MACALISTER grain grower Rob Taylor has vowed to plough on in the face of continued drought after yielding only half of his annual corn crop.
The farmer said what started out as a 'terrific' season soon turned into one of the worst he had ever experienced.
The family property Curraweena copped consistent heatwaves throughout March, which battered his 100 hectare corn crop.
"Corn is usually pretty weather resistant but it just doesn't handle heat like that," he said.
Hoping to harvest about seven tonnes per hectare, Mr Taylor said he would now be lucky to end up with half of that.
"We planted in December and had good rain through the January period and the crop was looking very good, but then we had 10 or so days of just under and above 40 degrees in March and it just knocked it. Now we might only get just over three tonnes a hectare."
Returning to the family property in 1977, Mr Taylor began farming corn about 16 years ago as a way to diversify the operation, planting upwards of 40,000 seeds/ha of Pac624 variety.
"This is all dryland cropping area and I chose corn because we normally get a similar yield to our sorghum crop - but we never plant it unless we've got a full profile."
Mr Taylor said although he was disappointed in the corn crop, the future was bolstered by solid market prices, with the grain-grower recently quoted $320/tonne for his July yield.
"We'll sell it and it will probably head to local feedlots and then we'll be focusing on our winter plant."
On the back of a crop loss, Mr Taylor said he had turned his attention to planting 142ha of wheat, 272ha of barley, 271ha of chickpea and 85ha of fava bean.
"We've got good starting moisture and we'll just hang out for rain in August and September."
