THE YANGET SEEDING PROGRAM
‘You can’t plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind.’ Gordon B Hinckley
Between them, Bill and Rod worked out a program of planting on Yanget that
would see most of the crops grown ‘conventionally’ to satisfy the bank, with
some acres planted without the full complement of herbicides and acid-based
fertilisers to satisfy Rod’s need to experiment with other ways of growing.
‘It takes more
than one season
to grow a crop.’
Bill and everyone else
METHODS OF GROWING A CROP
Bill was not the only farmer to point out to me that it can take up to three years to prepare the ground for a good yield, and my
theories about growing without chemicals wilted fast in the face of the magnitude of the task in front of me.
According to Bill, to plant in a ‘chemical-free’ regime I should have been cultivating my paddock for a few seasons to get a headstart with the weeds. In the absence of well-prepared ground he was insistent that I be prepared to zap the crop with weedkiller. Even with judicious ploughing, unsprayed double gees, wild radish and spear grass could destroy any chance of getting a
return on my investment.
Over weeks while driving around attending to the business of the day, we argued back and forth about farming methods. Bill
is not averse to ‘chemical-free’ methods of farming. He remembers growing crops without fertiliser when he first farmed near
Mingenew as a young man, when you could earn a living from five or six bags to the acre. Now the inputs are so expensive that
a good season cannot tide a farmer over the inevitable bad years where rain either fails to fall, or falls at the wrong time.
Bill unrolls late-summer fodder for stock
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