Agronomist Mark Zanatta Predicts Above Average Winter Crops in Griffith if Rainfall is Average

Agronomist report:
Griffith in focus

MARK ZANATTA If the season ahead brings average rainfall, agronomist Mark Zanatta predicts an above average year for winter crops in the Griffith district.

With more than 30 years in agronomy under his belt operating in the food bowl of NSW, for Mark Zanatta getting the best out of your broadacre, horticulture and viticulture crops is business as usual.

Mark’s business, Terra Ag, has been providing agronomic services and rural supplies to a broad range of clients across the Griffith and Swan Hill areas for the past 10 years. And having recently moved his Griffith branch into a new building on Thorne Road, he will soon become a Hutcheon & Pearce neighbour when our new Griffith Branch building on Kidman Way is completed.

When we spoke to Mark in mid-May, his cotton customers were wrapping up harvest, following weather-related delays.

“We had the wettest September/October period probably on record, so we had little opportunity to prepare new grounds and we’re down to about 60% of our normal cotton planting.

“On top of that we had a very mild start to summer, so the cotton didn’t progress until later, and that followed through out the season. We had some warmer periods in January and February and the crop came along, but we were still penalised by that late and cooler start to the growing season. It means we’re two to three weeks behind – in the middle of defoliating right now when we’d normally have well and truly started picking by this time of year.”

While Mark thinks cotton grower expectations are realistic given the lateness of the season, with below average yields and quality likely, he also thinks a month of decent weather to help present the cotton could see a better harvest than anticipated.

For his viticulture customers, things are a lot tougher with the wettest spring period on record bringing with it disease that growers just couldn’t avoid. Many of these producers harvested only half of their crops before having to abandon the rest due to disease pressure.

“That one was out of the box. I’ve never seen anything like it, where you had Downy Mildew running rampant and guys abandoning crops because they just couldn’t control it. It was definitely a season for the record books. We had tough conditions for the cotton growers but nothing like the viticulture guys. It was a loss-making year for most of them.”

Thankfully things are looking much better for winter cropping, with dryland broadacre growers receiving a good break to start the season.

“The season is looking quite good, but it’s staggered for us because Terra Ag covers all those dryland and irrigated crops, and we’ve got a fair spread of time. The dryland guys are nearly finished planting, which is quite good for this time of year, while irrigation is virtually just starting as they’re waiting until after the summer crop so they can plant behind their cotton and rice crops.

“The winter crops include wheat, barley and canola in that order of volume. And then you get a few pulse crops like your lupins and peas, which would be minimal, probably 5% of the area. Because we had a decent start in April, a lot of the weeds germinated so we’ve had the opportunity to knock them down.

“Generally, we’re pretty excited. We can see the end of the overly wet period and while we don’t want dry, if we get an average season that’s gold for us. Our ‘22 was too wet, but for ‘23 we have full dams, base moisture in the ground and the price of inputs have corrected with nitrogen back to less than half of its peak price. With more typical weather conditions, we’ll have a massive cotton plant and summer crops like rice and corn, too. And we’ll irrigate the cereals if we have to, so it’s optimistic. I’d suggest we’ll get above average yields if we can get an average rainfall season.”

For more information about Terra Ag, visit www.terraag.com.au.