The Simsons grow a family legacy

Georgina and Tom Simson with children Wallace and Florence

It’s an enduring legacy that underpins intergenerational farming, yet Premer’s Tom and Georgina Simson are conscious that their window of opportunity to make a lasting impact is fleeting.

In their early 30s with two young children, the fourth generation farmers are grateful to Tom’s parent’s, Ed and Fiona, for affording them independence early, and as Tom explains, “allowing us to do it our way, and learn as we go”.

And now the young couple has wasted little time making decisive, and at times bold, business decisions – all with the vision of supporting their own children, daughter Florence, four, and son Wallace, three, into the business one day.

“We’ll certainly be looking to take a step back during our 50s and let our children take the lead, if that’s what they want to do, and believe that early succession is the key to maintaining an innovative, fresh business – if you hold on for too long you go backwards,” Tom says.

Georgina, who grew up in a farming family in England’s Cotswolds region has embraced Australian agriculture, and likens early succession to the corporate rule of thumb of changing CEOs every five years.

“You don’t want to risk a business becoming stale or tired, and a fresh perspective can be so valuable. If you don’t give the next generation business freedom, ultimately it’s their children’s tenure you’re impacting,” she believes.

Tom returned home to the farm nine years ago, with Georgina formally joining the business in 2021, and while the family is still in the transition of final succession, full management has been transferred to the couple.

This autonomy has allowed Tom and Georgina to forge their own legacy, introducing more pulses into their rotation, tightening paddock efficiencies, and investing in further on-farm storage and irrigation.

They’ve also broken with long-standing traditions, such as dispersing the family’s commercial breeding herd, with Tom candid in his lack of passion for breeders.

“Previously we were balanced between grazing and cropping, and now we’re heavily focussed on grain production,” he explains. “It’s where our passion is, and it’s an opportunity that excites us.”

Efficiency tweaks for maximum impact

With a background in marketing, Georgina came to Australia as a young traveller – taking up a fateful position nannying in the Premer district.

Meeting Tom at the local pub put a full stop on her international adventures, with the capable ex-pat throwing herself into Aussie ag.

“I settled in the region, working for AMPS Agribusiness and absolutely loved it,” she smiles. “My focus was on marketing and managing the storage site, and eventually supporting the research team with harvest trials and data collection – it was a crash course in Australian agriculture, and it gave me a great foundation on how to build efficiencies into a farm business.”

Using AMPS trial figures, the couple’s management is strategic thanks to data-led decision-making, starting early in the season when they optimise ultimate sowing dates – strictly adhering to a May 10th start for bread wheat to gain maximum yield. 

Paddocks are long fallowed into sorghum, double cropping faba beans and chick peas, although Tom admits he’s hesitant to set strict rotations, lest miss an opportunity crop.
 

The family in their recent sorghum crop

Optimising machinery has resulted in further efficiency gains, with the Simsons being early adopters of camera spraying.

“Recently we’ve invested in a four wheel drive batching truck, and having two spray rigs that don’t have to return to water points has been a gamechanger,” Tom explains.

“We worked out with one person we were only spraying for 40 percent of the time, we lost so much efficiency travelling to water. The extra loader is another unit of labour, but it’s doubled our capacity which is a huge gain.”

Building a team, and business with purpose

Since taking over the business, the couple has increased full-time staff from three, to seven – including themselves.

“Timing is everything when it comes to planting, spraying and harvesting, particularly here on the Liverpool Plains,” Tom says.

“We get good summer rain, but the storms are narrow so if you’re not sowing sorghum when you need to be you can quickly miss an opportunity.”

“In cropping, if you have the labour unit to get the timings right, the value is such that it pays their wage.”

Tom and Georgina are proud of the team they’ve built, and despite labour shortage woes across agriculture, admit they’ve never struggled to find staff.

Leaning on the leadership skills of her corporate past, Georgina believes they’ve created a strong workplace culture thanks to an approach that prioritises values.

“We’ve been very conscious to ensure we have the correct personalities, people with similar values as us – you can teach people on-farm skills but you can’t teach values,” Georgina notes.

The pair consider their Rabobank manager, Tamworth’s Devenan Ellis, as an integral part of their team.

“Rabobank has been so supportive of our growth ambitions, and Denevan is so easy to work with,” Georgina explains.

“Tom is busy operationally day-to-day, so I spend a lot of time in the office, working on our finances, or what our succession may look like, and Denevan is a terrific source of support.”

 The young couple has recently purchased additional property themselves, run in conjunction with the family farm, and typical of intergenerational farming, their business structure is complex.

“Denevan has been terrific talking us through succession structures and it’s comforting to know as a family we’re making well-informed and highly-considered decisions,” she says.

While succession remains an emotive and vulnerable topic, Tom believes honesty and transparency has been key to their success so far.

“People often don’t like talking about money, but we’re great believers in sharing our vision and having those uncomfortable conversations with Denevan, who knows all our aspirations because ultimately he’s the one who is going to help us achieve our goals.”

As a bank dedicated to farming clients, the fact that Rabobank understands the cyclical nature of agriculture was also reassuring.

“Rabobank took us on in 2019 during a significant drought,” Tom explains. “We mapped out how it would look if it rained, or if it didn’t rain – and it didn’t, it was the first sorghum crop we’d ever missed, it was a worry.”

“We speak to friends who fear going back to their bank for more capital, yet we’ve never felt this way, which says a lot about our relationship, and Rabobank’s support for our business during challenging times.” 

“They have a culture of finding a solution, or a path forward, rather than throwing demands at us.”

“A good manager can make or break a business, and we’d rather pay a bit more for the service and long-standing relationship we enjoy.”
 

Premer’s Simson family with Rabobank Tamworth’s Michaela Gale and Marco Cicchelli

Tom and Georgina also value Rabobank’s signature All In One product, particularly its simplicity.

“It’s so user friendly, you can go in and see what rates are doing and when interest rolls, and it’s a really comprehensive snapshot of where your money’s sitting on one screen.”

Next Gen looking to the future

In 2024, Tom travelled to The Netherlands to participate in the Future Farmers Council, a Rabobank ‘think tank’ exploring the future of farming with next gen farming clients from across the globe.

The program, held at Rabobank’s Head Office in Utrecht, discussed the drivers of change in the Food and Agriculture industry, and what farmers need from a bank to support the future of farming. 

Tom was one of twelve young Rabobank clients from seven different countries, and was amazed by the experience.

“The Rabobank Future Farmers Council was one of the best opportunities I’ve had in my life.”

“I met incredible farmers from across the world, learnt all about the mechanics of the bank, and the fact that so much time and consideration was taken to hear our thoughts and opinions was very inspiring – the fact that the head of a Rabobank globally would listen to a farmer from NSW was quite mind blowing.”
 

Tom with other young global clients during the Future Farmers Forum in the Netherlands

With Tom’s mother, Fiona Simson, a champion for rural affairs, most notably as the past president of The National Farmers Federation, Tom and Georgina are not rushing their industry ambitions.

However as Chair of AMPS Research, and a past participant of Grain Growers Australian Grain Leaders Program, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“Farmers do need to be better at standing up for the industry positions – that’s the reason Fiona has been so successful, it’s because she’s a farmer herself,” Georgina believes. “I’m sure we will go down that path later in life, we both enjoy giving back – but for now our young family and farm are keeping us more than busy enough!”