Sophie Baldwin, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper

Since the 1970s, the Chalmers family have been growing rice, so they certainly know a thing or two about the importance of performance and business planning.

For Michael and Felicia that acumen was rewarded with the couple recently crowned CY25 SunRice grower of the year.

Michael said it was an honour to receive the award.

“We don’t love being in the spotlight but there is a fair bit of pride in receiving this award and really, it is a recognition of multiple lifetimes of work from the generations before us.

“It is also a credit to the team we have around us – our on-farm staff and our advisers.

“We were judged on many things including performance and yield, whole of business planning and environmental stewardship,” Michael said.

Rice is central to the business and Michael says their heavy, black clay soils are perfect.

“We have moved toward direct drilling of rice rather than aerial sowing which has been better for us and enabled us to get better establishment and more uniform crops.”

It has also helped reduce management issues with ducks, snails and windy conditions.

For cereal crops including wheat, barley, oats and canola, they have also moved away from flood irrigation and invested in overhead sprays.

The cereals are grown on both irrigated and dry country.

“One of our main business focuses has been on water use efficiencies and we run a full farm recycled, cropping practice, which enables us to increase our yield per megalitre used.”

Michael said he loves growing rice and enjoys being part of the wider rice industry, which is a supportive community.

He said part of the award was environmental stewardship and Michael is proud of the fact the family, through the Commonwealth Water holder and Murray Irrigation, are delivering environmental water onto a wetland on one of their properties.

“We have an 80 ha site and this will be the first year environmental water is delivered.

“We also have a couple of other sites we have been watering with runoff in wet years and it is amazing to watch the farm come to life with waterbirds, frogs and snakes.

“Growing rice enables us to increase the biodiversity on farm and that is important to us as well.”

The business employs five full time staff and growing summer crops are always part of the plan.

“We like to keep everyone busy and growing rice is really central to that.

“Of course, there are dry years but we do manage our water to predominately grow rice.”

Despite NSW Murray general security currently sitting on a two per cent allocation, he believes there will be opportunity to grow some rice this year, with water sitting in the dams awaiting allocation.

When it comes to temporary water price, Michael said he can run a core rice program with water prices sub $200.

“Obviously we like to see temporary water prices as low as possible but we can really make things work when prices are anywhere under $150 a megalitre.”

SunRice said the family were nominated for their consistent exceptional results and long-term strategic approach which has underpinned the growth over the last eight years they have been farming independently.

The business is continuously striving for improvement through a distinct focus on water efficiency, soil health and trialling new technologies and approaches.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 14 August 2025.