Marking a magnificent milestone

Watts family and Growth Agriculture team celebrated the Wee Waa business’ 30th birthday recently.

Growth Ag turned 30 in October last year but unfortunately the celebrations had to be postponed due to flooding.

However, country businesses – especially one that has survived and thrived for 30 years – are more than familiar with pressing ahead during trying times, so the festivities were rescheduled to March 11 at the Wee Waa Golf Club, much to the delight of attendees who had a wonderful evening.

To mark the magnificent milestone, the community-orientated business also chose to give back by honouring its pledge to make a $3000 donation to the McGrath Foundation.

Growth Ag presented a cheque to McGrath ambassador and director Tracy Bevan at the Pink Up the Namoi event in October last year.

The Pink Up Namoi fundraising campaign has been successfully run by breast cancer survivor and volunteer Dr Karen Kirkby to raise vital donations for the McGrath Foundation’s breast cancer nurse program.

Growth Ag has a strong connection and has worked closely with Dr Kirkby in her role at the NSW Department of Primary Industries, and she also attended the 30th anniversary celebrations.

Giving back is something Growth Ag doesn’t boast about but continuously does without fanfare, the business’ contributions to local schools through its Scholar Dollar program were also discussed at the anniversary party, with more than $40,000 donated in the last 10 years to various schools in the regions where Growth Ag operates to help improve the educational opportunities of local children.

The program allows P&C organisations to claim rewards based on purchases by growers who nominate them as preferred recipients, with funding going towards educational resources, books, and sporting equipment.

Beyond the business, the Watts family is also active in the Wee Waa community: volunteering time on several committees such as Rotary, Chamber of Commerce and Inner Wheel to ensure the country town remains a wonderful and attractive place to live and work.

The good crowd at the 30th birthday party reflected the Watts family and Growth Ag team’s impact and popularity across the district, with different generations of people associated with the agricultural industry and local community attending the function.

Guests enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane, remembering growers and people who have supported Growth Ag over the years as well as speeches by Growth Ag managing director Kerry Watts and his son Nick Watts, who is the director of sister company Innovate Ag.

“We’re here to celebrate a milestone for a company called Growth Agriculture but really it’s about celebrating two people’s achievement – because Growth Ag is, at its core, mum and dad,” said Nick.

“Thanks to the Kristys for all their effort in putting it together,” he added.

Nick Watts paid tribute to his dad Kerry’s professional career, describing him as straight-talking and tenacious, and he noted his impressive attention to detail.

“If it’s 10 cents out, it may as well be $10,000,” Nick said.

Nick also praised his parents’ courage in business.

“I’ve said this before, but long after I would have caved and sold to the highest bidder dad and mum – who was his willing accomplice – kept investing their money and soul into a company and technology that is now, because of their courage, being manufactured in a rural town and will be sent to all corners of the globe.”

Nick highlighted his parent’s foresight in advocating for agricultural practices that are both environmentally sustainable and profitable, long before ‘it was cool’ to be clean and green.
“I say this not to gloat but with a sense of pride and a sense of responsibility to make sure that we keep those kinds of principles.

“Mum and dad themselves both in part, owe their ethos to their parents as well.

“My grandfather – mum’s dad, had a farm near Grenfell that was one of the early adopters of contour banks to prevent erosion and Grandad did not over crop or stock.

“I can still remember wondering why Warrranga (near Grenfell) always looked better than the neighbours.

“Dad’s dad – was a farm manager at Coolamatong (near Orange) and some of the really early, what we would call ‘nitrogen use efficiency trials’ were done under his oversight,” said Nick.

“Mum and dad both grew up with a fundamental understanding that farmers should be, first and foremost environment custodians,” said Nick Watts during his speech at the Growth Ag 30th birthday celebrations.

“But also, that they needed to be given the tools to achieve this.

“That fundamentally is what Growth Ag, and now also Innovate Ag strive to do.”

Owners Kerry and Merre Watts founded the Wee Waa business, which has been internationally recognised for promoting an integrated approach to crop management and providing growers with an efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional agricultural chemicals.

For decades, founder Kerry Watts has been advocating for a more natural yet economically feasible approach to farming.

That’s why Growth Ag has invested heavily in research and development projects, working alongside leading scientists to advance the production of eco-friendly pesticides.

Most notably, in 2017, Growth Ag and its business partners launched the world-first plant extract bio-pesticide – Sero-X, a revolutionary product discovered, developed and manufactured in Australia.

Described as a ‘game-changer’ and the next generation of bio-insecticides, Sero-X is a sustainable, environmentally responsible large-scale pesticide designed to ensure the world’s food security and save bees by offering an effective non-synthetic alternative to toxic chemicals.

The story behind the discovery and development of the bee-friendly bio-pesticide ‘took Wee Waa to the World’.

“Never before has Australian agricultural research and development had a new active constituent pass the regulatory approval requirements and given Australian growers first access to such an exciting new product,” Innovate Ag director Nick Watts has said in previous reports.

The world-first plant-based insecticide was appropriately launched at the Watts’ family property in 2017, not far from where its natural pest control capabilities were first uncovered by research scientist Dr Robert Mensah.

