Farming requires skill and knowledge. As the seasons change, crops demand different applications, and you need various agricultural equipment. During the winter, crops need more irrigation, which you can provide by using innovative machinery such as solar pumps and handlers to mix your chemicals. Whether you need a solar pump water delivery system, spray equipment or saddle tanks, Burando Hill has your back.
Preparing Yourself for Winter Crops
As summer ends, farmers begin concentrating on preparing for the cold season. It’s easy to become complacent while enjoying the sunshine and rain, but winter preparation is imperative for an agricultural setup.
According to statista.com, the total area for crop production in the winter for Western Australia was around 8.8 million hectares for the 2022 financial year. There’s sufficient space to grow crops such as grains, legumes, and other vegetables, including carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, and lettuce.
Drought has impacted wheat growth in Australia, highlighted by the fact that the country had to import wheat in 2019 for the first time in over a decade. Last year, the yield for wheat was approximately 2.8 metric tonnes per hectare, which was an increase in year-on-year figures. The research estimated a similar return for this year’s winter. However, to ensure you can grow wheat in winter, you must use tanks to store water for irrigation.
Canola is another essential winter crop for the local agricultural sector. Last year, production of this crop reached 7.05 thousand kilotons, a considerable increase from 2021. As one of the more economically significant crops in the country, it’s essential that you pull out all the stops to ensure its continued growth.
Barley is just as integral for local farming as wheat and canola. The good news is that this crop's yield has drastically increased, producing 2.7 metric tons per hectare more than in 2021.
Some other fruit and vegetables you can produce in winter include cabbage, bok choi (Chinese cabbage), cucumber, eggplant, kale, peas, pumpkin, spinach, sweetcorn and tomato. April and May are ideal for sowing these crops since they require about ten weeks to develop.
Our planters and seeders will come in handy when preparing these crops before the cold season starts. A hydraulic hitch can give you a seeding accuracy of fewer than two centimetres. You can’t underestimate accuracy’ as the soil is often dry between rows yet moist under the stubble row. As a result, your crop can access moisture easily, especially in a dry season like winter.
You must plan your planting so you have the warmer parts of your farm ready by the time the colder months roll in. Consider which parts of your land receive the most sunshine for planting crops that need ample sunlight in winter. Bear in mind that warm air rises, so the lower-lying areas of the land will always be cooler.
Irrigation is another vital factor during winter. As you know, there’s a significant drop in temperature on recently irrigated land. When there’s a cold front approaching, you should avoid sprinkler irrigation because frost could damage the crops.
Understanding the weather patterns and using innovative irrigation systems to tend to your crops during winter is necessary. The deeper soil should be sufficiently moist, with the surface dry. Drip irrigation won’t have this cooling problem and avoids the ‘wet wall’ effect that sprinklers produce.
Apart from selecting cold-tolerant plant varieties for the winter, fertilisation is another factor. The most common chemical farmers use is nitrogen. You need a good balance when selecting the ideal fertiliser.
While nitrogen makes plants resistant to frost, you must be careful not to overdo it and bathe crops in this chemical. Too much nitrogen will make the crop too soft and vulnerable to cold weather. Using modern sprayers can help with distributing the chemicals evenly across your crops to aid in their cold-weather resistance.
Whatever agricultural equipment you require to weather the winter onslaught is available in our online store. We have a wide range of gear that will help prepare you for colder weather and make your operation more efficient such as saddle tanks, planters, air seeders, hydraulic hitches and chemical mixers, to mention a few.
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