LIKE many farmers in WA, Mingenew grower Jeremy Walsley is pretty happy with how the season is going.
With this being "the earliest we've finished seeding" since Jeremy returned to the farm in 1998, it is giving him the chance to catch up on those more mundane farming jobs such as fencing.
"We received 40 millimetres of rain in early April so we made the decision to go in then," he said.
Mr Walsley farms 5500 hectares at his farm Nanekine, north-east of Mingenew, growing predominantly wheat but with a mix of oats and lupins to feed their 500 Merinos and 2500 Dorpers.
After two summer sprays, their knockdown program consisted mainly of glyphosate and Estercide 680, followed by pre-emergent applications of trifluralin, Boxer Gold and Sakura.
"The pre-emergent herbicides have done a really good job and so the paddocks are pretty clean, but we'll go in and do our post-emergent sprays this week,'' Mr Walsley said.
He sources his Merinos from Woolkabin, at Woodanilling, and his Dorpers from Douwana Dorpers, at Yuna.
He said sheep grazing had made a big difference to his wild radish populations.
On one block purchased in 2009, sheep have virtually wiped out the problem weed.
"Keeping on top of radish is really important for us and it has paid off - you would struggle to find it in our crops now."
This year, Mr Walsley has planted 5200ha of wheat.
Mace is the mainstay variety but he has also put in about 400ha of Wyalkatchem.
"Mace has been the benchmark since Wyalkatchem and yields well for us," he said.
"We're also keen to see how the new variety Scepter shapes up in the Mingenew Irwin Group field trials this year and what it will be like for our area."
Touted as the successor for Mace, Scepter offers later maturity than Mace and improved yield and leaf rust resistance.
This year, Mr Wasley's wheat was sown with Agflow at 55 kilograms/ha and up to 80kg/ha of urea.
Intake Pro was also coated on the Agflow to protect against fungal disease.
"Our soils tend to be gravelly, so we need a fertiliser with a high phosphorus rate," he said.
Mr Walsley said he has been able to reduce his fertiliser rates considerably across the farm through a consistent and extensive liming program.
"We have applied about 6 tonnes/ha of lime across the whole farm over the past 10 years, which has seen our fertiliser rates drop by about 30kg/ha," he said.
He said last year wasn't too bad for the farm, with yield varying between 1.5-2t/ha.
Mr Walsley said this year everything was going well, and he would be keeping a close eye on fungal disease and insect problems.
"Lucerne flea can be a problem for us, so we will apply chlorpyrifos to keep them under control," he said.
"Depending on how the season shapes up we will also top up with urea."
He was expecting another small rain front this week to keep everything on track.
