WA’s grain harvest is set to by all but finished by the end of December, marking one of the earliest end dates in recent years on the back of low yields, an early start and high-capacity machinery in use after two record crops.
The forecast — contained in the Grain Industry Association of WA’s November crop report — predicts a harvest end “several weeks earlier than normal” after an early start and tepid yields.
CBH Group’s Geraldton Port Zone is expected to pull up stumps first, with a mid-December end date the “earliest finish in memory” – meaning many will spend their Christmas period fishing.
The State’s grain harvest forecast has been slashed a nearly 500,000 tonnes during the past month, with the November estimate now at about 14.5 million tonnes.
A short, sharp finish to the growing season – due to a lack of rain – meant many farmers started harvest earlier than usual with the first delivery to CBH’s Yuna bin on September 27.
Coupled with lower crop yields, good harvest conditions, and high-capacity machinery – bought after consecutive record grain harvests – many farmers were expected to finish by Christmas.
GIWA crop report author Mike Lamond, an agronomist at York, said tonnages were below expectations and well below average across the State.
“While there have been some surprises in better-than-expected grain quality, yields have mostly been a little lower than expected,” he said.
“This trend is likely to continue as more crop comes off in the southern regions.
“The majority of wheat crops have suffered from the hot, dry finish and grain yields have been coming in lower than anticipated at the start of harvest.”
Mr Lamond said early-sown crops had outyielded later-sown crops “by a fair margin” after a lack of spring rain shortened the growing season and severely-limited potential of late-emerging crops.
Describing some harvest results as “really, really sad”, Mr Lamond said some farming areas in the North Eastern Wheatbelt had received less than 150mm of rain for the year.
“Areas of heavy country that have only received 120mm for the year are reporting figures like 200kg/ha for canola, 300kg/ha for lupins, 500kg/ha for wheat and 800kg/ha for barley,” he said.
“Overall, expectations were low, so the end result is about what was expected.”
In the south of the State, farmers in the Albany Port Zone have “put the breaks on harvest” after recent rainfall but are still expected to be finished in time for Christmas.
Mr Lamond said Great Southern farmer who didn’t seed in the first 10 days of April had discovered yields were “way down’ – creating a “disaster” for those in an area with a high cost of production.
Harvest is about two thirds of the way through in the Esperance Port Zone, with some farmers running smaller programs near Salmon Gums already finished harvesting.
The harvest results come after an exceptionally dry April to October period, with thunderstorms delivering isolated falls of more than 40mm across some parts of the grain belt.
An El Nino event established in the Pacific Ocean is likely to persist into Autumn next year, suppressing rainfall across the western parts of WA in summer.