The 23 Australian farmers to watch in 2023

They are the up-and-comers and the well-established, the big players and those who dream to be, the entrepreneurs and the tried and tested.

They represent a wide spectrum of Australian agriculture, with each offering their unique way of doing things. They have exceeded in their field over the past 12 months, and promise to make even bigger inroads in the year ahead.

They deserve to be acknowledged and celebrated, held up as doing good things in agriculture that will benefit the entire sector.

And just a note, the listing is in alphabetical order.

Woods Point, South Australia

It would be no surprise to discover milk flows through the veins of young day professional Courtney Afford.

Born and raised on a multi-generational farm at Woods Point, near Murray Bridge, Courtney was this year crowned the 2021 National Dairy Parader Championship (yep, another 2021 event held in 2022 due to Covid-19).

Courtney works for National Herd Development and has been showing dairy cows her whole life.

"It has increased my knowledge of dairy cattle and opened opportunities to see what others in the same industry were doing," she said.

"When you lead cows for other people, it is self promotion because people take notice of it.

"Once you get your name out there, it's kind of organic growing from there."

Buchan, Victoria

Lance and Lyric have had a baptism of fire with their new role managing beef-breeding operation Buchan Station in far east Victoria.

More than 90 per cent of the property was burnt in the devastating 2020 Black Summer fires that scorched much of Australia's east coast.

But any charred remains have been replaced with optimism and a determination to grow.

The couple arrived at the station this year and immediately got to work. Their arrival coincided with station owners Bryan and Vicki Hayden spending $130,000 on three high-profile bulls from the Milwillah Angus stud, west of Young, NSW.

It sets up the operation for a bright future and one worth watching in the next 12 months.

Mount Garnet, Queensland

It takes a leap of faith to jump into a new farming enterprise.

But that is what Curtis Archer did on his family's Glen Ruth Station in northern Queensland when he planted a cotton crop for the first time.

It was a steep learning curve for the beef producer, with wet weather delaying harvest of the first crop and causing a loss on the dryland plantings.

Undeterred, Curtis is saddling up for a bigger effort next year, with 100 hectares of dryland and 70 hectares of irrigated cotton planned.

"Coming from a beef cattle operation, it's been a bit of a learning curve for us to get into high value agriculture," he said.

"We have been taking small steps and we can definitely see a future."

Stockyard Hill, Victoria

Katherine Bain has a simple message for her fellow young farmers - get off the farm.

Get off the farm to travel and educate, to be more specific, and come back as a better farmer.

The sixth-generation farmer spent time on Japanese farmers as an exchange in high school and is now a student at Marcus Oldham College, Geelong.

She has since worked on cattle farms in Canada, worked for Paraway Pastoral in Orange, NSW and participated in numerous scholarship programs, including the Australian Wool Innovation's Breeding Leadership course.

"I think it's a real generational change at the moment - my own dad did a year of uni and then went travelling," Katherine said.

"I've been told his generation was the one that started that idea of education being really important for farmers and not just coming home after high school and doing what's always been done."

Katherine is clearly an agriculture leader in the making and one to watch in 2023, and for many more years to come.

Maclagan, Queensland

OK, so it was the mountain of manure that caught our eye - all 800 tonnes of it.

But with fertiliser prices skyrocketing, there are some very smart operators behind this pile of poo.

Brenden and Kait Ballon, who run 150 Fresian and Jersey cows and 100 Speckle Park X Angus steers and heifers on the Darling Downs, originally built the manure heap to improve soil health.

"The main reason was to try to get a bit of carbon in the soil and a bit more fertility, but it will definitely save on our fertiliser costs for sure," Brenden said.

They are creative thinkers, willing to do the unusual, which definitely make them worth watching in 2023.

Moonie, Queensland

He is a brave man who buys tens of thousands of cattle and runs them across more than 50 agistment properties.

Yet that is what Mitchell Cameron has done over the past few years.

At one stage he was juggling 38,000 cattle across 57 properties.

He said the agistment plan isn't motivated by drought but by the sheer fact the numbers stack up.

Mitchell said the risk isn't for everyone, knowing that once he was in deep, he had to keep going.

And so he will in 2023, making him one farmer to watch.

Capel, Western Australia

Amanda Cavenagh, Charolais Society of Australia's youth scholarship winner, loves cattle and loves showing them.

The stud-cattle breeder travelled to the United States this year to see how the American beef business operates.

And she thinks there are some aspects we could do well to import.

"In America they hold breed-specific, junior national shows and events as well as their general national and State shows," Amanda said.

"I think that would be a great thing for us to do here as well, as it's quite challenging to get young people interested in breeding stud cattle and to be on the committees of the various groups involved."

