Bumper crops and disappointment: mixed harvest for Mallee growers

See what yields six Mallee grain growers are reporting in this up-and-down year.

Crops across the Mallee are bringing in mixed results as harvest gets underway, but one farming family is seeing exceptional yields this year.

Across the region many farmers began the year with a dry start and are now heading into a stop-start harvest as bursts of rain and storms interrupt their plans.

One family that is hoping to bring in a top notch crop is Rick and Dianne Sheahan, who planted 1000 hectares of lentils and 400 hectares of cereals across two properties in Quambatook and Dumosa this season.

Rick has harvested 400 hectares of lentils so far, and says if he can bring in the remaining 600 before the next rain he hopes he might hit the rare combination of a high yielding year with the added bonus of high prices.

So far the crop is delivering 2-2.5 tonnes/ha, well above the average yield for the property of 1-1.5 tonnes/ha.

The yield was especially sweet this year after a September frost last season “knocked one tonne per hectare” off their yield.

Rick said this year’s “really nice cool finish”, no frost and “rain exactly when they wanted it” contributed to the high numbers.

The crop had “an extended flowering period” through October with just one day over 30C and “more or less ripened naturally”, though Rick did desiccate the crop before harvest.

The family is also looking forward to “above average” barley and wheat crops this year.

Elsewhere in the region results were more varied, with farmers reporting little surprise lower than average rainfall had limited their yields.

Matt Elliot.

MATT ELLIOTT

NANDALY

Early results from this year’s harvest are looking good for mixed grain grower Matt Elliott after a year of below-average rainfall.

Mr Elliott managed to harvest 500ha of lentils before last week’s rain filled a soak on one of his two properties, making the area impassable for his header.

His lentil yield was “a bit above long-term average”, which was so far better than he had expected, but “certainly not representative of the whole farm”, he said.

Mr Elliott planted 2500ha of lentils, oat hay, vetch hay, and barley across two properties this year.

He expected one property, which received “next to no summer rainfall” to bring in a yield a bit below last year, while the other, which had been lucky to get some summer rain, would yield an above-average crop.

“For the rainfall (the crops have) received for the year we couldn’t ask for too much more,” he said.

Jarrod Munro.

JARROD MUNRO

OUYEN

High grain prices have compensated for a “varied” yield at Jarrod Munro’s 10,700ha mixed grain property at Ouyen.

Mr Munro has stripped 200ha of barley so far and says this year’s crop, which is averaging 1.7 to 2.5 tonnes a hectare, is “considerably down” compared to last year’s bumper crop of 3.5 tonnes a hectare.

But he was “quite happy” with it considering this year’s patchy rainfall.

The property had very little rain in autumn and “no germinating rain until the first week of June”, he said. “That’s six weeks behind where we’d like our crops to germinate.”

The crops have had 200-210mm of rain so far this year compared to a yearly average of 320mm, and “quite a lot has come in the last few months, which hasn’t contributed much to yield”, he said.

Terry Kiley.

TERRY KILEY

NYARRIN

Mixed grain grower Terry Kiley is watching the weather radar nervously this week and says harvesting his lentils is “all about desiccation timing” as rain looms on the horizon.

Mr Kiley had harvested 500ha of lentils with another 600ha desiccated and ready for harvest before rain fell last week across the Mallee.

He said the weather sent some desiccated pods to the ground and the rain forecast for later this week was “a bit of a worry”, but he hoped to harvest as much as possible before it arrived.

He expected this year’s lentil crop to come in “slightly better than average” at about 1.4 tonnes a hectare, better than last year’s crop that averaged closer to 1.2 tonnes.

He expected his wheat crop to come in above average too, at about three tonnes a hectare, while his barley was looking average.

Clay Gowers at Carwarp. Picture: Glenn Milne

CLAY GOWERS

CARWARP

This year has been “just one of those years” in Carwarp, says Clay Gowers, who co-manages his family’s 9000ha farming operation south of Mildura.

The season started with very little rain, and a burst of late hail caused headaches, with stormy weather now slowing down harvest.

“Some years it just doesn’t rain all year and then it just gets stormy and rains when you don’t want it to,” he said.

Mr Gowers had been expecting his lentils to come in at about 0.7 tonnes per hectare until hail hit the property in a recent storm. The damage brought yields down closer to 0.5 tonnes a hectare, a long way below what he would hope for in a good year.

His barley crop was also looking below-average after a dry finish, he said.

Mr Gowers said last week’s rain and the rain forecast for later this week would significantly delay the family’s schedule and they could still be harvesting at Christmas, weeks after they would normally finish for the season.

Peter and Joel Vallance Blue Hills at Pier Milan.

PETER AND JOEL VALLANCE

OUYEN

This year was “one of the more challenging starts to harvest” that Leonard Vallance has seen in his career.

The mixed grain farmer, who runs a property at Ouyen together with his sons, Peter and Joel, said this year was the coolest October he could remember, and the long bouts of wet weather brought a risk of staining his grain, lowering its weight and quality.

The family managed to bring in only “one box” of barley before rain bore down on them last week. They were now waiting to “get a crack at it” when the crops dried out, Mr Vallance said.

So far they anticipated their barley crop would yield two to three tonnes a hectare with “a fair bit of wind damage” in the Spartacus variety, Mr Vallance said.

“If we escape without weather-damaged grain, the price of grain is certainly still on the rise”, and would make the season worth it, he said.

His Ballista wheat looked “very promising”, and could yield “well past 2.5 tonnes per hectare”, he said.