Growing well

18th January 2011. Eastern Australia has recorded one of it's wettest springs followed by an extremely wet summer, with major flooding in Qld, NSW and Victoria. Despite all this here in Gippsland we recorded 168mm for the spring (about 20mm below our average), and 107mm so far for the summer, which is about 20mm above average. The photo below is of my maize and was taken on the 13th of January in the same place as in earlier posts.

Hycorn 504, January 13 2011

Here is a photo of my sorghum taken on the 13th of January. I planted this about a week after the maize, but it's much further behind. Our cool nights suit the maize much better. Our airseeder is set up on 300mm row spacing. I could have lifted tines for 900mm rows which would have been ok. However as we only have single shoot boots I was concerned about seed burn, so I opted to lift only half our tines. I figured that 300mm double skip would be better than 600mm rows. I love seeing that stubble in between the rows. Seed rate was 2Kg/ha with 70Kg/ha DAP. I also had to follow up with atrazine early post emergent which seems to work better than pre emergent.

Sorghum, January 13 2011

This photo was taken today (16th Jan) It's the DKC 37-12 (87 CRM) planted on the headland. Hopefully I can harvest this one without drying. The others will probably need drying but should yield more.

DKC 37-12 January 16 2011

This photo was also taken today (16th Jan). Sorghum in the foreground and Maize behind, Hycorn 504, 97 CRM.

Sorghum & Maize, January 16 2011

This is 36B08, 103 CRM. Photo taken 16th January.

36B08 Corn, January 16 2011

Sunflowers, Bairnsdale, January 15 2011

Below are some Sunflowers planted at our trial site at Bairnsdale. They were planted November 3rd, along with maize and sorghum. If we can make sunflowers work they might be a good opportunity crop to plant after wheat harvest. Photo taken 15th January.

Chickpeas

Chickpeas would be the perfect fit for us after maize and before our next winter crop. I planted some chickpeas in my vegetable garden, just to see how they would grow. They are a Desi variety, I think they are 'Slasher'. Tim Brown should know, he gave me the seed. They were planted mid September without any fertiliser or innoculant. I think they should go in earlier, July or August maybe. In our climate they should start to set pods in November when the average daily temp is 15 degrees. November is our wettest month, so they should have plenty of moisture to finish, might not be good for disease though. This photo was taken on the 10th of November and they have just got their first flowers.


Chicpeas Nov 10 2010

Chickpeas, Toongabbie, 29 Dec 2010

The next 3 photos were taken on the 29th of December. They have grown well, I think - but I don't know anything at all about chickpeas.

In this photo you might be able to see mature pods, new pods and also some new flowers. There is a break in the pods just below the top where we had a cool period in late Nov - early December.

29 Dec 2010, Chickpea Pods

There won't be any chickpeas at all thanks to these little fellas. They have dropped all the mature pods and sucked the life out of the immature pods. It would have been good to see what they would have yielded. Anyway, will have to do a few acres next year.

Chickpea pod borer, Helicoverpa. 29 Dec 2010

Maize Establishment

I have taken the punt and planted 29 ha of maize and 22 ha of grain sorghum. I fallowed a paddock after wheat harvest 2009. This paddock yielded poorly with the heatwave in Nov '09 and crown rot affecting the wheat. It has had a long history of winter crops, especially cereals so it needs a break. I don't like the idea of sowing to pasture and running sheep so a summer crop or three seems a good option to me. Here is a photo of the fallow taken on the 29th of October, just before planting:

Wheat stubble ready for corn planting

I planted on the 6th November with the same Seedhawk that planted our Bairnsdale trial. 36,000 seeds/ha and 70Kg DAP. Here is a photo taken on the 10th:

Seedhawk planted corn

This photo was taken on the 18th of December. The lighter green is Hycorn 504 (97 CRM) and the darker green on the headland is DKC 37-12 (87 CRM). Just after this photo I topdressed with 120 Kg/ha of Urea and 80 Kg/ha of MOP. I also applied a foliar Zinc.

Hycorn 504 and DKC 37-12