TC's 2009 farm thread

Woke to gentle rain this morning. We have been planting wheat all week and I went till 9 pm last night as I thought it could be wet in the morning. I don't think there will be much usefull rain in it though.

It's been very dry on the Liverpool Plains for months now. All the big rain has missed us. We have had lots or rainy days, lots of drizzle, lots of cloud, but there just has not been a big total amount of rain here. It's been very wet to the north, west, south, and extremely wet to the east of us, but we have unfortunately missed the good falls. Talk so far is for a great winter cropping season for Australia, with reasonable prices. But there is also talk of the El-nino redeveloping and causing another dry season.

We got a tremendous summer, with way above average rainfall, that gave us a second bumper sorghum crop in a row. But autumn was dry. We got only 64 mills for the 3 months, when average rainfall should have been 130 mills. June rainfall has been poor too. As a result, we won't be able to plant as much as we want to, unless there is a decent fall of rain soon, at least 25 mills.


A photo of us planting wheat a few days ago,.....


kelnewcamera003.jpg


This block is 220 hectares. It's planting very nicely, it's going into great soil moisture, and the seed should germinate nicely even without rain. We are planting into sorghum stubble. The sorghum was harvested in March this year and yielded 7 tonnes per hectare.

This paddock last had wheat planted in it 2 years ago, Jun 07, harvested Dec 07. It then had sunflowers planted Jan 08, harvested June 08. Sorghum planted Oct 08, harvested March 09, and now going in with wheat again.



This photo has dad driving, and I'm sitting on the airseeder cart. We are putting out 300 kgs/hectare of urea, [138 kgs N] 50 kgs/hectare of a starter compound fertilizer containing N, P, S, and Z, [about 9 kgs N, 9 kgs P, 7 kgs S, 1 kg Z.], and 40 kgs/hectare wheat seed. We plant at 10 k/h. The planter is nine and a bit metres wide

The airseeder cart holds 9000 litres of product, so about 7 tonnes of seed and fertilizer. There is a big fan that blows air back through those big hoses in the photo, and then the seed/fert gets distributed across the planter,....

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This is a photo of me filling up the airseeder cart from our grouper on the truck. The grouper holds 10 tonnes of urea and 4 tonnes of starter compound fertilizer. We have the seed in a separate bin out of view,.....

kelnewcamera011.jpg



This patch of dirt is our most lowest flood prone land. The last big flood over it was in Nov 2000. We had 300 mills over a week, then another 100 mills in one night, sending down a massive flood. The water was 1.5 metres deep over this entire flood plain. We had a massive profit loss that year. It was bad timing for a flood. Being November, the wheat was ripe and was destroyed, and the summer crop was just planted, just inches high, and had to be replanted at great cost. Probably our worst ever year.

There hasn't been a real big flood since, and don't want to see another, but I will.



Costs of production have dropped heaps since last year. The urea was delivered on farm for $570 per tonne, compared to $900 to $1000 last year. Roundup CT has more than halved in price, from $12/litre to $5.50. All good.



Here is a couple of youtube videos. This one from the tractor cab,.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf99yjSKr-w&feature=channel


This one with me sitting on the airseeder cart with dad driving,....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmeFTje_9sY&feature=channel


See ya's.
 
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Are you sure you don't have a laptop in there somewhere so you can stay connect all the time;):D

Not sure what all the gizmo's do in that cab but it can't be far from programming this equipment to do the work all by it self.

Cheers
 
Are you sure you don't have a laptop in there somewhere so you can stay connect all the time;):D

Ha ha, spend enough time already on here.


Not sure what all the gizmo's do in that cab but it can't be far from programming this equipment to do the work all by it self.

Cheers


Yeah, it's probably not that far off.

But then, I'd be sitting at home worried about the computer doing something wrong. May as well be sitting out in the paddock on the gear anyway. And if the computer/robot did crap itself, or the satellite went off line, which happens often, the tractor and planter would keep going till the next town through fences, creeks, flip knows how far away.



