Ag Focus 2021 by McPherson Media Group

PUBLICATION

ISSUE 13

2021

THE LONG JOURNEY TO ROBOTS STARTING AGAIN AFTER CHINA SLAMS SHUT THE WONDERS OF WAGYU

GIVING SOIL NEW LIFE Dookie family’s path of discovery of regenerative farming.

RED AND READY

THIS HAY SEASON

Trent Berryman Leo Dullard Bruce Watson Mick Severin

0418 0428 0407 0438

632 886 433 804

096 086 504 505

Cover photograph: The days Dennis Hicks, of ladders, Monicabags and and tractors have Chelsea Sutherland come to have an end been at Ardmona’s giving soil aPlunkett new life Orchards, in the with a new Dookie hills.machine improving efﬁciency and safety. Photo: Rodney Braithwaite Photo: Megan Fisher Page: 29 - 30 Page: 14-15

Editor Geoff Adams Alana Christensen Editorial Writers co-ordinator Rodney Woods Daneka Hill Geoff Adams Writers SophieAdams Baldwin Geoff Rodney Woods Photographers Alana Christensen Rodney Braithwaite Daneka Hill Photographers Sophie Megan Baldwin Fisher Rodney Braithwaite Sub-editors Sub-editors Sandy Lloyd Sandy Lloyd Advertising Wendy Russell Ashton Still Advertising Leesa Haeusler Ashton Limosani Still Leonie Karen SimoneChatterton Dunne

Advertising Advertising support support Rhiannon Nicholas Steven Song Graphic artists McPherson Media Group

NEWS

ENVIRONMENT

CROPPING

Farmer wants a ﬁeld ........................... 6

Farmers are also nature’s custodians ................. 14

Giving soil a new life ......................... 29

Protecting the nation’s orchard ......................................................... 7 Number crunch for farm labour ....8

REAL ESTATE

DAIRY The long journey to robots ........... 15

Land values keep on rising .......... 34

Production queen retains her crown ................................ 18

Everyone wants a piece of us ................................................35

Changing face of farm landscape ................................................. 10

HORTICULTURE

VITICULTURE

Hoping for rich pickings ................. 19

TRANSPORT

Starting again after China slams shut ............................................... 38

MACHINERY

More trucks but fewer

Year of the tractor ...............................25

LIVESTOCK

crashes........................................................ 13

Write-off scheme extended ........ 27

The wonders of Wagyu ..................40

WATER

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AGFOCUS 2021 5

NEWS

FARMER WANTS a field

Upper Goulburn Landcare Network is launching ‘Farmer Wants A Field’ — matching time-poor and inexperienced landowners with knowledgeable farm managers in a system similar to the old sharefarmer method.

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AGFOCUS 2021

ree changers are great — sometimes.

They spend big, show up with passion and add a new face to the local gossip network — but they can also be a challenge. Murrindindi Shire is a picturesque rural shire 40 km from the outskirts of Melbourne. In an effort to combat rural land going to waste under the absent eye of city-dwelling owners, local Landcare volunteers have teamed up to launch ‘Farmer Wants A Field’. Upper Goulburn Landcare Network project co-ordinator Cat Thomas said the idea was only just off the ground but was already fielding expressions of interest. “We are trying to match-make farmers with land,” Ms Thomas said. “We’ve had a few people interested because they are city-dwellers moving out to the country and they want to get a start, plus farmers looking for land to agist stock.” The ‘matchmaking’ service was inspired by a local family who operate across four farms in the Alexandra and Yea area but don’t own any of them. “They started on one and people kept saying, ‘I love what you’re doing, can you do it on my property?’,” Ms Thomas said.

“They are able to make land more productive and they look after it just beautifully.” She said Farmer Wants A Field was 100 per cent focused on regenerative agriculture, which was more work but gave you a better overall farm. “We find for new residents their first port of call is the real estate agent they bought the property off. “This leads them straight into conventional farming, not regenerative ag, which is a real shame because we know conventional is not working.” Murrindindi Shire encompasses the areas of Yea, Alexandra and Buxton and is sandwiched between the Yarra Ranges and the edges of the Alpine National Park. The area has experienced huge climbs in rural land prices, placing pressure on a lot of young farmers who can’t afford to outbid retiring Melbourne workers for property. Landcare hopes Farmer Wants A Field will help these farmers get a start and lower the barriers to a career in agriculture. The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority-funded project will act as a case study and, if successful, could be replicated across the country.

NEWS

PROTECTING

the nation’s orchard T

he Goulburn Murray Valley Fruit Fly Project draws on the support and dedication of a broad volunteer base to help lead the charge in protecting the region against Queensland fruit ﬂy.

More than 3000 volunteers from Lions clubs, Rotary clubs and other community groups, as well as school children, have helped grower groups and local government reduce fruit fly in the Goulburn Murray Valley region. Goulburn Murray Valley Fruit Fly Project co-ordinator Ross Abberfield said the pest had the potential to wreak havoc in Victoria. “Volunteer involvement in the Fruit Fly Area Wide Management Program has helped protect our horticulture-based lifestyle,” Mr Abberfield said. “We would like to thank the project’s many and varied supporters for their contribution to protecting the region from the pest.” Queensland fruit fly is a serious threat to the region’s multi-million dollar horticultural industry and economy. “If we are uninformed and divided in our efforts to control fruit fly, this pest will shelter and thrive in unmanaged habitat areas,” Mr Abberfield said. “Conversely, if we are informed and united in our efforts to control fruit fly, it doesn’t have anywhere to hide and numbers can be reduced.” The gross value of horticulture varieties grown in the Goulburn Murray

Valley region that are considered hosts to Queensland fruit fly is $415,000,000 annually. The Goulburn Valley is the largest pear producer in the Southern Hemisphere and the Murray Valley is Australia’s largest stone fruit producer. “The program has been highly successful in reducing fruit fly numbers in the GMV over the past four years,” Mr Abberfield said. “To date the program has removed over 100,000 unwanted and unmanaged fruit trees that would otherwise be a breeding ground for fruit fly.” The multi-award winning Fruit Fly Area Wide Management Program has galvanised the community, industry and government to work together to stop the catastrophic effects of fruit fly and is now recognised as a leader both nationally and internationally. The program manages and monitors an extensive network of urban/ peri-urban/rural and sterile fruit fly release trapping grids across the GMV to identify and monitor ‘hot spots’. Data from these trapping grids provides the community, industry, government and research institutions with fruit fly activity data that enables the targeting of ‘hot spots’ together with regular communication of fruit fly trends and pressure patterns to update the community and industry. “The combined communication, management and control strategies

Spreading the No Flies On Us! message and protecting the region from Queensland fruit ﬂy.

