Rob joined other Western Australian and eastern state farmers on a trip to the USA in the late 1990s, organised by biological agronomist Ken Bailey, to visit Neal Kinsey, Dr. Arden Anderson and Jeptha Gates and Amish farms in the Midwest. It was on the Amish farms that Rob learnt about improving soils through biological brews, observing how farmers would use their crop residues to make a biological brew that they sprayed back on the land. The soil responded well, it ‘was almost like you could eat it’, Rob recalls. During this time he was also introduced to Acres USA, a publication and community of farmers at the forefront of the biological farming movement.

These experiences led to Rob trying foliars, green manures and lime applications. He understood chemistry to be his primary limiting factor, and so he needed to have a strong focus on getting the chemistry right, which would then enable the biology to function.

Dr. Arden Anderson, a family physician and agricultural practitioner, came to Fremantle in the early 1990s and Rob attended his first soil school which highlighted the importance of feeding the biology along with the chemistry, since Arden was big on ‘feeding the biology’. It was after this workshop that Rob began to experiment with liquid injection and foliars.

At this stage, liquid fertilisers were uncommon in Australia, so Rob had to make a lot of his own. ‘We got a mixing tank and started making lots of different combinations of foliars and even setting up a mister.’ For example, they tried, ‘sugar and molasses and traces and tech grade MAP (Mono Ammonium Phosphate) and calcium nitrate mixed with dam water.’

It was not all smooth sailing in this period. Rob recalls having a huge crop after ploughing in a green manure, but it was followed by a wheat crop that started to rust and shrivel, and he went from fifteen bags per acre down to five. As Rob sees it, the reason would have been excess nitrogen from the green manure. ‘Excess nitrogen overrides potassium and copper uptake, which would have contributed to the crop shrivelling up. The crop had got rust in it because of the low copper and the excess sodium which would have taken over.’

Applying liquids with new combinations of ingredients through the machinery also proved to be a learning curve. Often the liquid inject would block up and cause delays. Rob recalls finding the cause one day after seeing the liquid tank cap lying on the ground. He figured out it had blown off after the combination of calcium with nitrate, carbohydrate with molasses, and dam water with silt had contributed to a build up of microbes; the resulting pressure had blown the cap off. The pressure build up was also causing the discs to block. Rob reflects, ‘We’ve had painstaking hours, painstaking everything, working with liquids. I mean, it’s no wonder I didn’t have a revolt at seeding time.’

After observing that summertime is when a third of their rain falls and when their weeds come up, they tried C4 plants like millets and forage sorghums as summer crops. There were mixed results, depending on the rainfall and moisture in soil. But as Rob and Judi’s son Daniel recalls, they learnt that – at least in their context – you can’t expect to get two crops in a year in a paddock due to moisture limitations.

Over the decade from 1990 – 2000, the farm system responded well. Rob and Judi both agree that throughout the 1990s life on the farm was pretty good. The soils were generally softer, had better aeration, infiltration, depth, and more earthworms; and, there was better root growth. The crops were good and so were the finances, with greater profitability and no debt.

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Removing sheep from the farming system presented new challenges. The Hetheringtons had to adapt to farming without the benefits of animals on the land, such as an ‘inbuilt’ source of nitrogen. Rob found it hard. He recalls, ‘I didn’t understand what I was doing’, and in the first year of 100% cropping, despite doubling the area cropped, his profit was the same as the previous year. This was because he wasn’t putting on enough nitrogen and because the previous crop would just ‘consume it’. That is, when he ploughed in the stubble residue from the previous crop the microbes would tie up the nitrogen whilst their increased community worked on breaking down residues. The lack of moisture also contributed to the slow breakdown of the stubble.

When they first removed the sheep, Rob and Daniel applied industrial nitrogen but adjusted how they used it by adding a carbon source, they also developed their nitrogen strategies, via legumes, companion mix choices, green manures, and improving the biology function.

In 2001 Judi and the other children relocated to Albany to continue schooling for the children. Judi also took over the farm office work, and purchased a bookshop (in 2003) and cafe (in 2005). Moving to Albany ‘dramatically changed the family dynamic’, says Judi, and this is a common reality for many rural families. Daniel stayed and supported Rob full time on the farm, but as the drought progressed, he had to find work off-farm and Rob was by himself.

In 2008 Rob’s father passed away. Judi describes this period as a ‘horrendous time’, impacting family and finances. ‘The better part of that decade was negative years.’ The Hetheringtons lost money with the collapse of the Wheat Board. And in 2009 when it came to putting in a crop, ‘there was no money’. Judi emphasised, ‘I mean there was no money… we’d used up all our investments to keep going during the poor years.’ However, because of the GFC, companies had threatened to cease supply (of seeds, machinery etc.) unless farmers signed legal contracts. This meant the Hetheringtons were forced to borrow money. During 2009, family commitments took Rob and Judi overseas, and Daniel was on the farm alone. As Judi explains, Daniel did all the right things but the rain just didn’t come, and the crop was greatly reduced.

Off the farm, Judi got out of the cafe. While it had been doing well for a new business, the landlord had begun major works on the building and they ended up losing a lot of customers.

These years weighed heavily on Judi, who was juggling many tasks while supporting family. Judi recalls, ‘I literally lay on my face in the dust out here and I said “God, take anything away at all”. Didn’t care what it was. So I kind of spiraled into depression over the intervening years.’

(Many farmers struggle with mental health, and we know that mental health is being severely affected by natural disasters, rising input costs, falling commodity prices and an uncertain economic outlook, as Norco’s 2023 National Farmer Wellbeing Report shows. If you are suffering from feelings of depression or anxiety, you can seek support from Lifeline on 131114 or find a list of services at https://loom.ly/eqBqozw)
During these years many family farms were being sold, and the Hetheringtons were faced with a choice. Judi says if it were up to her they would have sold the farm and bought an organic farm down south, but while these were very tough years, she recognises that Rob had work to do and a vision (‘it’s in his DNA to be here’) and he had a vision to restore soil health. Rob acknowledges that it hasn’t been easy, but ‘every life has challenges but also ups and downs’, and perseverance, tenacity and fate helped him through.

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