We farm approx. 3600ha at West River, between Esperance and Albany in WA. We’ve been farming by ourselves for the past 4 years and are excited about the possibility of expanding over the next few years. Tessa’s dad David Leake who farms at Kellerberrin is a great mentor for us and assists us during busy periods which we are really grateful for. Our soils vary from heavy clays to duplex to gravel over sand, but most of what we farm is clay. While our average rainfall is 430mm, for the last 3 years we’ve received over 500mm which has been a great start for our business. We grow predominantly wheat and canola with some barley, lupins and faba beans which we use as a break crop.
This season started out pretty dry in May and while we haven’t had a lot of rain since, what we’ve received has been valuable. The 55mm received so far in August has helped enormously. All our spraying is up to date, the last pass was putting fungicide over our wheat. I’m now prepping our headers for harvest and waiting on some parts to arrive. Currently we don’t have any full-time staff, however as we continue to grow our business we will bring someone on full-time. Currently I have someone driving trucks for me who also assisted at sowing. For harvest, I’ve got 2 Swedish backpackers lined up, but still need to find one other person to help. Usually Tessa drives a header, however we are expecting our 2nd child within the next couple of weeks so that might be too much of an ask!
As we grow our business, we are looking to be the most efficient we can be. Getting our marketing right is a huge part of this and we are always looking to learn more. We are also really interested in carbon and sustainability and would like to be at the forefront of this within the industry.