Dry season dilemma: Goulburn Valley farmer weighs up whether or not to cut oats for fodder

With rainfall well below average, farmers are deciding whether or not to cut crops for hay. This is how one Goulburn Valley farmer is making assessments.

With rain becoming more elusive and irrigation costly, Luke Felmingham is weighing up whether his oats will be cut for hay or harvested for grain.

So far this year his property has received about 200mm of rain, well below the 500mm to 600mm the area typically receives as an annual average.

However, he is being realistic and is prepared to cut crops for hay and fodder if the season doesn’t deliver.

The Invergordon farmer, who runs crops and livestock in the Goulburn Valley said canola was the crop most likely to be taken through to harvest.

“Canola might be spared from being cut because prices are around $700 a tonne,” he said.

His 750ha property features half irrigated country and the remainder is dryland. The crops grown include oats, lucerne, clover, canola, wheat, and several pasture species.

Both sheep and cattle are run alongside the cropping program.

About 10 years ago he ventured into carbon credit management. He uses data provided from the Australian Carbon Credit Unit to guide his on-farm management decisions and said there had been both environmental and economic wins.

“It’s about making the work we do every day count – for the farm, the environment, and our bottom line,” he said.

Luke was initially introduced to the program by a family friend. The compliance and paperwork side of the carbon system was largely outsourced but had proven beneficial.

“I’m fairly optimistic, it pays for us.”

Under the Fife Carbon Project, Luke was the first broadacre cropping operation to receive Australian Carbon Credit Units for soil carbon sequestration. In just 12 months they increased soild carbon by 2000 tonnes.

Like most Victorian and southern NSW farmers at the moment Luke’s crops were at the mercy of the season.

“We are still deciding what to do with our oat crop, it will depend on this week’s weather,” he said.

Luke Felmingham of Invergordon is deciding whether or not to cut his crop for hay or take it to grain. Picture: Zoe Phillips

There was still some reasonable demand for hay locally and he was prepared to cut at least some of it.

“I’d say I’m on the fence at the moment over this decision,” he said.

The oats received one irrigation watering but a dry start during autumn and the failure of spring to deliver rain had taken a toll.

“Rainfall has been below average and it is so variable, you only have to drive 10km in any direction and there could have been a rain that we didn’t get,” he said.

“I don’t want to be ungrateful about any rainfall that might be coming but it is getting a little too late now in the season,” he said.

Luke said plants were dying before finishing growing.

“It’s been a while since we have seen it this tough.”

Looking forward to next year he said it was crucial that substantial rain arrived.

“It has been hot and dry and we just haven’t snagged any rain anywhere, we also have to make the decision as to whether or not to put summer crop in,” he said.

He said cropping farmers were reluctantly cutting their grain crops for hay and people were still getting a handle on how much yield they would get from fodder and what the demand and subsequent market would be like.

Luke will be speaking at the National Carbon Farming Conference and Expo in Albury, which runs November 3-6.