A week after 60mm fell on Breeza Station, cropping is still touch and go.
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“It’s given us a start but the drought’s not over,” farmer James Pursehouse said.
“It’s made everything green and lush but there’s still a long way to go to fill the [soil] profile.”
In October, the Pursehouses planted 450 hectares of irrigated cotton and 150 hectares of corn, and started planting 100 hectares of dryland corn on Wednesday.
“We’re taking a punt but we’ve got to try and make the most of the bit of moisture we got from that rain,” Mr Pursehouse said on Wednesday.
“We’ve planted about 180 hectares of sorghum. We finished planting some this morning and we planted some 10 days ago in between the two rain events.”
The ongoing drought means the Pursehouses have cut back on their cropping regime.
“We’ve only planted a third of our dryland area,” Mr Pursehouse said.
“We’ll hold off now until Christmas because that’s the second planting window for sorghum and dryland corn.”
Despite the fresh flush of native grasses, the Pursehouses have to keep feeding their cattle and have reduced the numbers by 40-odd. Their calves are now weaned and are feeding on tropical pastures.
Now the farmers are just “waiting on rain”.
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