I'll dig for links in a minute (coffee) but my info is out of the russian science ministry
TC's 2009 farm thread
- Thread starter topcropper
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I'll dig for links in a minute (coffee) but my info is out of the russian science ministry
I've no idea. I wouldn't think there'd be any support and I'm not sure why there should be. Perhaps if it didn't rain and you were making a loss and you had minimal assets you might get a bit of a drought handout.
I'm against any handouts/government support. Get rid of the lot as far as I'm concerned. Most farmers elligible for handouts aren't viable anyway I reckon and should sell up and get on with life. The reason that most farms are so big and efficient in this country is due to agriculture being mostly unsubsidised. It's worked well. Farms have been rationalised, the small, lazy, incompetant and inefficient have moved on and those left have a great future ahead.
See ya's.
I agree with your sentiments in regards to productivity etc but do think that food security is pivotal, and the occasional helping hand in the case of things like drought etc are a good idea.
Anyway I thought there were tax exemptions etc on primary industry for vehicles/machinery that exceeded usual exemptions as per small business.
I know a guy up here (marine biologist) who was helped out by government when he decided to try a new venture in the form of barramundi and prawn farming about 20 years ago. Didn't go so well in the end, but he ended up with the land. I think that his primary goal was to scam the land in any event, but in the case of a sincere attempt to create a novel industry, I support the move. The next one in that field is the completion of the mudcrab breeding cycle, but I get the feeling that the south east asians are going to get there first because labour is so cheap over there.
Cheers for the reply
The sorghum was planted on the 9th of November. It takes a lot longer here because we are so much cooler than you. I could try and plant a bit earlier but it was slow enough coming out any of the ground anyway. Whats the earliest you would plant? The main head on each plant has well and truly finished but the first lot of tillers are slow. Any later tillers are just weeds. I might have to plant thicker to stop excessive tillering, but then if we get a dry summer we may be worse off. My conclusion is that maize suits our climate better
As for spraying - it's done now. It may go back to a winter crop or summer crop depending on harvest and moisture. Some of it is going in to seed potatoes, sort of goes against no-till but they pump the fertiliserr on so it should be worthwhile. The main reason for spraying was to knock out the ryegrass in between the sorghum.Hey TC I've updated my blog. For everyone else I have a blog about my experiments in summer crop production in Southern Victoria. Basically I'm trying to do what TC and his neighbours do, but in Southern Vic rather than Northern NSW. http://southerncorn.blogspot.com/
We might plant in mid October if it is hot and if the week ahead is forecast to remain warm. But early November is prefered. We normally change to sunflowers if the sorghum is not planted by Jan 1st, however this year we planted sorghum into the second week of January, and while it was a punt, we got away with it as the grain was filled before the first frost a few weeks ago, and we've had a fair few now.
So we have almost a three month planting window. Obviously, the further north of here you go, the longer the window, but north of here there is a period in the middle where they prefer not to plant as it gets too hot. So they plant either early, Sept into early Oct, or they will knock off for a while, and then plant say into January.
I would definately agree that corn is more suited to your climate.
Have you been following global grain prices? CBOT wheat up 7% overnight.
Drought in Europe, and elsewhere has the global grain crop on a knife-edge. Exciting and rewarding times to be a grain grower.See ya's.
We might plant in mid October if it is hot and if the week ahead is forecast to remain warm. But early November is prefered. We normally change to sunflowers if the sorghum is not planted by Jan 1st, however this year we planted sorghum into the second week of January, and while it was a punt, we got away with it as the grain was filled before the first frost a few weeks ago, and we've had a fair few now.
I would definately agree that corn is more suited to your climate.
Have you been following global grain prices? CBOT wheat up 7% overnight.
See ya's.
I think if you replaced the word sorghum with corn in your first paragraph that might be us. I didn't know the CBOT was up that much. I did know it was pretty dry in Europe though, and the US. Some wheat growing areas in OK and Texas have only had 2" since July
Have you been harvesting that late sorghum? Do you have to dry it?Had a few goes at it. It will all have to be dried. It might be down to 15% this week, so we''ll get into it at that. It's not going to yield as well as hoped. Might just go 4 tonnes per hectare, disappointing.
