THE Hobbs family at Douglas, in the south-west Wimmera, farms in a tricky environment where it is difficult to plan for a season that might be too wet or too dry.
Indeed, in many years, Stephen Hobbs says it can be a combination of both.
“Things can get very wet in the winter and then if there are a few dry weeks in the spring the crops can get moisture-stressed because of the soil’s poor water holding capacity.”
Without knowing whether to conserve every last drop of moisture, as in the Mallee, or set up systems to run the water off paddocks, as in the Western District, Mr Hobbs said the best bet was to try and improve the structure of the soil.
“If we can improve our soil structure, we’ll get less pooling of water during the winter, which will obviously be fantastic for the crops, especially ones that don’t appreciate wet feet.
“It will also hopefully mean the soil has better water holding capacity, which will assist the crops in a dry spell in spring.”
He said the soils were mainly sandy loams with a hard pan of clay underneath.
Mr Hobbs said he was closely monitoring the progress of trials into subsoil manuring.
“It has been proven to work, we’re looking to see now how long it has an impact for and whether it can be done with other materials, given we don’t necessarily have access to the chicken manure or litter used in the trials.”
He said he was looking at the next set of data to further analyse whether the benefits are coming from the nutrient value, in terms of the added nitrogen or the soil amelioration.
“The nitrogen will obviously dissipate with time, but the improvements in soil structure may be longer lasting.”
The common consensus for those not within an economical freight distance from poultry farms is that it is too expensive, but Mr Hobbs said if the system delivered longer-term benefits it may not be the case.
“With land values the way they are in the Wimmera, with prices getting up to $5000 per hectare or more, then $1000 per hectare to get a real productivity boost could be feasible – it’s something we’ll keep an eye on, as I don’t think other options like deep ripping are worth it.”
The Hobbses have a typical southern Wimmera rotation, featuring wheat, barley, faba beans or lupins and canola.
Mr Hobbs said he regarded wheat as the major cash crop on the farm, and was happy enough to grow wheat on wheat, using varieties that are less susceptible to yellow spot, which is the major stubble borne disease in the area.
He also burns stubble when going wheat-on-wheat to prevent disease build up.
However, he said canola and legume phases are also critical.
“Faba beans grow well in this area, we can get anything up to 5 tonnes a hectare, and even in a tough season such as this we are hoping for 1.2 tonnes per hectare, which is still economic with prices where they are.”
Although the Douglas area is subject to both wet and dry spells, Mr Hobbs said wet conditions are his biggest problem.
“It is that late winter rain that gives me nightmares, a dry year is generally manageable here, so our varieties must be able to tolerate cold and wet winters.”
Apart from soil structure, Mr Hobbs lists ryegrass management as his biggest challenge.
“Here, I like to say we are not growing crops so much as we are stopping ryegrass. Most residual herbicides break down in water-logged conditions.
“If you can get that right, you’re on the way to growing a crop.”
He said herbicides had to be rotated carefully.
“We are seeing Group A and B herbicides struggling to be effective, while given we have moved to full stubble retention, trifluralin is also limited.”
Mr Hobbs said the issue was the continuous germinations of ryegrass.
“We can get very late germinations, and with our knockdowns we are selecting for late emerging plants.”
To combat this, he is using a double-knock at planting where possible to ensure a clean start and desiccating crops prior to harvest.
“Canola is very useful for this as we can clean up any late ryegrass.”
He said controlling ryegrass was so important, he even occasionally burnt to reduce seed set.
“We’re no-till and try and retain stubble where we can, but we’re not fundamental about it.”
Overall, Mr Hobbs said he did not regard himself as the first generation of adapters of new technology, but said he changed when he could see the benefits.
“I like to work according to science and figures rather than just because it seems like a good idea.
He said he was using technology such as yield mapping and variable rate, along with near infrared (NIR) aerial imaging.
“At this stage, I think we’re probably getting more out of the NIR imaging than the yield maps.”
He said he believed growers would have to continue to innovate and adapt to the changing climate.
“As I said, I look at numbers rather than rhetoric and you can clearly see man made climate change is real and we’re going to have to deal with that.”
This article is one of Stock and Land's 10 of the Best stories in this week's November 27 edition.