An area south-east of Berrigan had a good shower of rain in early April, germinating canola that has resulted in full ground cover early elongation canola with 3t/ha yield potential.
Most of the district missed the early rain and winter crop emergence is late, occurring in the first week of June after a late May rain.
Optimum canola emergence is between the April 10 and May 10, and wheat emergence from May 12 to June 10.
Most of the crops of canola with three leaves and wheat at tillering had been topdressed with 100-150kg/ha for canola and 100kg/ha urea for wheat.
The Blighty group soil moisture was moderate to 30cm depth, with low soil moisture below.
The farmers said they would like 15-30mm rainfall in the next couple of weeks.
The dryland Berrigan crops were at the same crop stage.
We were all shocked when we assessed the soil moisture.
High fallow rainfall resulted in good soil moisture down to 85 and as much as 100cm, so immediate rainfall was less of an issue.
Pre-irrigated crops of canola, the early dryland canola and wheat also had soil moisture to 85cm-100cm.
Canola was at the elongation stage and had been topdressed twice, totalling 150-250kg/ha.
Wheat had been topdressed once at tillering, at 100-200kg/ha.
The closest winter crop season to this season was 2021.
The farmers were shown dryland and irrigated late May emergence crop results, with emergence about 10 days earlier than this season.
The 2021 season had good monthly rainfall after emergence and a coolish spring, providing conditions for excellent grain filling.
The late emergence Finley Discussion group yields were high, with dryland wheat yields 5.2 to 5.8 t/ha and canola 3.0 to 3.1t/ha.
The late emerged irrigated wheat yields were 7.0 to 7.2t/ha and irrigated canola yields 3.0 to 3.7 t/ha.
It is highly unlikely we will get as good a season as this, but the group farmers have already decided to have a follow-up meeting in mid- August to discuss crop strategies.
One reminder, and a key check discovered by the groups several years ago, was that moderate to good soil moisture is required at the start of canola flowering.
We found that canola is susceptible to moisture stress at the start of flowering, resulting in lower yields.
The recent and predicted rainfall over the next few days should help to alleviate any moisture stress.
My thesis on increased winter crop sequence yields and profitability using group farmer crop data is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
I hope this will be excellent value to group farmers and other winter cropping farmers.
~ John Lacy is a cropping systems consultant based in Finley.
• The information in this column has been prepared in good faith based on available information and farmer feedback. John Lacy Consulting accepts no responsibility for any person acting on the advice expressed or implied in the document, and disclaims all liability for any loss arising from any person relying on the information contained in the document.
