ANTHONY Lees has childhood memories of his father John being involved with variety trials and he has continued the family tradition – today as a host site for a NVT on his Diggora property.
On two of his hectares he says this season there is a mixture of canola, wheat and oats.
“Dad has had a lot to do with trials over the years – I am the fifth generation of the family in this part of the world and the second on our current farm, where we crop 2000ha, including some share farming and lease land,” Anthony says.
“It is mostly dry land but we do have a little bit of flood irrigation country which is used in our rotation.
“Mostly we are growing canola, wheat, barley and peas, and if this year keeps going as it has started, we could be in for our fourth good one in a row.”
Anthony says 2024 has been a “textbook start” for them, having begun with good summer rain which put plenty of moisture into the soil, then in March they received another 30mm, after which sowing started.
He says with most of their seed in the ground, the skies opened once more and dropped 30mm more.
“Now, with almost everything planted, we got 25mm at the start of June to keep things humming along and we already have a lot of emergence – in good rows as well,” he says.
“The first two of the good years we thought were pretty good – so did the bank manager.
“And last season was a cracker, which was even better because, if nothing else, it takes so much of the stress out of the business.
“When every dollar counts you can’t really afford to make too many wrong decisions so the past few years have been such a boost in so many ways.”
But as textbook and potentially exciting as the season is shaping up to be, this is farming after all, which is never plain sailing.
“We have a real battle with ryegrass – it is a demon around here,” he says.
“All the rain has been great but it also provided a green bridge, as well as the usual ryegrass.”
Anthony says this year that has meant them running a double-pass knockdown of Roundup in the first pass and then a follow-up with paraquat for good measure – including spraying in-crop.
He says in some parts of his property that just keeps them slightly ahead.
“We are actually treading water in some paddocks: one season you fix one and think that’s great, and then it pops up in the next one and you think to yourself ‘Where did that come from?’,” he shrugs.
“We have had very little hay in our program until now but we have been building towards adding it on a much bigger scale as another tool in our belt for weed control.
“It is something we have been building up to as we have got more financial strength in the business and have acquired a baler, cutter and rake, which all costs, so you want to know you are ready for it before you take the plunge.
“We only do a paddock or two of domestic hay right now but once we step that up we will probably have a good look at the export market as well – on top of the benefit we will get in weed control.”
Strictly a cropping enterprise, Anthony does run a small mob of sheep on an agistment-only arrangement with a near neighbour who brings them in, looks after them and takes them away.
“Sheep and I don’t really get along but this program, which goes through the summer, works for me because I don’t have to do any work with them and they give the paddocks a good mow at the same time – that’s a win for him and a win for me.”
Although the Lees have a long association with industry trials and research, Anthony says this is just his third year with BCG.
He says he and his family worked with Eurofin out of Shepparton before BCG got the NVT contract, and he is now also a fully paid-up BCG member with plans to get much more involved in the group’s events, field days and tech presentations in the future.
“The first year out of COVID we had a BCG header day on our property – we had four colours in our shed,” he says.
“It was used as a webinar and we also had a heap of people here as well.
“It was such an excellent day.
“The fella running it really knew his stuff.
“Just his advice on small tweaks you can make to finetune your header was amazing and really did make a difference.
“Did we get a lot out of that BCG day? Absolutely.”