I'm really disappointed about this rain. Computer models and forecasters have been predicting some good falls for us for today and Monday, but it all looks like being nothing. Just a nuisance.



See ya's.
 
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So are you a fan of Friends TC? (for others - refer to You Tube videos).

Nope, can't stand it. That's just what was on at the time.

Mostly listen to ABC radio in the day time, as there is not much worth watching. Or I'll watch a DVD. Lately this planting I've been watching on DVD the 12 part mini series, 'From the earth to the moon', directed by Ron Howard and with Tom Hanks commentating, about the US space race to the moon uptill and finishing with apollo 17.

See ya's.
 
Great post TC, looking forward to following the story this season. Looks like the only thing you're missing in the cabin is a bathroom. :)

Perhaps a stupid question, but with the advancement in technology now and in the future - you've already discussed why you still need to be in the cabin - are there already or do you believe there will be in the future larger sized machines eg. double the width so you only have to do say 50 passes through an individual field as opposed to 100? Short of that I can't really think of how much more developed it could get?

Anyway, here's hoping you get the rain you're after.
 
The auto-steer on the tractor keeps it on the straight and narrow so it seems the only reason TC is there is to turn it around at the end of the drill and as a guard dog to be sure things keep working.

Maybe you can train a blue dog to do that.
 
do you believe there will be in the future larger sized machines eg. double the width so you only have to do say 50 passes through an individual field as opposed to 100? .


My planter is about the standard for the Liverpool Plains, at 9 metres wide. And thus the headers are 9 metres wide and the boomsprays are 27 metres. 3 planter runs to a boom spray run, all on permanent tram tracks, with 3 metre wheel tracks. If you check out the first photo of mine on the first post of this thread you can sort of make out the tram tracks. We are a higher rainfall, higher yield area, and thus smaller farm size.

As you move into more marginal areas, the rainfall drops off and the farms get much bigger and the land gets cheaper. This means the planters get bigger too. North and west of here they'ed all be running 12 metre planters and headers, and 36 metre booms. Probably 2000 hectare average farm size instead of 1000. Go further out still, and the farms are much bigger still, and the planters are too.



This planter is owned by the Coggins family from south west Queensland. It broke the world record for planting wheat last year. They planted 900 hectares in 24 hours. The planter is 36 metres wide.

After breaking the record, they still had 10,000 hectares to plant.:eek:

http://www.simplicityaus.com.au/news_jun08_004.htm

r260392_1082281.jpg




This planter is one owned by Ron Greentree, Australia's biggest wheat grower in northern NSW. It is I think 24 metres wide, but is infact 2 planters and two air seeder carts, hitched side by side, pulled by a 600 horsepower, rubber tracked caterpillar......He'd have 4 or 5 of these rigs, plus get in a heap of contractors too. He hoped to grow 80,000 hectares and 200,000 tonnes last year, but not sure how he went......

article-1029019-01B88CCB00000578-55.jpg





For an insight into a top farm operation in a lower rainfall, more marginal area, check out these two blokes.

http://morvenvale.farmnet.com.au/

Zero till cropping 8000 hectares, which would be a typical farm size at Wagett. These blokes aren't typical farmers though, they are amongst the best. I've been on their farm, and it's a top operation.

You mighy also notice that all their machinery is red, whereas mine is all green. Green and red farm machinery is like holdens and fords.

Also, from the same fella's, a general agriculture blog. Very funny too.

http://david.farmnet.com.au/

This normally marginal area had a bumper wheat crop last year, and it's looking fantastic again. They had a very wet summer too, and their soil is full of water, so they won't need much rain to grow a big crop again this year. Average rainfall at Walgett is 470 mills average, as against my 670 mills average.


See ya's.
 
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Wow, that's some impressive figures! Hard for us city slickers to fathom land sized that large to operate on!

Again probably a really obvious question, but when you refer to higher yield areas due to rainfall - does this mean you can plant new crops more often than the lower yield regions, or just have increased amount of crops per hectare but same harvesting cycles?

