Welcome to Morvenvale – a grain and cotton farm located between Walgett and Collarenebri on the North Western Plains of New South Wales, Australia.
Owned and operated by David and Sue Ricardo.
We are zero till farmers cropping 5000ha
on 475mm (19 inch) annual rainfall.
We grow a mixture of crops in rotation.
Cotton, wheat, barley, chickpeas and fababeans are our
main crops with some canola too.
Our soils are susceptable to compaction.
3 metre tramlines and a no stock policy help.
Above all – we love our stubble.
Ground cover is king when it comes
to storing moisture and keeping it
as near to the surface as possible.
Very impressive page…..Great pics!
Hi David;
How are things with you? I heard you had a very dry year and now it has rained so you’ll be growing a good crop this year. what is your situation? Will you be planting many desi chickpeas? Of all the legume crops chickpeas will be the least favored as lentil and pea prices haveincreased much more than cp. We are very dry here but further north they are in good shape. We are having a good year with gross revenue up 60% and costs up only 15%(diesel and fert). we just got back from a month in Brazil and Argentina so need to buckle down and be ready to plant mid April.
Regards, Glenn
Dear David and Sue,
Thank you so much for sharing your great website with us. I hope you get lots of responses from people keen to learn from you and share your experiences. I read The Farmer’s Wife with a tear in my eye- how typical of farming people she is-resilient, strong and practical, with a sense of humour to boot. God bless you; may He send the rain you need when you need it.
Regards, Christine Brain
It was great to see all the picutures about modern farming methods.
Best wishes,
Bruce
David
Thanks for the Weedseeker info yesterday – very helpful. We are also eight years into the no-stock no-till sytem which makes us a bit of an oddity in the Riverina. The results are astounding with our soils now unbelievably fluffy. We now sow by the calender over a six week period from mid April to June and can get crops out of the ground from a dry sowing on 10mm.
Our interest in the weedseeker technology is due to the recent introduction of Fleabane to our area, coupled with the cost of glyphosate. My only concern is with the work rates we can acheive as we like to get over our 4000 ha’s in 10 days for summer sprays which is a challenge with our low humidity (about 8 hours a day max). My thoughts were to continue doing a light spray with our broadacre unit and to have a second weedseeker pass a week later when all the soft weeds had browned off – would this be feasible?
Thanks for the site. If I get some time I will set one up for our place as it looks like a great forum for sharing ideas
Cheers
John
Hello there!
awesome pictures!
just letting you know that I’ve found this new website http://www.efarming.com.au/
check out the weather section – you can see the fronts coming from south Africa!
Hi David,Peter,
Theres leaders and followers – you guys are leaders.
Good luck ! John
David and Peter, very impressed with your website and farming activity. I am a city slicker so don’t know much about the bush/farming, but it certainly looks like you know what you are doing especially given the drought conditions. Congratulations. Bob and Rhonda
Your farm seems to be very busy with all the crops there. Keep up the good work.
David
It is good to see farmers online. Adam 🙂
Hi guys,
I posted on your blog back in June but I wanted to let you know about a new blog I have set up called Farm Blogs From Around the World.
The reason I am writing to you from deepest France is because at Farm Blogs (completely and entirely non-commercial)
I am trying to gather in one place the very best of global blogging about farms, farming and rural life. It’s a hobby really that follows my global interest in farming. As my wife is Australian and we’re trying to keep up the Aussie in our three kids from deep rural France, I am keen to get some more good Australian farm blogs on to my blog.
You can find the blog roll, sorted by country – you’re naturally under Australia (and there is a General Interest section).
My posts are made up of the blog recommendations from farm bloggers and I also post regular stories about world farming.
All blogs have been recommended to me by other bloggers or identified by me during my occassional browsing.
I have a pretty broad definition of farming – if you’re producing food, you’re a farmer, to my mind at least.
So blogs range from ranches to part-time smallholders, and resources for them.
Once recommended, I add them to the blogroll and then contact the bloggers (just as I am contacting you), asking them to send me a few words about their farm/small-holding and their blog and, critically, to recommend their favourite farm/farming blogs.
