High altitude and high rainfall country at Barry, south of Blayney has gone against the traditional trend in that farming is proving more popular than grazing.
Brett and Jasmine Ryan are growing dual purpose wheats and winter canolas and grazing them with opportunity trade merino wethers. Chickpeas are also grown over the spring-summer with planting occurring the first week of November.
“Our primary business is growing grain with longer season cultivars of wheat and canola but we also have the opportunity to fatten merino wethers for a few months on these crops.”
“Due to our milder & longer spring here we have the potential to grow up to 10 t/ha from our wheat with a long term average of 6.5t/ha and up to 4-5 t/ha from our canola, even after grazing.
“Before our consultant/agronomist Ben Romeo introduced us to the winter canola variety Hyola 970CL, we were unable to grow normal canola as a viable crop as it would not cabbage up in our cold winters. But since switching to the winter canola our whole dynamics have changed and they are now a very important part of our cropping program.
“This season we planted 36 ha of Hyola 970CL on 26 April at 4kg/ha and received at planting 100 kg/ha of MAP. 2 applications of urea were applied during the season, 1 June at 100 kg/ha and a further 150 kg/ha in August.
“One 20 ha paddock of Hyola 970CL ran 700 merino wethers from mid-June through to 15 August which equates to 35 head/ha for 8 weeks.
“We have also planted another winter canola from another supplier but Hyola 970CL has left it for dead this season both for vigour out of the ground and grain recovery after grazing.
“What I like about Hyola 970CL in my environment is it’s planting time flexibility. If we get the opportunity to plant early in February right through to the end of March it gives us the opportunity to graze for several months with trade wethers until we hit the winter stall (middle of June till the end of August). However, if planting is delayed we are still comfortable in planting from the middle of April till the middle of May if we are just taking it through to grain. Our altitude and later and longer spring allows us that luxury to do so, there has to be some trade off for our very cold winter, Brett said.
Finally Brett said, you will not get a much bigger of an advocate than myself on Hyola 970CL as it has really opened up my cropping & for that matter grazing options for me here on the Central Tablelands.
