Top croppers: Brothers Sam (left) and Jake (right) Thompson have continued to prove they are among the best in Victoria when it comes to quality lucerne.
Photo by
Rodney Braithwaite
The Thompson brothers are crediting their success in the Feed Central awards to a great team and good soil.
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The Wyuna East farmers took out the honours for best lucerne hay in Victoria — in both the visual category and feed test analysis.
The 2020-21 awards mark two years in a row the Thompsons have won a top gong.
Double joy: Jake and Sam Thompson with their awards for best looking and best performing lucerne in Victoria.
Photo by
Rodney Braithwaite
Last year the fifth generation farmers picked up the award for the best-looking lucerne hay in all of Australia.
Sam Thompson said the family was delighted to win again and acknowledged the good people around them.
“Our agronomist Tim Anderson from Advanced AG helped us get this lucerne established and it’s on real good soil,” Sam said.
“It’s a Shepparton fine sand and the beautiful climate in the Goulburn Valley allows us to dry the lucerne quick.”
Looking good: The award-winning lucerne comes from a field of Shepparton fine sand, watered by centre pivot irrigation. Lucerne was first planted to take care of a rye-grass resistance issue.
Photo by
Rodney Braithwaite
Image credit: Sam Thompson
The brothers have been supported by neighbour Frank Fanning and friends the Peacock family throughout their farming careers.
The Peacocks won their own Feed Central award this year in the cereal hay category (see page 20).
“We’re surrounded by a lot of mentor farmers. We’ve learnt a lot of our techniques from other people,” Sam said.
The Thompsons have the capacity to produce about 2000 tonnes of lucerne in a season, provided every little thing goes their way.
In charge: Sam says his brother wears the boots on the farm, working as the full-time manager and ‘machinery man’. Jake has been running this shiny 7230R for two years and tends to lean towards John Deere as his brand of choice. The 7230R gets put to work with sowing and dragging along the balers.
Photo by
Rodney Braithwaite
Most of that is sold to Feed Central which supplies feedlots, dry-lot dairy farms and horse stables.
Jake Thompson is the main brother on the farm, owning and leasing the majority of the enterprise’s land.
“We are selling some hay local as well,” Jake said.
“Since the drought broke, the price of hay has come back to a point where the dairy farmers can justify using it.”
Sam said when it came to high output industries like dairy and feedlots, people were happy to buy premium because it meant a premium end product.
“With livestock so expensive at the moment people are prepared to feed premium,” he said.
“That’s why Feed Central is so on top of quality. They want to make sure what people are buying is what’s going on the truck.”
Destined for the feed bucket: Jake and Sam Thompson in an oat and hay paddock. It will likely be turned into chaff and end its life in a horse’s feed bucket.
Photo by
Rodney Braithwaite
The visual award goes to the farmer who produces the best looking, feeling and smelling lucerne hay in the state.
The feed test award requires a random sample to be lab tested for nutrient content.
“Ours came back very high in proteins, energy and high digestibility,” Sam said.
This season’s lucerne is coming up nicely for the duo, who expect to start on their first cut in mid-October.
“We should get about five cuts from it,” Jake said.
When not helping out around the farm, Sam works as an airline pilot. His next flight is into Queenstown, followed by a run to Adelaide.
With strange schedules like that, no doubt a crack team of reliable experts saves a lot of headaches and time.
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