For the final time this season we asked three agronomists about the issues of the season and what they would have done differently if given the chance, with insights from Rohan Brill (NSW), Jana Freebairn (SA) and James Bee (WA).
Rohan Brill, Brill Ag, Riverina Region, NSW
It was looking like an okay year, until a major frost event wiped out a huge amount of yield potential in Rohan Brill’s area and, in terms of magnitude, the most damaging frost he’s seen in his career.
“Disappointed is probably the main word. I know at our weather station here it got to minus 3.1°C. So basically nothing really escapes undamaged in those conditions in mid-September,” he said.
“Here, we’ve probably lost 50 per cent of a 4t/ha crop. And even further north of here, where they had more rain and higher yield potential, where there might have been 5t/ha potential, that’s been brought back to sub 2t/ha potential.”
Since the frost event, Rohan said paddocks with more stored water and more nutrition were bouncing back better, and rotation had also helped. As far as crop types go, he said faba beans were looking quite good.
To prepare for next year, Rohan said it was important to not look away too much at the moment, with the frost giving an opportunity to manage weeds.
“It’s a bit of a hard sell sometimes, but you can actually spray top the paddock before cutting for hay,” he said.
“So it’s more money, you’ve got to go and spend $15 a hectare plus application to go and spray top the paddock, but you can really stop a lot of weeds from setting seed and end up with a clean paddock straight away that’s starting to store water for the next crop.
“The other thing we’d probably think about too is just how we treat these stubbles. They are going to be quite strong in their nutrition, so probably ensuring the nutrition gets into the ground, so maybe grazing the stubbles to cycle the nutrients better into the soil.”
Jana Freebairn, Pinion Advisory and WeedSmart, Freeling, SA
It’s been a very dry year in Jana Freebairn’s region, with some areas throughout the Lower North experiencing the driest year on record, with rainfall close to Decile 0.
Furthermore, many regions had multiple frost events that did some major damage.
“So the season of 2024 is certainly going to be one to remember and not in a good way,” Jana said.
She said lentils had held on surprisingly well, even though frost caused a bit of damage to them.
“But on very little moisture, the lentils have bounced back and have come back green and have re-podded. The yields won’t be record breaking, but it’s amazing how some lentil paddocks have held on.”
Jana said in hindsight, she would have advised to sow shallower to make the most of the limited rainfall, and also to ensure stubble cover was maintained and summer weeds were controlled going into the season.
“The responses have been incredible. Anywhere there was a bit of extra stubble cover or that the weeds were sprayed out over summer promptly, it was double the crop compared to elsewhere, where stubble had been taken or the soil had been disturbed or livestock were grazed for far too long,” she said.
“Stubble cover and summer weed control has been amazing and has paid dividends this year.”
Jana said going into 2025, she recommended managing cover over the summer, particularly on fragile soil-types. Also being careful about recency bias, and carrying out a comprehensive financial review and budgeting for the next couple of years.
“It’s been a challenging season, but I give credit to everyone for managing themselves and managing the crops and the team around them and keeping the spirits high despite the challenging conditions. It’s a credit to everyone to have a positive attitude, and looking forward to rolling the dice again next year.”
James Bee, Elders, Albany, WA
James Bee said with a late start and very low average rainfall, it would be hard to exceed an average result, however despite this, there were still some areas that looked quite good.
“I’m hopeful where people have set things up properly with good soil management and good attention to weed control and all the other one-percenters that it still results in a good outcome,” he said.
James said while decisions are always made with the best available information, in hindsight he would have reduced the fertiliser rates for some areas, as well as reducing fungicide applications.
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes out in anticipation of disease,” he said.
“Lower rainfall years you might not see the response to fungicide as you would with a high rainfall year, but again when you’re putting those earlier sprays on it isn’t always apparent that you’re not going to get the rain, so I’m not too critical of those sort of decisions.”
For setting up for next season, James said there are some new varieties coming through that have very good disease resistance and are worth considering.
“And I think we all know that if varietal resistance breaks down, then it’s very hard to control disease. So having a range of varieties with some better than others gives you that ability to manage the disease when things do go a bit haywire,” he said.
Also soil amelioration will continue in 2025 in his region, where it was clear the ameliorated soil types performed much better and led to more even crops and easier management.
“So I think that has been a bit of a revolution in WA in the last 10 plus years,” James said.
“I don’t see that slowing down at all because it definitely made things a lot easier where it was done properly.”
Mark Gibberd, CCDM Director
CCDM’s Mark Gibberd said it was unfortunate to hear about the hard times that were happening in the three regions, particularly with frost, as it can be so unpredictable.
“And the problem, of course, from an economic point of view, is that it occurs at a time of year when all of the other investments in the crop have been sunk into the crop already,” Mark said.
“It’s incredibly impactful. And you don’t often see the impact until you run the header over it or you go and have a really close look.
“But the other part that worries me is the psychological and the social impacts that it has. And I just encourage people to reach out, talk about it, get the help that they need, if that help’s required, and have those conversations, talk to other people where you need to.”
Mark also agreed that as hard as it was to look forward into next season after a devastating event, it’s good to start preparing and thinking about what’s coming next year.
“We know the benefit of conserving soil moisture, controlling summer weeds and green bridges into next year,” he said.
“Some of the irony, of course, in years like this – especially in the West – we tend to get some really late season rain making harvest more difficult.
“But it also then creates a green bridge for diseases and of course the weed pressure over summer. So the more that people can keep on top of that and look forward and prepare for next year, the better. And a lot of our farmers now are doing that, and they’re doing it really, really well.”
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