With the east coast of Australia recording its smallest winter crop in a decade and the west coast recording its second largest harvest ever, there’s no better way to sum up the 2018/19 season than “a mixed bag,” according to Western AG Agronomist, Nick Zordan, based in the Wimmera in Victoria (VIC).
Drought conditions in New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), VIC and South Australia (SA) slashed yields and caused some growers to abandon hopes of a harvest and cut crops for hay, while across the Nullarbor in Western Australia (WA), grain growers received timely rain, allowing the state’s crop production to produce close to a record crop.
There was one uniting factor. Significant frost events occurred in southern NSW, VIC, SA and WA, particularly impacting wheat and canola yields.
But despite the disparities in yield and conditions from the west coast to the east, one thing that remained consistent across the country was the standout performance of barley varieties Spartacus and Compass, and wheat variety, Scepter.
Vigorous barley varieties shine in dry conditions
In a tough season, many agronomists considered barley one of the few “success stories”. As a hardy, high yielding variety, Spartacus proved to be the most popular variety across WA, NSW and VIC, with Compass and La Trobe following a close second and third.
Delta Agribusiness Agronomist, Mitch Scifleet, who is based in Coolamon NSW, said one variety he is really impressed with and growing a lot of is Spartacus.
“It’s got a good disease package, it yields well and we really like the Clearfield technology,” he said.
“We’re using it as a cheap herbicide resistance option, a bit of a break in the mode of action, when dealing with our Group A-resistant Wild Oat grass.
“It malts too, which is a bonus.
“La Trobe also performs really well out here. A lot of the area that was previously sown to Hindmarsh has now gone to La Trobe.
“It has a low biomass, and it’s pretty early maturing, so its good in a tight season.”
Across the border, Spartacus and La Trobe “held on quite well compared to other crops,” according to Nick Zordan.
“A lot was cut for hay early which was a stressful decision for many,” Nick said.
“But what was left that got a late rain actually yielded quite well.
“With the fantastic prices on offer, farmers were able to get a good return. Before both La Trobe and Spartacus barley did quite well, dollars per hectares wise, and they suit our environment.”
Synergy Consulting Agronomist, Craig Brown from Perth, said Spartacus also continues to reign in WA, delivering exceptional yields in the 2018/19 season, so much so that in 2019, WA has planted its biggest area to the variety yet.
“At the moment in WA we’re effectively running a barley monoculture with Spartacus,” he said.
“The genetic advances in barley have been better than in wheat, so yield wise, barley performed exceptionally well.”
In the south of the country, Compass proved to be the standout variety, with Rural Directions Pty Ltd Agronomist, Richard Saunders, who is based in the Murray Mallee in South Australia, impressed with its early vigour.
“The stand out variety last year was Compass – it’s filling the bulk of the sown area now, and delivers great yield,” he said.
“As a very vigorous, early variety it looks good, it gets up and covers well. In this environment, it’s got enough straw strength, particularly with these sorts of yields to hang on and do quite well.
“But, Spartacus is coming into the mix fairly strongly too – taking over from Hindmarsh – and is proving to be a really good, high yielding variety. Plus, the Clearfield component is quite attractive.”
Scepter delivers solid yield in dry conditions
Scepter was the preferred wheat variety in VIC, SA and WA thanks to its ability to yield reliably in tough conditions.
“Scepter was a good variety for our area,” Nick Zordan said.
“It was able to hang on quite well, and yield in a tough environment.” Richard Saunders agreed.
“I think the best wheat variety is still Scepter,” he said.
“It’s fairly reliable and is continuing to increase in popularity.
“Yield wise, growers around Loxton in SA’s Riverland region were able to get about a tonne, or just under one tonne/ ha up to 1.4 tonnes/ha,” he said.
Scepter was also able to deliver one of WA’s highest yields in history.
In NSW, where several regions were severely impacted by frost, early maturing wheat varieties like Mustang were better able to withstand challenging conditions than their late maturing counterparts.
“What we found here was any early maturing varieties held up to the frost a little bit better, because they’re quicker to mature and they had less exposure to the frost period,” Mitch Scifleet said.
“Mustang is quicker to go from first node to out in head, whereas as Lancer takes a while to get from growth stage 30 out into head, so your chances of frost are a lot higher.
“Out of our winter wheats, we grow a lot of Kittyhawk and Wedgetail, which we like for its dual purpose of grain and grazing.
“But toward the end of the season, because they matured fairly late, they struggled with a dry finish,” he said.
The highs and lows of protein content
Scepter’s yields in the west were superior, however protein was down.
“Protein content was diluted by high yield,” Craig Brown said.
“Scepter is not a good accumulator of protein and we advise growers to address that with a strong legume rotation in heavy soils.
“Ultimately though, for growers in WA, the best economic return in 2018/19 was to chase yield, not protein.”
Ironically, on the other side of the country, growers in NSW and SA had no trouble achieving high protein levels.
“A lot of our grain did come in high protein but that’s to do with the dry finish, rather than anything we did,” Mitch Scifleet said.
SA had a similar situation.
“Generally, last year, and even in 2017, there hasn’t really been a protein issue here, simply because the yields are that much lower,” Richard Saunders said.
Over in Victoria, Nick Zordan advised growers to take a cautious approach to increasing protein levels in wheat last year.
“Last spring was dry and we were pretty careful with our nitrogen management programmes,” he said.
“We continually assessed how the season was progressing, worked with nitrogen budgets and relied on gut feelings.”
Yield for 2019/20
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated in August that Australia’s harvest will come in at 21mMT, approximately 20 per cent below the 10-year average, which is closer to 25mMT.
But as seeding was getting underway across south eastern Australia the outlook was not favourable for all growers.
“In the Mallee, things are still fairly tight,” Richard Saunders said.
“We were scratching around to try and get seed to put in this year, it was all very expensive.
“Guys are still trying to find enough hay and grain to feed their stock.”
Proving that a thousand kilometres can make a big difference in Australia, over in Coolamon, NSW, things were looking up for Mitch Scifleet and his growers at the time of writing.
“We’ve had a perfect season so far – we can’t complain,” he said.
“We had a break on the first of May, and everything that we sowed is up.
“In saying that, you don’t have to go far north west and things fall over very quickly. We’re on the edge of the drought here.”
Yet to the south of VIC, much of the state is in excellent condition with great sub soil moisture. The Millewa and northern river country is not as fortunate, and like much of SA and WA, still requires a positive spring rain to achieve average or better.