Steady seeding progress in Dowerin

All of the canola was in the ground when Farm Weekly visited in late April, and the team had completed most of its lupin program.

The Ralphs have a full-time workman helping with seeding and a seasonal employee.

Bonito variety made up most of the canola program, while Mandelup lupins, Scope barley and Calingiri and Scepter wheat were the other varieties of choice.

Graham said he had slightly increased his canola plantings for the 2017 season, but the remainder of the mix was similar to previous years.

“We pretty much stay the same each year, we’ve got a set rotation that we stick to – so no radical changes,” he said.

“We generally go 25 to 30 per cent break crop, we try to do one break crop and three cereals.”

Graham sprayed once during the summer period, and was spraying his sown canola with a pre-emergent herbicide.

“We’ve done one complete summer spray and it has been good because the past few years we’ve been having to do two or three,” he said.

With 180 millimetres of rain already this year in an area that averages 280mm annually, Graham said confidence was reasonably high in the area.

The farm received 14mm of rain in some patches three weeks ago, while other parts received only 3mm.’’

“Soil moisture is good but it’s just down a little bit too far, we need 20mm of rain to join it up and we’ll be away,” he said.

“It’s promising, the season is set we just need a good rain to get everything going and make everyone happy again.

“We’ll just keep going in dry, we won’t stop.”