Agriculture
6 January, 2024
Last of crop off minutes before dump
DARK clouds were blowing in from the west when Arnold farmer Colin Graham finished the season’s harvest on Sunday. Colin and son Darby had just put the auger in its shed when those clouds started to dump more than 100mm on the farm. “We only had...
DARK clouds were blowing in from the west when Arnold farmer Colin Graham finished the season’s harvest on Sunday.
Colin and son Darby had just put the auger in its shed when those clouds started to dump more than 100mm on the farm.
“We only had the lupins to finish on Sunday morning when a little breakdown slowed us up for while,” Colin said.
“We then moved swiftly. The black clouds were coming from the west and there were a few spots of rain.
“We hurried over the next half hour and by the time we had put the last of the lupins from the auger into bins it was pouring rain. We made it by a minute.”
Colin said farmers across the Loddon had worked harder to finish harvest when the forecast came of rain on Christmas Eve.
“Most people finished or were very close to finishing the harvest,” Colin said on Tuesday, relaxing on his 64th birthday.
It was the first season that Colin toasted the end with son Darby. It was a tradition started almost half a century ago with Colin’s father Keith who died aged 92 in April.
“Dad and I would always shake hands and open a stubbie when the harvest finished. This year, Darby and I continued the tradition.”
He said the yield across lupins, wheat, barley and canola had been at average, a good result after patches of wet and dry spells during the season.
“After last year’s disaster when we had nine inches of rain in October, this is a good positive to come our of this season,” he said.
“Everybody needs a bit of that positive and this season has helped. Most people would be happy with their yields - they’re not outrageous but good enough to be positive about how the season has gone.”
And he said the quality of grain had held up despite the season’s challenges. “And we’re getting reasonable prices ... that’s also a positive.”
He described the weekend’s rain bomb as “more like Queensland weather”. “We had 100, up to 120mm around Bridgewater, in 24 hours. This is Queensland rain and in the old days it would take three days to get even three inches (75mm),” Colin said.
“I don’t remember a bigger 24-hour rain total.”
“Those clouds opened up fast,” Colin said.