Concerned about the development of a hardpan under the surface of his families cropping country near Matong, Jake Hamblin accessed various web sites to find an alternative to the accepted method of deep ripping.
“I used the internet to research ‘cover crops and natural method to break hard pans’, and I am copying the American practice,” he said.
Their property, “Big Tree”, is the base for an aggregation of 2225ha near Matong, where fourth generation farmer Jake Hamblin is in partnership with his father Wayne and brother Chad.
We had some grazing, but the main point of sowing the radish was to break the hard pan
- Jake Hamblin
Mr Hamblin explained he and his family were noting the roots of their winter crops like canola were not developing a deep-rooted habit, but were tending to spread laterally when reaching the hardpan at a depth of 5-7cm.
“The hardpan was something building up due to the traditional farming practices of the past, but we wanted to break through without burning a lot of diesel to deep rip our country,” he said.
“We are also moving away from our cropping enterprises to focusing on joining 3500 Dorper ewes in a self-replacing flock and it made sense to improve the structure of our soil for better pasture and dual-purpose crop growth for our sheep.”
After watching their returns from a winter cropping program slowly decline over recent years, the Hamblin family decided for the 2017 season to focus solely on their sheep enterprise.
“We had a disastrous season last year when more than twice our normal rainfall fell, and most of our crops were ruined,” Wayne Hamblin said.
“After trading cattle, Merino ewes and lambs we have decided running Dorper ewes will be a lot easier than our previous cropping program,” he said.
“But we still have to look after the health of our soil if we are to grow pasture, and we think this is where the use of Tillage radish will be of great benefit in renovating the paddocks.
“It is a natural way of breaking the hardpan, and that also fits in with our intention to become an organically recognised producer.”
Tillage radish breaks through soil hardpan
After thoroughly researching the internet for provenance of the benefits of using Tillage radish as a cover crop with green manure options when sown with clover pasture Jake Hamblin, “Big Tree”, Matong sowed 48ha last season.
Sown at the rate five kg/ha along with Balansa clover and direct drilled into crop stubble on one metre spacings, the use of Raphanus sativus sativus, cultivar CCS 779, was also intended to revitalize the soil and with the clover fixing nitrogen in paddocks which have been farmed for over a century.
“The germination was excellent, and we had grazing from our trading cattle but the main point of sowing the radish was to break the hard pan,” Mr Hamblin said.
“We think it a success, with many of the roots growing to over 60cm and leaving a tunnel about 5-7cm when they have rotted.”
Once the radish crop was finished, millet and sorghum were direct drilled on the same one metre spacings using the GPS over the decayed Tillage radish plants.
“We wanted the summer crop to grow down along the holes the rotted radish roots had left in the soil,” he said.
“It is hard to tell how well it worked because we have not grown sorghum before, but we did get some good summer feed.”
Mr Hamblin said he didn’t think the cattle were particularly keen on grazing the Tillage radish as they tended to leave it to last, but they will be sowing another crop.
“We think our Dorper sheep will get more out of it,” he said.
The Hamblin family, having decided to move away from a cropping regime to concentrate on their sheep flock, are also embracing an organic approach to their farming practices.
“We are wanting to turn our farm into a sustainable operation, with less emphasis on expensive inputs.”