Good year for grain farmers expected

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The senior manager of Agribusiness (Primary) for Standard Bank, MC Loock, says that historically a good season used to carry negative connotations, with oversupply of product pushing prices down.

"However, the grain industry has pro-actively developed its export markets with a view, not only to giving producers more outlets for their grain, but also supporting higher prices. All our excess grain is exported now, eliminating domestic surpluses and ensuring that farmers are well rewarded for their efforts."

Holistic farm planning

Loock points out that the current weak rand supports export parity prices and recommends that producers use the confluence of positive circumstances to move towards precision farming. "For those farmers who have done holistic farm planning in order to optimise the potential of good land and minimise losses from unproductive land, good rain simply becomes a bonus on top of what was going to be a good yield anyway."

Holistic farm planning takes into account basics such as an in-depth understanding of soil quality, diversification of enterprise mix according to the best resource utilisation as well as the contouring of land and building of waterways to carry away excess water. Mixing livestock and crops will allow land that is marginal for grain production to be made useful in producing pasture for livestock.

"An effective weed control programme is at the heart of soil moisture conservation," Loock says. "With the basics in place, precision farming then enables levels of output that would simply not be possible otherwise. Variable, highly targeted application of fertilisers, for instance, ensures that good land does even better. It starts with adjusting the plant density to the soil potential of each part of the farm."

Precision technology

The technology that underpins precision farming can be expensive and is often beyond the means of smaller or medium-sized operations.

"But, when you have a good season like this one is likely to be, you can take advantage of export parity prices to acquire some precision technology and bolster production for the next season," says Loock. "Each season, therefore, you can do a little more to take advantage of good weather or eliminate the risk of bad conditions and, eventually, build yourself into a position where you have optimal control over your production.

"Smaller producers can work together, pooling their resources to either jointly acquire the technology itself, or the services of contractors who can apply it on their behalf. Conditions have played into the hands of producers. Exploiting those conditions just takes a little fresh thinking," says Loock.