Hamilton’s Andrew Nagorcka records huge canola yield

A mild winter and cool flowering has lead to Andrew Nagorcka recording his best ever canola yield at his Hamilton farm.

Hamilton farmer Andrew Nagorcka harvesting canola with header driver Jamie Semmler and son Alistair Semmler. Picture: Kate Dowler

HAMILTON grain grower Andrew Nagorcka has enjoyed his best-ever canola yield this season.

His 45Y93 canola crops have yielded three to 3½ tonnes.

“For canola I budget on 2.8 tonnes/ha and last year we got about three tonnes/ha, so it is a 10-20 per cent increase in average yields, which is better than I expected” he said.

“We had a mild winter and cool flowering.”

Mr Nagorcka, who farms with his wife, Kylie, and children Josh, 12, Sophie, 10, and Harry, 8, and also does some sharefarming, has 400ha in canola this year, 300ha in wheat and 100ha in other crops.

The canola oil content has also been high, at 44 to 46 per cent.

The Nagorckas will start harvesting wheat when the wet weather lifts. Mr Nagorcka said 40mm had fallen in the region up to Monday.

“I’m concerned about getting shot grain and test weights could diminish as well,” Mr Nagorcka said. “I’m not sure if it has caused any damage yet, I hope not.”

Last year, wheat yielded seven to eight tonnes for the family, and Mr Nagorcka was hopeful similar or better results could be achieved with this year’s crops if the weather did not cause too much havoc.

When it came to managing the stress of pre-harvest rain potentially damaging high-quality crops, Mr Nagorcka said he tried to have “small targets in mind”.

“If you think ‘we need to get the whole lot off before it rains’ that is just too difficult to process in a year like this, so I set targets, like we’ll get this canola off and then get a sample of wheat in before we get any wet weather,” he said.

“You get to this time of year and it is hard not to think about the high inputs that we put in to get the better yields.”

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