Reign and shine for 2017 Farmer of the Year Matthew and Rachel Hinkley
SMART cropping methods and strategic land buys have paid off for last year’s Farmers of the Year, writes JAMES WAGSTAFF.
MATTHEW and Rachel Hinkley know they are among the lucky few.
As much of eastern Australia reels from dry conditions that have devastated winter crops and hurt yield prospects, The Weekly Times Coles 2017 Farmers of the Year are sitting fairly pretty.
In the heart of the high-rainfall cropping zone at Derrinallum in the Western District, the Hinkleys have 1473ha of wheat, canola, barley and hay crops planted and, with a full soil-moisture profile, are hopeful of cashing in on strong yields and prices this year. Not that they are counting their chickens just yet.
MATTHEW AND RACHEL HINKLEY
DERRINALLUM
WINNERS of The Weekly Times Coles 2017 Farmer of the Year
HAVE 717ha of wheat, 531ha of canola, 104ha of barley planted
ALSO have 121ha of ryegrass clover for hay production
EXPERIMENTING with crop growth regulators
“These next four to six weeks are the danger period for us,” Matthew said. “August can be a horror month in terms of rainfall nearly every second day and waterlogging can become problematic, but our crop conditions are really good for this time of year.”
So too, they say, are prices, with the dry forcing APW wheat up to $370 a tonne while feed barley commands $350 a tonne and canola $560-$570 a tonne.
“If we can grow a crop this year, there will be some good returns,” Matthew said. “We always think $300 a tonne is good money — well we are seeing $370 for APW, which is probably a decile 9.5 or decile 10 price, so if you’re not happy with that you shouldn’t be in the game.”
The Hinkleys were recognised as Farmers of the Year for their dramatic increase in scale, efficiency, yields and profits. Within 14 years the former agronomists have increased the size of their mostly cropping operation by 400 per cent, boosted their return on assets to an impressive 10 per cent and lifted yields to rival the best in the state.
The keys to their success have been a targeted approach of buying and leasing land, a scientific-based input program and growing crops on raised beds to avoid losses during wet years.
DRY START
UNLIKE last year, when a wet autumn caused havoc at planting, the Hinkleys sowed their crops into a dry moisture profile this year. About 530ha of canola was planted from April 18, 717ha of wheat from May 1 and 104ha of barley from May 20, working well with the family’s plan to have everything sown by the end of May. “And because it was nice and dry we got a really good run,” Rachel said. “I think we only had two or three days off for two periods when we had a decent rain, otherwise it was one of the easiest sowings we’ve ever had.”
Matthew said their growing season so far had been almost textbook, with rain falling at the right time and issues such as slugs in canola not as prevalent as in previous years.
“You’d argue with the level of frosts we’ve had and the cold temperatures — and it is unusually cold this year — that we’re probably a week to 10 days, maybe even two weeks, in development behind where we normally are,” Matthew said. “You notice the growth is unusually slow, but establishment has been pretty good just the same.”
The Hinkleys have received about 300mm of their 625mm annual average rainfall so far. “We are about 25mm above average for growing season rainfall and our soil moisture probe is showing we are actually at full water-holding capacity,” Matthew said.
The Hinkleys rate the condition of their crops as better than both 2016 and last year due to the drier start. “But this next six weeks is a dangerous time for us in terms of crop condition. We can lose 10 or 20 per cent — if we get three inches (75mm) of rain next week it will have a real effect,” Matthew said.
Last year the Hinkleys’ canola yielded 2.5 tonnes/ha after some waterlogging issues pulled the average down, while barley, which all met malting specifications, returned 5.25 tonnes/ha and wheat 5.7 tonnes/ha.
FORWARD THINKERS
WITH the strong prices for grain, the Hinkleys have already forward-sold some of the crop, with plans to increase amounts as the season progresses.
“We’ve got a percentage locked in — not a huge amount as yet, we’ve been tentatively adding a little bit, along the way,” Matthew said. “Once we get further through the season, certainly by the end of October hopefully we’re past the risk of frosts etc, and with prices like this, we’ll probably keep taking some (more forward contracts out).”
Given the attractive prices, Matthew and Rachel said they would be pretty aggressive with their crop inputs this year in an attempt to maximise yields. They intend to apply two fungicide applications to their cereal crops. They have already applied fungicide to canola, but plan on doing more during spring to counter diseases such as sclerotinia.
In addition, they will be ramping up urea rates to stimulate growth “because with those numbers you could be talking a $1 spend for a $3 return — it might even be $1 to $5.”
Rachel said targeting yields made sense in a year such as this with little difference in pricing according to wheat or barley quality. “If we think this year, grain is just grain, you might as well just go for yield,” Rachel said. “It is fairly much a domestic market at the moment because you’ve got such shortages through the eastern seaboard that grain, irrespective of quality, very possibly could go down a cow or a sheep’s throat.”
GROW FOR IT
FOR the first time this year, the Hinkleys are experimenting with growth regulators on their crops. “If you go and put big amounts of fertiliser, which we are notoriously doing to try and grow big crops, you’ll grow a very herbaceous crop with a risk of lodging,” Matthew said. “And once they fall over it’s like a ringbarked tree and you’ve lost all your yield potential.”
They said by spraying the regulator on the crops, plants were shortened from about 91cm to 76cm and there was a thickening of the stem to allow it to carry “those bigger, fatter, heavier heads”. The Hinkleys attended a field day in Tasmania last November where they said regulator use showed “some real promise” and they hope it can lead to better yields and easier harvesting, with crops closer to the ground.
Matthew said they had not increased plantings this year, but have plans in the pipeline for next season with the purchase of a further 280ha, which they take possession of in January. This will bring the total of their owned and leased country to 1900ha within 35km of their 728ha home block. “A lot of people say land is tightly held but it has been incredibly tightly held here in the past three or four years — there’s very little coming to market full stop,” Matthew said. “It’s not to say it hasn’t been without its price tag, but our land is becoming more expensive probably because of the reliability and how regular our seasons are.”
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