October 15, 2024 • 18 mins
With a passion for dairy farming, Logan Scott, Te Awamutu East and South Waikato Area Manager and small block owner brings a unique perspective on land and crop management, maize and agronomy. This episode delves into Logan’s agronomy knowledge, sharing strategies for identifying potential issues and guiding effective management decisions, particularly through the critical V3 to V6 growth stages of maize. Join the team in this engaging discussion, which offers practical insights for improved crop outcomes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
G'day and welcome to Feed for Thought, a regular
podcast from Pioneer coveringeverything from farm systems to
crops and products and much,much more.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi folks, welcome to this episode of Feed for Thought
.
My name's Wade Bell and, asalways, I've got Matt Daly with
me.
Thanks for joining us, matt.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
G'day Wade.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, nice to have you along and we've got one of
our own team members on theepisode today, logan Scott.
Great to have you with us.
Lokes, hey, first time, butreally excited to have you in
for a couple of reasons.
One, you've got an interestinglittle side story that we're
going to dig into first up, butin terms of your kind of your
field experience and and, uh,kind of passion, if you like,
(00:46):
around agronomy and maize is is,uh, I would say is second to
none, uh, and I get to go outwith that with a number uh,
you're right up there in termsof you know, what you know and
your passion and dedication tothe job.
So looking forward to get intothat, uh.
Second, but do you want to justkick us off with, briefly, a
little bit about your backgroundand how you ended up here at
Pioneer?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yep, thanks for that intro.
That's very kind, build you up,mate.
Yeah, now you've got to live upto it.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's the hard bit.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So I grew up on a dairy farm, husband and wife
sort of thing, mum and dad downat down at Girohonga.
Then I went to MasseyUniversity Good choice yeah.
After that I actually worked ina retail store down to Kauiti.
I had a crack at being alivestock agent, so I was a
(01:38):
junior there for a while, justin my early 20s, did a little
bit of travel over the US andCanada.
I'm still into genetics it'smaize genetics, but I used to be
quite into dairy cattlegenetics region, man too region,
yeah, and then I went dairyfarming I.
I met jen, my wife.
She sort of gave me a shove,said you're not happy.
So I went dairy farming uh,just here in the waikato, yes,
(02:00):
for a large group and sort ofprogressed through four
different farms over four yearsuntil we went equity for four
years, another four years, so wewere with them for eight years
and then I went down south afterthat in an operations role.
That was overseeing around 3,000hectares.
There was about 800 on thepivot and there was a lot of dry
land, so that was an intensivewintering system.
That was in central Otago andthat was a lot of fun.
(02:21):
But we wanted a dairy, I wanteda dairy farm.
So, yeah, came back to thewaikato and looking for what to
do next and this job popped upand look, you're a great bunch
to work with and I'm glad I madethe decision.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'd say I am I'm not so sure about that.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Matt can be changed you wait, you weren't even here
when we employed Logan, so don'ttry claiming that.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
So yeah, I've been almost seven years with the
company in November.
I'm really proud of it.
It's been great.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah so and tell us a little bit about you know,
because we want to tell a littlebit of your story.
So you've got a small block nowand this is one that intrigues
me because you're superpassionate.
I hear about all the thingsthat you're playing around with
on there and the level of detailthat you try to get down to.
You know, grow the best crop ofmaize on that block.
(03:12):
But just tell us briefly aboutthat.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Just over two years ago, we bought a piece of land
and my friends would describe itas a lifestyle block.
It's 19.3 hectares.
Exactly the level of detail Iwould have expected from you
folks and I call it a weekendfarm because I have to sort of
fit it in in the weekends.
I winter 80 animals and calftwo year olds for the neighbour
(03:38):
for four weeks on the annual andthen I run this year 407 lambs
fat them up and there's going tobe no averaging or no, no
rounding.
I tried, but with the 80 it wasactually 86 two year olds.
But yeah, fatten some lambs.
I probably should have hadanother 50.
To be honest, it was such agood winter.
(03:59):
And then after that I plantmaize.
There was a lucerne establishedthere before I started, but
because I really enjoy fatteningthings through the winter, have
moved on from that.
Then after that I plant maize.
There was a lucerne establishedthere before.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I started, but because I really enjoy fattening
things through the winter, I'vemoved on from that.
So you get a little bit of achance to play with animals in
the winter and then you're intothe maize.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, I love the maize.
