Winter croppers in NSW intend to plant between 4.5 and 4.8 million hectares this season.

Growers across the New South Wales cropping belt are looking skywards for the autumn break that will guarantee a bumper start to the 2006 winter cropping season.

Planting intentions for the past five years or so have been reasonably stable between 4.5 and 4.8 million hectares with only adverse seasonal conditions impacting on the actual areas sown and harvested.

Many growers will also be looking at strategy changes this year to overcome the build-up of cereal root diseases that have occurred in recent seasons with the abandonment of crop rotations due to drought and other seasonal factors.

Crown rot in northern and central areas and take-all in southern areas are the major cereal root diseases.

The ultimate aim of sound rotations is around 20-25 per cent of planted area sown to break crops. In recent seasons the area of non-cereal winter crops has fallen to less than 10 per cent.

An early break will see an increase in area sown to winter forage crops such as oats, triticale and grazing barley as returns from livestock remain attractive relative to cropping for mixed farmers.

The area sown to dual-purpose grazing wheat is expected to decline significantly on the tablelands and slopes following losses in 2005 due to Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus. There is also an increasing trend for many growers, especially on some of the less fertile and unproductive soils, to incorporate larger proportions of their enterprise to perennial pastures and livestock.

Marked increases in fertiliser prices, especially phosphate, will also see growers trying to fine tuning cropping operations in conjunction with consultants and advisors.

Varietal selection will be critical as growers attempt to combine disease resistance with appropriate agronomic management, including strategic fungicide use, to achieve best possible outcomes.

Stripe rust of wheat continues to be a major issue across most of NSW.

Summer has delivered mixed fortunes for northern growers, with some receiving excellent falls of rain to boost heat stressed sorghum crops and continually dry pastures.

But after several weeks of scorching temperatures, even those farmers will need significant falls of rain to replenish soil moisture before they can plant their winter crops.

Tamworth-based district agronomist, Loretta Serafin, said without significant widespread rain, the situation would be serious going into winter.

'The time is fast approaching when growers will need to plant their winter forage crops, with other winter crops to follow a few weeks later,' she said.

Southern and central grower’s areas have experienced a more typical hot dry summer-autumn pattern and will be looking skyward from early March in anticipation of the seasonal break in March-April.

These areas typically have more rotation options than northern counterparts with canola, lupins and field peas widely grown as dry-land crops and increasing areas of faba beans grown under irrigation.

Improved water allocations could also see more winter crop irrigated in the coming year.

Contact: Frank McRae, Orange, (02) 6391 3100.

- FRANK MCRAE

This story appears in Agriculture Today.