Five headers sit idle in a paddock of windrowed canola.
Six others are on their way.
The weather is warming – it’s set to reach almost 30 degrees celsius – but thanks to an overnight dew and cool morning, paddocks are still a little damp.
Trucks roll in and park.
The drivers stand in the shadow of their vehicles and catch-up.
It ticks past 1pm and a ute delivers a header operator to the paddock.
One of the John Deere machines roars to life, and travels to the far end of the paddock – picking up a canola windrow – and returning.
Within 20 minutes this 240 hectare paddock in Victoria’s Mallee is a hive of activity.
That sample, from the first John Deere header, was delivered down the road to the Tutye grain silos and testing station where it was confirmed the moisture was less than 8 per cent.
It meant harvesting could begin.
It’s this accuracy and attention to detail that underpins one of Australia’s largest broadacre cropping operations Excel Farms.
There’s no guessing.
Decisions are made with the best information available to maximise output and efficiency.
This thought-process even extends to Excel’s infrastructure planning and purchases.
Clint Cameron is the Acting Farm Manager at Anunaka – one of Excel’s largest properties – at Cowangie just inside the Victorian- South Australian border where a contract harvesting team is .
This farm built a 4000 tonne Entegra fertiliser shed to centralise storage and deliveries of vital crop inputs.
He said holding seed and fertiliser in one commodity shed instead of many “mini-little sheds everywhere” has saved valuable time, while storing product saves money.
“It has speeded it up (collecting seed and fertiliser) by nearly two hours and actually it is better for the truck driver as well because he doesn’t have to spend a couple of hours driving around just to pick up a couple of tonnes,” Clint explained.
“And, when the fertiliser price is low we can actually buy it and store it.”
The Entegra commodity shed is also used at harvest.
Last year lupins, lentils and peas were stored in the protected area and it saved the business installing another bunker for additional storage.
Anunaka is about 22,000 hectares. Its largest paddock is 1300ha, the smallest is 21ha.
During the year Clint leads a full time staff of seven and during harvest Anunaka employs 31 staff plus 10-15 truck drivers.
Anunaka is one of eight Australian properties owned and managed by Excel Farms – a new and fast-growing agricultural company with properties throughout Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia.
With an annual rainfall of 320mm a year, farmed correctly, Clint said that Anunaka can grow fantastic crops.
It’s maximising the marketing potential of these crops that underpins recent infrastructure planning for Excel Farms at Anunaka.
Clint said Excel aspires to store all grain on-farm across its entire operation, with its “head office” then tasked with the role of marketing it throughout the year.
Infrastructure planning begins with estimating the grain harvest and deciding what bunkers, silos and bags are required to retain most of the grain on-farm.
Clint said the on-farm infrastructure at Anunaka has developed across the past three years.
“The first year we put most of the grain into the system (market) and then had 28 bags for on-farm storage,” he said.
“Last year we had a fantastic year, it rained when we needed it, we were able to fertilise when it was needed and it ended up as the best year on record. We ended up building three bunkers and took on a lease at Tutye (the grain silos) for more storage, so we could market our own grain instead of putting it into the system.”
Today, a few trucks were set to make the 380 kilometre round-trip to Tailem Bend, South Australia to offload this canola.
The rest – canola harvested as it got later in the day – would be stored on-farm.
Harvest at Anunaka is in full swing – and it’s only just the beginning.