Come December it's side-dressedand we go on holidays and go
away for the weekends.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, a bit different to dairy farming, Plants are
quite easy to look after overthe summer, so you grow it
during the day for your clientsat Bioneer, but then you
actually go home to maize aswell.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, I'm much more comfortable in a paddock than I
am with a microphone in front ofme.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
As would probably wait at night.
Yeah, true, so walk us through.
So it was all leucinebeforehand, and now you've just
gone down the maize path.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Oh no, it was only two and a half hectares of
leucine.
Okay, yeah, just the frontpaddles and you're trading that
out to the local dairy farmeryeah, so I'm quite fortunate.
Across the road they buy all ofmy maize.
Leucine went different variousplaces.
We've got a bit of a deal so Ibuy calves off them and other
(05:07):
things for the kids and, yeah,so it's their cattle that I.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
winter yeah as well, but the lambs are all mine and
so I'm assuming that, uh, allthe local growers just observing
over the fence and making adirect comparison as to how well
your paddles are performingfrom a yield point of view
versus theirs?
You're under constant scrutinyyeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I try not to say too much about my own block, but I
love it.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well, if the pioneer ewes parked up in a paddock all
weekend, you'd expect it to be apretty good crop, wouldn't you?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, I've said my first three years around tidying
the place up and proving thenutrients.
Yeah, so it's not the finishedproduct product, but we're
coming up to the end of thethird year and nutrient wise
we're looking a lot better.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I think there's a bit more potential to get out of it
now and so if we, if we shiftbecause you're going to have a
lot of like, you've got your ownintel now and you apply these
practices if we think about thenext couple of months of how we
manage a crop right and how youdo this on your own farm, but
how you actually do this out inthe field for the rest of your
(06:10):
working day, yeah, if we startfrom VE or from the early stages
, what are you looking at whenyou go monitor a crop for
someone?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
It's always good when it emerges.
We're quite early on inplanting now, so it's a bit
cooler.
It takes a little bit longer,so how many days it takes to
come up, it's always interesting.
So you know, recording that, orat least recording the date you
plant it, it's quite handy.
Yeah, some basic information,some basic information is really
handy and it's great to comparefrom last year to this year.
I, I record everything on myplace and surprising how I see
(06:41):
it one way and then I read it.
I'm like, oh, I didn't quite dowhat I thought I did uh yep,
popping up I.
I want to see it come up all atthe same time would be great.
Nothing's 100% in a biologicalsystem, but we can get some
pretty good results with highquality seed eh.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Not a bias either.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
We do get some really good results at the farm.
I'm looking for how muchpressure when it comes to pests.
I've got a gully that's aboutfour hectares through my block
and that has a lot of bird life.
We've got a lot of hedges androadsides where slugs could be a
problem on full cultivation, soit's normally not so just
(07:23):
looking at what's affecting ourplant population really, because
we want to see it even and wewant to see it up, and a bit of
a good idea of what thepotential is for that paddock to
yield.
It's affecting our plantpopulation really, because we
want to see it even and we wantto see it up, and a bit of a
good idea of what the potentialis for that paddock to yield.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So the stuff that you were doing at home, you're out
doing for customers, growers,essentially, and so we call it
scouting or you call it scouting.
You know you're out there everyday once crops are in the
ground.
What are the things that youand you've started to touch on
it?
What are the thingsspecifically that you're looking
for?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
The first appearance is, like you can tell when a
plant's doing well.
So the colour of it.
See it coming up nice and green.
Sometimes you see some purpling.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I look for holes in the leaf.
Is that a nutrient thing, or isthere another reason why it'd
be purple?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, so the yellowing is the purpling is
most likely going to be becauseof cool temperatures at that
stage, generally provided asphosphorus is the nutrient that
you're looking for with purpling, but generally that's supplied
by the seed at this stage, yep,and the yellowing is generally
cooler temperatures as well, butcan be nitrogen.
Maybe put a lot of wood chipfrom the calf shed in a certain
(08:30):
area and it hasn't quite beenspread out quite evenly, so
there can be other things.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There's lots of options.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, like frosting can cause a bit of yellowing or
light.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
So general appearance , like I mean obviously by the
eye, before you even go diggingany holes or anything.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, you're looking for what's going right, what's
going wrong and any patterns, Isuppose yeah yeah, like you'll
see, uh, patterns like wellmarks, so you'll see compaction
from perhaps it's the sprayerthat did the pre-emerge came out
of the paddock and ran over afew rows and you'll see those
rows take longer to come up andyeah, you just sort of you can
see those things, especially ifit doesn't line up then it runs
(09:07):
over a whole row.
