TOM WILSON, manager of Salt Creek Merinos at Woorndoo, in the heart of Victoria's Western District, wishes the gross margins achieved with his first-time attempt at long season canola could be replicated across the property.
Including the grazing benefits and the crop harvested at the end of the year the 50 hectare paddock grossed a lazy $3600/ha.
"It's not something we are going to see very often in this neck of the woods, it was a great result," Mr Wilson said.
To put the figure in perspective, Mr Wilson said land in his region generally sold for around $3600 an acre (0.4ha), meaning in theory land could be paid for in just two and a half years with a canola grain and graze rotation.
"Obviously it is not something you could do across your entire farm for rotational and grazing reasons but it is certainly something we're going to look at when it is possible."
Mr Wilson said it was possible to plant the crop over a wide window, ranging from spring, as per a true summer crop right through to near Christmas.
"It is all dependent on the rainfall and getting enough to get the crop up and going, so it is opportunistic in that respect but by pushing the plant back into spring you're more likely to see some rain," he said.
"The winter canola has a vernalisation requirement so even if you plant it earlier it still needs that cold weather before it will run up to flower."
Salt Creek is a property of 2300ha on the western plains of Victoria, encompassing fine wool Merinos, prime lambs and a smaller amount of cropping in Victoria's high rainfall zone, with winter active rainfall of 600mm per annum.
Mr Wilson said in spite of a very dry start to autumn before a wet finish to the season the dual-purpose canola had performed well.
"We'd just about written it off, it got grubs in it and we thought we'd get something out of it with a heavy graze in April and we had it down to the crown of the plant, but it came back really well and got through the wet start to the cropping season."
"We then got another graze out of it in June-July to give you an idea how well it rebounded."
The idea behind the grazing canola was to get some feed in the autumn, traditionally a tough period in the region.
"We needed to find some opportunity feed for late autumn and early winter, and rather than growing annual ryegrass or silage which gives you one shot, we liked the added bonus of a cash crop at the end of it," he said.
"We looked at it a few times in the district and our agronomist suggested we give it a try."
Mr Wilson decided to plant 50ha of the Hyola 970CL variety in mid-December 2018 following a downpour of 70mm of rain.
"It was harvest but the rain meant we were held up for a few days so we managed to scratch it in then."
From then it was very dry until the autumn break.
Not only did it provide two in-crop grazing opportunities but the stubble was grazed early this year.
For the March-April grazing, he put 1500 lambs on the canola and recorded a total weight gain of 3.25kg per lamb over five weeks. Across the 1500 lambs, that was 4875kg of weight gain, and at $4/kg, equated to $19,500 or $390/ha.
For the June grazing, he put 3000 ewe lambs on the canola for 10 days for a 2.5kg gain per animal.
That was 7500kg total, and at $4/kg, equated to a return of $30,000 or $600/ha.
With the grazing it would be expected the crop would come in behind traditional autumn-sown lines.
This was not the case, the crop yielding a whopping 4 tonnes a hectare, in excess of the conventional crops which weighed in at 3.6t/ha, still a very high yield in Australian conditions.
Oil levels with the dual purpose line were also healthy, at 46pc.
At $611/t plus oil bonus, Mr Wilson made $2556/ha.
The final January-February grazing consisted of 1000 lambs over eight weeks. The animals gained 1.5kg each, which was 1500kg total for a return of $6000 or $120/ha.
Combining the three grazings and grain gave Salt Creek a total return of $3666/ha.
Mr Wilson, who has managed the property since 2012, said the return was excellent.
"Nothing we've done has come close to that return.
'It's a great fit for a mixed farming enterprise and I'll be planting more this year, we're looking at putting in around 50ha again in the late spring."