A COLERAINE wool enterprise is taking the initiative on marketing and land management, writes KATE DOWLER

Andrew Dufty is not a wool grower who sits back and waits for opportunities to knock.

He knows that such knocks rarely arrive unsolicited.

Instead, Andrew works to find that bit extra that could put him ahead.

Helping him sort the wheat from the chaff is an agribusiness history that includes managerial positions with Elders Wool and former forestry company Great Southern.

He is also part-owner of Charles Stewart Real Estate in southwest Victoria.

Ten years ago, Andrew, his wife, Kim, and parents, Stuart and Margaret, moved from Branxholme, south of Hamilton, to the property Melville Forest, in the district of the same name northeast of Coleraine.

The family had been farming at Branxholme since the 1950s, and before that, in the Wimmera for 80 years.

They bought the 1450ha Melville Forest to expand their sheep flock and hopefully double their wool production to 300 bales a year.

"Opportunities to expand in Branxholme were difficult given the blue-gum industry, so we sold to Timbercorp to fund an expansion to a larger property," Andrew said. "We felt we had to get scale in our operation.

"We saw the goal of being in the top 1 per cent (on wool volume) as increasing our marketing options."

For the past three seasons, the Duftys have sold up to half their wool clip through The Merino Company's pools. This year, they will sell 30 per cent of their clip through the pools.

"I was impressed by their philosophy and approach to marketing wool," Andrew said.

"The direct approach takes away reliance on the spot market of the auction system and you're able to participate in a value-chain that potentially sees your wool more closely identified further down the chain."

He said TMC's EU-eco certified and carbon-neutral wool tags were the way forward.

"They (the tags) won't make much difference to bulk purchasers supplying raw material to Chinese mills, but they will for high-value markets in Europe and America," Andrew said.

The Dufty family also takes part in the Australian Land Management Certification System, which gives them a tool for improving the farm's environmental credentials and production.

"TMC provides a small premium (3 per cent) as a carrot to encourage you to do it, but most people doing it want to work under those environmental management systems whether the premium was there or not," Andrew said.

He said he had tried to write his own environmental management plan, but found it too laborious. ALMS provided a computerised, internet approach and included legal requirements, he said.

"This system gives us a lot of flexibility and has some real teeth," Andrew said.

Participants ranked their own farms according to risks and the program helped identify the most pressing issues.

Andrew said the ALMS was subject to audit, so producers would eventually be accountable for what they had proposed.

So far, Andrew has addressed concerns around the farm. One was to install new water tanks and pipes from main dams to reduce spillage when spray tanks were filled from waterways.

"This hasn't been a huge cost, but has set us up practically forever and removed a risk," he said.

The Duftys have also sold carbon credits to Landcare Carbonsmart, but were handed it back after Landcare decided it was not its core-business.

Andrew said carbon could be a big opportunity for farmers, but there remained great debate over the way it was measured and the market was in limbo, awaiting government leadership.

He said the key question remained: whether a farm like his could sequester enough carbon to offset its emissions.

"If the sequestration levels were at the level Carbonsmart indicated we couldn't plant enough trees to do it; but if they were at levels that I've received independent expert advice on, then we could run our existing program and not have to purchase any," he said.

"The assessments vary from almost four tonnes/ha a year of carbon sequestered to 13 tonne/ha a year but nobody really knows because at this stage it is too airy-fairy.

"We have areas we've set aside for carbon sequestration, but at the moment we're just waiting to see what happens."

The Duftys run about 10,000 sheep, at a stocking rate of 14-16 dry sheep equivalent per hectare, down from the 14,000 they ran before the 2006 drought.

"The last few years we've been forced to reduce numbers, due to unreliability of the water here, but this year all our dams are filling and our main supply dam is at a level we haven't seen since 2005, so hopefully we'll start rebuilding numbers," Andrew said

He said the drought had also affected the family's 300-bale goal, which they had achieved in only one year.

"We've done a lot of work to get fewer, bigger dams, and piping to deal with drier times," he said. "So far this year we've had 85mm from the beginning of August, so that is great in the lead-up to spring,"

A 400ha portion of the farm is leased for cropping and a further 100ha of low-fertility country is leased to Australian Bluegum Plantations.

Andrew said that while Melville Forest lacked the water security of Branxholme, the move gave the family scale and the opportunity to provide some succession planning.

The core ewe flock is Merino based, but there are also 1500 first-cross ewes and a further 600 Merinos joined to crossbreds.

"We may increase the cross-breds very slightly, but I'd rather see some better developments on the wool marketing side," Andrew said.

He has stuck with wool, despite seeing the industry's difficulties from many angles. "We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars marketing wool over the last few decades and all we've got to show for it is a declining market share," Andrew said.

Despite wool's woes, he remained "primarily a wool grower".

"There is a bit of faith being put back into it now with the mutton price, so a Merino enterprise selling some mutton is still making pretty good money," he said.

Andrew said he expected to keep wethers on longer to grow the flock, providing the seasons were good. And ALMS will ensure he constantly improves the environmental aspects of his property while he waits on the next chapters in carbon trading and the TMC wool pools.