She hopes to one day be an ag school teacher or teaching agriculture, but also keep her eye in by growing her stud within her family's Elgin Park business.

Bringo, Western Australia

In his 25 years, Josh Clune has crammed a lot in.

A double-major university student, researcher, agronomist in Tasmania and Western Australia (and nearly in Scotland if Covid-19 hadn't intervened) and now full-time farmer.

And he is now bringing all these strands together to apply on his family's cropping and livestock farm near Geraldton.

"It's been in the family since the 1940s and there's value to me in keeping that going - there's never been pressure from anyone that I have to, but I truly want to and I suppose this is life now," Josh said.

Eventually, he would love to be a part-time farmer and have another business, in agriculture of course.

And while he is not sure what that other business would be, he is worth keeping an eye on to see what he does next.

Tipperary Station, Northern Territory

You might argue the big operators get plenty of attention. But when they are making major changes to the way they do things while under that spotlight, it is worth keeping a close eye on them.

The Tipperary Group of Stations, which encompass 4000 square kilometres or about a million acres and owned by renowned Melbourne legal figure Allan Myers, faced a reckoning early this century - diversify or wither on the vine and die.

So in 2015, Mr Myers hired former stock agent David Connolly to make changes.

And diversify David did.

In the past seven years he has driven a transformation, introducing cotton and citrus trees, running cattle that weren't high-grade Brahman, selling animals into southern markets, getting rid of gamba grass, creating an Internet Of Things to connect everything on Tipperary virtually and building a cotton gin.

At that sort of pace, David Connolly and Tipperary Station are worth watching in 2023.

Scaddan, Western Australia

A passion for precision agriculture and a dedication to gathering and crunching data has paid off for his family's cropping enterprise in improved efficiency, productivity and profitability.

And it also netted him wins in the Australian Farmer of the Year Awards, including 2022 Young Farmer of the Year.

"Since I started farming I have been passionate about making more data-driven decisions on farm, rather than relying on gut feel and I'm very grateful for my parents letting me have a crack and pursue that passion," Brad said.

Mount Cotton, Queensland

Only 35 kilometres from Brisbane's central business district lies Lachlan and Louise Howland's Golden Pastoral Company, a grass-fed operation running Square Meater cattle.

But rather than merely being a farming oasis in an urban sprawl, this is a serious beef operation, supplying steers for butchers across south east Queensland.

"We are creating old-fashioned butchers cattle for our local markets," he said.

Kopyje Station, NSW

In a climate of record property prices, new entrants to farming ought to be celebrated. Particularly when they shell out $5.2 million for an outback station.

Solicitor Stephanie Hughes bought the 8788-hectare Kopyje Station in north west NSW mid-year, following a dream that landed her in the "big debt club".

"I'm part of a 'big debt club' now. It's one thing to talk the talk, it's another thing to walk the walk," she said.

All eyes will now be on whether Stephanie can make a go of it and join the diminishing debt club.

Nhill, Victoria

Brad Keller is used to getting knocked down. But each time he has gotten up and fought back to make himself stronger.

The 27-year-old shearer and cropping contractor wants to buy his first farm. But he has been knocked back at least eight times.

But instead of sulking he has made a series of investments off-farm and in his contracting business that should help him land that big fish one day.

Brad is also an ardent lamb trader, which helps him build the equity he needs.

He is a go-getter with the passion for farming that Australian agriculture loves.

Lubeck, Victoria

Graeme and Sarah Maher are ready to slug it out - with slugs no less.

The Wimmera couple's canola, pasture and barley crops were attacked by slugs this year, a relatively - until now - rare problem in the region.

So they are fighting back, trialling a liquid fungi on their canola crop in the hope it will stop the pest's devastating destruction next season.

It's a trial worth watching to see if they score a knockout.

Bucca, Queensland

Sandy and Jamie McCartney have a simple mission - to prove it is possible for Queensland Brahman cattle to consistently grade Meat Standards Australia and tap into the premiums of higher-end markets.

And it is mission achieved, with their Bucca Brahamans enterprise making the MSA grade for the past 10 years.

"We have ticks, flies, worms and the Brahmans can handle them all," Sandy said.

"It's a fallacy that you can't consistently grade MSA with Brahmans and that could be adding up to a lot of missed opportunities for beef producers.

"It can be done - and quite easily really."

Aberfoyle, NSW

Leadership, vision and humility. Those were the words used to describe Wagyu producer Charlie Perry when he was awarded the 2022 Australian Zanda McDonald Award.

Charlie manages his family's Trent Bridge Wagyu beef stud at Aberfoyle, in NSW's Northern Tablelands, and has overseen substantial growth in his family's business, despite some of the worst years of drought on record, with a focus on productivity gains, genetic indicators and sustainability.

