Echoing the sentiment from around the State, Avery Maitland of Windsor farm, Korrelocking, is happy with the year despite yields dropping from last season.
Mr Maitland and his cousin, Reyner Wells, finished their harvest three weeks ago and now are preparing some new machinery for next year.
They farm on about 2700 hectares, and lease another 300ha, all in a central 15 kilometre radius.
The program was "business as usual" this year, with varieties including Calibre, Scepter, Rockstar and Chief wheat, Emu and Battalion canola, Jurien lupins and Maximus barley.
Emu canola was an impressive new addition to this year's program, and Mr Maitland hopes to grow it again in higher numbers next year.
Jurien lupins and Maximus barley have been favourites for a couple of years, and Chief is also a regular choice for its weed management benefits.
"I really like the variety (Chief), it grows fairly well," Mr Maitland said.
"Some guys do have issues with it yielding, but we don't seem to have that much of a problem with it."
After being stung by frost in the past two seasons, Mr Maitland seeded slightly later.
Starting with canola on April 13, Mr Maitland took a break of about two weeks before seeding lupins, finishing on May 27.
"Whether that paid off in the end...it's anybody's guess," he said.
"I think the saving grace this year is grain prices being fantastic.
"Anything that went in after May 18-20, did just struggle with rainfall, it was a lot slower, it didn't push as hard as the rest of it did," Mr Maitland said.
In September, some parts of the wheat and barley paddocks were damaged by a frost.
Mr Maitland estimated 50 per cent of his wheat yield was affected by frost, or was seeded just too late.
The difference between yields, and the crop's frost resilience, came down to when it was seeded - and in many cases crops sown just days apart had considerable differences.
He said growers nearby had the same problem, with reasonable yield potentials hindered by frost.
The area is prone to frost, but this season the reduced rainfall was also a major problem.
"The barley did not yield well, but between the frost and how dry it got I'm not surprised," Mr Maitland said.
"I'm not going to complain, it was worth putting a header in.
"Up the end of the paddock we were probably doing 2-2.5 tonne (per ha), and then down through the valley (yielded) 150-200 kilograms/ha, sometimes it wasn't even registering.
"And then there's a split in the paddock over the other side, it went in two or three days later and yielded closer to 1.8-2t/ha," he said.
Lupins were a "surprising" success this year, and Mr Maitland said he was pleased the canola met his expectations.
The lupins ended up being quite profitable thanks to strong prices.
The wheat, despite being affected by frost, was also very profitable due to its quality and protein levels.
At the end of March, Mr Maitland said he recorded most of his yearly rainfall, nearing 100 millimetres, on a total rainfall of just over 230mm during the growing season.
"We only got one decent rain in June which got everything going again, and then it was really sporadic," he said.
Pests were far less of an issue this year, where normally paddocks had to be baited for mice and insects on canola needed to be treated, neither of those issues were a problem.
Mr Maitland was in the process of upgrading his machinery.
After harvest he purchased a Hardi boomsprayer from Boekeman Machinery, Northam.
"For the past four years or so, we've been rotating, getting into a bit newer gear," Mr Maitland said.
Last year he bought a new spreader and while it will be "business as usual" for next season, Mr Maitland will be focusing on the soil.
"We haven't done our own lime or urea before, so it's getting into that kind of rotation, lime and deep ripping is more on our cards," he said.
"We've been a compromised CTF (controlled traffic farming) system for seven years.
"(We're) trying to get everything all on the same run lines and our sandy country ripped, and trying to be more profitable with what we've got."
Mr Maitland guessed about 40 per cent of the land was somewhat sandy and would benefit from deep ripping.
"Even some of our loamy stuff with moisture, we could probably get in there and make a massive difference too," he said.
All in all, Mr Maitland is satisfied with the outcomes.
"You can always do something different, but given the circumstances I'm not going to complain."
Perri Polson
Perri is an agriculture journalist with Farm Weekly. Born in regional Victoria, Perri developed a love of regional and rural news at a young age, and is now passionate about advocating for the agricultural industry. Her interests include science, agronomy, livestock and food production.
Perri is an agriculture journalist with Farm Weekly. Born in regional Victoria, Perri developed a love of regional and rural news at a young age, and is now passionate about advocating for the agricultural industry. Her interests include science, agronomy, livestock and food production.
