SE cropper eyes Australia Day finish

Last week, he only had 100 hectares of wheat left to reap but 30 millimetres of rain held him up.

He said it would be a relatively early finish for the district.

"As long as I'm finished by Australia Day, I'm happy," Lachie said.

He follows a wheat-broad bean rotation, with canola and barley added into the mix to alleviate crop issues.

Having access to plenty of domestic livestock and dairy markets nearby, Lachie focuses on feed wheat and barley varieties to achieve maximum yield potential.

"Snails are a big issue in the area, and that's another reason I grow feed rather than malt barley," he said.

Lachie picks varieties proven to be high yielders in the MacKillop Farm Management Group trials. One that has stood out was Revenue wheat, which reached yields up to 6.5 tonnes/ha on his farm this season.

"I've been pleasantly surprised and quite amazed at how well the crops handled the lack of spring rainfall," he said.

"It didn't get too wet in the winter, so the crops developed a good root system."

Lachie received about a third of his normal spring rainfall.

"From August through to October I received 75mm," he said.

"While that sounds quite good, we're cropping in a very high-input system.

"Last year, from August to October, we had 250mm and the year before that it was in the low 200s."