RECENT advancements in farming practices have enabled growers to break even or in some cases turn a profit in a very difficult year, according to the Grain Industry Association of WA (GIWA) when it released its December WA Crop Production Estimates on Friday.
It said the exception to this was in the northern grain growing regions where many growers would return less than their variable costs
The report put WA's total production at 11.2 million tonnes, which includes stored on-farm seed and feed requirements, as well as trade outside of the CBH network.
As of Monday, 9.5mt had been received in the CBH network (see story on opposite page).
GIWA said grain yields were disappointing for most, except those growers in the western regions of the Albany port zone and areas in the west of the South Kwinana port zone.
The GIWA report said even though total tonnage was well down on recent years, it was a good result considering the season.
"Most grain growing regions started the season with no summer rain and with a very dry soil profile compared with the big crops of 2018," the GIWA report said.
The WA average wheat yield is expected to be about 1.17 tonnes per hectare from the 4.5 million hectares planted, with barley predicted to be about 1.94t/ha from about 1.95mha planted.
The low average wheat yield has had the greatest impact on the reduced tonnage produced due to the dry conditions in the major wheat growing regions and has not been this low for such a large area for more than 10 years.
Barley grain yields are well down in the central and northern regions, although the tonnage had a late kick with the southern and coastal regions performing very well.
Canola tonnage is up from estimates a month ago due to grain yields in the higher rainfall regions yielding more than expected.
Deliveries, as opposed to production of oats, lupins and to a lesser extent barley are well down on recent years.
The private acquirers picked up the bulk of oat production.
"Lupins have been held back by growers due to the lower barley prices to give them options to go more to barley for sheep feed and quit lupins for cash rather than feed to sheep if barley prices remain low," the GIWA report said.
Wheat on the good Geraldton zone sandplain yielded between 0.8 to 1.0t/ha with the deep ripped country around 200 kilograms per hectare more.
Lupins and canola on the better sandplain yielded around 1.0t/ha for lupins and around 500kg/ha for canola.
Deep ripped country two years out consistently yielded half a tonne more for lupins and around 300kg/ha more for canola.
Grain yields are well down in the Kwinana Zone - North Midlands.
Cereal crops in the west of the zone had put on more growth in the winter than further east and crashed when the heat came on in the spring.
In the west, screenings were higher with the longer season higher potential varieties such as Sceptre and Ninja, contrasting with varieties such as Chief and Zen which yielded comparatively well with screenings well under 5pc.
Chief has been performing well since it was released a few years ago and the indication in the region for next year is that the barley area will be replaced with Chief due to its good grain yield.
Chief has the option of controlling Brome grass and is also able to be used as a follow crop after an Imi barley such as Spartacus.
"The premium cereal grades were hard to find in the region with dedicated noodle growers delivering less than 50pc to APWN than what they would normally do, and barley malt growers down by 60 to 70pc on what would normally go Malt 1 or Malt 2," the GIWA report said.
"Lupins and canola on deep ripped country yielded several hundred kilograms per hectare more than on the non-ripped country, as it did in most of the State.
"Hybrid canola has consistently been yielding more than the non-hybrids in both the west and the east of the zone, although looking to next year most growers will either back off on canola area without sub-soil moisture at the start of the growing season, or sow retained TT seed to keep input costs down following the poor year in 2019."
In the eastern areas, growers minimised the risk of low canola grain yields by sowing on fallow and only on soil types best suited to canola."
Grain yields in the Kwinana South zone have been down 10 to 20pc on recent averages for cereals and 30pc down for canola.
The grain quality has been generally OK with wheat hovering around the 5pc mark, depending on variety and soil type.
Grain yields for wheat range from about 3t/ha 3 in the west to 1.5 t/ha in the eastern areas.
Barley has had very high screenings and very little has been going into the malt stacks.
Grain yields in the Kwinana North East region fell away with the warm temperatures in the spring resulting in more damage to crops than first thought.
Many growers north of the Great Eastern Highway were well below recent averages with whole wheat averages generally below 1.0t/ha.
Many paddocks yielded in the 0.6 to 0.8t/ha range and there was a big variation in wheat quality.
The grain yields of most crops improved a little south of the Great Eastern Highway with wheat yielding in the 1.0 to 1.5t/ha per hectare range in the east and some better yields up to 2.0t/ha in the western parts of the region.
In the north eastern areas wheat went in the 0.750 kg/ha to 1.3t/ha and barley 500 to 700 kg/ha.
Canola and, to a lesser extent lupins, yielding less than 500kg per hectare.
Grain yields really picked up moving into the western and southern parts of the Albany Zone.
Most growers have been yielding more than expected for all crops with grain quality excellent.
The lack of waterlogging in the zone has been a real bonus over the past few years and shows what potential the region has as a grain producing area in these types of seasons.
Most growers have reported frost taking the top off the canola yields, more so than the cereals, and even with the frost, plenty of canola paddocks are yielding more than 2.5t/ha.
The lift in expected canola tonnage this month has been due to the extra grain yields being reported in these western regions.
Barley crops are also yielding very well with whole farm averages of more than 5t/ha not unusual.
Wheat grain yields have also been very good, as have lupin crops.
The stand out this year has been the success of faba beans in the wetter paddocks within the region.
Grain yields in the Albany South region were average or above average in the west, graduating to below average in the east due to lack of rain and frost.
The yields varied a lot for all grains, depending on soil type and position in the profile from frost.
Growers who picked up storms did much better, while some growers in the eastern areas have been severely impacted by frost for three years - in an area where frost was previously uncommon.
Most crops yielded slightly less than expected in the Albany East (Lakes region).
Wheat was in the 1.4 t/ha tonne range with barley in the 1.6-1.7t/ha range.
Canola and lupins yielded in the 500-600kg/ha range with a fair bit of lupins left in the paddock due to the very short crops.
For crops close to the coast in the Esperance zone, grain yields for barley and canola were exceptional due to the lack of waterlogging, although when heading further away from the coast normally "frost free" areas have been impacted significantly from the frost events which were followed by the very hot conditions.
In the more northern and north western areas of the zone it was just a very dry year followed by an unusually hot spring.
