AgLife – December 20, 2017 edition

December 20, 2017

Going green Laharum wool grower Maurice Dumesny, centre, is excited by the prospect of his wool contributing to Australia’s iconic Baggy Green caps.

– Story, page 41 Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

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BUSY TIME: Drung South farmer Graeme Oliver assesses a crop of feed barley during the Wimmera grains harvest. Mr Oliver, who has wheat, barley, chickpea and bean crops, expects to finish harvest in the next few weeks. He said his results were ‘okay’ with the frost that devastated parts of the region missing his paddocks but heavy rain earlier this month causing ‘lodging’ or stem collapse in his barley. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

ictorian farmer leaders assessing the overall western Victorian grains harvest will start turning their attention south after confirmation of ‘mixed-bag’ results across much of the Wimmera.

Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said as Wimmera farmers lined up at receival centres across the region, predictions of stark paddock-to-paddock and crop-to-crop variations in product were proving accurate.

He said assessments were now set to focus on how much damage the late frost that had decimated many Wimmera pulse crops, as well as hail and rain, had on Victoria’s southern cropping region.

“All eyes will start turning to the south, where farmers will be hitting top gear with harvest and getting a gauge of their season,” he said.

While the frost caused most damage to pulses north of the Great Dividing Range, it hit juvenile cereal crops in southern growing districts, especially in the Western District south of Ararat.

Mr Jochinke said despite disastrous circumstances for some growers, Victoria was likely to overall have the best harvest result of any Australian state.

“The trouble is that we’re seeing very localised circumstances that are vastly different from region to region, which is leading to quality or quantity issues,” he said.

“In the Wimmera, it is very hard to generalise results.

“The truth is that the season will be quite reasonable for many people.

“However, there will be some farm-

ers who have been absolutely smashed for one reason or another.”

Mr Jochinke, a grain-grower from Murra Warra between Horsham and Warracknabeal, said take-away messages so far from this year’s harvest were that while the season had been tough for many, apart from last year, it had generally been better than recent years.

He said the season, which had been buoyed by confidence in the sector and had showed so much promise, had also provided compelling evidence for farmers to ensure they incorporated diverse levels of risk-management into their businesses.

“But the main message across the industry is, that regardless of circumstances, for everyone to stay safe

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Kookaburra communications head Shannon Gill said Kookaburra was honoured to be the maker of the Baggy Green for Australian teams, as well as caps for community clubs around Australia that help give every cricket team its identity.

“As a proudly Australian company we welcome the opportunity to help further tell the story of what cricket means to the country, from backyard to Baggy Green,” he said.

Wool growers have until March 30 to send a sample of their wool, complete with their name, property, fibre diameter, telephone number and email address to: Flock to Baggy Green c/- AWI GPO Box 4177, Sydney NSW 2001.

They can also visit website www.wool.com/ baggygreen for more information about how to get involved.

For the record, Maurice Dumesny, 62, played his first season of cricket in the 1968-69 season and last played in 2004-05 when he was 50.

In his 431 innings he made 7259 runs to be Laharum’s third-highest run scorer behind Damien Bunworth and Robert Queale. He had a highest score of 102 not out and a career average of 19.41.

He took a club-record 220 catches and captured 509 wickets at an average of 16.30 with best figures of 8-32.

He is now relaxing on the tennis court on Saturday afternoons and this year is reflecting on outstanding wool prices.

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The Woolmark Company, manufacturer Kookaburra and Cricket Australia have joined forces for the project, which involves inviting wool growers from across Australia to donate some of their wool for Australia’s iconic Baggy Green caps.

Woolmark will collect donated wool from participating wool growers and take it to Kookaburra to create the caps worn by Australian men’s and women’s representative cricket teams during Test matches.

The idea has already captured the attention of Wimmera wool growers who have had a strong link to cricket.

Laharum wool grower Maurice Dumesny, who spent a lifetime either playing for or helping run Laharum Cricket Club, said the Flock to Baggy Green project was a tremendous idea.