Chris O’Connor, SIT industry liaison co-ordinator with Macquarie University; Ross Abberﬁeld, GMV Fruit Fly Project co-ordinator; Professor Phillip Taylor, head of Applied Bio Sciences at Macquarie University; and Dr Bishwo Mainali, senior research fellow at Macquarie University.

are critical to curbing the spread of Qfly and limiting the impact on our horticultural domestic and export markets,” Mr Abberfield said. Field officers are deployed as part of the program to target identified ‘hot spot’ areas and build relationships with landholders to assist, advise and support them to manage and reduce fruit fly populations in high pressure areas controlled by them. Non-commercial unmanaged fruit fly habitat on private and public land is identified and can be removed at no cost to the landholder by the program. The FFAWM platform developed in the GMV has supported activities by governments and universities in Victoria, Western Australia, NSW and New Zealand to assist in fruit fly management and research. This platform is complementing trials undertaken by the Macquarie University

Fruit Fly Research Team, involving the aerial release of sterile fruit fly in Cobram over a three-year period. This sterile release trial — supported by FFAWM strategies and sterile release trapping grids monitoring the number of sterile and wild fruit flies within a radius of 1 km, 2 km and 5 km of the Cobram township — has helped reduce fruit fly numbers in Cobram significantly. “The GMV Fruit Fly Project is about working together to protect our ‘nation’s orchard’,” Mr Abberfield said. “Together we have been able to build community awareness, education and engagement to reduce fruit fly numbers and minimise the damage caused by fruit fly on our thriving regional horticultural industry.” For more information on fruit fly control and management, visit: www.fruitflycontrol.com.au

AGFOCUS 2021 7

NEWS

NUMBER CRUNCH FOR FARM LABOUR T

he number of farm, forestry and ﬁshing workers in the Goulburn Valley nearly halved last year.

In the same period, retail jobs in the Shepparton region dropped by only 400 workers — a number dwarfed by agriculture’s 5800 lost jobs. This is in stark contrast to the Bendigo and Riverina regions, which gained 1100 and 100 agricultural workers respectively. Across the entire state of Victoria, farm workers actually increased by 2900, proving the Shepparton region is an unusual case study. The Australian Bureau of Statistics includes everywhere from Gunbower to Euroa as the ‘Shepparton region’. In May 2019, agriculture was the Shepparton region’s largest workforce at 13,300 workers. By May 2020, this number had fallen to 8800 and continued to dropped in the most recent ABS labour survey (August 2020) to 7500. Backpackers are included in ABS labour surveys provided they intend to stay in Australia for 12 months or more. An ABS oﬃcer said there was a significant margin of error in the data, which needed to be taken into account when surveying small sub-populations. “For the 13,300 workers in May 2019, the margin of error around this estimate is between 10,500 and 16,000 workers. For the 7500 works in August 2020, the margin of error around this estimate is between 5400 and 9600 workers,” the oﬃcer said. This means the fall in agriculture workers could be as little as 5400 or as large as 16,100.

Another variable is the fact the ABS was not able to door-knock during the pandemic, resulting in less people being randomly selected to participate in the survey.

However, due to Bendigo, Riverina and Victoria recording completely different results, it can be assumed the Shepparton region did experience a severe decline in agricultural workers,

not just a decline in answering the survey. The ABS labour force survey is one of the largest regular surveys in Australia.

Shepparton region employees by sector Health

Retail

Ag, forestry and fishing

Overall employment

Nov 2018

8900

7300

14,600

65,600

May 2019

10,100

8200

13,300

69,000

May 2020

9900

8100

8800

65,700

Aug 2020

10,300

7800

7500

63,200

COVID change

Increase of 200

Decrease of 400

Decrease of 5800

Decrease of 2500 Shepparton region employment data in May 2019. Source: ABS

Land use in the Shepparton region. Source: ABS

Shepparton workforce data in August 2020. Source: ABS

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WATER Researcher Andy McAllister speaks about the pressure on the dairy industry at the Murray Muster conference via an online broadcast.

CHANGING FACE

of farm landscape

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WATER

land and water analysis of the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District has found a sharp decline in dairy farms and water holdings since the Year 2000.

In only four years between 2016 and 2020, the area occupied by dairy farms in the GMID had declined by about 30 per cent. In the same period non-dairy grazing land had increased by about 40 per cent and cropping increased by 39 per cent.

The assessment, carried out by Agriculture Victoria, shows water use by dairy farms has declined from about 1065 Gl in 2001–02, to 585 Gl in 2017–18. Dairy is the single biggest consumer of irrigation water in the GMID. AgVic researcher Andy McAllister presented the findings of his report into landscape changes at the Murray Dairy Murray Muster conference. He told the conference there was a continued reduction in the number of dairy farms and a move away from

A chart showing how water use has changed in the GMID. Source: AgVic

summer irrigation by the dairy industry. “You can see we have gone from high-reliability water shares of about 1600 Gl and dairy had a fair share of proportion of that.” There was an increased reliance on allocation trade generally in the GMID, with an increased gap in high-reliability water ownership in pre- and postdrought years. The changes, Mr McAllister said, were driven by restructuring and how dairy farmers manage water allocation and trade.

Without having the advantage of a crystal ball, Mr McAllister said he expected water availability would continue to get tighter and exert more pressure on the dairy industry. Despite the move towards larger farms, the survey has shown there is still a large number of small to medium enterprises in the Central Goulburn, Murray Valley, Rochester and Torrumbarry districts. Satellite maps developed for the report showed a reduced footprint for dairy in northern Victoria.

In recent years land use has undergone major changes in the GMID. Source: AgVic

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TRANSPORT

MORE TRUCKS BUT

fewer crashes

major new report has found during the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia’s roads were the safest they’ve been in years, with the number of multi-vehicle crashes involving heavy vehicles down more than 16 per cent.

NTI’s National Truck Accident Research Centre recently published its 10th, and now annual, national report into the cause of major crashes involving heavy vehicles. Author Adam Gibson said the positive findings came despite more trucks and freight being on Australian roads, particularly during the pandemic. Since 2003, when the first NTARC report was released, the number of freight movements and heavy vehicles has increased by 50 per cent. The report found evidence road safety messaging is working, with fatigue-related crashes involving heavy

vehicles down from 27 per cent in 2005 to eight per cent last year. “There’s been a massive reduction in multi-vehicle crashes involving trucks and the lowest number of fatigue-related crashes since NTI began keeping records 18 years ago,” Mr Gibson said. “It is a credit to the industry, truck drivers and all road users.” Technology and smart trucks were key to further driving down the road toll, he said. The report found one-in-eight truck crashes were due to inappropriate speed for the conditions, however this did not mean the vehicles were exceeding the speed limit. “Speed cameras, radar traps and increased speed enforcement help deter high speed offences, but data shows technology and smart braking systems on trucks are key to reducing singlevehicle rollover crashes,” Mr Gibson said. NTI is working with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to use data

A new report has revealed 2020 had the lowest number of fatigue-related heavy vehicle crashes in more than 18 years.

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ENVIRONMENT

FARMERS ARE nature’s custodians W

arwick and Darryl Strong might have a lot of cropping land within their farming footprint, but it is the 12 hectares close to their home that is among their most prized — yet they don’t grow a single crop on it.

Out the back of Deniliquin in the Southern Riverina, the couple bought the property, Wongala, in 2000 to add to their existing farming footprint that includes rice, sheep and cropping. The attraction was always in the farming land, but the 364 ha did include a 12 ha sandhill with remnant vegetation up one end of the farm and a 4 ha box tree plot down the other. Over the years these areas have become highly valued by the couple and enhanced to make the most of their unique features, including protecting the needlewoods and Australian bulokes, along with rare quandong and moonah trees. Warwick said he was proud to have such rare trees growing in their natural habitat. “Our initial options were to clear the land for farming or protect it and as

Darryl and Warwick Strong have enhanced two areas on their farm to make the most of their unique features.

farmers, it is up to us to leave things better than we found them along with something for the next generation. In 2004, the area was fenced-off with the financial help of a government grant and the couple made the conscious decision to protect the sandhill from then on. They are preserving the area and any logs that fall to the ground are kept as habitat for birds, reptiles and invertebrates.

