With succession on the cards, the Joneses reflect on practices that have improved soils and yields over the past three decades

After nearly 30 years on the farm, Jeff and Jodie Jones are working through a succession planning process that will enable their two children to springboard into the business.

The plan is to step back over the next five years from the 3000-hectare mixed farming enterprise on two properties at Wharminda and Verran on the Spencer Gulf side of the Eyre Peninsula. They will turn the cropping side over to son Brayden, and the sheep enterprise plus a potential farm-stay business to daughter Mikaela.

Jodie says she and Jeff engaged an independent facilitator three years ago to help them determine what succession would look like.

They also encouraged the children to explore other off-farm options. Both did but were keen to return.

Brayden did a diesel mechanic apprenticeship, worked for a few years, and spent a year travelling around Australia working on other people’s cropping programs. Now he’s back with lots of new ideas for our cropping.

Mikaela’s interests lie in the sheep and farm-stay enterprises.

While the new business structure mirrors Bradyen and Mikaela’s interests, it is also a way to offset seasonal variability.

Jodie says sheep numbers are very much driven by the season, with expected stubbles playing a critical part in feed availability. They recently purchased a property at Verran for farm-stays with two cottages and camping area potential, which will offer another income stream.

Jodie Jones. Photo: Bec Smart Photography

Reflections

Looking back over the years, Jodie and Jeff say many practice changes have helped improve
the enterprise, such as reduced tillage and stubble retention to retain ground cover and conserve moisture.

More recently, the decision to deep rip has also improved yields.

Jeff explains that with non-wetting soils and a compaction layer 200 to 300mm down, deep ripping shatters the compaction layer.

He says the sand layer has been compacted from years of grazing sheep and machinery traffic, and clay is brought to the surface to reduce the sand’s non-wetting effect.

“In our area, we struggle with non-wetting soils, but we need to be careful because we don’t want to bring up too much clay in areas where the clay is shallow, or waste our time in areas where the clay is too deep.

“We’re also able to fix a few nutrient problems while we’re working the soil and we’re getting good results.”

The Joneses deep-ripped to 150 to 450mm, buying a deep ripper for the job and adding a liquid tank.

“It means we can add trace elements, mainly copper, to the soil,” Jeff says.

The improvement in yield has been worth the investment, he says. Before deep ripping, wheat yield averaged 1.7 tonnes/ha. In 2024, after deep ripping, it ranged from 2.4t/ha to 2.9t/ha, on 108mm of growing season rainfall.

Brayden Jones. Photo: Bec Smart Photography

Weed technology

As Brayden steps up to lead the cropping program, new thinking on technology has arisen.

Jodie says: “Brayden’s risk appetite is less conservative than ours. He has embraced
new technology.”

That has seen the recent purchase of a Seed Terminator to crush weed seeds, adding another element to weed control and moisture conservation.

“We’re conserving moisture year after year by keeping ground cover from the previous harvest and we’re spraying for summer weeds.”

Brayden has also recently built a drone to help map weeds.

“Brayden did a mapping trial on a small paddock near our house, using a cheaper drone, and put that information into our sprayer to measure if the data would make a comparable difference to our summer spraying program,” Jodie says. “He only needed to spray 0.8ha of a total 10.8ha.”

The family has estimated the drone cost will be returned in two years, with markedly less spent on summer sprays and less time spent spraying weeds.

Jeff Jones. Photo: Bec Smart Photography

Early sowing

With Brayden’s encouragement, the family has also incorporated more early sowing into the cropping program, despite some initial concerns from Jeff and Jodie.

Jeff says they have previously dry sown about 25 per cent of the program, and they have been mindful that while sowing earlier provides a longer growing season it also comes with a higher frost risk.

“We’ve always waited to get a bit of rain before sowing the non-wetting sands, but ANZAC Day is our target, or earlier if we get some rain. But the season seems to be getting shorter, and we want to get the crop in, so last year we listened to Brayden and sowed about 75 per cent of the crop dry.

“We were a bit nervous at the time and we never actually got a season-opening rain, but the decision paid off.

“There was enough moisture in the ground for germination, and there was conserved moisture from the summer spraying program, so once the roots got down to that moisture, the crops grew well.”

Another impetus for sowing early in 2024 was the purchase of another 1200ha of cropping country, which meant creating more time for the larger program to be completed.

The Joneses also had to incorporate this land into their deep ripping program coupled with a treatment of 2.5 kilograms/ha of copper and zinc sulfate.

Jodie says that adding the new block meant “sprinting forward a bit” to maintain the window of opportunity. The family plans to do the same this year, provided there is sufficient soil moisture.

Jeff says the new farm was sown mainly to cereals last season to get cover on the paddocks.

“We did sow 140ha of lentils on the new farm and some of this wasn’t harvested due to the drought and frost. It will be incorporated this year, and that land will be sown to cereals.”

Their program in 2025 began with spraying summer weeds, then sowing early, leading up to ANZAC Day.

In the 2024 cereals program the family sowed five varieties of wheat – Scepter, Vixen, Calibre, Matadorand Tomahawk CL Plus – and three varieties of barley – Maximus CL, Neo CL and Commodus CL.

This year the plan was three wheats – Matador, Calibre and Tomahawk CL Plus – and barley varieties Maximus CL and Neo CL.

PBA HighlandXT and GIA Thunder lentils were also planned, along with Renegade TT canola and some vetch for the sheep.

Resources: GRDC Farm Business Management.

See also: GroundCover™ story – Succession a time to reflect on progress.