Gallery: Farmers gather for field day at Moolort
Flat wheat prices and strong on-farm trial results are prompting a Moolort farmer to consider reducing wheat and planting more oats next season.
Encouraging results from on-farm trials, combined with flat wheat prices, have led a Moolort farmer to consider cutting back on wheat and planting more oats next season, with the oat crop showing strong potential under challenging conditions.
Matt Hurse grows canola, wheat, barley and vetch and also runs Merino sheep. He recently opened his gates to share the results of some crop trials that were grown on his property.
Last Thursday he hosted 45 people who were viewing the trial crops planted by the agronomy team from Driscoll Ag.
Matt said despite well below average rainfall, and negligible falls since August, the trial crops and the winter crops planted on his farm were looking better than could be expected.
He said given what he had seen from the trial plot and the performance of oats, he would look at planting the crop as a dual-purpose option next year.
Wheat wasn’t being taken out of the equation completely but might possibly be reduced simply due to the current prices. The current price for wheat in Victoria was $348 a tonne.
While the season had been difficult, including a run of warm and windy conditions, Matt said the crops were holding up better than expected.
“Canola is looking alright and it might turn out to be average, I’m hoping we could have a yield of 3 tonnes a hectare,” he said.
It was too early to determine the outcome for wheat and barley, which was in need of rain.
“We had a tough start to the season too, and the crops didn’t come out of the ground until the last week of June, they were just sitting there and not doing anything for six weeks,” he said.
“We have had a tough start and a tough finish.”
Despite the dry conditions he estimated the season, in terms of timing, was about a week behind.
“We will start cutting vetch for hay in about a week,” he said.
Driscoll Ag agronomist Lewis Cain from Maryborough said the crop trials included wheat, barley, canola, oats, lentils, beans and vetch, and there was also a fungicide trial.
During the trial open day he said farmers were interested in seeing what varieties might suit their farm and comparing the difference in maturity and yield potential.
“The last six weeks has been tough for seasonal conditions,” he said.
Lewis said the region had received 203mm of rain for the year, which was well down on the typical falls of up to 355mm for the area.
While it’s dry he believed crops could “hold on” for another 10 days to two weeks. But if rain didn’t arrive, some might need to be cut for hay.
“To the north of here, about 50km, we are seeing crops cut for hay,” he said.
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