Garry Hannigan

GROWERS' STORIES - GARRY HANNIGAN

Organic farmer, Garry Hannigan, this year won the inaugural NSW Farmer of the Year award. Certified organic in 2003, his property, Churinga Station, sprawls across almost 50,000 hectares of arid land east of Broken Hill, producing lambs for the domestic organic meat market.

Drawn by Hannigan's grandfather in a soldier-settler lottery in 1950, Churinga has had a new lease of life since its conversion to organic farming methods. Hannigan diversified into arid-friendly Damara-Wiltshire cross lambs after the ebb of the wool boom and the collapse of the live sheep trade to the Middle East.

Now, says Hannigan, he is stocking his land more conservatively - a strategy that is better for the environment and better for surviving perennial drought. Other drought-proofing methods include harvesting wild goats and providing native timber to the craft market.

Hannigan is also involved in a pilot conservation project which has seen him fencing off and destocking around 10% of his property to nurture the fragile natural landscape.

Hannigan's lamb, fed on native saltbush, bluebush and other seasonal grasses, is renowned for its succulence and flavour as well as its low fat content.