The Frost, The Frost, The Bloody Frost

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By Dwain Duxson

The Frost, The Frost, The Bloody Frost - I wrote in my new newsletter, The Farmers Club (you can register here), about how we think we need to isolate Frost as a Farming uncontrollable in its own right. It's a weather uncontrollable, but I think it's a bit of a beast of its own. Each year, it seems to be becoming more of a threat. 

I was talking to a Wimmera Cropping Farmer during the week, and we got on the subject of Frost. And he says it's the luck of the draw as to how badly you get affected. I said to him that this season, where the plants are strong (in his area), they are less vulnerable. He argued that what he had witnessed in the past was that it didn't really matter whether Plants were strong or weak. It came down to plain old good or bad luck. 

In this day and age, where plant breeders are breeding shorter season varieties, and we seem to be sowing earlier, we are always going to create that risk year in, year out. This period can be a stressful time, especially if you're lucky enough to have some thumping Crops. The last thing you want is any sort of setback or, at worst, a wipeout.

We are hearing a bit of Frost damage around already (for the record, most said it was a light Frost on Friday morning), and it will be interesting to see what happens over the next 2-3 weeks. How do we avoid Frost damage? I'm not sure, just plant it and hope that luck is on your side. One Farmer jokingly suggested that we all start planting Olympic Wheat again. Do you have any hard and fast rules on how to avoid Frost damage?

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