Bell first-timers sold on cropping corn variety
REMARKABLY, in nearly 70 years of farming in the Bell district of southern Queensland, the Barron family has never grown corn.
Between grazing country and cultivation, their operation consists of about 2000 hectares of mixed farming, including a feedlot, piggery and dryland cropping about 1300 hectares.
The grain is grown mainly for the feedlot and piggery, with fodder crops being grown for cattle, including oats and some forage.
The historic push into corn came on their property ‘Fyrish Flat’ in the summer of 2016/17, as Neil Barron, who farms with his wife Charmian and son Michael, explained.
“We try to keep corn, wheat and barley diets in our cattle rations all the time and we use corn in three of our pig rations, hence the reason for introducing corn into our program,” he said.
“I decided to grow corn as the sorghum price was fairly ordinary, we had country with a good moisture profile and we’ve always bought a lot of corn every year for the feedlot and piggery.
“A few farmers I’d been buying corn from said there was no reason we couldn’t grow it, so I thought I’d give it a go,”
Mr Barron chose Pioneer brand P1467 hybrid corn for his first ever corn crop after it was recommended by local Pioneer promoter Matt Naumann.
While Mr Barron said ideally he’d plant corn into a full fallow and get at least some in-crop rain, the 2016/17 season wasn’t kind to southern Queensland.
“We planted 70 hectares of P1467 into nice moisture on October 5, 2016, however we got horrible weather about a month later, with north-west winds and dry days,” he said.
“There was a fall of 35mm at the end of November, falls of 10mm and 15mm at tasselling and it might have got another fall of 20mm a little bit later, but never any big falls at all.
“Once the P1467 got that first 35mm fall in-crop and got its roots down, it just absolutely took off and always looked a half reasonable crop.”
The Barrons harvested the P1467 with belt front, taking a full 12 metres of corn at once, and found it harvested well.
“You virtually couldn’t hear it going through the header, in places it was going over 6.5 t/ha and was quite easy to harvest,” Mr Barron said.