The WA farmer set on perfecting a drought plan

It hasn't made him any less passionate about agriculture, however, and he still can't imagine himself doing anything else.

Terry returned to his family's 8000 hectare cropping property at Salmon Gums in Western Australia's wheatbelt, growing wheat, barley, Canola and field peas, in 2017, and now manages the operation alongside his step-mother, Alicia Antonio.

Just 12 months later seasonal conditions took a turn for the worst, and 2018 to 2020 were the first extended period of drought the family had experienced since they established the operation in 2006.

"We'd had dry years, but 2019-20 were two of the driest consecutive years on record at Salmon Gums, and looking back a lot of things could have been better set out and planned," Terry said.

Drought resilience to him now means "having a plan", which is why Terry has signed up as a mentee on the Drought Resilience Leaders Mentoring Program, a Future Drought Fund initiative.

Having spent a year working as a helicopter pilot in northern Australia before coming back to Salmon Gums, Terry gained extra appreciation for the benefits of new ideas and plenty of opinions.

"Engaging with others who have had more prior experience dealing with drought, such as the mentors in this program, is very important - it is one of those topics where putting things into practice is the only way you know they stand up to prolonged drought," he said.

"Being better prepared for drought will help us manage it better, being able to manage better through drought will make us more resilient, which will produce more resilient people and more resilient communities - when you have tough years you lose people from small regional communities and you don't often get them back."

And building resilience wasn't solely about planning for drought, Terry added, but also other climate variability, such as frost, as well as being well prepared to make the most of the good years.

"It is easy to float along and do the same thing every year, but we need to become better at making money when the opportunity presents - you are going through dry spells so you need to make the most of the times when you get sufficient rain," he said.

Proactive plans and strategies for drought are also at the top of Judd Smith's priority list.

The senior consultant at the Murray Bridge, SA, based ProAdvice, will be Terry's mentor for the duration of the six-month long program.

Having been a financial and regional manager with NAB agribusiness for nearly two decades before moving to consultancy this year, Judd's had plenty of experience with the implications of drought.

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The Drought Resilience program resonated with Judd because of its proactive outlook, rather than more common reactive drought solutions.

To him, drought resilience is "being ready" and "having strength and resilience in business to overcome some situations that might be adverse" - which is exactly what his mentee Terry is hoping to achieve.

"Programs like this help explore and discuss it (drought), when the situation potentially isn't under pressure from it at the time, which helps think about the bigger picture and plan without being reactionary," Judd said.

"Young people may not have experienced drought either at all or multiple times, plus no two droughts or adverse climate events are the same, and they will be different going forward, but we can share experiences of the past for them to see if it helps their situation in the future."

Judd is encouraging more mentors to get involved in the program, additional places will be available in early 2022, and have a positive impact on the future of agriculture.

"Just give it a go and share your knowledge and experience that you've accrued over time - you could share something that seems small to you, but is big for them," he said.

Both Terry and Judd are keen to learn as much from each other as they can, and will no doubt make a pro team when it comes to drought resilience planning.

For more information about the Drought Resilience Leaders Mentoring Program click here.

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