Frank Crofts, agricultural scientist who pioneered farm conservation practices, dies

Frank Crofts receiving a medal from Sir Herman Black of the University of Sydney in 1968. Photo: Supplied

FRANK CROFTS 19252014

Frank Crofts was a distinguished agricultural scientist and an inspiring university teacher. His career resulted in huge savings in fuel and water for Australian crops, while improving soil fertility and increasing productivity.

He was born on February 27, 1925, the son of farming parents, Arthur and Lila Crofts. He grew up in the town of Blayney, an area well-known for severe extended winters and tough farming conditions. He went to Blayney Primary School then Kinross Wolaroi School in Orange. He joined the RAAF in 1942 and served in Townsville and New Guinea. As a returned serviceman, he got a Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scholarship.

He started at the University of Sydney in 1947. There he met Lucinda Wyndham, a demonstrator in agricultural botany and genetics. In 1950 and 1951, Crofts took the Pawlett Scholarship. His honours year was seminal: he was invited to attend the First Australian Agristology Conference, where he listened to the leaders in pasture research from all states of Australia formulate plans.

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Crofts graduated with a bachelor of science in agriculture with first class honours in 1951 and, the following year, he and Lucinda were married. From 1951 to 1954, Crofts worked on pasture decline on the far north coast of NSW as a research agronomist with the Department of Agriculture, on secondment to the University of Sydney.

During this time he became interested in conservation agriculture and no-tillage, and in this was at least 20 years ahead of his time. Together with pasture agronomist Ernest Breakwell and Harold Jenkins, he was largely responsible for developing the practice of sowing legumes into uncultivated pastures to increase pasture productivity a practice known as sod-seeding. This led to the university's patent of the sod-seeder, a machine widely used as the basis of conservation.

In the 1950s, Crofts developed a pasture management system to enable a consistent supply of forage for dairy cows throughout the year, reducing feed costs by up to 75 per cent. In 1954, Crofts was appointed lecturer in agronomy at the University of Sydney.

In 1960, Crofts was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at Oregon State University. There, he was awarded a Master of Science with honours for his work on the effects of nitrogen on the growth patterns of a range of grass species.

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Frank Crofts, agricultural scientist who pioneered farm conservation practices, dies