Our soils are red-brown earth and we have an annual rainfall of 600mm. We grow a variety of dual-purpose and spring wheat, canola and pastures as well as running 200 head of cattle.
Usually, we would have been sowing our 970 canola around the third week in March, followed by our winter wheat and spring canola around 20 April, finishing with our spring wheat around ANZAC day but the weather has not allowed that this year.
With the late March break of 100ml we are madly trying to sow dual-purpose crops such as Kittyhawk, Bennet and 970 canola. However, the rain has made us wary of being bogged and we don’t want a repeat of last year!
Everyone is quite excited around the region (I am also an agronomist) as there is good moisture profiles but some of the areas that were drying out from the 2022 floods have got quite boggy again potentially reducing crop area.
Resistant ryegrass and wild radish are again pressuring us and with varying levels of resistance we are relying heavily on our pre-emergents. The recent rain has allowed for good germination of these weeds, which has allowed us to use our double knock strategies in our resistant management. We are closely monitoring mouse activity as we have seen an increase in numbers and will revaluate management as we sow.
We’re concerned with the decrease in commodity prices particularly canola. With inputs remaining at high levels we really need larger commodity prices to justify the high cost of the inputs. However, we are relieved to see the fall in Urea pricing which improves the gross margin. Staffing continues to be an issue not just within our region but industry wide.