Western Australian growers pin hopes on spring rain

Growers in Western Australia are looking to the sky to help crops meet good yield potential.

Western Australian producers could harvest a 16,318,000 tonne crop but it all hinges on rain.

The latest Grains Industry Association of Western Australia crop predictions paint a picture of more wheat and less canola.

Canola estimates are at 2,220,000 tonnes with 1,650,000ha planted.

The figure is down from the 1,845,000ha of canola in the crop report from this time last year.

Wheat accounts for the lion’s share of Western Australia’s winter crop production with 9,200,000 tonnes estimated at harvest from an area of 5,000,000ha.

GrainGrowers chairman and York, Western Australia farmer Rhys Turton said recent rain had helped to boost confidence and sentiment. Picture: Richard Wainwright

GrainGrowers chairman and York, Western Australia farmer Rhys Turton said recent rain had helped to boost confidence and sentiment.

“The rain that went through last weekend, and again midweek delivered some reasonable falls across the wheat belt,” he said.

Mr Turton said it was likely crop estimates could be revised slightly up based on the rain.

“We had 17mm here ourselves, and there is more forecast,” he said.

Mr Turton said the seasonal conditions were not too late for wheat, barley, and oats, but it was likely that canola would suffer.

He said the late sowing of canola had not been helpful for that crop.

Mr Turton grows lupins, canola, wheat, barley and oats. He said of all the crops in the rotation, canola was affected the most by dry conditions.

The GIWA report cited the widespread rain for more optimism about the cropping outlook.

“Rain during the start of July has reached most grain growing regions of Western Australia with falls of 15mm or more for all areas except parts of the southern grain growing regions and the western portions of the Esperance port zone,” the report stated.

“The northern grain growing zones received well in excess of this.”

However, before the rain, many crops were on a knife-edge at the end of June with little or no subsoil moisture reserves, and the rain could not have come sooner.

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development senior research scientist Dr Ian Foster said farmers in Western Australia welcomed a change in conditions with rain in May, June and early July.

However, rainfall from April to June remained lower than normal for the cropping area apart from the north.

He said the Bureau of Meteorology’s seasonal outlook for July to September had neutral rainfall chances for much of the cropping area.