still involved but he is taking more of a back seat these days. My siblings and I initially left the farm to pursue further education and interests however we have over time decided to return to the farm.
Our properties are located in and around Kaniva / Edenhope in Victoria and border the Little Desert National Park on the north and south side.
We have 4000 hectares planted out to durum wheat, bread wheat, long season wheat, lentils, faba beans and canola. We also grow lucerne for seed and some hay if the season permits.
Across our three blocks, the soil we grow on varies from heavy black cracking self mulching soil in the northern areas through to sandy loam soils further south. Soil improvement by way of clay spreading has been necessary to improve the sand soil structure in some areas of our farmland.
The average rainfall here in Kaniva ranges from 350mm to 490mm in Edenhope, but the last 5 years we have seen 100mm above average rainfall across the Crouch blocks.
I’m full of optimism despite the very cold, frosty, dry start to the year. Last year’s wet Winter and Summer have set the paddocks up with good sub soil moisture that has enabled the crop to gain vigour quickly despite the slow start.
We’re currently spraying as this has been delayed due to frosty conditions. In anticipation of the first water of the season, we’re also preparing the centre pivot, and are busy with machinery and equipment maintenance.
The volatility of fertiliser pricing presents a huge challenge for us. The uncertainty of the weather combined with the unpredictability of the fertiliser pricing is creating risk and making what used to be an informed decision, more of a ‘gamble’.
Despite these and the regular challenges of farming, I am excited by the rapid improvements that are being made across the agricultural industry through research, development and innovation. The ability to reduce the ‘gamble’ in future farming operations through the increased and improved capability to decipher data using advanced technology will change the game for farming generations to come.
I believe that the introduction of automation and advanced technology into cropping operations may assist to remove the barriers around ‘inexperience’ from the employee recruitment process as well as making the work more appealing.
I recently attended GrainGrowers’ Innovation Generation (IG) and believe that well executed, insightful events like IG present great opportunities for fellow grain growers to share ideas and information through various forums for discussion and networking.
I am proud to be a member of the Australian grain industry, and to be leading the world in terms of efficient crop production through research, development, innovation and ultimately the implementation of best practice systems.
“The hard work and investment into the Australian grain industry is contributing to global advancement, and it’s great to be a part of that.”