2014 NSW Farmer of the Year award winners Derek and Kirrily Blomfield
Derek and Kirrily Blomfield operate 'Colorado', a 980 hectare beef cattle grazing farm on the Liverpool Plains in northern NSW.
The Blomfields produce steers and heifers that are slaughtered, butchered, boxed and sold direct to consumers under their brand "The Conscious Farmer". All cattle are grass fed on perennial pastures.
The farm has been sub-divided into 65 paddocks with provision for further temporary sub-division as required, which has been done to manage grazing for optimal stocking rates, and for the regeneration of pasture quality and density.
They run up to 500 head of cattle depending on conditions. They are currently increasing their breeder numbers and, in the meantime, have agistment cattle on to fill to their carrying capacity.
The Blomfields believe to sustain their farm landscape is not enough – they want to regenerate it.
Colorado is managed with the aim of improving and regenerating soils, pastures and biodiversity while optimising beef production and profitability. To achieve this, paddocks are rotationally grazed – ensuring perennial pastures are 'recovered' before re-grazing them again.
The full leaf recovery of plant species before re-grazing means that the root systems of the plants have also recovered and pushed down equally deep into the soil.
Grazing in this manner has resulted in greater than 90% ground cover over much of the farm. This level of ground cover ensures virtually no erosion (no loss of asset), as well as a lack of annual weeds.
This grazing system, as well as careful choice of drenches (if required), has resulted in an explosion of the dung beetle numbers in their active time over summer.
The Blomfields have created a brand for their farm business products, The Conscious Farmer, to direct market grassfed beef to the end consumer, value adding the product to remove market fluctuations and create more profit from each animal sold.
The marketing for the product has been directed at consumers who are seeking a sustainably and ethically produced product with a strong focus on the health benefits of the grassfed product too. They market the animals in packs with the full selection of cuts.
The Conscious Farmer brand is also applied within the business to a subscription/paid blog (web-log) about regenerative agricultural practices and their practical application for both broadacre and small scale farming and grazing.
The couple have 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 year plans for the farm business. They then draw from the 1 year plan to build tasks into a 90 day plan. The beginning of each week starts with drawing weekly tasks from a 90 day plan – this creates the focus for the week.
Derek and Kirrily have established multiple biological monitoring sites to objectively measure any change in diversity and density of pasture and level of ground cover. They can review these results along with their grazing charts, which helps determine why the results have occurred.
They also record daily weight gains of animals and review performance and have undergone NSW DPI training for monitoring internal parasites in livestock and monitor internal parasite burdens.
Everyone working with animals on the farm has also attended Low Stress Stock Handling training for safer animal handling both in open paddocks and when handling animals confined in yards
The Blomfields make a valuable contribution to their local and regional community by volunteering in multiple organisations, serving in several executive roles and hosting field days.
Derek is a Board member of Liverpool Plains Land Management Inc (LPLM Inc), a community based organisation with a direct focus on sustainable agricultural land management within the Liverpool Plains; a Branch member of NSW Farmer's Association; and NSW RFS brigade captain (Caroona).
Kirrily is a former President and current member of SOS Liverpool Plains, a women's group concerned with raising awareness of the impacts of coal and coal seam gas on agricultural land and water resources.
Derek and Kirrily Blomfield were named the winners of the 2014 Farmers of the Year competition by NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson and NSW Farmers President Fiona Simson.
