Warra's late sorghum bid

Mr Schostakowski farms 1000 hectares between three dryland properties, and said they normally liked to plant their summer crop rotation in spring.

On their primary property, The Mead, Warra, they planted 120ha of Pacific Seeds MR-Bazley in the final week of January.

Mr Schostakowski said the amount of seed planted did not correspond with how many plants germinated.

"I would have planted 75,000 seeds/ha and what I got up would have been 30,000 to 40,000 plants/ha," he said.

They also planted 160ha of Taurus and Scorpio in two plantings on December 15 and 20 on their other properties.

Mr Schostakowski said it had been a cruel summer season.

"It was one of the driest summers I've had since we've been here," he said.

"The only reason we got the crops planted late was because it was the only opportunity we had to plant.

"Then it was fairly risky, too, because we only planted on just over an inch [25mm] of rain.

"I planted hoping that it was going to get follow-up rain the week after, but we had to wait another month before we got another half-an-inch [12.5mm]."

Following rainfall in early April, the crop was aerial sprayed with pyrethroid to control insects.

Normally they spray for heliothis, he said; however, this year it was mice damage that was a bigger concern.

Harvest has begun on the sorghum planted in December, which yielded 3.6 tonnes/ha.

Mr Schostakowski hopes the remaining sorghum yields 2.5t/ha to 3t/ha when he harvests it in June.

From the middle of May, he said, they would begin planting their winter crop rotation of barley, chickpeas and wheat.

"I'm confident we are going to get a winter crop in, but it's the end of the season that concerns me.

"When it gets to this stage where it's peak moisture usage, that's when you want the big lot of moisture.

"You don't need much to get up and going; it's at the end of the season when you need to do well out of it."

Dalby and Warra Rural Supplies senior agronomist Greg Hartwig said close to 95 per cent of the summer crop had been harvested.

Mr Hartwig covers an area stretching from Chinchilla through to Bowenville, and Jandowae through to Nandi.

"There are a few who have put a bit in late because they had none, or very little in early, just to keep that cash flowing around," he said.

"Success on that is going to be dependent on when we see a frost and how severe it is.

"A lot of this late stuff still has a little way to go and because of the time of year, it will take a little while to ripen up and dry down."

Summer crop yields varied in his region from 6t/ha to as low as 2t/ha.

Mr Hartwig said following rainfall in April, the mood was optimistic among his clients.

The season was looking quite good in the "here and now", he said, but farmers were very reliant on follow-up rain.

"The rain we had in early April has definitely changed the feeling around the paddock and the timing has been quite good.

"It's allowed us, albeit a little early, to get in some crop options such as faba beans and some early paddocks of barley going in.

"If we get rain in the next week it will set us up quite well going into the wheat period as well."