IF LAST year was chalk, this year is definitely cheese when you compare where we are at today to the same time last year.
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Hands down this is the best start to any season in my farming career, with good moisture and warmth giving all our crops great early growth.
We have been busily shaking out and spraying all the three-year-old fungicide purchased for pulses for such a season.
Even though we have found some Russian wheat aphids, they are only in two runs up one wheat paddock where we didn’t put out phosphorous and are consequently attaching the weaker plants.
The one thing that is really disappointing is the cereal grain prices, which are feeling the weight of massive global production already without any domestic harvest pressure yet.
The dairy sector is reeling from a massive price correction that might make shifting hay difficult.
This will be a shame as our oaten paddock is looking very solid compared with last year.
The shining stars are still chickpeas and lentils with both the crops and prices looking good so far.
However as my egg farming friends always keep reminding me that to first have an egg to count you need a healthy chicken to get you there.
The big change in my life is taking on the lead role as president of the Victorian Farmers Federation earlier this year.
Being the vice-president for the past four years has definitely provided me with a great depth of knowledge about all types of agricultural issues.
It has been a flurry of meetings with many government and industry officials while my self-imposed performance indicator of wearing out a vehicle is also well on its way.
So far I’ve eaten nearly 8000 kilometres of bitumen in my first five weeks of the job.
Some of the key things that have been keeping me busy has been the dairy crisis, native vegetation, funding of local government and the Country Fire Authority agreement.
Meanwhile I am also helping organise a regional assemble on October 5.
The assembly is designed to empower the community to propose local projects that will significantly boost communities and economies.
Any ideas that you think will help the region prosper and grow can be logged at https://engage.regions.vic.gov.au.
Anyhow, I hope that we all have plenty to talk about during the silo line-ups at harvest this year, with a good winter and hopefully a spring that helps us get everything home.