Canola crop a shining light for Osborne

It’s grand finals week in the Hume Football League. One club is gearing up for the finals and also opened the gates to showcase a handy canola crop.

Osborne Football Club is kicking goals on the field and in the paddock.

On September 23, footy players from the southern NSW club will line up at Walbundrie in southern NSW for the Hume League grand final.

Osborne will verse Holbrook in the grand final on Saturday, September 23.

Agronomist and Osborne footy club member Heidi Gooden inspects a crop of canola near Lockhart in southern NSW. Picture: Nikki Reynolds

But back home, in a paddock near Lockhart, a magnificent agricultural project is ticking away in the background with some early signs of success.

For the past 15 or so years, the club has grown winter crops as part of its fundraising efforts, and the project combines the expertise of the many Osborne members who are also farmers or work in the rural sector.

Delta agronomist at Lockhart and member of the Osborne Football Club, Heidi Gooden, said the Pioneer Canola 44Y94 CL crop was looking good for this time of the year.

She said there was no crop in the paddock last year due to the wet conditions, and it was great to see the canola thriving. Next year, the plan was to sow wheat.

Osborne Football Club grew this crop of canola near Lockhart in southern NSW. Picture: Nikki Reynolds

The crop was sown in early May by fellow footy club member Richard Smith who, in true club spirit, took to the paddock one morning before heading off to Osborne’s footy grounds to watch his son Andrew Smith make his first-grade debut.

Osborne Football Netball Club's domination. Picture: Facebook

Mrs Gooden said club members completed all of the work on the canola paddock. There was also assistance from local agribusiness companies to supply the various inputs needed.

There was some pressure from slugs after emergence, but aside from this the crop appeared to perform well.

“We will look for another spring rain now to ensure pod fill,” Mrs Gooden said.

She said by the time the crop was harvested, there would have been about 11 passes from sowing to applying fertiliser and chemicals, through to windrowing and harvest.

“It truly is a community project … it is all done voluntarily,” she said.

“We need to be as good of a team off the field as we are on. We are a tight-knit community-based club,” she said.

Mrs Gooden estimated the canola would yield in the vicinity of 2.2 to 2.7 tonnes a hectare.

Osborne Football Club president Jason Webster. Picture: David Johnston

Osborne Football Club president Jason Webster said there was a strong crossover between the farming community and the footy club, with many of the club’s members farming in the region.

“There is a lot of work that has gone in from our members, and it is something we appreciate,” he said.

“We are a farming community, and we may as well raise money by doing what we know how to do,” he said.

Mr Webster said Osborne would head into the grand final and he was leaving the outcome in the hands of the “footy gods.”

“We were very confident last year; we had a team that was capable of winning a premiership. And we didn’t,” he said.

Holbrook beat Osborne in the grand final in 2022.

“This year, we have done the preparation, we have done everything we possibly can, and (just) like farming, we have done the work,” he said.

Osborne Football Club. Picture: Deb Bahr

Fellow Hume League football club, the Billabong Crows at Oaklands in southern NSW, also regularly grows crops to raise money.

Early this year, club members jumped in the header to strip their charity crop, located just on the outskirts of the town.

Meanwhile, the Ouyen United Kangas, Football and Netball Club grew barley in 2022 as part of a fundraising effort.