Hi I’m Deb Charlton and I am a grower from Marrar, NSW, about half an hour from Wagga Wagga. Alongside farming, I’m also a NSW Farmers Executive Council member, a member of the NSW Farmers Grain Committee and a committee member of the NSW Farmers Agricultural Science Committee. Also a grain grower member of the National Mouse Monitory Committee and have been involved with industry advocacy for about 30 years now.
I run a mixed farm with my husband Ian and son Zach on 1000 hectares. 650 hectares is cropping and the remainder we use for our sheep operation. The farm was Ian’s family farm and after going through a succession process with his family, we’ve owned the property for 19 years now.
In addition to our cereal cropping rotation, we also run merinos with a first cross Charollais lamb operation. Because of this, we always ensure that we've got a lucerne and clover based pasture within the cropping rotation.
It’s actually been a big few months for our family on and off farm. Our son Zach recently won the AgShows NSW State Grains Young Judges competition in April and will be going to the National Finals hosted by Queensland AgShows at the Ekka this year.
We are very proud of this achievement by Zach and it really shows his interest back on the farm, particularly in cropping. He analyses the samples and is looking at how we can improve our sowing and harvest practices for a better quality end product.
And I love the cropping aspect of farming too. I love the fact that we can put the seed in the ground, we can watch it grow, we nurture it and within a season, see the reward knowing we are helping feed the nation.
We hold our stubble over summer and then we go in one afternoon, burn the paddock, and as soon as it's finished burning, we will start sowing. We believe it is still the best way to maintain moisture while reducing the risk of disease rodents and pests.The stubble is utilised by our sheep to reduce left over harvest trash and minimise weed growth between harvest and sowing.
This year has been an interesting one so far. We had a bit of confidence after rain in February and prepared country that we deemed ready to go for when it rained again.
We thought about putting something in on that rain but it was just too early and it was too hot of a summer so we decided not to at that stage.
And we were lucky we didn’t put something in because it continued to be really dry, hot and windy until April.
We had a little bit of a break in April and got a couple of inches so we put in some oats and our grazing wheat, but we pulled that back and decided we wouldn’t do anything more because of the timeframe.
A bit more rain gave us the confidence to put in canola but it was borderline moisture, so we pulled up half way through our canola sowing and waited for it to dry out so we could either dry sow or wait for the next rain.
Thankfully we got about an inch of rain recently so now we’ve finished our canola and we’re about to go into barley.
Hopefully we keep seeing a bit of rain come through which will really give us that confidence.
With innovation and technology getting more advanced, we’re looking to be more savvy to make the most out of what we’ve got at the time.
And that will be even more applicable for the next generation – they have to work out how to invest their time and effort on farm and manage the challenges of workforce shortages.
We see it with Zach. Ag-tech and AI is a big interest for him and he’s expanding his understanding of these fields by going to ag tech days and workshops that showcase how this technology is being used on the farm.
He’s quite keen on the drones and took some fantastic drone footage during the last couple of harvests. He’s thinking what does the next stage look like for using this technology on our farm.
He really enjoys being on the farm and being out there in industry, learning from the people he meets, which is great for him. From this he has begun his own shorthorn cattle stud that he is genetically improving with the use of AI and embryos.
Looking forward we have always hoped that he would come back to the farm, but we've always told him he's welcome to do what he wants to do.
It was pretty obvious from a young age that he was he was definitely wanting to come back to the farm.
We have always included Zach in the farm operation and asked him to put forward his thoughts and have where possible tried his suggestions.We believe if we want to hand the farm over there is no point him not being able to have input in the meantime because that is how he will learn.We are forward thinking and we believe that if we want our family properties to continue for generations like we do, there will come a time where we have to enjoy our retirement and watch our land and family prosper.