BCG - Farmer in Focus – Tim McClelland
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- US & World News
- Jun 27, 2019
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By Brooke Bennett - BCG.
Tim McClelland farms with his wife Julie, his Dad Ian and his Aunt Ros. They farm a mixed farming enterprise with 6500 ha of land, 1500 ha of that for pasture which services 3500 breeding ewes.
A second property at Mortlake has 5600 breeding ewes on 1250ha with the beginning of a little bit of cropping.
Soil type: sandy clay loam
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How did the sowing program go?
“Pretty good, we had a new seeder this year as we’ve upgraded our old one. We had a few issues with the tractor because it’s really on its limits in terms of horsepower and hydraulic flow to be able to operate the new seeder. We had a few issues where we couldn’t get the draw bar lock to work and then once that was fixed we lost some of the downward force to keep our tynes the right depth in the ground. It took a little bit of cooperation with the mechanics to get it sorted out, but by the end of sowing we had it fixed and everything was working well.”
How much rainfall have you had this year and has this changed any cropping plans?
We’ve had 60mm for the year so far and in December we had between 140 to 170mm of rainfall so our soil profile is quite close to being full. Cropping plans have changed I guess, we had plan A and this plan is always what we want to do and then we usually go to plan B or C depending on what happens with the break and how much soil stored water we’ve got. Because we had a lot of stored soil water and it turned out we had a pretty good start we stuck with plan A which is a little more canola and pulses than normal and the rest is pretty much standard.
What is the biggest challenge at this time of year and how do you manage it?
The challenge is prioritising what the most important things are to do once you come out of that hectic busy sowing period and then working out what inputs are needed. Now’s the time that we have to start setting up our crops for their potential for the year. So we are starting to look at things like nitrogen levels, weed control and insecticides. We need to start making decisions so that we can order the fertiliser, we need the rainfall event to get it on and then we need to work out how much are we actually going to apply. We have a very solid soil testing program, so I have a pretty good handle on where the nitrogen is across the property. This year is a little bit different because we had all that rain in December, so we’ve got a really good bank of nitrogen from mineralisation over the summer. As a result, a lot of our paddocks have got enough nitrogen for 4 or 5 tonne crops so the decision around spreading on those crops is quite easy.
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What’s happening with livestock at the moment?
We’re in the process of getting the tail end of our lambs from last year off the farm. In terms of prime lambs, they’re going to market and then we have also got merino wethers that need to be shorn before they can be marketed. We are into lambing on the first of July. We are just waiting for the pastures to take off, so we are still doing a bit of supplementary feeding with barley for our ewes while we wait..
What are your goals for 2019?
We’ve got very good prospects for this year, so my goal is to get that all off successfully. We can’t help frost, or heat shock or any of those things we have no control over, but as long as our management is giving our crops the best chance, then that is my goal for the year and it would be nice to consolidate our position following the good years we had in ‘16 and ‘17.
What are your thoughts around the glyphosate issue?
The agricultural industry is getting a lot of scrutiny now that we didn’t have previously. I think as an industry we do really need to sell our message better and come forward and say we are stewards of the land and we are doing our best for it. If glyphosate was taken away from us it could have a serious impact on our ability to operate effectively. So as an industry we do need to sell our message better so that we can protect those tools that we have available to us that are essential for us to produce good quality food.
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