Spreading

Once the Canola is sown, we set about spreading snail bait to try and keep on top of the little critters.

It's a pretty basic operation, pour the snail bait pellets into the little spreader bucket and drive around. It spins and spreads them out over the ground.

 

Hopefully the little buggers come across a pellet of bait and eat it. Apparently they are not exactly attracted to the bait, they just randomly come across it and chew!

 

 

Little green pellets are snail bait 

Soil Throw with Cross Slot

Canola going in a couple of weeks ago

People often ask about Soil Throw with the Cross Slot.

 

Baines Brothers of Eyre Peninsula #epag

Sadly we lost our first Baines brother on Saturday, Ivan.

Ivan was the 2nd eldest of the 5 boys who are the children of Herbert Baines and Stella Glover, Yeelanna.

A hard working family, Ivan's father, Herbert, came to Eyre Peninsula at age 16 from York, England in 1922 as part of the Barwell Boys Farm Apprentices scheme. He undertook a 3 year apprenticeship with Amos Skipworth of Yeelanna.

In 1927, Herbert bought Section 33, Hundred of Shannon which is still farmed today by 2 of his sons and their families.

Over the years, Herbert, Stella and their 5 boys all worked together to buy a farming property for each brother in their own right.  1 son at Ungarra, 2 sons at Lock and the younger 2 of the 5 remained on and around Section 33 near Karkoo.

Late last year I asked them to sit for a group photo. They automatically sat in order of age, I didn't realise until after I'd taken the shots.

All into their 70's now, they are all still actively involved with farming.

So it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Ivan who was always the life of the party. A jovial, active man who loved nothing better than travelling back up to Lock to help his son, who now runs the farm. 

I will miss him dearly, his banter at the dinner table and stories of their adventures as 5 rascally farm boys. Their poor mother, what a handful they would have been, but she did an amazing job raising 5 hard working, resilient sons who I am privileged to know.

RIP dear Ivan. xxx

Old Smokey

Our old bulldozer is worth its weight in Gold. 

Although it is possibly contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer, its hard to calculate the number of dollars we have saved by doing the job ourselves.

 This is hubby leveling the pad for our new 80x80 machinery shed

 

The bulldozer was purchased for a pittance after it was retired from dredging out a new marina on Eyre Peninsula.

Shed pad ready for shed

Its also good for knocking down scrubber pine trees

Barley looks good

Our 1st year with a @crossslot seeder bar and we're happy with the result so far.
Its been a crappy season though with flooding in June/July and only 14.5mm over Aug/Sept & about 3mm in late Oct.

 

The Barley still has some greenery to it at this late stage. 

 

 

 

Barley looks quite heavy so fingers crossed it will yield well. 

 

We will finish windrowing our Canola tomorrow. Unfortunately the Canola is not very exciting this year with our odd seasonal factors and the possible presence of Beet Western Yellow Virus. So we are counting on the Barley to bring home the bacon! 

 

We didn't grow Wheat this year due to a Copper deficiency in our soil, but will have another go at it next year. Especially now that we have implemented our liquid trace elements system.

  

Machinery Height - do you actually know how close the Powerlines are?

I did some sums on the safe clearance distance for powerlines in my local area of Eyre Peninsula, SA.

A high number of the powerlines on Eyre Peninsula are attached to the older, shorter 9m poles. (many SWER lines, 19000v)

With areas on Eyre Peninsula getting into temperatures of 45-48 degrees or more at times, the powerlines droop in this extreme heat.

Currently, ETSA do not attend to this type of powerline unless it is drooping below 5.5m in height.

The illustration above is a calculation of our Header height, including tyres, aerials etc.

It shows clearly that we can easily exceed the safe clearance distance, especially in summer when the lines droop in the heat.

I guess the main thing to do is be aware of this scenario, especially when:

• Extending your auger to unload
• Travelling under powerlines with a  full box
• Parking the machine to get out
• And when purchasing new machinery

 It is surprising how close we actually come to this electricity risk. 

      Safe Clearance Distances as per the Electricity Regulations 2012:

Voltage	Clearance distance in all directions (in metres)
Under 11 000 volts	0.6
19 000 volts (SWER)	0.9
33 000 volts	0.9
66 000 volts	1.4
132 000 volts	2.4
275 000 volts	3.2
330 000 volts	4.6
500 000 volts	5.5

Quad Bikes

I've been doing some research into the Crush Protection Device that is now recommended for retrofit to quad bikes.