Dr Mensah serendipitously discovered the behavioural modification qualities of the butterfly pea plant while he was conducting refuge crop trials for the NSW Department of Industries, and he observed insects were not attacking the butterfly pea.

Butterfly pea is affectionately known as Sero-X’s ‘hero ingredient’ and it’s a remarkable plant that has evolved to protect itself against harmful pests.

Kerry Watts started his speech at the anniversary celebrations by thanking everyone who made the 30th birthday celebrations and Growth Ag business such a success and went on to say:

“When it was first suggested that we should celebrate thirty years of operating a business manufacturing and supplying products to Australian agriculture I have to admit that I was reasonably enthusiastic.

“Standing in front of you this evening I now have to admit to feeling a bit of a fraud.

“There are many of you in this room who have businesses which have survived much longer than our thirty years in fact, I know there are some in this room whose farming enterprises stretch back to the early 1900s and before.

“So, what gives us the right to celebrate turning 30, after all, we are not special but the wonderful friends, colleagues and team members who have supported our efforts for those 30 plus years are special and this is our way to say thank you.”

“Other than those of you who are customers, friends and families I acknowledge the presence of Roy Butler MP, State Member for Barwon and his support team. – thank you Roy for making the effort to be here in what must be a hectic time for you only two weeks out from an election. You never know you might even pick up a vote or two.

“I also acknowledge the apologies from Sam Farraway and several of his National Party colleagues.

“I know I can get into trouble for singling out individuals but I’ve been known to get into trouble before – and I do want to recognise some special people who have strongly assisted us on our way.

“The original four people John and I consulted when looking to establish Total Ag.

“Jim Lennon is unfortunately no longer with us but was enthusiastic in his early support.

“Bill Findley, again, no longer with us but he readily agreed to give us the opportunity to look after the agronomic and product inputs for one his smaller properties with the promise of, ‘if you muck it up you will know about it’, if you don’t, we’ll think about more next year’.

“Jeff Carolan was not as effusive as Jim nor as blunt as Bill, however, provided encouragement to ‘have a go’ with the promise of ‘I will support you where I can but you did too good a job with that other mob’.

“And of course, there are Paul and Lissa Swansbra who became very firm friends when we first arrived in Wee Waa and who remain so today.”

Kerry said he believed the Growth Ag story began with his father and included below are some more extracts from his speech.

“I actually think it started many years earlier when sitting around a table with my father talking about the benefits or otherwise of Anhydrous Ammonia as a Nitrogen source for irrigated forage oats,” said Kerry.

“Dad was convinced that there were benefits but he did suggest that we were becoming ‘nitrogen junkies”, constantly wanting more.

“He also suggested that we were doing damage to our soil eco-system although I don’t think he would have used the word eco-system.

“As I progressed my career with a multi-national chemical company, in the all too few times that Dad and I managed to catch up, most likely with a glass of scotch in hand, he would occasionally remark that agriculture was becoming too dependent on synthetic chemistry and we didn’t know what the impact that would have into the future.

“Perhaps he was talking through the eyes of a ‘sheep cocky’ from Orange, but that ‘sheep cocky’, managed a property that ended up with a lambing percentage of around 180 per cent and in February 1966 sold some 120 fat lambs at Orange sale yards for $66 per head (that’s about $1000 today).

“I remember that so well because it was the first sale of sheep at Orange under the new decimal currency. Damn that makes me feel old!

“Unashamedly, I credit my father for sowing the seeds of doubt in my mind, mostly that doubt is about – how can we do it better.

“As I look around this room and think about the many people I have interacted with since becoming involved in the cotton industry in 1975 – I know that the question of how can we do it better is constantly being asked by many more people than me.

“Now, I know you will find this surprising, but I am going to get just a little political and once again go out in support of the irrigation sector, particularly the cotton industry.

“It is not now the time to go into detail about how successful the cotton industry has been at doing things better but I ask you Roy – I would have asked the other pollies this to, but they aren’t here – to seriously look at the successes the cotton industry have had in vastly increasing yield per megalitre of water, vastly decreasing their reliance on synthetic chemistry and with the research being done by business like ours they are working hard to reduce reliance on synthetic fertilisers.

“Obviously, the contribution the irrigation industry has made to the economies of our rural communities cannot be denied and the reality is that Growth Ag would not have been able to undertake the research and development into more environmentally acceptable ways of doing things – throw out the water and there will be a lot less babies to go with it.

“The incredible input by Robert Mensah in the discovery of the power of Butterfly Pea for the management of plant eating insects and Karen Kirkby for her work in using Sero-X as an agent for the control of Verticillium Wilt in Cotton is also gratefully acknowledged.

“The work started by Robert and Karen is on going with the support of Dr David Leach from SCU and more latterly Dr David Craik and his team from Institute of Molecular Biosciences of the University of Queensland – you will hear much more about the exciting breakthroughs brought about by this initial investment into R&D by Growth Ag.

“Thanks for being part of the journey that is Growth Ag.

“Thank you so much for your friendship, loyalty and support and I close with a quote from Professor Michelle Simmons, 2018 Australian of the year, ‘Do what is hard – place high expectations on yourself – Take risks and do something that matters’ and may I add have fun doing it, thank you.”