CHRISTMAS this year is set to be more relaxing than normal for the Smith family, Dumbleyung, with harvest due to finish a week before the festive break.
Heading towards the holidays, the family is pleased with how the crops have performed given they had low rainfall and some patches of frost.
The Smiths had a glass-half-full view on the 2019 season, despite it producing below-average to average crops on their farm, known as Kingussie.
"Harvest has been going really well considering the season we had," said Shayne Smith.
"It was certainly a below-average rainfall year with some extended dry periods throughout the year which kept our stress levels up a bit, but the way it has turned out and the way the crops are coming off, we are pleasantly surprised."
The property is run as a family operation with Ken and his three sons, Shayne, Lee and Troy and their families.
Shayne and wife Clare have two daughters, Paige, 17 and Vera, 2; Lee is married to Michelle and they have three daughters, Abbie, 8, Kelsie, 5 and Layla, 2; and Troy and wife Carly have three children, Jaxon, 9, Kobie, 7 and Mia, 5.
Needless to say, it's a family-oriented farm, where each of the three brothers tend to take care of their own patch, yet they work as a family, making decisions together and each having a role at harvest.
This year each of the brothers and worker Pete Bradford rotated on the two New Holland headers (9.90 and 10.90 models with 12 metre combs) and the chaser bin, Lee and worker Steve Cairns-Cowan drove the truck and Ken took care of most of the sheep work and maintenance jobs around the farm and for harvest.
They also have a sister Kirsty who works as an agronomist at Landmark, Albany, who Shayne said came in handy when they were seeking crop advice.
One of the biggest changes to the operation this year was using two seeding rigs.
"Using just one seeding rig was putting a lot of pressure on the one rig and the distances between farms and paddock sizes can make it a bit difficult, so it was a better fit," he said.
"Especially with the late break, seeding is hectic enough as it is, but then with hungry sheep your time gets taken away from necessarily doing seeding all the time as we are having to spend time tending to sheep, so it enabled us to not go as hard with one machine."
In recent years Shayne said the farm had generally been equally affected by low rainfall and frost.
On average the property, which spans across Dumbleyung, to the eastern end of Moulyinning and through to Yilliminning, would receive about 250-275 millimetres of growing season rainfall, depending on the location of the property.
This year's rainfall was down on average at about 200-255mm, which again varied across the locations.
While the rainfall wasn't too much under average, it was on the back of a very dry summer, resulting in no subsoil moisture.
"Apart from one day of rainfall in October last year, I think since September 2018, our first recorded rain wasn't until March with 10-12mm," Shayne said.
"So it was incredibly dry for a long period of time, probably one of the driest spells I can remember, definitely since I have been home."
As in 2018, this year's dry finish appears to have taken its toll on the crops.
"The season wasn't good, this is the second year in a row where we essentially had 10mm of rain or less for September, with some patchy showers in October," he said.
"The real blow with the finish was the high temperature as well, it was really hot, I think probably one of the hottest springs we have ever had.
"If we had received a bit more rain in September/early October, the crops probably would have been above average.
"But we are fortunate and happy with what we got, knowing full well that others not too far away were a lot worse off."
Shayne said farming over different locations helped them to spread their risk.
"It has given us a bit of subtle diversity in rainfall," he said.
"I guess we look at it as not having all of our eggs in one basket - if one place misses out, generally we can get something somewhere.
"The same goes for frost - we have had some areas hit by frost more than others, so it has given us some spread there.
"It also gives us spread in soil types, all still while being within range of each property."
This year's cropping program comprised 6800 hectares being planted, with 3050ha to barley, 1100ha wheat, 600ha each to canola and lupins, 1200ha oats and 220 vetch, with the balance being pasture.
About 70 per cent of the operation is focused on cropping with the remaining 30pc being sheep.
"Our cropping area has increased but we have also increased our sheep numbers in recent times, so I guess the ratio has fluctuated a bit but been relatively constant," Shayne said.
