WA growers are rapidly securing their third biggest harvest on record from the 2024-25 winter season
Rain may have delayed proceedings a little, but it wasn’t enough to stop growers from reaching close to 19 million tonnes for the third-biggest state harvest on record.
Growers in Western Australia are closing in on a crop that will end up in the 18 to 19 million tonne range, according to the Grain Industry Association of WA (GIWA), the third largest grain crop on record for WA.
This will be a remarkable turn-around considering the shaky start of the season and below-average rainfall for all regions, other than the northern agricultural zone.
Up until the widespread rains that fell this week, the grain was coming off at a record rate for this time of the year, due to good conditions, increased harvesting capacity, well-organised receival sites and seeing the impending rain coming from a long way out. Growers were working longer hours.
Rain this week has stopped or slowed harvest in most areas of the state. Light rainfall has been annoying in the central regions and heavier rain in the eastern fringes and southwestern fringes will be more than annoying as grain quality will likely be impacted.
Yields also at high levels
Grain yields have been higher than expected so far for all crops in most areas. While grain yields have been above average, the crops were obviously on the verge of crashing, as much of the wheat has high screenings and there’s very low retention in the barley.
Crops in some areas where there was no rain at all in September did crash and burn off prematurely, a position that highlighted the precarious state crops were in during the grain fill period.
In years like this, high screenings and low retention are directly related to soil type, variety maturity, soil amelioration and of course spring rain, and this is being reflected in a large range in grain quality in grain delivered to date.
While the majority of the grain belt in WA did have well below average rain, this varied across the regions, and the tonnage required to supply market demand for the premium quality grades will still likely be met.
Canola crops seem to have been less affected by the very dry finish with most yielding more than expected and grain quality, including oil percentages is good. The canola crops lacked the usual biomass due to the later start and this has assisted them in being able to conserve subsoil moisture to fill pods.
Lupin and oat grain yields are also coming in higher than expected. The area harvested for both far exceeded much earlier estimates, and this has contributed to the tonnage estimates pushing up to near record levels.
GIWA crop harvest prediction for WA 2024-25
