Hopes high for harvest

Coomalbidgup grower Tim Scott has just started harvesting his 1800ha of wheat and said the crops so far were looking like they would yield more than 3.5 tonnes a hectare.

Mr Scott, who farms west of Esperance with his wife Sonia and parents Robin and Jenny, is hoping to record average, or slightly above-average yields in the wheat, to compensate for lower yields in the canola.

“The canola didn’t like the very wet year, so we were down about 300kg/ha to 1.3t/ha this year, as compared to our average of around 1.6t/ha,” he said. “But the wheat is looking really good at this early stage and seems to have handled the extra moisture well.”

Mr Scott said the farm received about 600mm of rain for the year, and the wetter conditions and cooler spring temperatures had delayed harvest by about a week. “This year wasn’t as bad as 2013, when we received 820mm for the year but there has been an impact on the canola yield, particularly those lower-lying paddocks that don’t drain well,” he said.

Mr Scott, who also farms at Munglinup, hopes his crops have escaped the widespread frosts that have devastated large parts of the Wheatbelt this year.

“I’m hoping we have been lucky, although it’s early days yet,” he said. “I think we are too close to the coast to have much frost-affected wheat.

“I’d be silly not to be happy with the season.”