Broadacre Crop Growers
Plan, organise, control, coordinate and perform farming operations to grow broadacre crops such as cereals, oilseeds, pulses, sugar cane, rice, cotton and pasture crops.
Harvest is three days away
You are a grain grower on a family farm with a big wheat crop nearly ready and a thunderstorm forecast for the weekend. It is Wednesday morning. The crop is close to ready and the machinery is serviced. The weather could help you or hurt you, and three people need an answer from you today.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I can bring the big header tomorrow and Friday, then I am booked on another farm for ten days. If you want me, I need a yes now. If the rain comes, I cannot promise to come back.
Book him for both days and plan to cut whichever paddocks are driest first
You walk the paddocks, test the grain and choose the order carefully. Not everything gets cut, but the best of the crop is in before the weekend. A good plan beats a perfect one.
Say yes to Friday only and wait to see if the weather forecast changes
The forecast stays the same. Friday gives you one day of cutting, and half the crop is still standing when the rain arrives. Waiting for certainty can cost you the window.
Book him for both days and start cutting every paddock, wet or dry, to get as much done as possible
The machine is busy, but some of the grain is too damp. The silo downgrades part of the load and you pay for drying it. Speed is not worth much if it drops the quality of what you sell.
I heard you are starting harvest. Please tell me you will not have trucks on the road during school pick up. Last year it was frightening for the kids on bikes.
Say you will do your best and leave it at that, because it depends on the day
Kerry is not reassured and later mentions it to the school. Nothing goes wrong, but you could have solved it with a small change that would not have cost you much.
Ask when school pick up is and plan the truck runs around it, then tell her what you have decided
You shift two truck runs by half an hour. Kerry thanks you and offers to warn you if anyone is on the road. Good relations with neighbours often matter more in a season than the half hour you gave up.
Tell her it is harvest and the trucks have to go when the grain is ready
You are not wrong, but she is upset and tells others. The next time you need to ask a favour of the neighbours, it is harder. A farm works inside a community.
I have been on the header since five and I am struggling to keep my eyes open. There is still an hour of light and about ten more rows to go. What do you want me to do?
Ask him to push on for the last hour because the storm is coming and the rows are nearly done
He nods and carries on, but he nearly clips a fence post and you stop the machine yourself. A tired operator on a big machine is a bigger risk than a few uncut rows.
Swap seats, give him a break and a meal, and finish the rows yourself
He is safe and grateful, and the rows get done, but you have worked a long day yourself and will be tired tomorrow. It was the right instinct, with a cost you did not plan for.
Stop for the day, thank him, and cut the remaining rows first thing in the morning
He is relieved. The rows are cut by eight the next morning with a fresh driver. Looking after the people who work for you protects the farm as well as them.
How it went
The rain arrives on Saturday afternoon and most of the crop is safely in. Growing broadacre crops is long-term planning and daily judgement, with the weather always in the background. Would you be comfortable making big calls when nobody can promise how they will turn out?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The harvest that raced a storm
A fictional case set in a fictional family wheat and canola farm on the western plains, in the weeks before harvest.
The situation
Lena Hartmann and her brother Dom farmed wheat near the town of Mullawirra. A week before they planned to start harvest, a forecast showed heavy rain coming on the weekend. The wheat was almost ready, but some of the grain was still a little too moist. Cutting early risked a lower grade at the silo. Waiting risked rain flattening the crop. A contractor with a big harvester was free for only two days.
What they did
Lena rang the silo to ask how they would treat grain that was slightly wet, then walked three paddocks with Dom to test what was ready. They decided to book the contractor, cut the driest paddocks first and leave the damp one. They told their neighbour, who shared the road, about the extra trucks, and arranged a second driver so the machine could keep going safely into the evening.
How it turned out
They harvested the two driest paddocks before the rain. The third was cut a week later and graded a little lower, which cost them some income. Lena said the decision was right even though it was not perfect: she had chosen the risk she could live with.
What would you do?
- How would you decide when you cannot get certainty, only a forecast?
- Why do you think Lena rang the silo before deciding?
- How would you feel about work where the weather can change the whole year?