A WESTERN Australian farmer has said using wheat varieties with different maturity dates has become an important risk management tools as he tries to mitigate the threat of both frost and heat shock.
Graydon Bond, who farms at Quairading in the state's central wheatbelt, said that a diversified strategy integrating multiple varieties is good for spreading risk.
This year he's planted three wheat varieties over 1750 hectares, 700ha of barley, 200ha of canola, 120ha of lupins and 100ha of a clover and oat grazing mix canola over 200ha, lupins over 120ha and 100ha of a clover/oat mix while there is 1300ha allocated for a sheep enterprise.
Mr Bond grows predominately the mid-maturing Ninja variety from Intergrain, 1000ha, along with the faster maturing newcomer Devil, 650ha along with a smaller amount of AGT's Scepter cultivar.
He said he had decided to grow more Devil, which he helped Intergrain bulk up over 35ha last year, to work in with the slower growing Ninja and have a wider range of flowering dates.
"I chose Devil this year because we wanted something with a shorter maturity to complement Ninja with its mid maturity," Mr Bond said.
He said the benefits were not limited to different phenology helping the plants flower at different times but added it was a help in terms of spreading the workload at sowing.
"Having wheats of different maturities gives us options, particularly at sowing.
So far Mr Bond said he liked Devil's versatility, with good protein levels and the chance to land in AH (Australian Hard) and AHN (Australian Hard Noodle) segregations.
AHN is a WA-only segregation available to growers of wheat suitable for use in the noodle market.
The short season option is also a valuable back-up if the autumn break arrives late, as has happened frequently in recent years.
"When there are late breaks, we often have trouble getting paddocks knocked down before seeding and this is another reason why we like having Devil in our system as it's a shorter variety than Ninja and Scepter, giving us the option to sow later if we have to."
This season the Bonds sowed Devil across a few weeks, starting on May 11 and finished on June 15.
In between they sowed other varieties, which made for a manageable program.
Mr Bond said he was very happy with how the crops were looking in mid-August.
The shorter season varieties have proven effective for Mr Bond, so he is now giving serious thought to adding Vixen, another InterGrain wheat to his cropping mix next year.
"Vixen has done really well in the National Variety Trials, has a shorter maturity than Devil and also has that versatility with a recently added AHN classification, it's got a lot going for it."
As the Bonds run substantial merino and cross-bred SAMM lamb flocks, they often leave the planting of grassier paddocks until after the break of season, so they can get a good weed knockdown before seeding crops.
"And that's why shorter season, higher yielding wheats like Devil and Vixen are so appealing to our enterprise," he explained.
"The more weapons we have in our cropping armoury, the better the outcomes are at the business end of the season and that's what really counts," he concluded.
Devil is at present only grown in Western Australia.
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