Your blog is fantastic. It's in my favourites.
See ya's.
Thanks for the positive comments about my blog. It's good to know that someone is reading.
We're not gunna get the grain drier back for a while now so I'm thinking that we might have to harvest our sorghum soon and dry it later. Any idea what moisture level it good be stored at for 2-3 months over winter, either with or without aeration. I've been told that you can store grain in silo bags at higher moisture than silos if it is sealed off properly. I'm a little bit skeptical about this though.
We're not gunna get the grain drier back for a while now so I'm thinking that we might have to harvest our sorghum soon and dry it later. Any idea what moisture level it good be stored at for 2-3 months over winter, either with or without aeration. I've been told that you can store grain in silo bags at higher moisture than silos if it is sealed off properly. I'm a little bit skeptical about this though.
With aeration you could store it safely at 18% or even more. Without aeration and for 2 or 3 months I'd suggest 15% or maybe 16%, but keep a close eye on it. But I'm only guessing, as we'd never have to push the limits like that.
We have two dryers like the one you used, but older models. And we have 3000 tonnes of mostly aerated storage of our own and another 1000 tonnes on the farm we lease. Makes for easy harvest management. If no rain is forecast we dry as we go, or if rain is coming we harvest and dry later.
I know nothing about silo bags and I hope I never get to use them. Looks like hard work to me.
See ya's.
We have two dryers like the one you used, but older models. And we have 3000 tonnes of mostly aerated storage of our own and another 1000 tonnes on the farm we lease. Makes for easy harvest management. If no rain is forecast we dry as we go, or if rain is coming we harvest and dry later.
I know nothing about silo bags and I hope I never get to use them. Looks like hard work to me.
See ya's.
For those who don't know what silo bags are there is a picture here:
The bag itself is big long tube of plastic similar to builders plastic. It is 60-90m long, 2.7m dia. and 0.25mm thick. White on the outside and black inside. The tractor and machine are pushed forward as the bag fills. The bag is stationary. Each bag holds 200-300 tonne of grain, depending on the length. You can cut them off shorter if you have a smaller quantity. Here is a picture of the machine that unloads the bags. It rolls the plastic up as it pumps the grain out.
2005 was the first year that we had problems with moving grain at harvest time. We had been steadily expanding our crop area and at that stage I think we had about 800 or 900 hectares. There is bugger all storage in our district so we were selling to feed mills at harvest time. We only have 300 tonne of on farm storage. 2006 was a drought so no problem moving grain. In 2007 we knew we had to do something. We bought a silo bag inloader and a chaser bin. We put about 1500 tonne in bags that year. We also contract filled and emptied 400 tonne for a local feed mill. We had to buy an outloader as well, since there was no-one else within 250 km that owns one. We have since hired out the outloader as neighbours have bought their own inloaders.
Silo bags have two main advantages that I see:
The silo bags won for us based purely on economics. To set up it cost us about $70,000 for the two machines and the chaser bin. To put the same amount in silos it would have cost us a similar amount ($70,000) to buy a chaser bin, 2nd hand truck and an augar. We already have a truck and augar but would have needed a bigger truck to keep up using the chaser bin and to buy cheap silos you need a bigger augar. Silos are cheaper per tonne as they get taller and wider. Assuming we bought big silos it would have cost $100/tonne for silos. 1500 tonne x $100 = $150,000.
I reckon you could argue that silos depreciate at the same rate as inflation. In any case you should be able to get an I/O loan for them. So for cash flow purposes you could price them interest only. That being the case $100/tonne x 8% = $8/tonne/year. Silo bags are $4/tonne. So if the silos are used twice per year, then they are competitive. If you are using a silo only once per year then the silo bags are cheaper. If you have a drought and some silos aren't used then they still cost money; silo bags dont because you just don't buy any. So I think silo bags are good for taking up the surplus in a good year.
