General News
16 June, 2025
In my paddock: Ben Gosling
We finished sowing crops on the 22nd of May. Most of what we had sowed prior to Anzac Day came up on the ~12mm we received that day, but the moisture didn’t hang around long and what we sowed after that has had a patchy germination, largely dependent on soil type.
We were able to get a lot of cereal crops up on our lighter soil types by sowing them deeper, which has worked well for us the last few years.
Unfortunately this time it meant that they emerged just in time for the horrendous wind we received last week and our wheat and barley on exposed hills was either severely sandblasted or buried entirely.
It’s still too early to confidently say what the extent of damage is, but we are hoping that enough plants will survive and resowing can be kept to a minimum.
Time will tell.
I was told by an old farmer years ago “wheat is tougher than the blokes that grow it”, and I’m hoping that this might be the case again this time!
Every year is different and this is just another challenge we are facing.
Our pregnant ewes are currently being fed in containment while we let our sheep feed grow as much as possible.
We will let the sheep out into these paddocks as close to lambing as possible in a couple of weeks.
It certainly has been an extended dry period, I think we have only had 17mm of rain this year.
A lot of areas have had even less, and on the back of a dry 2024.
Fingers crossed that the rain forecast for later this week eventuates.
We all sure need it.
Contributed by Ben Gosling - Yaapeet