Succession plan starting to sow seeds

The young farmers have made the move to farm in their own right after Gary was involved in a family farming operation for the past 16 years.

With the family farm based at Cascade for many years, Gary decided it was time to make the step to running his own operation and moved to a farm at Munglinup that the Walter family had owned for three years.

The succession plan was a long-term one and the family worked on it for five years before the transition was made.

Gary admits it wasn’t a smooth process at the start and things were a little “bouncy” when he floated the idea with the other members of the family.

“Once everyone was on the same pathway and working in the same direction I think the process was pretty good,” he said.

“It was as good as it can be in those situations, we had some intense times and it is an emotional process, but everyone talks to each other still.

“We were fortunate that we were at the scale where it could happen without putting anyone under too much financial stress.

“If that was the case then there would have been another emotion added into the process.”

Gary said introducing sound, independent advice took the emotion out of it.

“It was tough at the start, but once we got those people in things started to work themselves out,” he said.

“Karina and I are exceptionally proud of what we all achieved as a large family business and look forward to using the skills we learnt in that business to make our new venture as successful in its own right.”

Gary has cropped 5800 hectares this year on the property he now runs and a lease block.

The majority of the program will be wheat and canola with barley making up the rest.

“We will put in 2700ha of wheat, 2200ha of canola and barley will comprise the remaining 900ha,” he said.

“This is a very similar spread to what we ran as a family farming operation, except there are no sheep in this mix and they are run at Cascade.

“I will look at sheep in the future, I think I am going to need them.

“There is a fit for them on this property as it has some mixed soil types, and some of the variable soils we won’t be able to crop year in-year out, so sheep will fit in with the program.

“I would think that within five years we will have some sheep on the place, but there is a bit of infrastructure to sort out first.”

The majority of the wheat program is made up of Mace, but there is also some early sown Trojan being used this year.

“Last year was the first year I used Trojan,” Gary said.

“It is a soft wheat and easy to harvest and it did perform well but I was a bit worried about it if there was a wet harvest.

“Last year it went well as it was a dry harvest so I didn’t get to test it fully.

“It didn’t yield any more than the Mace, it just gave us a longer sowing window.”

Bonito is the main canola used, while Baudin makes up the barley program.

“We are trying a new barley variety this year – Spartacus,” he said.

“We put in 20 hectares as a bulk up with a view to putting more in next year.

“I was interested in the Clearfield properties of it as I am keen for a tool to combat brome grass.”

This year’s season is set up well, after a big summer rain tally.

“We had 150 millimetres in February and then 30mm across April and May.

“We were able to get a good knockdown, with two summer knocks across everything.

“There will be some winter weeds come out of these last couple of rains that we will need to keep an eye on.”

Like many in the area, the February rain left plenty of erosion damage.

“We had to repair quite a bit of country and there is still plenty left to do,” he said.

“I am not sure what the total cost for the area would be in terms of repairing country, but it would be a lot.

“We spent a week on it with four of us and machines going everywhere and probably only got to half of it.

“We were better off here than those closer to the coast.

“Some of the washouts I have seen, I am not sure how they will get them back.”

While the damage done will take time to fix Gary said he was grateful for the subsoil moisture the event provided.

“Crops would be struggling now if we didn’t get that summer rain,” he said.

“We started seeding a week earlier than normal, putting canola in on April 7, on the back of that moisture.

“It provided us with a good chance to get the canola up and going.”

There has been a staggered germination across the whole farm.

“Crop on the sandy country was up early and the ones on the heavy country didn’t emerge until we had follow up rains, but it is evening out now,” he said.

At this stage of the game Gary said he was settling into the farm and getting to know its production capabilities.

“This will be only the third crop that we as a family have put on this property, so I am still getting to know the country and what it can do,” he said.

“It is in a good area, between the coast and the real mallee country, so we do pick up some of the coastal rains and the cold fronts that come from the north west.

“It has been averaging 600mm of rain over the past three years, but it is really 400mm rainfall country long-term.

“It has a good mix of soils.

“There is probably more sand than I would like but it is a good mix of soft and heavy country.

“The heavier country performs well in the long term, but it is harder dirt to farm.

“Dad calls them Sunday paddocks.

“They are too wet on Saturday and too dry on Monday.”