After what was a challenging harvest for many farmers on Australia’s east coast, Victorian producer Ken Hinkley is now in the midst of planting his next crops, and hoping an ideal lead-up period continues throughout the growing season.
“We started at the end of February preparing paddocks for seeding and planting, we were still doing a bit of spraying into early March, and also fixing up bog holes (from the harvest),” Ken said.
“We’ve planned for a bit above average planting, putting in canola, barley, lentils and vetch, in the same ratio as normal. We’ve had very little rain since October, but over summer you don’t really need a lot of rain, it just creates weeds and costs. It can rain anytime it likes from the end of March onwards but we can go without it until the end of April or even May.”
Ken and wife Vicki run KY Pastoral Co, with son Dale and his wife, Holly, a 10,000ha operation halfway between Birchip and Warracknabeal, in the Wilkur district of Victoria. Ken bought the place 32 years ago and today it’s largely a cropping operation, growing canola, wheat, barley, lentils and vetch. They also run some sheep.
The dry start to the year has certainly been in contrast to last year when rain dominated weather patterns and made for a challenging time leading up to the annual harvest and beyond.
“It was a really wet harvest, with October being the wettest month – the wettest I’ve seen – and those conditions ran right into harvest. When we were windrowing the canola just before we harvested, we were getting bogged frequently, and then at the beginning of the canola harvest, the harvesters were getting bogged. We were forced to go around a lot of wet areas and then go back to them,” Ken said. “Then we had about a month of drier weather so things improved, but we didn’t finish until the middle of February, so it really dragged it out.”
KY Pastoral Co has three of its own combines, Case IH Axial-Flow 8240s, and for the last harvest brought in two contractors, with between five and six Case IH harvesters in the paddock at any one time.
“The yields from the last harvest were very good, above average, and the prices held up, and the quality of the wheat, barley and canola was also unexpectedly good,” Ken said.
Peter Funcke is KY Pastoral Co’s machinery manager, working closely with Paul Okely, and said their equipment had certainly helped when it came to the most recent harvest, their Axial-Flow 8240s helping reduce operator fatigue, proving easy for operators to service and maintain and the technology features working to enhance machine performance and the end result.
“The cab is comfortable and a lot of thought has gone into the design of it. It gives operators a great view of the front of the combine which makes things easier, and the multifunction armrest controller has all our adjustments and settings for the harvester to help maximise yields,” Peter said.
“It’s all complemented by the AFS Pro 700 display which controls the functions of the harvester as to what’s going on with it and alerts the operator in advance of anything that may be going amiss, so we can address anything we need to as quickly as possible.”
The performance of their fleet of Axial-Flow 8240s has prompted KY Pastoral to order one of the latest Case IH Axial Flow 50 series combines, which they’ll take delivery of in the next few months from their local O’Connors dealer in Birchip, whose service and support Ken credits with the longevity of the business’ relationship with Case IH. Peter said they were looking forward to “more of the same” from the new Axial-Flow 8250, as well as the benefits of the enhanced AFS technology.
Ken says the technology advancements in today’s machinery can’t be underestimated, making it easier for the operator, and improving the business bottom line.
“I remember the early days when there was nothing like auto steer, it was all very basic. Then in the 80s you started to get some minimal technology, and then the last few decades the improvement in the technology and electronics, it’s just been fantastic,” Ken said.
“It does improve productivity because everything’s accurate and drivers definitely don’t get as fatigued because they’re not having to concentrate constantly on where they are, they can look around to what’s in front of them, what’s behind them, look at the machine, and keeps on driving nice and straight, it’s brilliant.”