The 2022 crop was a balancing act to make sure, despite the challenges and opportunities, there was a return at the end of the season.
The strong start to the season gave growers the confidence to ‘grow to the calendar’. Reasonable summer rainfall highlighted the opportunity for growers in all districts to consider increasing the area sown to canola. Some cereal percentages were reduced in favour of legumes (vetch/lentils), where nitrogen (N) could be fixed to reduce fertiliser costs.
Growers also noted mouse activity three to four weeks before sowing and once crops were established, pests such as slugs caused damage and warranted control.Â
Input Costs
Input decision making in 2022 was vigorous thanks to predicted average to above rain winter rainfall, disruptions to manufacturing and shipping due to the conflict in the Ukraine, and COVID-19.
Growers scrutinised all aspects of their cost of production — particularly for topdressing — due to high prices for urea, chemicals and fuel, but good grain prices justified the efforts. Getting spare parts for equipment was prolonged.
In June, the increasing risk of Foot and Mouth Disease and Lumpy Skin disease reaching Australian livestock from Indonesia attracted nationwide media attention. National border biosecurity activities heightened and the threat abated, however it reminded all producers of the potential biosecurity risks to their agricultural industries, and prompted reviews of farm biosecurity plans.
Crop Disease
By July, crop diseases were emerging as a major factor and there was nervousness leading into spring. Disease included stripe rust, septoria, fusarium and powdery mildew in wheat and there was high stripe rust incidence becoming evident early in susceptible varieties such as Scepter. Ascochyta blight in lentil and bean, and botrytis grey mould/chocolate spot in bean, lentil and vetch were showing up early in crops across the Wimmera, Mallee and North Central districts.
Further challenges occurred late in the season for canola, where wet weather in August–October combined with thick crop canopies elevated the risk of diseases such as blackleg moving up the canopy.
Winter had delivered average to low winter rainfall, so by the time of BCG’s Main Field Day at Nullawil North on 14 September, Mallee growers were buoyant about the season outlook, but Wimmera farmers were starting to get nervous about just how much was in the bucket.
All that changed in spring when La Nina settled in, causing large rainfall totals across many parts of the Mallee, Wimmera and North Central. In some areas, wheat was under water for weeks.
Disease pressure continued to be high in spring, and the grain filling period was extended due to the wet and mild conditions.
The Rain Kept Coming
By October and into November, the season was really proving to be something out of the box. Heavy rainfall in catchments across northern Victoria caused flooding concerns along the Wimmera River and Tyrrell Creek, the Avon and Richardson river areas in Buloke Shire, the Loddon River, Bullock and Bendigo creeks and the Campaspe River in the North Central region. Flooding along the tributaries feeding into these rivers and creeks that led to lakes and the Murray River, affected communities from Rochester through to South Australia.
Some districts (Manangatang and Nyah) recorded their highest October rainfall ever, and diseases such as chocolate spot in faba beans ravaged crops in the southern Mallee and Wimmera.
The extent of damage to crops and livestock was not fully realised at this stage but most growers reported at least some damage.
Regular rain events across the regions kept crops damp and caused water to pond in paddocks, ruining vetch crops ready for hay and creating wet conditions for grazing. Cases emerged of livestock diseases, such as sub-acute ruminal acidosis and worms — issues that are not usually a problem in this environment. Fleece rot (dermatitis) and flystrike needed close monitoring and treatment.
The popularity and success of BCG’s ‘Safely Recovering Machinery’ event at Warracknabeal, indicated growers were preparing for a long and slow harvest. Extended periods of rainfall meant that harvest continued through Christmas and into 2023, and often overlapped with shearing and spraying which threw up logistical challenges for labour management.
Harvest
The biggest challenges for harvest were excessive rainfall that caused flooding, waterlogging and trafficability issues, significant crop lodging that meant windrowing was not possible and — to top it all off — isolated bands of storms that caused hail damage in some crops, where windrowed canola fared better than standing crops.
There were also grain quality concerns from the wet start to harvest. In canola, while oil content was generally high, mouldy grain was common meaning additional segregations were offered. Some growers managed and/or escaped the challenges, achieving good yields and good returns.
In wheat, this was the first season for many when white grain disorder (resulting from extended humidity during flowering) was evident in wheat upon delivery.
In The End
Growers were concerned the 2022 harvest would be a salvage job. It wasn’t and, on the whole, yields, quality and prices were favourable. It was a season where a proactive, fully protective disease management strategy translated into higher yield and better quality grain at harvest.
