Making hay while the sun shines

Valley farmer thankful for a ‘good’ season

Written by STEVE KELLY. - source: Wangaratta Chronicle

ALTHOUGH many farmers in the North East have been battling the affects of drought, Whitfield’s Robert Gaspari is thankful he lives in "God’s country".

"We’re always getting a little bit of rain and the season has been quite good to us," he said last week.

"We certainly need the rain for the environment and everything to go right and the recent rainfall has been like ‘waving the carrot’ in front of us all the time."

Mr Gaspari will cut his last crop of lucerne for this season next week at his Whitfield property.

But the agricultural contractor since the mid 1980s has been busy recently ploughing land off Peipers Lane.

Mr Gaspari has 124 acres near Gentle Annie Camping Reserve and makes a living out of growing lucerne and pasture, including triticale, perennial ryes, oats and a variety of clover.

It’s a process which is helped along by making sure the ground is prepared correctly before the first seed is sown.

He specialises in ground preparation, pasture renovation and hay contracting right throughout the region - something which has been made a lot easier with his recent purchase of a multi-disc plough.

He was at a Peipers Lane property last week running the plough through soil, which hadn’t grown a crop before.

The land will be used to sow straight oats, which will supply a Shepparton dairy farmer keen to buy the crop.

Mr Gaspari finds the multi-disc machine to be handy to clean up land so when he does bailing, raking and cutting - the job is made a lot easier.

"We want to get the ground fairly flat so it’s easier to cut and prevents you from going through blades," he said.

"Having level ground also produces a better, more even crop."