Farmers in the Southern Riverina are finding novel options, to reduce the impact of high water costs.
The family partnership of Graeme, Angus and Bruce Macdonald, with wives Karen, Sarah and Nicole are third generation Deniliquin food producers.
They started with a 500 hectare family farm “Strathlea”, but have since expanded to 6000ha.
Most recently, they have started to close the loop on grain, sold into feedlots, in a bid to get greater water efficiencies.
“We sell out grain into the feedlots, we backload with cow manure and pig manure, and get some sawdust – we are hoping to get up 25 per cent water savings,” Ms Macdonald said.
“We produce our own agricompost which we blend with lime and gypsum to spread prior to sowing.
“This allows us to not have to go too heavy with application of urea later.”
At sowing DAP and downtube calcium, zinc and other trace elements are added, and applied in one pass, with the seed.
Although the family has several million dollars in machinery and equipment on its properties, 30 per cent of costs go on water.
“We have about four tractors, three air seeders, three headers – the implements just go on and on, we need larger equipment, which is up to date and the most efficient you can have,” she said.
This allowed the use of a combination of systems, from conventional , minimum till through to zero till, dependant on crop type and paddock conditions, such as wheel rutting.
“We use RTK GPS on our airseeders which we find the benefits are that it eliminates overlap and the ability to inter row sow,” Ms Macdonald said.
The rotations of faba beans, canola and cereal were flexible, to allow for contingencies such as water allocation, rainfall and the dollar value of a particular commodity.
“But water is the critical thing – without water, it’s very hard.”
One of the first efficiencies was installation of overhead irrigators, covering 2500ha.
“That was under government water efficiency programs, they have put a lot of money into this region, making us efficient, but we could come to a halt, because the water is too high for us with our cash flow.
“We can produce the same on half the amount of water, but with fuel costs and a price of $200/ML, we can’t cover that,” she said.
The family had switched from predominantly rice farming but the cereal was always part of the mix.
“It is now more an opportunity crop dependent on water allocations. Our cropping budgets are based on 50% allocation, so in years over 50% rice enters considerations,” she said.
Rainfall did not factor in the cropping program.
“If we are lucky, and it rains at the right time, then we may be able to cut an irrigation pass. In these times of high water prices and low water allocations that can save significant dollars.”
Irrigation resulted in returns of six tonnes/ha of barley, for half a megalitre of water, 2.75t/ha, for three quarters of a ML, six tonnes of wheat/ha for 1.25ML and 3.25t/ha of faba beans, under 1.75ML.
“The basin plan needs to be tweaked fairly heavily to look at ways we can keep water affordable for those regions that produce the low cost to consumer foods - the “staples”,” Ms Macdonald said.
“We can’t all grow the top dollar crops and neither can a family afford to only put those high dollar foods on the table for their family.”
Because the farm grew cereals, it was on a different cycle to rice producers.
“We use it right at the end of the season, we sow and don’t flood up, first,”Ms Macdonald said.
“We control the timing, so we are not waiting for the rain – we can predominantly fix when we are going to water, it gives higher protein levels, certainty of yields and gives you more options, like contract swaps.”
She said Corack wheat was the predominant cereal on the farm
“We harvest in November to January, our yields would be generally above average but - more importantly - with the use of the irrigators and being able to water when needed, we have more certainty of yield.
“We do primarily sell to feedlots but we do also employ an independent marketer to advise on outlooks and prices. We only sell contracted grain at harvest and store the remainder on farm.”
There was “no point” in stressing about lack of rain or low irrigation allocations – “been there, done that,” she said.
Keeping the bank manager happy meant bringing him, or her, on property.
“They come out and see what we are doing, they do know we run a lean machine – we even had a state manager come around, so when I ring up, they know what I am asking for,” Ms Macdonald said.
“The bank is fairly supportive.”
