TC's 2009 farm thread

[topcropper]

Check this out then.

Yesterday, it wasn't noticable, as the soil was still wet. So it was still dark. Today after it dryed up, I went down to see how good the wheat was looking after the 21 mills. Heading north west, I noticed the soil looked a little bit red. As I'd expect. However, when I turned around and headed back south east to home, I was shocked.!!

My farm had turned red,.....

It's all a bit of an illusion though. There is very little red dust. It's just that the 80 k winds blew it into the north western facing bits of dirt. So when it dryed out, and if you were looking to the south east, it all looked red. When I took the photo, if I'd spun around 180 degrees it wouldn't have looked very red at all.

As the wheels of the landcruiser run over the soft soil, it's pushing the red dust into the black soil, so it then appears as it's real colour.

The whole district looked like this today. Amazing. Hasn't done a single bit of damage to me or any other farmers around here. It's all good. And since most of Australia has lightish or red or orange coloured soil, so in the rare places where the soil is black it really stands out.

Thought I'd better take a photo. It was the biggest dust storm for 80 years, so not likely to see another one then.


See ya's.

 

[Token Funder]

Free soil!

 

[moyjos]

A couple of (probably stupid) questions from a city slicker

Does red dust have any benefit or harm to your natural soil?

Does the coating of red dust have any effect to the photosynthesis of your crops?

 

[topcropper]

Does red dust have any benefit or harm to your natural soil??

No harm. I've gained a fraction of a bit of a tiny amount of extra nutients.
A farmer mate of mine wondered out aloud yesterday if we've got blown in any new diseases or weeds? Dunno?

Does the coating of red dust have any effect to the photosynthesis of your crops?

Not likely. Possible if sunlight was limiting, but generally water or nutrients or disease or something else is limiting yield, rather than sunlight. The first bit of wind we get again should blow the dust off, onto the ground.


See ya's.

 

[The Fence]

I always wanted a hot red car....now it is red...!

Big crop this year TC...good for you...!

 

[Rockstar]

Hey Thorpey how did you get the new smileys on there. Is that some of TC's wheatgrass juice they're a drinkin?

 

[The Fence]

Rocky....nah..I think they are drinking Coronas.....that right TC...?

Click on the smiley...that will reveal all you need...

 

[topcropper]

We need a big dump of rain. However, the little bits and pieces we have been getting will have to do, as there is no big rain coming. We have had some small falls duing October. It's also turned very cool. There could possibly be a frost on Thursday..!! Crikey, we don't want that. It would wipe out a few hundred thousand tonnes of grain in this area, including some of mine.



The earlier June planted wheat has finished flowering, and is filling with grain. It's really a nice crop, and should yield 4 tonnes per hectare, but rain now might see it do 5 tonne.

The wheat above is bread wheat. If the quality is fine, it will be used to make bread. It has to be high in protein, free of weed seeds. And there are other qualities it has to have that get tested when delivered. Too much rain when the grain is ripe buggers it up.




The later July planted wheat has stuck out it's heads and is flowering. It won't yield anywhere near as much. Possibly 3 tonne per hectare, but less if it gets hot and gets no more rain, or if there is a flippen frost on Thursday it might not yield anything..!!.

This wheat in the photo below is durum wheat. It gets turned into pasta, if the quality is good enough.

The wheat stubble beside the green wheat was harvested in December last year. It has been fallow for 10 months. I've sprayed the weeds numerous times, and it has filled with water. There would have been about 600 mills or more of rain in that 10 months, and I would have stored a lot of that. In 2 metres of wet soil I could expect to have over 300 mills of available, usable water there for the next crop to use. It will be planted to sorghum soon. With the amount of stored soil water, I can grow the next crop with only a small amount of rain, and a lot of rain will make it a bumper yield.

It could possibly be planted now, but it's a bit early, and as it's turned so cold again, the germination would possibly be poor. I think I will wait a bit.

The soil cracks open as the water is used up. It cracks from the top down. This is normal for this soil type.

,



We are getting ready for sorghum planting. Keeping fallow weeds sprayed. Keeping an eye on the levels of rust in the crop. There is a farm tour on Thursday. We are going on a bus and checking out other farms in the area and what they are doing. You always pick up some clues as how to do things better.


See ya's.

 

[bobbiemenzies]

Grain prices are terrible. The global soft commodity boom is well and truely over. Record wheat and corn crops in the US and Europe mean grain stockpiles have been rebuilt. Not much we can do about it. Just try and survive till prices improve. Just glad we sold all the sorghum when we did. We have no wheat sold. We won't make much profit from this crop. Milk prices are terrible. Below 30c per litre for an Australian dairy farmer. All just part of the cycle. I thought the boom might have lasted a bit longer though. See ya's.

Love your posts Topcropper, very informative. Keep em coming: us city slickers have a lot to learn from you farmers - you folks are the backbone of the country in that you actually create something.

