SHEPHERDING a late-planted sorghum crop in to a Brookstead paddock proved to be the top-of-mind issue for Chris Kendall (pictured) late last week.
Meanwhile, property owner Russell Keeley probably could be excused for letting his thoughts wander ahead to this year’s cotton harvest when the owner of three new John Deere module-building cotton pickers will see them swing into action for the first time, just as soon as the season gets under way in Emerald.
Meanwhile, another ‘all-green’ combination, namely a John Deere 8220 tractor and 12m wide MaxEmerge planter, recently were earning their keep putting in Pioneer’s 86G56 variety sorghum at a planting rate of 70,000 seeds a hectare, slightly higher than usual.
“That was our first rain-opportunity we’ve had for this season,” Mr Keeley explained.
Interestingly, the noted district grower says apart from the late plant, the property probably is better off than last year, principally because there are still opportunities to market grain.
“We can still market grain for over $200/t ex-farm whereas this time last year, the price for marketing grain probably was $170/t ex farm,” he said.
“So if we are down 20 per cent in yield, we’re probably up 20pc in price.”
Planting at the Keeley’s Brookstead property is augmented by a second, matching Deere tractor/planter combination with each able to plant 161ha (400 acres) a day.
“We can grow up to 2023ha (5000 acres) of sorghum but it still takes six days to plant – so you don’t want a much wider (planting) window than that,” Mr Keeley said.
That said, this year some 1416ha (3500ac) of part-irrigated sorghum looks to be the size of this year’s crop which is expected to yield in the region of 5t/ha, perhaps more.
Last year’s crop, while not the family’s best, did return a useful 7t/ha (3t/acre).
When Queensland Country Life caught up with the Keeleys, much of the talk centered on their 530ha (1247ac) cotton crop which is said to be “looking really good,” principally because it has access to irrigation.
Main point of interest, however, is how their recently-purchased 7760 John Deere round bale cotton module pickers will perform when they are unleashed in the Emerald district during early March.
“Then we’ll move them down to Dirranbandi, down to Cubbie Station, before heading for home,” Mr Keeley said.
Operating in tandem with another three module-building machines purchased by his brother, the family believes their appeal lies in reducing paddock labour requirements when compared with traditional cotton pickers that require a fleet of ancillary equipment, also support staff.
“We’ve been running five or six ‘normal’ pickers - each with 30 men every year and these 7760s will probably drop us back from 30 men a year to probably five or six,” Mr Keeley said.
“We had one on trial last year and it went well and although the (plastic) wrap may turn out to be quite expensive, we’ve just got to deal with it and work it out,” he said.
As to the sizeable financial commitment required, in the order of $800,000plus/machine, Russell Keeley says there’s no point in taking “a negative approach” to farming.
“If you do, then you might as well sell out,” he said.
Email a friend