TC's 2009 farm thread

[topcropper]

Just wondering, how long can you store grain for? Months or years?

If you just bunged grain in a silo it might not store very long. Insects would get into it and destroy it. If grain is too wet, say 18% moisture, it might only store for a few weeks or even days. It's also important that silos are clean when grain first goes in. If a silo already has insects in it, they will quickly spread.

But grain that is very dry, say below 12%, and cooled down will store for many years. We blow air through our grain on cold winters nights, and this cools the grain down to 12 degrees or lower, and at this temp insects won't live or breed in it. We can store 4,000 tonnes.


See ya's.

 

[steveadl]

TC, are you worried about the potential locust threat hanging around? Is it likely to eventuate or is the govt. spraying going to curtail it?

 

[topcropper]

Another warm sunny week while I was away camping with the family. The crops look much better now.

TC, are you worried about the potential locust threat hanging around? ?

Not really. Locusts mainly effect more marginal land. They've never really caused much havoc around here besides being bad enough to block up car radiators and such with their splattered guts. Also, locusts will not lay their eggs in black soil for some reason. It has to be sandy soil, so I'm not worried at all really.

I am a little concerned for those down south on sand in marginal areas who are looking at million dollar crops for the first time in ages and have the chance to get out of a lot of trouble with this perfect season.

Is it likely to eventuate or is the govt. spraying going to curtail it?

Not sure. The locusts when they hatch move in a band, often kilometres long. I'd imagine spray planes would be hammering the wave front with insecticide and cleaning up billions in one go. I think everything will be fine.


See ya's.

 

[topcropper]

Our wheat is just about to start flowering.

Check this out,.....

The wheat on the right was planted without urea. It's just the end of a run where we went too far before filling up again. A stuff up. It got some Nitrogen though. There was 10 kilos per hectare with the starter fertilizer, plus P, S, and Z. The wheat on the left got the same starter fertilizer, with 10 kilos per hectare N, and then also another 140 kilos of N in the urea. So 150 ks total N.

The wheat on the left should go 5 to 6 tonnes per hectare.
The wheat on the right won't go 1 tonne per hectare.

Basically, $150 worth of urea grew an extra $1000 worth of wheat. Not a bad return.

I've sprayed the wheat twice for rust with fungicide, and it might have to be done again. If it has to be done again I will get the local ag plane in, as I will be too busy from now on. There is a lot of yellow on the leaves from too much rain and not enough sun.



It's still wet here. I have some nice wheat and I have some really bad stuff too that has been way too wet ever since it's been planted. I think I'll be lucky to get an average yield overall.

All the experts are predicting that the wet will stay untill autumn. I can see farmers having a lot of trouble getting crops off. The wheat harvest will be massive in NSW if farmers can get the grain off.

There are some disaster stories though. Chickpeas are terrible. Farmers have sprayed and sprayed them for diseases. They are still full of disease from the wet, and many crops have failed.

We have spent all week getting ready for sorghum planting. We are ready to go. I have over 1000 hectares to go in and prices are good and a lot is locked in. But there is a heap of rain forecast for Friday, so we will wait till that passes, and hopefully there won't be too much rain in it. It's also forecast to get cold on the weekend.

I reckon there will be some big floods this summer. If there are floods, I hope they can hold off till January so the winter crops can come off.


See ya's.

 

[topcropper]

We had a minus 1 frost at my house on Sunday morning. It got down to minus 3 on the plains. Very cold again on Monday morning. My wheat was in full flower. It's just a bit of wait and see what the consequences are, but they won't be good. There can be nothing of any good come from a minus 3 frost on flowering wheat in mid October.

This winter and spring season must have seen us with the least amount of frosts I can ever remember due to all the cloud cover and rain through winter. It's just bad luck that we get a totally out of season frost at this time.


See ya's.

 

[ILoveProperty]

Damn global warming

 

[Sunfish]

When it's miserable wet in town we are used to justifying the crappy weather by saying: "It's good for the farmers!"

Are you saying it isn't always so? :shock: :horror:

 

[cwfarmer]

Its a *******

G day topcropper, long time reader first time reply, Sorry to hear about your frost, we had some severe frost similar last season -3.8(8th Oct) on our wheat it took 80-90%, it even got heads in the boot. We even got some damage here this year(10-15%) but nothing like last year. Its a terrible time when you have to wait and see. I suppose you have the summer crop option though.

 

[topcropper]

G day topcropper, long time reader first time reply, Sorry to hear about your frost, we had some severe frost similar last season -3.8(8th Oct) on our wheat it took 80-90%, it even got heads in the boot. We even got some damage here this year(10-15%) but nothing like last year. Its a terrible time when you have to wait and see. I suppose you have the summer crop option though.

