My name is Bruce Watson, and along with my wife Karina, sister and brother in law (Treen & Mark Swift) and my parents, we farm at Tichborne and Gunningbland in Central West NSW.
Our dryland cropping operations currently grow a mixture of winter cereals (wheat, barley, triticale), canola, pulses (faba beans, lentils and chickpeas). Summer crops - sorghum and mung beans – are also grown on the properties on soils that are a mixture of sandy loams, red brown earth and grey vertosols. The average rainfall for this area is approximately 525mm, but ranges from 200-800mm. For the first five months of this year, we are on the low side of the rainfall equation, having received 147mm to date.
This year has been the opposite of 2024, with a dry summer. Most thunderstorms during this period unfortunately went around us, which impacted sorghum yields.
Over summer, the focus for our operations was that of weed control, getting planters ready and finalising our grain storage facility. After three years of effort, we now have approximately 10,000t of vertical storage with a grain pit/garner bin, cleaner, dryer and 40m weighbridge / sample stand. As anyone who has undertaken this type of project will understand, it is good to get it finally completed in time for what will hopefully be a good harvest.
With the weather being what it was, we took the decision to hold off on dry planting as we were unsure if the forecast rain for 26 April would eventuate. Fortunately for us we received 25-30mm, but we were right on the edge of the showers, with 10km to the south receiving just 5-8mm. The rain gave us enough to commence planting and we put in our program of canola, cereals and pulses.
Based on the dry start and the forecast weather, we decreased our pulse area and increased our barley area at the expense of wheat in some paddocks. We now have about 20% of our area fallow either coming out of sorghum or lined up for sorghum in the 25/26 summer – weather dependent of course!
The immediate challenges I see for our operations are ryegrass control, costs in general and uncertainty over the amount of risk we are taking on. Given the damage from frosts in 2024, we are trying to keep it simple this year and concentrate on timeliness of operations and growing the best crops we can under the circumstances.
The grains industry has experienced enormous growth since 2020 and while last year was disappointing, it is a great industry to be a part of. There are exciting technological advances coming and hopefully they can help us drive productivity and profitability in the future.