Judy and Bob Howard
SoilCare members, Bob and Judy Howard purchased their Macadamia property in 2002. With little farming experience but plenty of enthusiasm the farm was initially run conventionally, however many of the conventional practices did not make sense to them. Such practices included herbicide spraying under the trees to enable harvesting off bare ground and the use of chemical fertilisers for a rainforest tree. Their knowledge base expanded rapidly by attending the TAFE course “Macadamia Farming” run by Alan Coates.
Bob and Judy now offer a farm mapping service, GES, which farmers from many industries are now using to help improve drainage management (manage water flow) and ultimately improve orchard productivity and profitability. Bob will explain how he uses LIDAR maps for farm management decisions.
There is a lot more to the story at Highgate but you can hear it from Bob and Judy.
Visit GES website.