A Bundella farmer has claimed his first Premer Shield and, in doing so, followed in his father's footsteps.
After being named the winner of the Premer Sorghum Competition with his Resolute crop, Andrew Mitchell, Tamalie Farms, was also crowned the winner of the 2024 Premer Shield.
It's an award his father, Jim, has won many times before and a special one to take home.
"I feel honoured, it's great to win such a prestigious award," Mr Mitchell said.
"Especially this year, there's a lot of good crops out there and to take it out is just great."
The competition - which is made up of the district competition winners from Mullaley/Tambar Springs, Tamarang, Quirindi/Willow Tree, Spring Ridge, Coolah, Caroona and Premer - was judged by NSW DPI's Loretta Serafin.
The research agronomist said it was no easy task picking a winner as "all the crops were a very high standard".
"Occasionally you see a crop that is a standout when judging, that's always really nice ... this year, I saw a lot of crops that were all exceptional," she said.
Third place in the shield went to the Tamarang district winner Regeve Pty Ltd and in second place was the Mullaley/Tambar Springs district winner Tivoli Pastoral Company.
Ms Serafin described both as excellent crops and she actually thought she had found the winner with the Tivoli Pastoral Company crop.
"It scored very highly and then I went to the winning crop for this year," she said.
The Premer Shield-winning crop by Tamalie Farms was sown on November 16 and had an estimated yield of 9.65 tonnes per hectare.
"It was sown into a paddock that was long fallow to wheat, had 350 kilograms of urea pre-applied in October, had 50kgs of starter Z and it was lucky to get some handy rain," Ms Serafin said.
Mr Mitchell said the rain came when he needed it.
"Just a lucky break, I suppose, getting a lot of rain at the right time," Mr Mitchell said when receiving the award.
Along with the local sorghum competition and Premer Shield wins, Mr Mitchell also won the local canola competition and the Mick Gaynor Memorial Trophy for local farmer of the year.
The Premer Plate, for champion wheat crop, was won by the Caroona district winner, Romani Pastoral Company, while the Wilf Hockings Trophy for best wheat crop from Premer, Tambar Springs and Mullaley, was awarded to James Davidson, Merrivale Partnership.
Premer Field Day organiser Simon Thompson, who is retiring after 25 years of coordinating the competition, was also presented with a parting gift by Gordon Brownhill at the presentation.
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
