BCG research officer Amy Smith’s family farm is near Nullawil. Read what happens ‘on her farm’.Â
On my family farm, which is east of Nullawil in the Mallee, the average rainfall is around 370mm. My parents retired from the farm in 2011 so most of our property (around 900ha) is leased to neighbours.
In the years before retirement the farm was run in what was a fairly conventional style for the Mallee. This consisted of a cereal dominated rotation: fallow followed by wheat and barley.
The fallow was used as a break and as feed for stock, around 300 breeding ewes. We also grew a few oats for hay and stock feed.
We still have a few hundred acres on which we keep for a small mob of sheep and have a few horses.
My dad still keeps busy on the farm, keeping an eye on the stock, undertaking a few building projects and plenty of mowing at the moment! Earlier this year one of his projects was fencing off an area of one of our paddocks for trees planted by Mallee CMA. He’s also done some sowing and header driving for Peter Shirley, a farmer near Culgoa.
My parents are planning on doing some travelling around Australia which will be good while I’m home to keep an eye on things.
I’ve always loved living on the farm and am enjoying being back home after a few years away.
