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15/07/2026
Jack, Paul and Lisa Slack, and Jack's fiance Kodi Woerner.
Paul Slack is enjoying twilight hour in the paddock on his northern NSW property. It’s his 60th birthday, and watching the pickers take their first chop at his dryland cotton crop, with his family by his side, is all the celebration he needs.
Progressive and highly-regarded, over the past 40 years he and wife Lisa have built an impressive farming business in one of Australia’s most coveted regions, yet Paul clearly hasn’t lost sight of his humble beginnings.
“When I close my eyes I still see myself in this exact paddock, standing in front of the Steiger tractor and scarifier, drilling wheat in with points.”
Curiosity fosters growth
Having spent his youth on a sheep enterprise near Warwick, Queensland, Paul was introduced to broadacre farming in his teens on his grandparents Biniguy property “Belvedere”, in the Moree region - the property his own family now call home.
“It was never intended for me to end up out here, but I was fascinated by all things farming – I loved the big boys toys, and there was nothing more satisfying than turning dirt, although we don’t do that now,” he chuckles.
When his grandparents decided to sell up and retire in 1980, Paul encouraged his parents to buy the farm, and so began a long and inspiring working partnership between he and his father Ken, pioneering a region, and enterprise, new to both of them.
“I was on day shift and dad was on night, working the country with a one-way plough,” he reflects. “We’d been told you could never make more than eight bags of wheat off this country, but we knew it had potential.”
Today this exact soil consistently yields five and six tonne to the hectare.
Paul Slack has spent his lifetime progressing his farm business, and an industry.
After gaining an agronomy and agribusiness degree – and a bride – at Gatton University, Paul and Lisa returned to “Belvedere” in 1990, a timely return on the eve of some of the industry’s most significant advancements.
“We started with John Deere visual guidance Brown Box technology, which required you to follow a black line on the screen, yet we had the fortunate challenge that some of our soils were so black that it was difficult to decipher what country was worked and unworked!”
The Slacks then moved to Beeline technology, which pioneered automated GPS-based steering systems, before returning to John Deere – with their fleet of machinery today adopting fully autonomous yield and variable rate mapping, and weed seeking technology.
“When there’s something new we’ve been pretty quick to adopt it – I like trying new things and seeing what works, and over the years we’ve been able to improve efficiencies, yields, and management thanks to this mindset.”
And much of Paul’s on farm progression has been self-led, with his youth spent modifying machinery for on-farm solutions and conducting on-farm trials.
“We were early adopters of no-till, purely to save ourselves having to burn straw,” Paul smiles. “We modified our old scarifier and drilled wheat in with narrow points, little did we realise what an impact it would make on moisture retention.”
Paul also initiated his own form of controlled traffic across “Belvedere”, modifying his John Deere tractor/spray rig with axle extensions on three metre centres to accommodate his diversification into cotton.
“The more cotton we grew the higher and higher I had to keep modifying my gear to go over it, there wasn’t anything on the market so I just did it myself, and that’s how we fell into a controlled traffic system.”
With his niche innovation, Paul contracted for neighbours entering the then-burgeoning cotton industry – in turn helping pay for machinery and support their own farm expansion.
“Contracting has been an excellent opportunity for me over the years, and it’s taken me all over the state meeting great people and visiting impressive farms, and in the meantime it’s allowed me to indulge in investing in bigger and better gear, which I really enjoy.”
Considering this curious mind, Paul smiles that amongst the success, there have also been fails, including an innovation modifying his cotton strippers for an international market, "in the end the shakers tore the bush apart and impacted cotton quality terribly, and my strippers were fairly degraded in the meantime.”
With a penchant for big machines and broadscale farming, Paul and Lisa knew they needed to grow their own hectares for economies of scale, yet prices in the renowned ‘Golden Triangle’ were prohibitive.
They approached Paul’s uncle, an investment banker in Melbourne, and recognising the young couple’s vision and nous, supported them into more land as a silent partner.
