Not only did he begin his contract spraying business during the drought of 1994, but Mr Lamey purchased his first farm at Crooble in 2002, in the midst of the Millennium Drought, considered Australia’s worst drought on record.

It was these years that cemented the importance of saving water to Mr Lamey, who soon learned the hard way the consequences of not being extra vigilant with his water consumption.

“It was tough,” he said.

“That’s when we had to save water. Every drop. We had to make it count.”

Mr Lamey said growing crops is just like growing your garden – you’ve got to maintain water in the soil.

No-till was the main strategy he implemented during those years to do just that.

“You leave the cereal straw on top of the ground,” he said.

“It’s a conservation practice that 80 or 90 per cent of farmers use now.

“It keeps the ground cool. Instead of bare soil, which can hit 70 degrees, something with cover can keep it down to 50 degrees. If you can drop 20 degrees off the soil temperature, it’s easier to keep water in the soil.

“We plowed and found those crops were no good. But where we did this conservation technique, we grew crops and made money.

“We still do that today.”

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During those Millennium Drought years, the Lameys would recycle water from their showers, sinks, washing machine – all of their household greywater was re-used.

“We never lived in town then, so we knew how much water we had and how much we could use,” Mr Lamey said.

“It was a struggle, and we were trying to make money. Contracting had dried up, so our income came from looking after ourselves and growing crops when no-one else could.

“We were happy to do without plants in the garden. If the lawn had to be brown, it had to be brown.

“For me, the priority has always been people, stock and then luxuries.”

Long fallowing was another strategy Mr Lamey implemented during drought years, and something that he still continues to this day.

“You leave paddocks out and don’t put a crop in when it’s low commodity prices,” he said.

“Don’t go with the sheep, or the crowd. You have to be strategic. You might have a proportion of your crop in, so like 20 per cent, because you’ve still got to live.

“Our commodities are worth a lot of money. I’d prefer every day to grow a crop in a dry year than a wet year. It’s all about supply and demand. The commodities increase when it’s dry.

“If you can grow a crop in a dry year, you’ll make more money.”

Mr Lamey has also gone to controlled traffic farming, which involves the use of permanent three-metre wheel tracks in order to reduce the negative impacts of soil compaction on rainfall infiltration, rooting depth and eventual crop yield.

“So I only drive on one wheel track … it’s very strict, like a train line,” Mr Lamey said.

“Once the soil is compacted, you can’t get moisture out of it.”

The Lameys purchased a camera sprayer when water was scarce in 2007, which not only saves chemical, it saves water.

“It has infrared cameras, so when the light reflects the weed, it sprays,” Mr Lamey said.

“Where you’d normally spray 60 litres per hectare, it might spray 15L.”

Farmers, particularly irrigators, often get a bad wrap when it comes to their water usage.

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However, Mr Lamey said the way he regards water as an irrigator is no different to how he sees his household water bill.

“You know every litre costs you money, so you can’t afford to be wasteful,” he said.

“You want that water to make you as much money as possible, so you don’t let it evaporate. 

“You might water fast or slow at certain times to get the most out of that water. It doesn’t matter whether it’s big scale or small scale. A bucket is only ever one size. If you make a mistake, you can’t just print water and solve your mistakes.”

Outside the home, Mr Lamey said he only waters his lawn in the cool of the morning, and uses an automatic watering system using a mixture of rain and town water.

When it comes to saving water inside the home, he believes it’s something the whole family needs to be a part of. 

Mr Lamey said children should talk about their water usage in the same way they’d talk about the data on their phone. Or, he says conversations about water should be akin to someone comparing how many kilometres they can get out of a tank of fuel

“It’s not about the dollar value of your bill, it’s the amount of water you use,” he said.

Mr Lamey believes there should be a campaign encouraging people to be competitive with each other about how much, or little, water they use.

“Kids should know what they’re using, what their neighbours are using and try to beat others in their street, or towns beating other towns, or suburbs,” he said.

“So is Pennant Hills doing better at saving water than Surrey Hills? It could be city versus city, is Sydney better at saving water than Melbourne?”

With 100 per cent of NSW still in drought and dam levels continuing to decline – Keepit Dam is at zero per cent, Split Rock Dam is at four per cent and falling, Copeton Dam is at 13 per cent and falling, and Pindari Dam is 16 per cent and falling – it’s never been more important to understand how everyone can do their bit to save water. 

Mr Lamey said water is crucial – “it’s a finite resource, you can’t print water” – and believes it’s everyone’s responsibility to save it.

“In a catchment, you don’t know what’s happening in other areas of that catchment,” he said. 

“Just because there might be a flood or high rainfall where you are, doesn’t mean someone on the end of the river isn’t doing it tough and can’t have their baby on their farm because the water is putrid. It’s less about me and more about community.”

This year Mr Lamey doesn’t have an irrigation crop. Instead, he’s got millet, sorghum and dryland cotton crops in, is making hay and has cattle.

“I sold that first farm, and got a decent sized farm where I could give up contracting which meant we were all about saving money in our one bucket. It paid off this year. We were able to grow decent crops in a tough year,” he said.

“It’s all been off good agronomy and good water saving techniques.”