Also, on a different subject - what's your opinion on the ABB/Viterra merger? It would seem to make them a stronger global player, but interested in your perspective.
 
Again probably a really obvious question, but when you refer to higher yield areas due to rainfall - does this mean you can plant new crops more often than the lower yield regions, or just have increased amount of crops per hectare but same harvesting cycles?


It refers to both what you have mentioned. My average yields would be higher per crop, and I can crop more often. Once out in these lower rainfall areas summer crops aren't very popular as they are a real punt, whereas in my area, summer crops are grown on a bigger scale than winter. I might grow 3 or 4 crops in 3 years. In a lower rainfall area they might grow just 2 crops in 3 years.

But that means I use much more fertilizer per crop. I might use the same amount of fertilizer as a farm 4 times bigger than mine in a marginal area. I have to spray weeds more often, due to more regular rain.

See ya's.
 
Wow, 20 mills overnight..:) Now that will do some good. I just hope I got it everywhere, and not just in my raingauge at my house. It fell rather heavily. Might get a smidgin more hopefully.

I've got in 300 hectares already. This should allow another 200 hectares to go in, which would give me the full 500 hectares that I'd planned originally, and leave 900 hectares for the summer plant.
Woo, hoo.



- what's your opinion on the ABB/Viterra merger? It would seem to make them a stronger global player, but interested in your perspective.

I don't have an opinion on this merger. It just hasn't interested me, so I couldn't say if good or bad.

See ya's.
 
brilliant thread

A quick envelope calculation of $300/t comes to around $450k gross on that sorghum field ... wow. Course, I imagine the net figure is a whole lot lower.

Us city paper-pushers and keyboard-bashers really don't appreciate the scale of farming operations, and the huge swings in cashflow that you have to contend with. This is a great thread that helps put us in touch with what's going on out there. Nice work TC.
 
We did get the rain everywhere. Plus more. It will probably rain tomorrow too. After a decent fall like that, it takes about 10 days for the soil to dry out enough to plant in the dead of winter. We just have to wait it out. We need a few clear sunny days, which in turn means big frosts. Frosts are great, as it means we will have a great sunny winters day. There is no frost this morning, and it will be cloudy cold and miserable all day.



A quick envelope calculation of $300/t comes to around $450k gross on that sorghum field ... wow. Course, I imagine the net figure is a whole lot lower.
.


We sold some sorghum forward ages ago for $260 on farm. Most of the rest has been sold for $180. Currently worth $190 and we still have 1500 tonnes to sell. So we will average about $200 per tonne.

The entire crop averaged 7.4 tonnes per hectare, at $200. Equals nearly $1500 gross per hectare. Cost $800 per hectare to grow. So profit of nearly $700 per hectare. We had 950 hectares planted.

Costs for this year to grow a crop will crash back down to about $500 per hectare. :)

Just remember I've had an above average season, with above average prices. I've made a heap of profit, but so I should have with the 850 mills of rain I got and a wet summer. I also grew a great wheat crop last year, but made nothing from it due to 200 mills of rain on it when ripe.

I went into these details on the other farm threads. This is the third edition.

See ya's.
 
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We started planting wheat again yesterday. We have another 200 hectares to plant on top of the 300 already in. Did 60 hectares both today and yesterday. We can't start too early, as the stubble is so wet and it won't flow, and you have to knock off early too as it gets too wet at night. Should be finished Sunday.

Global grain prices have dropped heaps in the last few weeks. Apparently US farmers have planted much more acres than usual, and the crops are looking excellent. For some reason the lower prices haven't flowed through to us much yet, but we have sold all our sorghum now anyway, so we ended up with about an average of $200 per tonne.