The couple’s management does include grazing sheep for short, select periods to help keep the weed burden down and control fire risk, but the area is largely left on its own. Quite a few scientists and environmentalists have visited the area over the years, especially to look at, and harvest, the quandong seed. Warwick said the biggest threat to the sandhill was feral animals including rabbits but especially, cats.

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“There are plenty of people out there who talk about saving the planet but don’t put in the hard yards spraying weeds or physically controlling feral animals. “Farmers are the ones who truly care for the land and there should be some incentives out there to support that — fencing off remnant vegetation and controlling feral animals and weeds can be too costly for some farmers to afford on their own.”

DAIRY

THE LONG JOURNEY

to robots I

t might have been ﬁve years in the making, but the Dee family from Clydevale Holsteins at Macorna in northern Victoria has ﬁnally realised a dream of building a state-of-the-art compost barn complete with robotic milkers.

The barn is a long way from the family’s first foray into dairying at Clyde in 1975, with Adrian and Cheryl Dee milking 27 cows in a six-unit walkthrough and a 40 gallon milk contract. “I really see robots as the way of the future and they are certainly a multigenerational investment,” Adrian said. “The first time I saw them was in Canada in 2008 and they impressed me then and they have certainly come a long away.” The state-of-the art barn will comfortably milk 500 high-producing Holstein cows, and the family is looking forward to the multitude of benefits it will bring to the herd. Sadly, Cheryl died before construction began — but she did see the initial plans and was 100 per cent behind the concept. Sitting on about a hectare, the 200 m by 60 m compost barn houses eight robotic milkers, divided into four separate spaces with a wide central

feed alley, complete with 24-hour access to a total mixed ration (TMR) and a robotic Lely Juno feed pusher. A climate-controlled sensor activates fans and sprinklers when required and, while the cows do have access to an outside area, they seem to prefer spending their day chewing their cud and loafing on the soft-pack compost. The compost is a work in progress and the family is learning when to turn it and how best to manage it. The barn includes a designated vet area, complete with a crush and AI facility, along with an oﬃce, staffroom and upstairs viewing platform. Clean water is delivered via two dams with a total storage capacity of 35 megalitres and all wastewater is recycled, travelling through an eﬄuent separator before it enters the two-dam 15 Ml system. The 32,000 litre vat holds more volume than the tanker that used to pick up their milk and includes a 1600 litre buffer vessel for additional storage because the robots run 24 hours a day. The scale of the barn is simply immense and has to be seen to be believed, and the family members are more than confident it will support their

Colin, Adam, Hannah, Adrian, Mandy and Mark Dee on their Macorna farm.

The barn houses eight robotic milkers.

AGFOCUS 2021 15

DAIRY herd and business for generations to come. On May 19, after a 2.5 year construction period (including a 12-month break halfway through) the first cow was milked. It has been an absolute whirlwind for Adrian and sons Colin, Kevin, Adam, Mark, daughter Clare and Mark’s wife Mandy ever since. “The first three days were horrendous but we just knew it had to be done so we just buckled down and did it,” Adrian said. “We had lots of help from Lely, Riverland and family and friends, but we certainly didn’t get much sleep in those first few days.” Pushing each cow into the robot for the first couple of milkings was a physical feat itself, especially considering some of the big-framed cows weigh more than 900 kg. “If we didn’t have so much support from people helping us over the first week we would have never got some of those big girls in,” Adam said. The first cow to be milked through the system was the family’s prized and highly successful show cow Hullabaloo Bolton Sundae EX95, who despite being regularly handled and dolled up for shows, refused to enter the robot. “In the end Adam went and got a rope and he had to lead her in,” Adrian laughed.

Hannah Dee is currently completing an agri-business course at university and spends time in the barn helping out.

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AGFOCUS 2021

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DAIRY Like the majority of cows, it only took a couple of milkings for Sundae to get accustomed to the new milking process. Two weeks later, a quarter of the 480-cow herd were finding their way into the robots without any assistance at all. There is nothing stopping a cow from entering the robots as evidenced by one cow who had 14 trips through in one day, however they will be rejected and only milked after a fivehour period has passed. “This particular cow had worked out she got a tiny drop of grain every time she went through,” Adrian said. “Our first heifer to calve breezed through and we have one recently calved cow giving 62 litres.” The data the family receives from each milking will be critical for management moving forward and includes: per quarter litres, cell count and conductivity to help with mastitis detection. They have also found the scale feature interesting — surprised by how heavy some of their cows actually are. “It is interesting to see how their weight ﬂuctuates depending on how much milk they have and how often they get milked,” Mandy said. “The system currently doesn’t test for fat and protein so we will still have to herd test but we are hoping that might become a feature down the track,” Adam said. The family members have noticed production has already increased and

they are looking forward to seeing the benefits it will bring over the long, hot summer months. Mark and Mandy’s daughter, Hannah, is currently completing an agri-business course at university but she has spent every day of the past few weeks in the barn helping out. While Hannah is not sure where the future will lead her, she is passionate about cows and hasn’t ruled out taking over the reins of the dairy business one day. “My brother Ryan likes tractors and machinery and I like the herd side of things,” she said. Despite building the dairy in the middle of a global pandemic, there weren’t too many hold ups and the construction phase was relatively problem-free — including moving 135,000 cubic metres of dirt over a couple of months just to set the foundations. “Everything was pre-ordered so we were pretty lucky and didn’t have to wait for anything much,” Adrian said. “We tried to use and support local business as often as possible and while we are all glad construction is over and finished, I don’t think I could ever go through something like that again. “And I must add a huge thanks to our project manager James Green from Greencon who did a fantastic and professional job planning and constructing the barn.”

All wastewater is recycled, travelling through an eﬄuent separator before it enters the two-dam 15 Ml system.

The state-of-the-art barn comfortably houses and milks 500 high-producing Holstein cows.

AGFOCUS 2021 17

DAIRY

PRODUCTION QUEEN RETAINS HER CROWN P

erhaps there’s something in the water out Berrigan way, or maybe something in the feed on Graeme and Heather Spunner’s dairy farm.

Their Holstein herd continues to record milk production volumes way above the average, but in the past year, the Spunners thought their star cow may not have lasted the season. Graeme describes their top production cow, Lulu, as remarkable and when she came into the herd this season she was looking magnificent. She became the second cow in Australia to record 20,000 litres in two lactations, and Graeme was looking forward to another exceptional year. But one day last year she came limping into the yard and Graeme could see she had damaged her stiﬂe,

a crucial hind leg joint, similar in human terms to a knee. “We can only guess that another cow had jumped on her,” he said. “Normally a cow that does a stiﬂe would go dry, but she just kept going and going.” Lulu, now in her fifth lactation, produced 20,671 litres in 305 days by February this year. This included 595kg of protein and 558kg of butterfat. Recognised by Holstein Australia as Master Breeders in 2019, the Spunners have been herd testing since 1995 and rely on the figures to find out which cows are really performing. “We do it because sometimes you have a cow that you think is good, but they are not necessarily that good when you test,” Heather said.

“Lots of good cows milk out really quickly and you might think they are not so good.” Lulu’s injured stiﬂe wasn’t the only drama for the production queen; in her fourth lactation she suffered a left displaced abdomen, requiring on-farm surgery. “We’d noticed she was not eating in the bail,” Graeme recalled. The vet carried out the surgery, sewed her up, and Lulu was back in the paddock in short time. Accompanying her production figures was a very low cell count, an amazing feat considering she had been unwell. Lulu’s mother was another Spunner cow, Jammer Lulu, and her sire was Ladino Park Nash, who had a genetic background with Max Hart’s farm at Numurkah.

