A KERANG farming enterprise has taken out a major lucerne award in the annual Feed Central national quality hay awards.
Feed Central almost deserves its own award after working overtime to find the standout performers this year due to the difficult harvests and curing conditions.
Feed Central managing director Tim Ford said: “We normally have state and national winners but, because of the extensive weather damage last year, there weren’t enough quality samples to have state awards so we decided to combine entries at a national level.
“However, the national awards are as important as ever because despite the tough season, some farmers still came up with really good product through their excellent management.
“Which this year includes Col Radcliffe and the Radcliffe family from Kerang, who continued their success in the awards, winning the best lucerne visual score from Wade Alexander and the Alexander family from Mundubbera, Queensland.”
Mr Ford said all winners had prospered despite the challenging conditions and the lack of quality product for the 2022-23 season. He was more upbeat about the prospects for this season.
“I think it’s looking really good,” he said.
“Some areas are dry but there is good growth in most areas. A dry season is predicted, so we are expecting good-quality hay.
“Last year there was a series of ongoing weather fronts when hay was on the ground; we would be extremely unlucky to get that again this year.”
Six generations of farming mean the Radcliffes have picked up a thing or two when it comes cropping across 4000ha and when things get going during harvest those tricks include a lot of planning – and juggling.
Col farms with his brother Brett, sister-in-law Karen and their son Jack and Col and Brett’s nephew Danny. In addition to the action in the paddocks, they run a small fleet of big trucks that can drive out as B-doubles, road trains or singles when the hay is ready to roll.
“After the season everyone had we were a bit surprised to hear we had won this award so we feel pretty chuffed to have done so well,” Col said.
“In the past we have won a few of these, which anyone in the industry values because it is a confirmation you are on the right track with your farming.
“But I think we can honestly say we have just seen the worst quality hay in our lifetimes – all our oaten hay and vetch was terrible and it was only luck that the week we picked for the first lucerne cut was about the best one we could have chosen.”
The Radcliffes are primarily hay producers across a mix of dry and irrigated land with the end products being export oats and hay, irrigated lucerne processed as chaff (mostly for the equine industry) and vetch for dairy farmers.
“With our hay business we have been working with Feed Central, which is headquartered in Queensland, for the past 15 years and we do some testing through them online,” Col said.
Read the full story in this month’s North West Farmer, inserted on September 15.