Yeah, and that row is just abit slower to come up and it's
just a bit behind a little whileon.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, I've ridden shotgun with you before.
Loges Always learn a lot, sothat's always a plus.
That's not a hard way to teachme, as long as you retain it.
It's not hard to teach me oneor two things.
No, he's probably teaching methe same thing every year that I
go out with him.
To be fair, he's very good, I'msick of teaching him that again
.
I told him last year oh,goldfish way.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
That's right, it's an annual job.
Eh, you do need a reminderafter 12 months.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, it's a constant Absolutely In terms.
So stand count of plantpopulation.
But you're often out there kindof measuring stand count and
doing a bit of a count up.
Once you've got that, like,what are you doing with that
intel?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
We do make recommendations on the
population to start with.
Sometimes you might find itwasn't completely followed In
the first tellers.
You know there's a few bagsleft over.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
That plant I drove knows better than us mate it's.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
You know, communication is pretty
important and if they haven'theard the information and I may
remember most of therecommendations I put out there
and I do record them but if thatinformation hasn't got to the
driver on the day in time,potentially it wasn't planted at
the right population.
But yeah, looking for that evenstand, looking for less gaps.
(10:35):
And if there are gaps, why?
Why has that not come up right?
Is there a hole in the leaf?
Is it slugs?
Is it stem weevil?
Was the seed planted?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
there it might be a skip, yeah, so there she's going
, finding that seed.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Problem solving from there.
Yeah, problem solving, and isit a problem?
So sometimes you do get stuckin a little problem and you
stand up, you look around a fivefeet dead paddock and
everything else looks pictureperfect and you're like I might
have just got a bit carried awaythere.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, try not to sweep the small stuff so how
significant would it have to bebefore?
I guess that relies on yourexpertise and your and your
diagnosis doesn't, in terms ofwhat you're seeing on the ground
and going.
At what point does it become anissue?
And then, I guess, whetherthere's anything you can do
about it.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Anyway, yeah, yeah it's very much a conversation,
yeah, the time of year it is andhow you adjust things to your
new potential yield, I guessyeah, yep, and what adjustments
would they be?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
if you're making some ?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
adjustments.
So if you've got a really goodstand, the season's going well,
you might need more nitrogen tofeed that crop.
Vice versa, if you've lost somepopulation, uh, are you gonna
say some nitrogen back.
Yeah, well, there's no pointputting it out there.
You're not gonna get any moneyback from it.
Yeah, yeah, it's about doingthe right thing for the crop and
your bank balance.
Yeah, it makes you feel goodputting more on.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You feel like you're doing something.
Yeah, I'm going to catch thiscrop up.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
It's had a hard start and then not benefiting anyone.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And I suppose from the early stages, as we start to
grow the crop, the crop startsto express itself a little bit
more.
What are some of the things?
As we go past that v state, vsay v3, yeah, what?
What to maybe v6, what are we?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
starting to look at.
Just just explain v3 to v6.
He talks in this jargon likeeverybody knows.
You know, so I've just learnedit later.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Vehicle it's the vegetative state.
It's a plant that's ve hasemerged A plant, that's.
Ve has emerged.
A plant that's VE3 has threefully emerged leaves and so on
up to VT, which is VTassel.
Yeah, and it's just a way ofstaging the plant based on the
(12:43):
number of days it's been in, butat what stage it's at.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And that obviously helps with problem solving as
well, if we're starting to workback.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Before you went off on that tangent Wade.
What are some of the thingsthat we would be looking for in
that V3 to V6?
What are you?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
scouting crops.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
What are you talking to people about?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah.
So once we get to the V3, theV6, we start to see a bit more
variation in the crop.
So the crop's sort of gone fromthat weaning stage where it's
you'll have a lot of nutrientenergy supplied by the seed and
now it's relying more on thenodal roots.
So during the e to three we'vegot very small roots that come
off the seed your seminal rootsyour radical root is the first
(13:23):
one out and your seminal rootsand then and you're looking at
mesicotl and those that's asmall root system that gets the
plant started.
We really want those nodalroots that are coming from the
base of the plant, right justbelow the soil surface.