Lulu has some good company on the Tellamore Park farm; the herd averages more than 10,000 litres (the Australian average is 6100 litres) and the farm has produced more than 100 cows that have done more than 1000kg of milk solids in a lactation. While not taking anything away from Lulu, the Spunners, including son Shane, endeavour to feed their cattle well and rely on nutritional advice. The 250-head milking herd is pasture-based for six months of the year and for the remainder fed a mixture of cereals, silage, rye-grass and sub through a mixer wagon. Their feed intake is supplemented by grain in the bail of the 50-stand rotary. Graeme rarely uses artificial insemination and believes the genetic indexes are overrated. The Spunners run a paddock bull with the herd and breed their own replacement calves.

Berrigan dairy farmer Graeme Spunner.

Heather Spunner at the rotary dairy.

Lulu photographed two years ago before some of her health dramas.

Lulu is among Australia’s top performing Holstein cows. She was producing 46 litres a day on a seven-day average in February.

AGFOCUS 2021

HORTICULTURE

HOPING FOR

rich pickings

The trees will hit full maturity in about three years.

hen fourth-generation irrigation farmer Stephen Brooks and his partner Antonio Zardo returned home to properties in the southern Riverina and northern Victoria after spending 11 years in Singapore, it was a result of a desire to establish their own farming enterprise.

Stephen Brooks and his partner Antonio Zardo have become pomegranate experts since beginning their pomegranate farm.

Conscious of the ever increasing cost of irrigation water and reduction in allocation reliability in the place they were going to call home, they knew whatever they decided to grow it had to be hardy and water eﬃcient. The couple looked at different boutique fruits and nuts before deciding to take a chance on establishing a pomegranate orchard. The pomegranate industry in Australia is relatively niche and has had mixed success due to a disease that can affect the trees and, at its very worst, wipe out entire orchards. “Historically pomegranates have been plagued by root die back and they haven’t been able to ascertain what causes it — they are a bit of a high risk fruit and total orchards have been known to fail,” Stephen said. The couple was determined to not become a statistic and spent many hours looking at the best way to establish an orchard. “We put in a lot of work and background researching to minimise the risk of failing and so far it has

worked out and our trees are growing well,” Stephen said. The preparation work required to get the orchard up and running included deep ripping the site and forming up the beds, before planting 5300 trees across six hectares. The trees are irrigated by dual line drip irrigation running the length and breadth of the orchard. And while it has been a huge learning curve and there have been many, many questions asked since the first lot of trees went in the ground, the boys are very happy with where things are sitting. The pomegranate is actually perfectly suited to growing in tough Australian conditions. Originating in Syria, they are accustomed to hot weather although they do stop growing once temperatures climb above 36 degrees. They are fairly water eﬃcient and aside from root rot, are quite a hardy tree growing somewhere between five and 10 metres tall with multiple spiny branches and a long fruiting life — in fact some trees have been known to live for 200 years. The fruit is used across a variety of dishes, in juice blends and smoothies, as a garnish or in cocktails and wine, and is starting to gain popularity in Australia, especially as a ‘superfood’. While there are quite a few pomegranate varieties to choose from, Stephen and Antonio chose the ‘Wonderful’ variety from California

AGFOCUS 2021 19

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HORTICULTURE because at the time it was the latest cultivar and it ticked all the boxes — it was resilient, produced large fruit and had the best yield and taste. “Pomegranates are different to other orchard fruits because they don’t grow like a conventional tree and have to be coaxed, trained, trellised and pruned to form a tree structure,” Stephen said. The growing period extends from September through to May, and Stephen said they were constantly working with the trees pruning, training and doing whatever else is required. “They are a high maintenance tree and to be honest we didn’t really know how much work was involved until we started — it all sounded pretty easy from Google Earth sitting in Singapore,” he laughed. A pomegranate fruit takes around 120 to 130 days to set and each and every piece of fruit is hand-picked usually over two runs, because they don’t all mature at the same time. Stephen said the fact pomegranates were a niche product had at times made it hard to find the right information, especially when it came to picking. “There is a bit of downside when you start harvesting and there aren’t too many people around to offer advice or answer your questions.” Rodents have proved to be a problem, climbing up the trees and eating the fruit,

while birds can also cause a fair bit of damage if left unattended. To help combat the damage, they run a bird scarer periodically across the orchard — the high-pitched screeching noise is horrifying enough to even scare off an unsuspecting reporter. While there are many variables, Stephen and Antonio are expecting the payback time for their investment to be around six years. “We are three years in and haven’t seen a cent yet but to be fair it takes about six years for a pomegranate to mature and hit full production,” Stephen said. The boys employ labour to carry out the picking but do everything else themselves. They are unsure what will happen in the future and they haven’t ruled out extending the orchard but that process would only ever happen after careful consideration, as it would require a significant additional investment. As it sits now, they can currently cope with their harvest with the infrastructure they have but more trees would mean upscaling to a packing facility, additional machinery and of course additional labour. “At the moment we are really happy with the way things are going and we don’t really plan on doing anything else,” Stephen said.

After more than a decade overseas, Stephen Brooks returned to Australia to run his own farm.

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AGFOCUS 2021 21

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MACHINERY

IT’S BEEN

THE YEAR OF THE TRACTOR

A Massey Ferguson tractor hauls a Staheli West hay steamer followed by a Massey Ferguson 2270 XD baler at the 2021 Fodder Festival in Elmore. Sales of farm machinery have gone through the roof in the past 12 months.

he breaking of drought conditions, a record harvest and extended tax write-offs sent farmers racing to their local machinery dealership in 2020.

Unfortunately, at the same time the world was getting infected with COVID-19 and grinding to a halt. Now the end of the financial year is upon us and AgFocus is looking back on one of the most interesting years in machinery since lawn mower racing became a thing. April 2020 was the month to kick it all off, as considerable rainfall soaked into most of drought-affected Australia. At the time, the Tractor and Machinery Association of Australia described April as a “blow-out” month, with tractor sales increasing 40 per cent compared to April 2019. Supply issues started to appear in September, and the TMA was hearing of six-to-eight-week delivery times on normal ‘in stock’ machinery. In Wangaratta, sales manager Brendon Gigliotti said North East AG and Industrial had experienced demand “across the board” in 2020– 21, with no one product standing out as a best seller.

“Everything from hobby tractors to the big machines and little disk plates to plough tillage was selling,” Mr Gigliotti said. “The tax write-off definitely helped but everything was driven by the good seasons. Milk prices aren’t bad, cattle and crops are good and the sheep guys can’t complain.” Mr Gigliotti said the most memorial part of the financial year was the machinery shortage. “People are starting to realise the importance of forward ordering at the dealership now,” he said. “If you forward ordered you didn’t have much trouble getting what you wanted, but others who walked in expecting to be served like they used to had big waits. “Right now we’re getting practically nothing from India and Korea. Machinery from those countries is taking up to nine months to come through.” North East AG also sells secondhand equipment, which has experienced a roaring trade thanks to the demand on machinery. Tim Edgar from O’Connors Shepparton said the 2020–21 year had been very good all-round.

