Harvest looms for canola crops in the Loddon
Victorian farmers are racing against November rain to windrow their canola crops, as prices sit at $810 a tonne.
Farmers have been “windrowing around the clock” to beat intermittent rain showers that have arrived in early November to coincide with harvest.
After extremely dry weather in September and November, wetter-than-anticipated conditions have arrived at the start of November just as farmers were wanting to harvest.
Cropping farmer Blair Richards farms at Calivil with his father Glenn and has also been contract windrowing canola crops.
This week he was windrowing crops at Boort and said that despite a tough start to the season things were shaping up well.
He said harvest was still a little way off but there was a lot of activity on the windrower at the moment.
Bendigo agronomist, Josh McLeod of Driscoll Ag said the canola price was positive and farmers in his area were taking the crop through to harvest.
There had been some cereal crops cut for hay but the option for canola at this stage was harvest.
“I think we will see headers in the paddock in this area in about 10 to 15 days,” he said.
Josh said yields were estimated conservatively at 1.8 tonnes and above and there were some standouts around Raywood and Bridgewater that could yield 2.5 tonnes a hectare.
“There’s a small amount of rain on the radar this week but I don’t think it is enough to influence harvest operations,” he said.
Canola prices were currently sitting at $810 a tonne in Victoria.
