The hyper yielding crops (HYC) initiative is a nationwide research project organised by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and FAR Australia, which aims to push the productivity of wheat, barley and canola in Australia's high rainfall zones of Australia.
In its third year, the awards are part of the project that recognises growers for achieving high yields.
Farmers can enter their wheat or barley paddocks and crop data is then collected and benchmarked.
Albany-based Stirlings to Coast Farmers (SCF), collected the data for the Albany port zone.
The crop data, which informed the awards, was presented by FAR Australia's managing director Nick Poole.
It showed how different factors, such as nutrition, affected wheat, barley and canola yields in high rainfall areas.
SCF research and development co-ordinator Dan Fay led the project and worked closely with the farmers involved.
Farmers who were involved in the project received a highly informative, 60-page document analysing and benchmarking various aspects of the season's crop.
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"The idea of the project is to take what we're seeing in the research, and then try and bring it to life in the paddock, at the same time facilitating discussion about what we're seeing, what's working, what's not, and then trying to extend innovation and ultimately drive crop yield through this farmer-driven system," Mr Fay said.
He 'set the scene' of last year's barley growing season for the lower Great Southern Region.
"RGT Planet barley was grown almost entirely across the board, with "amazing" yields achieved," Mr Fay said.
Where there was a loss of yield, he put the loss down to disease management and lodging, with RGT Planet being hit pretty hard with net-type net blotch.
In the paddocks entered into the wheat awards, there was much more diversity in the number of varieties grown, which Mr Fay said was generally reflective of the whole season.
Like barley, conditions resulted in high wheat yields also, and the top performing wheat varieties tended to be winter wheat varieties.
"The conditions were absolutely optimal for winter wheat production," Mr Fay said.
"Those longer-season varieties really benefited from the soft finish we had last year.
"It is also exciting to see the year-on-year improvement in wheat yields, across all the wheat paddocks that have been entered into the awards over the last three years".
Last year's weather statistics for Kendenup showed a "bang on average'' rainfall season, of 475 millimetres during the growing season, generally cool average temperatures, and above-average solar radiation during the critical period - possibly the key to the record grain yields.
My Fay suggested this sun exposure, or photothermal quotient (PTQ), appeared to be one of the major drivers of higher yields for last season.
To ensure grower anonymity, the awards crop data results were organised into two categories, the top 20pc of growers and the remaining 80pc.
For barley, the top 20pc of growers applied an average of 194kg/ha of nitrogen, 90kg more than the remaining 80pc.
They also applied more phosphorus, 26kg/ha compared to the 80pc which used only 17kg/ha.
Interestingly, the top 20pc used half as much potassium, only 14kg/ha compared to the 80pc who used 31kg/ha.
The most successful barley growers also spent more on fungicide, about $10/ha more than the 80pc group, which paid off given the disease pressure in 2022.
The top 20pc had an average paddock yield of 8.35t/ha, from a total harvest biomass of 19t/ha, making the harvest index 46pc.
While the lower 80pc category saw lower average barley yields of 5.50t/ha, this was more so driven by some severe bogging in a few of the paddocks entered.
The barley crop data also showed clearly the link between high harvest biomass and high yields, in that you can't have one without the other.
Winner in the barley category for achieving the highest percentage of theoretical yield (based on aspects such as rainfall, soil type, flowering length) was Charles Caldwell of Scotts Brook, who achieved 84.16pc of his 9.22t/ha theoretical yield potential.
Winning the highest yielding crop in the barley category was Kieran Allison from Perillup, who achieved an outstanding average barley yield of 8.93t/ha.
Mr Allison also won the highest yielding wheat category, with a yield of 7.98t/ha with DS Bennett.
The winner in the wheat category for achieving the highest percentage of theoretical yield was Ben Webb of Scotts Brook.
He achieved 79.37pc of his 8.24t/ha theoretical yield.
Overall, in the wheat category, the top 20pc of growers produced an average yield of 8.35t/ha and the remaining 80pc produced an average of 5.50t/ha.
DS Bennett and Accroc were the highest yielding varieties, while the varieties grown by the remaining 80pc were RockStar, Devil, Sceptre, Kinsei, Illabo and Chief.
The 80pc group also had a higher average sowing rate of 100kg/ha while the top 20pc's sowing rate was slightly lower, at 80kg/ha.
When it came to yield components, the wheat head count per metre between the groups was very similar, at 393 for the top 20 pc and 387 for the remaining 80pc, but the yield driver was grains per head with the top 20pc of wheat growers having an average of 45 grains per head and the remaining 80pc having and average of 38 grains per head.
The HYC project and the awards paddocks has gained in popularity since its commencement in 2020, with 2023 being the final year of the project.
The adoption of key learnings from the past three years are evident in the yield increases.
