Harvest here in Australia has been one of many records. The country will smash its wheat record, harvesting up to 32 Mt this year, and canola and barley have also set new production records.Despite widespread frost damage in Western Australia and significant flooding through central and southern New South Wales, the saying “rain makes grain” has never rung more true, with the caveat that as long as the crop doesn’t go under water.
Harvest here in Australia has been one of many records. The country will smash its wheat record, harvesting up to 32 Mt this year, and canola and barley have also set new production records.
Despite widespread frost damage in Western Australia and significant flooding through central and southern New South Wales, the saying “rain makes grain” has never rung more true, with the caveat that as long as the crop doesn’t go under water.
In fact, some farmers growing high-value commodities such as chickpeas or lentils have harvested high-yielding crops with a higher gross value than the country they are farming.
We have had some outstanding yields on our farm. Our Clearfield canola (herbicide tolerant) will average about 2.5t/ha, despite one-third of it being severely waterlogged.
Our Roundup Ready canola will average approximately 3t/ha, barley 6.5t/ha, wheat approximately 7t/ha and triticale about 7.2t/ha. Our faba beans averaged 5t/ha, lentils approximately 1.5t/ha and lupins 3.5t/ha.
Our wheat was spiking to 9t/ha in spots and I have seen photos and videos on Twitter of dryland wheat crops in South Australia averaging 10t/ha.
We received 550mm of rain from April to October, which equates to our annual rainfall in seven months, and I may not see another growing season like this in my farming career.
Wheat quality issues
The downside of all this rain is that the protein profile of the Australian crop is lower than normal, as nitrogen either leached away or the ground was too wet to enable spreading to take place.
We had a lot of Australian standard white (ASW – less than 10.5% protein) wheat, but there has been a lot of Australian general purpose (AGP) wheat following rainfall (due to low test weight) in Victoria and South Australia.
Our wheat mainly graded H2 (greater than 11.5% protein), but we applied up to 240kg/ha of urea in three passes, so we were hoping to achieve this.
The soft spring has also seen very high oil levels in canola, with many farmers achieving oil levels greater than 45% and in some cases over 50%.
Prices for wheat and barley are also very low. ASW wheat is about $200 ex-port (€141/t) and feed barley is only $165 ex-port. To calculate an ex-farm number for my area, one needs to subtract $40 in rail freight and another $13 to get it by truck to the silos (€37.50/t). Thus, despite the high yields, gross revenue won’t be as high as it could be if we had average grain prices.
Big summer crop area
We have now shifted focus to our summer cropping programme, which is set to be the biggest summer crop area ever on our farm – approximately 1,630ha.
This will comprise approximately 900ha of mung beans, 250ha of sorghum and 480ha of dryland cotton.
The cotton is an interesting crop. It requires a higher level of management due to insect pressure and weed control. From October to date, I have made seven passes over the crop, including a pre-emergence spray, a post-sowing pre-emergent spray, two applications of Roundup for weed control, two insecticide sprays for mired bugs and an application of urea.
It is also normally grown either under irrigation or further north than me, where there is a greater chance of receiving summer rain. However, after some extensive due diligence earlier in 2016, we think it can work, so have given it a crack. Furthermore, it, along with mung beans, lentils and chickpeas, is the only crop trading at decent prices.
The sorghum is just coming out in head and the mung beans have four different planting times, so the crop is ranging from emergence to flowering and pod fill.
Speaking of which, it was 42°C here at the end of last week, so we are looking for more rain to help finish our summer crops.
Other jobs
There are always other jobs to be done on every farm. At the moment, we are in the process of delivering grain which was sold to our various end users and grain packers.
We have also been spraying summer fallows following rain which we received prior to Christmas and also prior to the new year.
We are now starting our planning process for winter crop planting in 2017. But we are also trying to sneak in a couple of days off following a hectic 2016.
Can I wish all the Irish Farmers Journal readers success and prosperity in 2017.
Bruce Watson farms between Parkes and Forbes in New South Wales. 
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