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The Food Issue
2016
grainswest.com23
A
pril 25 is a solemn day for Australians
and New Zealanders. It marks Anzac
Day to commemorate the lives of those
who served their country during times of
conflict. The day also marks the starting
point of the farming season for Pinnaroo,
South Australia, farmer Corey Blacksell.
He typically plants his crops any time
between the annual holiday and mid-
May. He mainly grows cereal crops,
which include barley, wheat and rye.
Blacksell and all other South Australian
farmers are prohibited from planting any
genetically modified versions of crops,
such as corn, soy and canola, due to
a government-imposed moratorium.
The ban also extends to the island of
Tasmania.
His timelines are similar to those
of Canadian farmers, despite living
more than 10,000 kilometres and a
hemisphere away, although the growing
season is considerably longer given that
crops are growing in Australia’s winter
months when the days are shortest and
coolest. Blacksell will plant crops in April
and May, and harvest by November. For
comparison, Canadian farmers usually
conclude harvest by October.
“We don’t have snow so we don’t
go into dormancy,” said Blacksell, 49,
who only farms half of his 11,000-acre
operation annually, leaving the other
half to rest for a season. “Basically, any
time in May is a good time to have crops
in the ground.”
Snow and frost aren’t issues for
Blacksell, although wind has been an
issue in the past and lack of rainfall can
cause sleepless nights. Whereas the
Canadian harvest can be delayed by
snow, the biggest threat in Australia is
combine fires due to the extreme heat.
Australia’s hottest months are December
through February.
Blacksell farms on mostly sandy soil,
so his loam topsoil is critical to his farm’s
success. He began farming in 1982, a
time when minimal tillage was not widely
practiced like it is today. Farmers would
till the land multiple times and routinely
leave the soil exposed. According
to Blacksell, a 50-km/h wind could
devastate the land, and soil erosion was a
major issue.
“We don’t experience severe winds
by North American standards, but our
soils are extremely sandy and fragile
so any bare soil is at risk of erosion. In
the past, full-till seeding would result
in bare soils,” he said. “Today, with
minimum till and stubble retention
(that is stubble remaining upright in
the field post-harvest), soil erosion is a
negligible problem.
“People will say the 2002 drought
was a real benchmark, when people
switched to minimum tillage because of
the issues with soil erosion. That’s when
we converted to wider row spacing, to
achieve bigger yields.”
The drought forced Blacksell to try
something different out of necessity in
2002. Three years later, his entire farm
was strictly one-pass farming. Blacksell
now works the land less, has higher crop
yields, spends less time in the tractor and
pays smaller diesel bills.
“I’d hate to think how much diesel we
were using before,” he said with a sigh.
“Back in 1999 and 2000, we were just
working ground, sitting on the tractor
racking up hours.”
At his peak, Blacksell would spend
about 700 hours (one month) per year
in the tractor managing his land. Today,
with a more precise farming model,
including GPS auto-steer technology, he
spends about 250 hours (10 days) and
farms more than double the acres.
A final innovation Blacksell pointed
to is glyphosate, otherwise known as
Roundup—the most commonly used
herbicide on Earth. “Glyphosate is
basically the tool we use to kill weeds in
front of planting so we don’t have to put
a full-tillage disturbance on very sensitive
soils,” he said.
Without glyphosate, “we might as well
shut down, it’s actually as simple as that,”
he said.
The deep
south
AUSTRALIAN FARMS SIMILAR
TO CANADA’S, JUST NO SNOW
OR FROST
BY TREVOR BACQUE
Photo: Alistair Lawson