LIKE most farmers, David Agnew has a pretty hectic schedule. Together with his father Bronte, the Tintinara farmer runs Glenfruin Pastoral, which consists of 280 Shorthorn breeding cattle, a 600-head self-replacing Merino flock, cropping and hay, irrigation and lucerne seed across 2225 hectares.
Apart from that, he runs small-scale transport and water well drilling businesses.
Given his workload, it is safe to say David does not have a great deal of time to muck around with weed management in his cropping program, and anything that helps deal with the problem is welcome on his farm.
So David was only too happy to be introduced to the Clearfield canola 43C80 from Pioneer by his agronomist Michael Camac, Coorong Ag Services, Meningie.
The 43C80 is an early-maturing canola requiring a shorter growing season - ideal for busy farmers - and the Clearfield technology makes it an outstanding weed control tool.
"Michael recommended it because he thought it would suit us better," David said.
"We were looking at cleaning up a problem area of ryegrass on the property so he suggested we give it a go, which we did.
"We had never really grown canola until we tried the 43C80 and we were happy with the results so it's continued from there."
David said the short growing season meant they could sow it a bit later if they were tied up with other jobs.
"Everybody is always strapped for time, but it certainly gives us a bit more grace," he said.
"The canola fits well in the rotation due to its weed control advantages.
"Ryegrass is the main problem, but there is a lot of stony country where we grow it, which also grows horehound pretty well, and it has done a good job of nipping that in the bud.
"The horehound becomes a pretty big issue if you're just grazing it the whole time, but if we go for a three-year rotation and have the canola first up we seem to get on top of it a bit more."
David also grows wheat and barley, favouring the Mace variety of wheat for the past couple of years, and the Mundah and Cape varieties of barley.
The cropping program makes up between 200ha and 320ha of the total farm area, depending on the season.
David usually grows more barley than wheat and canola, but said that could vary each year with rotation choices.
Most of the barley is cut for hay, particularly Cape, but they keep some for sheep feed.
Wheat is normally reaped and sold but in the past season, David cut some wheaten hay for the farm because it had performed well.
Sowing got under way a bit late last season at Glenfruin, but David said once the 43C80 was in the ground, it grew vigorously.
It was sown with 80 kilograms/ha of DAP down the tube with the seed, and later topdressed with 100kg/ha of urea just before flowering.
"We got about 25 millimetres of rain just after we spread the urea," David said.
"Once we spread the urea, away it went - especially with the wet spring we had."
The 43C80 proved to be a winner for David, from sowing right through to windrowing and harvest.
Despite it going in a bit later than some of the other crops around the district - it was not as tall or bulky - David said it windrowed really well.
"There were no dramas picking it up with the header, either," he said.
"There was minimal loss through shattering during harvest, which was evident in the rows during summer."
* Full report in Stock Journal, April 10, 2014 issue.
