Bolgart farmer Curtis Guthrie has bought new machinery and is experimenting with technology.

Mr Guthrie joined his father on the farm about five seasons ago, and has been lucky enough to see multiple good seasons, joking that maybe he was a good omen for the 1800 hectare Bolgart farm.

In 2018, Mr Guthrie's father Colin told him that he would never see another season as good as 2018 - only for him to repeat that statement in 2021 and 2022.

A great five-year average and a good attitude makes Mr Guthrie optimistic, but he knows 2023 won't be anything like the seasons he has seen before and having never seen a drought, he knows a dry year will "open his eyes".

With limited rainfall so far on the farm, there is a niggling concern about germination - and perhaps the need for a few rain dances to receive some precipitation in the coming weeks.

Mr Guthrie still counts himself lucky as he has other friends in the Wheatbelt who have received less rain than him.

The Guthries started seeding early this year after some light rains and jumped on the opportunity to drill in some canola on April 8.

They had just enough moisture to seed a couple of paddocks, but Mr Guthrie said anything with a bit of gravel in it was "no good".

Mr Guthrie seeded clover, some canola and then waited two weeks before commencing dry seeding.

The canola that has germinated is looking very patchy, and Mr Guthrie said he ideally would have liked to get all of his canola in from the first rain.

"It's well behind the stage of the rest of it, but it is what it is - but we will try again next year," he said.

Bringing young blood onto the farm, Mr Guthrie is taking new agricultural technology advances in the industry in his stride and is helping his father implement these to make one per cent differences to productivity.

He said implementing more technology and variable rate into their farming system had worked well.

Mr Guthrie has had EM38 gamma radiometric mapping done across the farm over the summer, which will hopefully be online for next year with route maps.

EM surveys look at the soil properties across a paddock and can deduce changes in salinity, moisture and clay percentage, among other things.

Mr Guthrie was motivated to get the surveys done after the big jump in input prices last year - where efficiency of application became even more important.

"When the cost of inputs jumped from $500 or $600 for compound fertiliser to over $1000, it's a big thing when you're putting 100 kilograms on (per hectare)," he said.

The Guthries used variable application on a portion of the farm last year, and Mr Guthrie said they were saving upwards of 20 to 30 per cent on potash in one paddock.

"With potash at $1200 to $1500 a tonne, it doesn't take much to get your money back," he said.

He admitted it was a lot to get his head around, but he said there had been a wide range of people who had helped him to understand the best path forward for his farm.

"It's been a big learning curve, I've probably learned the most in the last five or six years than I've learnt the whole time on the farm," Mr Guthrie said.

The Guthrie family invested in some new machinery this year, with an input control technology bin - with full variable rate and session control, along with a new Equilizer bar.

Mr Guthrie said they decided to "bite the bullet" off the back of a couple of really good seasons, and with machinery seemingly getting more expensive, they decided now was as good a time as any.

This is the first year Mr Guthrie has driven the seeder, normally opting for boomsprayer duties and he has been learning a lot about business - and has also leant on mates across the State for a word or two of advice.

"You learn something new everyday, it's been great," he said.

"I've got quite a few mates across the Wheatbelt and it's great that you can just message them 'hey, what do you do with this?' and vice versa."

By implementing section control, Mr Guthrie said he was seeing between 10-15pc savings in each paddock by operating on the exact number of hectares.

He said the difference was not only felt during seeding, but also when applying fertiliser.

"If you save 10-15pc over your whole program every single year, I think that's going to pay for itself over time," Mr Guthrie said.

"Just the precision of everything now, with the Equilizer, it puts the seed where you want it and if it's wet enough the canola comes up dead on every year."

This year, Mr Guthrie has set up most of his machinery on three metre tracks to reduce the amount of fuel used and make it easier to run machinery.

They have done some serious soil amelioration on some paddocks east of Bolgart, including spreading clay and delving.

Last year, when they didn't have this system in place, Mr Guthrie said he really felt the difference in those paddocks, as it was "really hard work" with everything being so rough.

While he believes it was a two or three year process to get everything in place and working a hundred percent, Mr Guthrie said he was "pretty set" on having controlled traffic.

"I'm still learning - it's one thing to set everything up on three major centres, but it's another thing with the reliability of GPS," he said.

"We don't have a massive program, so 40 foot bars are plenty for us - but I think it'll be really good one day - there's benefits to be had everywhere with controlled traffic.

"A lot of people say we don't need it on the hard ground, but I still think if you can try and keep that process and run everything down the same tracks you're going to see some benefits eventually.

"It might not be in the first five years, but it will be eventually - it's all about protecting your investment.

"You don't want to compact every single hectare, you want to just compact a small percentage of it.

"It's just a matter of getting it all sorted - when we buy something, we try and get it on the three metre spacing to try and set ourselves up, but it's a work in progress - a lot of people a lot smarter than me have already worked it out."

When Farm Weekly recently visited Mr Guthrie, he had just finished sowing Zen wheat and switched to Calibre.

The Guthries had been seeding Zen wheat for the past eight or so years, and have "always stuck with noodle wheat", despite their fluctuating popularity.

Mr Guthrie said he was rewarded for sticking with Zen wheat last year, where they received well over $400 a tonne - compared to about $300/t for a lot of hard wheats.

He was a little concerned about the dry Bureau of Meteorology forecast, but said despite this he was going to stick to the same consistent program and "get up and just get it done".

With about 300-400 hectares left, Mr Guthrie was considering dropping some paddocks out for feed - given the farm was still running a small sheep enterprise.

The family had some trouble getting rid of some wethers after shearing in February, which Mr Guthrie said was "pretty disappointing".

"Last year they went for $200 a head plus wool, but this year they went for $85 plus wool," he said.

"I think the sheep game is in a little bit of trouble, you get rewarded for staying with it eventually, but it's certainly something that I have discussions about, whether we stay with them, reduce our flock or get rid of them altogether."

Mr Guthrie said he was careful not to burn the candle at both ends, and finished seeding earlier in the day than most - usually around 10.30pm.

"We don't have a massive program to get through, but that works for us, I'm pretty happy with that," he said.

The Guthries finished most of their seeding on May 24, but still had some heavy pasture paddocks to complete which they would return to if they receive some more rain.

"Hopefully we can get 10 or 15mm within two weeks and get that in, but if it doesn't rain until June 16, that might be it for us.

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"If you haven't gotten stuff out of the ground on June 15, there's probably no point trying to put anything else in.

"But yeah, we've been pretty lucky the last couple of seasons."

After high school graduation, Mr Guthrie completed a course at the Muresk Institute before returning to the family farm.

He said a lot of people tried to steer him in different directions - with some people believing he should learn a trade first.

However Mr Guthrie's parents were extremely supportive of him returning home to the farm and had always enabled him to pursue whatever interested him.

"I'm so grateful for mum and dad to give me the opportunity to come home, I'm sure a lot of parents don't give that opportunity," he said.

"Dad said 'you can do whatever you want' and he's very supportive of me and we get along great."

Mr Guthrie said he enjoys working on the farm with his family, and they all got along really well.

He described his dad as passionate about agriculture, and his dad was eager to pass that onto his son.

"We always try to have a laugh, and I've learnt so much from my dad," Mr Guthrie said.