O'Neill family, Ongerup, still wrapping up harvest

The O'Neill family, at Ongerup, has had plenty of success with its oldest set-up, a 4450 John Deere tractor, named Beverley, from the 1980s, matched with a 30-year-old red chaser bin.

The family crops about 2300 hectares, growing wheat, barley and canola - and is looking forward to finishing a tougher-than-usual season soon.

Peta and Greg O'Neill, their daughter Clancy, 15, family friend Travis Shearer, 17, and a German backpacker farm worker ran two headers and have finished in the paddock.

They are now dealing with at least 1500 tonnes of grain in bags which needs to be screened for ergot and then cleaned before it can be offloaded - which will be a slow process.

Usually the family would be finished harvest by Christmas, and manage a short break before turning to spraying and their sheep.

But the 462 millimetres of rain they received last year, on top of good rains in 2021, has delayed them significantly and affected the yields in some paddocks.

"Even though last year's rain was about average, it meant this year was wetter on the farm because there was so much water in the ground still,'' Ms O'Neill said.

She said the family had still achieved a good, average result despite having yields in some areas of the farm being wiped out by the rain.

"We got really wet during the year, so we had patches of nothing and patches where there was good grain,'' Ms O'Neill said.

"Where there was grain, we got good grain, but then there were patches that died because it just got too wet.''

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The harvest also meant a good run for their semi-famous chaser bin, affectionately known as "Pinky'', which they think is the only one in WA liveried in bright pink.

The bought the decades-old Trufab bin last year, which, as the story goes, was painted pink and hired out for years as a fundraiser for breast cancer research.

"People drive past us, see it and go 'wow','' she said.