Thirty years ago, a young David Robb watched as his father Tony kept busy building a new family home.

It was drought, and it was David’s first memory of it. “When dad wasn’t building the house, he was carting 20-kilogram bags of chickpea gradings down to feed the cows and we were getting hay drives up at the local recreation club.”

The drought had begun in 1991 and was steadily encroaching on their farm, 90 kilometres west of Goondiwindi on the Queensland/New South Wales border. By September 1994 about 83 per cent of NSW and 40 per cent of Queensland was drought-declared.

It is a memory that is seared into David’s mind, and one that shapes how he and his family run their 1600-hectare enterprise today.

David, a second-generation farmer, calls their approach “resilience farming”. His parents, Tony and Neva, bought the farm in 1985. “There is a long legacy of drought and it’s not if, but when,” he says.

For the Robbs, resilience farming tools include rotational choices, alternative enterprises and weed management.

The Robbs do not grow summer cereals. “The climate is too warm here. We can be 2˚C warmer than Goondiwindi (where summers average in the low 30˚Cs). Our soils cannot hold the moisture needed to make summer cereals a viable option.”

Drought lessons learned

Lessons learned in the early 2000s about hay and hay contracting are still being used. “When I left high school, the Millennium drought was on. We bought a hay farm to feed the cows and have something to do in times of drought.”

While that farm was sold, the family kept the hay gear “because droughts will continue to occur and it enables us to grow and store fodder for ourselves and diversify our income stream”.

Today they plant barley for hay, which also works as a weed control tactic for black oats.

“Because black oats get their heads out early, we cut our barley early too. It means the quantity is not there, but the quality is, and we control the black oats.”

Their 80 head of Santa Gertrudis breeding cattle also help suppress weeds. “Over summer, the cattle are allowed on the paddocks and that helps keep the weed pressure down.”

One of the most-problematic weeds is feathertop Rhodes grass. David aims to keep on top of it and ensure moisture for winter crops by spot spraying.

Working with Infarm, a Goondiwindi-based business, he is also trialling something new – weed maps created with a drone.

The Robbs have recently bought a self-propelled sprayer with independent nozzle control that can use the drone-created maps.

“The drone maps where the weeds are and I feed that into the sprayer and then use individual nozzle control to spray. It’s like spot control without the need for spray rig cameras.”

Future-proofing

David says they decided against a camera sprayer because they did not want to be stuck with that technology. “This way we can keep adapting to, and taking advantage of, the emerging technology from drone-based images.

“There is potential for green-on-green weed control and using AI, and drones could also be used to detect diseases and pests. It’s something that I’m passionate about.”

The Robbs also use WAND (Weather and Networked Data system) to check for hazardous inversions before and during spraying.

“It’s a simple tool that gives us concise real-time information. You can lose up to 30 per cent of your spray if there is an inversion – money you would be spending on spray that could be disappearing.”

Using drones with LiDAR (light detection and radar), the Robbs are also topographic mapping. “It’s a longer-term project, but essentially we want to slow the water down so some of it stays on our farm a bit longer.”

While drought and mitigation practices are always top-of-mind, the Robbs are making the most of a fantastic start to this winter season.

“This has been a very different year because of the rain. We’ve had a fantastic start – 140 millimetres of rain at the end of March/early April. So, we’re planting a big crop for us – 1200ha.”

David uses WAND to check for hazardous inversions before spraying and says it is very simple to use. “You don’t want to lose money spraying when there is an inversion." Photo: Nicole Baxter

More information: Hazardous inversion fact sheet

How a missed fungicide spray led to a passion for learning

For David Robb, the path to university was pushed along by a missed fungicide spray.

When chickpea prices were sky-high in 2016, a great crop with potentially massive yields was lost.

David, who farms 1600 hectares west of Goondiwindi with his parents Tony and Neva, says the experience led to him rethinking his options.

“Losing that crop was a kick in the  guts. And it all came down to a lack of planning. I was away – for the first time in a long time – and it rained, and we hadn’t put fungicide out.”

At the time, David had been on the farm for 14 years. “I was thinking, ‘if something goes wrong, what will I do?’ And the answer was, ‘I'll be a tractor driver’. And I’m happy to work big hours for my dad. But doing that for someone else was not motivating.”

David decided to take the plunge and study a dual degree in agribusiness and sustainable agriculture at the University of Queensland. He says it is “the greatest thing I have ever done”.

Studying has given him a different perspective and helped him to bring new ideas home.

While at university he joined the Agribusiness Association and Plant Science Society. He soon realised there was a gap between industry and students – something he tries to address via advocacy and industry connections.

“To me, the biggest shortfall at uni was the lack of industry engagement with the students. In 2018 there were no field days. Last year, there were eight student-run field trips.”

He recently spoke to a delegation of Indonesian grain processors and academics in Australia. “I told them that Dad and I looked after 1600ha and they thought the scale of that was huge. I was able to give them an Australian farming perspective. They were very interested in how environmental factors played a large role in our decision-making process.”

While he originally decided to study sustainable agriculture, he became passionate about soil science after meeting GRDC’s Dr Cristina Martinez. “She changed my trajectory. I had a conversation with her where she said ‘you’re a soil farmer’ and it resonated with me, and I changed from sustainable agriculture to ag science, allowing me to gain two more soil science courses.”

Since leaving university, David has worked with Goanna Ag as an irrigation agronomist and is now concentrating on the farm.