Grassdale farmer, Matt Waye, is kicking-up his heels as rain finally falls over his late planted summer crops.
It’s been a very dry start to the year across Queensland’s Darling Downs with Mr Waye reporting only 5 millimetres of rain during January across the Grassdale Farms property he manages near Cecil Plains.
I’m not expecting anything fantastic but the rain should help us achieve an average summer cropping season.
- Matt Waye, Manager, Grassdale Farms
“It’s made for a very tough situation with Sorghum crops having to survive on stored ground moisture,” he said.
Meanwhile Mr Waye’s mungbean crop was sown with good fallow soil moisture on January 7, but hot and dry weather conditions had prevailed since planting until Friday’s rainfall of more than 25 millimetres.
“This rain will help our mungbeans get their roots down into the deeper moisture profile to hopefully achieve an overall average crop yield,” he said.
“I’m not expecting anything fantastic but the rain should help us achieve an average summer cropping season.”
The 160 hectare Jade-AU mungbean crop is expected to be harvested in early April.
“This rain is also the first wet weather across Grassdale Farms’ recently fallowed paddocks,” Mr Waye said.
“It’s a good start but we still need another 150mm or more of rain to enable a winter crop planting.”
Mr Waye now believes they will skip a winter crop and focus on next season’s summer plant.