THE southern harvest is heading further south, and is now in full swing through Victoria's Western District and the south-east of South Australia.
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Farmers in those regions hope to be finished by the end of January, a late finish compared with average years, while in the Wimmera and SA’s upper south-east, headers are slowly finishing up.
Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) grains group president Russell Amery said across the state, barley yields were generally reasonable, although quality was variable.
“There was slightly more malt around than we thought after those consecutive lots of December rain, but there has still been a lot of downgrading, both from the November heat and the rain.”
Mr Amery said his early mail from the Western District barley harvest was that there were reasonable yields, but poor quality, mainly due to the heat.
However, while farmers were generally reasonably satisfied with barley yields, given the late season drama, wheat was another story.
“The wheat has been the major disappointment, almost across the board it has yielded significantly less than you’d expect from a visual assessment.
“Over the entire state, it would have yielded about 20pc less than expected, but in some areas, such as mine, it was up to 50pc less than what we were expecting.
“We think it was the heat in September that did the damage.”
Along with that, there were varietal issues, with Mr Amery saying the Correll line had proved prone to light test weights.
“It has gone really well agronomically, but we have had issues with test weights, so that’s an issue people need to be aware of prior to planting.”
Meanwhile, there was one area of Australia that farmers are enjoying the completion of a big harvest.
Kimba, SA, farmer Brendan Fitzgerald said his local Eyre Peninsula (EP) region had recorded one of its best years on record.
“Overall, 80 to 90pc of the EP has had a very good year, especially out towards the west, places like Ceduna and Streaky Bay, where it can be pretty marginal for cropping some years.
“Out there, some of them have had the best crops in living memory.”
Back closer to Mr Fitzgerald’s farm at Kimba, he said it had been a good, solid year.
“It wasn’t a bumper harvest, but it was a good year nonetheless.”
A highlight was grain quality.
“It was one of the best wheat samples we’ve ever produced, there were test weights of 89kg/hl, and virtually no screenings, with levels below 1pc.
“Protein was marginally down, as you expect in a bigger production year, but it was a beautiful sample.”
In Victoria, focus is turning to summer spraying, after patchy falls through the cropping zone of up to 70mm.
