DARLING Downs grain grower Tim Rauchle has spent the past week harvesting the last of the family's sorghum crop after one of the worst seasons the Bongeen area has faced.
"We're on the back foot of it all now after harvesting 1500 hectares," Mr Rauchle said.
Working alongside his father Trevor for the past 15 years, Mr Rauchle said the rising returns for sorghum had pushed the family to make major changes to their production.
"I've seen it change dramatically in the past three years - to the point where we've made the decision to move away from cotton and start producing more grain."
Mr Rauchle said the decision had been driven by continued dry weather and the rising costs of running machinery.
"We had a little bit of rain four weeks ago but it wasn't enough and everyone does their own thing, but there's more grain around us in Bongeen than there has ever been before."
Planting 5 to 6kg of sorghum seed per hectare, the Rauchle family are expecting a return of about $310/tonne for their harvest.
"Obviously we'd like it to be double that, but we're certainly happy - last year we were getting $280 to $290 and it's been a bit up and down the past few years, but I think it's on the up now."
Mr Rauchle said he and his father had used the season to trial a number of different varieties including MR-Buster, G33 and G22.
"We wanted to see how they went and which ones were more successful. We work with an agronomist who is able to share his knowledge with us so we can have the best outcome, and it's important to keep up with the industry."
Already looking to replace the harvested crop with summer varieties of chickpeas and barley, Mr Rauchle said many producers were looking to change their methods and industry focus.
"We need to upgrade our equipment but obviously the costs keep going up and they don't seem to be plateauing out anytime soon.
"You just have to put your bum up and keep going."
