Dry autumn has tests crops Cosgrove

After a dry autumn at Cosegrove, Allan Shields remains optimistic that late-season rain will boost his canola, wheat, barley and faba bean crops.

Autumn has been far from ideal for Allan Shields of Cosgrove near Shepparton, but with winter rain on the horizon, the mixed farmer remains quietly optimistic about his winter crop prospects.

He is hopeful that late-season rain could turn things around for his canola, wheat, barley and faba beans.

While wheat and barley were doing reasonably well considering low levels of rain, the canola was yet to emerge.

On the weekend, he was taking pre-emptive action to spray a crop of canola to reduce any weed pressure.

He said the canola was sown on April 21 and ideally needed 15mm to 20mm to emerge.

Allan Shields pictured spraying canola at Cosgrove near Shepparton. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

“I’ve got bugger all canola up, but the other crops have all emerged,” he said.

For the calendar year, he has recorded 87.5mm of rainfall, and his property usually receives 450mm annually.

He measured 55.25mm of rain in March, just .75mm in April, 8.5mm in May and is now hoping for winter rain.

“We might get 15mm in the next week if we are lucky,” he said.

Allan started his winter sowing program on April 4 and still had more wheat to plant.

“I started with some brassica for sheep feed,” he said.

“I sowed about 40ha of ryegrass and subclover, then 36ha of barley, and that is all up and looking reasonably good,” he said.

Allan said he remembered having a split germination with his canola crop about 20 years ago, and in the end , late-season rainfall arrived and he was able to achieve a yield of 1.1 tonnes a hectare after what was a pretty dire start. So he was hopeful something similar might happen this year.

This season he has sown 550ha of wheat, 400ha of canola, 82ha of barley, 32ha of ryegrass and 50ha of faba beans. He also runs 500 Merino ewes that are joined to White Suffolk rams.