WITH figures showing the national harvest is approximately 25 per cent complete WA has seen one of its smallest wheat production estimates in a very long time.
Recent Grain Industry Association of WA (GIWA) statistics showed that about 3,866,000 hectares of wheat was planted in WA this year with an estimated return of nearly 3,575,000 tonnes.
Canola, oat and lupin crops were expected to produce a little less with 860,000ha of canola set to produce 698,000t, 153,000ha of oats were expected to provide 145,000t and 378,000ha of lupins were thought to provide 265,000t of grain.
It was surprising to see that barley and field peas in WA had resisted the downward trend.
GIWA figures showed about 1,108,000ha of barley was planted for the season and an estimated 1,327,000t would be harvested throughout the State.
Field peas occupied 73,600ha throughout WA which were also expected to return a higher yield of about 81,400t.
Fine harvest weather over the past few weeks allowed harvest in the north to push toward its finish and fine weather forecasts for the coming weeks would help growers to wrap up their harvests for another year.
High screenings and low oil numbers were the main quality issues for both northern and central crops but better quality crops were being reported further south around the Jerramungup, Ongerup and Borden areas.
In NSW the harvest was about 30pc finished even though reports from the paddocks suggested the going was slow.
With more rain expected to add to the recent 50 millimetres which fell throughout NSW contract harvesters have moved south to chase better weather which only added to the slow progress.
It was expected that grain quality would be widely downgraded to feed due to the weather throughout the State.
Around Dubbo farmers were busy harvesting wheat, barley and canola where the quality was described as generally good with protein in the mid-range.
South Australian farmers were about 20pc of the way through their harvests for the year.
Growers in the Mallee region were well into barley and canola and had started to turn their attention to some of the early wheat.
On the Eyre Peninsula harvest was still in its early stages with only an estimated 10pc of crops harvested.
Most of the canola had been windrowed and was starting to be harvested along with the barley.
On the York Peninsula oil content in canola was recorded at about 42pc with some loads scoring up to 45pc.
In the Victorian Mallee barley crops were estimated at about 70pc while canola was estimated at 80pc complete.
