David Thompson

@MoojepinMerinos @theweeklytimes Go team Thompson

What a whirlwind couple of weeks we have had. Being nominated for such a prestigious award was humbling in itself but to walk away a national winner was truly spectacular. Thanks to Coles and @theweeklytimes. Excited to crack on with our breeding journey #maternalmerinos

What a weekend, being nominated for such a prestigious award was humbling. Then walk away the National Cropping Farmer of the Year winner was truely unbelievable. Congratulations to the overall FOTY winners, Nicole & Brendan Saunders, BNS Ag Thanks to Coles and @theweeklytimes

@cropmad 17 Wahoo, 18 Kittyhawk, 19 Planet sown 9th May. Not many good barley crops in our area this year, elevation and frost effect played a big part. Our paddock adjoining also Planet was higher and significantly better, sown same date.

@BPIllabo What was the paddock history and seeding date David. There have been some terrific Barley crops in our area but ours were closer to your result. Just trying to work out the trend. I’m thinking early sown were the winners?

Satellite guidance for header, used October NDVI image for barley quality, blue good F3, green dodgy F3, red yellow undeliverable sheep feed. Sheep crew were in a hurry for their share.

@agronomybrady A bit of both, blue areas rising country, red areas cold air drainage or cracking clays. Barley Test weights blue 60, green 55, red 50.

@BPIllabo Dave..is that elevation with frost or soil type ? Pretty fascinating.

@ttoose Lion 12v variable speed fan

@BPIllabo Nice one. What sort of fan did you use?

First test run of home made harvest loss trays. Can’t do much about yield in dry frosted crop but trying to cut losses.

Poor mans Boss, old Flexicoil 6000 bar fitted with Boss SX25 single disc units. Works well in my rocks.

Meant to be servicing windrower, but decided to take a punt today on a wet harvest and drag the airseeder out, planting a forage maize + mung bean + sunnies mix. Groundcover + sheep feed. Nov seems to be becoming one of our wettest months.

@agronomybrady Suggested target was 1000 kg of livestock per ha. We have boxed a couple of mobs and will be a bit under stocked. Still learning.

@BPIllabo Looking great Dave. Plenty of biomass..What is your planned stocking rate ? A real game changer in our part of the world.

First try of winter canola, 970 sown 5/3/19, sheep now in and loving it.

Just the right size.

First harvest with the stripper front and very happy. (V nervous cameraman, have faith in auto steer.)

@korellup @alecjohn17 Looks good

@BPIllabo We planted 2ha as a trial. Looks good. @alecjohn17

@BPIllabo now you have a wheat named after your location, how do you pronounce Illabo. Is it ill-ab-o or other

HWSC. Recent rain, opportunity for crop topping ryegrass and black oats in La Trobe, then chaff lining at harvest. Ryegrass growing well in rhizo patches. @WeedSmartAU

Sheep feeder antics - wanted to see sheep and lamb activity in and around the feeders. . @AdvantageFeeder

Fiery redheads. Beneficials working away in the Canola crop.

Finally put together some sprayer footage from 2017 over the summer break.

Ready for action.