Dual-Purpose Canola Cropping – CSIRO Leading the Way

Dual-purpose canola cropping was first pioneered by the CSIRO and involves enabling sheep and cattle to graze on winter canola cultivars prior to flowering. Dual purpose canola cropping is a reasonably common practice in these parts, but it is also reaping benefits in drought affected areas in NSW.

Peter Brooks who manages the “Mayfield” farm owned by the Hawkins family at Oberon, NSW, recently credited an Australian record 7.16 tonnes/hectare canola harvest to dual-cropping.

“In 2019 the farm was heavily in drought and practically a dustbowl, so this is beyond our wildest expectations,” Mr Brooks said.

“We've had great conditions in 2020, but achieving this yield didn’t happen overnight - it was a culmination of 15 years of working with CSIRO to improve our systems. We followed what the science said we should do to improve our enterprise, and it all came together last year.”

CSIRO farming systems researcher, Dr John Kirkegaard, said what made the record crop extra remarkable was that 20 lambs per hectare had grazed it for eight weeks earlier in the growing cycle – hence the “dual-purpose” between feeding livestock and growing a crop.

“An event like this is a mixture of bold science meeting excellent agronomy, and brave farming to push the envelope,” Dr Kirkegaard said.

“Grazing crops in winter provides income early in the season and when managed carefully comes at no cost to grain yield. But to achieve significant grazing and a record-breaking yield is remarkable and a credit to Peter, his on-site manager Troy Fitzpatrick and the rest of their team.”

Dual purpose crops reduce the need for additional off-farm feed to be purchased, while resting pastures traditionally grazed by livestock. This allows a farm to better utilise its on-farm resources, without depleting them – enabling quicker recovery from events such as drought.

An economic analysis of dual-purpose cropping found that businesses can benefit by $100-$200 per farm hectare due to grain income and increased autumn and winter grazing while pastures are spelled. These additional gains are transforming farm incomes and moving many farmers towards mixed-enterprise farming operations.

• Topics:

• Rural Roundup
• Agriculture