Sorry to hear of your predicament with commodity prices. Those famers who have debt must hurt the most. Does this happen often? ie. farmers making losses year after year

I guess its impossible to insure against frost and so many other unpredictable things.

 

[topcropper]

Sorry to hear of your predicament with commodity prices. Those famers who have debt must hurt the most. Does this happen often? ie. farmers making losses year after year.

This time last year grain prices crashed as the GFC unfolded. Yet input prices were still sky high. It was very scary for me 12 months ago contemplating planting 950 hectares of sorghum costing $800 per hectare. On paper I was likely to make a loss. As it turned out, prices recovered a bit, and the season was kind, and I did well.

Urea has dropped from $1,100 per tonne to currently $470 per tonne. Roundup CT has dropped from $12 per litre to $4. I have a lot less risk and money tied up out there this year.

Grain prices are really back to about normal after a massive boom that I made a heap from.


.......................feed wheat.........bread wheat.......durum wheat........sorghum

2 years ago...........$400....................$500.................$650...............$300
1 year ago............$190....................$300.................$400...............$190
This year..............$150....................$220.................$250...............$150???


Farmers making constant losses probably need to move out of the industry. Farming is generally a low return business, with a lot of equity needed. As a result, banks aren't likely to let farmers drop into negative equity, so generally a farmer can leave the industry with cash to do something else.

Farmers have been going bust forever as farms get bigger and more efficent. Just like any other business and industry. Let the stronger take over. Survival of the fittest.

I guess its impossible to insure against frost and so many other unpredictable things.

It sure is. Or if it was possible, the premiums would be huge.

Frost risk is a management decision. It is a risk/reward decision. The earlier planted crop has more yield potential, as it's growing in a cooler climate. But the trade off is higher frost risk.


See ya's.

 

[topcropper]

I hate wind..!!

And I reckon huey got balls'd up. He got August and October around the wrong way. August was stinkin hot and October has been cold and windy. Windiest couple of weeks I can remember. Plus 4 of the biggest dust storms I've ever seen.

There was no frost though. There will still be some cold mornings ahead, but hopefully we will escape any damage.



Did a farm tour of the Liverpool Plains yesterday by bus.

Went to a department of Ag research plot looking at wheat and barley. They are looking at fertilizer strategies, disease stategies, new herbicides for weeds etc.

We drove right through the middle of the biggest farm on the Liverpool Plains. 'Windy Station'. 20,000 hectares. Owned by a Swiss banker. This bloke also owns a few other properties in Australia.

This is a canola crop on Windy Station,....

It's a massive crop for a dryland one. It would have been bright yellow with flower a month ago, but now it's setting seed. It looks to me like it would yield 3 tonne per hectare, but apparently it's suffered some frost damage while flowering, and might only yield 2 to 2.5 tonne per hectare. This canola crop will produce an oil called monohyoleic. Apparently it's got good health benefits.



This is a barley crop. Barley is probably the most important grain, as it gets turned into beer, plus a few other alcoholic beverages,.....

Managed to sample some beer at the end of the trip too.


See ya's.

 

[bobbiemenzies]

guessing

Did a farm tour of the Liverpool Plains yesterday by bus. Managed to sample some beer at the end of the trip too.
See ya's.

Reckon its you there in that photo, next to the school bus with your hands in your pocket.

I'm surprised Windy Station is owned by a Swiss banker, I was told foreign interests could own no more than 50% of a farm. Is that right? How often does he come over to check it out? You once told me farmers are not entitled to the ore under their farms, why would the Banker bother owning a farm in these circumstances - isn't it the case that managed farms have poorer returns than family run ones?

Keep up the great posts Topcropper - very informative

 

[topcropper]

Reckon its you there in that photo, next to the school bus with your hands in your pocket.

Nope. I took the photo.

I'm surprised Windy Station is owned by a Swiss banker, I was told foreign interests could own no more than 50% of a farm. Is that right? How often does he come over to check it out? You once told me farmers are not entitled to the ore under their farms, why would the Banker bother owning a farm in these circumstances - isn't it the case that managed farms have poorer returns than family run ones?

Foreign interests can own as much as they want. Chinese company shenwa are currently buying farms in this area to dig up for coal.

Windy Station was the last remaining farm on the Liverpool Plains that was owned by the AAC [Australian Agricultural Company]. AAC was formed from English interests to set up a farm in Australia. They took up 160,000 hectares on the coast inland from Port Stevens in 1829, but found the land to be rubbish. So they instead took up 100,000 hectares on the Liverpool Plains in 1833. This land except for Windy Station was resumed by the Australian government for closer settlement, around about 1912 or so, and then at later dates. It was cut up into small blocks, say 100 to 200 hectares, and sold to whoever. My ancestors were one buyer.

