A WHEAT and canola rotation is an important component in achieving high-yielding wheat crops on the McFarlane family’s Young district property, “Stump Jump”.
Donald McFarlane, 65, a sixth-generation farmer and the third-generation at Young where he has been farming for 41 years, said the rotation helped reduce input costs for wheat.
In 2005 the McFarlanes had the best wheat crop in the State in the Agricultural Societies Council of NSW Dryland Field Wheat Competition, and Mr McFarlane modestly admits the crop in question, variety Marombi, was “extraordinary”, yielding 7.2 tonnes to the hectare.
NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) agronomist and competition judge Paul Parker, Young, said it was a big yielding “very dense, very even and well-filled crop” in a year when there were many high yielding crops across the State.
“Stump Jump” is a family operation, with Mr McFarlane and his wife Julie running the 776-hectare property with their daughter Amelia Miller and livestock manager and friend Ross Peters.
About 55 per cent of the property is dryland cropping, with an equal mix of wheat and canola, and the rest is fat lamb production.
In the fifth year of the property’s cropping rotation, wheat was under-sown with clover, lucerne and fescue pasture.
The McFarlanes only grow southern hard wheats because the varieties are best suited to the South West Slopes district.
This year they planted 100ha of Gregory, 60ha of Gladius, and about 20ha of the new variety Lincoln.
The first canola crop was planted on “Stump Jump” in 1979, and in three decades the McFarlanes have had “phenomenal success.”
“We yielded 3.2 tonnes to the hectare some years ago, but generally we’re 2.5t/ha and 2.6t/ha,” Mr McFarlane said.
“We’ve had a few years where it’s been one tonne to the hectare because of the drought, but mostly pretty good yields.”
Mr Parker said the McFarlanes ach-ieved “well above average” yields for canola because of their attention to detail, sowing on time, and good fertiliser management strategies.
“The district average is probably only about 1.7t/ha,” Mr Parker said.
“They’re good farmers and good managers.”
This year the McFarlanes have 70ha of a Clearfield hybrid and 70ha of a TT variety.
They normally don’t use TT varieties because they have a “very rigid” wild radish (weed) control program, but used it this year to hold off the development of ryegrass resistance, Mr McFarlane said.
No crops were sown on dry soil because the soil type doesn’t have the capacity to transfer moisture to the surface.
The annual average rainfall at “Stump Jump” is 660 millimetres (26 inches), but last year the property received a massive 1143mm (45in).
Compared to 25 years ago, sowing dates are later due to a change in the rainfall pattern and later sowing rain, Mr McFarlane said.
When he first began farming Mr McFarlane was in “full swing” and ready to sow in March, but now this occurs at the end of April/early May.
Depending on rain, canola is usually sown a couple of weeks after Anzac Day, and wheat in the first week of May to early June.
Mr McFarlane does things “a little bit differently to most people” when sowing.
Based on research by Ashley Mead from Cowra DPI into paired row sowing, the McFarlanes use a conventional-tyned air seeder with 300-tyne spacing, with each tyne sowing two rows at 125mm, with 125mm points.
“The reason for that is it gives us the opportunity to put urea in at sowing if we wanted to,” Mr McFarlane said.
The air seeder also keeps fuel costs low, with two litres more than enough for one hectare.
“We seriously thought of changing our sowing system and going with some of the newer technologies like disc seeding, knife points or going for zero tillage, but we realised what we do really works well for us,” Mr McFarlane said.
Chemicals and fertilisers are the other big farming input costs, and crops receive a starter fertiliser at 80 and 100 kilograms to the hectare depending on soil test history, with canola also getting 100kg/ha of urea at sowing.
The McFarlanes use soil test data to decide on a yearly basis if wheat crops need fertiliser, and the amount required.
“With the background information about soil fertility – observation and collection of history – we can see the trends and pretty well know what’s going to happen.”
A 25-year lime treatment of all paddocks means pH levels are stable.
Mr McFarlane spends about three weeks a year patrolling the property for weeds and spot-spraying using Round Up and dicamba, at a cost of about $500 a year.
If at all possible the McFarlanes don’t spray broadacre fungicides because they don’t want to kill beneficial insects.
“When you talk insecticides and fungicides broadacre they’ve certainly got a place and we’ve got to use them sometimes, but the less the better, because we’re killing a lot of things we can’t see that are not a problem,” Mr McFarlane said.
To help reduce the need for broadacre fungicide spraying in wheat they use varieties moderately resistant to stripe rust.
There is a small problem with Ryegrass in one paddock and Mr McFarlane said he was looking at the management and chemical options.
“It’s always a dilemma when new chemicals come on the market you don’t know the level of resistance. The old tried and true ones you know what the consequences of using them is,” he said.
The McFarlanes usually windrow canola in early December, but this year were windrowing in November following a hot September.
Usually canola is harvested December 10 to 12, followed by the wheat.
Crops are generally sold to local silos, or depending on quality local stock feed markets, they’re sold for the cash price on the day.
“Occasionally we might sell a bit of canola on contract, but have not found it a great advantage,” Mr McFarlane said.