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Farming Fields of Gold

June 17, 2020

Canola Farmers NSW

As fourth-generation Condobolin farmer Pete Barrass walks to the cab of his header to harvest his 2019 crop, a sharp crackling sound accompanies every footstep he takes on the parched ground.

The cracked earth, with its top layer of dust, has somehow produced a high-oleic canola crop on the back of minimal rainfall. It is almost impossible to believe this dry landscape – along with much of the wider Condobolin district – was several metres underwater only three years ago when the Lachlan River peaked above seven metres in heavy rainfall. These paddocks were bursting with quality wheat before the 2016 floodwaters hit the Barrass family’s Marmora property and kept it underwater for nearly two months.

The weather also affected the Barrass’ irrigated monola crop the following year, when frost slashed the yield from two tonnes a hectare to a half-tonne. It has been a tough slog for this family of five, so in March 2019 when an isolated thunderstorm delivered a much-needed 68 millimetres of rain, the Barrasses acted quickly to sow into the moisture.

“The run-off from that storm delivered floodwater across these long fallow paddocks, which we’d planned to leave out of our crop rotation” Mr Barrass told MSM Milling as he navigated his header through the resulting monola crop.

“But with the amount of water across it, we took the opportunity and we knew that whatever we’d put in, it was going to grow a good crop because of the levels of stored moisture.”

His mother’s grandparents established Marmora in 1877 in the paddock adjacent to the 2019 monola crop. By the time Mr Barrass finished school, the millennium drought was biting so his father urged him to get a trade. He spent the next seven years working as a diesel mechanic during the mining boom, before deciding to return home. With his wife Helen, their six-year-old son Lincoln and three-year-old twins Annabelle and Toby, they now have four properties in the Condobolin district.

“Helen and I started off with 1000 acres and grew a bit of crop. We started share-farming on an irrigation farm, then leased more irrigated country before buying more land in 2017. It’s been a tough time to start, but we’ve managed to do this despite such adverse conditions. We hope that when it does rain, we’ve built a solid base for our family.”

Leaving nothing to chance, Mr Barrass has a solid business plan to account for the mercurial temperament of Mother Nature.

“With our irrigation and cropping rotations, we don’t even want good years — we just want some average years to come back and that will really help,” he said.

In 2019, the Barrasses sowed hectares of their highest-value crop, monola, into land drenched by a rare storm.

“We knew canola and high-oleic canola would be scarce in 2019 so we took the punt, knowing it would pay well, and got it all in on time,” Mr Barrass recalled.

“This crop had no more than 50 millimetres of in-crop rain – the highest single in-crop rain was only 13 millimetres.”

The gamble paid off. By late-October 2019, the Barrasses began direct-heading their crop in an area not traditionally known for canola.

“Our first sample returned 43.3 per cent oil, so that exceeded our expectations. It surprised me, to be honest – especially given the year we’d had. It shows the value of stored moisture and planting on time to give your crop the best opportunity. Condobolin isn’t a solid growing area – in fact, we’re quite marginal for canola. But I think it’s one of those tools in the shed and when it fits the bill, absolutely we need to use it because as you can see, it pays. It’s paying this year.”

For five years, the Barrasses have grown their specialty high-oleic canola for MSM Milling, which crushes the seed for food manufacturers and quick service restaurants such as KFC to extend frying and shelf life. With MSM paying growers a premium for each tonne delivered, the crop plays a vital role in the rotation cropping operations of many farms.

“Without this crop in 2019, we’d be in a spot of trouble. To be honest, this crop we’re stripping now, I didn’t think it would hang on. But the crop has looked fantastic all year.”

Mr Barrass said his family enjoy knowing their valuable high-oleic canola crop for MSM Milling makes its way to large end-users such as KFC.

“I always have a bit of a chuckle when we pull into KFC and tell the kids that the food was probably cooked in oil extracted from seeds grown on our place,” he said.

Mr Barrass largely attributes his love of the land to his father Graham, who has lived at the family property for all his 65 years.

“Dad is meant to be semi-retired now, but he shows up a 7am each day and goes home when the job is done. To have Dad here, especially during this drought, has been fantastic. You can’t buy that 50-odd years of experience. Dad keeps saying to me that this drought is a lot like the 1981-2 drought. The old fellow pats me on the head and says, ‘Hang in there mate, this too will pass’.”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Australia, Canola, Canola Field, Canola Oil, cooking oil, farming, KFC, NSW, provenance

Meet the Farmer: Tom Mac Smith

May 16, 2020

Canola Farmer NSW

MSM Milling works with more than 1,000 Australian farmers who’re dedicated to growing Non-GM canola seeds for us to expeller press for auzure Canola Oil. We sat down with Cudal farmer Tom Mac Smith to talk all things farming and his perspective on growing Australia’s food into the future.

