AIMING to further open up his ground, while also adding nutrition, Waikerie mixed farmer Tim Paschke is trialling tillage radish on deep-ripped rested paddocks.
Mr Paschke farms 4000 hectares, growing wheat, barley and break crops, alongside a 400-ewe Merino flock.
For the first time this year, he put in 30ha of tillage radish mixed with Twilight field peas on ground that was deep-ripped in January last year.
He had seen tillage radish used to break up potato ground or as a summer crop and was drawn to its "ground breaking" capabilities.
"In a break year, we want to open the ground up, while also giving it nutrition and paddock cover for the sheep to run on," he said.
"The tillage radish may suck up all the moisture, but then we spray it off and let the organic matter break down, which then makes a big plug hole for the next crop's roots to follow down the following season.
"Plus we will either graze the peas or harvest them.
"We're hoping it will also be a good mix in our vetch and canola for sheep feed."
We had to weigh up effort over results.
- TIM PASCHKE
The paddock was part of 400ha that was deep-ripped this past year using a new self-modified machine.
"We recently made our own prototype," Mr Paschke said.
"Every deep-ripper has a crumble roller, or some other way to break up the clumps, we wanted to take it one step further with heavy press wheels.
"We bought a frame and attached the rippers and put 16 of the wheels across the back end.
"The wheels are meant to settle the ground, but also leave a 35-centimetre ridge behind to minimise drift."
The machine rips to 45cm, which Mr Paschke says is deep enough, getting through the first hard pan.
"We had to weigh up effort over results," he said.
"We are doing a trial through Rural Directions to compare it against other rippers to see whether deeper is better or whether the compaction has an impact.
"Last year we tried a Grizzly ripper to 60cm and tripled our canola yield, after two years of no rain."
There is some excitement about this year's season, as the farm has received 165 millimetres of rain to-date, including 13mm at the weekend.
Mr Paschke said it has been the best start since 2017, when they received 50mm of rain before seeding.
"But we only had 100mm for that year," he said.
Last year, the Paschkes had 85mm growing season rainfall, 120mm for the year, while 2018 was the same.
"This year, we had 100mm before seeding so we started with confidence," he said.
"Even if the season turns, we know it doesn't have to rain much more for a reasonable result."
GRASSES KEPT UNDER CONTROL
Mr Paschke has a second trial on-farm this year - a test crop of Intergrain's Clearfield Sheriff wheat.
Mr Paschke said he was donated a tonne of the mid to late maturity variety, which he liked for being a Clearfield variety.
"It fits into our program because you can put it in that bit earlier," he said.
"The only downside I can see is that it is an APW variety, when most grain around here is hard wheat."
Since 2014, Mr Paschke's rotation has generally been canola, then a Clearfield variety, then vetch, for a break and two years of grass selective.
"It has cost us a lot of money, but it helped to get our brome grass down to nearly nil," he said.
"Now we can go in dry most years without the grass problems."
Mr Paschke said they start seeding from Anzac Day regardless.
"I think that has helped us the past two years," he said.
"We plan to sow half our crop by May 15, then if we haven't had another rain by the June long weekend that's it.
"In the past two years, we haven't had any rain after the June long weekend."
The early break made a huge difference - we are incredibly excited about it.
- TIM PASCHKE
This season though, they had 40mm by May 3, 165mm for the year.
It has helped a bountiful hay crop of Scope barley and vetch sown in the first week of April.
"We are hoping to cut a bit of hay this year, as we are so low," he said.
"It is going to make some incredible hay, the early break made a huge difference - we are incredibly excited about it."
Mr Paschke said they were also lucky to change out 400ha barley out in time at the end of seeding, after China introduced an 80 per cent tariff on imported Australian barley.
- Start the day with all the big news in agriculture. Sign up here to receive our daily Stock Journal newsletter.