THE finish line is in sight at Lawry, Jenny and Clint Pitman’s Corrigin property, with two thirds of the 2640 hectare cropping program in the ground.
The program consists of 880 hectares of wheat, 870ha of canola, 720ha of barley and 160ha of oats.
Lawry and son Clint started seeding on April 21 and have since completed planting oats and canola.
Lawry said the team had increased canola plantings for the 2017 season.
“Canola might have gone up 150ha just because a better net return was possible and if we get a late rain the oil content will go up,” he said.
“All of our canola is Bonito this year.”
The team was busy sowing the last 200ha of Latrobe barley when Farm Weekly dropped by last Wednesday.
Spartacus was being bulked up.
Despite approximately 200 millimetres of rain for the year, including 2mm in April and 1mm over the weekend, Lawry said most of the cropping program had gone in dry.
“Some of the canola is out of the ground already because it was sown onto moisture,” he said.
“Moisture underneath is perfect, it’s just the germination is going to be pretty rough and the moisture is disappearing rapidly, some sort of break to the season is urgent.
“On the lighter country we could get down to a bit of moisture so that’s alright, we’re quite happy with oats and barley dry, but once we get into the wheat it’s a little more of a concern.
“Hopefully it rains by then.”
The Pitmans were enjoying the first season with their new tow-between Bourgault bin and their old DBS bar.
“We haven’t broken anything and we haven’t stopped so that’s a good sign.”