Before we plant I have to spray the weeds in front of the planter. I sprayed this block yesterday and it was planted today. This is me in the boomspray from the cab. I'm spraying the sorghum stubble that was harvested in March/April, and I'm approaching the neighbours fence. The "beeping" sound tells me I'm at the end of the run, I turn around on the headland, hit the auto steer and continue the next run. Doing about 25 k's an hour and covering 27 metres a run. Puting on 40 litres of water with a litre per hectare of roundup CT, and at $5.50 per litre it's a cheap application. We only use rainwater for spraying as it's much more effective than bore water. Have about 200,000 litres of rainwater storage, and that's just for spraying with. You can't really see the weeds as they are very small.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsxLEJQ9V6I

At 40 litres of mixture per hectare and a 3000 litre tank, I can spray 75 hectares to a tankfull, so I can spray in 1.5 hours more than we can plant all day.



We have had these steers and heifers on grazing oats since April. We sold them on Monday at Scone. Got 190c per kilo average, or about $740 per beast. Picture just before we put them on the truck.

farmJuly09007.jpg




The cows and bull are happy. They now get to graze on the oats that are left now the steers and heifers are gone. There is not much quality feed anywhere else. While we had a wet summer, there has only been about 100 mills since the start of March and with winter here we won't get much more feed for a while. The cows were on the sorghum stubble while the ground was hard and they wouldn't pack the soil down and do any damage, but since the nice rain a few weeks ago they were booted off.

farmJuly09011.jpg




The weather has been rotten. Heaps of cold and cloudy days. But normally we should be getting fine sunny days and big frosts. Not unusual to get a week of frosts straight. There has hardly been any frosts this year as there is so much cloud and wind about. This is causing problems in some areas. I've heard on the grapevine that some canola crops north of here are now flowering, and barley crops coming out in head, as they are way ahead of normal due to the lack of frosts. This would mean these crops will almost certainly get frosted and wiped out once the big frosts start. We will get frosts, it's just a matter of time.

See ya's.
 
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The weather has warmed up heaps. Getting plenty of light frosts, then beautiful warm days. Been getting up to 20 degrees some days. Today must have been even more.

The wheat all germinated perfectly. A good strike. The rainfall has been a bit light on. We are up to 370 mills so far for the year, but that would be a good 50 mills or so below the average for this time.

This wheat was planted in the middle of June. We put in roughly 300 hectares then and had to knock off as it was getting a bit dry. It was around about when I took the planting pics and the youtube vids on this thread,.........

Picture002.jpg



It's been sprayed for broadleaf weeds. It's fully tillered, and is about to take off with the warmer weather and the frosts abating.



This wheat was planted early July after it rained again and wet the soil up again. We put in roughly another 200 hectares. The wheat stubble beside the crop to the right will be going in with sorghum in November.

wheatAugust09005.jpg



I will spray the broadleaf weeds in this crop next week. It's been a little too early yet. You can't spray until the crop has put down all it's secondary roots.

The roos have been giving it a caneing. There is a mob of about 50 on our place. I asked them to hop along into the hills but they wouldn't. Took a bit of thinning out by me, and the ones left decided to move on. I'm sure the neighbours would like to have them.



All day today I've been carting gravel for the base of a new machinery shed. We need just a bit more room. Carted 8 loads at 16 tonnes each in our truck. This shed will be 24 metres long and 18 metres deep. I have more gravel to get yet. We will put on some more rain water tanks. With our rainfall of 670 mills we should get another 290,000 litres of rainwater, although it's not like we need any more.

wheatAugust09010.jpg




Input prices for fertilizer and roundup continue to drop. Grain prices are holding up, but they have stopped going up with the oil price. The US has announced much bigger than expected corn and wheat crops, which have put a roof on prices. About the only excitement going on is a drought in India. The monsoon has been very dry, and if it continues it could be good for prices.

A bit of rain would be nice now. It's been dry for about a month. Should be OK for another month or so, but a good dump sometime in September or early October should make it a good crop.

We have only put enough nitrogen on the later planted 200 hectares for a yield of about 3 tonnes per hectare. If we get some decent rain I will have to fly some more on. A big crop is about 6 tonnes per hectare, and to achieve that I would need another 150 kgs of urea, or about 70 kgs of N.


See ya's.
 
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