Tassie's irrigation lifesaver

“It’s really provided us with more opportunities when it comes to cropping,” Mr Mackinnon said.

The fourth generation farmer, who runs the 1150 hectare property at Longford, with his father Hugh, said water security also meant a more stable income.

Around seven years ago, the family decided to get serious about their irrigation potential.

Today, the Mackinnons have installed five centre pivots which cover an area of 220ha, while a further 100-150ha is run under travelling irrigators.

Water is sourced from the South Esk River, which borders the Mackinnons property.

Earlier this year, they built a 200 mega litre dam, which is already teeming at its edges.

“We put the application in five years ago and extended the permit. But I think we built at the right time,” he said. “We were fortunate.”

After previously breeding Hereford cattle, the Mackinnons saw more returns in the irrigated cropping sector.

“The poppy industry was well underway then, and we wanted to increase our diversity.”

And the family has certainly taken the diverse trail, with a total of 32ha of onions, 20ha of potatoes, 81ha of poppies, 30ha of clover seed, 48ha of Lucerne, 48ha of fodder rape and 81ha of barley in the ground.

The majority of crops are spring sown, with the last crop (potatoes) harvested in March/April.

In addition to the cropping enterprise, the family runs 2300 ewes, which comprises 1750 Merino ewes and 550 first-crosses.

“We are currently in the transition of going from Merinos to a full first-cross ewe flock,” he said.

The prime lamb enterprise was proving to be extremely profitable, he said.

Originally, the family had run a wool operation consisting of Polwarth ewes.

Hugh then made to change to Merinos in 1990, and they are now gradually changing to a prime lamb operation.

“I really don’t want to buy in ewes, it’s just too expensive. I think we may look at a Coopworth base in the long run once the Merino genetics run out though,” he said.

Around 2200 lambs are bred every year, with 550 first-cross ewes retained as breeders.

In early autumn, following the poppies and other cash crops, the Mackinnons direct drill oat and wheat crops, which are used for both fodder and green manure.

“We also take on about 350 steers from local abattoir in Longford at about the same time on a weight gain basis,” he said.

It’s just another aspect to the family’s multi-faceted operation, but according to Mr Mackinnon, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We don’t like to put all our eggs in one basket. This way if one enterprise underperforms in one part of the operation, we can lean on something else,” he said.

Both the ewes, lambs and cattle are run on the fodder crops over winter, which allows the pastures to rest for lambing in early August.

At the moment, the crops are looking exceptionally good, with only a few irrigations required this season so far.

“It’s been a bad year for mildew and slugs in the poppies, and it’s been the second year we’ve put the onions in late due to the wet weather, but we will hopefully get good quality crops because of the good spring rains,” he said.

Already this year, rainfall has exceeded the annual average 30 millimetres.

“We’ve had around 650mm, whereas normally we would be around 620mm at this time,” he said.

After the wet season, the irrigation venture has not been in vain, however, with Mr Mackinnon revealing the irrigation investment would allow the operation to remain profitable and flexible well into the future.