Farmers welcome an ideal start to winter cropping

Early April rain has set winter sowing up nicely for this southern NSW cropping farmer, as the traditional Anzac Day sowing period edges closer.

A “textbook” start to winter sowing has been welcomed by Forest Hill farmer Andrew Dumaresq.

Mr Dumaresq was busy sowing wheat at his southern NSW property this week, and the canola crops had already started to emerge.

In the past two weeks, he measured 45mm of rain in the gauge, which he said set things up for an ideal sowing start.

Andrew Dumaresq of Gregadoo Park, Forest Hill in southern NSW sows wheat. Picture: Nikki Reynolds

He said the canola was planted about 10 days ago and had already started to emerge.

The next phase was to move onto sowing Illabo wheat into a paddock that wasn’t cropped last year.

Mr Dumaresq said the paddock where the wheat was being planted had got so wet last year that he didn’t sow a crop.

Andrew Dumaresq of Gregadoo Park, Forest Hill in southern NSW has started sowing winter wheat after finishing canola. Picture: Nikki Reynolds

He said the winter cropping program, across 1650 hectares, would include wheat, canola, lupins and oats. The oats would be used for silage.

“It has been a textbook start with really good rain early in April; this is good that it allows us to start our cropping program with moisture and get some early weed control,” he said.

It was estimated sowing would be finished within about five weeks and the start, was timed perfectly being a couple of weeks before the traditional Anzac Day sowing period.

“The early season break has given us an opportunity to get everything in,” he said.

The wet weather last year meant that canola was completely excluded from the program. However, it has made a welcome return this year.

Mr Dumaresq said prices for canola had certainly shown some volatility in recent months, but he would take a wait-and-see approach towards the end of the year in regards to markets.

One of the challenges to winter crops has been pressure from slugs, and it was hoped that the early sowing of canola would allow it to emerge before the damage occurs.

“It looks like we have had a good germination in the canola,” he said.