“It’s a great way of getting more people to know about wool and as growers it will be great for us to know we’ve helped cap Australian cricketers,” he said.

Wool growers can donate as little or as much raw wool as they wish, with everyone who donates wool to receive a sample of the finished fabric as a memento of their contribution.

Woolgrowers will also be given the opportunity to share their own cricketing stories over the course of the project.

The project highlights the process by which Kookaburra transforms raw Australian wool into the ‘Baggy Green’.

It also showcases the strong link between cricket and the wool industry, a connection that stretches back to before the Federation of Australia and continues to this day.

Cricket has long been at the heart of rural and remote communities throughout Australia, with many past and present Australian cricketers having connections to the wool industry and hailing from regional areas.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has welcomed the Flock to Baggy Green project as an opportunity to celebrate the national cricket cap and the connection between Australian cricket and Australian wool growers.

“The Baggy Green is a proud symbol of Australian cricket, and it is wonderful to have a project that gives wool growers the opportunity

to donate some of their wool and be able to trace it to the caps that will be worn by Australian cricketers for years to come,” he said.

“The initiative is also a reminder of the strong link between Australian cricket and rural communities.”

Australian Wool Innovation is the parent company of Woolmark and chief executive Stuart McCullough is confident wool growers will support the Flock to Baggy Green project “What a perfect opportunity for wool growers across Australia to support our national cricket,” he said.

“Cricket and wool have been closely linked for a long time, you can actually see a sheep on the Baggy Green if you look closely.”

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BAGGY GREEN: Laharum wool grower Maurice Dumesny, left, and Australian Wool Network buyers Zack Currie and Luke Barber with a donation of wool for the Flock to Baggy Green project.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

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espite anxiety over late widespread frost and crop-damaging storms, a statewide bank survey has suggested farmers across Victoria are looking to 2018 with optimism.

Rabobank’s quarterly Rural Confidence Survey has reported strong positive sentiment across all agricultural sectors, in particular sheep and dairy industries.

The survey, completed last month, has also shown Victoria retaining its position of having the highest rural confidence levels in the nation.

Survey results at the time suggested eight out of 10 Victorians, buoyed by both commodity prices and seasonal conditions were anticipating higher or stable gross farm incomes in the coming year.

Its findings were that with climatic conditions favourable for much of the

year, Victoria would buck the national trend as the only state on-track to harvest an above-average grains crop.

Results showed Victorian farmer confidence had rebounded to a net reading of 26 percent, after dipping to seven percent the previous quarter.

The proportion of the state’s farmers expecting agricultural economic conditions to improve in the next 12 months increased to 36 percent, up from 24 percent in the previous survey.

The percentage expecting conditions to worsen fell to 10 percent, from 17 percent, while more than half, 52 percent, had a stable outlook on the coming year.

Rabobank regional manager for southern Victoria and Tasmania, Hamish McAlpin, said positive sentiment prevailing across the state was largely due to late winter and follow-up rain with some grain grow-

ers looking to harvest an average to above-average crop.

He said heavy early December rain in Victoria, while a significant weather event for some parts of the state, had less of a negative impact on crops than had been anticipated.

“Fortunately the heaviest falls focussed on predominantly grazing country in the north-east of the state, rather than cropping areas – although, horticulture in the northern part of the state will experience some negative impacts as a result of the large volumes of water,” he said.

Mr McAlpin said Victoria generally had a good spring, moving into summer.

“And, although the warmer weather took a while to get here, the widespread falls in October helped many crops reach their potential,” he said.

“That said, there has been some significant damage to crops from frost,

particularly in early November, with lentils in the north and cereals in the south the biggest casualties.”

Mr McAlpin said the full extent of the frost damage was not yet known.

He said of all farmers in the state, sheep producers were the most bullish about their prospects.

He said 46 percent of sheep graziers reported a positive outlook on the year ahead, with a further 51 percent expecting stable conditions in the agricultural economy.

“Lamb prices have been strong for a number of years now, while wool prices continue to hit new records,” he said.