“During the lockdown period, inquiries actually increased,” Mr Edgar said. A standout moment for him was the amount of Case IH combine harvesters which sold. When asked about wait times, Mr Edgar said O’Connors’ large order bank meant supply had been okay at the dealership. “Tractor stock is getting tight now for June 30 deals, but we have more supply starting to come through,” he said. “That said, stock for this harvest period is disappearing fast for the coming season on new and used machines.” At the O’Connors Shepparton branch the best selling machinery overall was Case IH and MacDon harvesters. TMA said sales of agricultural tractors were yet to experience a drop. In April 2021 national sales experienced a 19 per cent rise on April 2020. “The last 12 months have now seen in excess of 15,500 tractors sold in this country, which is 38 per cent ahead of the previous 12-month period (2019–20),” TMA executive director Gary Northover said.

Out of all the sales Victoria has some of the steadiest activity, April 2021 sales matching April 2020 sales; while Queensland is down five per cent of its April 2020 sales and NSW is up 73 per cent. Combine harvesters are also experiencing strong demand as order intake season gets under way. In the past 12-month period, combine harvester sales have gone past the 650-unit market — up 530 from the previous 12 months. “The level of demand being seen in the market continues to surprise, with many suppliers reporting buyers bringing forward purchasing plans to take advantage of the Federal Government financial incentives,” Mr Northover said. “The challenges in meeting this demand are showing no signs of abating however.” Recently, the TMA said they were receiving reports of shipping times more than doubling due to the shortage of sea containers and the bottlenecking at Australian ports. The construction and automotive industry are in similar boats.

AGFOCUS 2021 25

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MACHINERY

WRITE-OFF

SCHEME

extended

Federal Government move to extend the Instant Asset Write-off Scheme until June 30, 2023 has received the thumbs up.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said the scheme was a “proven winner”. The Instant Asset Write-off Scheme was expanded substantially in last year’s budget to $150,000, largely as a COVID-19 stimulus measure. The scheme has now been extended for another year, providing a longer window of opportunity for agribusinesses to make on-farm investments. While Tractor & Machinery Association of Australia executive director Gary Northover welcomed the news, the strong demand for machinery has caused supply issues.

“The level of demand being seen in the market continues to surprise, with many suppliers reporting buyers bringing forward purchasing plans to take advantage of the Federal Government’s financial incentives,” Mr Northover said. “The challenges in meeting this demand are showing no signs of abating, however, with shipping and port clearance delays having a significant impact on delivery times. “We are receiving reports of a more than doubling of shipping times being compounded by the shortage of containers and the bottlenecks being experienced at Australia’s ports. “As a result, suppliers are having great diﬃculty guaranteeing delivery times, which is hampering confidence in the supply chain.

The Instant Asset Write-oﬀ Scheme has been extended again.

“To compensate for these delays, forward orders are now sitting at levels well above what would be considered normal posing a risk of oversupply in the event of a slowdown in demand. “These challenges are not confined to the agricultural machinery industry, with construction and automotive likewise affected.” In April, the association reported the past 12 months had seen in excess of 15,500 tractors sold in this country, which is 38 per cent ahead of the previous 12-month period. The last time sales were anywhere near these levels was back in 1984. Lending for machinery and equipment purchases has hit a

seven-year high, with new data showing Australia’s agriculture sector continues to boom. Commonwealth Bank executive general manager of regional and agribusiness Grant Cairns said the record funding was being driven by farmers investing in transport equipment, sowing and cropping equipment, tractors and harvesters. According to the data, March 2021 was the third largest month for purchases of agriculture machinery since 2014. Tractor purchases are up 78 per cent and harvesters up 88 per cent, compared to the same time last year.

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compromising on performance,” Mr Murer said. The key feature of the new technology is its intelligent twin tension arm system providing bale densities of up to 140 kg m3 in straw. Utilising the intelligent moisture sensor, it automatically adapts the baling pressure according to the different crops and crop conditions, without intervention from the operator. “Baling up to 30 tonnes of dry product per hour, with minimum downtime, the machine was designed with extreme durability in mind ensuring robustness and reliability,” Mr Murer said. The rotor tines are made of Hardox wear plate and 50 mm spherical roller bearings are fitted on the main driven rollers with seals on the idling rollers. These seals, consisting of a unique combination of two

A new range of KUHN round balers have hit the market.

specifically developed rings, ensure contamination is kept away from the bearings. Essentially, the baler takes control of the baling density and the baler’s power consumption and moisture indication, and many other data points can be monitored on the ISOBUS display terminal.

With technology playing a greater role than ever in helping operators to get maximum performance from their machines, KUHN’s range of balers delivers the benefits of consistent, perfectly shaped bales for eﬃcient, more profitable farms. To find out more, visit www.kuhn. com.au or contact your local dealer.

AGFOCUS 2021 27

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CROPPING

GIVING SOIL

a new life

On the Sutherlands’ farm called Ascot Hills, looking down the slopes towards Shepparton.

onica Sutherland was returning home to her farm on the slopes of the Dookie hills when she was startled by what she saw.

Rain was falling on the west-facing slopes of their cropping and grazing property and it was carrying with it great slabs of the rich, volcanic earth. As she drove up their driveway, she could see they were losing their topsoil. “My son said: ‘What’s wrong with the hill, Mum?’,” Monica said. “I was dumbfounded. It was like lava ﬂowing. It looked like it was bleeding. “When I got up to the sheds I could see the equipment, the chainsaws, the blower — they were all covered in mud. I thought: what have we done wrong?” The heavy rain had followed drought, so there was little vegetation to hold the soil together. It set Monica on the path to her discovery of regenerative farming. “We had allowed it to become over-grazed. I was embarrassed that we had allowed it to become so degraded. “We moved the livestock off. We locked up the paddocks. I headed for the computer and started looking for some answers.” Monica grew up on a family dairy farm at Nathalia, and has enduring memories of working alongside her parents Gerard and Pat Hicks. But she put aside her interests in farming while she raised four children — Kirby, Chelsea, Darby and

Cassy — with husband, Rod, who developed a transport business. About 12 years ago they left their Pine Lodge home and purchased the 96-hectare cropping and livestock farm at Cosgrove, called Ascot Hills. In the Dookie region, 96 ha is considered more of a lifestyle property. But it could still grow cereal crops and raise some sheep and cattle. The property is on undulating hills boasting centuries-old gum trees, and includes a historic stone quarry and 15,000 trees in an olive grove. “We loved the location. Everyone comments about how quiet it is out here,” Monica said. One of the discoveries Monica made when searching for more sustainable farm models, was former farm manager and permaculture designer David Spicer. He constructed ‘swales’ — earthen banks that follow the natural contours of the land, designed to arrest the erosive power of run-off. Monica said the swales slowed the water movement, allowed the moisture to penetrate the soil and prevented the topsoil from being carried away. The 4 km of swales were sown with multiple species of seeds, handbroadcast because they didn’t have a suitable drill. “The locals probably thought we were crazy,” Monica laughed. “We hand-sowed about 350 kg of seed!” Some of the work is carried out on a shoestring budget. They only have a little Fergie tractor and Monica says

Chelsea Sutherland in her ‘chaos’ garden, which brings together multiple vegetables.

