Twins Tom and Riley Curnow play to their strengths in running the family enterprise at Esperance. The pair took over running the farm in 2015 after devastating bushfires in the area. Photos: Evan Collis

When Riley and Tom Curnow took over running the family farm not long after losing their father, Kym, in the devastating 2015 Esperance bushfires, the twin brothers inherited more than just land.

The teenagers – who had just finished high school – stepped into a legacy shaped by resilience, innovation and the challenge of farming in a variable climate.

Under the watchful eye of their mother, Rosanne, and with guidance from Kym’s brother, Daren, Tom took on running the farm, while Riley spent three years studying for a Bachelor of Agribusiness at Curtin University in Perth.

“I came back to annoy him,” Riley says with a laugh.

Riley and Tom crop 3600 hectares across three properties – the original farm at Scaddan, along with 650ha leased at Neridup since 2020, and a 930ha former cattle farm at Merivale since 2022.

The Merivale property is just inland from Cape Le Grand and also has 500ha of pasture for grazing 400 Angus breeders.

After finding their feet, the pair adopted a clear division of labour, echoing what worked for the previous generation.

As the practical one, Tom can often be found in the workshop carrying out machinery repairs and maintenance, and managing the seeding and spreading programs.

Riley, on the other hand, looks after the spraying and business sides of the operation, while overseeing the cattle at Merivale.

They are supported by two full-time staff and a local retired farmer checks on water, feed and fences at Merivale, saving them a round trip of two hours or more.

This allows the pair to focus on their strengths, before joining forces at harvest time.

In 2015, the Esperance region experienced devastating bushfires. This photo shows the aftermath.

Managing risk

The cropping program is based on wheat, barley and canola, with field peas having been phased out in favour of more profitable canola.

Crop rotations and varieties are tailored to each location, and ongoing trials of newer varieties such as Calibre and Brumby wheat aim to ensure they are growing the most suitable varieties.

With its medium rainfall and heavy soils, the Curnows operate Scaddan as a no-till controlled-traffic farming system on a sequence of wheat/barley/canola. Preferred varieties at the moment are Scepter wheat, MaximusCL barley and HyTTec® Trident and HyTTec® Trophy canola.

Closer to the coast, where the ground is dominated by sandy duplex soils, the focus is on wheat and canola.

This year’s varieties include Brumby wheat – replacing Denison – and InVigor® LR 4540P canola.

The canola variety was chosen because of its resistance to shattering if they are unable to harvest before bad weather.

All farm equipment operates on 12-metre, 18m and 36m widths, with grain crops planted on 300-millimetre row spacings. Wheat is sown across the run at a 15-degree angle every second year on non-wetting sands.

“That allows us to intercept the row where there’s usually moisture, and get a good germination,” Riley explains.

“Then, in the subsequent year, the canola is sown with the tramlines and that intersects wheat stubble and intercepts moisture, which really helps.”

Cereal crops across the three properties during the past five years have averaged four tonnes/ha and the canola has yielded an average of about 1.8t/ha.

Rainfall records show less than 200mm was recorded at Scaddan in 2023 and 276mm in 2024, while falls totalled 487mm and 411mm at Neridup, and 676mm and 574mm at Merivale.

Riley says having a spread of properties in different rainfall zones has been good for risk management.

“Last year it was dry at Scaddan, but a dry year down the coast was actually really good and we had really good yields,” he says.

“The past five years have mostly been very kind years.”

But high rainfall, especially at Merivale during the La Niña years of 2021 and 2022 – when the annual tallies reached 814mm and 908mm – offers both opportunities and challenges.

“It’s controlled-traffic on 12m tramlines, but we’re deep ripping every three years down there, even every two years if it’s wet,” Riley says.

“In 2023 the June rainfall records were broken when we had more than 280mm of rain for the month. That’s something we haven’t been used to at Scaddan.”

Drainage strategy

To combat waterlogging, the brothers embarked on a multi-pronged strategy beginning with deep ripping, which is a common tactic used by growers in the area.

As members of an informal Esperance drainage group, the Curnows share knowledge with other growers and draw on advice from their agronomist, Agronomy Focus director and GRDC Western Panel member Quenten Knight, and drainage pioneer Rohan Marold, a mixed farmer from Dalyup.

Riley says deep ripping to 600mm has already had “a massive impact”, with a trial at Merivale last year yielding an extra 1t/ha of canola.

They have also put in surface and excavated drains, which have been successful at moving surface water from heavy rainfall events off paddocks at Neridup.

But those drains have not been enough to cope with saturated soils at Merivale, so they have turned to tile drains to move excess water from the profile during the winter months. Tile drains are plastic tubing with perforations that pull in water not bound to the soil. This alleviates saturation and allows oxygen in the water to be incorporated into the soil as it passes through.

Riley is the first to concede the solutions are not cheap. At a cost of about $1100/ha installed, they have spent about $100,000 on tile drains during the past few years, along with another $200,000 on surface drains and about $100/ha for deep ripping.

But he has done the sums and is confident of the return on investment.

A recent GRDC-supported National Grower Network project estimated installing subsurface drainage would pay for itself in nine to 12 years, based on installation costs of $2990/ha to $5190/ha, but Riley says he does not expect it to take that long at Merivale.

“Honestly, one wet year, and we would get it back on the tile drains,” he says.

“Last year, the canola was yielding around 3t/ha in a dry year. The previous year, our canola averaged 1t/ha – it just got smashed with waterlogging. If you do the maths there, that’s 2t/ha at $700/t of canola yield that we were missing out on.”

Another measure they have tested to alleviate waterlogging at Merivale is a spring barley crop, planting 200ha of Maximus CL barley into a full profile of moisture on 4 August.

“I think we got about 156mm for its growing season, and it yielded 4t/ha,” Riley says.

“You’ve got a full profile when you start and get an awesome knockdown on all the weeds, so it grows really quick, with the increase in day length and temperatures.

“It’s a handy way to avoid the worst of the winter waterlogging and cold temperatures.”

Looking ahead

A history of using a chaff cart at harvest and burning the heaps has helped manage weeds at Scaddan, while the Curnows have been able to clean up ryegrass at Neridup and Merivale by choosing canola varieties such as InVigor® LR 4540P and InVigor® R 4520P.

Riley says their only real issue at the moment is conical snails – which are too small to crush with a roller – at Merivale.

Despite applying snail baits after seeding to protect the crop, the canola has to be cleaned after harvest.

“We’re at a crossroads with those; we just can’t seem to get on top of the numbers,” he says.

Future plans include expanding subsurface tile drains into 350ha of pasture paddocks at Merivale during winter with a newly purchased tractor and carry grader.

All going well, the work will be followed by a late barley crop to provide cover and set up the fields for cropping in the next year.

“The goal is to get 100 per cent of Merivale into cropping,” Riley says.

“We’ve got some really heavy country and we’re not sure how the tile drains will perform there, so there will still be some cows. But their numbers are going down. Financially, they don’t compete with a good canola and wheat crop at the moment.”

This article appeared in GroundCover