Less downtime, faster turnaround times, lower operating costs, and reduced labour are targets any hard working farmer in Western Australia would naturally want to hit. Owing to these prerequisites, choosing the right strategies along with the right products that complement them is imperative.
Meet Noel Mills, a broadacre farmer from Wenballa Farms in Pithara and Dalwallinu.
Growing about 40 to 50 percent cereal, 30 percent barley with the rest being canola in a family-owned farm, it’s important to develop waterwise decisions that generations of Mills can benefit – and learn – from.
It’s granted that Australian farming is rife with challenges. Find out what resolutions Noel from Wenballa incorporated into his business and passion to ensure success.
First, Noel incorporated innovative poly tanks with bigger literage around their family farm knowing full well that access to scheme water for crop management is an occurring problem.
The main reason we got bigger tanks like this is that once everybody else gets spraying around here, and then they’re going around the countryside, the scheme water getting here is very slow. So we got to have a fair bit of storage to keep ourselves going.
Noel can have his tanks slowly fill with water during the night or any time during the day for that matter.
Wise choice, indeed.
It’s not enough to simply have water tanks, every farmer also needs to have the right game plan. To reduce downtimes, Noel has water tanks placed in key locations around his property to make loading up his sprayers quick.
These are all just for our spraying. We’ve got 3 setups like this to make it easy… we can come in load up the sprayers and go again pretty quick...
Placing water tanks in deliberate locations also benefits Noel any time of the year when carting water becomes necessary.
…later on in the year after the crops come up, we all start using the truck with the big tank that’s on the back of that and carting water to wherever the sprayers are and keeping them in the paddock and keep them going.
When it comes to water-efficiency, Noel hit the nail on the head.
The end goal is for maximised yields. That needs water. It therefore makes sense to have innovative storage solutions on your side. Solutions that work to protect and ensure quality water allowing you to have water exactly when you need it where you need it.
It's like efficiency to try and keep everything moving. So the more water you have, the efficiency keeps everything moving.
Asked whether he would recommend Coerco water tanks, Noel had this to say:
Coerco as a business, they're really stepping up and they're a worldwide business or an Australia-wide business. And they've done very, very well… you've got a problem, they're not scared to help you sort it out… and if you've got different ideas they're all in for it in helping you out. – Noel Mills, Wenballa Farms