Carl O’Donoghue farms ‘Fairfield’ at Kamarooka, north of Bendigo, with his wife Dinah, son Brendan and father Brian. They run a cropping and sheep farm business growing wheat, barley, canola, vetch, first cross ewes and are currently transitioning to an ‘Australian White’ sheep breed with 1600 ewes in total.
What worked well in 2016 and what didn’t?
Our TT canola worked well because the prices didn’t drop away. Yields were good too despite losing some to flooding (435mm growing season rainfall and 606mm annual rainfall).
The barley and wheat yields were still relatively good but I am disappointed because both went over (lodged). Compass barley went down early. The stems kinked early and I think that cut off nutrient supply from the root systems. I grow Compass for its weed competition and it did a good job of that. Our Gregory wheat was also a tall variety.
You attended the BCG Trials Review Day recently, what messages did you take home to implement on your farm?
I’m going to sow Compass barley a bit later this year. We were finished sowing by 18th May in 2016 so I hope if we get some more early rain, we can get a weed knock down at sowing. BCG’s trials showed later sown Compass yielded well.
I might make a change to Scepter wheat and include some Rosalind barley too. Quite often Rosalind will yield upward of 4t/ha and it’s a moderate weed competitor.
Are you going to change anything this year as a results of last year?
We have our rotations worked out this year and we’re going to cut out vetch because we already have a lot of hay this year. We’ll just grow wheat, barley and canola and keep running the ewes and continue the transition to the meat sheep.
How are you going to manage stubble loads this year, compared to previous years?
Stubble loads will be an issue because most of our crops went over. There are one or two paddocks of wheat stubble I might windrow to reduce the stubble load. We have two air seeders and a disc and tyne set up that we might use this year. My son is pretty good in the workshop and we’ve been working to bring the disc seeder up to speed to use this year as well.
What will be the impacts in terms of disease carryover from 2016?
There could be but we’re working hard to manage the green bridge over summer. We’ve sprayed three quarters of our paddocks twice already after 40mm of rain in January and 36mm in February.
How will you manage nitrogen this year after such a big year?
It’s hard to say. We will see how the year’s panning out. I take more notice of the long-term forecasts now but I am still undecided about how much I’ll put up front. We’ve made the decision to increase our phosphorus and sulphur fertiliser because the crops will need it after last year’s high production.
What’s the best farming advice you’ve been given?
“If a job’s worth doing, do it to the best of your ability. Especially for construction of things like fences and sheep yards.”
“Your first loss is often the best loss because you learn you from it. Especially for grain marketing and selling lambs.”
You can listen to Lou and Carl’s discussion below.
https://soundcloud.com/bcg-birchip/farm-in-focus-carl-odonoghue-march-2017
