Rainfall helps wrap up canola

Tardun grower David Tropiano is happy to have wrapped up his family's 300-hectare canola program.

Mr Tropiano, who share farms with his wife Sheree, daughters Isla and Asha and father John east of Mullewa, said the family's Pallotine Road block had performed better than other areas of their farm because of crop-saving rains that fell in August.

He said he was pleased to achieve yields of 600kg/ha for the canola considering the rough June and July conditions, perfectly timing his program to fit in with the birth of his second child between harvesting the canola and waiting for the wheat to ripen.

The rain in August and a soft finish have meant some of the family's wheat will ripen later than usual.

Of their 3700ha wheat program, Mr Tropiano and his father have so far harvested about 40ha of Tammarin Rock, with yields of 1.1tonne/ha and no screenings.

If the weather remains favourable, the family hopes to wrap up harvest by early December, which Mr Tropiano said would allow him to spend quality time with his "harvest baby".

To the south-west of Mullewa, Devils Creek farmer Scott McGregor said he was relieved to get into his header - and away from the heat and flies - to start the wheat harvest.

Mr McGregor, who farms with his wife Jenna, their children Lucas and Vienna and his parents Bruce and Raelene, has already completed harvest of 200ha of Stingray canola - averaging 600kg/ha - and 100ha of feed barley.

A few machinery hold-ups had delayed harvest of the family's 2000ha of Mace and Wyalkatchem wheat, which Mr McGregor said he hoped to average about 1.6t/ha.

The farm recorded 227mm of rain from the start of April to the end of September, however, with only 2mm falling in June and not much more for July, Mr McGregor said the heavy country would bring their average down.

The 67mm that fell in August has helped to improve yields on the property, but Mr McGregor said "we could have averaged two tonne if 20mm of that had fallen in June".

The soft finish to the 2013 growing season has also meant weeds have faired relatively well, with Mr McGregor predicting he would have to spend some time on his sprayer culling weeds this summer.

He said the family was aiming to finish harvest by early December.

For growers in the Mullewa area, the general consensus is that despite the unusual cropping season most have fared relatively well.

However, the exception is the Pindar area where August rains did not penetrate as well.

Farmers in the area have predicted yields as low as 300kg/ha for their wheat.