- Location
- southern riverina Australia
Stuff in plastic only lasts so long......of which I have more than enough. Plenty of empty hay sheds though.
Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.
- Thread starter Farmer Roy
- Start date
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
A MALLEE FARMER'S SIMPLE GUIDE TO RAINFALL
It seems we always welcome rain as farmers - except for those times we don’t. This is a very simple guide to help you out to save asking.
If we have a 20-30mm Rainfall event in:
JAN - MARCH: Welcomed and cursed. Great for stored moisture and profits of chemical companies. Kills family time.
APRIL: Celebrated wildly if occurs around Anzac Day.
MAY: Dancing in the paddocks rain event. Causes ABC radio to push farmers to publicly state that this could be their best year ever. Enables a public proclamation of the ‘break’.
JUNE: Yeah – we'll take it. It’s June. If an okay April / May, not too fussed as its cold and the crops aren’t growing much.
JULY: Welcomed - as long as it’s already not too wet, then some nervousness the crops aren’t sending their roots down in prep for a dry spring. If you come to visit expect to get your car dirty on the muddy driveway.
AUGUST: Critical. Nervousness as weather warming up and frosts a risk. Caution: a good Aug rainfall event can lull non farmers into thinking the season can not go wrong from here. They would be wrong.
SEPTEMBER: Season defining. A second follow up event even better. Lot’s of enjoyable crop crawls. Media forgets us as there are no more drought and dust photos. Can allow farmers minds to drift to the possibility a positive season finish.
If we have a 10-20mm Rainfall event in:
1st WK OCT: Welcomed as will benefit most crops. Hay guys grumpy.
2nd WK OCT: May be welcomed, depending on what happened in wk one. Hay guys still grumpy.
3rd WK OCT: Tolerated, as unlikely to do damage.
4th WK OCT: Tolerated, depending on rainfall week 3. Creates harvest nerves.
1st WK NOV: Frustrating, as just delaying start of harvest.
2nd WK NOV: If no rainfall in wk 1 - gives opportunity to stop and fix stuff not picked up preseason, or broken in harvest week 1.
Major Harvest Rainfall events:
ONE: Okay
TWO: Tolerable if conditions are good (sunshine / wind) immediately following.
THREE: Frustrating, with risk of downgrades and crop damage. Glass half full farmers will speak of stored moisture for following year.
FOUR OR MORE: Completely over it. Harvesters in shed by Christmas unlikely. Don’t talk to us.
Hope this makes the reasons for our moods, conversations and paddock dancing clearer.
SUMMARY:
There is no such thing as bad weather, just poor timing, different perspectives and bad choice of clothing.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
anyway, rain isnt really a major concern here at the moment, the bigger issue is frost
some may remember me mentioning a cold snap a few weeks / month ago, when i mentioned the possibility of frost damage to my wheat & durum ?
its hard to judge the amount of damage until the grain starts filling ( or not filling, as the case may be ) - well. it looks like we may have lost up to 20%, even though i did delay planting a bit due to worries about this happening. Being at one of the lower points on a fairly big floodplain / valley, cold air always flows & settles like water, in the lowest ponts.
oh well, it is what it is. At least if it rains a bit more & a bit more moisture in the soil profile, we will turn around & double crop mungbeans ( a quick 90 day crop, low yielding but potentially high value ) straight behind the header. Mung beans can be very finicky & a bit hit n miss, but a reasonable crop of them shi1ts all over wheat from a $/ha point of view. At $1200 / t, they dont need to yield very high
some may remember me mentioning a cold snap a few weeks / month ago, when i mentioned the possibility of frost damage to my wheat & durum ?
its hard to judge the amount of damage until the grain starts filling ( or not filling, as the case may be ) - well. it looks like we may have lost up to 20%, even though i did delay planting a bit due to worries about this happening. Being at one of the lower points on a fairly big floodplain / valley, cold air always flows & settles like water, in the lowest ponts.
oh well, it is what it is. At least if it rains a bit more & a bit more moisture in the soil profile, we will turn around & double crop mungbeans ( a quick 90 day crop, low yielding but potentially high value ) straight behind the header. Mung beans can be very finicky & a bit hit n miss, but a reasonable crop of them shi1ts all over wheat from a $/ha point of view. At $1200 / t, they dont need to yield very high
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
How finicky Roy? Might have a spare pivot this summer....a cash crop would be handy when the wheat comes off.
Steel
Member
- Location
- Finley, Riverina, Australia
There has been a few Mung bean crops around here. Never heard of big yields. I was thinking of preirrigating wheat stubble and sowing into moisture and hoping it gets through with a couple of summer storms.
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
Might have to talk to you and Hayden.
You ever grown Mung?
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
Nope. Consensus might be soyabeans if I can find seed. Or maybe even sunflowers??
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Not funny in your context mate, but it's always amused me how that cold air will sit in the hollowsanyway, rain isnt really a major concern here at the moment, the bigger issue is frost
some may remember me mentioning a cold snap a few weeks / month ago, when i mentioned the possibility of frost damage to my wheat & durum ?
its hard to judge the amount of damage until the grain starts filling ( or not filling, as the case may be ) - well. it looks like we may have lost up to 20%, even though i did delay planting a bit due to worries about this happening. Being at one of the lower points on a fairly big floodplain / valley, cold air always flows & settles like water, in the lowest ponts.
oh well, it is what it is. At least if it rains a bit more & a bit more moisture in the soil profile, we will turn around & double crop mungbeans ( a quick 90 day crop, low yielding but potentially high value ) straight behind the header. Mung beans can be very finicky & a bit hit n miss, but a reasonable crop of them shi1ts all over wheat from a $/ha point of view. At $1200 / t, they dont need to yield very high
Our house is 21m ASL and the office at work is 12m, and will get twice as many if not more, frosts than we get here - 500 m away
We had some good frosts here about '98? that killed most cabbage trees and eucalyptus trees in low-lying areas, probably closer to Blaithin's temperatures than our own that year.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Nobody ever said it would be easy.
Never realised it would take so long! Guess when we say hay we imagine grass. Every days a school day.
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
Your probably used to trying to make it in summer there too. Here its spring. Temps fluctuate wildly. Just been cutting this afternoon. Now its drizzling again.
Steel
Member
- Location
- Finley, Riverina, Australia
I have never grown them so would budget on a low yield.
We are putting corn on our pivot for silage for the dairy next door.
I would not grow soy beans for under $1000/t we have got 4.5t/ha once, but 2.5 t is more likely.
- Location
- mid wales
I'm guessing our summer daylight hours would be longer than your summer daylight hours due to latitude, plus your trying in spring, so could be 7 hrs less sun in a day, which is an extra days drying almost.
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
Summer isnt an issue here for lucerne hay. But pasture hay is generally made early to mid October (mid spring). Most years the temps are getting up to the low 30's. Only had a few of them so far.
Steel
Member
- Location
- Finley, Riverina, Australia
My chick peas are loving the cool spring. Still flowering and lots of pods.
Attachments
Sheila Cooke
Member
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- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
So far, so good
Too far, no good
Too far, no good
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
now, you have to bear with me, i come from deep, flat, vast alluvial floodplains & have also been zero till pretty much since 1994, but i have to ask the question . . .
why the fu`ck would they farm on that slope, let alone cultivate it
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
"Because it needs new grass" and "because we need to do our cropping before the slope rules come in"now, you have to bear with me, i come from deep, flat, vast alluvial floodplains & have also been zero till pretty much since 1994, but i have to ask the question . . .
why the fu`ck would they farm on that slope, let alone cultivate it
I know
My day job is a constant battle against my own personal values, standards, ethics even, but there we have it