Another argument for silos is that with long term storage they can pay for themselves in one year on a rising grain market. So when grain is cheap I need to see the bank manager, get an I/O loan for some silos and tell him I'll have no income for twelve months.
The bag itself is big long tube of plastic similar to builders plastic. It is 60-90m long, 2.7m dia. and 0.25mm thick. White on the outside and black inside. The tractor and machine are pushed forward as the bag fills. The bag is stationary. Each bag holds 200-300 tonne of grain, depending on the length. You can cut them off shorter if you have a smaller quantity. Here is a picture of the machine that unloads the bags. It rolls the plastic up as it pumps the grain out.
2005 was the first year that we had problems with moving grain at harvest time. We had been steadily expanding our crop area and at that stage I think we had about 800 or 900 hectares. There is bugger all storage in our district so we were selling to feed mills at harvest time. We only have 300 tonne of on farm storage. 2006 was a drought so no problem moving grain. In 2007 we knew we had to do something. We bought a silo bag inloader and a chaser bin. We put about 1500 tonne in bags that year. We also contract filled and emptied 400 tonne for a local feed mill. We had to buy an outloader as well, since there was no-one else within 250 km that owns one. We have since hired out the outloader as neighbours have bought their own inloaders.
Silo bags have two main advantages that I see:
- You don't need trucks at harvest time, as the grain goes straight from the chaser bin to the bag
- Capital cost - a single use bag costs $4/tonne, a silo costs $100/tonne plus. I'll discuss this more below.
- Grain is safer from rodents and birds.
- Easier to chemicaly treat grain for insects
- lower cost if used several times per year - you can take grain out, treat it or dry it and put it in another silo without having to buy more bags.
- More convenient. Grain can be emptied out of a silo, rain, hail or shine. Not always possible with a silo bag depending on where they are located.
- Grain can be aerated in silos
- Grain will store for longer in a silo
The silo bags won for us based purely on economics. To set up it cost us about $70,000 for the two machines and the chaser bin. To put the same amount in silos it would have cost us a similar amount ($70,000) to buy a chaser bin, 2nd hand truck and an augar. We already have a truck and augar but would have needed a bigger truck to keep up using the chaser bin and to buy cheap silos you need a bigger augar. Silos are cheaper per tonne as they get taller and wider. Assuming we bought big silos it would have cost $100/tonne for silos. 1500 tonne x $100 = $150,000.
I reckon you could argue that silos depreciate at the same rate as inflation. In any case you should be able to get an I/O loan for them. So for cash flow purposes you could price them interest only. That being the case $100/tonne x 8% = $8/tonne/year. Silo bags are $4/tonne. So if the silos are used twice per year, then they are competitive. If you are using a silo only once per year then the silo bags are cheaper. If you have a drought and some silos aren't used then they still cost money; silo bags dont because you just don't buy any. So I think silo bags are good for taking up the surplus in a good year.
Another argument for silos is that with long term storage they can pay for themselves in one year on a rising grain market. So when grain is cheap I need to see the bank manager, get an I/O loan for some silos and tell him I'll have no income for twelve months.
We finally finished the sorghum harvest a few hours ago. So that is this season finished.
We knew there was rain coming, and possibly a big amount. We started on Tuesday even though the grain moisture was way too high at 16% or more. We dryed some as we went, but most of the crop just went into silos wet and will be dryed later when we get time. It has to be dryed down to 13%.
At this time of year, the days are short, and it's been cold. Big frosts, one day the overnight minimum was minus 3 at my house, so that would be minus 5 out in the paddock. Not good harvest weather, and it never is in June.
We also wanted to get the harvest done as it's time to plant the winter crops. We are puting in 500 hectares of wheat. We will let this rain event pass and then start planting. Apparently we are in for days of rain, and possibly 100 mills or more. We don't want any rain, as the soil is plenty wet enough and it would plant nicely next week. I hope the weather forecast is wrong, as 100 mills will turn everything into a boghole.
Harvesting sorghum a few days ago, this paddock is 220 hectares....
