A well-attended event, the BCG Expo Dinner on Wednesday 3 July had 150 guests, including industry representatives and local growers as a prelude to the BCG Grains Research Expo.
To give the audience an insight into farming in Mudamuckla on the Western Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, BCG welcomed the 2012 Australian Farmer of the Year, Peter Kuhlmann.
Mr Kuhlmann, who said that his property has, on the odd occasion, been classified as the ‘desert’ by some climatologists, gave attendees an insight into farming in the low rainfall area around Ceduna, where they receive approximately 260mm of rain during the growing season (and 291mm annually).
An early adopter of no-till and liquid fertiliser, Mr Kuhlmann has had to be resilient and innovative when it comes to technology and adoption, these qualities have made farming 1500 merino ewes and 9500 hectares of rocky alkaline country with low and variable rainfall, possible.
His 2013 cropping program includes 6000 hectares of wheat, and 1000 hectares of barley and canola each, Mr Kuhlmann along with two full time staff members are certainly kept busy, especially at sowing time. During sowing Mr Kuhlmann’s team keeps the seeder going 24 hours of the day; however he admits that he has overcapitalised with his self-propelled boom-spray. The boom-spray boasts WEEDit spraying technology that can localise spray to weed clumps.
Mr Kuhlmann likes to keep his granular fertiliser applications to a minimum, and compensates by including medics into his rotation and by using liquid fertilisers. With an operation system that readily uses liquid fertilisers, Mr Kuhlmann’s sowing regime benefits from the use of liquid phosphorous – making the immobile nutrient more readily available to his crop.
With fluctuating yields (long term average of 0.97t/ha of wheat), Mr Kuhlmann has found the best approach to harvest is by contract freighting his grain directly from the paddock to the port town of Thevenard. From there, his grain can be moved to the bigger ports as necessary.
Mr Kuhlmann, who has had a busy schedule meeting such celebrities as Prince Charles and ‘Red Dog’, through his award as Australian Farmer of the year, will be looking forward to returning to the farm after a three week absence.
A well-catered event by the Uniting Church of Birchip, Mr Kuhlmann along with the local musical talent of Brodie Glen, took part and made possible another fantastic pre Expo Dinner.
For further information about the evening please contact Alli Way on 03 5492 2787.
