Winnindoo farmer Ton van Dijk harvest heavily impacted by winter rain

Winnindoo grain grower Ton van Dijk had a wet start to his season, but is still seeing impressive yield results. Here’s how his harvest is going.

Ton Van Dijk in his winter wheat crop. Picture: Zoe Phillips

RAIN may have dampened Gippland grain grower Ton van Dijk’s hope of a record canola crop, but it has done little to his spirits.

After years of drought and very little rainfall, the tide turned this year when his Winnindoo farm received an unexpected amount of rain throughout winter.

“We came out of two to three years of drought and then headed into the other extreme of rain and water logging in the paddocks,” Mr van Dijk said.

“We’ve had close to 700mm of rain this year and it’s not over it yet.”

The wet winter was bad news for the barley, canola and winter wheat grower, with wet paddocks meaning the crops didn’t develop a good enough root system.

“It was a struggle to get the crop in the ground — no one was expecting this much rain.

“At the end of the day that’s farming and I’m not complaining,” he said.

He is wrapping up harvest for the year on his 300ha property, with the help of contractors, which is taking a bit longer than it normally would.

“It’s been very stop-start this year, with not a lot of rain but enough to stop the header. A lot more would have been harvested in time without the rain,” he said.

He said he will put in summer crops after harvest, mainly for grazing purposes, which would be a lot easier than previous years when the farmer struggled to get them to establish due to low soil moisture levels.

Despite the wet year they’ve experienced, Mr van Dijk said their harvest would yield similar results to their average.

“My long term average is 2.5 tonne per hectare of canola, and we’ve got that this year. We haven’t got that last few years,” he said.

“But it had the potential to go to 3 or 3.5 tonnes a hectare this year.”

Around the greater Gippsland region they’ve seen mixed results, with farms closer to Bairnsdale getting the rain at a more optimal time.

“You only have to 40-50kms to the southeast and those people whinging all winter they didn’t get enough rain but they’re happy now,” Mr van Dijk said.

“They are growing crops we’d like to grow.”

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