Enjoying an ‘unreal’ season

By Carly Marriott

Oct 7, 2023

Confidence is high that 2023 is a great season for the Farrells, who grow wheat, barley and canola on their irrigation property at Tocumwal. Dave and his kids Billy, Tom and Ivy are checking on the progress.

It’s looking like a good year for grain growers Lisa and Dave Farrell, who farm near Tocumwal in the Southern Riverina.

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“A week ago, we really needed a good inch to get the crops home,” Mr Farrell said.

“We’ve had such a great start and the crops have been growing like steam, but coming into October the plants were big and looking for a drink.”

And boy did they get a drink. When Country News spoke to the Farrells they had just received 79mm of rain at an instrumental time, adding grain to the yield for many crop farmers.

Mr Farrell, who had just finished irrigating 50 per cent of his 1000ha operation, was doing everything in his power to make it rain and admits he probably got more than he needed.

“I washed my ute, I got the header out and I irrigated everything I could!” he laughed.

After the much-needed rain, Mr Farrell has a pep in his step as he services his Macdon M155 windrower, CASE 9120 header and 40ft front.

“I’ve got 400ha of wheat, 400ha of canola and 200ha of barley to harvest plus some local contracting work which will keep me pretty busy.

“I think the barley might do 4 tonne and the irrigated canola and wheat should go 3 tonne/ha and 7 tonne/ha. The varieties that we’ve got these days grow cracking crops and this season has been unreal.

“We had a bit of trouble sourcing urea, but we got it and we went hard on the canola and wheat with 300 to 350kg/ha on irrigated and 100kg/ha less on the dryland country.”

Mr Farrell is relieved that he won’t have to flood irrigate his crops again, but his trusty sidekick Tom, 5, was looking forward to more trips around the paddocks on the motorbike, acting as chief snake spotter.

“The kids love it, it keeps them busy and they are starting to be helpful.

“They’ll come out for a drive in the header soon. Every year we get a photo of the whole family in the header — it’s starting to get a bit squishy in the cab.”