Bool Lagoon averages nearly doubled on new varieties

Inspired by interstate croppers and the results out of the FAR Australia Crop Technology Centre at Millicent, Mr McLean has made a change to his wheat rotation, which has resulted in a big boost come harvest time.

"If five years ago, someone had said we could grow dryland what crops to 10 tonnes a hectare, I probably would have laughed," he said.

Last year, Mr McLean's wheat crops averaged about 8t/ha, with some dryland crops getting to as much as 9.3t/ha, while irrigated wheat yielded to 11t/ha.

This was a big shift for his previous long-term average for wheat, which had sat about 4.5t/ha.

Mr McLean said this path towards bigger yields started in 2018, when he made the trip to Tas, and saw the results of the FAR Australia Hyper Yielding Crops site there.

He had previously connected with FAR Australia managing direction Nick Poole, through the McKillop Farm Management Group, and he recognised the potential in his own region for European germplasms.

"At the time it was frustrating that there weren't a lot of varieties suited for high-rainfall cropping environments," he said.

Mr McLean said the chance to see the Millicent site, and other satellite trials through the MFMG, was great.

The number one change on his farm has been varieties, first sowed three years ago.

"We're trialing different ones to see what was most suited to this environment," he said.

He said so far germplasms from France seem to have the better performance, with Accroc and red winter feed wheat Annapurna the "standouts for this environment".

But Mr McLean said it was not just the varieties themselves, but the whole agronomic package.

He said one other benefit of the Millicent site was more information about management, including nutrition and fungicides.

"It's almost gotten to a point where there is a certain agronomic package that suits a certain variety," he said.

This has resulted in an increase in inputs, but he said the rewards have been there.

"We have been lucky the past three or four years, with above-average seasons to go with it," he said.

Mr McLean sows long-season winter wheat varieties in mid-May, with harvest generally not taking place until well into January.

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He said the critical point for N levels was stage 31 onwards, which was about mid-August. With some threat of frost in the area, he was also looking to spread out flowering times.

Wheat makes up the majority of the 3800-hectares of crop grown by Mr McLean - a mixture of owned, leased, sharefarmed and contracted land.

While newer varieties make up two-thirds of the wheat grown, he has still maintained a small percentage of the previous wheat types.

He said this included some milling wheats for marketing flexibility, while the different varieties also created some risk reduction by spreading the flowering dates.

But with waterlogging an issue in his region, Mr McLean said the new varieties were more tolerant than standard varieties, and were producing a higher yield of kilograms per millimetre of rain received.

Legumes, including Persian clover for seed production, chickpeas, faba beans and a small amount of canola, make up the rest of the cropping rotation.

Mr McLean believes you need a good level of inherited soil fertility to achieve big yields.

"You won't do it out of bagged fertiliser," he said.

He aims for a base level of 50 parts per million for phosphorus and nitrogen levels between 70-120ppm.

The P target was based on the results of a three-year emissions trial conducted on his property by the Vic Department of Primary Industries, which showed the optimum level of soil health for success within their specific environment.

Mr McLean also employs a mixture of seeding techniques, including speed tiller, knife point press wheels and direct drill, preferring to work on a paddock-by-paddock perspective.

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