Sam Conway wins Rabobank Dr John Morris Business Development Prize for innovative co-farming near Gunnedah

Boolah Farms CEO Sam Conway has been awarded Rabobank's prestigious Dr John Morris Business Development Prize for his approach to co-farming near Gunnedah.

Mr Conway said the idea came to him in response to drought times when he noticed undulating levels of production across the landscape.

He said during that time he realised farms could help eachother out.

"During those years of drought, we noticed there were some properties that did receive rain and had quite good production seasons where others did not have any production, purely due to where the storms fell," Mr Conway said.

"The goal of co-farming is to flatline the peaks and troughs of production in a cropping-focused business."

Mr Conway said the co-farming model can reduce production risk for small-to-mid-sized broadacre farmers "by giving smaller landholders access to scale and geographic spread".

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That practice involves a collaborative approach to farming where farmers enter into a joint venture with operating expenses and profits shared around.

The portion of profit and expenses that each farm takes on is determined by taking the market value of their contributed land and dividing it by the total market value of all the land in the joint venture.

This co-farming concept began in 2020 with Mr Conway and his wife Molly working in collaboration with Stuart and Lyndall Tighe.

Mr Conway's idea has grown to include nine landholders and has operational 'cells' in two local areas, Gunnedah and Moree.

However, his plan for the future is far more expansive.

Belatta will come to the table at the start of 2023 as part of a five-year plan to grow more cells in different areas, Mr Conway said.

"To be able to achieve our goals to flatline the peaks and troughs of production in a cropping focused business, we are aiming to establish land bases and operational cells into two new geographic regions," he said.

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