AAC is Australia's oldest company and they sold Windy Station to invest into north QLD and NT. This happened about, maybe 15 years ago?? I know it sold for 19 million dollars for 13,000 hectares to Urs Schwarzenbach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urs_Schwarzenbach

I remember that event, as numerous local farmers tried to work out how we could all pool together to buy the place, but obviously nothing came of it. Urs Schwarzenbach has since added more land to it, and it totals more than 20,000 hectares now. Rumour has it that he was offered 130 million for the 20,000 hectares 18 months ago at the height of the agriculture boom but knocked it back. It wouldn't be worth anything like that now though.

This Swiss banker owns this property as an investment. He is a smart man and bought at a low point for prices. I'd reckon he sees quality agricultural land being a good investment for capital gains. He probably also likes the fact that he is producing food for export to the world. Why wouldn't he? This property would turn off a lot of food. I'd guess 30 to 40 thousand tonnes of grain a year, and thousands of cattle. Urs Schwarzenbach flys in occasionally in a big flash helicoptor, maybe once every few years. He owns other farms in Australia as well, 50,000 hectares all up according to that wiki article.

Farmers don't own the minerals under their land. Large efficient farmily farms can generate higher profits per hectare than corporate farms. I'd imagine Urs Schwarzenbach owns Windy Station for the capital gain potential, rather than as a cash generator, but who knows what his motives are..??


See ya's.

 

[bobbiemenzies]

Thanks for the informative post TC. If you have time, can you explain a bit more:

Farmers don't own the minerals under their land. .

Seems damn unfair to me. Freehold should mean that. Is there anyplace in the developed world where landowners have rights to minerals?

Chinese company shenwa are currently buying farms in this area to dig up for coal. .

If the owner of land doesn't own the minerals underneath, why then is Shenwa buying farmland? On that note, I'm told Rio & BHP own a fair number of pastoral stations. Again, I am curious why they do this when they cannot claim the minerals beneath.

Hope you can shed some light on this.

 

[topcropper]

Seems damn unfair to me. Freehold should mean that. Is there anyplace in the developed world where landowners have rights to minerals? .

Well, that's just how it is. The government owns what's under the ground, and that's that. I'm pretty sure that in the USA the land owner owns the oil/minerals or what ever is under the ground.

If the owner of land doesn't own the minerals underneath, why then is Shenwa buying farmland? On that note, I'm told Rio & BHP own a fair number of pastoral stations. Again, I am curious why they do this when they cannot claim the minerals beneath.

Hope you can shed some light on this.

Shenwa bought the mining rights to 19,000 hectares of land. I believed it cost them 400 million dollars, but this article says it cost 675 million dollars.

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/lo...hts-to-gunnedah-coal-exploration/1244675.aspx

So they now own whats under the ground, and the NSW government gets a massive pay out, then gains again from royalties from the coal when it starts coming out. Governments love mining, and governments are broke, so that's why it will be hard to stop.

So, if 175 million is going towards the new rail tunnel, [and BHP is puting in for this too] then lets say the mineral rights cost 500 milllion. For 19,000 hectares, that's $26,000 a hectare. The farm land only sells for say $10,000 for irrigated black soil farm land, or $5,000 for dryland black soil, or say $2,500 for grazing land, so Shenwa has paid say an average of 5 times as much for whats below the ground as what the top is worth.

The amount of coal is staggering. They reckon whats in the Hunter is small compared to whats under this area. Some of the seams are 15 metres thick Work out how much coal that is per hectare..!!

Shenwa then buys the farmers out, generally paying more than what it's otherwise worth, and then they mine it.

Mining companies don't want to own farms. They want what's under them. So they buy the farms after they have bought the mineral rights off the government.


See ya's.

 

[topcropper]

We got 22 mills on Monday. Would have liked more, and showers and storms are forecast for the next few days. This will get us planting sorghum next week. We have been stockpilling fertilizer, herbicide etc and getting everything ready to go. There is a few paddocks we won't plant yet, unless there is some good rain. The soil water profile is not enough to safely grow a crop. At this stage we are only going to plant 500 hectares. This year has been dryer than normal so far.

This rain, is perfect to fill the wheat with grain. Rain at this time goes straight into the grain. It also wets up the top of the soil profile and allows the plant to extract all the nutrients it needs. Most nutrients accumulate right at the top.

This bread wheat is filling mostly 4 grains wide. Most of our crop will fill 3 and 4 grains wide. A really poor crop might only fill 2 wide.

This durum wheat has a bit of crown rot disease in it. The crown rot kills the odd plant. They turn white, and will have no grain in it. It is only minor here, and will only effect yield by a few percent. It is also completely normal for durum wheat.

