DROUGHT has turned up a thorny idea for Cameron Tubby.

The West Australian grain and sheep producer has returned from a world tour keen to farm cacti as a drought breaker.

While he admits the idea could be controversial in Australia, where many cacti are declared noxious weeds, he believes there is scope to farm thornless cacti as an important fodder source.

Cameron spent three months on a Nuffield scholarship visiting cacti plantations in the US, South Africa, Syria and Israel.

His aim is to improve the resilience of his family's farm business at Morawa, 400km north of Perth.

"Some plantations were irrigated and the fruit harvested," Cameron said.

"Others were grown for fodder and the plantations grazed, or the large flattened stems, called cladodes, harvested and fed out either whole or shredded."

Farming cacti is just one idea he has to improve the 7600ha family property which grows up to 4000ha of cereals and legumes and runs a flock of 5000 Damara meat sheep.

Cameron said he had almost given up on farming in 2008, after seven years of drought. Rainfall for the winter growing season had fallen to an average of just 144mm, compared with a 253mm average during the 1990s.

"The drought was one of the reasons I applied for the Nuffield Scholarship, to see what else was out there, what we could be doing instead of waiting around for exceptional circumstances support," he said.

Cameron said many of the researchers he visited, including those at Syria's International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, were amazed Australian farmers were able to produce any kind of crop with such low rainfall.

"For me it really was a testament to the skill of Australian farmers," he said. "I also realised that there is no silver bullet to drought-proof our faming systems, beyond the kinds of things we are already doing."

However, Cameron said there were a number of small changes which could make a difference.

Among them are plans to switch most of the Tubby's flock of 5000 Damara ewes to the Van Rooy sheep breed from South Africa.

After visiting a number of farms overseas, Cameron also plans to cross Damara and Dorper sheep to produce a Meatmaster type of sheep.

The Meatmaster is selected on performance criteria to meet environmental conditions and meat market specifications, rather than any specific bloodline.

Cameron is also planning to try a few micro moisture harvesting techniques he found being used overseas to help hold more water in the shallow, rocky soils around Morawa.

Using existing equipment, he will build contours and moisture traps and plant them with native grasses, perennial pasture species and other plants.

"Saltbush, for example, is widely planted in saline areas here, but I think they could be used in other areas to help trap moisture and encourage grasses to re-establish," he said.

Cameron said the time he spent investigating aquaculture in Israel and the US had given him the confidence to produce brine shrimp using saline groundwater.

The groundwater was being pumped into local salt lakes via deep drains and the flow didn't stop during the drought suggesting it was a drought-proof resource, its quality varying from half that of seawater to slightly more saline than seawater.

A Morawa Farm Improvement Group pilot project set up on the Tubby property indicates that brine shrimp could be produced on a 12 to 14 day cycle, as fish food for the aquarium and hatchery industries.