Merrilong Agricultural Company’s longstanding commitment to agricultural research and innovation has played a key role in the business’ success over the years.

Now recognised as the 2025 Growers of the Year, the business will showcase its latest trials with AMPS Research and Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD) at the Australian Cotton Grower of the Year Field Day in March.

The Brownhill family’s involvement with AMPS, one of the Field Day’s platinum sponsors, stretches back decades, with Gordon and David Brownhill part of the founding group of growers that helped establish the business model in 1999.

“AMPS has been a big part of Merrilong,” Merrilong Agricultural Company director Jock Brownhill said.

“Dad [Gordon Brownhill] and my uncle David Brownhill were two of the founding members that started the collaboration and business model in 1999.

“Research was the core that brought them together. A proportion of revenue generated from the commercial arm of AMPS went back into the research team, which has increased over time due to the reliance on major crop studies and trial research.”

Since the 2000s, AMPS has reinvested more than $8 million of grower-generated profits into research, ensuring trials remain directly aligned with growers’ priorities.

“Research is a huge part of any farming business,” Jock said.

“Trying to stay on top of many of the issues that we can’t control, having the data there that AMPS has provided to us over the last 20 to 25 years is critical, whether it’s time of sow or applying different nitrogen rates.

“Merrilong wouldn’t be in the position that we’re in today without the support of AMPS. Both the commercial arm and the research arm work hand-in-hand for us and many other growers in the region, and we’re extremely grateful that they have supported us throughout the past 27 years and we hope to continue that relationship into the future.”

Merrilong has been hosting AMPS trials since 2008, including trials in cotton, sorghum, faba beans, wheat, barley and chickpeas.

AMPS Research manager Matt Gardner said they’re currently running 12 sorghum trials on the Liverpool Plains, including both irrigated and dryland sorghum at Merrilong, near Spring Ridge.

“We’re looking at all the different sorghum hybrids – there’s 22 different hybrids here,” Matt said.

“It’s really about trying to work out where those hybrids best fit and how they perform year in, year out to help growers make the best decision on the right variety and the right situation.

“An irrigated trial like this is perfect to really see where that top end yield is, and which ones can really extend themselves when the conditions are perfect compared to our dryland trials that show which varieties are performing better in a tight season.”

Matt said new experimental material with quicker maturity is showing particular promise as growers adjust to increasingly variable seasonal windows.

He will be on hand to answer any questions from growers during the Field Day next month, with AMPS’ sorghum trials to be part of the farm tour, along with CSD’s cotton variety trials.

Merrilong Agricultural Company has also been hosting Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD) trials for the past 10 years.

This season, CSD is trialling four varieties containing XtendFlex® on-farm, including a new experimental line being assessed for local suitability.

CSD extension agronomist Natalie Aquilina said the purpose of these trials is to determine where each variety best fits in the region, how they can be manipulated for optimal yield, and what management approaches deliver the strongest on-farm results.

“Merrilong Agricultural has been working with us on these trials throughout the last couple of years, giving them an early opportunity to see these varieties before they come to market,” Natalie said.

“Merrilong has gone 100 per cent XtendFlex across the farm this season and that's given them the ability to be able to control weeds and help reduce weed resistance across the farm.”

At the Field Day, CSD will be analysing the data from the last couple of years of variety trials at Merrilong, particularly the dryland.

“We’ll be looking at that shift from Bollgard® 3 Roundup Ready Flex® to Bollgard 3 XtendFlex cotton and understanding some of the key benefits of how that's helped growers in the region and giving them another tool with that XtendFlex technology,” Natalie said.

Attendees of the Grower of the Year Field Day will have the opportunity to walk through both the AMPS and CSD trials, offering growers and agronomists the chance to explore emerging genetics, discuss long-term results with researchers and see how the Brownhill family incorporates research into everyday decision-making.

The Australian Cotton Grower of the Year Field Day will be held at “Gowrie”, 1226 Wilmott’s Road, Spring Ridge on Wednesday 18 March. Register to attend.