Can you share a bit about your background?
I’m fortunate to have had a great childhood on the family farm near Cudal, NSW. I’d spend hours with Dad on the machinery – whether he was harvesting, seeding, or in the yards of our mixed operation in sheep, cattle and cropping. There was always that desire to come back, and finally – after travel, study and working in other states in different roles – I’m home on the family farm. I’m also very fortunate to have a lovely family. My two younger brothers are both pursuing their own careers but we’ve all made a massive effort to get back and have an involvement, either on the farm itself or even just over the phone to talk about different directions we need to take.

You’ve crammed a lot into the decade since finishing school?
I was in Canada for a bit of a gap year, having a look around, and after Charles Sturt University, I worked on a Western Australian farm for two years in the cropping region of Esperance with a wonderful family. There, I got the chance to see farming on a really large scale and work with some of the newest technologies in cropping and livestock.

How crucial was that experience in WA?
The timing was pretty ironic, given I went from a marginal rainfall area of WA to a severe drought period in central NSW and a lot of the east coast; and from a really heavy focus on cropping into livestock – which is probably the main focus of our family farm. We’re seeing the benefits in our pastures holding on where we’ve been able to really get away a decent amount of fodder cropping, which takes the pressure off our pastures. It also ensures we have a bit of feed ahead of us to keep us turning off livestock and, of course, to keep the ground cover to capture any moisture that (fingers crossed) we might get over summer months.

What is your favourite aspect of farming?
There’re an array of opportunities each day where I’m able to assess goals or tasks we’ve set ourselves each week or month. Obviously, things come up day-to-day as they do, and it’s just about prioritising and ticking those off methodically in working toward those objectives.

What advice would you give young farmers making their way?
As a young farmer myself, I’m always asking questions and I guess that’s the first bit of good advice — don’t be afraid to ask questions or ‘silly’ things. Otherwise, on the back of a couple of challenging years stressing and lying awake, you can’t control the weather at the end of the day – you can only work with it and around it to do the best with the resources and tools you have.

What do you think the number one threat to farming is?
The Australian climate — the droughts, floods and fires we have to work with. We’re seeing a lot of research and advances in farming to manage these. We’re still a fairly young country and the information just starting to come through is really going to benefit not just my generation, but generations to come. Today’s farmers operate on a different level to 50 years ago. We’re now farming on a global scale with local farmers exporting their produce to restaurants in the United Kingdom and throughout Asia.

For on-farm issues, who do you ask for assistance?
I’m very fortunate to have a lot of resources at my disposal – agronomists, mechanics, metal fabricators, engineers – and to have my Dad involved.

Would you describe your farming methods as traditional or innovative?
On our farm, we’re pretty open to new technologies and being innovative. We’ll give absolutely everything a crack and sometimes it’s the older, traditional methods that work — but whatever works best for our business.

What would be the ideal situation on your farm?
Rain is the first and most obvious but I’d also love consistent prices for grain and meat; input costs at a minimum; and far more efficient fuel consumption and other business costs. Is there a typical day in your life on the farm?  Every day is different but with livestock, water is the number on priority – so ensuring water gets to the stock is the first and most important part of every day. After that, it’s a variety of bits and pieces related mostly to stock.

What kind of support do you feel the government should offer young farmers?
You can’t talk about young farmers without talking about the older farming population, so it would be great to see a lot more focus and a lot more support given to forming joint ventures or partnerships – whatever suits individuals to benefit both generations.

What is the biggest lesson you have ever learned?
Shut the gate! But seriously, if you’re doing something that’s going to be there a while – such as infrastructure or crops – set it up once and set up properly. If you put the time and the effort into getting it right, you’re not going to have to come back and re-do a dodgy job, saving you time and effort.

What’s your favourite part of the day?
There are two – early-morning and late-afternoon. Early, I’m pretty optimistic and excited for the day and sunrise is always fantastic; and driving home in the afternoon watching the sunset, when you feel you’ve accomplished a bit for the day.

What’s your perspective on the future of farming? Despite challenges, I think the outlook is good. Cropping is going to continue to be great because technologies are improving efficiencies to increase yields. For livestock, particularly after this outbreak of African swine flu, we will continue to see a strong demand for protein. It’s going to take a long time for national stocking numbers to return to normal after this drought breaks — which is usually a good year for cropping and livestock, so we should hopefully bounce back.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Australian, australian oil, Canola, Canola Oil, farmer, farming

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