Across the sectors, commodity prices were deemed to be the biggest driver of positive sentiment, cited by 66 percent of Victorian farmers with an optimistic outlook.

This percentage rose to 82 percent in the sheep sector.

Seasonal conditions were also behind the optimism in the state’s agri sector, nominated as a key driver of confidence by 53 percent of those with a positive outlook – up markedly from 28 percent in a previous survey.

Farmers in south-west Victoria and the Wimmera-Mallee were the most upbeat about seasonal conditions.

Victorian farmers also reported healthy expectations for gross farm incomes in 2018, with 38 percent expecting their incomes to increase over the coming 12 months, while a further 43 percent expected their financial position to remain stable.

The quarterly Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey questions an average of 1000 primary producers across a wide range of commodities and geographical areas throughout Australia.

The next results are scheduled for release in March 2018.

Dust explosion closes site

DUST EXPLOSION: Murtoa’s GrainCorp grain-receival site has reopened following a fire last week.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

Murtoa’s GrainCorp site was closed on Wednesday last week while Country Fire Authority crews battled a structure fire.

Horsham Control Centre public information officer Jenny McGennisken said several fires broke out following a dust explosion about 1pm.

She said the fires were contained in a structure at the silos and respondents waited on specialist equipment before proceeding further.

“They waited on a specialist to arrive from Ballarat with appropriate high-reach firefighting

equipment,” she said. Ms McGennisken said it was a tricky situation, with firefighters unable to put a significant amount of water on the fires.

“There was a very high risk of further explosions due to the volatile nature of the dust,” she said.

Ms McGennisken said black smoke was visible from quite a distance from the silos.

She said despite the smoke, there was no threat to the community.

Authorities contacted the town’s schools. Murtoa College leaders evacuated students to the town’s swimming pool, which was al-

Reliable, trusted Rural information

ready in the pipeline due to extreme weather conditions.

GrainCorp corporate affairs manager Luke O’Donnell said the fire occurred in one of the silos.

He said the site was evacuated, following operational procedure.

He said emergency services quickly contained the fire, giving the ‘all clear’ about 7.30pm.

“There was limited operational impact and all bunkers are open,” he said.

More than six fire trucks attended the scene, along with a large water tanker.

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Look out for each other and look after yourself. That’s the message to grain growers from new Grains Research Development Corporation Southern Regional Panel member Fiona Marshall this harvest.

Mrs Marshall, a farm business manager, grain grower and parent at Mulwala in the southern Riverina, said safety and wellbeing – physical and mental – should be the number one priority at harvest.

“Safety is the most important thing throughout harvest,” she said. “You have to look after each other, take care of yourself and maintain conversations.”

She said the need to support each other had been heightened this year following severe weather events, particularly late-season frosts, expected to result in significant crop loss for some growers.

“The late frosts have not been widespread across entire regions. That is what makes this situation so incredibly difficult – unlike a drought or a flood when so many farmers would be going through the same thing at the same time and recognition of their plight is extensive, these frosts are in isolation and growers are left to deal with the fall-out,” she said.

“When your neighbours are

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Fiona Marshall celebrating a bumper harvest but your crops have been wiped out by frost – it is a devastating position for a grower to be in.”

Mrs Marshall, who has been farming with her husband Craig for 21 years, said it was critical that growers affected by frost and other damaging weather sought support and maintained communication with family, friends and others in the community.

Having already spoken with many growers impacted by frost, she said it was essential to keep conversation channels open.

“Communication is key for all grain growers, especially at this time of the year,” she said.

“If you are lying in bed at night worrying about money or how you are going to get the next crop in, talk to the bank manager, talk to other people.

“Don’t internalise because you

will only make yourself more tired, stressed and anxious.

“As hard as it might be, you just have to deal with situations and move on, so whatever happens, at least you are in action and not just dwelling on something and achieving nothing.”

Mrs Marshall also stressed that farms were the most dangerous workplaces in the nation and at harvest that fact was amplified, with so many people and large machinery involved.

