Queensland canola plant to be biggest on record. Charles, 91, is in on the action

Mr Burcher, who started farming Te Apiti at Lundavra in the Goondiwindi region in 1954, has taken the plunge this season and planted canola for the first time.

Often considered a risky crop for northern growers, it can offer several benefits in certain situations.

He joins a growing number of Queenslanders who are on track to plant their biggest canola crop on record this season, doubling last year's effort.

According to ABARES' March forecast, 5000 hectares could be sown, and with yields tipped to be about 2t/ha, it's looking like a 10,000t crop.

Son John, who handles most of the bigger jobs these days, helped plant 55 hectares into a good moisture profile last Friday.

Now they just need an inch of rain to get it out of the ground.

"Hopefully we get a strike out of it. A little bit of rain on it now would do it the world of good," Charles said.

Mr Burcher has seen the industry change dramatically since starting out with a Fiat 52 crawler tractor and a crop of Spica wheat.

"I put in my first crop of wheat in about '58. We grew it for a number of years and it grew taller than my head at times," he said.

"The technology has done a lot, no doubt, [but] it gets a bit ahead of me."

Some things have stayed the same, however, like the need to grow profitable crops.

So while they've planted two paddocks of Sunmax wheat, with more to go in next month for a 600-700ha program, canola is about double the price at $630/t.

"Years ago there was money to be made in wheat, but with the cost of chemicals so high, it isn't as attractive," Mr Burcher said.

After a wet 2022, canola's attributes as a disease and weed break crop offered further encouragement, and by sowing triazine tolerant varieties Renegade TT and Bandit TT, they have the ability to spray in-crop for weeds.

While they're no stranger to growing a good crop, John does admit the crop, which is used in stockfeed and cooking oil, is a learning curve.

"We didn't know how we were going to plant it since it was such a small seed," he said.

"Another grower in the region put the seed down with the fertiliser, so that's what we ended up doing, so we're waiting to see what sort of result we get."

The paddock out of chickpeas was cultivated for feathertop Rhodes grass control and 40kg/ha of urea was spread pre-plant.

The canola was then sown on 23cm row spacings at a rate of 3kg/ha with Starter fertiliser at 23kg/ha using a Versatile 9680 tractor and Gyral tyne planter.

Looking ahead to harvest, they will most likely direct harvest the crop with their Case 7140 and 12m International front due to the lack of a swather (windrower) front.

At Bowenville near Dalby, Lance Wise and parents Murray and Janette have grown the oilseed on four occasions.

They finished sowing 275ha - their biggest crop yet - in mid-April.

They're still working out all the nuances of growing it, but if they can best their 2021 effort of 2.5t/ha, it'll be worth the effort.

"We normally would only put in about 40 hectares and see what that does," Lance said.

"A three or four tonne crop would make us very happy. That'd blow wheat and barley out of the water pretty well."

The dryland growers focus on sorghum, wheat and barley, but add in canola when price and weed control will benefit them.

Mr Wise said they had a very dry summer, but when their fortunes changed in autumn, a fifth attempt seemed logical.

"We got topped up in February-March [to] a full profile, so we're looking pretty good. We just need another fall in early May and that'd kick the canola along nicely and we'll be able to get into the wheat and barley," he said.

This season, they continued with a 2kg/ha seeding rate on 38cm row spacings, but switched to their precision planter to get an accurate seed count and better seed placement.

They applied 100kg/ha of urea and sowed two varieties: 45Y95CL and PY520TC.

Mr Wise said when it came to advice on management, speaking with southern growers and agronomists on social media was a big help.

"We're getting some pretty good advice from the guys down south. They're interested to see whether we can actually have a good crack at it as well," he said.

Mr Wise said while there were plenty of upsides, hurdles included weather and a lack of marketing options.

"There's a few avenues around here. We can take it through to stock feed, [or] if we get enough tonnes off, we might be able to send it down [to Newcastle] for oil crushing," Mr Wise said.

"It's an unknown for us at the moment to work out what we're going to do with it until we get it into the bin. That's probably the biggest trick here at the moment."

IN THE NEWS: