Riverina farmers Michael and Larissa Pfitzner were never afraid of looking at the big picture. But even they were surprised when they saw a satellite image of their 2830ha property at Nericon, near Griffith.
It clearly showed wheel tracks over the entire farm, in every direction from every machine.
The no-till farmers thought they had been trying pretty hard to protect their soils.
This wake-up call, however, has prompted them to go even further to ease the pressure on their country.
It’s that dedication that saw the Pfitzners win the Conservation Farmer of the Year Award.
Judges lauded them for their “outstanding commitment to conservation agriculture and no-till farming practices”.
The award also recognised the Pfitzners’ ability to farm in an environmentally sustainable and profitable way and their willingness to contribute to the well-being of the farming community.
Michael said they had been no-till farmers for 16 years but weren’t happy with the way some of their soils - particularly their sandy loam areas - were performing.
“These red, sandy, loam soils don’t self-repair easily and there is very little shrinkage when they are dry or swelling when they are wet,” Michael said.
“We thought we were doing wonders to our soils by using no-till methods.
“But after digging many soil pits over the years, we discovered the 70-odd years of farming practices used before we got here still had a big influence on soil structure.”
Just how much influence was shown by the satellite imagery, originally taken to monitor the change in plant biomass in a liquid-fertiliser trial.
“Even though we had been using 2cm guidance since 2006, when we looked at the satellite imagery we could see all the wheel tracks from every machine and in every direction,” Michael said.
“Not having machinery widths and wheel tracks matched up was clearly affecting crop biomass.”
As a result, the Pfitzners moved to using the same set of wheel tracks for everything from sowing to spraying to harvesting.
They settled on an industry standard for wheel tracks of three metres and last year used both their seeder and harvester on this system.
The final touch was completed this year, when they built a 36m-wide, self-propelled 7000-litre boom spray.
“The unit has nozzle spacings the same width as the crop spacings, allowing better herbicide application between stubble rows,” Michael said.
“We have also been able to spray fungicides when we needed to rather than wait for aerial operators.”
The controlled traffic has led to the removal of almost all the fences on the farm while most paddocks have been realigned north-south to better match the farm topography.
Controlled traffic is not the Pfitzners’ only passion.
They are also keen preservers of soil moisture, making the most of what falls on their 420mm-rainfall country, which has received an average 310mm for the past five years.
This year they have sown 2800ha to wheat, barley, canola, lupins and peas, with a mix of vetch and safflower used as a green-manure crop.
“My philosophy has been that we farm moisture and with that moisture we choose to grow crops,” Michael said.
“How well we grow crops often comes down to how well we captured the rainfall, how well we stored it and how well the crop utilises it.”
One of the keys to ensuring soil moisture is ground cover.
“We haven’t run livestock since 2006 due to the finite resource of moisture and the compromises that both enterprises inflicted on each other,” Michael said.
“It was also very hard to maintain ground cover with livestock in the enterprise mix.
“Ground cover is king and without it, converting rainfall into stored moisture is not easy and that is often overlooked in any farming system.”
The Pfitzners are also looking at how they manage stubbles and are involved with local Department of Primary Industries agronomist Barry Haskins in a stubble management trial that will assess the timing of sprays to maximise moisture retention.
It’s one of a host of trials they have running on their farm, something Michael and Larissa are more than willing to be involved with.
Meanwhile, Michael remains optimistic that the land he is farming can continue to deliver profitable crops if managed carefully and appropriately.
Having just been recognised by his peers, he has every right to feel that way.