We want to see them establishedand starting to reach the dap
and supply the nutrients thatthe plant needs and is that
(13:44):
typically why we'll start to seea bit of variation?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
if we look across the crop at kind of that v3, v4
stage, yeah, there might be alittle bit of a wave in it or
like a different color slightlyto it?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
yep, yeah, so if there's an issue with a supply
of nutrients or root developmentor you're going to have a lot
more variation, yeah, so avariation in plant size size
yeah, is the big one.
But color can be one of them.
So if you've ever seen a rowblocked on a planter and the dop
hasn't gone down, you'll see asize and color difference and
(14:15):
that's when you're seeing thatpurpling and you're going oh,
that's more phosphorus.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, uh, weeds, weeds are the yep, absolutely
the one I hear, with that sorrylogs to cut you off.
Uh, the one I I hear about youcan see a lot of kind of almost
weed seedlings, but the feelingis that it all can be closed and
don't worry about it, she'll beright, all will be good.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah no, you're right , they look very small.
What I try and picture in myhead is those plants fully grown
and what that would look like,and often that's a carpet.
So summer grasses, fat hen,some of the main problems weeds
that we have, and there's cornvine and there's a whole heap
others, but they can be easydealt with with.
(14:57):
A poster merch, yeah, and ninetimes out of ten, if actually
probably ten times out of ten,if you think you should, you
should yeah and and you go.
Oh, it's another cost to mysystem.
But at the same time you'rereducing that weed bank in your
soil.
You're allowing the growth thatwould have gone into the weeds.
Potentially you're going to getmore maize yield.
You should do.
(15:17):
There's quite a bit of workdone around that and at the end
of the season when that maizecomes off, your paddock is
pretty clean and potentially youcan get that annual back in and
get going a bit quicker.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I wouldn't overlook those weeds even if
they're small, and any otherpests or anything like.
Is there anything else in thatspace?
Speaker 3 (15:35):
so the v edith, v3 is pests for me, and the v3 to v6
is more weeds.
Yeah.
So you know, we're talkingpests, we're talking slugs.
We're talking stem weevil.
We're talking slugs, we'retalking stem weevil.
We're talking rats and birds.
We're just getting more andmore bird attack around the area
as we plant out all these areasaround drains and got a pretty
good control on them with seedcoating.
(15:56):
So that's something you notedown for next year.
And then V3 to V6, yeah, veryfocused on hey, we've got weeds
and side dressing coming up,right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So that's a nice it's probably quite a nice little
summary, like a lot of whatyou're doing.
I guess, right the way throughis a lot of diagnosis and kind
of intel gathering and that'saround the kind of the
management of the crop.
Just listening to you, I getthe sense that there's like, on
any one of these topics you know, we could essentially run an
entire podcast in terms of whatyou know, uh, on on on an
(16:29):
individual topic.
Um, and look, to be honest,I've I've seen and witnessed a
lot of that.
The growers and and the peoplethat you look after are
incredibly fortunate to have you, um can absolutely vouch for.
For that I think you're a,you're an absolute star with
your, with your customers, mate,so great work out there.
Yeah, that's enough.
Yeah, I should have said Ishould have done more at the
start.
Um, so, and look, some reallynice tips there too, dogs, and I
(16:52):
guess you'd encourage yourgrowers to be doing the same
thing.
Yeah, so they might not bescrutinizing it to the same
level of uh accuracy perhaps iswhat is what you are, but it's,
it's something that they shouldget into the habit of doing is a
takeaway they actually oftensee things that I don't.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Oh no, because I'm looking for things that we can
make decisions around andsometimes I start to get used to
issues I can't solve and and Ijust don't quite see them.
Yeah and yeah, I recommend,like I check the paddock in the
time frame that I've got, withuh help from uh merchant reps
that are around.
If you're out in the paddocktoo, it just adds another layer
(17:28):
of as a farmer, of what you'reseeing and how you can improve
that for next year.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Nice and Matt, I'm going to give you the final word
.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Oh, jeepers, that's dangerous.
No, I was just thinking it'scool.
We've got a number of peoplewithin the company that are
actually practicing what they'repreaching, and probably Logan's
taken to the next step of whichhe's digging so deep into what
he's doing on his own block.
But being able to deliver thatwider, I think it's just a neat
piece that we've got people thatare invested, just like our
growers.
(17:56):
Yeah, nice work, nice finish.
Thanks for coming along, loges.
That was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, thanks Loges.
So to all our listeners,hopefully you've enjoyed that
little snippet from Loges interms of what he does at this
time of the year, bothpersonally and for Pioneer.
