THE annual Newdegate community crop has contributed about $1 million to various projects in the town over the years, with seeding completed a bit earlier than usual this year due to good rainfall.
Now in its 14th year, the community crop is run by the Newdegate Community Cropping Group, which is made up of a group of local farmers who volunteer their time to organise the cropping program and seed, spray and harvest the crop each year.
A sub-committee of the Newdegate Machinery Field Days, the group sub-leases land from the Shire of Lake Grace and gradually increased its cropping area to reach 850ha this year.
Newdegate Community Cropping Group president David Butcher, who has been involved with the group since its inception, said seeding had initially been planned for June 2, but the date had been brought forward to May 27 due to recent rain.
"This year we had seven airseeders, four boomsprayers and a couple of trucks," Mr Butcher said.
"We try to do 100ha per machine and usually have seeding completed in two days, with one day spent co-ordinating the program and cleaning the area up a bit."
With local farmers using their own machines most of the time, Mr Butcher said some years demo machines had also been supplied from various machinery dealerships such as AFGRI, McIntosh & Son and Farmers Centre 1978.
"A farmer might turn up with two to three tonnes of seed in their seeder and sometimes our volunteers also donate various products, but the majority of our materials is paid for by the previous crop," Mr Butcher said.
"We usually pay local farmers for their leftover seed, so it's self supporting that way and we buy the chemical and fertiliser commercially through manufacturers."
With the whole crop Mace wheat, Mr Butcher said they had one of the best starts they'd had in years, with close to 80-90 millimetres of rain received in May, which was topped up by another 30mm of rain after seeding.
Through this year's crop, the committee aims to raise about $400,000 which will go towards renovating the Newdegate Country Club.
"Pretty much every sporting club in the area has received some money from us at some stage to help upgrade their facilities," Mr Butcher said.
"We've donated about $250,000 for the Newdegate skate park, $80,000 to help upgrade the local recreation centre, $50,000 towards the Lake Grace Ambulance sub centre and we've put money towards getting the local silos painted, lighting for our sports fields, targets at the rifle club and upgrading our bowling greens.
"Every three years we also contribute $10,000 to the local school camp, so our main goal is to just help make Newdegate a more enjoyable place to live."
Mr Butcher said to keep things running locally, including the town's sporting facilities, Newdegate needed community-led programs because without them the town wouldn't attract government funding for local projects.
Shire of Lake Grace president Len Armstrong agreed that community funding was often needed to help get the ball rolling for regional projects.
"Quite often, if you're looking for a government grant, you have to put in money yourself and that has been the bugbear for a lot of communities that don't have cropping programs," Mr Armstrong said.
"It used to be one third from the ratepayers, one third from the shire and one third from State or Federal funding.
"That doesn't happen now, but the first question they ask if you're applying for a grant is how much is the community going to contribute and if you contribute dollars that instantly opens up the doors for you."
Mr Armstrong said local communities across the Shire of Lake Grace had "seen the writing on the wall years ago" and created their own community cropping programs in order to help keep their towns vibrant.
"Nyabing, Varley and Lake King all have a community cropping program and the Lake Grace Development Association bought a block of land and have a small cropping program as well," he said.
"And it's interesting that after Ongerup lost its football team about eight years ago, the town just about withered on the vine when the hotel closed.
"So the Ongerup community set up a cropping program to get funds to purchase their local hotel and get it back up and running.
"At the end of the day, you'd need to run a hell of a lot of cake stalls and fundraisers on the main street to try and achieve the financial outcomes you get from a community cropping program, so I think it's a great move for our farming communities to go out and do what they do best to get funds - and that's grow grain."
Newdegate Community Cropping Group committee member and local cropping and sheep farmer Gary Guelfi, who has also been involved with the group since its inception, said it was a great way for local farmers to connect with one another.
"I think it is one of the highlights of the year because farmers get to debrief and hear about what's going on with everyone else, which you don't get to do as much during the busy seasons," Mr Guelfi said.
He said while there was a core group that was always involved, it was great to see the younger generations come onboard each year.
"We have a heap of willing participants and I think as people see what the crop has helped achieve for us around the town, it draws more volunteers in," he said.
"There is a real camaraderie amongst the group and a great sense of achievement once it's done."