Sorghum harvest has kicked off on the Western Downs with great yields already being seen.
Jake Hamilton, Burradoo, Condamine put the header into a paddock of Pioneer Seeds A66 on Monday afternoon, yielding 2.5 tonne to the hectare.
Mr Hamilton said harvest looked promising after a dry start to the growing season and with only 63mm of in-crop rain across his 500ha planting.
“We planted into a full profile; we had an inch of rain at the end of August so we got stuck in and planted on August 31, the soil was only probably just warm enough, but we jumped on that rain and got it in and never looked back,” he said.
“We didn’t have any rain on it for six weeks after we planted and then we had a couple of falls in the middle of October which carried it through.
“We had a big dump of rain a week before it was sprayed out and that probably didn’t do much for the crop.”
Flooding rains across the Darling Downs as the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Owen descended on southern Queensland in mid-December all but assured bumper sorghum yields.
Although it didn’t have an impact on early-planted sorghum, many crops across the Darling and Western Downs regions had been struggling, showing signs of stress, but the break in the season turned things around at just the right time.
AgForce grains president, Brendan Taylor, Warra, said the falls also meant farmers could plant another sorghum crop, and it was prime time for mung beans to go in the ground.
