Monday

October 16, 2017

Contract sowing a summer crop. Any guesses as to what it might be?

20 comments:

  1. Be interesting to find out what's in there as a summer crop.

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  2. Replies
    1. Nice try. Lucerne does seem a logical choice us for, being lucerne growers, but no not lucerne. We are sowing on neighbouring properties.

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  3. For no real reason, ryegrass. No, wrong time of year. Corn then?

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    1. Yes it is the wrong time of year for ryegrass. We plant that in Autumn. Corn is being planted around the district now, but not on these bays. Thanks for guessing!

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  4. Replies
    1. No, not soybeans either, although it is a summer crop. Thanks for the guess.

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  5. May be maize,sunflower or rapeseed. On the other hand all that may well be wrong :-) Diane

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    1. And they are. Maize/corn is being planted now on a neighbouring property though. I haven't seen a crop of sunflowers grown locally for years, but it is a summer crop. Rapeseed or canola as we call it is a winter crop over here, is sown in Autumn. Thanks for playing along!!

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    2. Rice would never have crossed my mind, is it we enough? Diane

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    3. It will be when this bay fills up with water. Almost all rice around the world is grown with irrigation, not on rainfall alone. In Australia rice is only allowed to be grown on heavy clay soils that act like a bath tub and hold the water. We don't actually grow rice on our farm as most of our soils are sandy loam and not suitable... but our soils are ideal for lucerne and that's the way we like it.

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    4. Thanks for the info. Diane

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  6. I know the answer from Instagram, but won't spoil the fun here. One question though - how do you keep it as wet as I expected it would have to be?

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    1. Well normally the seed of this crop would be pre-germinated and sown by air into water filled bays. For the last few years we have been contracted to sow the crop dry by local farmers who are experimenting with different ways of sowing and growing it. Once sown the bays will be watered a couple of times to get it up and going. Then the bays will be filled with water for the rest of the growing season (about 4 months).

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  7. With the explanation above, I'm wondering if it's rice? (Not that I know a thing about rice!)

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    1. And you would be correct Kim. We are sowing rice into these bays.

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  8. I'm GUESSING rice as well. I like the picture--- nothing but straight lines accept for the curved ends on the right.

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  9. Oh, wow, how interesting! I would never in a million years have guessed rice!

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