A Dalby farmer who reset the State’s wheat yield record with a crop weighing 9.997 tonnes per hectare is confident he can push it “a step further” next year.
Derryck Mickelborough of Glenesk Farming grew the irrigated crop of Borlaug 100 in 2021 that won the 2022 Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland (RASQ) crop competition.
He received a plaque for Irrigated Yield and a shield for Championship Crop at the Toowoomba Royal Show in March.
Mr Mickelborough’s crop beat his previous record of 8.72t/ha – also with Borlaug – that was grown in 2020 and won champion crop at the 2021 RASQ competition.
Mr Mickelborough said it was a “great achievement” that he is keen to improve on this year.
“It’s really interesting to know how far we can push some of these crop varieties with not all that much extra input,” he said.
“To go from six tonne to nine (tonne) isn’t all that much more cost in terms of fertiliser and nutrition extracted and water applied.
“So, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it.
“It’s just a matter of time before I just happen to have my timing right and get to do an early irrigation and then two more in good timing later on and . . . we’re on!”
To determine the crop’s weight, the QRAS judges weigh two 0.2 hectare test-strips in one-tonne weigh bins.
They take a sample, test the moisture content and adjust the yield back to a standard 12.5 per cent moisture.
Mr Mickelborough’s record crop topped 9.997t/ha, while the average across the whole paddock was 9.4t/ha.
How was this achieved?
“It’s a really hard question to answer,” Mr Mickelborough said.
“There are so many things that affect yield and, to be honest, we’re a pretty busy operation for the staff we’ve got and so we haven’t done anything super spectacular.
“In both years, we were fortunate enough to have good early rain and we had water that we could put towards it.”
Mr Mickelborough flood irrigated the crop twice in August and September at a rate equivalent to 100 millimetres of rain.
And, for 14 years, has applied composted gin trash out of the Louis Dreyfus cotton gin at Dalby to achieve superior soil nutrition.
For the 2021 season, Mr Mickelborough began planting his wheat program – 270ha dryland and 215ha irrigated – in the first week of June at seed rates of 30kg/ha and 40kg/ha.
Interestingly, when he began harvesting the trial strips in November, he found the same yield response regardless of seed rate.
“This is a good thing because it means, if the crop is irrigated at least, it has the capacity at 30kg to the hectare, to produce an extraordinary amount of yield with 25 per cent less seed.
“So, that is real, tangible data.”
Mr Mickelborough runs the 1050ha Glenesk Farming operation with his wife Anna and three boys.
He also part-owns Rebel Seeds, which markets Borlaug 100 in Australia.
