THE start of harvest for the Last family, 19 kilometres south of Merredin, has had a couple of hiccups, including receiving more than 10 millimetres of rain over a few days and then on Saturday, a harvest ban was in place due to high temperatures and extreme winds.
Despite this, the family operation, run by Richard and Maureen Last, and their son Craig and his wife Alyce, started harvest just over two weeks ago and given the dry season the results have been reasonable.
"We started with the barley and averaged just on a tonne to the hectare," Richard said.
"It all went feed quality with so many screenings in it, but that was a pretty good result.
"Then on the lupins we averaged half a tonne and on the oats the average was around 1.2t/ha.
"We are on wheat at the moment and it is right on the line between 0.9t/ha and 1t/ha and that's about where we expected it, but the protein is very high and we just have to manage our screenings."
The Lasts seeded about 1200 hectares this year, with 800ha going to wheat, 150ha to barley, 100ha to oats and 50ha to lupins, similar to the program they had last year, but the current program won't match last year's results.
"Last season would have been one of the best ones with good yields and good prices," Craig said.
The wheat sown is a split between Mace and Zen that has been part of the rotation for the past few seasons.
"We use Zen mainly to keep in the Noodle wheat market, given the price of Noodle wheat - even this year the Noodles are good," Craig said.
Last year the wheat averaged 2t/ha, an improvement on the five-year average of 1.7t/ha.
The Lasts usually start seeding in the first week of May but it was a bit later this year because of the lack of rain.
"This year we dry seeded a bit, purely because it hadn't rained and then we waited for the rain to finish it off because it (the ground) was just too hard," Craig said.
"It was a late start last year as well but the finishing rain, once it started, it just kept coming, giving us 10mm every week just about, and then we got a big one to top if off."
This year the Lasts only received 145mm of rain for the growing season, well down on the average that is closer to 300m - and they received no summer rain.
Craig said considering they didn't have a lot of rain this year the crops held up reasonably well, attributing that to the performance of new wheat varieties.
Richard said this was his 56th crop and he was continuing on with the legacy started by his grandparents who have been farming in the Korbelka area since 1910, with Craig being the fourth generation.
He said over that time there had been improvements "in technology, varieties, machines...everything".
"You go back to a few years ago we would have hardly put the header into the paddock if conventional farming had still been in practice," Richard said.
"I can remember in 1980 we had paddocks here where you would go for two hours and you didn't stop to empty the box, but you stopped for a break and to grease the header up - and that was it.
"But this year those same paddocks are in crop and they will probably deliver at least 0.8t/ha and I think it would be similar if not less rainfall this year than back then."
Richard said despite the challenging season the price would hold up this year, saying "it's the same old story of supply and demand".
"It's not an easy game, but it's a game you enjoy and it's a bit like playing football, you have just got to take the bumps with the glory," he said.
The crops are two thirds of the operation with the remaining third reserved for sheep, running about 800 head, including the Aylesbury stud.
"I honestly think it is not farming unless you have got a few sheep," Richard said.
"And last year was one of those rare years when where grain and wool prices were both sensational - normally you find if the grain prices fall, the wool will get you through and vice-versa.
"This year wool has come back a bit but the grain prices look like holding up, at this stage."
