South East croppers have been thrown plenty of challenges this season from a wet winter to frost, but many in the area are still on track for at least average yields.
Cox Rural agronomist Scott Hutchings, Keith, said after one of the best years on record in 2020, 2021 had proven a "very challenging year" for those in the Upper South East.
A late break - inearly June - had many crops struggling early but with good spring rains they were looking promising.
However the defining moment for many crops was a severe frost on the Monday morning of the October long weekend. This has caused major yield losses in the Keith and Bordertown areas, with wheat the worst hit.
Mr Hutchings described it as "one of the most devastating single frost events" he had seen in his career with temperatures plunging as low as -4.5 degrees Celsius in the crop canopy that morning.
"Anyone that had wheat on wheat, especially those who had put on extra nitrogen have seen 70 per cent-plus losses, there are a few crops where we were struggling to even find a grain in the head," he said.
"If they were (wheat) on bean stubbles, it was around 40-45pc and on canola stubbles 40-60pc."
He said some of these crops were cut for hay or had stock put in but others, especially those looking at yielding 1t/ha or better, would still be harvested.
Mr Hutchings predicted barley yields would be about the long-term average but canola would be "less than last year".
"The beans suffered and a lot didn't get out of the ground until early to mid-June," he said. "Some improved quite well but then lost their top flowers in the frost event,we are hoping for around 2t/ha for them."
Nutrien Ag Solutions Naracoorte agronomist James Heffernan said many croppers in the area were hoping for similar yields to 2020 with 40mm of rain received late last month setting them up for "solid, above average" yields.
He said it was a slow start to the season with cool temperatures so the crops did not bound out of the ground and then there was some water lying about in paddocks in June and July.
"We had quite a wet winter, wetter as you went further towards the coast with some small isolated areas around Conmurra," he said.
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"It didn't seem like it but the soil temperatures (over winter) stayed low for a long time and pasture growth has been barely visible until the past three weeks."
Mr Heffernan said many farmers had become nervous when the forecast wet spring did not occur but the late rain would ensure crops, which were looking "green and lovely, mid grain fill", would finish.
There had been some frost damage in the past month with crops in the flowering window but it was not widespread and only knocking 5-10pc of yields, he said..
As the crops emerged early in the season Mr Heffernan said there had been snail and slug pressure on the back of two wet years.
After harvest he said growers would be vigilant monitoring the populations again.
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It was a wet winter at Millicent with 200 millimetres in July alone but Tom Bell is optimistic they are on track for yields of 10 tonnes a hectare in their wheat and 4-5t/ha for their canolas.
He says this is testament to some of the management practices he and his father Greg have adopted in recent years, putting on early nitrogen to ensure vigorous growth and taking the opportunity to conduct various spray operations and spread fertiliser prior to the depths of winter.
He says they know there is often a month to six weeks when they cannot traffic paddocks, like this year.
"We had a good break in mid to late April and were juggling things well until we had 200mm in July when we had excavators going to drain paddocks and get surface water into the drainage systems," he said.
"We were pretty fortunate considering how wet it got to get the plants through."
Mr Bell said the water table rose to the surface but by mid-August paddocks were drying out.
Since then they have had a "good amount of spring rainfall" with the growing season rainfall about 650mm to date.
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Variety choice has been a game changer to the Bell family's cropping program with Accroc and Rockstar wheats having high yielding potential and proving quite tolerant to water logging.
Mr Bell says it is the same with winter canolas, such as 970 and Phoenixm, which are "a good fit in their country".
"With such late-maturing germplasms they all have longer vernalisation periods, which does mean that it is a juggling act at harvest as along with broad beans the wheat and canola tend to ripen later and generally all at a similar time," he said.
In the past few years Mr Bell says they had benefits from increasing the number of fungicide applications from one to three for diseases such as Septoria and fusarium head blight.
"Being a high rainfall environment and soft finishing area we do have high level of disease pressure so we have adopted a three spray fungicide with the third one a head wash like they do in Europe and New Zealand when the plants are in head," he said.
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