Farming in Australia, Youtube channel.

[T Bourne]

How does it cope with being driven over at that stage?

I'll tell you in about a week. I'm just getting into lucerne in a bigger way so not fully familiar with its particularitys. The first paddock I ever did (the one that I have been harvesting this year) I did as a Spring establishment and therefore had to do lots of watering and you can still see some tracks in it 2 and a half years later. A stand of lucerne doesn't thicken up so what you see at establishment is what you get. The trouble was getting 5mm the day after drilling which germinated it and then taking four days to get across it with the irrigator. Hopefully it will be ok.

 

[Richard Smyth]

Night spraying paraquat.
360 ha should keep me out of trouble for a while.

 

[T Bourne]

View attachment 493230 View attachment 493226 Night spraying paraquat.
360 ha should keep me out of trouble for a while.

Nice! What capacity do you have with your sprayer?

 

[Richard Smyth]

25 meter. 7600 litres including the 2200 litre tank I've built on front linkage.

 

[T Bourne]

View attachment 493342 25 meter. 7600 litres including the 2200 litre tank I've built on front linkage.

Nice, you could certainly cover some ground with that. What brand is the sprayer?

 

[Richard Smyth]

It's an oster. They were built at Kadina but sadly not made any more. Does a lot of hard work and doesn't cost much to keep going.

I'd have another if they were still made.

 

[T Bourne]

Well it's been really busy for about 3 months, we've been harvesting potatoes flat out and unusually, have had a good run. So much so that we have finished in record time. This was finishing the last paddock off which happened to be mine,

Then we got rained out

We got going a day later and the last row was a nice sight,

and the last truck out of the paddock,

The next job was rock picking,

I found a beauty!

 

[T Bourne]

I trimmed some branches so I could reclaim a drill width of paddock,

I got all the spud ground ploughed and lime spread on the home paddock.

I drilled the lease paddock down to grass and mine to winter wheat,

I had some issues with the electric fan on my drill not supplying enough air to carry the wheat seeds. I've drilled grass, Lucerne and oats ok but the wheat was just too heavy so I now need to find/build a hydraulic fan for it. I was able to borrow my mate's Lemkin drill to get my wheat in so no great problem. Now it's onto all the other little winter jobs that must be done before it gets hectic again. Like steam cleaning the red mud off the loo so it can go back to the hire shop.

Here's a beautiful sunrise-ish out our living room window, just splendid.

 

[T Bourne]

Here are my latest videos on YouTube. I forgot to add them onto here after uploading them.

 

[T Bourne]

 

[T Bourne]

 

[T Bourne]

 

[Richard Smyth]

Seeding barley a month ago.

 

[T Bourne]

View attachment 543012 Seeding barley a month ago.

Very nice Richard, how wide is that seeder and is it a disc or tyne drill. Here's my wheat that I drilled on the 22/6. It's just starting to shoot.

Have you had enough moisture up there?

 

[Richard Smyth]

Very nice Richard, how wide is that seeder and is it a disc or tyne drill. Here's my wheat that I drilled on the 22/6. It's just starting to shoot.View attachment 543044 Have you had enough moisture up there?

Yours looks good. Won't be long till it's through.

It's 40 ft. Tyne machine. Morris air cart and case concord bar. Ours is all up and away. Had to replant some canola because of mice and bugs but even it is going well now.

We are looking ok for moisture. Good rain over harvest and 55- 80 mm fell in April and early may depending on farm. Could use another drop soon just to keep it ticking along. Lot of areas struggling. Hear stories of 20% emergence or less due to lack of rain. 15 mm rain for the year. Gotta feel for those guys.

 

[T Bourne]

Yours looks good. Won't be long till it's through.

It's 40 ft. Tyne machine. Morris air cart and case concord bar. Ours is all up and away. Had to replant some canola because of mice and bugs but even it is going well now.

We are looking ok for moisture. Good rain over harvest and 55- 80 mm fell in April and early may depending on farm. Could use another drop soon just to keep it ticking along. Lot of areas struggling. Hear stories of 20% emergence or less due to lack of rain. 15 mm rain for the year. Gotta feel for those guys.

It must be very hard at times for some of the guys up there, I can only imagine. We're very blessed here with pretty good water security, despite the erratic weather patterns we've had the last few years. We're currently quite wet, though it "should" be allot wetter for this time of year being our wet season. Down South Tas it's worse, some were still irrigating mid June! We had a wet summer so I think it's just balancing out, it usually does.

 

[Richard Smyth]

It must be very hard at times for some of the guys up there, I can only imagine. We're very blessed here with pretty good water security, despite the erratic weather patterns we've had the last few years. We're currently quite wet, though it "should" be allot wetter for this time of year being our wet season. Down South Tas it's worse, some were still irrigating mid June! We had a wet summer so I think it's just balancing out, it usually does.

It does balance out. Some of the old fellas getting no rain this year reckon it's an averaging year. They have had it very good for a long time in some areas.

Main thing is try and keep costs down in my area and land has been cheap although it seems to be getting out of control recently

 

[T Bourne]

It does balance out. Some of the old fellas getting no rain this year reckon it's an averaging year. They have had it very good for a long time in some areas.

Main thing is try and keep costs down in my area and land has been cheap although it seems to be getting out of control recently

Yes definately. Land prices are ridiculous in my area due largely to how profitable dairy has historically been, we're talking $20,000 to $35,000 per ha. But then the productivity of the land is relatively high. It's hard to get started though.

 

[Richard Smyth]

Yes definately. Land prices are ridiculous in my area due largely to how profitable dairy has historically been, we're talking $20,000 to $35,000 per ha. But then the productivity of the land is relatively high. It's hard to get started though.

Getting land bought is my problem too. Renting everything at the moment. Land is cheap but need a lot of it it to make a living. Need a nice small block to get started but they don't come up often and usually go even more ridiculous.

 

[T Bourne]

Getting land bought is my problem too. Renting everything at the moment. Land is cheap but need a lot of it it to make a living. Need a nice small block to get started but they don't come up often and usually go even more ridiculous.

Yeah same here, as far as value for money, the small blocks that are remotely affordable are allot dearer per ha than the big ones. I just need to find more land to lease, that's harder than you would think too.