LAST season and this season couldn't be more different at Pete Bestry's farm at Perenjori.
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After harvesting between 0.8-1 tonne per hectare in 2015 Pete is yielding around 2.8t/ha in his wheat crops spread across Bonnie Rock, Westonia, north and east Perenjori and Arrino as part of his 4000 hectare program with wife Susan.
"The season has been very good - it's been a bit cold but lucky our crops were early and we haven't had too much frost damage so far," he said.
Pete started seeding on March 28 and with a few delays, finished on May 3.
"We have been working on really early seeding for a few years and it is starting to pay off," he said.
Despite 30 kilograms per hectare of urea going down the tube at seeding and an additional 100kg/ha throughout the season, proteins were well back on previous years.
"Proteins have been low for us at 9.5-11 per cent where normally they're well above the 12pc but with the extra yield we can deal with that," Pete said.
"Even with the extra nitrogen it comes down to the length of the season and it didn't have the dry hard snap at the end."
All going to plan, Pete planned to "go bigger and go again" next year.
"We try and keep expanding - we have doubled the size of the program in the past two years in a row as we're fairly small."