So I really appreciate that.
And look, if you've enjoyedthis episode, make sure you like
and subscribe.
Thanks very much and we'll lookforward to you guys listening
in again next time.
Thanks very much.
G'day and welcome to Feed for Thought, a regular
podcast from Pioneer coveringeverything from farm systems to
crops and products and much,much more.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi folks, welcome to this episode of Feed for Thought
.
My name's Wade Bell and, asalways, I've got Matt Daly with
me.
Thanks for joining us, matt.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
G'day Wade.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, nice to have you along and we've got one of
our own team members on theepisode today, logan Scott.
Great to have you with us.
Lokes, hey, first time, butreally excited to have you in
for a couple of reasons.
One, you've got an interestinglittle side story that we're
going to dig into first up, butin terms of your kind of your
field experience and and, uh,kind of passion, if you like,
(00:46):
around agronomy and maize is is,uh, I would say is second to
none, uh, and I get to go outwith that with a number uh,
you're right up there in termsof you know, what you know and
your passion and dedication tothe job.
So looking forward to get intothat, uh.
Second, but do you want to justkick us off with, briefly, a
little bit about your backgroundand how you ended up here at
Pioneer?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yep, thanks for that intro.
That's very kind, build you up,mate.
Yeah, now you've got to live upto it.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's the hard bit.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So I grew up on a dairy farm, husband and wife
sort of thing, mum and dad downat down at Girohonga.
Then I went to MasseyUniversity Good choice yeah.
After that I actually worked ina retail store down to Kauiti.
I had a crack at being alivestock agent, so I was a
(01:38):
junior there for a while, justin my early 20s, did a little
bit of travel over the US andCanada.
I'm still into genetics it'smaize genetics, but I used to be
quite into dairy cattlegenetics region, man too region,
yeah, and then I went dairyfarming I.
I met jen, my wife.
She sort of gave me a shove,said you're not happy.
So I went dairy farming uh,just here in the waikato, yes,
(02:00):
for a large group and sort ofprogressed through four
different farms over four yearsuntil we went equity for four
years, another four years, so wewere with them for eight years
and then I went down south afterthat in an operations role.
That was overseeing around 3,000hectares.
There was about 800 on thepivot and there was a lot of dry
land, so that was an intensivewintering system.
That was in central Otago andthat was a lot of fun.
(02:21):
But we wanted a dairy, I wanteda dairy farm.
So, yeah, came back to thewaikato and looking for what to
do next and this job popped upand look, you're a great bunch
to work with and I'm glad I madethe decision.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'd say I am I'm not so sure about that.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Matt can be changed you wait, you weren't even here
when we employed Logan, so don'ttry claiming that.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
So yeah, I've been almost seven years with the
company in November.
I'm really proud of it.
It's been great.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah so and tell us a little bit about you know,
because we want to tell a littlebit of your story.
So you've got a small block nowand this is one that intrigues
me because you're superpassionate.
I hear about all the thingsthat you're playing around with
on there and the level of detailthat you try to get down to.
You know, grow the best crop ofmaize on that block.
(03:12):
But just tell us briefly aboutthat.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Just over two years ago, we bought a piece of land
and my friends would describe itas a lifestyle block.
It's 19.3 hectares.
Exactly the level of detail Iwould have expected from you
folks and I call it a weekendfarm because I have to sort of
fit it in in the weekends.
I winter 80 animals and calftwo year olds for the neighbour
(03:38):
for four weeks on the annual andthen I run this year 407 lambs
fat them up and there's going tobe no averaging or no, no
rounding.
I tried, but with the 80 it wasactually 86 two year olds.
But yeah, fatten some lambs.
I probably should have hadanother 50.
To be honest, it was such agood winter.
(03:59):
And then after that I plantmaize.
There was a lucerne establishedthere before I started, but
because I really enjoy fatteningthings through the winter, have
moved on from that.
Then after that I plant maize.
There was a lucerne establishedthere before.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I started, but because I really enjoy fattening
things through the winter, I'vemoved on from that.
So you get a little bit of achance to play with animals in
the winter and then you're intothe maize.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, I love the maize.
Come December it's side-dressedand we go on holidays and go
away for the weekends.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, a bit different to dairy farming, Plants are
quite easy to look after overthe summer, so you grow it
during the day for your clientsat Bioneer, but then you
actually go home to maize aswell.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, I'm much more comfortable in a paddock than I
am with a microphone in front ofme.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
As would probably wait at night.