Durum wheat is notorius for crown rot disease. It is a major limitation on how and where it can be grown. If you grew durum wheat one year, then planted it again in the same paddock, it could be a complete right off. The disease would wipe the crop out. As a result, you have to rotate the paddocks. The summer rotation we have in this area is perfect for reducing the effects of crown rot, as the summer crops don't host the disease, so as a result durum wheat is popular on the Liverpool Plains. Durum wheat also usually sells at a premium price.

Most areas in Australia have difficulty in growing durum wheat as they only grow crops in winter.




The wheat continues to suck the soil dry. The cracks are getting real big,....

Our soil is called a 'self mulching black vertisol'. When it cracks open deep, it's a really good thing for soil structure. It also allows nutrients to fall down deeper into the profile. When it rains during the fallow, the soil swells up as it fills with water, and the cracks disappear until the next crop is grown and sucks it dry again.

It's not uncommon for someone to lose a spanner or mobile phone down a crack say at harvest time. The cracks go down as far as the plants roots, so they can be 1.5 metres deep. Kangaroos can have great trouble hoping on country thats badly cracked open, their feet can go down a crack and they break a leg. All our wheat is still at least a month away from harvest.

In a perfect world, we will easily finish sorghum planting before the wheat is ready. Lets see what happens.


See ya's.

 

[Mooze]

Thanks for the continuing posts TC - love reading them and learning about more about life out of suburbia.

 

[topcropper]

Started planting sorghum on Monday, and we have just been washed out with rain. It would be nice to get a big fall, as the wheat is still green and can't yet be damaged, and the rain will give the sorghum a great start.

We planted 450 hectares in four and a half days, so doing about 100 hectares a day. The seed was going in as good as I've ever seen into great moisture. The last rain we got was very soft, so this ment the soil was too. Nearly every seed should have come up anyway, but a bit of rain on it will guarantee a great strike.

We only have another 50 hectares to go in, although if there was a big fall of rain before Christmas we might put in some more. I'm talking a 100 mills or more. We could plant another 350 hectares, but there is not enough stored soil water, so it would be too risky as we would need a wet summer to grow a decent crop.

We have had just 425 mills of rain so far for the year to the end of October. generally with average rainfall we would have got 525 mills, so we are 100 mills behind the average. Our average for 12 months is 670.

This is dad on the tractor a few days ago planting into wheat stubble,....

We are putting out 250 kgs/h of urea, 50 kgs/h of starter fertilizer [NPSZ] and planting 2 kgs/h sorghum seed.

Sorghum seed, as with corn, sunflower, and a few other crops is hybrid seed. It is the seed produced from crossing two different parents and this makes the plant higher yielding. We can't plant the grain we harvest. We have to buy in new planting seed each year.

2 kilos per hectare of sorghum seed planted has the potential to yield over ten thousand kilos or 10 tonnes at harvest.

Dad and I have been flat out. Dad mainly plants, and I spray roundup in front, unload fert trucks, keep the fertilizer grouper full, spray on pre-emergant grass herbicide and generally do a few hours planting at night till about 11 pm.



youtube of the planter going,....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPonJqA9rys


See ya's.

 

[amy21322]

Sorghum seed, as with corn, sunflower, and a few other crops is hybrid seed. It is the seed produced from crossing two different parents and this makes the plant higher yielding. We can't plant the grain we harvest. We have to buy in new planting seed each year.

TC, can you explain why this is so?
Cheers
Amy

 

[topcropper]

From wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_seed


......."In agriculture and gardening, hybrid seed is seed produced by artificially cross-pollinated plants. Hybrids are bred to improve the characteristics of the resulting plants, such as better yield, greater uniformity, improved color, disease resistance, and so forth. Today, hybrid seed is predominant in agriculture and home gardening, and is one of the main contributing factors to the dramatic rise in agricultural output during the last half of the 20th century. In the US, the commercial market was launched in the 1920s, with the first hybrid maize. Hybrid seed cannot be saved, as the seed from the first generation of hybrid plants does not reliably produce true copies, therefore, new seed must be purchased for each planting"........



Dunno. It's just a freak of nature. Cross two similar species, and the resultant offspring is generally superior to the two parents. Someone years ago must have accidently discovered this. Hybrid seeds compared to the pure parent seeds are higher yielding, more uniform, can have the desirable characteristics of both parents and not the undesirable.

I remember in high school my ag teacher telling me that the offspring of a caucasian and a negro should be athletically superior to either. A school teacher today would probably not be allowed to say that now. This certainly applys to beef cattle. Cross different breeds and you will get better beef producing animals.

If you plant the grain produced from a hybrid plant, the next generation will be not the same as the hybrid. It will revert back to the undesirable characteristics of either parent.

I don't mind buying seed each year anyway. It's a real pain in the backside saving seed from one year to the next. You have to be able to store it and stop insects from getting into it. At planting time you just go and order what you want. It's been germination tested, treated with insecticide, No worries.


See ya's.