Hussey family swaps sugar for peanuts

Nutrien Ag Solutions agronomist Brad Hussey has had over 25 years of experience working for Sugar Research Australia, Mackay, in extension agronomy on sugarcane farms, while his son, Kayden, studied Ag Science at UQ, Gatton, specialising in agronomy.

The family made the move to their 100-hectare property at Kingaroy from Mackay in 2021, with the goal to grow 'the most profitable crop' in the area namely peanuts.

This is their second year growing peanuts, which they sell to Peanut Company of Australia Limited, which is located 10 kilometres from their property.

Brad explained the peanuts are grown under contract, which is a more reliable prediction of income than with other crops.

"You get a contact pre-planting and you are paid on your grading, the bigger ones, the smaller ones, the splits, the shells, the oil and the crushing. It depends on how they grade out," he said.

"They set the price at the start of the season. last year we got about $1350 a tonne, but ultimately it comes down to the grade.

"It's not like the sorghum price that is sliding and we don't know what we are going to get. The peanut price has been set since August last year, so you know what you are getting against your contract. What you don't know, is how you are going to grade."

Of the 100 hectares of land, 40 ha are dedicated to peanuts and the remaining land is split between their cattle, forage and dryland grain crops.

Brad said they rotate sorghum and peanut crops to take full advantage of the soil and climate conditions.

"Peanuts put about 100 kilograms of nitrogen to the hectare into the ground then you plant the sorghum next year to utilise that nitrogen," he said.

"They are a broadleaf, which limits your options for herbicides but is better for grass control, and next year when you have sorghum you can hammer the broadleaf weeds."

Brad said they had a dream run this summer with favourable weather that has resulted in a nice looking crop.

"We have had good rain this summer and a nice crop, which is about six to eight weeks away from harvest. We'll be harvesting about late April to early May," he said.

"When you harvest peanuts it's fairly intensive, they are all dug out of the ground inverted with lots of machinery but the soil is left quite bare.

"You can very quickly put something back in. If you pulled the peanuts out and had 50 millimetres of rain you might stick a wheat or barley crop in.

"People here grow wheat and barley as well, which are probably viewed as more opportunistic crops, double crop options rather than solely a single winter crop. Our rainfall is more summer orientated so we are trying to maximise that."

In terms of efficiencies, Kayden said they had started purchasing gear towards a control traffic plan.

"We are on a semi control traffic plan here at the moment but it's just a bit inefficient, with the narrower gear you just end up with a lot of wheel tracks," he said.

"We are going to wider machinery but all focused around a six-row control traffic plan. We've bought GPS recently in a new planter."

The family run 25 head of cattle, Murray Greys mostly with a couple of Droughtmasters and an Angus bull.

Brad said they had no plans to expand the cattle side of the business, instead putting their energy into cultivating the best crops they could.

"The cropping enterprise is many times the income as the cattle enterprise. The money is in crops not in cattle," he said.

"We have probably got about equal the amount of land in the cattle and the crops and we could make 10 times the amount of money off the crops."