Yeah, true, so walk us through.
So it was all leucinebeforehand, and now you've just
gone down the maize path.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Oh no, it was only two and a half hectares of
leucine.
Okay, yeah, just the frontpaddles and you're trading that
out to the local dairy farmeryeah, so I'm quite fortunate.
Across the road they buy all ofmy maize.
Leucine went different variousplaces.
We've got a bit of a deal so Ibuy calves off them and other
(05:07):
things for the kids and, yeah,so it's their cattle that I.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
winter yeah as well, but the lambs are all mine and
so I'm assuming that, uh, allthe local growers just observing
over the fence and making adirect comparison as to how well
your paddles are performingfrom a yield point of view
versus theirs?
You're under constant scrutinyyeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I try not to say too much about my own block, but I
love it.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well, if the pioneer ewes parked up in a paddock all
weekend, you'd expect it to be apretty good crop, wouldn't you?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, I've said my first three years around tidying
the place up and proving thenutrients.
Yeah, so it's not the finishedproduct product, but we're
coming up to the end of thethird year and nutrient wise
we're looking a lot better.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I think there's a bit more potential to get out of it
now and so if we, if we shiftbecause you're going to have a
lot of like, you've got your ownintel now and you apply these
practices if we think about thenext couple of months of how we
manage a crop right and how youdo this on your own farm, but
how you actually do this out inthe field for the rest of your
(06:10):
working day, yeah, if we startfrom VE or from the early stages
, what are you looking at whenyou go monitor a crop for
someone?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
It's always good when it emerges.
We're quite early on inplanting now, so it's a bit
cooler.
It takes a little bit longer,so how many days it takes to
come up, it's always interesting.
So you know, recording that, orat least recording the date you
plant it, it's quite handy.
Yeah, some basic information,some basic information is really
handy and it's great to comparefrom last year to this year.
I, I record everything on myplace and surprising how I see
(06:41):
it one way and then I read it.
I'm like, oh, I didn't quite dowhat I thought I did uh yep,
popping up I.
I want to see it come up all atthe same time would be great.
Nothing's 100% in a biologicalsystem, but we can get some
pretty good results with highquality seed eh.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Not a bias either.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
We do get some really good results at the farm.
I'm looking for how muchpressure when it comes to pests.
I've got a gully that's aboutfour hectares through my block
and that has a lot of bird life.
We've got a lot of hedges androadsides where slugs could be a
problem on full cultivation, soit's normally not so just
(07:23):
looking at what's affecting ourplant population really, because
we want to see it even and wewant to see it up, and a bit of
a good idea of what thepotential is for that paddock to
yield.
It's affecting our plantpopulation really, because we
want to see it even and we wantto see it up, and a bit of a
good idea of what the potentialis for that paddock to yield.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So the stuff that you were doing at home, you're out
doing for customers, growers,essentially, and so we call it
scouting or you call it scouting.
You know you're out there everyday once crops are in the
ground.
What are the things that youand you've started to touch on
it?
What are the thingsspecifically that you're looking
for?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
The first appearance is, like you can tell when a
plant's doing well.
So the colour of it.
See it coming up nice and green.
Sometimes you see some purpling.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I look for holes in the leaf.
Is that a nutrient thing, or isthere another reason why it'd
be purple?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, so the yellowing is the purpling is
most likely going to be becauseof cool temperatures at that
stage, generally provided asphosphorus is the nutrient that
you're looking for with purpling, but generally that's supplied
by the seed at this stage, yep,and the yellowing is generally
cooler temperatures as well, butcan be nitrogen.
Maybe put a lot of wood chipfrom the calf shed in a certain
(08:30):
area and it hasn't quite beenspread out quite evenly, so
there can be other things.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There's lots of options.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, like frosting can cause a bit of yellowing or
light.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
So general appearance , like I mean obviously by the
eye, before you even go diggingany holes or anything.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, you're looking for what's going right, what's
going wrong and any patterns, Isuppose yeah yeah, like you'll
see, uh, patterns like wellmarks, so you'll see compaction
from perhaps it's the sprayerthat did the pre-emerge came out
of the paddock and ran over afew rows and you'll see those
rows take longer to come up andyeah, you just sort of you can
see those things, especially ifit doesn't line up then it runs
(09:07):
over a whole row.
Yeah, and that row is just abit slower to come up and it's
just a bit behind a little whileon.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, I've ridden shotgun with you before.
