ESPERANCE , a small town of no more than 14,000 on the south coast of Western Australia is best known for its fantastic beach and Lucky Bay , but this is where Graham Potter found inspiration for the way he was about to farm back in the UK .

Graham farms at The Grange in Topcliffe where he is the third generation on a farm that his grandfather William Potter

ran as a mixed farm , but is today totally arable across its 500 acres using precision farming technology and techniques , and now regarded as a carbon neutral farm . Graham was recently nominated in a northern farming award for the exceptional way in which he farms .

‘ I learned such a lot about Australian farming methods while out in Esperance ,’ he says . ‘ It has been the biggest influence on the way I farm and led to me being a

very early adopter of precision farming in the UK .’

‘ I first went out there when I was in my mid-20s in 2001 and I didn ’ t experience winter in the UK again until 2007 . In October after harvest over here I ’ d be on a plane to Australia and then back the following spring . I was working on a much bigger farm over there . It was 15,000 acres all arable when I started and now it ’ s more like 36,000 .’

‘ They were using direct drilling and I reckoned if they were using strip drilling , why couldn ’ t we ?’

That ’ s how Graham began his move towards utilising all new technology and ideas available .

‘ I took over from my dad , Terry , in 2008 . He had farmed in partnership with one of his brothers , Colin , in the 1960s and 70s before they shared what had been a 1000-acre farm . We ’ d had pigs and sheep on the farm at one time , and calves that we reared from six weeks old to finishing , but by the time I left school we were all arable .’

‘ Our land which includes everything from blow-away sand to blue clay was starting to deteriorate as it wasn ’ t getting what it needed . Now we chop most of our straw to help with organic matter

such as worm count in the soil and use variable rate P & K utilising GPS systems and everything is mapped and tested .’

Graham took on his first autosteer tractor and was still part-ploughing with a combi-drill and using a Sumo until taking on his Claydon direct seed drill in 2013 .

‘ We ’ ve not ploughed a field since ,’ he says proudly . ‘ The Claydon allows me to single-pass , which saves a fortune and has benefited the land substantially and we get good results averaging around 5 tonnes per acre for first wheats and 4 tonnes for seconds in a good year .’

Continued on page 48

Dealers Since 1978

We are proud to be suppliers to

Graham Potter of WM Potter & Sons .

Brockhills of Yorkshire Ltd , Dalton , Thirsk , North Yorkshire , YO7 3HR Tel 01845 577242 www . brockhills . co . uk