Fundraising crops show community spirit

Farmers and businesses take the time out of their own schedules to volunteer their time with machinery, labour and product in what has become an annual tradition.

Here's a snapshot of some of the this year's community programs.

Merredin

Merredin Men's Shed chairman Ross Duffield said wheat was back in the paddocks for another season.

The Merredin Men's Shed has 42 community-oriented members who are working on building bird boxes for mulga parrots.

The money from this year's harvest helps the Men's Shed to help the community.

"We help out in a lot of ways, even if it's just fixing things for the public," Mr Duffield said.

The wheat was seeded in early May, on their 20ha leased property."It was pretty dry, you could see a bit of dust being kicked up."

Tambellup

Neil Letter, Tambellup, said many volunteers from around the community rallied together on April 21 to seed canola on 260ha in eight hours.

"We had about six machines and everyone had their seeders home in time," Mr Letter said.

He said the soil was dry on seeding but felt hopeful with rain forecast for the end of May (which happened).

The money raised from the canola crop is to be divided between some local organisations, such as sporting clubs and the CWA, and key projects including building a caravan park and a community bus.

About 50 people joined the barbecue, celebrating a day's hard work.

Gnowangerup

The community planted wheat on 240ha of land at the Gnowangerup Training Centre and on a further 100ha of land leased from the Shire.

Stirling Ag agronomist Tom McInerney said a lot of volunteers and companies were involved in getting the seeding underway.

"We were lucky in terms of pulling everyone together," McInerney said.

The wheat was planted over two days, the first on April 27 and the second on May 25.

"It was 100 per cent dry," Mr McInerney said.

The money raised from the crop will go towards GNP 360, the Gnowangerup sporting complex and the Gnowangerup District High School Parents' and Citizens' Association.

"These three groups incorporate a big section of the community."

Narembeen

Dylan Cole from Narembeen's community crop project said the team of volunteers seeded 200ha of wheat in a nearby paddock owned by the Shire, and another 600ha near the Tampia gold mine.

Four airseeders and two boomsprayers got the job done on May 30-31.

And it couldn't have happened at a more ideal time as they received 15mm of rain.

"It started raining just as we were finishing up," Mr Cole said.

There are no distinct plans for the money raised at the moment and it will be saved for future projects.

"We want to be able to afford something really big," he said.

Northam

Scepter wheat was planted on 80ha of leased Shire land, by Eamon Grogan, from Avon Valley Contractors and by one of his workers.

For four years he has been planting a fundraising crop, this year for the Northam District Motorcycle Club.

Mr Grogan said the money would go towards infrastructure such as club rooms, track maintenance and water tanks.

He also said the club donated money to other organisations in the area.

Seeding went smoothly going into moist soil, with more rain received in the following day.

Do you have a community cropping story to tell?