If Phillip Coggan could have pre-ordered some planting rain, he would have asked for the 30mm that fell across his Westmar property on Saturday night.
“We got 23 to 32mm across the place,” he said. “You really couldn’t get much better.”
The Coggan family had already planted 80 per cent of their winter crop which will include about 9300ha of chickpeas, 800ha of barley and 3200ha of wheat.
When visited last Thursday, the Coggans had two of their three planters going around the clock as they attempted to make use of about 60mm of rain that had fallen earlier in the month.
Mr Coggan, who works in partnership with wife Cindy and parents John and Lyn, was particularly pleased with the performance of his new 80-foot Groundbreaker. The planter was towed behind a John Deere 9560RT tractor and Simplicity Air Seeder with dual liquid cart controlled by John Deere GreenStar rate controllers.
The HatTrick chickpeas were planted with 30l/ha of both inoculant and liquid fertiliser - injected during planting.
With chickpea prices still nudging record levels, Mr Coggan said he couldn’t resist the urge to plant back into last year’s chickpea country.
“It’s what the agronomists tell you not to do,” he said. “But we are generally drier than the Downs here so I’m not overly concerned.”
Last year, the Coggan’s chickpea crop averaged between 1.8t/ha and 2.2t/ha and the family have already forward sold about 400 tonnes of the 2016 crop.
The Coggan family also operate a 3000 head beef feedlot and prime lamb operation on Enarra.
All of the wheat and barley harvested will be retained for the feedlot and extra grain is also bought in on demand.
Mr Coggan said the feedlot had been at capacity until about three months ago when the family decided to reduce numbers as cattle supply tightened. More P79
