Harvesters firing and a line of trucks at the silos has been a forgotten sight on the Liverpool Plains in recent times but for one contractor 2020 is set to be his biggest in 24 years.
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A water logged planting period back in June meant some growers are still harvesting slightly later winter crops and are racing to beat more wet weather forecast for coming days.
Willow Tree contract harvester Russell Smith and his two-year-old Case IH 8240 header haven't stopped after the biggest stint in his contracting career stretched from Moree to Coonamble and back to the Plains.
As the only header stripping a couple thousand acres of Lancer wheat, Mr Smith was halfway through a very promising crop from Scott and Jane Duddy of Millers Creek Plains.
Off the back of a spartacus barley harvest averaging 5t/ha, the wheat was sitting at 5.4t/ha.
The wheat was planted from late June/early July and as a result had avoid lodging and subsequent frost damage that many earlier crops had faced.
"All in all everywhere I've been this year has been excellent," Mr Smith said.
"It's terrific, it really is, because it peps you up and all the little businesses get pumped up. It's great to see trucks lined up at the silos again because it's been a long time since that's happened.
"I did the barley harvest here 12 months ago but prior to that we had no summer crops for two years which is very unheard on the Liverpool Plains; the safest area in the world I'd say.
"I bought this header new in 2018 and it really only did last year's barley crop and just here locally and then back in to the shed. I'm trying to make up for lost time."
The Duddys normally don't grow a lot of wheat but after three straight years of barley needed to integrate it into the rotation more.
Mr Duddy said it had been a tricky year, having received up to 700 millimetres of rain, but it was a good result.
"The only thing we did differently was we weren't able to put fertiliser on prior to planting, it had to be done mid crop because it was too wet," he said.
"Some of it was too wet to plant, we couldn't actually get onto it."
Mungbeans will be added into the upcoming summer planting window.
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
