Northern Mallee farmer John Gladigau will 'open his farm gate' to attendees at the Hart Getting The Crop In seminar in Clare on March 11, giving them an insight into his farming operations.
Mr Gladigau and wife Bronwyn farm a 8500-hectare property at Loxton and Alawoona in a collaborative farming partnership between the Gladigau family and Robin and Rebecca Schaefer.
They are both established farming families in their own right; the Gladigau family has been farming in the district since 1956, while the Schaefers are one of Loxton's pioneer families, farming since the early 1900s.
The enterprise, Bulla Burra, is a continuous cropping operation, growing wheat, barley, oats, chickpeas, lentils, lupins and field peas in the 275-millimetre annual rainfall area.
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In 2008, Mr Gladigau was one of the founding partners of Collaborative Farming Australia, which provided the framework and guiding principles under which Bulla Burra operates, and he is also a founding director of Farmers Mutual Limited, a risk protection model for farmers.
"(Last year) was the 11th season of Bulla Burra's operations, cropping 8500 hectares to cereals and legumes in a model focused not only on efficiency and economics, but also passion, relationships, professionalism and promoting a positive image for the industry."
Not immune to the drought, Mr Gladigau will share some of his experiences in managing the dry.
"We have just been through three years impacted heavily by frost and drought," he said.
"In 2017 we were severely impacted by frost, low rainfall and a cut off spring. Then 2018 was the third driest growing year in 116 years, and 2019 was worse.
"The impact environmentally, financially and emotionally on our property and ourselves has been significant."
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Having recently returned from an intensive Nuffield Scholarship leadership course in the United Kingdom, he has some valuable insights to share both from there and the United States, including the importance of people and relationships.
"We as farmers - in Australia, the UK and US - tend to view the world through the prism of our own experiences, and probably need to take a more balcony view of the world," he says.
"We often feel we are the ones who are 'right' when it comes to our views on such things as ag technology, GM, food safety, animal welfare, when there is great value in taking to time to understand the other point of view, without necessarily having to agree with it in any way.
"I think it's really important we also try to find ways to effectively 'tell our story."
Getting the Crop In sessions begin at 8.30am on March 11 at The Influencers Church, Stradbrooke Road, Clare.
To register, visit hartfieldsite.org.au
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