A big harvest for Ashworth family, Goodlands and Kalannie

That was how Jo Ashworth described the beginning of harvest at the family's 7500 hectare farm at Goodlands and Kalannie.

It's an area which sounds like the central Wheatbelt, but in reality the Ashworths' farm is in marginal territory with station country visible from their farm.

Farming alongside her husband, Wal, son Morgan and daughter-in-law Libby Osborne, Ms Ashworth said while some bigger farms might push through, they won't harvest if the conditions aren't right.

"That might come back to bite us when it comes to room in the bins later on, but time will tell on that," Ms Ashworth said.

"I always think a little rain can be a nice forced break for a day or two, as long as it doesn't hail, fire or cause spouting, of course, and luckily so far, we haven't had any of those issues."

The Ashworths were in the middle of harvesting canola, which they started at a block west of Kalannie, when they saw storm clouds rolling in.

It was the same storm which dumped hail and heavy showers to many in the area last month, but only eight millimetres of rain to the Ashworths.

They also copped a couple of other showers about the four millimetre mark, and while it wasn't a lot of rain, it was enough to stop harvest, but not enough to cause any damage.

"For the first three weeks, we didn't have a full contingent (of staff) which also made us a bit slower," Ms Ashworth said.

"Having started harvest at the beginning of November, it feels like we got going forever ago and still have forever remaining."

Now there are four of them working through harvest - all family with no external staff - including two headers, a chaser bin and a truck.

The headers themselves are old, but both Wal and Morgan are handy and not frightened of old machinery, so if anything goes wrong they're quite capable of fixing it.

This year's program was the biggest ever for the Ashworths, with about 15 per cent made up of canola which was more than they originally planned.

"We'd sown the planned part of our canola program and then sat on it, but because we were so early we put in another paddock, and then another again," Ms Ashworth said.

"With some seed and fertiliser left at the end of the wheat program, there was also enough time and rain, so the stars aligned and we got in a couple of bonus wheat paddocks as well.

"Canola harvesting was slow going with the spread out seeding timing with some paddocks ready well before others."

Wheat accounts for about 80pc of the program, plus a paddock of export hay and a tiny paddock of lupins which both went very well.

Having such a small canola program, it has all been harvested and the Ashworths moved onto wheat, making them one of the first in the area to do so.

In fact, there was only one other person carting wheat when they started.

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"Overall, all of the crops so far have yielded a lot higher than what they look - every head is full, the grains are fat and heavy and it's all looking very positive," Ms Ashworth said.

Having only been growing canola for six years, the Ashworths wanted to get a handle on it before throwing GM into the mix.

Growing only non-GM varieties they have averaged 1.4 tonnes per hectare which they were more than happy with.

For wheat, the paddocks west of town averaged more than 3t/ha and at the Goodlands farm going 2t/ha or better so far.

With more than about 700ha still to be harvested, the Ashworths have predicted the headers will be running until just before Christmas.