Leading Australian Angus seedstock producer Tom Gubbins was named Australia’s Livestock Producer of the Year at the 2011 Australian Farmer of the Year Awards in Sydney last night.

The awards are hosted by the Kondinin Group and ABC Rural, and saw the top gong for Australian Farmer of the Year for 2011 awarded to fourth-generation Horsham, Victoria, crop producer Robert Ruwoldt.

According to the Livestock Producer of the Year award citation, Te Mania Angus, owned and run by the Gubbins family, holds, or has held, every Angus on-property and show sale record — highlighted by its $91,000 bull Te Mania Emperor sold during March this year.

“Its dominance of the Angus Group Breedplan EBVs is unparalleled, with twice as many trait leaders as the next nearest stud," the citation said.

“The Gubbins family has also made a major commitment to renovating and extending wetlands and the ecosystem on its western Victorian property where the breeding herd is run.

“A pioneer of objective measurement and the use of both AI and ET in accelerating the genetic profile of the breed, Te Mania Angus also imported one of the great foundation sires in the early days of the Angus breed’s explosion to its current position as the country’s leading British Breed animal.

“Director Tom Gubbins has continued the work that started with his grandfather in New Zealand, establishing a gene pool with more than 80 years of breeding excellence.

“Te Mania Angus is also recognised as a breed innovator, with its recent switch to big-screen on-property bull sales its latest step forward.

The 2011 Livestock Producer of the Year was sponsored by Elders.

Australian Farmer of the Year winner Robert Ruwoldt runs a diverse production system that grows wheat, barley, lentils, canola, beans and chickpeas in a continuous cropping rotation with an average 400mm rainfall.

The Ruwoldts were early adopters of direct seeding practices in 1983. Mr Ruwoldt commented that achieving change was the hardest thing for farmers to do, and said “change will not happen until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change”.

Other winners were:

2011 Grain Grower of the Year Award – Andrew Fowler of Esperance, WA
2011 Wool Producer of the Year: Jack Banks, Blackall, Qld
2011 Sugarcane Grower of the Year – Individual Grower, Mario Raccanello, Tully River, Qld
2011 Sugarcane Grower of the Year – Grower Group Award. Silkwood Drainage Board Group, Qld
2011 Biosecurity Farmer of the Year – Animal winner: Pepe Bonaccordo, Pepe’s Ducks
2011 Biosecurity Farmer of the Year winners in the plant category – Sandra and Peter Young, Birdwood Nursery Fruit Trees, Qld
2011 Diversification Farmer of the Year – Jan and Colin Taylor
2011 Young Farmer of the Year: Fresh herb producer Jan Yvdra, Vic
2011 Farm Industry Leader of the Year – John Keleher, Australian Lawn Concepts turf farm
 

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