FARMING is not an exact science and last week's gathering of the cream of WA's agriculture industry from the past 60 years proved that.
The largest gathering of inductees into the Royal Agriculture Society of WA (RASWA) Hall of Fame came about because there will be no inductee this year.
The Hall of Fame selection panel decided there was no worthy recipient to add this year to the 60 already inducted.
As many Hall of Fame members are well into their 90s, the RASWA decided to try to get them together for the unveiling last week of a portrait of last year's inductee Michael Lloyd, to hang in the Hall Of Fame at the Claremont showgrounds.
A Lake Grace farmer, Mr Lloyd's experiments on his own property using saltbush to lower the water table conflicted with scientific thinking in the 1980s.
He and another Hall of Fame member, former agriculture department officer Clive Malcolm, convinced the department of the merits of saltbush and campaigned to have funds set aside for research and to educate farmers.
They formed the Saltland Pastures Association and the Animal Production from Saline Land Systems initiative.
Last week Mr Lloyd told the gathering the salt problem afflicting much of WA's productive land hit home to him in the 1980s when his 1800 hectares was affected and it became more difficult to run stock.
"From what I'd read it seemed saltbush was the way to go, so I tried some and it went really well," said Mr Lloyd, 74.
"So I tried some more and pretty soon I was running more sheep on the land with saltbush than what I was on that land before.
"Then some research came out that said saltbush wasn't much good as sheep feed because it had too much salt in it, basically it said it was toxic.
"I said that's wrong, I started saying here's my story."
The unveiling ceremony audience was told that Mr Lloyd and painter John Carroll discovered they had gone to school together.
In an unprecedented gathering of agricultural talent, 11 Hall of Fame members attended a lunch with WA governor and RASWA patron Kerry Sanderson at the showgrounds.
Four others were too frail to attend and a fifth was unable to make the day.
RASWA president Rob Wilson described the gathering as "an outstanding collection of the illustrious members of WA agriculture who helped change the face of it and set its direction over the past 50 or 60 years".
Hall of Fame members who attended were Mr Lloyd (inducted 2015), Dawson Bradford, 72 (2014), David Lindsay, 79, and Lou Giglia, 76 (2012), John Bennison, 92 (2011), Janette (Jano) Foulkes-Taylor, 76, and Rex Edmondson, 79 (2010), Peter Falconer, 84 (2008), Kevin Hogan, 83, and Noel Fitzpatrick, 87 (2006) and John Gladstones, 84 (2000).
They represented every aspect of agriculture.
Plant breeder Mr Gladstones identified Margaret River as suitable for viticulture, Mr Giglia represented the dairy industry, Ms Foulkes-Taylor pastoralists, Mr Bradford sheep breeders, Mr Falconer farm management consulting, Professor Lindsay research and Mr Hogan cropping.
Mr Fitzpatrick was a former director of the State agriculture department and also worked for the federal primary industries department and Mr Bennison headed WA's largest rural company Wesfarmers.
Mal Gill
Wool and dairy writer for Farm Weekly.
Wool and dairy writer for Farm Weekly.
