Grower, Tigah Pty Ltd - COONAMBLE NSW
CATEGORY: SUSTAINABILITY
Tony Single is a cropper from the South East of Coonamble, NSW that is really ahead of the game when it comes to farm profitability and sustainability. Tony has been nominated in the Sustainability category for his clever management of available resources to ensure successful summer and winter crop rotations are achieved.
The key to success for Tony is “our decision making, in terms of crop sequence, which is a dynamic process including winter and summer crops and based on knowing our ‘Planting Water Trigger Points’ (PWTP)”. The PWTP was developed and implemented by Tony and his father John, and shows for each crop the minimum amount of soil moisture required at a planting opportunity to maximise long term profit, based on historical rainfall records. If soil moisture levels do not meet the PWTP we continue the fallow until the next planting opportunity and reassess then.
“We have found that the real cost of a crop failure it is not so much the loss of dollars – it is more the loss of soil water that could have been used to grow additional grain in another season”.
Tony says having “long fallows are a key part of this system which have provided many advantages including weed and disease management, but have also presented significant challenges in terms of sustainable weed control”. As a result Tony practices double knock strategies and monitors resistance closely.
Tony has implemented advanced spraying technologies and ways of working safely within your mixing area and spraying equipment. An example being the design and construction of a chemical fill station to minimise boom down time and maximise operator safety. Dangerous chemicals are handled and measured in a fully enclosed system to minimise any risk to the operator.
In 2013, Tony took part in the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship program and has since spoken at multiple GRDC grower updates. Tony has also hosted a number of trials on his farm.