A COUPLE of growers from the Bruce Rock area seeded wheat in the middle of March and while that may seem early, the farmers are actually trying a dual-purpose winter variety.
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Illabo is a newer variety from Australian Grain Technologies which has been bred with the intent of offering growers an improved version of EGA Wedgetail.
Winter wheats are strains of wheat that are planted in the autumn to germinate and develop into young plants that remain in the vegetative phase during the winter and resume growth in early spring.
Illabo has a cold requirement, meaning if it's planted in March, it won't put a head out until it gets a certain amount of cold days.
Ardath and East Hyden grower Mitchell Hunter farms with his dad, but manages the cropping side of the operation.
Mr Hunter said he has seen some information regarding winter wheats over the past couple of years from agronomists and some guys over east who were farming it.
"A lot of what I had been seeing was that it's just been feed wheat, so I wasn't overly interested in it but had been keeping my eye on it," Mr Hunter said.
"Illabo was talked about at an agronomy day earlier in the season and it just so happened that one of my neighbours, John Chapman, had a heap of seed and a little bit to spare.
"I grabbed half a tonne off him and thought I'd have a go with it and see what happens, it was only enough for about 15 hectares, but enough to have a bit of a play with."
Mr Hunter said conditions in his paddocks had been looking good with a bit of rain and moisture leading to a good weed kill.
"There was an opportunity there, it had rained the week before and looked like it was possibly going to rain again the weekend after, which it did.
"I seeded it on March 18 and we were lucky enough to get 19.5 millimetres on it on March 21 - I had a look at it at the start of last week and it had already germinated.
"I'm pretty positive to see what happens with it as it's had the best start it could possibly get so we'll see what it's going to do."
Mr Chapman said he had seeded about 100 hectares of Illabo.
"If you get early rain and wait until the traditional planting window, it's become too dry to germinate a wheat crop," Mr Chapman said.
"So if in the middle of May, when you want to plant your wheat, all of this summer rain we've had will be too far away and you can't get to it.
"So if you can take the opportunity to plant wheat in March and April, it's worth giving it a go."
Mr Hunter said where he seeded the crop at East Hyden was a high frost-prone area.
"Over the past couple of years we have been getting early rains, so it's a good opportunity to have a go at something when you do get an early break rather than just sitting there with your hands tied," Mr Hunter said.
"From what I've read it's around the September period it'll go to a reproductive type stage, the same as most other wheats.
"Harvest also shouldn't be any different to a normal wheat harvest, so I'd say it'll be early November."
