David Hardie, Farm Manager
My daily to-do list looks like most farm managers’: liaising with contractors, planning and completing day-to-day farming operations, livestock checks and mob moves, and planning and implementing capex projects. But just as important as those jobs is something less tangible: our culture.
The first item on my list is always to check in on my staff and their wellbeing. It is my belief that staff who feel valued create a positive workplace culture, and when the culture is strong, we’re better at everything else.
WHY CULTURE MATTERS FOR AG
I’ve worked in businesses with high staff turnover. It’s draining. You lose local knowledge, spend too much time training new people, and watch both productivity and job satisfaction dip. It’s stressful – not just for the manager, but for the whole team.
In contrast, when the culture is good, people stick around. They build experience. They get to know the land, the livestock, the systems. And in a sector that’s constantly being asked to lift productivity, efficiency, and resilience, that kind of knowledge is gold. It creates sustainability in the truest sense – environmentally, operationally, and socially.
THE FOUNDATION OF ON-FARM SUCCESS
One of our team members joined us from the Central Coast of NSW, bringing with her fresh thinking and an enthusiasm for modern agriculture. Another is a local without a background in farming, but he loves this place and what we’re trying to build.
Together, supported by contractors helping with the cropping and development work, we manage 3,600 hectares for soil health, productivity, and natural capital outcomes. We use local trades and suppliers wherever we can, keeping investment flowing through the regional communities we call home.
After two years on the farm, we’ve learned that a continuous annual cropping cycle asks a bit too much of this country. So we’ve transitioned to multi-species fodder crops that not only increase livestock productivity, but rebuild soil health and environmental diversity, too. We’re also about to kick off a 200-hectare environmental planting project, alongside our carbon baselining initiative.
It’s diverse, dynamic work – and it isn’t easy. That’s why culture does some of the heaviest lifting.
THE MOST VALUABLE INPUT WE HAVE
Culture is a tricky thing. You can’t fake it. It takes time to build, and you can lose it in the blink of an eye. But in a successful farm business, it’s one of the most valuable inputs we’ve got.
You won’t find it on our balance sheet, but you’ll see it in the small things: how the team backs each other, how people take ownership, how problems get solved faster, and more creatively.
That’s why we treat culture like any other critical input: worth investing in, worth maintaining, and absolutely essential to the way we farm.
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The team behind the farm’s success: working together to build a strong culture that supports productivity, innovation, and modern land management.
