Optimism for a golden harvest

Ian Smart spent the first July in 27 years on his property ‘Nineo’, Edgeroi.

Every year Ian travels to the UK or US to work in their harvest season and he in turn hosts overseas agriculture students to Edgeroi to work in our harvest season.

“This year because of COVID-19 I couldn’t travel and stayed on the farm,” Ian said.

“So I have been surprised to see how my crop was progressing through this July.

“I have a crop of Lancer bread wheat which I planted early on March 29.

“It was germinated and out of the ground by April 3,” Ian said. “Normally I would expect a crop to take seven days to get out of the ground.

“The temperatures became perfect.

“The weather remained mild and as a result it is at the stage of changing colour and has avoided frost damage – and has the making of a very nice crop.

“I am not game enough to put a yield on it, but I am anticipating it will yield in excess of 13 bags to the acre average on conventional farming methods,” Ian said.

“But even though the crop is turning and changing colour now, it could still end up being harvested at the normal time, about the first week in November.”

The district is looking forward with optimism. Generally most growers at this stage are very pleased with the progress of their winter crops.

A good crop will be a huge boost for the district. There are still unknowns ahead, in terms of potential frosts or damage – and labour shortages at harvest time.

But one farmer told The Courier he “hasn’t had his header out of the shed for three years and is looking forward to finally putting it to work. We are looking forward to the best crop in four seasons.”