Our agronomist reckons we might have got away without big losses. Obviously it must not have got as low as minus 3 then? Maybe just 10 or 20% loss?. That's a relief but it's not a certainty yet. A farm [not mine] just 5 ks to the west has 90% losses in one paddock. And in some years frosted wheat would have some worth as hay, but at the moment with most of the country a lush oasis, even in the centre, cereal hay would be almost not worth the freight and cost of making it.



It's still dry in WA. The crop is rooted over there. I googled this up. Poor buggers.
http://www.merredinmercury.com.au/n...farmers-face-devastating-harvest/1974467.aspx



We started sorghum planting last Wednesday. Got stormed out on Thursday after getting 90 hectares in. Then it rained most of the weekend for another 33 mills. We'd have over our yearly average now. It might be dry enough to start again on Friday, but rain is forecast again for Sunday. We will just get in as much as we can. We have nearly 1000 hectares to go.



Dad and I went to a field day today, 40 ks to the west. It was put on by a local rural murchandise business and had trials of heaps of wheat, barley, chickpeas and other crops. 11 hectares in total. There was also free beer and steaks after.

This is a photo of some wheat on the right and chickpeas on the left. Chickpeas have been bad this year. It's been too wet for good yields and some crops are a right-off.

This is a photo of two different varieties of barley. In a really wet season like this one, crops can grow too tall and fall over. The crop on the left has fallen over and is just 15 cm off the ground. To be this low at this stage is disasterous. It will be unharvestable in 6 weeks when ripe as it will be in the mud and will be a total loss. The variety on the right is standing up fine and should yield 5 to 6 tonnes per hectare.

See ya's.

 

[Bill.L]

Hi TC,

I love the education I'm receiving about grain growing in this thread. I know a little about some aspects of farming, horticulture in particular, but virtually nothing about grains, until you started these threads.

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it a lot and always enjoy seeing the pics and reading about the progress.

bye

 

[meconium]

Hi TC,

I love the education I'm receiving about grain growing in this thread. I know a little about some aspects of farming, horticulture in particular, but virtually nothing about grains, until you started these threads.

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it a lot and always enjoy seeing the pics and reading about the progress.

bye

Hear Hear. I concur. Keep it up Topcropper.

 

[topcropper]

Not so perfect!

The perfect season is fast turning into an ordinary one.

Another 48 mills of rain last night. So that's over 80 mills for November already! We have had 8 wet days so far out of 11! It just won't stop raining and give us a go. We are up to 750 mills for the year, way above the yearly average now of 670 mills, and another big dump is forecast starting monday!

We have been trying to plant sorghum. We just go when ever it's dry enough, but when ever you get a day or two in, down comes the rain and washes us out.

I planted till midnight last night. I was thinking we had untill Monday till the next rain change, meaning we'd get a good deal done. But no, it flogged down. We have 500 hectares in, and have 550 to go, but it's so wet we won't be able to start again for a week if it gets hot or 2 weeks if it stays cool.

This is the 220 hectare paddock I finished last night, after 48 mills this morning,.....

There has been no hot days so far. A few stinking hot days would be handy to dry things out. It's just all so cool this season! The wheat would normally be starting to rippen, but it's still green and lush. Harvest won't happen till Christmas I'm thinking. That's a month later than usual! The frost I mentioned has knocked back the yield a bit. Maybe 20%. But I'm thankfull. There are some paddocks in the area that are almost 100% wiped out. I faired well.



I didn't plant cotton. I wasn't game enough. But those who did are a bit worried. At planting just 3 weeks ago it was worth $500 a bale, which is historically very good. So they locked in some production at that. In just a few weeks it's gone up to over $700 a bale! They have some production risk if things go pear shaped as they will have to make up the price difference. Plus the crops are waterlogged and it's been too cool. Cotton likes it hot.

Cotton prices crashed about 12 years ago when it became genetically modified. Once it could be sprayed with roundup and was bug resistant, it became so easy to grow and yields went through the roof. As per usual, low prices ment low production. But floods in Pakistan and storms in Texas have cut production and so prices have gone nuts.

Things are looking good for farmers in my area. Prices are good for grain. Cotton is at all time highs. Farmers just need to be able to harvest the crops that are there. That will be hard if the rain continues. The perfect season could turn into a nightmare yet.


See ya's.

 

[The Fence]

Hey TC....

Concur with you on above comments....

It affects my line of biz too....things looking really smick but slowly turning badly hey....

If the farmers are going good then the 'townies' certainly benefit and visa versa....

But...I still like wet times better than drought..

On the side.....never thought you would consider cotton...but I guess the record prices of late would be attractive....even though it's a hassle to grow as you mentioned.

Stick to what you know best hey..

Man... that black soil will take alot of drying up TC....

Good luck....been a long time since harvesting at Xmas time....I remember doing it when working across the road from you...

