After decades of taking out local and regional level competitions, Cowra’s Illinois Farms, owned by the Johnstone family, has won the Agricultural Societies Council (ASC)/Suncorp Bank Championship State Dryland Field Wheat Competition.
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The Johnstone’s were announced as the winners in Dubbo last week after taking out the Cowra Show Society competition and Central Region competition last year.
Tom Johnstone said it was great to get a win at state level after coming close for the past number of years.
“It’s not easily achieved,” he said.
“We’ve been having a go at it for a fair while now, not too many people get to do it.
“The last 17 years its been running as a state competition and this is the first time we’ve ever won the whole state, so it’s pretty good.”
Mr Johnstone said his family, who have been farming in the Cowra area for more than 100 years, have been entering the competition for generations.
“I was just looking with my father this morning at some old newspaper articles from 1938, where they were winning the competition then, so it’s been three generations now,” he said.
“You like to be able to achieve what your forefathers did before, it means you’re up to the benchmark.”
The Kittyhawk wheat variety was sown on Anzac Day last year and thanks to good October rain at the end of the growing period, yielded six tonnes per hectare plus grazing value.
Mr Johnstone said the family’s win may encourage other growers in the Cowra region to enter the competition.
“It’s good just for people to look at what you are doing, it might inspire other people to look at things and the way they could do things differently,” he said.
“I think it’s a good thing for agriculture… over the years for us, we had a look at the different things that the other people have been doing in the competition and you get some ideas on how you could do things differently.
“It keeps you competitive too, which means you are always advancing in agriculture so you can produce a little bit more all the time.
“There’s so much you can get out of it.
“There’s lot of knowledge there from all the growers and they’re all trying to grow the best they can… you might surprise yourself, at the very least you learn something, it’s not a bad thing to have a little competition I don’t think, healthy competition is good for everyone.”
Mr Johnstone said the family plans to enter the competition again and to continue on the family tradition.
“They would be a bit sour if I won it then retired,” he said.
“Give everyone else a chance to compete against you, we’ll have to keep it going with it now.”
