When asked to describe this year’s silage season, John Eade from Eades Forages has two words – early and big.
No doubt, widespread rains across northern Victoria and the Riverina have helped shape the season into what everyone hopes will be a good one, especially in the face of lower opening allocations and high temporary water prices.
Farmers will be pushing to conserve every bit of fodder they can.
Servicing farmers from Wakool to Tongala, the maize season starts in February and finishes in April, and after a rest and repairs, the silage season kicks off in August and goes through to November.
John currently operates 6 Class Forage Harvesters and either Fendt or JCB tractors.
“I always said I was going to stop at four harvesters,” he laughed.
John tries to upgrade his harvesters every six years but he does like to hang onto his tractors for a bit longer.
He said he has watched farmers go from basing their feed decision on tonnes of dry matter per hectare to tonnes per megalitre of water.
“A lot of farmers now double crop-maize in summer followed by vetch.
“Some of our farmers are producing on average around 30 dry tonnes using around 9Ml of water, and the best I have seen is a 28 tonne maize crop followed by 8 tonnes of vetch using around the same amount of water.”
John said high water prices in 2026 did take some of the shine off maize this year, but many farmers were committed and had to keep going.
“It will be a telling tale this coming season to see what happens with water prices and who plants maize in 2027.”
John said the business is fully committed with their existing customer base, and they only take on new clients if someone sells up or changes their usage.
“Water efficiency is critical for farmers these days and with the government continuing to buy more water back from the productive pool it creates more competition and pushes temporary water prices which makes everything even more difficult.”