THE cropping season is off to a flyer down Lalbert way – and so was the footy season until the rain came.
The Mallee Eagles racked up three in a row to launch 2022 – then lost the next two (and copped the bye last weekend).
Which hasn’t worried Harry Allen, since the rain has come he (and a lot of his neighbours/mates) have been glued to tractor seats sowing as fast as they can.
When the autumn break arrived through late April, Lalbert didn’t do quite as well as Swan Hill – it got around 50mm in the end while up the road the final total almost reached 90mm.
Which is OK, because the Swans are all but rock bottom on the ladder – hey, you win some, you lose some.
Meanwhile, back on the tractor, Harry’s hard at it grinding his way across 4000 hectares – with the legumes in, the lentils now being done and then on to the cereals.
The fourth-generation farmer says he is pretty damn happy with things in general, and has been since the dry in 2015, which was the last truly bad year for everyone in the district.
But admits he is not so happy about the soaring price of fertilisers, especially urea which hit $1500 at one point, and the rest of the season will be focused on maximising production to offset those unexpected price hikes.
“The whole system is a bit of a mess, with shipping and logistics and all the other transport challenges because of Covid and not helped by the problems in Ukraine,” Harry says.
“But the seed is going into moist soil, and the tractors still aren’t raising any dust, so we’re all pretty happy about that,” he added.
“The real measure for us will be strong yields, that will be one of the keys to a good result come harvest.”
Harry says they have gone bigger than usual with lentils (“and who wouldn’t with the prices so good?”) and were relying on their early decision to “pull the trigger” on their fertiliser orders with an eye on the strong commodity markets.
He and his father Greg have been going “hell for leather” trying to grow the best crop they can with the rainfall they have – and a little bit more forecast by the weekend.
“I’ve been thinking about the 2021 season when we got that late spring rain which came just in time and also kept the run of pretty decent years going,” Harry says.
“We had got a little bit of early vetch in but across the farm the rain will need to keep coming if we are to get the yield we want.
“I reckon we will be finished in the next 10 days or two weeks the way we are going – but we won’t mind a holdup for more rain.”
Harry’s been back on the farm for a few years now after competing an ag science degree at La Trobe University, as are a lot of his mates from around the area. And most of them are as busy right now as he is.
He says the studies have given him a few ideas to be used on the farm since he got back in 2017 – and his three years away also gave him some good times on the social circuit.
“Although I have to say I would be a lot more confident in the advice of our agronomist than I would be in mine,” he laughed.
But these days he is all business and is already tossing up marketing their crops providing everything goes to plan.
Harry says the Allens normally store about half their production on-farm and the rest goes straight away for the cash price if it’s in the range they are looking for.
“As much as there are problems getting things into the country with no shipping containers and not enough ships anyway, we also face the same problem with grain going the other way so that gets a little tricky at times.”
And once the last paddocks are finished, Harry and his mates might be able to focus on the footy just a little bit more.
