Harvest starts for Cunderdin ag students

An 82 hectare crop of Wharton peas was the first to be harvested, yielding about 1.4 tonnes per hectare.

WACOA Cunderdin farm manager Daniel De Beer said it was a pleasing result given they only had about 180 millimetres of rainfall for the growing season.

"A lot of farmers in our area seem to have been pleasantly surprised with their crops this harvest so hopefully we will be too," Mr De Beer said.

The college's cropping program this year consists of 360ha wheat, 405ha barley, 144ha oats, 77ha triticale (for pig feed), 172ha canola, 217ha lupins and 90ha peas.

"We also seed about 300-400ha just for the college's livestock and usually that's a serradella oats mix," Mr De Beer said.

"We try to keep our crop rotations mostly the same each year because of our feed requirements - but some years we might change our wheat and barley rotations a little bit."

Other than the usual aphids, Mr De Beer said budworm had affected the college's lupin and pea crops earlier than usual this year, which resulted in an extra spray of chemicals on those crops.

As part of a project with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) students placed moth traps in the crops and reported their weekly results back to DPIRD.

"We did a trial last year with budworm and diamondback moth baits where we had 14 traps in one paddock," Mr De Beer said.

"In one section they put only the diamondback moth lure in, in another section just the budworm lure and in another section they combined both lures because DPIRD wanted to see how it impacted its effectiveness.

"There was definitely an effect as we only got budworm in the combined lure.

"It's great to do those sorts of activities because it helps not only our students but also DPIRD with their own research."

Mr De Beer said harvest would definitely be completed by the end of the month.

The results at Cunderdin reflect what Rabobank reported for WA in its Australian 2020/21 Winter Crop Production Outlook.

The outlook said improved year-on-year rainfall levels and minimal frost damage in WA were expected to deliver a winter crop of 13.7 million tonnes, up 18 per cent year-on-year, but still 10pc below the five-year average.

"While frost damage has been limited this season, poor finishing conditions have been the difference between an average year and the below-average year now on the cards," the outlook said.

"This result does, however, mask the hit-and-miss nature of the season, with some regions looking at above-average yields and others well below."

According to the outlook, rainfall across most regions of WA has been patchy and inconsistent in 2020, on top of record-low incoming soil moisture levels in most regions.

"Northern cropping regions saw a dry start and a dry finish, only good rains in May through August boosted soil moisture enough to save crop yields from further deterioration," the outlook said.

"In the Avon, crops were planted on strong February/March rainfall and consolidated on good rains in May through to August, but a dry September and early October caused yields to go backwards.

"South West cropping areas, especially coastal, had a comparatively better year, albeit still a below-average season, with good early growth, minimal frost damage and somewhat consistent rainfall filling soil moisture."

As a registered training organisation, WACOA Cunderdin students are required to be observed completing sowing and harvest activities to a specific standard in order to achieve their Certificate II and III in Agriculture.

"Our year 11 students complete harvest because the year 12s have already left by that stage and our year 12 students undertake the seeding component," Mr De Beer said.

"We have just over 70 year 12 students and all of them studied a Certificate II in Agriculture.

"Their units include seeding, maintaining - which is spreading and spraying - as well as the harvest competency."

Mr De Beer said 60pc of the income from the crop stays with the college, while 40pc goes into a trust with the Education Department.

"I believe about half of that 40pc goes to the State government while the remaining 20pc is put into a pool which is used by all of our agricultural colleges to buy equipment and the like," Mr De Beer said.

The college also welcomed its new principal Matt Dowell this term, who replaced Sally Panizza after she was appointed agricultural education director in the Education Department.

Mr Dowell was previously deputy principal at East Kimberley College in Kununurra and has worked at various regional schools throughout the State.

He joined the year 11 students in the paddock last week to witness the beginning of the college's harvest.