DESPITE well below-average rain recorded for the growing season, Koolunga farmer Leigh Fuller is remaining optimistic about his potential crop yields.
Mr Fuller said stored subsoil moisture from summer rains had helped crops through the dry season, while conditions had improved in the past two weeks due to recent rain.
“I’m hoping there’s still some more moisture in the system to get the crops through some windy, dry days in spring that we’ll no doubt get,” he said.
“But there’s still potential in this season to grow an average crop, depending on spring rains.”
This season, Mr Fuller, along with father Garry and uncle Craig Fuller, are cropping 3400 hectares of wheat, barley, lentils, canola and vetch for sheep feed.
They have recorded 113 millimeters of rain for the growing season, which is well below the average.
An additional 22mm in early August and positive rainfalls in the past week had been crucial.
Leigh said a combination of moisture efficiency practices such as stubble retention, summer weed control, minimum-till and early sowing implemented on-farm had helped the crops to “hang in there”.
But he said pests were about on-par with last season – except for mice.
“We had some hail-damaged crops last year which resulted in a lot of food on the ground during summer, which has built up mice numbers,” he said.
“We have baited some paddocks two to three times to try and curb their damage, especially in wheat, barley and canola crops.”
Leigh said Russian wheat aphid had been found in patches in their wheat and barley crops.
“Being a relatively new pest to Australian cropping, RWA control has been a bit of a learning curve and we’re trying to find our feet of how to keep it under control and what the thresholds are,” he said.