 

[topcropper]

But...I still like wet times better than drought....

OK. I'll agree tomorrow. And I'd like the cool weather if it wasn't so wet. Did you know that Quirindi hasn't had a 30 degree day yet this season?.. Amazing!

On the side.....never thought you would consider cotton...but I guess the record prices of late would be attractive.......

We didn't really. Thought about it for 20 seconds. There is cotton just 8 ks away though, when before this year it's been 40 ks away.



See ya's.

 

[our obsession]

37c in parts around here yesterday, rain/storms due today, best crops people have ever seen here, still less than, (overall) average yearly rainfall, but just in the right places.

Been an amazing farming year, quite a few spraying hoppers, (locusts).

I love sand country very much. Kind soil in a drought, non boggy in wet. Great to work horses on, fantastic to play in on bikes.

So, you guys are gumboot people.

I once bought a pair of pink gumboots, just in case. Never been worn.

 

[topcropper]

I love sand country very much. Kind soil in a drought, non boggy in wet. ..

It's just amazing the differences of farming areas. In these parts, sand only occurs on ridges. It's regarded as rubbish as far as cropping goes. Sandy ridges are popular for hobby farmers, as the sand is good house foundations, and they can be used for grazing. Also nice for horses. Winter crops would yield a half to a third of the better black or chocolate soils, and you wouldn't even think of summer crops on them.

So, you guys are gumboot people.
I once bought a pair of pink gumboots, just in case. Never been worn.

Why have you never worn gumboots? Is it because the sand won't stick?

My old grandfather always said if the dirt won't stick to your boots then it's no good. That's the case here. The sand won't stick, but the best black dirt will stick to everything. It will stick so much to your boots that it's impossible to walk, or you are walking 6 inches higher.

I don't often wear gumboots, but you will wear out a pair of leather work boots in just months when it's as wet as now. So gumboots are the go when it's wet.


See ya's.

 

[our obsession]

Better clarify, never worn them 'here', (had some down south, Port Fairy in the dairy), the sand here drains the moisture, you can have 100mm in a storm and still drive over it, (think 4wdriving along beach edge)... in the toyota (engage 4wd), or better still, the bikes. It's amazing, some people here had it sown with lucerne in the drought, the infrequent small showers of rain would make it blossom it's brains out, (dryland lucerne), turned over fat lambs after fat lambs..solid $$$$$ profit with best practices.

It's perfect for malt or feed barley, wheat, peas, canola, lucerne, lambs, vetch, even clover, lentils if the average rains are spaced okay, safflower, even sorghum.

Hence the southerners, the Ballarat farmers sneaking up and buying sand country, they diversify their soils. They have to learn, watch, listen 'how' to farm it, but they soon catch on.

Majority is all direct drill, or working their way into it gear/financially wise..direct drill has made the country, the farming communities, good crops in worst drought of history.

Sand and direct drill. Mindset= Magic land.

 

[topcropper]

Another 50 mills rain here. This is just nuts. It got to 31 degrees on Sunday. Hottest day so far. Weird! This time last year it was 40 degrees at times and was a record hot November. This month must be in the running for coolest ever.

We haven't done anymore planting since my last post. It needs to dry out heaps yet. Some hot days would be good.



This sorghum was planted 12 days ago into wheat stubble. It looks good.

This sorghum was planted 3 weeks ago, also into wheat stubble.

Our wheat is currently still filling the seeds, but it's almost done. It will start to rippen soon. Should be ready for harvest in 4 weeks. Frost has knocked the yield back a bit. It will probably go 4 tonnes per hectare. The frost has ment there are some empty heads.

My wheat has not been damaged by rain yet. It's still green. Crops in central Queenland were damaged by rain 6 weeks ago. Crops to the west and north of me have also now also been downgraded. It's a shame, the world is crying out for milling grade wheat. The global crop has been weather damaged in lots of places. There would be small amounts of wheat and barley that would be top quality, but not much. There just hasn't been enough hot and rain free days to allow anyone to get quality grain.

If this rain doesn't let up a bit soon, there will be some sad stories about in the cropping areas from a season that looked perfect a few months ago.


See ya's.

 

[our obsession]

TC, I was told yesterday (not by a farmer) to work out an oldtime ---'oldtime' way of roughhouse calculation of bags to the acre, what the olden days people did, was to count say, the seed(s) of a head of barley getting close to harvest. So if you scrunch up a head of barley, I get 18 seeds, therefore, according to the old timer, it will be an 18 bag to acre crop. I will follow the saying to see what happens, but I've never heard it before.

Have you or your dad ever head that one?

 

[our obsession]

Ha! finding out firsthand via the oldtimer's theory:

-Oats counted as 18 bags, actually went 18 to 20 bags p/acre.

-Barley counted up 28 to 30 bags, going 30 bags p/acre.