Hi, I’m John Carmody, and along with my wife Rhiannon and our two daughters Felicity and Elaina, we farm at Cascade near Esperance in Western Australia.
Our farm covers around 4,500ha, with wheat, barley and canola grown on soil types ranging from deep sand to sandy gravels, with stiff clays found in some areas.
In terms of rainfall, we have received just 159mm this year, well under our long-term average of 400mm, which we unfortunately have not seen in quite a while. The lack of rain has seen a dry and harsh start to the season to the point where we ran out of water for spraying. Thankfully, a thunderstorm gave us around 20mm just before seeding, giving us some water to spray and get seeds in the ground. And to top it off, two weeks later, we received a further 95mm over two days, filling the dams and providing some amazing moisture to seed into.
But just as soon as things went right, we had a major breakdown that held us up for a week, and now just when we are back seeding, the next challenge has been to avoid getting bogged. The seeding process is one of those areas of our operations where I can see opportunities for improvements. Looking forward I believe we can move towards it being fully autonomous, which will provide real benefits for how we manage this part of our farming system.
Despite all the challenges associated with consistently achieving production targets, I always tell people I am proud to be an Australian grain grower. I believe farmers are the heart of Australia; without us, the world would be a very different – and less well-fed – place. From a grower's perspective, no matter the prices we have to pay for seed, fuel and fertiliser to get a crop in, or the prices we take for our grain, at the end of the day, it is still a very rewarding job.