“My Grandfather always said you can never pay too much for good dirt, although I think today maybe you can, but we knew this was the region we wanted to be farming in, and so we found a creative solution to make that happen.”
Succession success
With two brothers, and his parents wanting to retire, the Slack family was also progressive when it came to succession planning.
“We engaged our accountants and made a full succession plan,” Paul explains. “Sadly Dad passed away in 2005 in the midst of it, and so we bought my mother out so she could retire well, and I essentially received an early inheritance in the form of machinery.”
“We all walked away happy, and we all still really like each other, which is the aim.”
With their own son Jack and his partner Kodi – who coincidentally also met at Gatton University – now home, plus two daughters Emily and Claudia off farm, Paul and Lisa have well and truly begun the succession conversation.
Jack and Kodi, who is also a veterinarian in Moree, are looking forward to a future in farming.
“We’ll provide the same opportunities for the girls as we do for Jack, and it all comes down to communication – I’d like to think that if something’s not right, or someone feels upset that they’d speak up, and we’ll make sure that that’s encouraged.”
“We started this conversation very early when the kids were little, the girls have both spent holidays driving tractors, and both had opportunities to return home, and as it’s turned out they’ve pursued other paths.”
Whilst Lisa and Paul plan to invest in off-farm assets to support an equitable outcome, they acknowledge that with the soaring land prices it’s getting more and more difficult to succession plan.
“At this stage we’d like to buy a bit more land, and this may purely be something Jack can sell one day so he can afford to pay his sisters out, without having to carve up the original farm.”
For Jack, who’s been home for the past four years, working together with his father has always been an exciting prospect.
“Dad’s always been jumping on the latest technology or innovation, and we’re very much on the same page when it comes to building a farm business – it’s been a fun, and easy transition into the business having such a progressive Dad – I never have to fight him on new ideas.”
Likewise, Paul is encouraging of Jack making his own mark on the business.
“I’m excited for Jack to jump straight in and have a crack – the best way to learn is to do, and making mistakes is all part of the process.”
Since Jack’s move home the operation has continued to evolve, investing in additional weed spraying technology and the Farm Simple management app.
“Farm Simple has been excellent in ensuring we’re more organised, and it takes the guesswork out of farm logistics such as how much grain we have left in each silo,” Jack explains.
Next the family will look into robotics, and is currently collaborating with SwarmFarm Robotics on an autonomous tractor with contour bank capabilities – which has been a challenge in the past.
Paul and Jack Slack are enjoying working side-by-side.
Lisa, who grew up in Queensland’s Caboolture, a world away from farming, is well and truly part of the family’s business success.
She laughs that while she certainly earnt her stripes sitting in the tractor cab with Paul, young and in love, today her role is out of the paddock and in the office.
“Paul studied agronomy and I studied business and our skills are certainly complementary when it comes to running the farm – there’s no doubt Paul is an ideas man, whereas I wear the more practical business hat.”
Rabobank supporting growth
From helping structure succession, to timely and streamlined access to capital for investment, Paul and Lisa are grateful for the relationship they have with Rabobank’s Moree team, and their rural manager, Rob De Gruchy.
One example that stands out was when Paul phoned Rob after a last minute decision to put a bid in for a neighbouring block – and needed access to finance that afternoon.
“Rob got back to me within three hours and said we were good to go – it was a testament to our relationship, and the fact that he could go back to the bank and make that happen was very impressive.”
“As a bank focussed only on rural clients, and knowing our business so well, we believe Rabobank really is a step ahead – they go to the effort to understand our position, our goals and even our family, and so when it’s time to make a move, they’re ready.”
And now at 60, reenergised with Jack home working by his side, coupled with the thrill of ag’s ongoing technological potential, it seems like Paul Slack still has a few more moves to play yet.
Lisa and Paul are proud of the business they've built, that they can now share with the next-gen.