HAVING bounced back quickly after more than two metres of flood water inundated his cropping land over summer, it is only fitting that Central Queensland farmer Colin Dunne is now championing better production techniques to cope with the vagaries of the weather.
Mr Dunne, of “Sorrell Hills”, Duaringa, runs a 12,000-hectare property of which 2200ha of Mackenzie River floodplains are dryland cropped, with the rest of the land run to cattle.
Although notionally receiving an average of 675mm in annual rainfall (27 inches), the recent years have shown the variable nature of the rainfall patterns.
In the summer of 2010/11 a whopping 1250mm fell, with an average of 2m of flood waters (and up to 4m in places) covering the property’s farming flats.
“But looking back to the dry season of 2009, we received just 18mm in six months, yet we still harvested a crop,” he said.
Generally only 75mm to 100mm falls between May and August, leaving Mr Dunne the challenge of growing both winter and summer crops under wetter and drier than ideal conditions.
However, he said the combination of good soils, a flexible business structure and modern farming techniques have ensured that he has been able to grow three crops every two years on at least 50 per cent of his farm.
“Grain growing teaches you the importance of discipline and timing and how to set your priorities,” Mr Dunne said.
“We don’t make our farming decisions based upon market forecasts, we make them on what is the best crop to grow given the condition of our soils and the season we are experiencing.”
Mr Dunne this year became a Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)-sponsored Climate Champion, as part of a program supported by numerous agricultural research and development corporations to promote management techniques to overcome climate variability.
More than 30 farmers from all over Australia and representing most of the major agricultural commodities have taken on the role of Climate Champion to help improve communication between scientists and farmers about managing climate risks.
They regularly talk with researchers about the tools and information they need to help them manage climate risk; participate in trials of early research products and practices; and help farmers in their regions to learn how to deal with climate variability.
The program aims to help farmers to access information about climate-related research, as well as the latest tools and forecast information to manage climate risk.
“I like to be part of the decision making process and give my input rather than just sitting back and watching,” Mr Dunne said.
In this role Mr Dunne gave a recent presentation to the ABARES Outlook Regional Update in Rockhampton, where he outlined the successful techniques employed in his own business and his reasons for embracing change.
In reviewing more than 100 years of weather data for Central Highlands region gathered at Emerald, he noticed the averaged minimum temperature had increased significantly over time, whereas there had been no significant change in the nearby Callide-Dawson.
“The bottom line is you have to be doing things differently from your grandparents because the situation has changed for many farmers,” Mr Dunne said.
“It’s easy to look at the bad losses from the floods but you can gain a lot more – those floods have set us up for the season ahead.
“You also need a bank manager who understands this.”
Key to Mr Dunne’s success has been a diversified business structure; while predominantly a cattle operation, cropping is a significant contributor to the business.
Mr Dunne runs cattle over several breeding and finishing properties throughout the region, with a total of 3800 breeders of mixed breed type.
He has been certified organic under the United States National Organic Program (NOP), which allows him to sell finished four-tooth bullocks dressing 250-350kg, for export beef to the US. This certification yields a premium of up to $1/kg (dressed weight).
“I don’t want to do what every else does and get what everyone else gets,” Mr Dunne said. “I do these things to get a premium.”
“Sorrell Hills” is a mixture of brigalow and coolabah country, running from the highly productive flood plain through to lancewood and rosewood ridges.
The cattle at Sorrell Hills are run on the higher range country, while the cropping is conducted solely on the highly productive, black vertisol soils of the river flats.
The moisture holding capabilities of the soils have improved noticeably since embracing minimum tillage farming about 12 years ago.
“Whatever rain falls we want to stay in the soils,” he said. “There’s no point having good soil if you’re going to lose half your rain event to run off.”
Mr Dunne has also recently invested in a new single tyne planter so as to be able to plant quickly in all conditions and get onto the paddocks faster after rain. All machinery – planter, spray rig and harvester – is configured on the same wheel tracks for controlled traffic.
To make the most of available soil moisture, all crops are planted wide row spacings: 1.5m for sorghum and corn, and 0.5m for wheat, chickpeas and mung beans.
Mr Dunne said the combination of these practices had resulted in a noticeable increase in earth worm numbers in recent years – a good sign of improving soil health.
Crop rotations have also assisted in maintaining good soil health, with mung beans, chickpeas, corn, sorghum and wheat grown, not according to a fixed cycle but based on soil condition and seasonal conditions.
“However, I have been growing a lot more chickpeas and mungbeans in recent years for their legume value and to replenish soil nitrogen levels,” Mr Dunne said.
Given the quality and health of his soils, fertilisers are generally not applied in crop, unless there is an obvious sign of stress.
“After this year’s heavy floods the wheat crop is showing some signs of nitrogen deficiency, so we are trialling a number of different applications to get a better understanding of what our country needs,” he said.
As well as the added soil nitrogen, the use of legumes also adds flexibility to his cropping cycle.
“The mung beans are very easy on the soil and are a very quick crop to grow,” he said. “I can put another crop in straight after the mung beans if the season permits. With a short growing cycle and a good season I can get another crop out of the same ground.”
Earlier this season Mr Dunne harvested 600ha of mung beans at 1.2t/ha, which were then sown to winter wheat. Notably, the mung bean crop was initially planted last September and was at the point of harvest (with an expected yield of 2t/ha) when December’s massive rains flooded the paddocks, also killing corn and sorghum crops in the process.
However, the mung bean seed left behind after the floods then germinated and matured successfully before harvest in April.
Tying his production system together is the marketing flexibility of having 3500 tonnes of on-farm storage, in the form of fully aerated silos and a shed.
Grain is generally only stored for a few months at a time due to the high turnover of crops on Sorrell Hills, however, space is kept aside in the silos to retain clean seed for wheat, mung beans and chickpeas.
* More information on the Climate Champion program is available on the GRDC website, www.grdc.com.au or at www.climatekelpie.com.au
