DESPITE dry conditions in the central Wheatbelt, Kevin Richards is hopeful of reasonable crops when he puts the header through his 1214 hectare property at Nukarni, 20 kilometres north of Merredin, in mid-November.
This year Mr Richards, who farms the property with his wife Leticia, has had to deal with about a third of the average annual rainfall in the area, with just 78 millimetres filling the rain gauge this year - well down on the expected 250-270mm.
This is the second year that they have cropped this property, having only recently purchased it and on the back of leasing it last year.
After selling his farm at Wilgoyne, further north, in 2000 and predominantly working in the mining sector since then, Mr Richards said they jumped at the opportunity to return to farming and with a property that has a strong family connection on his wife's side, purchasing it from Doug and Leslie Geier.
The property has been in the Geier family since 1910 and Mr Richards said it was good to be back in farming again instead of mining.
He has been running sheep for the past five to six years on agistment without anywhere for them to call home.
Mr Richards said last year, with reasonable rainfall, they averaged 1.3 tonnes per hectare of the Mace wheat crops, with the oats put in for sheep feed.
Similar to last season he waited for the rain before starting seeding, with the program getting underway on June 18, which he conceded was almost getting too late to be viable.
"We work on the theory of low-risk farming rather than high-risk farming and we waited for the rain so we could seed into moisture," he said.
"About a third of the program was cut off because of the lateness and we were running out of sheep feed that hadn't got away, so the sheep took priority and we left the rest out for them to feed on."
Last year's wheat program was only Mace but this year Sceptre has been added, with 150ha of each going in.
"Local results said the Sceptre was more compatible in the area, if not slightly better than Mace but we were not game enough to throw one variety out completely, so we split them down the middle," Mr Richards said.
As for which variety is performing better, the jury is still out.
"At the moment there is not much difference in them, but the header will tell the story," Mr Richards said.
Also seeded this year is 200ha of oats, with 150ha of that being Carrolup and the remainder being Williams.
"We put Williams in last year and then people told us that it needs a bit more moisture than this area generally provides, so then we went for Carrolup and it has shown up in the results.
"The Carrolup is miles in front of the Williams, particularly for the longer, drier year."
Mr Richards was hopeful they escaped any frost damage in winter but said the truth would be revealed when the header was rolling.
Considering there was only 78mm for the season, he said the crops were holding on.
"The plants haven't stooled out - they have made one good head instead of three or four poor ones and even though the crop is thin, the quality should still be there and not end up as chook wheat," he said.
The aim is to have a 50:50 cropping/sheep rotation but with the poor conditions this year and the crop reduced, Mr Richards said he was able to boost his sheep numbers - holding about 1400 head, including lambs, on-farm as well as on agistment at a southern property.
The wool clip this year wasn't bad, topping sale results in the Elders F124 August sale for 18-19 micron fleece, "which we don't normally get down to, it is normally at 19-21 micron, but because of the dry year, it was finer".
"We stuck a heap of pellets and hay through the sheep and just kept the sheep good and we ended up with good strength and good high yields and it paid off."
Shearing was in August this year and working on a 10-month rotation, it will be a bit earlier in 2020.
"We are now buying our rams from Quentin Davies at Cardiff stud and we were getting the results we are looking for there - being plain, big-bodied sheep."
