POOR canola yields in dry springs and high input costs encouraged Mid North farmer Dave Boulton to grow a different break crop – vetch.
“I normally only grow about 20 hectares for on-farm use in our sheep flock,” he said.
“But we chose not to grow canola this year because of poor yields and I wanted to keep my sheep numbers up, so we went more feed.”
Mr Boulton said vetch nodulation was an appealing quality – “free nitrogen instead of having to buy it”.
“We also have stony country, which vetch and lupins grow well on, when compared to popular lentils,” he said. “Vetch can also be crop-topped if needed and doesn’t have as many disease issues as canola.”
The Boulton operation, which includes help from father Barry and casual staff, comprised 1000ha of wheat, barley and vetch at Streaky Bay and 500ha of wheat, barley, vetch and lupins at Spalding.
About 800 Merino breeding ewes are also run in a self-replacing flock.
This year the Boultons sowed 150ha of Rasina vetch.
Some was grazed by their Merino flock, while the rest is still waiting to be harvested.
“We finished our wheat awhile ago but it has been too wet and then too hot for us to reap our vetch,” Mr Boulton said.
“But already we see it has been a good decision because the vetch yields will be astronomical.
“We may have to store some because everyone’s yields have been good, but we can’t complain.”
Harvest began at Streaky Bay on November 15 – two weeks later than normal – but Mr Boulton said they had an “awesome run”, finishing on December 5.
“Yields were some of our best ever and good quality, too,” he said.
“Mace and Clearfield Grenade wheat averaged 1.8 tonnes/ha to 2t/ha, compared to about 1-1.2t/ha last season.
“It went H2 with low screenings and good test weights, while our Clearfield Scope barley got up to 1.5t/ha and went F1.
“We were able to get it all in the bin before rain ruined its quality.”
But since migrating back to Spalding, Mr Boulton said they hadn’t been as lucky, stop-starting because of rain.
They had 40 millimetres in the Christmas break and another 5mm on Monday.
This was after more than 600mm during the growing season, when normally GSR is about 450mm at Spalding.
Mr Boulton said they were fortunate the rain didn’t affect the quality of the crops.
“The wind blew the crop over, which meant the whole lot had to go through the machine,” he said.
“We only finished the cereals last week.”
But harvest is not finished for the Boultons, with the 150ha of vetch to go.
A strong performer in Mr Boulton’s cropping rotation has been wheat, which out-yielded barley.
“Scout wheat had massive yields on our Mid North property, averaging 5.24 tonnes a hectare,” he said.
“It’s a high yielding variety when there’s a good finish, which was how this year turned out. It did have low protein though, which isn’t unusual with those types of yields, but all went ASW.”
Mr Boulton said his barley averaged 4.8t/ha.
“It might have been too wet for Hindmarsh barley,” he said. “But it was still amazing, as last year we only averaged high 2s (2t/ha).
“Most of our barley made malting or F1, which was lucky because others had issues with lighter test weights and frosting.”
Mr Boulton said it was one of the best seasons he had experienced.