WHEN Kym Penalurick moved into cropping from the seafood industry more than two decades ago, he invested in the fertile soils of Ungarra, north of Tumby Bay on the Eyre Peninsula.
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Growing up at Port Neill, Mr Penalurick was aware of how good the land and soils were at Ungarra, and he always thought it would be a place he'd like to invest, if the opportunity arose.
After working in the seafood industry for many years, the opportunity to buy at Ungarra came up 25 years ago and he jumped at the chance.
"I just loved farming, it just sounded like a great lifestyle," he said.
It was at that time he set up his company Pandal Pty Ltd, a continuous cropping operation covering 2000 hectares.
Neville Dunn and his family are the farm managers for the enterprise, which comprises four adjoining farms at Ungarra.
Mr Penalurick is based at Port Lincoln, where he still has tuna and abalone licences, but travels regularly to the farm, particularly at seeding and harvest time.
The business' cropping program consists of wheat, canola, barley, beans, lentils and lupins.
"We've got 24 hectares of lentils in as a tester this year," Mr Penalurick said.
"We've been happy with how they've gone, so next year we'll be sowing 90ha.
"We had a go a few years ago with lentils, but we got out, due to the freight and cleaning costs. But with the price so high, we've got back into them."
Harvest started on October 28 for Pandal, a fairly typical time for reaping to begin.
Mr Penalurick said harvest would be finished by Christmas.
"We've finished our canola and it went just under two tonnes to the hectare, which we were very happy with," Mr Penalurick said.
"The oil content was well above the line, with everything above 42 per cent oil content, and some of it even better."
Harvest has moved onto barley, with 470ha of Hindmarsh sown this year.
"We've also got some Compass in for seed next year," Mr Penalurick said.
"So far we've had four road trains meet malting standards.
"Yields have also been very good at about 5t/ha, but it is still early days.
"We decided to get the barley off first, in case there's more rain and it lays down."
While there are some massive barley crops out in the paddocks, they have still managed to stay upright and are being reapt easily, despite the huge storm front that passed across the EP a couple of weeks ago.
Ungarra fared quite well out of the front, only recording 30 millimetres, while other parts of the peninsula had 50mm or more.
About 160ha of beans have been sown by Pandal this year, with the crop also looking good.
Wheat varieties sown in 2015 include Mace and Emu Rock, and the early-maturing Trojan for seed build-up.
About 220ha of wheat has been sown this season, along with 100ha of peas.
Mr Penalurick said with the tight finish, he was expecting some quality issues in the crops.
"I was expecting smaller grains due to the finish, but it hasn't been too bad," he said.
