GROWERS in the Great Southern have called for some form of risk management as they count the cost of a serious frost that has further decreased crop yields.
The debate over risk management crop insurance continues with Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman defending his position on the scheme.
At Nyabing, the Browne family believe farmers and small communities throughout WA need help if they are going to survive.
Gordon Browne and his wife Sheryle, and their two sons, Trenton and Warrick and their families, say it has become imperative that some form of input insurance or similar be implemented for the next growing season to give some farmers the confidence to plant another crop in 2011.
Before suffering frost damage in early October the Browne's 1000 hectares of barley were expected to yield about 2.2t/ha.
Recent inspections revealed the majority of the barley would likely yield closer to 1t/ha if lucky.
"We're not taking away from those who weren't lucky enough to even get a crop this year but it shows that input insurance is about much more than drought," Trenton said.
"We're talking about this on an industry level, for all of us involved and especially those that are doing it a lot tougher than us.
"Nyabing is viewed as a pretty safe farming area but it's getting to the point where the problems are even starting to impact on our operations."
The Brownes also supported serious and urgent funding for plant breeding, whether it was GM or otherwise, to speed up the process of drought, frost and salt tolerant varieties being made readily available to growers.
"Frost has become the single most important factor affecting the viability of the farming enterprise throughout the Wheatbelt," Trenton said.
"It's taking an estimated 15 per cent of production per annum for the last 12 years or 50pc every third year, resulting in a break-even or loss every third year.
"This combined with a few dry seasons and years of poor commodity prices sees the farming community under serious pressure."
Trenton and his family thought the launching of Bridging the Yield Gap by the Agriculture and Food Department worthwhile for a small section of the farming community but the serious issues weren't being tackled.
The family was working with the Agriculture and Food Department to look at EM 38 mapping, deep ripping, lime, gypsum and potassium trials on a range of soil types throughout their 7400ha property which will be beneficial provided "the big picture items" like frost and the terms of trade are given serious and immediate attention.
"Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman is being credited for allowing us to continue in our uptake of technology launching GM canola to be grown in WA," Trenton said.
"We only hope that he doesn't become complacent during the remainder of his term in office.
"As farmers we are constantly under attack from small and mostly mis-informed interest groups and bombarded with the debate on climate change with dire warnings of global warming and the need for a pie in the sky carbon tax, while the real and immediate issues are being ignored or pushed into the background."
While some in the industry called for the dismantling of CBH's co-operative the Brownes are yet to be convinced of the benefits of a corporatised model.
"While a cash injection would be an attractive proposition in the short term and for those leaving or soon to leave the industry, they are firmly of the belief a corporatised CBH will most certainly lead to increased grain handling costs and a sharp focus on shareholder profits to the detriment of growers," Trenton said.
"This year's dry season has exacerbated a 10-year period of very slim margins but the Minister has seen to it that all our problems can be solved with counselling and or a visit from a farm adviser.
"While extremely worthwhile in certain situations, we believe it would be more beneficial to take a proactive rather than a reactive approach if the farming and rural communities are to survive and progress into the next decade and beyond".
The Browne family have produced meat, wool and grains in the Nyabing area since Gordon's parents settled on a War Settlement farm at Kwobrup in the late 1940s.
Since then Gordon and Sheryle together with Trenton and Warrick, Trenton's wife Rachel and their two children Marshall and Phoebe and Warrick's partner Jess, have increased their landholding and purchased and developed Chirniminup Dohnes into a well known stud to accommodate the three families with a firm focus on farming progress.
During Gordon and Sheryle's years growing up on their parents' farms and forming a farm business partnership in 1976 they have seen many changes like the degradation of large areas of the Wheatbelt to salt, the loss of the super bounty, the guaranteed minimum price for grain, the reserve price scheme for wool, the single desk for wheat and a gradual reduction in research and development.
"We are now farming in a noisy globalised, deregulated and corporatised world where the focus is predominantly on the shareholder and not the producer, where economists' statistics are measured in numbers regardless of the social impact and the ever increasing call for cheap food in a free market while competing with subsidised world markets and massive price increases for fertilisers and farm machinery," Gordon said.
"We've moved from churning up the earth to a fine tilth to no-till cropping, from knocking off at dusk to being able to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We've moved from a small writing desk and a top cupboard somewhere in the house to store records to a fully equipped office stuffed with the ever-increasing demand for records, statistics, reports, documents, charts and papers.
"We've moved from ear muffs to earpieces in farm machinery, laptop computers, global positioning and auto steering, UHF radios, mobile phones, iPhones and iPads and increased daily reports, requests and notifications."
In the past decade or so farmers have stepped up to the challenge, increased their landholdings, embraced all of the new technology available but have now reached a point where the family farm is at maximum capacity and is starting to battle, even in the areas which were once considered "safe."
Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman said along with the decision to allow the commercial cultivation of GM cotton and canola, the State Government was also investing in new research and development facilities through the nine million dollar New Genes for New Environments project.
"This project includes new facilities in Katanning and Merredin that will be used to evaluate new genes and breeding lines and adapt them to local conditions," Mr Redman said.
"The recent partnership between InterGrain and Monsanto will also ensure WA growers are at the forefront of cereal breeding in Australia.
"Counselling and support services are an important part of the government response to the dry season, but there are also other measures available through the drought pilot that respond to the immediate pressure of putting food on the table as well as helping to build the resilience of farm businesses so they can manage dry seasons into the future."
