Our farm called Eulonga operates in an undulating countryside well suited for grazing Angus cattle and Merino sheep. The Murrumbidgee and Tumut rivers intersect the farm centre which lends itself to establishing dual-purpose crops of wheat, canola and oats to sustain livestock grazing early and grain harvesting later. The early sown grazing canola has performed incredibly well since its introduction in rotation a few years ago, with great livestock carrying capacity and high grain yields. Similarly dual-purpose wheat crops sown early such as Morombi and Wedgetail allow the best gross margin for grazing and grain yield.

Most farmers in NSW will want to forget 2018 though, with drought plaguing most of the state for most of the year. Dry conditions restricted planting windows early in the year and continued to affect crop growth mid-year and yield potential in the critical growth periods of September and October. The majority of our canola crops where baled for silage in this period once yield potential fell.

Of the crops to be harvested this year, the results are well back on average, being halved on the average wheat (4t/ha) and canola (2t/ha) yields expected in this area.

Given the challenging environmental conditions, having multiple business enterprises has been the key to our survival. Our key enterprises – Angus cattle, Merino sheep, a dual-purpose cropping programme, sand quarrying and a rural internet service provider (ISP) business – have helped us to navigate through this tough period. With the price of good-quality cattle and sheep offspring achieving a premium and utilising lot-feeding infrastructure we were able to rear and sell animals at optimal weight.

This allowed us to keep our regular programme in place, fattening heifers and steers to 440kg liveweight and Merino first-cross lambs for the target 46kg liveweight.

We also operate two uncorrelated businesses to farming as a way to insulate ourselves from the risk of poor seasonal conditions. The sand quarrying business supplies fine and coarse sand as well as river rock to sporting ovals, golf courses and concrete plants year round. Our internet service provider business involves building and operating fixed wireless broadband towers to offer internet connections to rural and regional areas.

My brother James and I have witnessed many changes in seasonal conditions and commodity price volatility over the years and see diversity in operations as a key aspect to survival. We are looking forward to 2019 with hope for a more consistent rainfall pattern but taking the early opportunities that are starting to present themselves.

With some recent summer rainfall events, we have had the chance to plant some opportunistic grazing sorghum and bean crops.

These are showing early promise, with sorghum almost ready to graze, giving the livestock enterprise some extra feed to finish off animals to market weight.

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