A DOWNPOUR between Christmas and the new year, followed by tropical cyclone Blake was enough for Esperance farmers Belinda and Deon Lay to dust the seeding rig off and put it to work on their property, Coolindown Farms.
Their 3000 hectare property (2200ha arable owned and 800ha leased) was given a wet but welcome Christmas present, receiving between 28-40 millimetres from the initial thunderstorm, then cyclone Blake dropped about 10-15mm, putting the family in good spirits for 2020.
Recalling the dual benefits they had from planting the Clearfield 970 long season variety of canola after a thunderstorm in February 2018, Ms Lay said they had received enough summer rain to give it a go again.
"It worked really well for us in that year because it ended up being a late break to the season and we used it as a sheep feed," Ms Lay said.
"So it filled that feed gap for us by having an established crop already out of the ground and we were able to use it as a pasture while we got our other crops in."
With their cropping program in place for 2020, Ms Lay said the 180ha of long season canola they have planted would only mean a variety change to the canola crop.
"We just happened to have this seed on hand as we didn't use it last year because we didn't get the summer rains and the season didn't break to use a long season variety, so it was just in the shed from the previous year, and this year the opportunity has presented itself so we are off," she said.
While the long season variety proved beneficial as being an alternative to sheep feed, Ms Lay said it also delivered benefits at harvest time.
The grazed long season canola ended up yielding 1.8 tonnes per hectare, beating the neighouring short season and ungrazed canola crops which achieved 1.7t/ha.
"It also had much longer roots because it got established longer, so its ability to get a good root system down was better too," Ms Lay said.
"In 2018 we actually grazed it twice with ewes before letting it go to a head and becoming a yielding canola crop.
"Just going by that length of time that the sheep were on the crop, where we would have had to feed hay and grain, I think we saved about $25,000 in feed costs, just by putting them on the crop."
The Lays currently run about 7800 Merinos across the property and Ms Lay said they have a goal to use the land for 100 per cent cropping with sheep.
"We are trying to seed all of our paddocks and then just grazing all of the crops," she said.
"Then at the end of the season we will sacrifice certain crops."
Mr Lay said they have been crop grazing for six years and in the past three to four years, they have had the vision to utilise their crop for pasture, which they have almost fully achieved.
"In most cases a poorer crop with modern nutrition seems to grow better than pasture, so it works well for us," Mr Lay said.
