Harvest hopes for Western Australia

Forecasts show Western Australia could harvest a bigger crop than anticipated and Wickepin farmer Gary Lang said he wasn’t surprised by the turnaround.

A difficult start to the cropping season is offset by a better finish for Western Australian farmers, with yields being revised upwards.

The October edition of the Grains Industry Association of Western Australia forecasts crop yields of 17,753,000 tonnes, representing an increase from 16,858,000 tonnes tipped last month.

Grains Research and Development western panel chairman and Wickepin farmer Gary Lang said he wasn’t surprised by the turnaround in the forecast.

He said what started as a dry season had turned around towards the end, and there was some beneficial growing season rainfall.

His property receives an average annual rainfall of 380mm, and he expects the 2024 result to align with that, albeit due to late-season rain.

The 4500-hectare operation, which Mr Lang leased out for the first time this season, grows canola, barley, wheat, oats and lupins.

“Things are looking good, and I think there will be good harvest results,” he said.

Despite hail and frost damage in parts of Victoria and southern NSW, he said the crops in his area had escaped weather challenges.

“There has been no damage to report in our area,” he said.

Cropping farmer and GRDC western panel chairman Gary Lang of Wickepin in Western Australia pictured in a crop of canola. Picture: Supplied

Mr Lang said one of the shining lights for cropping farmers was the price of oats, which had recently increased by around $100 a tonne.

“Typically, or historically, oats would trend at around 20 per cent less than wheat, but that isn’t the case now,” he said.

Mr Lang said the oat market was being driven by the demand for oat milk in China.

“It is a big trend,” he said.

The October GIWA report projects the state’s oat tonnage to be 590,000 tonnes, also revised from the September report, which projected 555,000 tonnes.

Mr Lang said harvest was well underway in Western Australia, and all four ports were receiving grain.

Grain deliveries were occurring at Geraldton, Kwinana, Albany and Esperance.

“I think we will see things crank up in the next couple of weeks, and it should all be over by Christmas time,” he said.

There was no rain forecast for the west in the next week, which was welcome news for the harvest.

“It is getting hot, though, and we are seeing 38-degree days,” he said.

In the breakdown of crop production, growers are expected to see yields of 9,910,000 tonnes of wheat, 4,320,000 tonnes of barley, 2,355,000 tonnes of canola, 505,000 tonnes of lupins and 73,000 tonnes of pulses.

However, there was still some pressure due some dry conditions.

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development senior research scientist Dr Ian Foster said the combination of a dry September and well-above-normal temperatures had pushed soil moisture lower for much of the southern cropping and south coast regions.