Big seeding program gets underway

Stretching from North Mullewa to Pindar and Tardun, the Flanagans will have an all wheat program across the board.

"There's a fair bit going on," said Mark Flanagan who works in partnership with his brother John.

"We've got 27,000 hectares of fallow set up which is going into wheat, so we'll see how that goes.

"We don't know whether we're going to put all of that in, if it goes into wheat - it's certainly not looking great the forecast at the moment."

They received their first rain in March, which was a bit too early, and some rain last weekend which didn't land where they would have liked it.

"We had a bit of early rain, the problem is that it was at the beginning of March, so that's on the bottom of the point in the fallow," he said.

"It's good to have that (moisture) under though, some areas we had up to 80 millimetres of summer rain on the eastern line, and a lot had just 40 odd millimetres which isn't huge, but at least it's something.

"This weekend west of Mullewa got around 15mm, but not where we are seeding at Gutha."

Mr Flanagan said he was glad to have retained a solid group of workers from last year and also added a few new faces, spending last week on training and preparation.

"We had to teach everyone our system," he said.

Retaining and attracting good workers is always a priority and one Mr Flanagan said was helped by a YouTube video made by a staff member during harvest that he said "went viral".

"A couple of harvest workers did a movie of all the harvesting, all the road trains, the chasers and it went viral," Mr Flanagan said.

"I believe it had over two million views.

"When that happens, people around the world who just love driving tractors contact us asking to have a go - they want to be a part of this, it's awesome and they love the Aussie lifestyle."

High temperatures in the northern growing regions are part of that lifestyle, as are pesky insects.

"It is hot, 37 degrees today and the flies," Mr Flanagan said.

"There must be something brewing, I've never seen it as bad as what it is, everyone is wearing fly nets, they're so sticky, it's horrendous.

"It's not enjoyable, when my wife and I go for our early morning walk before the sun comes up they are just all over you, I don't know why they are so bad."

Despite the conditions Mr Flanagan said they would stick to their program as planned.

"You set your date and you start when you've got that fallow that's been really manicured well over the summer and it's got a little bit underneath," he said.

"It just so happened that last year we spelled all of the best country we own, so that's a no-brainer, we are going in regardless."

Choosing which varieties to go with is always a challenge, this year proving to be no different from previous years.

"It's tricky on the varieties because if you get a long season in at the moment and don't get it up, and it rains middle of May, all of a sudden it becomes a long-season wheat in a short season, unless it rains through the back end which we are very sceptical about," Mr Flanagan said.

"With what's happened the last 10 years with rain at the back end is why I've been chasing some of those faster varieties.

"You get them in, get them up and get them away, get them done and dusted.

"We are starting with Valiant a long season long coleoptile first off, then we'll finish with Amble, which is the fastest on the back end and we've also got Devil and Mammoth."

Mr Flanagan hopes their seeding program will be finished by May 20.

"With the four seeders, it's all down to logistics of delivery of fertiliser and stuff to the paddock and that's what you've got to concentrate on," he said.

Mr Flannagan said it is critical to keep supply up to the airseeders.

"The seeders will do a decent amount, 100 hectares minimum per machine per 12 hour shift is what you aim at - sometimes if everything is running well, they can get up to 130-140 hectares a shift.

"You can get over the ground pretty quick with four seeders and there's four boomsprayers, so you know we've got pretty good capacity, as long we can get the product out of Geraldton and keep up with it all.

"We pretty much do everything out of road trains into the paddock - we have depots everywhere, road trains head off to town, they bring the product out, it goes into chaser bins and seed and fertiliser bins and after that when it's empty, we just run it (road trains) back into town and fill it up again."

Following a below-average 2023, Mr Flanagan said the feeling among growers was one of apprehension, knowing how much rain was needed to ensure a more successful yield in 2024.

"We got away with one last year, we didn't do great," he said.

"I think we averaged 1.25 tonnes per hectare on the wheat which is not great, but it was all wheat on fallow.

"There was one particular area that let us down pretty badly, but the rest of it was pretty good.

"There was a March rain last year in Mullewa and where that March rain went was where the wheat was - and where it didn't go there was bugger all and I'm talking like 400 to 800 kilograms per tonne of wheat which is just terrible."

The crops yielded 1.5t/ha to 2t/ha where it rained.

"A lot of guys sat on 80 to 100mm of growing season rain and that's not enough - we know we need a minimum 120mm, and 80mm is a long way off that.

"It was disappointing and just a shame that came off some good seasons.

"Everyone had their tails up and it's like whack."

The ongoing uncertainty of when and how much rain they will receive is always the main planning driver.

"That's why we do this fallow program, we try and insulate ourselves," he said.

"We can't do much even with the fallow on with 80 to 100mm, it needs to 120mm that's our marker, anything more than that on fallow we're in with a chance, anything less than that it just doesn't matter how good you are with your strategy or with your varieties, with your fertilising, it's just not enough water.

"And everybody knows that, you just got to try and do whatever you can to survive and that's the only thing you can do, prepare and start - you can't just say I am not going to do anything."

The cost of living crisis and the price of wheat are also major factors.

"The sentiment locally is a fair amount of nervousness," Mr Flanagan said.

"With what's going on everything is still pretty dear, equipment is still dear but seems to have levelled off now, but with all of your labour, everyone wants more money.

"With the cost of living crisis going on, everyone's finding out it's expensive to live so they want more pay per hour, we're all fighting for quality staff so the costs are going up and up and up.

"You've got to meet the markertwhen it comes to staff or you're going to be left with a handful of inexperienced people which you don't want either."

Mr Flanagan said everyone was closely monitoring both wheat and diesel prices.

"The price of wheat has gone a little bit higher lately which is good," he said.

"Everyone was really concerned when it got down to $340 (per tonne), you know a lot of people are budgeting on $360/t, so when it starts wafting down to that $340/t, $330/t level, it puts more pressure on what you need to break even in a low rainfall environment."

Meet Alfie!

Mr Flanagan speaks proudly of the family's first "robot" Alfie.

Alfie is a SwarmFarm Robotics autonomous machine configured as a weed sprayer.

"We named Alfie after our dad," Mr Flanagan said.

"He was busy spraying all over Christmas and New Year.

"He has been unbelievable - has done 300 operating hours, that's 30,000 hectares unassisted spraying fallows and keeping them all nice and clean."

The efficiency of the autonomous technology has been so beneficial to their enterprise that the Flanagan's have purchased a second robot.

"We've got another one on the way which we've called Ailsa after our mum," Mr Flanagan said.

"She's on the way to get her boomsprayer put on her and she'll be here in a couple of months."

"All over summer Alfie sprayed non-stop, spraying in the cooler temperatures.

"He will start up when it's cool, when the weather is right and stop when the weather comes in, I track the movements on an iPad or my phone."

Mr Flanagan admitted weed spraying was an unpopular farm task that now essentially took care of itself.

"I am really pleased with the technology," he said.

"Finding staff to do those jobs in the middle of the night when it's hot, in the middle of summer after a big harvest is really difficult.

"The robot just goes about it, moves at 10 kilometres an hour for 24 metres up back, up back - everything's been mapped pretty well now, all the obstacles identified, it's good.

"He's taken care of what's there, the fallows always carry melon, we had a couple of blocks with roly polys and caltrop."