At first I wondered if the CPD (or Quadbar), would add another level of risk to the rider with this 'thing' sticking up from the back of the bike. 

So I read some more current research papers and looked at footage on YouTube of quad bikes with and without the crush protection device. 

The video footage actually sealed it for me as to the benefit of fitting a quadbar. If you have a look at the links below you will see that the quadbar actually changes the trajectory of the rolling quad bike. Of course, nothing is 'fail safe', but it does change the way in which the bike rolls and at times stops the bike from rolling altogether.

The majority of deaths on quad bikes are from what is called 'mechanical asphyxia': 

• bike rolls onto rider
• bike too heavy to push off
• rider can't breathe
• rider asphyxiates

Although the bar might protrude and 'maybe' add another element of minor injury risk, I think the benefits of the bar far outweigh this.


http://youtu.be/fbHunv6NNxI

http://youtu.be/ECzO_Z-X_mo


This is the website for the quadbar, the guy still runs a property in Queensland, his name is David Robertson. 

http://www.quadbar.com.au

I will now be ordering one for our kids quad bike, grandpa may take a little extra convincing, but we'll have a go!!!

Farmers - Get yourselves a quadbar, they're only $627, they were actually designed by a farmer - nuf said!

SA Advisory Board of Ag Farm Tour - YP

Crops on Yorke Peninsula are looking great

 

As part of the SA Advisory Board of Ag's AGM, we are treated to a farm tour around the region in which the AGM is held. The region changes each year and this year it was on Yorke Peninsula.                                                                                                                                                         

First stop was the business of Martin Collins near Yorktown. Martin's operation crops a large area of Lentils, among other crops.

Snails are a huge problem for his area, especially the Conical snails, and Viterra's 'sample' tolerance to these pests is very low.

Martin's operation, with wife and employees, has set itself up to clean and store Lentils as required. (Hence they had some serious shed space!) 

**Note Lentils, not Lupins, too many things on the go Karen!!!***

  

Next stop was Viterra's Grain Handling & Storage Facility at Port Giles. And, of course, we went through the safety induction before entering the main site.

 

Attending our AGM Dinner and the day tour were Federal MP for Grey Rowan Ramsey and State MP Kyam Mahar, Parliamentary Secretary to the Agriculture Minister, so we had both Liberal and Labour representation which is good because we all need to work together for the future of Agriculture. 

Thanks to Tim Burrow from Grain Producers SA for joining us for our daytime tour and a big thanks to Viterra for the morning tea and a very informative visit.

 

Note the safety fencing surrounding the conveyor belt

              

Next stop was Peter Farrow's farming operation, specialising in legumes and high returning cereals. Peter's daughter, Renee, had spoken at our dinner the night before and is currently an Ag Science student. She is an impressive Ag ambassador and also has a 'travel bug' which has seen her tour Chile and other countries soaking up agricultural practices. She is also the farm truck driver for harvest with a keen interest in grain marketing and commerce.

 

 

There is no stopping this girl, she's a mover and a shaker of the future! Watch this space....

Dr Andrew Barr gave us some things to think about with regard to GM crops, both the good and the bad of growing them.

Andrew is a member of the Board of Trustees, CIMMYT Mexico, members of GRDC Southern Panel, Aust Grain Growers current board member, past ABB Grain Ltd board member and Principal Plant Breeder (SARDI) and Professor of Plant Breeding (Adel Uni) from 1997-2003

 

 

Anna Binna's operation near Maitland is owned and run by Ben and Belinda Wundersitz. Their enterprise has grown rapidly to now crop over 5000Ha and employs a number of staff, both full time and part time. They have transformed the Point Pearce farming land and create valuable employment and skills training opportunities for local people.           

                                                                                                                                     

 

Various 'Crop Porn' from Yorke Peninsula

 

 

Then back home to Eyre Peninsula, which isn't looking too bad itself!

View near Tumby Bay EP

The SA Advisory Board of Ag is the overarching organisation governing the SA Agricultural Bureau's, of which, there are about 70 branches statewide.