Cropping
The centre pivots on the Tartrus property aggregation have helped drought-proof the property through the worst of seasons, as well as producing a cash flow from farming crops.
The first two centre pivots, each covering 285 acres were installed on Royles, the block across the MacKenzie River from Tartrus, in 1969. Since then, there has been regular rotation between grain and silage cropping.
Tartrus Station currently has five centre pivots, watering a total of 630 acres, not including extra areas of irrigated pastures.
Irrigation on the Kaiuroo block includes 860 acres, laser levelled and protected by levy banks. This area has been used for cotton, silage and hay and is currently being planted to leaucaena. The system includes a lateral move irrigation and another 600 acres which are flood irrigated and not protected by levy banks.
Extensive areas of dryland cultivation for cropping are also spread across the aggregation of properties, currently producing wheat and sorghum.