they often borrow machinery. “We have really nice neighbours.” After last year’s harvest, the Sutherlands didn’t burn the wheat stubble or plough it in. They sprayed the stubble to increase fungal activity, which breaks down the stubble and makes it more palatable for stock. They successfully strip-grazed it with cattle and sheep. They are favouring a no-till approach and this year on their 10 ha experimental

paddock, split into two, they have sown a multi-seed cover crop, over-sown with oats, and the other half devoted to oats as a cash crop. Actually not sown as much as broadcast — the seed was delivered through a fertiliser spreader. Rain the following day has given the crop a good strike and, despite the dry May, by June it was looking lush. Monica’s brother Denis Hicks has joined the regeneration team and

AGFOCUS 2021 29

CROPPING

Denis Hicks, Chelsea Sutherland and Monica Sutherland on one of the swales created to halt soil erosion and capture moisture.

utilises his farming background to provide hands-on support. “It’s a five-year plan to set up a rotational system in place; we’re improving and opening up native pastures in the higher part of the property,” Monica said. “We have a herd of about 30 Herefords at the moment. We will let them breed up naturally. “It will be steady as you go for five years.” Groundcover, and preserving the soil, are their top priorities for more sustainable farming. “Groundcover better absorbs the rain, it stops the wind from drying it out, and the sun, and it protects the seeds,” Monica said. Monica and Rod’s daughter, Chelsea, 20, has also joined the team. Chelsea spends half her time on the farm and the remainder working with her father on his transport business, broadening her skills in handling heavy machinery. Recently she’s been interested in encouraging more native bees, vital for crop pollination, through providing bee ‘houses’ and developing her own worm farm. She’s probably the only young woman in the Dookie district who was given an old iron bath for her last birthday, to cultivate worms. Chelsea has been talking to a friend who is a big advocate of bush foods and home vegie gardens, and has created her own “chaos

AGFOCUS 2021

garden” — so described because of the jumble of diverse vegetables growing together. She has also planted 10 varieties of native ﬂowers close to the house, which could develop into a commercial opportunity. Nearby, the ground is planted out to tree lucerne and saltbush as a “continual haystack” to provide supplementary feed for livestock. “We want to have some type of pasture all year round,” Monica said. “Because we locked up the native pasture we have got wallaby grass, spear grass and kangaroo grass. “One of our friends worked at a seedbank and she has been giving us some great advice. We collect seed here and spread it on other paddocks.” Most of the original property was one large paddock, but the grazing areas are being fenced and will be grazed under rotation, to allow the native grasses to recover. Asked if their model can be commercially successful, Monica believes their strengths lie in the lower input costs and improved soil conditions. “I am supremely confident that we can carry a lot more stock by rotational grazing and with better practices, including better groundcover, than a conventional farm,” she said. “I’m not that keen on saying we are just sustainable, because that might mean we are not going anywhere. I would prefer to be regenerative.”

Native grasses are coming back on the slopes of the Dookie hills.

Bunds or swales have been created along contour lines to address soil erosion and to trap moisture.

GREAT CLEARING SALE RESULTS ACHIEVED IN THE PADDOCK AND ONLINE Our vastly experienced team is led by Chelsea McKay and Paul Durden – we have currently completed over 530 clearing sales, now averaging 1 sale every 7 days An expert clearing sale team continue to achieve record breaking clearing sale results for our vendors. In these changing times, auctions are now conducted SHEPPARTON 03 5821 8388 • NUMURKAH 03 5862 2611 both online as well as in the paddock meaning more buyers (greater competition) and a broader exposure www.kevinhicksrealestate.com.au of all auction items

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AUCTION

Southern Cross Orchards

Friday, July 16th at 1pm at The Carrington, Shepparton.

4 orchard properties to be sold separately.

Highly efficient stone fruit orchards producing popular varieties of plums and apricots

535 Doyles Road, Orrvale 14.18 HA (35 Acres approx.)

485 Ford Road, Lemnos PROPERTY 1

located on Shepparton city boundary. • Ideally Quality packing shed / cool room • Town water plus Goulburn Murray Water • Predominantly planted to popular plum & apricot varieties. •

350 Ford Road, Grahamvale 21.58 HA (53.30 Acres approx.)

PROPERTY 3

productive stone fruit orchard in production (plums only) • 3Highly phase motor & pump • Microjet system (1.53 delivery share) • Bitumenirrigation road frontage with ideal home site (STCA) •

PROPERTY 2

27.39 HA (67.78 Acres approx.)

productive stone fruit orchard in production (plums & apricots) • Highly road frontage with 3 phase power • Bitumen irrigation system plus ﬂood irrigation • Microjet • Central machinery shed with loading bay

730 Midland Highway, Shepparton East

PROPERTY 4

17. 8 HA (44 Acres approx.)

Quality stone fruit in production (plums & apricots) • Located opposite the Shepparton East community • Lock up machinery 3 phase motor & pump • Outstanding locationshedwithwithhighway frontage •

Agents Remark: All properties are very viable and efficient operations to suit the professional stone fruit producer, with the location of the separate sites ideal for a larger consolidated investor.

For further details and IM Report contact the selling agents • Kevin Hicks 0428 271 270 • Chris Drum 0400 213 223

“THE TEAM TO TRUST”

INSPECT: BY APPOINTMENT

LATEST UPDATES:

KevinHicksRealEstate.com.au

SHEPPARTON • 228–232 WYNDHAM ST NUMURKAH • 1–3 MELVILLE ST

@kevinhicksrealestate

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OUR CLEARING SALE SPECIALISTS: Malcolm Blake, Lizzy Pyke, Chelsea McKay & Tom Ryan

OUR RURAL SPECIALISTS: • Kevin Hicks 0428 271 270 • Chris Drum 0400 213 223 • Paul Durden 0409 563 671 • Malcolm Blake 0409 426 486 • Jason Hicks 0437 622 612

“THE TEAM TO TRUST”

REAL ESTATE

LAND VALUES KEEP ON RISING R

ural farmland values are going up and up according to a recent Rural Bank report, and northern Victoria is reaping the rewards.

The median price per hectare in the region hit $7399 in 2020, up 0.9 per cent and follows a 16.1 per cent increase in 2019. The prices saw more than 62,850 ha of land sold in 2020, with significant growth in a number of local council areas. “Favourable seasonal conditions saw a rebound in transaction volume in lower priced municipalities in 2020, altering the transaction mix compared to 2019,” the report found. “Median price per hectare increased in the municipalities of Mansfield, Moira and Shepparton. “In contrast the municipalities of Indigo and Towong reported a decline due to an increase in the proportion of mid-priced transactions compared to 2019. “In 2020, the volume of transactions increased by 8.6 per cent to 617, rebounding from a decrease of 3.6 per cent in 2019.

AGFOCUS 2021

“Transaction volume for most municipalities rebounded in 2020, led by Mitchell and Moira increasing by 11 each.” According to Matt Gill and Melissa Walsh, who work at the Bendigo and Shepparton branches of Rural Bank, it’s an ongoing trend. “The northern region saw strong demand for land in 2020 due to favourable seasonal conditions and strong commodity prices,” they wrote in the report. “Cropping and grazing land in the Campaspe and Loddon municipalities was highly sought-after. “While the market remained relatively competitive in the north-east, outside of areas impacted by bushfires. Reliable grazing land attracted interest in the valleys. While the lifestyle segment of the market remains hot around Mansfield and Alexandra.” Buyers increasingly sought to snap-up properties in the mid-range, with prices for parcels of 50 to 100 ha and 110 to 150 ha experiencing price jumps of 9.7 per cent and 1.1 per cent on media cost/ha respectively. However, while those with parcels of 150 ha experienced a 14 per cent

year-on-year jump in the number of transactions, cost per hectare fell by about 15 per cent on the year prior. “Historically, parcels greater than 150 ha have returned the highest compound annual growth rate, however, a decrease in the media price per hectare in 2020 caused the 10-year CAGR (compound annual growth rate) to decrease slightly, equalling the CAGR

of parcels between 50 to 100 ha,” the report found. The total value of farmland traded in Victoria in 2020 was about $1.2 billion, a 17.1 per cent increase from 2019. This was driven by both an increase in transaction volume across the state and an appreciation in land values, according to the report.

