Due to the much publicised rains harvest continues. So while I’ve got a few minutes to wait in the silo queue before unloading, I thought I’d put together a few images that I’ve snapped over the past few weeks. Despite the setbacks, in yield terms it has been a well-above average year. Prices have also been really good, so for fortunate ones like ourselves with stuff to sell it should still end up being a great season.
It’s been a really busy few weeks & I’d love to share something of what’s been going on!
There’s been a fair bit happening around the farm lately, which is why not much has happened here on the blog. So I figured I’d give you an update while waiting for the next header box load of canola. We’re in the middle of ‘Silly season’. A reference that has nothing to do with Christmas and everything to do with the period of 6-8 weeks commencing at the start of windrowing and finishing at that glorious moment when the header gets parked in the shed & we all go to the beach. It’s labelled as ‘silly’ because of the hours worked. As an example, I’m into my 13th hour of work for today & will be here for a couple more yet. (By the time I got home it was 16!)
However until this week, it has been silly for another reason. If you live in eastern Australia, or make your money in the grains industry you’ll know we’ve had a lot of rain lately. We had a 2 day on 2 day off routine for the first 2 weeks of harvest, followed by the well publicised rain event a fortnight ago. That event brought our area a minimum of 2.5 inches of rain, making us relatively lucky as there were many regions that had a lot more!
How has this affected us? Well after our 8 day break from harvesting we’ve found, not surprisingly some wet paddocks. We’ve bogged trucks several times & even had near misses with the header.
Grain quality is the question that everyone has been wondering about. Test weights have been down, seemingly across the board. This means that the grain is less heavy/ dense than it was before the rain. Our canola has behaved itself and thankfully hasn’t shot (started sprouting) so it’s still of a good grade. We won’t know how the wheat, (our main crop) has gone until we start harvesting it.
There’s lots more going on that I could write about, it’s an exciting time as we seem to be hitting the rare double of good yields and good prices. Even if quality is down a bit, it should still be a great year for many in our area! But the truck is full so I gotta drive! Till next time…
Something new and exciting has started happening in Australian Agriculture over the past few weeks. For the first time, Australians interested in all things farm and agriculture related are getting together on Twitter to discuss their trade.
It’s been called ‘agchatoz’ and happens every Tuesday night from 8pm EST. This twitter chat was started by a small group of us Aussies who decided that we could copy the tweeting success of the American based ‘Agchat Foundation‘. The format of the chat is that there will be a moderator who poses questions around a particular theme to all who are following. These questions are used as conversation starters and allow different viewpoints to be heard and issues raised. ‘AgchatOz’ has been growing in popularity every week since its debut, with tonight’s chat being the best yet.
‘AgchatOz’ was particularly topical this evening because it featured an appearance by Tony Burke, who is our Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as well as Minister for Sustainable Population. He was an active participant in the conversation and also responded to many questions, including my own. Just to really emphasise this let me restate: I was able to ask questions and receive instant responses from a member of federal cabinet just 4 days before a federal election*. Read that last sentence again and think about how social media is changing our world. The Internet has such potential to improve and revolutionise the democratic process. It makes the sharing of information so easy that one can instantly ask questions, share ideas and solicit feedback.
Tweeting with Tony Burke
Our national broadcaster has also been getting in on the act, with a couple of twitter chats being hosted at other times by ABC Rural. I’ve found all of these conversations great. They offer opinions and dialogue that would otherwise never occur. Conversations that aim to educate and share can only be a positive thing. So please, if you are all interested in farming, have any questions at all about agriculture, or just want to join in and learn via observation, then hop over to twitter and search for, or use the hash tag #agchatoz or even simply #agchat.
*Oh yeah, and I didn’t have to get off my couch to do it.
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