Heat hurries up harvest

Viterra reported a load of barley was delivered into Cowell by local grower Steve Wildman on Friday and peas were accepted at its Poochera site from Koonibba grower Andrew Mahar on Tuesday last week.

It follows barley deliveries made at Port Pirie late last month.

Viterra Western region operations manager James Murray expected receivals would pick up with this week’s warmer weather, which was expected to get up to 36 degrees Celcius yesterday (Wednesday).

The heat is a stark contrast to the 5 millimetres to 15mm of rain received across most SA agricultural areas last week, while possible rains are forecast later this week.

Landmark Wudinna agronomist Leigh Davis said harvest was yet to really “ramp up” in his region, but could tentatively start from next week.

“There are crops ready to go, particularly desiccated canola and pulses, but rain forecast this week has many growers holding off to see what amounts,” he said. 

The start is normal for the region, but Mr Davis said the season would be far from normal, with many expecting below-average yields.

“Crops are surprisingly hanging on in some areas, considering the amount of rainfall we have received, but I think that’s also to do with better wheat varieties and exceptional summer weed spraying,” he said.

“Any rain this week is welcome as it is getting dry, particularly in the west where they sowed slightly later. They could still use another drink to finish crops off, but it might be too late for that.”

The conditions are a stark contrast to the southern Mallee, where Lameroo cropper Craig Needs said they were experiencing “quite a good season” after timely growing season rainfall.

“It did get dry in August/September, but we believe good harvest rains and our stringent summer weed control has helped the crops to hang on,” he said. “We sprayed many paddocks three times in summer to ensure a good knockdown.”

Mr Needs said they had been lucky to minimise frost damage, which was of concern across the Mallee.

“We managed to fend off most frost damage through sowing earlier varieties slightly later and sowing later-season wheat (Estoc) on our more frost-prone country,” he said.

Others haven’t been as lucky, with Agrilink consultant Jeff Braun reporting major crop losses in areas north of the Mallee Highway.

“Traditionally this area doesn’t get major frosts, but with people sowing more wheat and earlier, it’s becoming more of a problem,” he said.

Mr Braun warned growers in other areas that the frost threat was still very high, which could hit grain fill in later-sown crops.

“We advise growers to monitor minimum temperatures as damaged crops could still be cut for hay or left out at harvest,” he said.

THIS week’s heat could potentially “pinch off” wheat in the grain fill stage, but harvest was still a little way off at the Needs property in Lameroo.

“Hot weather this week may speed up the ripening process, but we are on-track for a normal harvest start mid-November,” Craig Needs said.

Craig and wife Emma, with parents Allan and Heather Needs, crop 1200 hectares of wheat, barley, beans and lupins, alongside a 830-head self-replacing Merino ewe flock.​

Craig said they sprayed off their Spartacus barley for the first time last week to combat late ryegrass, but only plan to harvest it in a fortnight.

“I don’t think it will be the start of our harvest,” he said. “The rest still has a little way to go, which is basically the same across the region.”

Craig said they were thankful for the 10 millimetres of rain received mid-last week, as the crops were beginning to look parched.

“The Bureau (of Meteorology) is saying there could be a further 5mm this week, which all helps,” he said.