NSW Farmers Association - Farmers Of The Year

2010 Farmer of the Year

About the Awards

The NSW Farmer of the Year and NSW Young Farmer of the Year Awards are designed to recognise excellence in farming within NSW. A joint initiative by NSW Farmers' Association and NSW Industry & Investment and supported by the Royal Agricultural Society and The Land, the awards have a particular focus on acknowledging farmers who combine sustainable environment practices with profitable production.

NSWIndustryandInvestmentWeb To further develop and improve their farming enterprise:

Farmer of the Year is awarded $10,000
Young Farmer of the Year is awarded $5,000

FARMER OF THE YEAR WINNERS - 2010

FARMER OF THE YEAR WINNER: Ridley Bell - 'Mountain Blue Orchards', Alsonville Plateau NSW

Ridley Bell owns and manages the blueberry farm and nursery ‘Mountain Blue Orchards’ on the fertile, undulating Alstonville Plateau on the NSW north coast. Mountain Blue Orchards is 34 hectares in size, relatively large for a blueberry farm, with approximately 74000 plants planted across 20 hectares. Ridley has 30 employees working on the farm.

With 35 years of experience, Ridley has been a pioneer in the development of the blueberry industry in Australia. Today a number of varieties released by Ridley are being grown both in the Northern and Southern states of Australia and internationally. In 1978 Ridley was instrumental in setting up the Australian Blueberry Growers Association to service the blueberry industry.

With about one third of the Mountain Blue Orchards farm used for research and development, there is significant loss of opportunity to commercial production. Although this is a financial disadvantage, Ridley sees the value of this research in helping to develop a premium breeding program in the long term.

Ridley is the Business Manager of the Lismore Soup Kitchen, and has been providing support for homeless people for the last 20 years. He also provides paid work on his blueberry farm for the unemployed and homeless. Ridley has incorporated his business management skills into the development of the Lismore Soup Kitchen, which now has ownership of a seven bedroom house and a heritage listed Hotel which also houses 20 residents and runs community based activities.

Runner Up: Pepe Bonaccordo - 'Pepe's Ducks', Windsor NSW

Founded by Pepe Bonaccordo in 1973, Pepe’s Ducks began in Pepe's backyard with a few Pekin ducks. Farms followed, production grew and after operating for over three decades, Pepe's Ducks in Windsor has become the largest producer of ducks in Australia and New Zealand, producing over 70,000 ducks per week and over 3.4 million ducks annually.

Pepe’s Ducks remains at the forefront of the duck meat industry in Australia by importing new genetic material, production techniques and processing technologies. The business now employs over 135 people with an in-house training system covering all aspects of the business.

Despite the inherent difficulties that come with maintaining a busy, expanding livestock business in an urban environment, animal welfare and livestock health remain two of the highest priorities for the business, with staff training in animal husbandry and biosecurity management an important aspect of the business.

As the duck meat industry in Australia is relatively small, Pepe’s plays an active and vital role in assisting with research initiatives aimed at improving the industry. For example, before duck-growing facilities were built at Young NSW, Pepe’s conducted trials that examined the impact of the increased transport times on live ducks, making the Young facility a viable option.

Pepe’s Ducks plays an active role in the duck industry and its local community, sponsoring local teams, competitions, races and charities and promotes the virtues of local produce through its membership of the Hawkesbury Harvest Trail and participation in local farmers markets.

Runner Up: Phillip Lynn - 'Clancy Pastoral', Glen Innes NSW

Philip and his wife Bettina own and operate two cropping farms in their home town of Glen Innes in New England, lease another two farms in Glen Innes and Ebor for their beef cattle business, as well as operating two goat buying depots in Glen Innes and Cobar.

Philip and Bettina have been managing their farms organically for 12 years. They fatten 400 organic yearling cattle, produce 100 tonnes of soybeans and 100-200 tonnes of spelt wheat annually. Believing strongly in diversity, they also trade 200,000 goats annually through Ausgoat.

The extreme diversity is intentional. In the late 90’s, the Lynn’s wanted to manage their farming risk by developing a rural operation that would give them more reliable cash flow. The lean towards an organic farming future was made after a number of trips to the organically minded Denmark.

In their operation, the couple don’t apply synthetic chemical fertilisers to soils, but fertilise using a variety of natural rock phosphates and organic phosphate fertilisers. They don’t apply chemicals to their livestock and don’t suffer from internal or external parasite issues.

The family has a vision for a more sustainable farming operation and a desire to eat clean, healthy and nutritious food, free of added chemicals or artificial promotants. Their next and imminent goal is developing their own organic compost and fertiliser.

YOUNG FARMER OF THE YEAR WINNERS - 2010

YOUNG FARMER OF THE YEAR WINNER: Andrew Carroll - 'Palmers Island Mulloway', Palmers Island (Yamba) NSW

In June 2008, Andrew Carroll purchased an old prawn farm on Palmers Island, near Yamba NSW, for the purpose of growing market size Mulloway fish for domestic and foreign markets. It was Andrew’s primary objective to take this species and improve feed conversion ratios and growth by removing all predator stresses and creating an environment that he believed would better suit this species of fish.

One of the major challenges Andrew faces in his business is the severe lack of research available on producing Mulloway using land-based earth ponds. Considering that in the past, Mulloway were nearly always grown in colder South Australian waters, Andrew initially had to ask himself whether it was even possible to successfully grow such a species on a commercial scale within a land-based aquaculture business in the warm climate of northern NSW.

Andrew’s gamble paid off; after working solo for two years without any staff or income and taking on every role within the farm from On-Site Manager to Health and Disease Manager, Palmers Island Mulloway is now rapidly achieving growing market acceptance of their product. The fish quality is increasingly being praised by wholesalers and the fish themselves grow at a rate of almost twice as fast as the Mulloway grown in colder waters. He currently has 80,000 or 90 tonnes of Mulloway on his farm.

Renowned chef Perry Hill has described the fish as, “the next big thing in Australian seafood.”

Runner Up: Angus Stainley - 'Torokina', Murwillumbah NSW

Angus Stainley is the owner/operator of a 170 hectare sugar cane property on the outskirts of Murwillumbah in northern NSW and is responsible for all aspects of the farming enterprise. He owns 55 hectares, share farms a further 115 hectares and produces around 15,000 tonnes of sugar cane annually. In the off season, soya beans are grown as a rotation crop, which not only helps with soil conditioning and reduced nitrogen requirements, but also provides a cash return.

Angus regularly educates himself on the latest techniques for sugar cane farming and is currently in the process of employing one such technique; converting single rows to a 1.9m ‘wide row format’, resulting in a 26% reduction in travel time for each hectare of the farm.

Raised beds and no-till planting are further time and money saving initiatives. Ground preparation and bed forming are now carried out during the off-season, allowing for a drop in labour at planting time from seven staff to just one and a half; a massive saving.

There are also research trials currently underway on Angus’s farm, which provide data to assist him in regular benchmarking and comparative analysis.

Angus has a Bachelor of Business majoring in Agribusiness and is the Chairman, Area Representative or Member of a variety of groups and organisations. He regularly exhibits his sugarcane at local shows and has received various awards for his produce.

Click here to visit the NSW Farmers' Association's Annual Conference website...