Borrika crops perform in tough Mallee season

Their 5000-hectare property at New Residence in the Riverland is about 50 kilometres north of Goyder's Line, while their newly-sharefarmed property at Borrika is about 30km south.

"Goyder's Line was definitely the shut off mark for rain this year," said fourth generation-cropper Ben Schober, who farms with his brother Clarke and parents Brenton and Trish.

New Residence has had about 65 millimetres of rain for the year, while Borrika has had 167mm to-date.

Ben said they finished harvest on the main last week, which was unusually early.

"We didn't reap the whole farm at New Res," he said.

"We didn't harvest our lentils because there wasn't enough there, while chickpeas may be the same.

"We also lost about three paddocks to hail and patched out our best wheat and barley.

"Thankfully that was really good quality. We have got seed back to go again next year, plus a bit extra."

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The story was a bit better at Borrika, where they have been sharefarming 2000ha for the past two seasons to expand the family business and spread risk.

"We could see the potential in moving south to chase a bit more rain and the opportunity came up through our local ag bureau," Ben said.

They rotate barley and lupins there, with it being one of the best suited legumes to the high pH soils.

"The past two seasons we really have been testing the waters down there and the barley/lupin rotation has done well," Ben said.

"Wheat has not been grown there previously because of frost concerns, but we have seen neighbours growing it successfully, so we will consider growing Kord next year on the higher lupin stubble ground."

In mid-October, the Schobers took the Lowbank Agriculture Bureau on a crop walk at Borrika to showcase their best looking lupin and barley crops.

The lupins went 0.5 tonnes/ha - which Ben said was pleasing for the region and considering the season - but the further east they reapt, the lower the yield was.

The Scope barley yields were also slightly disappointing considering the bulk produced.

It got up to 2.5t/ha on hills, but the frost-hit flats were down to 0.3t/ha, averaging about 1.1t/ha.

"It was slightly less than expected because they were looking real good," Ben said.

Ben said this has been the worst year for cropping in his lifetime on the land.

"We have been nicely surprised by the quality of what we have reapt, but the outlook isn't good again next year," he said.

"We will have a lot of country that has standing crop left in it so we will have to reconsider our rotations next year to manage that.

"We may go in with the same crop to reduce crop contamination, but then there is disease concerns, so we could also go in with a legume and spray out this year's crop.

"We will also need to sow down our legume paddocks early to stop drifting."

THE Schobers grow only Scope barley at Borrika.

They had tried Spartacus barley, but found it was not tall enough for good crop competition.

"Scope as a Clearfield variety also gives us the option to take out our brome grass with an imi," Brenton Schober said.

"It also has malt accreditation, but we will put it in bags and store it aiming for the feed market, along with our lupins grown there."

Turnips have also been a big problem at the property.

"Last year we used Brodal and had a shocking result with turnips," Mr Schober said.

"So we dropped Brodal this year and upped our simazine to 850 grams per hectare, which we were a little uncomfortable with, but we knew of people putting 1 kilogram/ha out and it being OK.

"That rate worked a treat, but a few still got through, which was surprising as we sowed lupins after the opening rain, so we got good knockdown after germination.

"Next year we will have to up the rate.

"Hopefully there are less turnips as we have been spraying them out this year in the barley, aiming to lower the seed bank."