Ah yes, time is racing towards harvest now. I had mentioned previously that we have basically done everything we can for the crop. It has enough fertiliser and the weeds have been sprayed and now we just have to wait for rain.
Well actually, thats not quite correct….
From here, its true that we can’t add more potential to our crops – but there is a lineup of things which would take that potential away and thats what we are watching for now. There are Aphids, Heleothis Grubs, Army Worms, Net Blotch and my personal favourite, Stripe Rust.
And when your agronomist rings you, you know it won’t be good news! Our wheat, which is supposed to be Stripe Rust resistant, apparently now has Stripe Rust and requires urgent spraying.
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And this is how we treat most of those issues – spraying by plane. The problem is that the crops are now quite advanced and if you drive over them with a tractor, the plants bent over in the wheel tracks won’t recover. Therefore, you have to consider wether driving over the crop with a spray unit will cost you more (in damage to the crop) than the cost of hiring a plane to spray for you.
Planes are very efficient – they can do more in a few hours than I can spray in a couple of days. Unfortunately though, hiring them is expensive. |
And on a totally different tack…. I would like to introduce the newest member of Kingham Agriculture. Sam.
Sam is a Coolie X Kelpie pup and will provide a bit of company as I travel around. At this point, he is getting used to riding in a whole host of different machines, learning about sheep and making himself useful in the shed. Unfortunately with Sam around, I think our work efficiency is suffering. Its hard to walk around with him hanging off your shoelaces! And when Sam’s ‘batteries’ run out, it doesn’t matter that he is on a bike riding around the paddock – its always sleep time.
So, thats what is happening on the farm.
Cheers,
NeilK