🌱 Crop choice and planting
The crop you choose sets your budget, your labour peak and your market. This guide walks through matching a crop to your rainfall, water and market, then getting the variety, planting date and population right.
- Summer planting window
- Mid-November to mid-December after 25–30 mm of effective rain
- Winter wheat planting
- Late April to late May under irrigation
- Maize population
- 44,000–53,000 plants/ha dryland; up to 60,000 under irrigation
- Rotation rule
- Never a cereal after a cereal on the same block two years running
Start with water, then market
Pick a crop your rainfall or irrigation can finish, and that you already know how to sell. A brilliant yield with no buyer is a loss.
- High rainfall or irrigation: maize, tobacco, soyabean, potatoes, horticulture.
- Marginal rainfall: sorghum, pearl millet, sunflower, groundnuts, cowpeas, livestock.
- Winter under irrigation: wheat, barley, peas, cabbage, onions.
- Confirm the buyer, the contract and the payment terms before you plant.
Choose the variety on maturity, not on the poster
Variety choice is mostly about season length. A long-season variety planted late runs out of rain; a short-season variety in a good year leaves yield on the table.
- Match the variety's days to maturity to the rain you can reasonably expect.
- Plant certified seed and keep the tag — it is your proof if the crop fails.
- Pick disease tolerance for your area's known problem (grey leaf spot, rust, bacterial wilt).
- Split your hectares across two maturity groups to spread drought and price risk.
Planting date and population
Yield is set in the first three weeks. Plant into moist soil at the correct depth and spacing, and thin or gap-fill within the first ten days.
- Wait for 25–30 mm of effective rain and a wet profile before dryland planting.
- Plant depth: 5–7 cm for maize in moist soil, shallower on heavy clay.
- Set row width and in-row spacing to hit your target population, then count plants per 10 m to verify.
- Apply basal fertiliser with planting, banded to the side and below the seed, not on it.
- Gap-fill within 7–10 days; later replants only compete with the main crop.
Plan the season on paper first
Budget per hectare before you buy a single bag. Know your break-even yield and your break-even price so you can decide when to sell.
- List every cost per hectare: land, tillage, seed, fertiliser, chemicals, labour, harvest, transport.
- Divide the total cost by your realistic yield to get cost per tonne.
- Compare against the price you can actually get, not the best price you have heard.
- Track the actual costs against the budget as the season runs — that is what the FarmInvest app records for you.
Checklist
- Crop matched to rainfall, water and a confirmed buyer
- Certified seed bought, variety maturity matched to the season
- Target plant population and row spacing calculated
- Basal fertiliser banded at planting
- Gross margin budget written per hectare
Keep your own farm records
Create a free FarmInvest account to record land, equipment, inputs, labour and harvest per block, and see your cost per hectare as the season runs.