January 2008 Newsletter

Seed Availability

There has been a certain amount of panic about the availability of seed to sow next years crops judging by the number of phone calls we received from farmers and agronomists. Of real concern was that a lot of crops were dying in September and farmers were deciding whether to cut for silage or hay then rather than risk waiting for a rain that may never come. Thankfully the high demand and prices for cereal hay made it easier for most people to make that decision, provided they had already sourced the bulk of their seed requirements for 2008.

Because we had a substantial stock of seed carried over from previous seasons we were able to supply quite a few of these farmers, especially in September and October - and at a substantial discount in price.

Availability of most Wheat and Barley varieties is not an issue and we believe we have adequate stocks to satisfy inquiries. However the real concern is the lack of quality Oat Seed, especially the dual purpose varieties that can be cut for hay. Thankfully the strong demand for Wedgetail wheat, especially from the Dairyfarmers as an early sowing grazing/silage alternative will relieve some of the demand for Oat varieties.

Seed Quality

Even though most districts had a very dry finish to the season with low to medium yields, from all reports the quality of the seed and the size has been exceptional. From what seed we have processed already, early indications are that screenings will be less than previous years in most cases. With wheat and barley worth $400 per tonne, a 5% reduction in screenings is a saving of at least $20 per tonne on the cost of seed.

Buying Seed

Some of the reasons why many farmers have chosen to source their seed from us - especially this year include:-

• Most varieties of seed now are protected by PBR Legistration which means it is illegal to sell or purchase seed “over the fence” plus the $50,000 fine is certainly a deterrent.


• Are you confident that the new variety that you are buying “over the fence” is in fact the variety that you asked for. There has been quite a few instances where seed was taken from the wrong silo and farmers who thought that they had purchased the latest rust resistant variety in fact hadn’t and had failed to monitor that crop closely enough for rust !


• We as processors are required to submit a 1 kg sample for every 30 tonne of seed that we process to AsureQuality in Melbourne for analysis. The results of these tests are available so that you can be confident when purchasing seed of the purity and germination levels. Does the mobile grader that you employ ever supply you with a Purity tests result - is he removing all of the weed seeds or is he just cleaning it up so it can go through your airseeder ?


• A Purity test cost only $44 per sample - ideally you should test for purity before you grade your seed so you know what weed seeds need to be removed. Incidentally a running sample is taken from all our seed crops on arrival and tested for germination and purity before processing - this gives us an opportunity to reject any seed crops that have low germination levels, prohibited weed seeds or have unusual high levels of other seeds, i.e. Ryegrass or wild Oats !


• Do you really need to introduce Wild Radish and other problem weeds onto your farm ?


• A lot of farmers are now having problems with herbicide resistance to at least some weed species especially Ryegrass and Wild Oats. Buying seed from a neighbour who has resistance is certainly not a very good financial management decision in the long term - and don’t kid yourself that the mobile grader you use will remove all of it, especially ryegrass !

2007 Field Day

This was the field day that we nearly called off, as we thought we had nothing to show but 70 odd people who turned up must have thought otherwise - possibly to see whether or not I did have irrigation, as the dryland crop of Buloke Malting Barley on the Barham road defied all odds to yield 3 tonne per Ha plus 2.1 tonne of straw in a shocking season. Other crops that were impressive considering the season included Hindmarsh - a new Feed Barley from AWB Seeds which yielded 2.36 tonne per Ha and Possum Oats which once again performed well in a tough year to yield 2.48 tonne per Ha.

Many thanks to John Fowler, District agronomist from NSW DPI, for his contribution on the day. John used the field day as a follow up on the earlier one we held on 17th July, to once again focus on the benefits of crop rotation and water conservation through good summer weed control and direct drilling.

• July 2007 Newsletter