After a year of challenging conditions, Peter Corbett and his young family have come out on top.
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They won the Junee Agricultural Society Council and Suncorp Dryland Field Wheat Competition with a Gregory wheat variety.
“The crop was really the result of a combination of a lot of people, our contractors do an excellent job and they treat it as their own,” Mr Corbett said.
“The reason I go into the comp is really to get the guys who assess it into the paddock to have a chat to them and get some ideas.”
His golden fields are the product of “luck” and the guidance of agronomists Greg and Kirrily Condon.
“We made sure we kept hold of the moisture from last year and helped it through that dry spell where we only had about 4-5mm in the growing season. Once we got the rain around the second week in October the crop was in pretty decent condition,” he said.
The father of four currently works a second job but is looking to farm full time.
“Everything is quite buoyant at the moment which is very good, but it is pushing land values along,” he said.
“If you’re a young family trying to get bigger it makes it hard.
“Eventually we’d like to get big enough to be sustainable.”
The win comes ahead of Tuesday’s National Agriculture Day, which Mr Corbett hopes is a “celebration”.
“A lot of farmers like what they’re doing, they love looking after their crops, animals and farms,” he said.
“It gripes me when you hear people saying we’re not doing it properly when they don’t know what they’re talking about.
“I hope the day helps the understanding of why we do the things we do, it’s about recognising that we’re smart people out here.”
For more information about National Agriculture Day and local events go to www.agday.org.au.