Mixed bag of rain, crop composition and sentiment for WA grain farmers as they wrap up seeding

Grain crops are up and away in the Great Southern and Esperance areas, but farmers in the Mid West are still enduring dry and hot conditions while looking to the sky and praying for rain.

Some farmers are tentatively pulling back their cropping programs across the Northern Wheatbelt and across the Geraldton area, causing the total estimated crop area for WA to dip from last month’s projections to 8.67 million hectares.

Farmer sentiment is mixed across the Central and Southern Wheatbelt, where localised storms have caused patchy or minimal germination and many farmers still seeding into dry soil.

York agronomist Mike Lamond, who pens the monthly Grains Industry Association of WA crop report, said farmers were aware it was still “early days” in the grain growing season and most were sticking to their planned seeding programs.

But more paddocks could be put to fallow, or not cropped, this year if the persistent dry conditions continued.

“Crops are up and away in the southern grain growing regions of Western Australia following several decent falls of rain in April,” Mr Lamond said.

“However, the northern half of the State is mostly dry with little or no crops up and no subsoil moisture available to risk sowing on the light rainfall events that have occurred.

“The total estimated crop area for WA is slightly down from the April crop report due to the persistent dry conditions in the top third of the State’s grain growing regions.”

GIWA’s May estimate forecasts WA grain farmers will plant 4 million hectares of wheat, 1.92 million hectares of barley, 1.73 million hectares of canola, 365,000ha of oats, 495,000ha of lupins, 93,000ha of pulses this year.

Salmon Gums farmer Tim Starcevich’s children Carter, 4, and Harper, 6, pictured above, were eager to check out how the barley was faring at the weekend.

Mr Starcevich said most of his family’s crops were looking “really good”, but like most farmers, he was hoping for more rain.

“Our barley is a few inches out of the ground and looking good,” he said. “But some of the paddocks seeded on heavier country are starting to look a little dry.”

Mr Lamond echoed that sentiment, that temperatures of between 30C and 33C had stressed emerging canola, and most farmers were moving on from canola sowing to focus on barley and wheat.

Crop composition has been variable across WA’s grain growing areas, with canola being subbed out for barley due to dry conditions in the Mid West, while canola and lupin plantings are up across the Central and Southern Wheatbelt.

While pest and disease is understood to be low across grain growing areas, Mr Lamond said there had been a focus on revising pre-emergence strategies after ineffective rainfall events, with a trend toward post-emergence herbicide application.

The Great Southern and the Esperance areas are proving to be the jewels in the grain growing crown this year, with many farmers receiving more than 50mm of rain in April to get crops off to a good start.

Canola and early-sown barley crops are rocketing through their growth stages, with limited rainfall in May meaning waterlogging — often an issue in the Albany area — has not been a problem just yet.

“The crops that are up will be drying out the soil profile and setting a good amount of top growth to assist them if the winter rainfall does pick up,” Mr Lamond said.

“As a result, it could be another very good year for the region.”

Esperance farmers have had one of their best starts to the grain growing season in recent years, thanks to falls of between 20-30mm in March and up to 140mm in April driving strong crop germination.

Mr Lamond said there had been a marked contrast in rainfall recorded in grain growing areas between Geraldton and Esperance, with little rain and hot conditions in the Mid West and above-average falls along the South Coast.