Why barley is taking a back seat for Mt Barker farmer

Planting more wheat than barley for the first time in 10 years was more to do with agronomics than trade wars for Mt Barker grower Stuart Slade. The Great Southern farmer, who also runs properties at Cranbrook and Narrikup, wrapped up his 1400ha seeding program on May 10 after starting on April 1. A new winter wheat variety making waves across WA was the main driver behind his decision to seed 30 per cent more wheat than barley this year. Illabo, a dual-purpose winter wheat created by Australian Grains Technologies, was released commercially this year as an improvement on Wedgetail. With a long flowering window, the couple hope they can avoid the “roasting” frosts that hit parts of the Great Southern each year. The Slades had completed their barley program before news of China’s tariffs on Australian barley broke on Monday, but had already scaled their barley plantings back. Traditionally, more than 50 per cent of their program is seeded to barley and they chase yield for feed rather than malt to make a profit. But this year, with the winter wheat variety up their sleeve, they decided more than six months ago to reduce their barley plantings. In a normal year, they would grow about 200ha of wheat and 800ha of barley. This year, they have seeded 460ha of Illabo wheat and 160ha of Planet barley, as well as 380ha of 45Y28 genetically modified canola, 240ha of Williams oats, and 125ha of faba beans. “It was a bit of a blessing in disguise that we had already gone and planted every grain of Illabo wheat we had before the China news broke,” Mr Slade said. “The turn in the barley market is pretty detrimental to our traditional high-rainfall, high-yield area. “It is a market we really rely on. If you get malt, that is great, but feed barley is our bread and butter.” Mr Slade said he probably would not have scaled back his barley program further but he was concerned about the lower barley price. “The tariffs proposed are horrendous and could potentially kill the price of feed barley,” he said. “We would always target feed, we grow Planet as an opportunist crop for malt but we don’t target that.” Illabo is the first winter wheat variety ever released in WA, giving growers another agronomic tool. The Slades cropped 50ha of Illabo last harvest, as part of their frost management and found their wheat crop yielded 12 per cent higher than previous years. “The long flowering window means that it usually, touch wood, experiences minor frost damage,” Mr Slade said. “We figure if it gets through the first, second and third frost event, then it is home and hosed. “We don’t get frost every year, but about one in five years wewill get a really good roasting.” It is the Slades sixth year farming together at the Mt Barker home property, 6km north of the town. They now run a combination of leased and owned land at Mt Barker, Cranbrook and Narrikup but have previously also farmed at Kojonup and Boyup Brook. Each November, the Slades buy up to 2000 meat sheep and run them on grain and stubble, with the aim of turning them off before seeding to try to capitalise on meat prices. With a new baby arriving two months before seeding started, it has been a busy but exciting year for the pair. They have two daughters, two-year-old Annabelle and four-month-old Odette, but Mr Slade joked it would be a while before either is able to “pull their weight”. About 89mm of rain has fallen at the Mt Barker property this year, between February 24 and May 5. Their Cranbrook farm has had 139mm, 24mm of which fell in May, making it the “stand-out” property in terms of rainfall for the year. But Mr Slade said the soil type meant they had not been able to access that moisture, which had mostly run off. Their Narrikup property has had 65mm. “We had about 73mm at Cranbrook but a heap of that ran off and evaporated,” Mr Slade said. “That moisture is about 90mm down, so we sowed deep to try and chase it.” Two weeks ago, Mr Slade was feeling “pretty stressed”, because wheat that had sprung out of the ground at Narrikup had started to die due to a lack of rain. But a 26mm downpour early in May has helped the crops “come to life” — so much so that the Slades have finished their first urea and muriate of potash spread at Narrikup. “It is just looking unreal now, but we need a top-up (of rain),” Mr Slade said. Mrs Slade, whose family farms at Boyup Brook, grew up in Esperance on a mixed cropping operation, while Mr Slade hails from Mt Barker. In 2014, they made the decision to have a real crack at farming after Mr Slade was looking to leave the mining industry and pursue a career in agriculture.