Nuffield scholar spruiks alternative fertiliser and weed control for crop farmers

Nuffield scholarship winner Mitchell Henderson turns his focus to alternative weed-control measures to boost margins for grain growers.

MITCHELL Henderson is a man on a mission.

The 29-year-old farmer, from Berriwillock in the Mallee region of northwest Victoria, reckons grain growers have the potential to significantly improve their margins by using alternative fertiliser and weed-control measures.

And he will use a prestigious Nuffield scholarship, which he won last month, in an effort to prove just that.

Mitchell manages his family’s 8000ha broadacre cropping operation comprising wheat, barley, lentils, field peas and oaten hay, as part of a broader family farming business with his parents and brother which also supplies 1.5 million free-range birds under contract to Hazeldene’s Chickens.

Mitchell said he’d been home on the farm for almost a decade and reckons this year is one of the better years season wise that he has experienced in that time.

“This year had massive potential and hopefully if we get the right spring we’ll be OK,” he said.

Mitchell Henderson with oats cut for hay on his farm near Berriwillock in the Victorian Mallee region.

MITCHELL HENDERSON

BERRIWILLOCK

MANAGES his family’s 8000ha broadacre cropping business

GROWS wheat, barley, lentils, field peas and oaten hay

WAS recently awarded a prestigious Nuffield Scholarship

WILL investigate alternative fertiliser and weed-control measures for grain producers

“It will be good year in the scheme of things, that’s for sure.

“We are probably pretty right now, the barley is filling. What I probably need now is no frost and no heat.

“If we get a soft finish we can get home on that stored moisture but down south with the wheat we’d always love that fantasy spring inch.”

FAIR SPREAD

THE Hendersons operate their business across land in three districts; at Berriwillock; between Warracknabeal and Birchip at Wilkur; and Brim. Mitchell said the different locations of the properties helped when it came to risk management.

Soils vary across the farms from sandy country — “not deep sand” — through to heavy, black country. “It is a full range,” Mitchell said.

The Hendersons work on an average 320mm of rain a year but Mitchell admits “it’s one of those things you can get yourself in a five-year lull but then you get a really wet year”.

Mitchell said the Berriwollock country had received about 180mm of rain this growing season with about 200mm falling on the southern properties. “We are running on stored subsoil moisture at the moment,” he said. “We had 134mm in the last two weeks of December and a further 24-25mm in that January-February period so we were well set up going into autumn.”

MUST-WATCH PROGRAM

THE Hendersons’ cropping program is based around a split of two-thirds cereal crops — an even amount of wheat and barley — and a third legumes.

Some oaten hay is also planted to counter weed problems. Hay is mostly sold to NSW with some going to a Riverina dairy farmer.

Sowing started with barley around Anzac Day this year. Mitchell said seeding rates averaged about 60-65kg/ha for the cereal crops and 90kg/ha for oats.

The Hendersons use minimum-till working knifepoint press wheels at sowing. They have been using minimum till for six years. “The benefits are there, it’s chalk and cheese.”

Mitchell said they “set the crops up early” with urea this year, given the better seasonal conditions. The barley at Berriwillock has had 50-85kg/ha of urea, depending on paddocks and history. The wheat has received about 100kg/ha.

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Depending how they flower and fare during pod formation, Mitchell is hoping for 2-2.5 tonnes/ha from his lentils. The barley should return 3-3.5 tonnes/ha “easy enough” and the wheat 2.5-3.5 tonnes/ha.

“It could have been better with other rain but that’s not too bad with the spring,” he said.

The Hendersons employ a number of different marketing options, including direct to other farmers, the local silo or against contracts.

WORLD VISION

MITCHELL was last month awarded a prestigious Nuffield Scholarship to study alternative fertiliser and weed-control measures for grain producers.

Mitchell said in his own business using the phosphorus-rich chicken manure as fertiliser and the potential to feed chickens their own grain would eliminate freight costs, and result in a better outcome on their bottom line.

“The current cost of grain production in Australia is US$169 per tonne, while in Russia and the Ukraine it is US$120 per tonne … as an industry we need to find ways to raise the value of our produce,” Mitchell said. “If we can use our grain closer to where it is produced, for example, by on-site milling for chicken or other stock feed, then we can limit freight costs and obtain natural fertiliser benefits from manure, as well as obviously minimising business risk through enterprise diversification.”

As part of his studies, sponsored by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Mitchell will visit the US, Canada and Brazil to explore their large-scale cropping enterprises, and Europe where he will look at the role strict environmental regulation plays in food production systems.