And as president and chair of the Australian Wagyu Association, he is overseeing one of the most high-profile breeds in the land.

Not one to stand still, his Zanda McDonald win will see him embark on a voyage of professional development that should benefit the entire beef sector.

Manjimup, Western Australia

Jake represents the new wave of thinkers in Australian agriculture.

The West Australian vegetable, sheep and poultry farmer has embraced regenerative agriculture and is seeing the cost savings and production improvements flow through.

"In terms of our bottom line, it's definitely improved the profitability of the farm," Jake said.

"Definitely, the end plan is to eventually take over the farm from mum and dad when they get older, but my goal at the moment is to try and talk as many farmers into adopting regenerative farming as possible."

Freeling, South Australia

Corbin Shuster is not one to let a chance go by.

He farms one of South Australia's lesser known crops, medic, and helps run The Barns of Freeling function venue on the family's farm north of Adelaide.

It was through this function business that he embarked on an unusual cropping venture this year - sunflowers.

He planted 0.6 hectares of the flowers last November to make the most of late spring rains and provide a nice backdrop for the farm function centre.

But once the flowers matured Corbin couldn't let the beautiful 0.6-hectare crop go to waste.

"The crop was so small, it wasn't worth getting a harvester in, so we thought why not make some money for a charity that was dear to our hearts - Heart Kids SA," he said.

So the Schusters opened their farm gates in early February, encouraging people to pick a sunflower in return for a gold coin donation. On the first day at least 1000 people visited the site.

"It got pretty crazy," he said.

"What was interesting was that a lot of people would say that this was the first time they'd ever been invited onto a farmers' property to have a look at a crop or even pick one."

Augathella, Queensland

At the age of 19, Alice Sewell has been running her Gundare Lane Boer goat stud for the past eight years.

The second-year veterinary science student has had to juggle her studies and her farmwork, so has concentrated on operating a stud rather than a commercial enterprise.

And she appears to have made the right choice. Bucks she offered at a sale in Charleville last year made between $1200 and $1600, which she says is a lot more than she'd make in the paddock.

A seasoned veteran still in her teens, Alice looks set to make a big impression in one of ag's growth sectors.

Boggabri, NSW

Cropper Andrew Watson has more than an eye on his cotton and canola crops. His focus is firmly on microbats that inhabit remnant trees on his farm and an army of parasitic wasps he enlists to combat harmful sucking pests that attack his crops.

Together, the microbats and insects have enabled him to cut his insecticide use - and costs.

It's a win-win for the environment and the crops and, of course, the Nuffield Scholar's back pocket.

"It's the first time we've released in canola, and it has been excellent control of the aphid pests," Andrew said.

"There are so many parasitised aphid eggs in the canola crops that it will be a great control."

In our topsy-turvy weather system, it will be well worth watching how his strategy unfolds in the next 12 months.

Tichborne, NSW

If there is one thing farmers want, it's control. But while they can't control the weather or world markets, many farmers are at least taking control by implementing on-farm storage of their crops to be able to sell when markets are on the rise.

That is the case with croppers Bruce Watson and Mark Swift, who are in the process of building major storage infrastructure for their cropping enterprise.

"Rightly or wrongly, we have decided to go down the on-farm storage path," Bruce said.

Silo storage capacity will be 11,000 tonnes, along with a grain dryer, grain cleaner, weighbridge and a sample stand.

"It'll almost be a commercial facility," he said.

Uralla, NSW

Hamish and Jess Webb have begun to explore the possibilities of soil carbon capture and marketing on their cattle grazing property.

"Soil carbon sequestration allows you to continue to use your land as you need to, all the while still potentially making some extra money while also doing some good for the environment," says Hamish.

They are working with carbon services company Precision Pastures to better understand what their soil is capable of, what sort of projects they can get involved in and what they can do to improve their soil.

"I heard someone recently say, Australia was built on the sheep's back and it could be about to ride on the soil's back, such is the potential," Hamish said.

"People are certainly catching on to that now and it is an exciting time in that space."

Beachport, South Australia

Mark and Kate Wheal really have a "can" do mentality - their barley crop is now destined for their own beer cans.

The couple already run the successful pork brand, Beachport Berkshires. And this year they started the Beachport Brewing Company, complete with a craft brewery on the foreshore of Beachport

All of the beers on tap in their brewery start from their home grown barley.

Kate said using their own barley has created a "real point of difference" to the many other craft breweries.

"It highlights a lot about what we are about, which is putting brand Beachport on the map and really pushing Limestone Coast," she said.

If you know of a farmer you think is also worth keeping an eye on next year, email us here and let us know. We would love to hear from you.