These days growers are under increasing pressure to maximise yields just to make a small profit on their cash crops.
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The high costs of fertilisers, the growing cost of seeds, increasing herbicide resistances and changing climate conditions are all making it more and more difficult on growers to succeed.
Tichborne grower Neil Kingham, also on this week's cover, runs a mixed-farming enterprise with some livestock, and growing cash crops as well as cutting hay.
Mr Kingham said he could no longer afford to have an "average year" with his cash crops if he wanted to see any returns.
During the past few years, Mr Kingham has seen a growing resistance to herbicide from rye grass and sticking to his wheat-barley-canola rotation was making it difficult to get the right mix of spray on to control weeds.
To help combat this, Mr Kingham has sown some of his cash crop paddocks to faba beans this year with an eye to the future.
He said having beans in allowed him to spray more effectively.
"We couldn't afford to keep going the way we were," he said.
"Every season the rye grass is getting more resistant and we are expected to spend more on chemicals.
"The margins are that tight that if something goes wrong we can no longer make any money from an average yield.
"My agronomist suggested putting beans in to help the soil and give me options when it comes to spraying."
Mr Kingham plans to spray out his early-sown beans, which went in the ground in March, to add nitrogen to the soil rather than harvest them for a cash crop.
Some people may question the tactic saying that if margins are tight, is it wise to give up the ground for the beans but Mr Kingham said he would get the return when his wheat, barley and canola followed in the rotation.
"This is our first year trying this so I don't know if it is going to work," he said.
"But they are looking good so far. I'm hopeful they will not only allow for better weed control, but add some nitrogen to the soil.
"This will mean less inputs will be required when we do put the cash crops in."
Mr Kingham said it was too soon to tell how much of a benefit the beans would be.
"I'm at the very early stages of this," he said.
"I won't really know how good it has gone until we have done a full rotation in these paddocks.
"If we see a benefit, then the beans will become part of a four or five year rotation."
Mr Kingham said he had enjoyed a very good season so far with some consistent rain events since he showed the beans.
He will spray them out in September and won't dig them back in so as not to disturb the soil.
He added that another benefit of using the beans to create a nitrogen bank in the soil was that it is a slow release and should benefit crops for a number of years.
