After a "pretty lean" decade at Nindigully, the Mace family can finally toast a top winter crop thanks to their first full profile of subsoil moisture since 2012 and strong grain prices.
This week, 24 contractors and family members used 11 trucks, six headers, four chaser bins and one mother bin to harvest the wheat crop.
Alastair Mace, who runs the operation at Malanga and Balagna in conjunction with family members, said yields and quality were up on last year.
"Yield and quality is very good. Even for increases in above average yields, the varieties are holding up very well with protein levels," Mr Mace said.
Halfway through the crop, Mr Mace said about 80 per cent was making either Australian Prime Hard one or APH2, which was fetching about $335/t via Thallon.
This year they planted Spartacus barley, Sunmax wheat in late-April, Flanker in early-May, Suntop in mid-May, and Kyabra chickpeas in late-May.
About two-thirds of the winter crop ground received 100kg/ha of urea, with 30kg/ha of starter fertiliser applied to all of the country.
Following last year's winter harvest, a combination of patchy rain and a few major storms was enough to fill the profile.
The region received 20mm in December, 105mm in January, 86mm in February, 191mm in March and seven millimetres in April (BoM).
"We had our best fallow in a decade. Some country went underwater, so a lot of it was a full profile for the first time since 2012," Mr Mace said.
From there, eight millimetres fell in May, June received 46mm, July saw 56mm, August had 18mm and September received 40mm.
"There were small falls of rain early, which was great for crop establishment, but we probably missed that big fall of rain during flowering to turn them into record crops, but they're definitely well above average."
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Mr Mace said he was surprised at just how well the wheat market was performing given the size of the crops in past couple of years.
"I can't believe it to tell you the truth. I would've bet a lot of money that this year's price would be below last year's price with two back-to-back record crops on the eastern seaboard," Mr Mace said.
"I can't believe wheat is selling for more than last year. It's very good and very welcome after a pretty lean decade."
Mr Mace said there were some pest and emergence issues this year, but most of it was smooth sailing.
"Everything was done preventatively and nothing really reared its head, except we did have a mouse outbreak," he said.
"We spread zinc phosphide to every acre and we had a little bit of damage show up when we noticed their first hotspots and then we applied it and it wiped them out. We did not have any damage past those first observations."
Mr Mace said the chickpeas also struggled early on in the lighter soil types. Small falls of rain meant the roots couldn't get out of the chemical band of soil on the top where they applied pre-emergent chemicals.
"They just fed off the chemical band and really struggled - they were stunted. They've come away a bit later on in the crop. I still think it'll be overall a pretty good result.
One of the other big things they are struggling with compared to Central Queensland is frost damage in their chickpeas.
"We just try and go as late as we can to avoid that frost, but I do also agree if they are planted in earlier May they seem to get out of the ground and get early vigour and grow better, which we did suffer from a bit this year.
"But we just get so much frost risk at the back end - that late-August frost."
With barley and wheat almost wrapped up, they move onto chickpeas next week.
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