Year In Review 2022

2022 ended up being our wettest year on record, but it followed an above average rainfall year of 2021 and especially the back-end months of Nov/ Dec which recorded 141mm as well as a hailstorm in September which took out 1/4 of our farm. The profile was already full before 2022 began.
908 mm of rain was the final tally for 2022 which is well over double our average annual rainfall of 400mm.
It was a difficult year to get farm operations completed in a timely manner and paddock access with controlled traffic farming practices helped enormously but there is a limit to how many times fields can be driven on when wet. Nitrogen demand pushed us to get a linkage spreader for our Rowtrac tractor to access wet paddocks and disease pressure forced us to use arial applicators for fungicides and herbicides. The video of the arial spraying was conducted with full communication with the pilot and drone pilot at all times in a controlled environment.
As you can see, road access was very limited throughout the year and carting the previous year's grain out of the farm was also difficult. Luckily June and July were dryer months (but short days) and we managed to empty silo bags out of fields but still had grain in silo's that couldn't be moved due to poor road access.
October was the second wettest month of the year, and this is when the Hills to the North and East ran water which also flowed through our farm ending up in Lake Wyangan filling it above previous 1 in 100-year event capacity.
Road access for harvest was poor and we pumped water off internal tracks to gain access to some paddocks. Some roads still remain closed including Andersons Lane which is the main truck access route. Our bogged machinery tally for the year wasn't too bad. Sprayed bogged 3 times. Seeder bogged twice. Wheeled header bogged 6 times track header 3 times and chaser bin and tractor once.
The bulk of harvest was completed just before Christmas and the remaining wet spots were tidied up in the second week of January.