The Henty Machinery Field Days gates will swing open in about six weeks time and the event relies heavily on the fortunes of farmers and the season. 

Event chief executive officer Belinda Anderson has welcomed the rain which fell in the last week to 10 days throughout the Riverina. 

“The crop trials here look amazing, we have had 30mm in the last week … it is good to see them basically grow over night,” she said. 

Before the rain arrived dry conditions had taken a toll throughout the entire winter cropping area. 

“I think crops had got to the stage where it was crunch time,” she said.

“this would have boosted confidence,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mrs Anderson said it was good to see livestock markets performing well and this gave mixed farmers plenty of confidence. 

For people wanting to inspect crops at the upcoming field days there are some 29 wheat, barley, triticale and oat varieties planted across two sowing dates in the demonstration plots. 

Baker Seed Co sales and business development manager Aaron Giason said the one hectare demonstration plot complemented the fully replicated trial sites at Rutherglen used to identify elite germplasm within breeding programs.

“We had a good response to the site at Henty last year – the first day we were run off our feet with farmers looking at the new varieties,’’ Mr Giason said.

“There was interest in the Wedgetail and Gregory replacements are they are the main varieties in this area, plus the new winter wheat materials.

“It gives us a presence, we can showcase what we’ve got to offer and show growers what we are doing behind the scenes to look at new varieties.’’

Mr Giason said lime and gypsum was incorporated at the site this season.

The site was direct drilled by Kalyx Australia using a Custom Quip seeder on a 23cm row spacing and seeding depth of 3cm over the split sowing times of April and May.

The site was treated with Roundup PowerMax at 1.5 litre/ha, Boxer Gold at 2.5 litre/ha (wheat and barley) and Lorsban at 140ml/ha.

Fertiliser applications were MAP with Impact at 80kg/ha and 120kg/ha of Urea below the seed. Field day visitors will be able to inspect 29 wheat, four barley, six oat and two triticale varieties.

Mr Giason said seed companies had entered material closest to commercial release.

“These varieties are known by numbers now but the aim is to have most of them named by the field days,’’ he said.

“There will be another two to three Wedgetail types in this season’s trials.

“This year we have incorporated newer triticale and oat varieties destined to have a big fit in this mixed cropping region.’’

The triticale varieties are Kowari and Astute, while oats include Bannister, Yallara, Comet, SF Tucuna, Taipan and Eurabbie.

Mr Giason said dry matter cuts were taken in last year’s plots but the site was mostly treated as a demonstration.

“Henty is the major field days we are involved in outside of Rutherglen so it is an important draw for our customer base,’’ he said.

“A lot of the preparation of the site is within a 10 year plan.

“We are looking at incorporating pasture systems to see what other species might fit – pests have been an issue in the past at the site for canola and pulse varieties.’’