There was some bad feral pig damage. This is a photo of our crop beside the neighbours grass paddock showing where the pigs have destroyed the crop. Probably lost 20 to 30 tonnes destroyed in total.
The pigs were coming out of the grass and hooking into our crop, plus there is a running creek nearby, they have water, mud, cover, grain, so it's pig heaven.
We shot 6 pigs as we finished the last acre. This is a regular event. There is always a heap of pigs when you finish the last bit of a big block of sorghum.
Grain prices are still good. We have been getting over $200 per tonne on farm for our sorghum.
There is an unusual event happening just now with grain markets. US corn is worth more than US wheat. This hasn't happened for 15 years, and it's unlikely to last. Wheat is a more valuable grain than corn. Corn is mostly a feed grain or used for ethanol, but wheat is also just as good for those use's, plus is more valuable for human consumption. However to compensate since corn is usually worth less than wheat, it will yield much more per hectare than wheat.
I don't know why it's occuring. There seems to be just as much problems in global wheat crops as corn crops. It's still dry in Europe and China and southern USA. It's still too wet in northern USA and a lot of crop didn't go in as it was too wet to plant.
See ya's.
We knew there was rain coming, and possibly a big amount. We started on Tuesday even though the grain moisture was way too high at 16% or more. We dryed some as we went, but most of the crop just went into silos wet and will be dryed later when we get time. It has to be dryed down to 13%.
At this time of year, the days are short, and it's been cold. Big frosts, one day the overnight minimum was minus 3 at my house, so that would be minus 5 out in the paddock. Not good harvest weather, and it never is in June.
We also wanted to get the harvest done as it's time to plant the winter crops. We are puting in 500 hectares of wheat. We will let this rain event pass and then start planting. Apparently we are in for days of rain, and possibly 100 mills or more. We don't want any rain, as the soil is plenty wet enough and it would plant nicely next week. I hope the weather forecast is wrong, as 100 mills will turn everything into a boghole.
Harvesting sorghum a few days ago, this paddock is 220 hectares....
There was some bad feral pig damage. This is a photo of our crop beside the neighbours grass paddock showing where the pigs have destroyed the crop. Probably lost 20 to 30 tonnes destroyed in total.
The pigs were coming out of the grass and hooking into our crop, plus there is a running creek nearby, they have water, mud, cover, grain, so it's pig heaven.
We shot 6 pigs as we finished the last acre. This is a regular event. There is always a heap of pigs when you finish the last bit of a big block of sorghum.
Grain prices are still good. We have been getting over $200 per tonne on farm for our sorghum.
There is an unusual event happening just now with grain markets. US corn is worth more than US wheat. This hasn't happened for 15 years, and it's unlikely to last. Wheat is a more valuable grain than corn. Corn is mostly a feed grain or used for ethanol, but wheat is also just as good for those use's, plus is more valuable for human consumption. However to compensate since corn is usually worth less than wheat, it will yield much more per hectare than wheat.
I don't know why it's occuring. There seems to be just as much problems in global wheat crops as corn crops. It's still dry in Europe and China and southern USA. It's still too wet in northern USA and a lot of crop didn't go in as it was too wet to plant.
See ya's.
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Nice shots of your final harvest TC .
How big were the pigs you got and what sort of rifle did you get em with ?
I read in the weekly times on wednesday that sale prices of agricultural land in the US have been up 20% or so in value . What do you make of that ?
Shawn
How big were the pigs you got and what sort of rifle did you get em with ?
I read in the weekly times on wednesday that sale prices of agricultural land in the US have been up 20% or so in value . What do you make of that ?
Shawn
A mate of mine shot them with a 243. Normally he would take them to the chiller and they would get exported as wild game meat, but the chiller is shut at the moment for some reason so they were left where they fell. They were all about 70 to 80 kilos.
American farmers must be making a great profit at the moment, so I wouldn't be surprised if farm land over there was going up.
See ya's.
American farmers must be making a great profit at the moment, so I wouldn't be surprised if farm land over there was going up.
