Morton Vale Farms strengthens drought resilience
Growcom’s Farm Business Resilience Program (FBRP) is assisting horticultural growers to identify gaps in their current farm management systems and develop plans that support growth and aid in mitigating the impacts of future droughts.
Using Growcom’s best management practice platform, Hort360 growers can easily undertake a gap-analysis and develop their Resilience Plan using the inbuilt template. Financial assistance is also available through QRIDA.
Following a few good years of rain in the Lockyer Valley, Greg Lester and his brother Wayne from Morton Vale Farms knew from experience that a dry spell could be just around the corner. With the assistance on offer through Growcom’s Farm Business Resilience Program (FBRP) now was the right time to strengthen their farms’ drought resilience to secure their future in farming.
The Lesters grow a mixed range of crops, from seasonal pumpkins, melons, vegetables, and corn as well as lucerne hay production under irrigation. Like many farm businesses, their farming area is spread across a number of blocks up to 2 km apart and until recently the Lester’s farm only had a single hard hose boom irrigator. In drier times, the existing boom irrigator must be moved from paddock to paddock creating significant delays in water application damaging the soil health and increasing crop stress.
Unsure of how to get started, Greg connected with Southern Queensland Resilience Officer, Brock McDonald from Growcom. Through a series of mini-workshops, Brock helped Greg to navigate the FBRP process, using questions to help Greg think through his business and look at some of the potential risks from new angles.
“I’m not doing a lot of paperwork myself day-to-day, so I wouldn’t have got the plan completed without Brock’s assistance,” Greg said.
Working through the Hort360 Farm Business Planning module guides your thinking around the key elements that make up your business including your infrastructure, operations, care for the environment and your people.
For Greg it focussed his mind on risk. “There’s a lot more risk than you think about in the day-to-day. You know they’re there, but once you’ve done the plan it really highlights those risks.”
Regular water is one of the main ingredients needed to grow crops and the business needed to duplicate its existing irrigation infrastructure if it was to remain viable for the uncertain future under climate change. Without consistent irrigation more water is required to continually rebuild the soil moisture profile costing time and money, and impacting on crop yields.
With the risks identified, Greg was able to apply for a Drought Preparedness Grant from QRIDA to help the business purchase a new hard hose boom irrigator. Once installed this will increase irrigation efficiency and conserve water overall increasing the farms drought resilience and reducing costs.
“There’s an optimum time in the crops’ life where it needs extra water even with good rains; if you can give it the moisture at the right time, you’re going to get the best yield you can,” explains Greg.
An additional benefit of the FBRP process is that it got Greg thinking about succession planning for the business which is something he had not really considered until this point. He feels that the planning structure gets you thinking from a broader angle about your business rather than the narrow scope where you exist in the day-to-day.
With Brock’s assistance, the entire process from starting the FBRP to receiving approval for the Drought Preparedness Grant only took about three months. Although he was slightly apprehensive at the beginning, Greg would definitely recommend that other farm businesses take the time to follow the FBRP process with assistance from one of the Resilience Officers spread throughout Queensland.
