The future of agriculture has already arrived on the blacksoil plains, which in a good season produces 70 per cent of the state’s chickpeas and 30 per cent of its sorghum.
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There are automated tractors working in paddocks north of Moree and gene-splicing technology in cotton all of which are helping to grow cleaner, and greener, crop production.
Climate variability in the north west plains is a fact of life, says Louise Gall, project director with the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association.
“Those who work in agriculture accept that there has always been and will continue to be challenging times, this drives their focus of utilising resources of land and water as efficiently as possible.
“Anyone in agriculture, working with weather and commodities, is an astute business manager and they have to maintain that strategic business outlook.”
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The very nature of successful agriculture involves many moving parts from finance to engineering and agronomy.
“It’s the integration of all parts that makes agriculture what it is,” Ms Gall says. “And we need to tell people about this.”
“Agriculture is very much about progress and forward thinking. The skills that were typical 20 years ago were quite different to what is needed now.
“People who come to Moree to work in agriculture really need to use information technology and to have the skills to interpret data that has been collected on-farm. We need people who will take this new information and put it into something to guide decision making in agricultural entities
“We as a community need these sorts of people to work in agriculture and as a result we need to encourage young professionals. We need people who will take this new information and put it into something useful for agriculture.”
Of course labour is a changing business too, with automation a reality. At Beefwood Farms, Tulloona, there are two autonomous farm vehicles, used principally for spraying weeds and for wheel track renovation. Such investments change the role of farm workers and enable them to develop additional skills,” Ms Gall says.
It has been an historical fact that a shortage of labour on the black soil plains from earliest times helped drive the early adoption of mechanical means. Ms Gall says this forward approach to production is unlikely to change and it will mean Moree should attract the current generation of technical talent to help drive this new world order.
“When you consider how far we have come with water efficiency and the amazing step forward in plant breeding and genetics we also have to consider the farm management and technical understanding required to minimise crop stress in order to maximise harvest
“The cold hard reality of any business is about minimising input cost and maximising productivity. We need to attract the right style of person to the district,” says Ms Gall. “People who can understand irrigation systems, people who can work with automatic tractors, people who are willing to embrace innovation.”
While historic labour demand has followed the boom and bust cycle of agriculture, Ms Gall says the new skill set required to drive irrigated agriculture requires staff retention. The stability of our communities is enhanced through staff retention and our agricultural business all benefit from stable communities.
Where to from here?
With the reliability of Gwydir Valley general security irrigation water at 40 per cent, the challenge for the Moree district moving forward is how to make best of what’s available.
During this drought year producers are looking at strategy to keep permanent staff – something that the region struggled to maintain during the millenium drought creating issues when the growing season returned.
Executive officer of the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association, Zara Lowien, said producers were now working on further farm efficiencies, streamlining field analysis and collating information onto single platforms.
New crop choices are being tested involving hemp seed and quinoa.
“We saw this sort of crop innovation at the back end of the last drought, with the introduction of citrus,” she said. “We are seeing that same sort of testing going on at the moment, and people are looking over the fence to see what is the best use of their land water.
Meanwhile, there is some positive news for the region with evidence to suggest that environmental allowances are well-secured and can are being managed and with the National party calling for excess water to be returned to community, the next question is how best that might be used?
Ms Lowien suggests putting any excess water entitlements into high security licenses, which could supply permanent tree crops and other forms of high-value horticulture and have high community benefits through valuing adding.
“Some communities are struggling but we may have a unique opportunity to put water back into agriculture. The next step is to strategically maximised benefits.
