Much like last year, it has been a tale of variation for Yorke Peninsula croppers in 2020, with those in southern areas enjoying a "textbook" season, while others up north have fared much worse.
YP Ag Yorketown agronomist Troy Johnson said crops in his area were looking the best they had since 2016, helped along by "unusual but welcomed" summer rainfall in 2019-20.
"Everything established really well, and while the dry through July and August did give things a bit of a check, crops didn't fair too badly, and managed to bounce back really well with the fantastic spring rains," he said.
Mr Johnson said growing season rainfall for southern YP sat at about 350 millimetres - about 100mm ahead of areas further north.
He predicted cereal crops to average five tonnes a hectare, with pulses expected to be in excess of 3t/ha - 0.5-0.75t/ha better than average.
Crops affected by the Yorketown fire in November last year matured about a week later than paddocks which were spared, but have still fared well this year, and likely only back 0.2-0.3t/ha.
Honiton cropper Jack Barlow was affected by the fire, with 500ha of his 1600ha cropping program burnt, but he said the country had "bounced back".
"The fire took a lot out of our soil, it would have been a mess if we had a dry finish, but we had 90mm in three weeks in September and early October, and everything had managed to hang on until then," he said.
The spring rains really benefited the guys in the middle, but crops on the coastal country were too far along to benefit - it might have helped to increase grain weight, but not number of tillers or anything.
- IAN KOCH
Mr Barlow was hoping for a 5t/ha average for his wheat and barley crops, after usually working on a 3.5t/ha average, while he hoped lentils would reach 3t/ha.
On the central YP, J&D Southwood agronomist Ian Koch, Maitland, said yields this year would depend on coastal proximity.
"The spring rains really benefited the guys in the middle, but crops on the coastal country were too far along to benefit - it might have helped to increase grain weight, but not number of tillers or anything," he said.
"Cereal crops on the coastal country, some will be five or six bags, but most in the central vicinity would be 3.5-4t/ha, and potentially above."
He expected lentil crops on the coast to yield 0.4-0.5t/ha, and twice that further inland, while bean crops - which were almost all inland - were expected to yield 2-3t/ha.
Mr Koch expected grain quality to be "similar across the board."
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Nutrien Kadina agronomist Matthew Smith said his area had received "record low" rain tallies in July - 8mm - with barley suffering the most.
He expected wheat and barley to yield 2-4t/ha in the Kadina region, while early-harvested lentils would sit between 0.8-1.2t/ha, compared to 2t/ha for those finishing later.
"Lentils will be down on quality a bit, peas and beans will be OK, barley will be a bit of stained, and wheat quality should be good," Mr Smith said.
Across the YP, agronomists said a potential "stop-start harvest" could lead to harvest dragging into the new year, when most croppers usually aimed to be finished by Christmas.
DAYMANS CRUSHED BY ANOTHER TOUGH YEAR
LESS than 50 millimetres of rain fell on the Dayman family's Kainton property between April and August, leading to what Andrew Dayman described as his worst crop since 1982.
Mr Dayman said his 2500 hectares of wheat, barley and legumes were "just about dead" by the time scattered rains - which were "not much use" - arrived in late August and September.
They yielded up to 0.3 tonnes/ha for their peas, and hoped to jag 0.5t/ha for lentils. Both crops were damaged by October rains, which caused late head growth in cereal crops.
"We'll let the green barley heads fill as they're up to 20 per cent of the crop, but the wheat we will just try to harvest above the green heads, as there aren't as many," Andrew said.
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