Grain update: Crops in ideal position for Naring growers

Graeme and Margo Hendy’s canola, wheat and faba bean crops are looking good this season, but they are “not across the finish line yet”.

CANOLA SHINES: Graeme Hendy has fun with his grandson Odin Hendy in his canola crops at Naring. Picture: Zoe Phillips.

NARING grain growers Graeme and Margo Hendy’s crops have made a significant turnaround this year compared with last season.

The pair’s canola, wheat and faba beans are tracking well, after they were sowed in late April following decent rain.

However, wet conditions meant there was a “big spread between sowing this year.”

“We started sowing our canola first on April 23, then moved onto our beans,” Mr Hendy said. “We got about 70mm of rain before putting beans in, so we had to wait a week, which put us back a little.”

For wheat, Mr Hendy said the crop received rain “here and there” and he missed out on sowing about 70ha of grain this year because of the wet conditions.

“We didn’t get about 70ha in because it was too wet,” he said. “It would have been a mess so there was no point. We got about 1100ha in this season.”

Across May, June and July the dry was a blessing for crops, which received about 60mm over the three months.

“That was good rain,” Mr Hendy said. “So far the crops are looking good. “A little bit more rain to get them over the line would be good, as it is not over yet.”

The bumper crop season was a stark difference to last season, said Mr Hendy, who had the worst year for yields on record since 2004.

But the devastating season was spared slightly by the pair tramlining crops.

“If we farmed how we did 15 years ago last year we would have got nothing,” Mr Hendy said. We have been tramlining now for about 10 years.”

Mr Hendy said he was expecting to start windrowing in the second week of November, two weeks after which “we will start to harvest the canola, then the wheat and then beans”.

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