REAL ESTATE

Everyone WANTS A PIECE OF US

f you want to know the state of the local economy, watching the large glass window of your neighbourhood real estate ofﬁce is a good place to start.

For months now farm listings which have sat stuck to the glass for so long they were starting to yellow are now disappearing under cheerful ‘SOLD’ stickers. The two rural heavyweights in the Goulburn Valley real estate scene have been ﬂat out since the rain came in 2020. The Gagliardi Scott Real Estate team hasn’t had a day off in two years, while

the Kevin Hicks Real Estate teams in Shepparton and Numurkah are just as busy. Kevin Hicks said broadacre property continues to exceed expectations as Australian and international buyers try to buy themselves a slice of cropping land. “Horticulture is also impressing, it’s gone from one extreme to the other,” Mr Hicks said. “Dairy is steady, not as many sales but plenty of inquiries.” Mr Hicks said online auctions and listings were here to stay after proving themselves during lockdowns. “They get more eyes on a sale and open up the selling window,” he said.

An example of the price jump is an acreage property in Kialla which sold privately for $465,000 recently. “For personal reasons the buyer had to sell the property before she could even live in it, and with online auctioning this property will sell for a minimum of $550,000,” Mr Hicks said. “That’s an example of the recent 10 to 15 per cent price increase we’re seeing.” Gagliardi Scott Real Estate director Darren Scott said last year was the perfect storm. “I’ve never seen a year more perfect than that,” Mr Scott said.

“The weather was good, big farms were selling, small farms were selling, absolutely everything was perfect.” Mr Scott said a few acres and a house was all you needed for tree changers to bite. “They borrow against their homes in Melbourne and can buy without worry,” he said. In many cases, Melbourne buyers have such easy access to funds they are buying during viewings or even sight-unseen. Both real estate agents predict the 2020–21 price hike will soon level out, but there is no way the prices will go backwards.

AGFOCUS 2021 35

ONCE A DECADE, RURAL PRICES JUMP. Gagliardi Scott Real Estate director Darren Scott said the Goulburn Valley has just seen it’s latest jump. A specialist in rural sales, Mr Scott has seen his share of jumps – namely the Y2K bug and GFC-fueled jumps. “Every time there is a crisis, rural real estate does well,” Mr Scott said. “And those prices never really go down. For us here, we’ve just seen that jump.” The Gagliardi Scott Real Estate team has been forced to expand due to the boom in sales, hiring a new employee for Nathalia to help their five Numurkah and 16 Shepparton employees. This boom is being driven by tree changers and commercial investors snapping up farmland.

When it comes to commercial buyers Mr Scott said the big players are reading the futures market, predicting where the next boom is going to be, and buying into agriculture early. “The corporate guys can pick the market,” he said. “With these people we are talking about them spending $5 million to make $15 million.” These big buyers are going after cropping land whenever it becomes available and even buying dairy farms which have multi-million dollar rotaries on them for the land alone.

“Someone in Melbourne rang me recently regarding a $400,000 house on three acres. They rang the day we advertised and said they wanted to put a deposit down immediately because they were sick of missing out on the rural properties,” Mr Scott said. “The money was in our bank account that afternoon and this was a property I thought would be worth $350,000 normally. That’s an example of the urgency coming out of Melbourne.”

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VITICULTURE

STARTING AGAIN

after China slams shut F

red O’Keefe wants to make wine for everyone.

When wine diehards discover his 11-hectare vineyard in Kialla they tell him he’s selling the bottles too cheap, but that doesn’t bother Fred. “I remember when we first opened the cellar door you’d get embarrassed people asking ‘do you have any sweet wines?’ and I’d go ‘yeah!’,” he said. “They’d been to other wineries and felt ashamed they wanted sweet wine, but we all start on the sweet stuff. “I made my first few wines sweet for that reason . . . we have made both sweet wines and traditional style Shiraz from our very first vintage in 2001. Absolutely anyone can come in here and I’ll have something they like.” It sounds too good to be true, and right now it is, because Fred’s cellar door at his Broken River Vineyards is currently closed (but he says “watch this space!”). The reason why is obvious when you notice the souvenirs from Fred’s trips to China scattered around his counter, cabinets and around the piano.

AGFOCUS 2021

“We’d been over in China for 12 years and built up a pretty good business but we were cut off like that,” Fred said. “I made a lot of friends over there and we still talk on WeChat but they are very — well, if the government says no then you can’t have it.” Fred said even if the 218 per cent wine tariff was to be lifted, he couldn’t see the business returning. “They love their alcohol in China and they loved their wines . . . but unfortunately we can’t do anything about it and I don’t think they are going to let Australian wine back in for at least five years,” he said. “Chile has taken over and picked up whatever Australia lost.” Fred is now concentrating on finding new customers to unload the thousands upon thousands of bottles he has in storage. This week alone he sold 144 bottles over Qoin — an Australian digital currency website popular among financial types and tradies. “I’m doing an experiment to see if I

Fred’s been ﬁghting for signs on the Goulburn Valley Hwy for decades, but all VicRoads gave him were two on the bypass. “People on the bypass don’t want to stop, the tourists come up the highway but they miss all the signs.”

can get into other parts of Australia and it is working . . . how else do you get wine from here to there?” Fred said. “Everything is an option as far as domestic goes.” It is a far cry from the days when he crisscrossed China, racing from wine show to wine show. “We don’t sell through our website,”

Fred admitted. “My son wants me to set it up but I’m not up with all that stuff. He’s at me all the time about it but I never did any of these things because I was in export. “When you are moving in container lots you aren’t worried about selling a small amount through your website — but times have changed.” Fred knows the cellar door needs

VITICULTURE

Fred O’Keefe with a Fred’s Red. Fred says his cellar door is like a hairdresser — people relax, have a yarn and “in the end I know their entire life story”.

to return to its usual Friday, Saturday, Sunday business at some point, but deciding when to make the jump and put operating costs back on the ledger is a hard call. “Half a dozen times a week you get a phone call asking what time we’re open and I say ‘if you’re coming and serious about buying wine, give me a bell and I’ll be there’,” Fred said. “Our biggest problem in the past was VicRoads refusing to give us tourism signs on the Goulburn Valley Highway — people don’t know we’re here.” Before the wine label, Fred and his wife Ruth worked as SPC orchardists and grew grapes on Verney Rd. The pair started planting a new Shiraz vineyard at 425 River Rd, Kialla, 22 years ago and never looked back. Half of the Kialla vines went into Shepparton fine sandy loam in an old cow paddock while the rest put roots down in Lemnos loam. “I’m not a winemaker, I’m a viticulturalist. I’m more a farmer,” Fred said. “When we started I wanted to make

Fred O’Keefe in his vineyard. The vineyard has always used a mechanical harvester due to constant picker shortages, even 20 years ago. “We just get it out of the shed when we’re ready, and put it back when we’re done,” Fred says.

wine that I liked and I told the style to the wine maker who said ‘you’ll never sell that’, but that was fine, if I couldn’t sell it I’d drink it.” However, this style turned out to be just want people wanted. “We kept our wine really soft and easy drinking. Our Shiraz Cab was very popular in China, it worked well,” Fred said. When it comes to deciding on wine blends, Fred gets his non-drinking son Peter (who has excellent taste buds) and wine drinking neighbour David together with a few others who like free drinks to pick which ﬂavours they like best. Fred assures us it is an “extremely technical” process. “I want to make wines that ordinary people will like, not wine judges,” he said. It leaves only one question — what is Fred’s best wine? “People ask me that question a lot,” he said. “The wine you like best is my best wine.”

