I.V, I.M & R.M Sperling - CHINCHILLA QLD
CATEGORY: PRODUCTIVITY
Michael Sperling farms 900 acres of his own cultivation in the Hopeland area of Chinchilla as well as 900 acres with his farther. Michael is viewed as a leader in the area, he is happy to discuss what he is doing with others and is always looking to learn and adopt new practices to maximise his productivity – this approach has earned him a nominated in the Productivity category.
Michael grows a number of crops, depending on the season and the market. He grows wheat, barley or chickpeas in winter and sorghum and Mungbeans in summer with opportunity dryland cotton should price and moisture profiles meet up.
Michael made the change to a full zero tillage system in 2010, which he says now allows them to “farm moisture”, which has given him the opportunity to double crop in some situations, improving his productivity on farm.
Impressively, Michael’s crops have won, or placed, in a number of Awards over the years. For the past two years, the two crops have won the wheat competition at Chinchilla while also being awarded as state runner ups at the Toowoomba show, after winning the Award in 2010. Additionally, Michael won the Barley Crop Award at the 2016 Chinchilla show.
Michael puts his recent success down to a pedantic approach to all facets of farming, particularly weed control, variety selection, fertiliser programs and traffic movement on his paddocks. He believes in a holistic farm approach and “making every square inch count.” An example of this is every paddock is worked the same way ensuring all headland tracks are followed exactly the same way each pass he makes.