WITH a bigger emphasis on forage crops for his sheep and cattle breeding and trading business at Euarra, O'Connell, Tom Roberts now sows oats, brassica and barley from the second week in February.
"We have quite a long growing season and you wouldn't typically harvest until almost Christmas," he said.
"It gets very cold here, but doesn't get too hot, so provided you get the crops established early, they can get their roots out of that really cold zone and keep growing through winter."
Mr Roberts share-farms "Euarra" with John Bestwick and family, and with agronomist, Ross Yelland of Yellco Ag, has increased fodder production within the paddocks with a rotation of oats, brassica and barley with a five-year phase of lucerne and chicory mix pastures.
"Ross has had a big influence in our success in livestock production by helping us transform the way that we crop this place, what we grow and how we grow it," Mr Roberts said.
"This year we have planted about 600 hectares, 40 per cent Graza 50 oats, 40pc Greenslands brassica and 20pc Urambi barley."
A Seed Hawk air seeder was used sowing at 18 centimeter spacings with oats and barley sown at 80 kilograms per ha of seed with 80kg/ha of DAP and 80kh/ha urea while brassica was sown at 4kg/ha.
A dual chute on the machine places fertiliser and urea down in the same pass with the urea dropping a bit lower.
Mr Roberts said it was an eight-week growing period providing the season's right from planting to grazing.
"This year we have already been grazing the oats crop five weeks from planting.
"We did have some hot temperature in the middle of the growing period, and we've had good rain which has enabled sheep and cattle on the oats now for the past two weeks.
"This past event from 25mm to 46mm in different gauges throughout the property has given us confidence for a continued good autumn.
"But it's just been the year, there hasn't been different management, just the warner weather and the growth."
Mr Roberts said the reason the property is doing so well now was because he had containment fed through the dry period.
"That enabled us to rest the paddocks, and since we've had January and February rain the place has just boomed away because it had cover over it and sitting there ready to go," he said.
"That's been my biggest learning lesson out of these dry years.
"Learning how to feed stock and learning how to destock the place before you go too hard on it and flog it so it can't respond when drought breaks."
- See 'WA ewes a bargain before the bubble burst', p57