One Riverina farmer is watching the results of recent rainfall with satisfaction.
A punt on some early barley sown dry looks like it might pay off.
Brad McDermott is the fourth generation of his family to operate “Wangrabelle”, Ardlethan, taken up as a scrub block 90 years ago by his great-grandfather.
The property was always run as a mixed sheep/cropping enterprise, but these days Mr McDermott concentrates solely on cropping.
On his 1200ha property, 1100ha are sown annually in a wheat/barley/lupins/wheat/barley/canola rotation.
My McDermott said the rotation is designed to spread disease risk by following cereal crops with lupins or canola, and building soil fertility.
“We also have some ryegrass resistance, and the rotation gives me the chance to control ryegrass in my crops,” Mr McDermott said.
He said his sowing window closes by the end of May, and this year he sowed some early barley into a dry seedbed, confident it was going to rain it the foreseeable future.
“If we haven’t got our crops sown by mid-May, we can get penalised by a low yield if the spring cuts out,” Mr McDermott said.
“I’ve been lucky the past five years with good springs which filled our crops.”
Mr McDermott is pictured in a 200ha paddock of Commander barley, sown dry in mid-April and showing tremendous response to 68mm rain during the past three weeks.
It was direct drilled into wheat stubble which had been mulched using a Lemkin Heliodor compact disc harrow, with 40kgs seed and 65kgs MAP.
The paddock had been sprayed with 1.4 litres Treflan as a pre-emergent, and there will be a post-emergent spray in due course.
Mr McDermott has just finished sowing with a break due to the rain before he could return to his paddocks.
He is very pleased with the response of his early sown crops to the rain, and is already seeing a good germination of later sown lupins and canola.
“The rain came at a good time, and because it was steady, it all soaked in,” he said.
“We’ve had a better start this year, so it looks a lot more promising.”
Mr McDermott said he had good rain in April but then it turned dry and he had trouble getting any growth from his crops but still he harvested four tonnes/ha.
Mr McDermott stores all his grain on-farm, and sells according to timing and price.
“It gives me some flexibility with my sales,” he said.