Loges Always learn a lot, sothat's always a plus.
That's not a hard way to teachme, as long as you retain it.
It's not hard to teach me oneor two things.
No, he's probably teaching methe same thing every year that I
go out with him.
To be fair, he's very good, I'msick of teaching him that again
.
I told him last year oh,goldfish way.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
That's right, it's an annual job.
Eh, you do need a reminderafter 12 months.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, it's a constant Absolutely In terms.
So stand count of plantpopulation.
But you're often out there kindof measuring stand count and
doing a bit of a count up.
Once you've got that, like,what are you doing with that
intel?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
We do make recommendations on the
population to start with.
Sometimes you might find itwasn't completely followed In
the first tellers.
You know there's a few bagsleft over.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
That plant I drove knows better than us mate it's.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
You know, communication is pretty
important and if they haven'theard the information and I may
remember most of therecommendations I put out there
and I do record them but if thatinformation hasn't got to the
driver on the day in time,potentially it wasn't planted at
the right population.
But yeah, looking for that evenstand, looking for less gaps.
(10:35):
And if there are gaps, why?
Why has that not come up right?
Is there a hole in the leaf?
Is it slugs?
Is it stem weevil?
Was the seed planted?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
there it might be a skip, yeah, so there she's going
, finding that seed.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Problem solving from there.
Yeah, problem solving, and isit a problem?
So sometimes you do get stuckin a little problem and you
stand up, you look around a fivefeet dead paddock and
everything else looks pictureperfect and you're like I might
have just got a bit carried awaythere.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, try not to sweep the small stuff so how
significant would it have to bebefore?
I guess that relies on yourexpertise and your and your
diagnosis doesn't, in terms ofwhat you're seeing on the ground
and going.
At what point does it become anissue?
And then, I guess, whetherthere's anything you can do
about it.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Anyway, yeah, yeah it's very much a conversation,
yeah, the time of year it is andhow you adjust things to your
new potential yield, I guessyeah, yep, and what adjustments
would they be?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
if you're making some ?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
adjustments.
So if you've got a really goodstand, the season's going well,
you might need more nitrogen tofeed that crop.
Vice versa, if you've lost somepopulation, uh, are you gonna
say some nitrogen back.
Yeah, well, there's no pointputting it out there.
You're not gonna get any moneyback from it.
Yeah, yeah, it's about doingthe right thing for the crop and
your bank balance.
Yeah, it makes you feel goodputting more on.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You feel like you're doing something.
Yeah, I'm going to catch thiscrop up.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
It's had a hard start and then not benefiting anyone.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And I suppose from the early stages, as we start to
grow the crop, the crop startsto express itself a little bit
more.
What are some of the things?
As we go past that v state, vsay v3, yeah, what?
What to maybe v6, what are we?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
starting to look at.
Just just explain v3 to v6.
He talks in this jargon likeeverybody knows.
You know, so I've just learnedit later.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Vehicle it's the vegetative state.
It's a plant that's ve hasemerged A plant, that's.
Ve has emerged.
A plant that's VE3 has threefully emerged leaves and so on
up to VT, which is VTassel.
Yeah, and it's just a way ofstaging the plant based on the
(12:43):
number of days it's been in, butat what stage it's at.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And that obviously helps with problem solving as
well, if we're starting to workback.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Before you went off on that tangent Wade.
What are some of the thingsthat we would be looking for in
that V3 to V6?
What are you?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
scouting crops.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
What are you talking to people about?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah.
So once we get to the V3, theV6, we start to see a bit more
variation in the crop.
So the crop's sort of gone fromthat weaning stage where it's
you'll have a lot of nutrientenergy supplied by the seed and
now it's relying more on thenodal roots.
So during the e to three we'vegot very small roots that come
off the seed your seminal rootsyour radical root is the first
(13:23):
one out and your seminal rootsand then and you're looking at
mesicotl and those that's asmall root system that gets the
plant started.
We really want those nodalroots that are coming from the
base of the plant, right justbelow the soil surface.
We want to see them establishedand starting to reach the dap
and supply the nutrients thatthe plant needs and is that
(13:44):
typically why we'll start to seea bit of variation?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
if we look across the crop at kind of that v3, v4
stage, yeah, there might be alittle bit of a wave in it or
like a different color slightlyto it?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
yep, yeah, so if there's an issue with a supply
of nutrients or root developmentor you're going to have a lot
more variation, yeah, so avariation in plant size size
yeah, is the big one.
