Where are we getting value?

Rob Tole, Farmer
Greenvale Pastoral, Tasmania

Rob and his wife, Eliza, are now the fourth generation farming Greenvale, which was traditionally, a 100% dryland, prime lamb operation. It is now a diversified farming business with an extensive cropping program and a small breeding flock of crossbred ewes which are run alongside a lamb trading operation.

The farm has a long term average rainfall of 680mm and is now 60% covered with fixed pivot irrigators, reducing the risks of dry seasons. Soil types range from very heavy black canola running up to lighter sandy loams.

Over recent years, extensive development work has been put into practice.  Technology has been implemented into the farming system to gain efficiencies in production and labour, such as livestock handling equipment, variable rate irrigation, Fieldnet, RTK guidance NDVI images underground drainage and grid soil mapping.

The introduction of PA has been implemented over a decade but in recent years the adoption of VRI and NDVI has taken this to a new level. It dramatically altered the way we view our crop management and has opened up many opportunities to increase production but at the same time reduce inputs

The operation now has a well-balanced irrigation system complementing the cropping and lamb production, allowing turn off lambs all year round.