And so it goes and grows. I added you to my blog roll but I am trying to provide a little more info besides each link – namely location; acreage; stock and crops raised).
Very much hoping to hear from you,
With kind regards,
Ian
http://www.farmblogs.blogspot.com
It is very refreshing to visit farming website. All the best in your venture.
Dave hi,
I’ve done a post on you which you can find at http://farmblogs.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html#279976031004072964
I’m going to shortly do a posting on Farmnet, but I’m holding out until you give me some recommendations of some good farm blogs, hopefully from countries other than the U.S.A.!
I know you’re one hell of busy bloke but I have to tempt you somehow.
Kind regards,
Ian
http://www.farmblogs.blogspot.com
P.S Where’s my link mate?
I think farm blogs is a very good idea. And hopefully Australian farm blogs will make this area of Internet more diverse.
Farming is not my cup of tea, but I was looking for Western Plains and Morvenvale map and found your blog. All the best.
David,
Cheers for the call. I think your idea of farm blogs is great. Really like your homepage, got a lot of good info on there. Anyway, you’ll be hearing from me in the future!
David & Pete,
I was looking up a picture of Walgett and came across your web-site – amazing.
Certainly made me feel homesick as i sit here in the rain and cold in Dublin.
All the best to you both & families.
Tom.
Chickpeas are my favorite. Keep up the good work.
Hi David,
Interesting to see what you do! I’ll pass onto Craig for the future. All the best Ron
I am looking at a 220,000ha wheat farm in northern Kazakhstan where they grow a spring wheat on 300ml rain max and plant on 1 metre of moisture from snow melt, so find your page and pictures of great interest. If you can supply any further info to assist me – I will be in Kazakhastn early March prior to planting – I would be extremly grateful.
Hope 09 is a good one for you.
regards Snow K.
p.s. I am an ex Bellata farmer spent a lot of time in the Walget/Colly area so know it well.
Thanks for your comments Snow, this sounds great. How about starting your own web page with stories and pictures of your farming adventures? I am sure many would be very interested in learning more and following your story. Go to http://farmnet.com.au/wp-signup.php to start a new page – Let me know if you need help. I will mention your trip to the local Walgett DA – Myles Parker(0419217553), who may be able to help with his farming experiences in Krygestan.
Best wishes and safe travelling, David Ricardo 0428562317
Hello from the other side of Australia – Perth WA – found your site – grew up between Walgett and Lightning Ridge, my mother came from Collarenebri ….so interested to see what’s going on in that part of the world these days. I expect you’ve had a recent inundation with the rain in South West Qld. All the best with your season.
Meg
I am doing a bit of virtual travelling and it is nice to see your blog. I was amazed that I could even find YouTube – morvenvale’s Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/morvenvale
Great site fellas, no till is the way to go, really good to see you sharing the info!
Thanks
Grayleen
hello David and Peter,
verry interesting website about Australian farming. nices pictures !
i’m French ,we have a farm in Burgundy ,it’s in the east of France. 350 km in the south east of Paris.
We are in the plain near DIJON , (this city is know in all the world for mustard ! )
the name off the village is BARGES !!!
but the country (Burgundy is also know for wine ! red wine.)
the main crops are wheat ,sunflower ,canola(colza for us) ,soja.
we have good conditions for farming in France ,in wheat we have between 7.5 and 9.5 tons/HA ,but it’s when all the conditions are good !
i have good friends in Canada ,in Saskatchewan ,in the great plains ,they have a big farm ,it’s like you in Australia.
have a nice harvesting (in France it’s in 2 month, the lexion combine is ready to go !!!)
bye bye
franck
Hi David
I have been over to a number of countries since I last left a message, one being Kazakhstan on a second visit, I am making some inroads into their change-over to Zero Till to the extent that we may have a delegation of farmers and research people coming on a 10 day visit so will be making contact with you to see your operation and show them the correct approach to ZT and Tramline farming. Hope your year is above average? Will be in touch. Snow Keene principal of ZERO TILL International.
Good work guys, keep it up.
I agree with John, you are the leaders.
Regards
Michael Reid
This is first farm blog i’m watching . Promoting a farm digitally is very good idea. beside that driving is also important for farming.