GOOD falls of rain throughout February and March across much of the grain growing regions of Western Australia, except for the northern and western areas, has resulted in useful levels of sub-soil moisture for 2020 cropping programs.
According to the Grains Industry Association of Western Australia's (GIWA) April Crop Report, the early rain in WA has led to a positive outlook for the 2020 Season, COVID-19 conditions permitting.
The rain has also caused good winter weed germinations in the central and southern regions which will take the pressure off pre-emergent herbicides when the bulk of the crop is sown.
Crop Report author Michael Lamond said the strong grain prices for all crops was giving growers options with potential crop rotations, but the timing of the opening rains would play a big part in how the mix of crops played out.
"Wheat will be the dominant crop in 2020, even though the increase in barley area will continue this year in the southern areas of the State, the wheat area is likely to be up in the north and eastern regions of WA," Mr Lamond said.
"Area sown to canola could see a swing of up to 200,000 hectares in the central regions of the State if good rains fall between now and the first week in May.
"The lupin area is unlikely to change to any great extent, and the oaten hay and oat areas may increase slightly."
In the Geraldton zone, the current prediction on crop areas is wheat increasing and barley down, while canola and lupins could have large swings depending on the timing and amount of rainfall over the next month.
Mr Lamond said the strong wheat price and the ability to forward sell, combined with the need to "make up ground" on the poor production and financial results of 2019, would see a likely jump in wheat plantings.
"Of concern, recent herbicide resistance tests are showing increasing levels of resistance in ryegrass and radish to the major groups of herbicides," he said.
"Whilst this has driven crop species mixes and rotations for a long time, some levels of resistance are getting to critical levels where they are now limiting production options for growers."
In Kwinana North Midlands, the rain in February has allowed growers to start the season with soil amelioration activities such as deep-ripping and spading which were put on hold last year, while the crop area mixture this year will not change much from 2019.
For Kwinana South, the eastern areas of the zone received very good rains over the summer with the amount dropping off pretty quickly in western areas.
Mr Lamond said the western areas, where there is more legume pasture, had good germinations of sub-clover which had all died now from the recent hot days with not enough moisture to keep them going.
"Winter weed germinations were very good across the zone and these were sprayed out straight away to conserve soil moisture," he said.
"Getting a germination of winter weeds out of the way will also take the pressure off pre-emergent herbicides when it comes to sowing the bulk of the crop."
Wheat plantings will dominate the Kwinana North East region and due to the lower than average production out of the region and profit in 2019, most growers will take a more conservative approach to the year and not change programs significantly.
In Albany South there has been very little crop planted to date other than small areas of pasture and cereals for sheep feed.
Mr Lamond said the drop off in sheep numbers in the past two years may result in an increase in total crop area of between 5-10 per cent, depending on the timing of the break to the season.
"Most growers are still carting water for stock and domestic use," he said.
"The summer rain was variable across the region and for most growers, unless they were under storm clouds, they received little runoff."
Most of the Albany East Lakes Region had 50 to 100 millimetres of summer rain which has got growers excited as it has not occurred for several years.
Mr Lamond said small areas of oats for hay have gone in around eastern areas of the region and vetch has gone in in the southern regions just to get the bugs out of seeding systems.
"Small areas of canola are being dry sown and this will back-off if there is no rain on the short-term horizon," he said.
"Worryingly, the summer rainfall was not enough to alleviate surface water for livestock and other domestic water supplies, so most growers across the region are really hoping for some good runoff this winter to fill dams."
In the Esperance zone, while some small areas of long-season wheat have been planted and have germinated, most growers will get going now that Easter is over and will be dry sowing until it rains.
The only significant changes to crop area may be in canola in the northern areas where it was dropped last year due to the late start, plus there have been some mice problems in some areas which haven't been seen for a while.
Mr Lamond said despite a COVID-19-induced rush for skilled people and products over the past weeks, the current supply of inputs to agriculture, including labour, didn't look to be limiting production.
"Fertiliser and chemical supplies are catching up with demand, growers are moving from just-in-time purchasing patterns to hold-stock-on-farm purchasing patterns," he said.
"Most growers and contractors, with some handy returned boarding school kids, are now hunkered down on the farm, concentrating on machinery and program preparation for seeding and looking forward to some early rainfall to kick off the season."
