IT WAS a surprising year for Bruce Rock farmer Carl Fuchsbichler, with a mix of good and bad results for the 2016-17 season.
Carl and his father Franz cropped 3400 hectares this season, with 1400ha of wheat, 750ha of barley, 350ha of canola, 550ha of lupins and 350ha of oats.
"We had a blanket frost over everything and I'd say it deducted the yields on all our crops by about half a tonne," he said.
Carl said the Bruce Rock region was affected by eight frost events, with crops in low-lying areas suffering the most.
"The Magenta wheat seemed to be hit the hardest, but I don't think that's a reflection on the variety - it was just in our low-lying paddocks," he said.
"The Mace averaged about 1.8t/ha, the Calingiri about 1.9t/ha and then the Magenta will be lucky to average 1.0t/ha.
"Most of our noodle wheat went Noodle1, and the Mace and Magenta was a mix of APW1, APW2, and ASW."
Canola was the standout crop for the Fuchsbichler's, yielding almost a tonne over their five-year average.
"Canola was really good this season - we averaged 1.9t/ha with the Bonito and we usually average under a tonne.
"Oil content was also up, at about 49 per cent.
Apart from the frost events, Carl said the season had been near perfect.
"We were well and truly above our average rainfall this year.
"We managed to start seeding earlier than usual in early April and it had a better start with a 110 millimetre drop at Easter."
Carl said harvest was slow-paced with thick crops and 18mm of rain in December.
"The bulk is there but there wasn't much grain, so we had to take time to get through it.
"The rain stopped us for about two and a half days too, but it was quite nice to have a break."
Carl plans to crop a similar program next season with pleasing results across the board.
"The program we put in worked well - it's fairly low-risk so I don't think we'll change too much."
p Record-breaking harvest reaches 16.1mt, page 3.
