The crop may not have been his, but there was no surprising Kerang hay contractor Colin Radcliffe that the Victorian Best Canola Hay Visual Appearance award went to a crop he harvested.
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The award was announced at the recent 2018-19 Feed Central National Hay Quality awards and Mr Radcliffe, who owns Tyisha Pastoral Company with his brother Brett, said the crop of Sea Lake's Grant Alday was destined for success.
"It wasn’t surprising," he said.
"You don’t normally see canola hay at that quality, we struck lucky.
"Grant made the decision to cut it early, which you have to with canola.
"There was no leaf loss prior to baling and the weather was on our side.
"You can’t do that sort of hay without weather."
Mr Radcliffe said hay was better for livestock when made in a drought year.
"You get better quality hay in drought conditions," he said.
"A drought-affected feed crop has a better feed test than a bulky rank crop."
