Harvest done and dusted early for Barmedman farmer John Minogue

JOHN Minogue can’t recall an earlier harvest on his farm near Barmedman in the northern NSW Riverina.

Yields down: Son and father John and Conor Minogue on their property near Barmedman in the northern NSW Riverina where they finished harvest before they would traditionally have started. Picture: James Wagstaff

JOHN Minogue can’t recall an earlier harvest on his farm near Barmedman in the northern NSW Riverina.

“We’re finishing at a time when we normally would be starting,” the fifth-generation farmer said.

“With the crops as low and as light as they are, we are getting over some country pretty quickly.”

One of the driest years on record has taken its toll on his family’s 800ha of canola, wheat and barley crops, with harvest kicking off on November 11 and wrapping up last week.

While yields are down to one tonne/ha, from the more traditional 2.5 tonnes/ha, he concedes even that is “pretty amazing” given the season.

“It has been very tough. It is probably one of the worst years we’ve had,” Mr Minogue said.

“We’ve only had about 70mm of in-crop rainfall. There was 150mm of rain in December last year and then we sprayed the weeds over summer, so I’m pretty sure that is what we grew it on … that profile and a little bit of in-crop rainfall.”

Cropping accounts for about 50 per cent of the Minogue family’s 2000ha mixed farming operation, which also runs Merino sheep and beef cattle.

This year they planted about 400ha of wheat and 200ha of both canola — which was later grazed — and barley. Crops emerged after three falls of 10mm of rain in May and June “and then they just basically struggled all year”.

Mr Minogue works on a cropping program of four years of pasture — mostly lucerne and native perennials — followed by successive years of wheat, canola, wheat, barley.

“That’s the loose arrangement, that’s subject to price changes and whatever the season does as well,” he said.

Mr Minogue, the chairman of the Grains Research and Development Corporation northern region panel, said the country — comprising mostly black self-mulching clay and gilgai soils — had to be conventionally prepared for crops coming out of the pasture phase.

He said lucerne provided enough nitrogen for two years of the cropping program with supplements generally in the third and fourth year.

Mr Minogue said that he would store half his grain on the farm to see how the season panned out, with the remainder delivered to Barmedman silos.

“The price this year is probably double what we normally get,” Mr Minogue said.

“But it still won’t compensate for the loss of yield.”