Seasonal variability is a big challenge for Mullewa-based farmers Rod and Andrew Messina - and this year is no exception.
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The brothers, who farm with wives Sam and Tracey, have got one seeder started out of three, seeding 44Y27 Y Series hybrid canola.
But it is dry and dusty across all of their properties at Eradu, Dongara, Mingenew and Mullewa.
To date, they have received only 26 millimetres of rain in February and before that had not had any double-digit falls since July 2023.
"The subsoil is totally dry and a lot of the natural bush is dying," Rod Messina said.
"Last year we only had 89mm of rain during the winter growing season, so it has been a dry 14 months."
Typically the long-term average rainfall for this region is 250-350mm.
If decent rains arrive by the end of May, the Messinas will proceed to sow 16,000 hectares.
If it doesn't rain by that time, they are likely to drop about 4000ha out of the annual cropping program and fallow that country - mostly at Mullewa.
The long-term forecast is not looking promising, but at this stage anything could eventuate.
Mr Messina said the plan was to sow 11,000ha of Devil wheat.
It is slightly faster maturing (three to seven days) than Scepter, but with similar yields, and has a similar maturity to Mace.
There will be 2500ha sown to about six varieties of canola, mostly hybrids with associated herbicide technologies, and 1000ha will be planted to Jurien lupins.
Canola going into the ground last week was being sown at a depth of 15mm using a new 24 metre Morris Quantum airdrill bar set at 30 centimetre spacings.
The Quantum builds on the success of the Morris C2 bar, with new features for extra strength, durability and longevity.
When seeding cranks up, the Messinas will also run a 24m Alpha disc seeder and two 18m John Deere 1830 airhoe drills.
In the meantime they are busy deep ripping (to a depth of 60-70cm) and liming at their new Mingenew, predominantly sandplain block.
"This year we will deep rip a total of about 5000ha, which is up from our usual annual program of 3000-4000ha," Mr Messina said.
"We are also applying lime at the new property at a rate of four tonnes per hectare to address subsoil acidity."
The Messinas took up the new property, which is near the Mingenew Shire border, to help spread business risk as the rainfall on that property is more reliable than at the home farm at Mullewa.
Mr Messina said this year was the driest start to the season at Mullewa for many years.
He said last year the crop was sown on a good March rainfall and the crops were able to get up and away relatively quickly, but that was not the case this year.
