Early start worth the gamble

Goulburn Valley’s Eddy Rover is well underway with his crop sowing. He has already sown about 300 hectares of canola. This is why he took the gamble.

Good bet: Eddy Rover oversees canola sowing at his farm in Invergordon. A bright season outlook added confidence to the process, which will include faba beans next week. Picture: Zoe Phillips

SOWING is underway for Goulburn Valley grain grower Eddy Rover, as the outlook for Australia’s cropping season looks bright.

The Invergordon grower began sowing about 300 hectares of canola last week and will begin sowing 160ha of faba beans under irrigation this week.

“We added the beans (into the rotation) this year as we put irrigation in,” Mr Rover said.

“We should have a good crop of those and a good finish.”

About 400ha each of wheat and barley will follow, with the grower’s sowing timing running on par with last year.

“We got crops is before the rain hit last year,” he said.

“We have received about 100mm of rain this year.

“If it keeps raining, it should all work out.

“But being a farmer is like going to the casino and putting $600,000 on table.

“You don’t know how it’s going to end up.”

Mr Rover said rain meant weeds were prominent, and finding chemicals this season had proved difficult.

“We managed to get some from Port Fairy with friends getting what they could get for us,” he said.

“Now we are OK.”

Meanwhile, a recent Rabobank report indicated the outlook for Australia’s season was the most positive it had been in years.

“There’s been widespread rain and the three-month forecast continues to look promising,” Rabobank senior grain and oilseeds analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon said.

“So the Australian supply outlook is much improved.”

And while labour needs for the season were “uncertain” in many places, Dr Kalisch Gordon said a recent arrival of agricultural chemical key ingredients into Melbourne was likely to ease input pressures.

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