"But one of our leases is cropping-only which probably increases the cropping ratio compared to sheep."
Harvest kicked off earlier than usual on Kingussie at the start of November.
"It was an earlier than normal start for us but given the hot, dry finish, that's to be expected," he said.
They started off with barley and Shayne was happy with its performance considering the season.
It was yielding 2.8-3 tonnes a hectare, which is close to average.
"It's good to be able to get that yield on a below-average year," he said.
The majority of the barley crop went feed with some going Malt1.
Shayne said screenings had been a bit higher than usual at about 30pc, but some of the worst loads were nearing 50pc.
They opted to sow a selection of varieties this season - Spartacus, Planet, Rosalind and a small patch of Bass.
"It gives us a bit of range of flowering times with frost and some have better disease tolerance, so depending on the rotation, we run with the more tolerant variety in certain circumstances and situations," he said.
"We grew more Planet on the western end of the farm as opposed to the eastern end, but next year we may reduce the number of varieties grown."
Scepter was the only wheat variety and has been below average.
Yield has varied from about 2.2-3.2t/ha, but overall it was less than their usual average of 2.7t/ha.
He said the protein was OK but they had some screenings issues with small grain and so far it was going APW1, AUH2 and AGP1.
Stingray, Bonito, 350TT and 44Y24 were the canola varieties planted.
The genetically modified 44Y24 was a strategic crop of about 70ha for a paddock that was burdened with some grass.
Their canola yielded below average at about 1t/ha, largely due to some hail damage and the poor finish.
The oil percentage was also under normal at about 40-42pc and it made CAN1 grade.
"Our canola program has reduced in the past few years as yields have seemed to be a bit volatile," he said.
"We grow it more on an as-needs basis for the purpose of a break crop."
Jurien lupins were yielding 1-1.7t/ha.
Shayne said they grow lupins for their own stockfeed but also sold some of it off, while the Bannister and Yallara oats were grown for a mix of grain and feed.
The oats were yielding about 2.3t/ha, below the 2.7t/ha average.
"But prices for oats are reasonable which makes up for it," he said.
"The majority of oats went Oat1, which was a nice surprise.
"We also had a bit on one farm go Oat2 and Oat3."
They also did 450ha of oats for export hay.
The Smiths don't use a set rotation but consider each paddock on an individual basis, based on it's weed burdens and they try to keep pasture paddocks good sheep infrastructure.
Frost appeared to have impacted their barley and lupin crops but across the board, Shayne said it wasn't too severe and the majority of the farm managed to escape it.
"Frost is always an issue that we have to manage," he said.
The sheep side of the business involves the family running about 7500 ewes, mostly Merino, and a small amount of Poll Dorset-cross White Suffolk ewes.
Merinos have always been part of the farming business for producing wool that averages about 21 micron, which is exhibited in their Kingussie Merino stud.
"Merinos have always been a feature of the farm and about eight to 10 year ago, we introduced a British breed component for the first cross of prime lambs," Shayne said.
"Traits we look for in our breeding flock would be a large frame, long staple and white wool with good cutting ability so we can cut as many kilograms of wool per hectare as we can and still have good body growth rates for the prime lamb market.
"This year will be the first time we cracked 400 bales of wool, which was a nice milestone for us."
The weeks after harvest will be spent cleaning machinery, doing post-harvest maintenance and tending to sheep.
Farming runs deep into the family's heritage with Shayne and his brothers being the seventh generation on their mum Leanne Smith's (Fleay) side, who is now based at Wickepin.
They are also the fourth-generation to farm within the Dumbleyung shire and third to be on the current home farm.
With such strong farming roots, it's no surprise that Shayne and his brothers always saw farming in their future and Kirsty also pursued a career in the industry.
"Being a farmer is probably always something I wanted to do," he said.
"While it can be frustrating, generally speaking it is very rewarding.
"I like the variety of jobs that it brings, you usually aren't doing the same thing all the time.
"And it's a good environment to have a family."
