About
Longtrail Farms is a family owned farming business in the Southern Mallee region of South Australia.
With a team of hardworking employees, the Dabinett family has grown Longtrail Farms to become an aggregation of dryland and irrigation properties. Diversified across grains, legumes, oilseeds, potatoes, hay, cattle and sheep, Longtrail Farms is an attractive and stable employer in the region.
Russell and Leanne Dabinett first took over the home farm on Longtrail Road in Parilla from Russell’s parents Max and Marie in 1987. For over a decade, Russell and Leanne successfully farmed in partnership with his brother Lynton until 1996.
Over the next few years, the Southern Mallee and in particular around Parilla started to evolve. The region changed from a dryland mixed farming area of mainly grains and livestock to include irrigated vegetable crops.
It was in the late 1990’s’s that Russell and Leanne made the investment in water entitlements and irrigation infrastructure and started growing potatoes to complement their existing enterprise mix and expand the operation.
The fourth generation of Dabinett's now own and operate the business. Eldest son Nick Dabinett and his wife Emma and children Max, Ellie and Zoe and second eldest son Wade and his wife Hannah with childen Mary and Douglas.
Together with a core workforce of employees and a top up of casual seasonal staff across the year, the business adopts best practice for all crops and livestock produced. Together with a great team and a best practice approach, a productive, sustainable, profitable business and stable workplace has been created at Longtrail Farms.
You may be wondering why the logo is a vintage tractor. Well it isn’t any old sketch, it is a sketch of a series 2 field marshal which was the first tractor Max Dabinett purchased and operated on the home farm on Longtrail Road. It still runs to this day. So while Longtrail Farms aim to maintain latest technology and continue to upgrade and improve our equipment there is always an appreciation of the heritage and where the business has come from.