Last week we had a few more rain events hit across the farm. Ended up 16-26mm up north and a few areas in the south, most of the south had 4-6mm and central areas between 6mm-20mm. Conditions are favorable right now, and with the very hot weather, which is unseasonably warm for this time of year (28-32C and overnight lows 18-20C) the crop is growing rapidly. Compared to last year were are at least 2 weeks ahead, and compared to normal we are probably closer to a week ahead. This next week to 10 days looks to continue to be warm and doesn’t look like there will be much opportunities for rain. Longer range forecasts are looking for a higher probability for rain – in the later part of June – would be great if that verifies.
We had a few good days of spraying last week and we were well ahead of staging. One thing about spraying season, when you get the opportunity to go, you go! With the last 5 days of last week being wet and windy we haven’t been able to get much spraying done since. Now we are running behind and will need a few good days in order to catch back up again. We have about half the first pass herbicide in the canola (with Invigor canola we do 2 passes for weed control — one at cotyledon or 1st leaf, and another pass at 6 leaf just before the plant cabbages out) and about half the cereals are done. As fast as this crop is growing – it is hard to believe but the second pass of the earlier canola will need to be done by the end of the week, as well as the growth regulator in the earlier seeded barley and wheat. Last year we used growth regulator for the first time (it was approved for use in 2021) and it proved to be a very good decision – as we had some heavier rains in July/August that came with strong winds. Those who didn’t use a growth regulator struggled at harvest as the crop was lodged, and lost about 20-30% of their yield potential as well.
