WUBIN grower Boyd Carter was on his last run of the evening in his Scope barley when Farm Weekly visited last week.
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Boyd farms 12,000 hectares with father Keith east of Wubin.
He started swathing canola in the second week of October and hasn't stopped since.
This year he cropped 9700ha, consisting of 680ha of oats, 2400ha of barley, 970ha of lupins, 1455ha of canola and 4170ha of wheat.
It is the first season Boyd has planted oats and with an impressive yield of 6.2 tonnes per hectare of hay, it will be part of future programs.
Yields were also up in the canola (2t/ha) and wheat crops (2.8t/ha) - 1t/ha more than predicted.
"That was a bit of surprise and a really nice gain on the wheat," he said.
Boyd credits the above-average yields with the soft finish but said frost had taken its toll on some crops.
"When we first started we thought 60-70 per cent of the wheat was affected but going through it now it's a bit hard to tell as there are different spots across the farm," he said.
"Parts of the canola were on the low-lying sand plains dropped to 0.6t/ha and it has affected the barley which has a little bit of damage the whole way through it."
Depending on how next season starts Boyd said he would consider planting more lupins and add peas or another option to the rotation.
"We might do more canola and a bit less wheat and cut out some of our varieties and see which ones have been heavily affected by the frost," he said
"We'll definitely keep going with the hay as there are a lot of opportunities with that."
