Stephen and Sally Smith of “Burramunda” on the Grenfell Road were presented with the prestigious Excellence in Farming trophy at the 2014 Suncorp Bank/Agricultural Societies Council Dryland Field Wheat competition awards dinner in Forbes on December 12.

Competition judge and agronomist, Paul Parker, also of Young, said the award is a whole farm award.

“It’s for those farmers who are seen to have an orderly operation and in this case both myself and the judging panel were very impressed with how the Smiths operated their enterprise,” he said.

“They keep their farm neat and tidy and they have an outstanding weed control methodology that incorporates a rotational system of cropping which includes wheat, canola, lupins and oats.”

Mr Parker said it was a well run family operation.

Not without their challenges, Mr Parker said the Smiths had purchased an additional block of land which had a particularly troublesome weed problem.

“But where other potential purchasers were put off by the weeds, the Smiths bought the block and restored it,” he said, “it was quite a feat.”

Stephen Smith said he arrived at the dinner expecting simply to pick up their award for their second placing in the Southern Region awards.

“I couldn’t believe it - afterwards Sally and I kept asking each other, “what just happened?”,” he said.

Having farmed all his life, Stephen credits a combination of factors to their recent success.

“I do things on time and get them done and I just roll with anything that prevents that, like the weather, that can’t be controlled so I just work with it.

And there is a fair bit of experience on his side. Not only the knowledge he gleaned from his father.

“I also spent 16 years working as a contract harvester - so I got to see a lot of farming operations and it gave me the opportunity to see a lot of operations.

“I learned a lot from that - a lot of what to do and not what to do,” he said.

The Smiths were among 40 of the state’s top wheat growers, selected from some 400 crop entries, who made the finals for this year, 

They were among 60 guests who gathered at the annual dinner, this year held at the Forbes Services Club.

Overall state winners of the bread wheat section of the competition were also local.

Steve and Louanda Hardie of “Stirling” Wallendbeen had been winners of the Southern Region finals before taking out the top gong.

Their winning Suntop variety of wheat was grown on their 2640 hectare property west of Wallendbeen, and was estimated to yield six tonnes per hectare.