See ya's.
This article,,,???
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/06/09/342551_grain-and-hay.html
At least something is going up over there.
See ya's.
Yeah , thats it .
You should have taken a couple of photos of the pigs . Were they all black or ginger type licorice allsorts ? Also , how much would they make at the chiller ? How many wild pigs would be shot on your place in a typical year ?
Not much is selling down our way and what is is down a long way from 2-3 years back . Many of the croppers to our north have country too wet to plant .
Shawn
You should have taken a couple of photos of the pigs . Were they all black or ginger type licorice allsorts ? Also , how much would they make at the chiller ? How many wild pigs would be shot on your place in a typical year ?
Not much is selling down our way and what is is down a long way from 2-3 years back . Many of the croppers to our north have country too wet to plant .
Shawn
They were mainly black, but also some allsorts, black/brown/grey. I think the piggers get $1 a kilo, but it changes a bit. We would have 20 or 30 a year taken on our farm I suppose. We have two local blokes who come through regularly, but sometimes I wouldn't know how many they get.
But when pigs get really bad, all the farmers pool together and get a chopper in. The shooter needs a few guns to keep swapping with, or else the barrel gets too hot, and sometimes 300 might get shot in a few hours. This might happen once a year.
See ya's.
We planted our wheat crop in the last week of June. There was 60 mills in May, and then 12 mills early June. Planting took about 9 days. Youtube of the first days planting,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkbZX11JseI
This was going into sorghum stubble that was harvested in March. The sorghum yielded about 7 tonnes per hectare. We put the seed out at 50 kgs per hectare, variety 'livingston'.
This variety,....
http://www.ausgraintech.com/factsheets/Livingston/Livingston fact sheet for QLDNSW.pdf
People might notice the seed is protected by 'plant breeder rights', was developed by a company called Australian grain technologies, and is subject to an 'end point royalty'. I can't sell the grain to my neighbour to use, and I have to pay the breeder a royalty. This would be exactly the same as if this seed was GM seed developed by monsanto. And if I tried to rip the breeder off, they would take me to court, just like monsanto would or anyone else who gets something stolen from them.
If a farmer wanted to plant a variety of wheat that wasn't covered by a PBR, they probably could. But it would be an old variety, probably something wrong with it, like susceptable to disease, or just outclassed in yield. It's the farmers choice. No one is forced to do anything by seed companies. It's just how things work now. Nothing that is great is free. If we want the latest and greatest, you have to pay up, so someone has the incentive to spend a great amount to breed it.
We put on 250 kgs per hectare urea, and 60 kgs per hectare starter fert, NPSZ.
There has been no rain since planting. So the seed has had to germinate by itself with no help from rain. We got a great strike. We are very happy with how it looks.
This wheat crop could do with some rain now. It has plenty of soil water. It should be fine for another month, but after that yield reduction will set in. It's getting dry all over northern NSW. We are at below average rain for the year, and been bugger all for two months now.
Sydney and the coast has had heaps. East coast lows often deliver nothing west of the range. There has been numerous east coast lows, and so we have had nothing. Our rain comes from the west and north west, from the other side of the continent.
See ya's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkbZX11JseI
This was going into sorghum stubble that was harvested in March. The sorghum yielded about 7 tonnes per hectare. We put the seed out at 50 kgs per hectare, variety 'livingston'.
This variety,....
http://www.ausgraintech.com/factsheets/Livingston/Livingston fact sheet for QLDNSW.pdf
People might notice the seed is protected by 'plant breeder rights', was developed by a company called Australian grain technologies, and is subject to an 'end point royalty'. I can't sell the grain to my neighbour to use, and I have to pay the breeder a royalty. This would be exactly the same as if this seed was GM seed developed by monsanto. And if I tried to rip the breeder off, they would take me to court, just like monsanto would or anyone else who gets something stolen from them.
