Summer hope on Jimbour Plains

Mr McVeigh has pre-applied fertiliser on his summer cropping country. He said 50 millimetres of rain in the next few weeks would help finish his wheat and barley, and top up the moisture profile for an early sorghum plant.

"It's pretty bloody hard at the moment because everything we do is so expensive," he said. "We have pre-applied our fertiliser for summer, so we've basically laid our cards on the table before we've even put a seed in the ground.

"Fifty millimetres of rain and we'd all be happy, but if we don't get it, it's going to be a tough start to summer again."

Working in partnership with his wife Nicala and parents Pat and Cath, Mr McVeigh farms about 1600 hectares of the Jimbour Plain in the Pirrinuan region, 15 kilometres north of Dalby.

The family has 525ha of wheat and 530ha of barley in the ground, and hopes to start harvesting towards the end of October. Ninety per cent of the wheat crop is Spitfire, with the remaining 10pc the Gregory variety. It was planted in June at a rate of 45kg/ha, with 100kg/ha of nitrogen pre-applied.

The Sheppard barley was planted about the same time at a rate of 50/ha with 90kg of nitrogen pre-applied.

Mr McVeigh said 26mm of rain in early June provided much of the planting moisture, although some of the wheat was dry-planted prior to the rain.

"We actually had a rain event around the end of March or April, and that was the rain that gave us most of our moisture profile. Half the wheat was double-cropped and half the barley was double-cropped into sorghum that was harvested in May."

With very little in-crop rain, Mr McVeigh said the double-cropped wheat and barley was starting to "struggle".

"We've only had bits and pieces of rain through the season - just falls of 7mm and 15mm.

"It's alright at the moment and if we could get some rain now it would be excellent. The next few weeks will be the telling time."