My goodness, it’s been some time since I contributed to In My Paddock, so I will have to wrack my brain as to what has happened over the past eight months.
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This season kicked off with sowing starting on the “traditional” Anzac Day start date. A total of 50mm provided pretty good conditions to sow into.
The “new to us” seeder allowed us to cover more area more quickly as the sowing width increased by four metres.
Instead of the traditional cereals, followed by lentils, followed by chickpea sowing, we chopped and changed a little this year to reduce our risk of having each commodity sown at the same time.
Rainfall also prolonged the sowing program, but hey, no one is going to complain about that.
- Tracey Beddison
This made progress a little slower, as obviously machinery had to be cleaned out before the next plantings could happen. Hopefully, this will pay dividends towards the end of the season.
Rainfall also prolonged the sowing program, but hey, no one is going to complain about that.
And need I say, mice, rotten little rodents, caused us much grief.
Sowing of paddocks was immediately followed by baiting of paddocks, and often not just once, but many times.
Evidence of their activity, despite our best attempts, can be seen in some of our paddocks where they have thinned the crops out. And they are still evident particularly in the canola crops, where they have taken a liking to the pretty and tasty, yellow flowers.
Given the nice damp conditions, urea has also been spread on all cereals and canola. This has given the plants a nice boost along.
Amongst all of this, the boomspray has been getting a fairly decent workout as well.
With all paddock spraying pretty much under control, we have turned our attention to fence line spraying, but having said that, grass weed control in lentils stills needs to be addressed.
Despite all of this, we managed to sneak away to Germany and France, for a little over two weeks, as part of the Emmetts Tour Group.
Visiting the John Deere Header and Tractor Factories was a particular highlight.
It was also great to meet and talk with farmers in both countries. Not to mention new friendships made along the way.
So moving into spring, our moisture profile is good, in fact, probably better than it was this time last year.
We hope that the forecast dry finish to spring is a “non-event”, and that nice, mild conditions might prevail.
In recent weeks, we bid farewell to our trusty harvester and the boys are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new one. I hope this one serves us as well as the old girl did.
So til next time…
