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Bogandillan has been in the Hamilton family for over 70 years. Helen Kennedy (Roy's mother) arrived on the property with her parents at the age of four, riding horses through flood water and picking a high point on the creek to build the house in which Roy and Leanne now live. When Roy and Leanne first came to Bogandillan the property was 4000 acres, however this has now been increased to over 7000 acres.
Converted into hectares the cropping translates into 1200 hectarce of wheat, 700 canola and 150 hectares of triticale. The Hamilton's have a 1200-head self-replacing Merino flock, the ewes are joined to Merino rams and another 600 older ewes that are crossed with a white Suffolk for fat lamb production. There are no wethers at present because there is not enough money in the wool industry.
Roy is more positive than negative about the future of farming and notes that with $750,000 tied up in machinery, it is not an industry that you can move in and out of. However with falling terms of trade and the price of wheat less in real terms, the sustainability of the property is dependent on the world price of wheat. New technology such as yield mapping has helped with fertiliser inputs on different soil types on the farm, which has led to zonale management and best practice farming.
Their two elder children are keen to come back to the farm, but Leanne would like them to do this only when they are older and in their 30s and have other experiences. Labouring on properties is now good in the area and can command a reasonable wage, which wasn't the case when Roy returned home.
With the winter months on the farm taken up with machinery maintenance, Roy developed his PHD (personal heating device) to trail behind him and keep his hands warm in the large cold machinery sheds.
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