It’s been almost 12 months since my last column, and I am pleased to say most areas have received some badly needed rain after a dry start to the sowing season.
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The dry start presented quite a few challenges to farmers in the district.
Although most tend to start their sowing program before the break, there were a lot of crops that didn’t have enough moisture to shoot and sat in the ground waiting for a drink.
This also meant weeds didn’t germinate either, so weed control becomes a bit more of an issue in these seasons with a late break.
At the research farm, trial sowing is progressing well. Some crops are already out of the ground. Many trials are examining crop performance at different sowing times, so they are sown on a certain date rather than when conditions best suit.
We have more than 20 separate research projects on the farm this year, and it is quite a challenge to manage these throughout the season. All are different in many ways, and it takes a lot planning to work out which areas suit certain trials. We need to be mindful that each separate project doesn’t interfere with neighbouring trials. This involves constant monitoring and communication.
Both internal and external projects are conducted on the farm, and given the number of trials on the research facility, we are once again running at full capacity. Horsham has by far the most field trials being conducted compared with all the other government farms in Victoria. It is a credit to our research leaders, technical staff and everyone else involved.
Our commercial/rotational sowing is nearly completed, with the field peas being the last crop to be sown. Peas are used as a green manure crop, and most will either be disced in or chemically fallowed later in the year. After all the trials have been sown, we will have a bit of filling-in sowing happening in certain areas, particularly in the irrigation bays.
To enable us to irrigate evenly across the bays, as much area as possible needs to be sown. It is particularly important that the areas in front of the outlets are sown to spread the water across the bay as quickly as possible.
The home life is just as hectic as work, as it is for everyone. Kids activities take up a lot of time. It is a major juggling act between work and social and sporting pursuits. Kassidy continues to work hard at gymnastics, as well as ‘Kick up the Artz’, and until the winter break, swimming. Jonty attends Ikido and swimming, and is showing a big interest in getting into basketball. School activities also add to the fun of chasing around after active children.
I hope you all have a successful year, in both work and play, and the season continues to improve.