Gareth and I, along with our young family Amelea and Ruben, farm north of Minnipa on the Goyders Line South Australia.
We run a conservation farming system growing wheat, lentils, barley, canola, vetch, field peas and self-regenerating medic pastures rotationally grazed by a small herd of self-replacing Red Poll cattle. With heat waves and hot northerly winds in summer and average annual rainfall of only 300mm, residue cover on our sandy soils was a huge driver in changing over to the no till in 2010.
It didn’t take long to see the benefits of no till in our unique farming climate, so it was a natural progression to using a stripper front for harvesting. Pre-empting the bumper 2022 harvest the Shelbourne stripper front arrived in the nick of time and was put straight to work after a number of modifications to the harvester.
The speed of harvest increased respectably and enabled us to get it off safely into bins and a stockpile before weather could downgrade it. Sprouted grain downgraded much of the 2021 harvest so it was a huge relief to get much more grain off, with less strain on the harvester with a significant fuel saving too.
The lengthy stubble, while dangerous to shorts-wearing staff, has left dense protection over what would normally be a short, thinner stubble due to low yields common for our region. The cattle will be pleased to have taller feed as well as the chaff piles, and we anticipate less impaction and drift on the sandy soils caused by machinery and livestock. Further habitat for beneficial insects, lower summer soil temps, reduced evaporation and increased organic matter will be added bonuses. While the stripper front may provide some new challenges ahead, we are certain the benefits should outweigh the negatives.
The increased harvest rate coupled with record yields created issues with harvest logistics. The commercial storage and handling operators did a fantastic job in absorbing the extra grain, but delays from breakdowns, falling numbers testing and reduced opening hours to manage staff fatigue caused by staff shortages caused us frustration at times.
Truck operators were stretched to their limits with little support from interstate contractors. Our thoughts turned to on farm grain storage (OFS), traditionally not required across Eyre Peninsula with limited domestic markets and a world class storage and handling facility built by SACBH.
Those storage sites are now progressively reaching end of life and become condemned. Remaining storages elevator capacity is struggling to keep pace with modern harvesters. We believe it is unrealistic to expect the current transport, handling and storage system to cope with seasons like this. Good OFS allows farmers to maintain or improve harvest output, reduce freight cost by better utilising their own trucks, avoid inflated harvest freight pricing, utilise local transport operators better to freight direct to port off season and blend to improve quality specifications.
Grain marketers will play an important role in this and alter their behaviour to buying grain on farm and working with growers and storage and handling operators to get that grain to port in an efficient manner. The newer S&H operators are beginning down this path, but further evolution is needed to reduce costs. Australia has much higher costs of grain to port than many of its export competitors, this needs to change if we are to remain competitive in the long term.
As our harvest drew to a close on the last swath, we were extremely grateful for the timely rain, kind finish and exceptional yields experienced by all the farming families across the district and beyond.