Trial and error pays off

Although tending towards the parched side, two plantings made by Peter Sanderson and his sons Richard and Craig at Westbourne in autumn have supplemented 300 steers and older cows through some tough weather.

Peter Sanderson's father began growing oats on a block at Condamine in 1954 and Peter decided to give it a go on his Ward Road property south of Tambo 20 years ago, generally with good results.

"Dryland cropping out here would be considered marginal, but you don't do it every year if you don't get the rain at the right time," he said.

Through trial and error, Mr Sanderson has found the tail end of summer rain is ideal - any earlier and the soil temperature gets higher than 30 degrees and the seed rots.

"If you plant too late, you get the scenario we have here now," he said.

One patch of 200ha was established on March 11 on the strength of 66 millimetres of rain, while a second crop of a similar size was planted later on May 27 after a fall of 45mm, at a rate of 30 kilograms per hectare.

While the first came away well and would shoot now with rain on it, the latter only put one root down, meaning cattle were easily able to pull it out.

Mr Sanderson said they were now going back looking for what dropped on the ground the first time around.

"They did quite well, putting on one and a half to two kilograms a day," he said.

"We try to sell them as feed-on steers with milk teeth and we use a mixture of our own and bought cattle."

Oats have been Mr Sanderson's preferred crop for fattening cattle. He has tried growing sorghum and millet as well, and although it was a good crop, he wasn't able to see a lot of benefit from planting sorghum.

Apart from taking a lot from the soil, the conditions needed to grow it meant that there was usually good grass available anyway.

"Closer in it would be okay - you could let your grass get away and put your stock on it, but out here you have the area to work with," he said.

"I don't even like baling it really - it doesn't have a lot of protein."

Mr Sanderson said millet was more versatile and quick and had given him good hay for weaning cattle, as well as the seed. There is silo storage for about 100 tonnes of grain on property, which doubles as storage for drought feed, and the family has its own harvesting equipment.

While some might baulk at the need for extra machinery, Mr Sanderson said they had minimal equipment and it didn't take up a lot of their time.

"It's worthwhile doing, it gives you that little bit of extra for stock that are not quite finished, and you can get a premium for them," he said.

"We get good benefit out of it, but further west the rainfall drops off quickly so it's not for everyone."