If a farmer wanted to plant a variety of wheat that wasn't covered by a PBR, they probably could. But it would be an old variety, probably something wrong with it, like susceptable to disease, or just outclassed in yield. It's the farmers choice. No one is forced to do anything by seed companies. It's just how things work now. Nothing that is great is free. If we want the latest and greatest, you have to pay up, so someone has the incentive to spend a great amount to breed it.
We put on 250 kgs per hectare urea, and 60 kgs per hectare starter fert, NPSZ.
There has been no rain since planting. So the seed has had to germinate by itself with no help from rain. We got a great strike. We are very happy with how it looks.
This wheat crop could do with some rain now. It has plenty of soil water. It should be fine for another month, but after that yield reduction will set in. It's getting dry all over northern NSW. We are at below average rain for the year, and been bugger all for two months now.
Sydney and the coast has had heaps. East coast lows often deliver nothing west of the range. There has been numerous east coast lows, and so we have had nothing. Our rain comes from the west and north west, from the other side of the continent.
See ya's.
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We got 35 mills of rain in the last few days. That's just magnificent. The wheat will take off now. It's roots will get properly established and it will be able to access all the fertilizer that was put out at planting.
I'm sure this winter has been a bit colder than usual. More frosts and colder days. So I think the crop is a little behind in growth to where it should be. But it's also been dry. That's fine though. Last years wheat crop in this area was a shocker with too much rain from start to finish. But this year it's looking good. We should grow a few tonnes per hectare now just on stored soil water. And much more if we get normal spring rain.
Last week we were renovating our spray wheel tracks. We use permanent wheel tracks, with a 3 metre centre. Planters and headers are 9 metres wide, and the boom spray is 27 metres wide. Planters and headers only run over the soil once or twice a year, but the boom spray runs over the ground numerous times. As last year was so wet, the boomspray tracks got too deep. So we have gone over our paddocks every 27 metres to fill in the furrows.
Here you can see the depression in a paddock that has sorghum stubble. But the soil has not just been pushed down, but it's also risen to the sides. These furrows were just too deep and we needed to fill them in.
The high bits on the edges get disked back into the hole.
And the ground ends up relatively flat again.
As we are only doing every 27 metres, and traveling at 13 kph, you cover a lot area in short time. We were doing about 300 hectares a day.
Grain prices are still pretty good.
Apparently the wheat crop is looking magnificent in Western Australia. It's still too dry north of here and into Queensland, pretty good south of here and into northern Victoria, especially after this last rain, and way too wet in far southern Victoria.
See ya's.
I'm sure this winter has been a bit colder than usual. More frosts and colder days. So I think the crop is a little behind in growth to where it should be. But it's also been dry. That's fine though. Last years wheat crop in this area was a shocker with too much rain from start to finish. But this year it's looking good. We should grow a few tonnes per hectare now just on stored soil water. And much more if we get normal spring rain.
Last week we were renovating our spray wheel tracks. We use permanent wheel tracks, with a 3 metre centre. Planters and headers are 9 metres wide, and the boom spray is 27 metres wide. Planters and headers only run over the soil once or twice a year, but the boom spray runs over the ground numerous times. As last year was so wet, the boomspray tracks got too deep. So we have gone over our paddocks every 27 metres to fill in the furrows.
Here you can see the depression in a paddock that has sorghum stubble. But the soil has not just been pushed down, but it's also risen to the sides. These furrows were just too deep and we needed to fill them in.
The high bits on the edges get disked back into the hole.
And the ground ends up relatively flat again.
As we are only doing every 27 metres, and traveling at 13 kph, you cover a lot area in short time. We were doing about 300 hectares a day.
Grain prices are still pretty good.
Apparently the wheat crop is looking magnificent in Western Australia. It's still too dry north of here and into Queensland, pretty good south of here and into northern Victoria, especially after this last rain, and way too wet in far southern Victoria.
See ya's.
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Glad to hear that you had a decent drop of rain. Did you buy the renovator or can you hire them?
I'd agree with that. We've had almost 500mm so far this year, which is the wettest in 30 years.
I'd agree with that. We've had almost 500mm so far this year, which is the wettest in 30 years.
