Australian croppers continue to push the boundaries of the highest yields possible via the Hyper Yielding Crops (HYC) project.
Although Australia has a reputation as a low yield environment due to the semi-arid conditions in much of the nation's grain belt the recent results announced at the HYC awards night demonstrate the potential to grow huge yields in the right conditions.
Previously the HYC awards only encompassed wheat, but there are now awards for barley in WA, Victoria and South Australia.
Predictably, Tasmania, which shares similar climatic conditions with the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the two nations duking it out for bragging rights for the world's highest yielding wheat crop, topped the charts.
Devonport grower Hamish Yaxley recorded the best result nationally with a 12.84 tonne to the hectare crop of Cesario wheat, a red winter variety, while at Cressy in the Midlands John Heard also cracked the 12t/ha mark with 12.04t/ha of Accroc, also a winter wheat.
The other two states to crack the 10t/ha mark for wheat were South Australia and Victoria.
In Victoria the winning wheat yield clocked 10.59t/ha which was grown by Ascot, north of Ballarat, grower, Ben Findlay.
Mr Findlay also grew Cesario in the 42ha winning paddock.
The winning barley yield for a paddock of malt-accredited Planet barley was grown by Streatham producer Ed Weatherly which yielded 7.5t/ha.
Across the border in South Australia, Sam Ballantyne's Anapurna wheat crop produced a winning yield of 10.56t/ha near Glenroy, between Naracoorte and Penola in the state's south-east.
Anapurna is a dual purpose winter wheat similar to Accroc.
Winning the award for highest barley yield in SA was James Gilbertson and his family who farm near Hatherleigh, also in the south-east; their Planet crop managed to produce a yield of 8.10t/ha.
In the west, one farmer took out both the wheat and barley awards.
Perillup grower Kieran Allison won both awards with crops in the state's south-west.
The Bennett wheat crop recorded a 7.98t/ha yield while the Planet barley crop yielded 8.93t/ha.
In NSW Tim Stivens of Junee managed the highest yielding wheat crop with his 6.94t/ha of RockStar, whilst Cameron Sandral of Savernake was awarded the highest yield based on percentage of potential yield with his 6.17t/ha Scepter crop.
Nick Poole, Field Applied Research (FAR) Australia managing director and project lead for the GRDC's national Hyper Yielding Crops initiative said the results demonstrated what could be done with good agronomics.
"These dedicated growers have demonstrated exceptional agronomic skills and techniques, resulting in remarkable yields whilst contributing positively to the overall success of the Australian grains industry," he said.
"Their innovative approaches and best practices serve as an inspiration to the cropping communities in the different regions, driving pursuit of higher crop yields and sustainable farming practices."