WINTER is coming, and with it plenty of difficult decisions on the season's cereal crops for Narrabri farmer Gavin Smart.
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Mr Smart runs a cattle and cropping operation with parents Dal and June at "Wonga Plains", which they took over at the end of 2005, relocating from a property at Garah, north of Moree.
"Wonga Plains" comprises about 1740 hectares east of Narrabri, and is home to about 100 Hereford breeding cattle, a small Brangus stud herd established about two years ago as well as supporting a winter cereals and summer sorghum cropping enterprise.
At the moment the artificially inseminated heifers are starting to drop their first calves and Mr Smart is still getting off this summer's sorghum crop, and preparing for winter's wheat and barley plantings.
"I usually like to get in about 1000 acres (404.7ha) of wheat and about 200ac (80.9ha) of barley each winter," he said.
"This year I got in 800ac (373.7ha) of G33 sorghum and I like to get in between 600ac (242.8ha) and 800ac each summer, depending on space.
"It's only me working on the farm so I've got to spread the workload a bit - I can't put too much in or it gets to be too much for me to handle."
Last winter's wheat and barley crops came off with lower than usual protein levels after a dry finish, yielding an average of about one tonne to the hectare, but one paddock was still a prize winner in the region's local wheat competition.
The Smarts plant a mix of bread and durum wheats, though mostly bread wheat, with durum as an option if it can be planted straight after the sorghum.
The bread wheat varieties planted are Gregory and Spitfire, with the greatest area usually planted to Spitfire.
"Last year was the first year we got a fair bit of Spitfire in over the Gregory," Mr Smart said.
"I go for the early planted varieties - Gregory can be planted in the first week of May - because it suits the operation."
Last winter, Mr Smart said he dry sowed one paddock of wheat and "hoped for the best".
"I decided to dry sow some just to get a bit in the ground and it ended up turning out alright," he said.
"They were talking about some rain coming in and so I only sowed the wheat quite shallow and the rain got it all up, which was lucky because there wasn't much moisture in the soil."
With the current prolonged dry weather, the soil moisture dilemma is something Mr Smart will have to deal with again this winter.
"I haven't had a look at what the soil moisture levels are like exactly but I imagine you'd bend the soil moisture probe trying to get it in the ground, or you'd lose it down the cracks," he said.
Mr Smart was hoping this year to be able to get in the usual 485-odd hectares of winter crops, with about 80ha of oats already planted for the cattle.
"The oats are a bit patchy but there should be enough for an early feed; the rest will hopefully come up later in the season with some rain," he said.
"As well as considering the workload of the planting area each season I have to make sure there's enough country left for sorghum in the rotation."
While he finishes getting this summer's sorghum crop off the ground, Mr Smart has been spraying the fallow country due for this winter's crops for grasses and weeds following some recent rain and deciding whether or not to apply urea to the country before or after sowing.
"If I don't put some on before then I can spread it on the crop after sowing easily enough, after the crop comes up - I'm starting to run out of time to get it done pre-sowing, and even then it might be lost down the cracks in the soil," he said.
"I usually use 50 kilograms a hectare of starter and 45kg/ha of seed for the cereal crops, and they get broadleaf and grasses sprays in-crop.
"There always seems to be something to deal with each season - last year it was mice and some years you have to watch out for mildew if it's too wet."
Though the sorghum this summer was sown with a double disc opener by a contractor, Mr Smart said a no-till planter was used for the cereal crops, which were direct drilled.
"We've used the no-till method for about 15 years," he said.
"There are some sloped areas of the property that we can't farm because the soil is quite soft, so if it's farmed and we get a bit of rain it creates gutters in the soil."
At harvest time, the winter crops are taken straight off the header to the local silos.
"I don't like to take on any contracts or forward sell any of the crop - it's too big a risk if you don't have a good season and get the results you wanted for your crop," Mr Smart said.
"I just follow the daily grower prices on a day-to-day basis and see how things go.
"The sorghum this year has only just made the test weight - there's a bit of small grain in the crop - so I'll sell it load by load.
"It has done pretty well this year considering what it's gone through - it's just as well it was planted into country with decent soil moisture levels and had a few falls of rain to keep it going throughout the season, including 40-odd millimetres just before Christmas."
The sorghum paddocks from this summer's crop will be left to fallow, he said, and planted to cereal crops next winter.