STATE grain organisations in SA and WA have slammed GrainGrowers Limited for spruiking "grossly inflated" member numbers after handing out opt-out memberships to farmers.
The criticism comes as GGL and Grain Producers Australia adjust to sharing responsibilities as the Australian grain industry's representative organisations.
Arthurton cropper Simon Westbrook believes both organisations are relevant to local croppers, but says effective grain representation relies on close contact with farmers.
"They need to know what's happening around the place and talk to farmers," he said.
"These things are a lot about politics thought it seems. A lot of it comes from small farmers, or people who retired and then get on their high horse a bit rather than actually talking to farmers and getting a real understanding of what's happening and what's important."
Simon said the high workload and long hours associated with farming made it difficult for him to keep up with all the happenings at a national level as well as he would like.
"I'd like to spend a bit more time doing those things but I'm usually flat out in the field," he said.
Simon crops 1900 hectares on his family's farm, where he works with his father Ian and sister Natasha, who runs their on-farm feedlot. His brother David completes the family business, running a sheep and cattle property on Kangaroo Island.
Their Arthurton farm received 36 millimetres two weeks ago, with a further 13mm falling last week.
"Things are looking a lot better than they were three or four weeks ago," he said.
He is hopeful of picking up another 10mm in the next couple of days.
"If we get that, we're probably guaranteed to reap an average, or even a little bit above average, crop, and hopefully we'll get a little bit more rain in September," he said.
Simon was kept busy spreading in the lead up to the last two rain events, and may hop back on the tractor if more rain is forecast.
"If we get another front come through in a week or two, we'll think about spreading a top-up of urea to push the protein up in the wheat, but we'll just have to wait and see if we're going to have more rain or not."
