Lane family win Lockhart Ag Bureau wheat crop blue ribbon
A Riverina farmer and his four sons have earned a top prize thanks to their stellar Raider wheat crop. See their yield expectations for harvest.
Judges have scrutinised paddocks across NSW during the annual AgShows NSW crop judging.
Longtime judge Frank McRae has been assessing competition crops since 1981 and was in the Lockhart region this week to inspect wheat.
Mr McRae from Orange, NSW caught up with the Lane family at Redbank, Milbrulong, after they had earned the top award from the Lockhart Ag Bureau.
In their winter cropping program, Geoff Lane and sons Lachie, Adam, Will, and Simon grow wheat, barley, canola, faba beans, and lupins.
Mr McRae was judging their crop of Raider wheat. The judging also coincided with harvest.
Early indications from the header showed yields of five to six tonnes a hectare for the crop.
“It is a nice crop with good yield potential,” Mr McRae said.
He described the wheat at Milbrulong as fitting the criteria of an excellent commercial crop and outstanding enough to be considered a “competition crop”.
He said the grain looked good.
Across the 20 or so crops Mr McRae has inspected this week, he said protein had generally been lower.
He said yields were better than expected, particularly with all of the concerns about low rainfall.
Mr McRae said crop judging was an excellent way to gain insights into how the cropping season was progressing.
And it also gave the people who entered some insights on benchmarking and how their crops were performing compared to others in the same district and across the state.
“The crops have been surprising this year given the fact we had so little in-crop rainfall in parts,” he said.
Mr McRae said judging the crops this year was a stark contrast to 2022, when roads were closed due to flooding, and farmers constantly pulled out bogged headers.
“The crops are a pleasure to judge after last year’s wet weather,” he said.
Mr McRae said much of the judging coincided with harvest, and the headers were in the paddock simultaneously. He said there were many instances where farmers had left a portion of the crop standing to be judged before being stripped.
The AgShows NSW Dryland Wheat Competition winners will be announced in January 2024.
Canola yields expected to be halved at Westmere
Western District farmer Graeme McCrow usually cuts about 400 bales of hay. But this year he is cutting 2000.
Read more
Storms whip through cropping zones
A series of hit-and-miss storms have whipped through farming districts with some farmers stopping the header. While others have completely missed the rain.
Read more