Our Story

We live on a 12,500ha property on the Anabranch River in Western NSW where we graze sheep and cattle as well as from time to time opportunistically crop some of our flood country.

I am a fourth generation landholder in the area. My parents live on another property about 20km away and we help them with the running of their property when required.

Philosophy to life and business

Our philosophy for managing the land is to work in harmony with Mother Nature rather than against her and that in the production of our beautiful produce we must make sure that the land consistently improves. So to achieve this we have a system of strict rotational grazing that involves different species and densities as well as rest, we provide a diversity of management to achieve a diversity of plants. We also strive to use as little chemical as possible so that we enhance the natural predators/defenses that are available to our stock to keep them healthy.

Our attitude is that everything that happens on our place is our concern; weeds are plants with a story and it is up to us to interpret that, animal health is a dietary problem and again we need to change our management.

My passions

I’m not the sort of person that sees it important to tick off goals; satisfaction to me comes from doing the “right” things. These are my life passions:

• Being a good husband, father, brother and son
• Being a great landscape manager and working with mother nature
• Working with animals
• Supporting and strengthening rural and regional centres
• Leading people through difficult times/decisions

My skills

Some of the skills that I have developed include:

• Farm planning and infrastructure development (water and fencing)
• Drought management, with budgets and cashflows
• Natural resource management, through involvement in local NRM board
• Managing price risk of wool and grain
• Working with Govt. agencies to put in a pressurized pipeline system
• Community leadership
• Working with communities to improve strength and pride.
• Improved communication and ability to work with people
• “Blueprinting of our business” to manage risks and for autonomy
• Benchmarking and understanding the reports
• Learning the value of “visions and goals”
• Facilitation processes
• Steps towards a succession plan
• Improved stock management

These skills are helping me and our business to balance people, property, production and the economics involved with running a rural business in today’s ever changing climate.

Formal qualifications & training:

• Certificate in Pastoral production (Longreach)
• Low-stress stock handling
• KLR Marketing
• Grazing For Profit (RCS)
• Allan Parker – “Helping People to Help Themselves”