The infamous ‘Two Old Men’ label in the ﬂesh (or the glass?). This was the label Broken River Vineyards sold in China and was a smash hit. “People trusted you when your face was on the bottle,” Fred says.

AGFOCUS 2021 39

LIVESTOCK Russell and Heather Crichton have spent almost two decades building their own Wagyu herd.

THE WONDERS

of Wagyu A

ustralia in general might have been a bit slow to catch onto the delights of Wagyu beef, but not one northern Victorian couple.

Former dairy farmers Russell and Heather Crichton have spent the past 17 years breeding up their own Wagyu herd with a specific emphasis on polled animals. Russell has always been a mad keen breeder, as evidenced by the 50-plus years he has spent inseminating cows, and he has relished the challenge of improving the genetic pool of his own herd. But it was only after the Crichtons tried their first Wagyu steak that they decided to take the plunge into what was, at the time, a relatively unknown breed. “We went and had a look at a bull in Tasmania and we were sent home with a couple of steaks,” Heather said. “When we cooked them up it was like nothing we had ever tasted before and we were hooked.”

AGFOCUS 2021

The Crichtons plan to sell Wagyu meat direct to customers when a micro-abattoir opens nearby.

LIVESTOCK ‘Wagyu’ means ‘Japanese cow’, and in their home country they are considered a national treasure. There are four Wagyu breeds in Japan — one of which has a genetic predisposition to create marbling of fat on the inside of the muscle tissue, created by the cow metabolising the fat internally so it integrates within the muscle. And it is this marbling the Wagyu line is now famous for. The journey to build up the size of the herd, along with the genetic merit, has been rewarding for the Crichtons, who started out with just 15 cows in their Ayrlie Park Poll Wagyu herd. “There wasn’t a whole lot of animals around at the time. We bought this farm in 2004 and got our first animals not too long after,” Heather said. The farm she is referring to is the 26 hectare farm they live on just outside of Cohuna. The Wagyu breed produces a medium-sized animal with great fertility. They are extremely easy calving and in all the years they have been breeding, Russell has only ever had to pull a handful of calves. They also have great longevity. “We have a few animals here that are 15 and still getting in-calf every year,” he said.

There is one particular cow the couple will never sell — C07. From the moment she was born she has been really friendly, which is a bit of a rarity, considering all the calves are brought up on their mums and have limited contact with humans. “She would come up for a pat in the paddock when she was little and she has been one of our favourites ever since. Some of her progeny are friendly too so she must pass that trait down,” Russell said. “She is 15 years old and still gets in-calf, which is pretty amazing.” About 10 years ago the Crichtons made the decision to breed polled animals because they hated the idea of dehorning. “Domestic animals don’t need to have horns and it is just a matter of using polled genetics to breed them out,” Russell said. To begin the process, the couple imported polled semen from the United States and now about 50 per cent of the animals are polled. “We sell all the steers and any heifers with horns into the feedlot for cashﬂow and we keep most of the polled heifers for breeders along with a few bulls every year,” Russell said. The bulls are genomically tested and only the best make the cut.

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The bulls are genomically tested and only the best make the cut.

This year five, five-month-old bulls were genomically tested and, while they all came back pretty good, there was one who was an absolute standout. “He had the best genetics in the herd, and we were pretty excited when

we read his proof but when we went down to check him out, he had no nuts,” Russell said. “We couldn’t believe it. He was the best by a mile but without nuts we can’t breed from him so he will have to go into the feedlot.”

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LIVESTOCK Embryo work is carried out on only the very best genetics, while home-grown bulls service most of the herd, which is now numbering up around 300. Russell does sell bulls and semen and he said it was a pretty good feeling when you are breeding some of the best bulls around. “I breed for marbling, milk and carcase weight. “A past president of the Wagyu association bought some genetics off us and when they were butchered the 15 animals averaged a marbling score of eight across the whole line. The top score is nine so we’re pretty happy with that.” That particular bull, L71 — along with 120 mixed aged males and females — will be sold when the couple hosts an online auction in July. “We are starting to get a bit old and need to cut back on some of our workload so we can cut our stock numbers and enjoy a bit of our retirement and have a few holidays,” Russell said. The Crichtons are also looking to sell Wagyu meat direct to customers when a micro-abattoir in nearby Barham becomes operational in the near future. “We are looking forward to selling to the public so they can enjoy the meat as much as we do,” Heather said.

At the time the Crichtons took the plunge into Wagyu beef, it was a relatively unknown breed.

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WORKING TOGETHER

TO PROTECT HORTICULTURE IN OUR REGION The Goulburn Murray Valley Regional Fruit Fly Project works with the community, industry and government to improve fruit fly management. The project has been successful in curbing Queensland fruit fly (Qfly) numbers across the region through a range of innovative engagement and control measures.

Key Area Wide Management strategies and project highlights include: • Removal of over 100,000 unwanted and unmanaged fruit trees in the Goulburn Murray Valley that would otherwise be a breeding ground for fruit fly. • An army of over 3,000 project volunteers donating their time and effort to protect home gardens and commercial crops from fruit fly. Their goal is to protect our lifestyle, jobs and our regional economy. • Establishment of urban/peri-urban/rural and sterile fruit fly release monitoring and trapping grids across the region to identify more than 4,000 fruit fly ‘hot spots.’ Data from trapping grids provide the community, industry, government and research institutions fruit fly activity reports of trends and pressure patterns. • Deployment of Field Officers to target ‘hot spot’ areas and build relationships with landholders to assist, advise and support them to manage and reduce fruit fly populations in high pressure areas. • Providing a fruit fly Area Wide Management platform to governments and universities in Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and New Zealand to assist in fruit fly management and research. • Assisting the Macquarie University Fruit Fly Research Team by underpinning the aerial release of sterile Qfly in Cobram over a three year period with Area Wide Management strategies and a sterile release trapping grid that monitors sterile and wild fruit flies within radii of 1km, 2km and 5km of Cobram township. • Delivering regional schools education programs along with industry and community workshops and events to more than 22,000 participants. • Distributing over 54,000 comprehensive fruit fly information packs, posters and flyers to the community, industry and government, together with installation of over 500 roadside signs, banners and bollards to increase awareness. • Communicating the No Flies On Us! message and building awareness, education and engagement through extensive social, print, television and radio campaigns.

COMMUNITY | INDUSTRY | GOVERNMENT

Ag Focus 2021

Articles inside

Starting again after China slams shut

Write-off scheme extended

Land values keep on rising

Farmer wants a fi eld

Changing face of farm landscape

Production queen retains her crown

The long journey to robots

Year of the tractor

crashes

Farmers are also nature’s custodians

Protecting the nation’s orchard