“Not cutting corners and keeping people fed, hydrated and well rested is vital,” she said. “If you’re tired, you have just got to stop and rest. Getting to the end of harvest without incident and celebrating together is so important.”

Mrs Marshall said downtime after the crops were harvested was also imperative.

“Harvest is an absolutely exhausting process – but it’s what we work towards all year. Taking some time away from the farm at the end of it all is critical,” she said.

To support growers experiencing difficult circumstances, the GRDC has produced a farmer health fact sheet on building emotional resilience.

It is available online at www. grdc.com.au/GRDC-FS-EmotionalResilience.

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rains Research and Development Corporation fire-safety experts and other industry organisations are encouraging growers to implement practical measures to reduce the risk of harvester fires.

Header fires have highlighted the importance of harvester hygiene and maintenance, especially when harvesting volatile crops such as lentils.

Kondinin Group research reveals that on average, about seven percent of harvesters will start a fire every year. In these cases, one in 10 will cause significant damage to the machine or surrounding crop.

Kondinin Group research engineer Ben White, who has reported to the GRDC and industry on harvester fires, said where harvest was underway it might be too late for growers to make modifications such as exhaust-system shielding treatments, so their attention should be directed to ongoing monitoring of machinery throughout harvest.

“Machinery failure is in many cases responsible for fires starting, so harvester hygiene is incredibly important,” he said.

“Operators should be conducting regular clean-outs during harvest and exercising particular caution when harvesting leafy pulse crops, as these are renowned for dust build-up.”

Mr White offered the following 10 tips to improve harvester fire safety: • Most harvester fires are caused by dust and trash build-up and bearing failures. Keep the machine cleaned down regularly, starting at the front then working in a top down approach.

A final revisit and blast of air over the exhaust system to dislodge any dust that might have been disturbed and settled in the course of the clean down is recommended.

• Pulse crops are substantially more volatile than cereals so extra care and vigilance is required when harvesting these.

• Monitoring and logging bearing temperatures with an infra-red heat gun or thermal imager helps identify at-risk bearings so they can be replaced before failure.

• Recognise the big four factors that contribute to fires: relative humidity, ambient temperature, wind and crop type and conditions. Abide by statebased grain harvesting codes of practice and declared harvest bans, and observe the Grassland Fire Danger Index protocol on high fire-risk days.

• Have at least the minimum required water and fire-fighting unit in the paddock being harvested.

• Having a pair of extinguishers – water and A/B/E – at the cab-entry ladder and a pair at the rear of the machine closer to the engine means firefighting options are available when

MAINTENANCE: Removing flammable material from the engine bay is important in preventing harvester fires.

Picture: BEN WHITE and where they are needed. A fire suppression system provides the best chance of extinguishing a fire on a harvester.

• Having a fire plan in place with the harvest team is imperative. Knowing who will do what and identifying communications channels to be used

means everyone knows what to do.

Having a listing of emergency numbers or uhf channels in the cab is essential.

• Harvesting highly volatile crops such as lentils across the paddock into the prevailing wind gives operators a better chance of containing the fire as

incendiaries are blown onto stubble, not standing crop.

• If operators do have a fire on board, pulling out of the crop immediately and facing the machine into the wind before attempting to fight it gives the operator the best chance of controlling the fire. Remember, harvesters are replaceable so prioritise personal safety.

• Static does not start fires, because it does not have enough energy for ignition of crop residues. Be mindful that it can, however, contribute to dust-fuel loads on the machine.

The GRDC is part of a national harvester fire working group, led by Grain Producers Australia and reviewing research, development and extension gaps and associated need for future investment.

GPA chairman Andrew Weidemann, of Rupanyup, said it was important for industry to unite in an effort to counter the increasing incidence of harvester fires.

“The working group includes growers, the insurance industry, contract harvesters and machinery manufacturers – we are working together to address the issue and prevent these fires occurring,” he said.

The GRDC’s Reducing Harvester Fire Risk Back Pocket Guide is available at www.grdc.com.au/ GRDC-BPG-ReducingHarvesterFireRisk.

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