But color can be one of them.
So if you've ever seen a rowblocked on a planter and the dop
hasn't gone down, you'll see asize and color difference and
(14:15):
that's when you're seeing thatpurpling and you're going oh,
that's more phosphorus.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, uh, weeds, weeds are the yep, absolutely
the one I hear, with that sorrylogs to cut you off.
Uh, the one I I hear about youcan see a lot of kind of almost
weed seedlings, but the feelingis that it all can be closed and
don't worry about it, she'll beright, all will be good.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah no, you're right , they look very small.
What I try and picture in myhead is those plants fully grown
and what that would look like,and often that's a carpet.
So summer grasses, fat hen,some of the main problems weeds
that we have, and there's cornvine and there's a whole heap
others, but they can be easydealt with with.
(14:57):
A poster merch, yeah, and ninetimes out of ten, if actually
probably ten times out of ten,if you think you should, you
should yeah and and you go.
Oh, it's another cost to mysystem.
But at the same time you'rereducing that weed bank in your
soil.
You're allowing the growth thatwould have gone into the weeds.
Potentially you're going to getmore maize yield.
You should do.
(15:17):
There's quite a bit of workdone around that and at the end
of the season when that maizecomes off, your paddock is
pretty clean and potentially youcan get that annual back in and
get going a bit quicker.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I wouldn't overlook those weeds even if
they're small, and any otherpests or anything like.
Is there anything else in thatspace?
Speaker 3 (15:35):
so the v edith, v3 is pests for me, and the v3 to v6
is more weeds.
Yeah.
So you know, we're talkingpests, we're talking slugs.
We're talking stem weevil.
We're talking slugs, we'retalking stem weevil.
We're talking rats and birds.
We're just getting more andmore bird attack around the area
as we plant out all these areasaround drains and got a pretty
good control on them with seedcoating.
(15:56):
So that's something you notedown for next year.
And then V3 to V6, yeah, veryfocused on hey, we've got weeds
and side dressing coming up,right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So that's a nice it's probably quite a nice little
summary, like a lot of whatyou're doing.
I guess, right the way throughis a lot of diagnosis and kind
of intel gathering and that'saround the kind of the
management of the crop.
Just listening to you, I getthe sense that there's like, on
any one of these topics you know, we could essentially run an
entire podcast in terms of whatyou know, uh, on on on an
(16:29):
individual topic.
Um, and look, to be honest,I've I've seen and witnessed a
lot of that.
The growers and and the peoplethat you look after are
incredibly fortunate to have you, um can absolutely vouch for.
For that I think you're a,you're an absolute star with
your, with your customers, mate,so great work out there.
Yeah, that's enough.
Yeah, I should have said Ishould have done more at the
start.
Um, so, and look, some reallynice tips there too, dogs, and I
(16:52):
guess you'd encourage yourgrowers to be doing the same
thing.
Yeah, so they might not bescrutinizing it to the same
level of uh accuracy perhaps iswhat is what you are, but it's,
it's something that they shouldget into the habit of doing is a
takeaway they actually oftensee things that I don't.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Oh no, because I'm looking for things that we can
make decisions around andsometimes I start to get used to
issues I can't solve and and Ijust don't quite see them.
Yeah and yeah, I recommend,like I check the paddock in the
time frame that I've got, withuh help from uh merchant reps
that are around.
If you're out in the paddocktoo, it just adds another layer
(17:28):
of as a farmer, of what you'reseeing and how you can improve
that for next year.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Nice and Matt, I'm going to give you the final word
.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Oh, jeepers, that's dangerous.
No, I was just thinking it'scool.
We've got a number of peoplewithin the company that are
actually practicing what they'repreaching, and probably Logan's
taken to the next step of whichhe's digging so deep into what
he's doing on his own block.
But being able to deliver thatwider, I think it's just a neat
piece that we've got people thatare invested, just like our
growers.
(17:56):
Yeah, nice work, nice finish.
Thanks for coming along, loges.
That was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, thanks Loges.
So to all our listeners,hopefully you've enjoyed that
little snippet from Loges interms of what he does at this
time of the year, bothpersonally and for Pioneer.
So I really appreciate that.
And look, if you've enjoyedthis episode, make sure you like
and subscribe.
Thanks very much and we'll lookforward to you guys listening
in again next time.
Thanks very much.
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