GRAIN growers through the Esperance region are feeling the Christmas joy as harvest nears its end, with 2017 going down as a year for the record books.
For David and Sally Cox it has been their best season in memory, with wheat crops yielding up to six tonnes per hectare.
The couple harvested 9000 hectares, between their Esperance and Hyden properties this year, with the help of two headers and eight harvest staff.
The pair purchased land in Hyden seven years ago to expand their cropping program away from the competitive Esperance market.
It takes a day to move machinery between the two vastly different farming environments located 400 kilometres apart, but Mr Cox said harvest results had been pleasing at both properties.
Of their 9000ha program, 4000ha was planted to canola this year, while 3000ha was cropped to wheat and 2000ha was sown to barley.
Mr Cox said wheat and canola had performed particularly well with similar results throughout much of the Esperance zone due to late-season rain.
“In the whole of the Esperance area the farm averages have been really good, we’ve missed the waterlogging,” Mr Cox said.
“Usually we’d lose 10 to 15 per cent of production through waterlogging, and up to 30pc in bad years.
“It’s probably our best wheat and canola yields in memory and our average yields were up with our best.”
Bonito was the predominant canola variety used on both farms this season, averaging 1.6t/ha on the Esperance property and 750 kilograms per hectare in Hyden, with oil content at 49-50 per cent.
“It has been very good considering what the season looked like in June,” Mr Cox said.
On the Esperance farm Scepter made up most of the wheat program and averaged 4.5t/ha, with some crops peaking at 6t/ha and averaging 5.8t/ha.
Mace was the variety of choice in Hyden and yielded the long-term average of 1.5t/ha.
Mr Cox said the high yields had diluted protein and most wheat had been graded APW2.
South East Premium Wheat Growers Association (SEPWA) executive officer Niki Curtis said low protein had been a common issue across the Esperance port zone, prompting many growers to consider increasing their legume plantings next year.
“Protein levels have been the biggest disappointment that’s come from the soft finish and the higher yields, most growers just didn’t expect the finish,” Ms Curtis said.
“In August it was pretty dry here so they’re realising now that there probably wasn’t enough nitrogen and maybe not at the right time and are also really looking at putting more legumes in the system.
“There’s lots of talk of that but the biggest problem is trying to sell them, we’re so far from what domestic market there is in Perth so getting better markets and more consistent prices is really just something that we really need.”
Mr Cox said he expected to alter his program to include more lupins next year.
Also in the pipeline for 2018 was the expansion of his deep ripping program to the Hyden property.
Deep ripping has been incorporated in the Cox’s program in Esperance for several years now, and had made significant improvements.
“There’s certain soil types that are responding well to it, so we’re going to start doing some deep ripping out on the Hyden farm,” Mr Cox said.
“We try and deep rip all of our country every three years and we mouldboard plough those non-wetting soils.
“We mouldboard around 2500ha, and that’s just been a program over the last three or four years that’s had a big benefit on our non-wetting soils and reducing weeds.”
A new drainage program was also on the cards for 2018 on the Esperance farm, which Mr Cox would spend the upcoming month finalising once the last few days of harvest were complete this week.
