Western Australia's grain growers are on track to deliver one of their best harvests, exceeding expectations after a drier than average winter. Analysts believe the total tonnage will easily end up being the third largest harvest on record, delivering almost ten billion dollars to the state's economy.
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00:00Timing in life and farming is everything.
00:06Just ask Barry West.
00:09Back in May, the coolant farmer didn't wait for opening rains
00:13and rolled the dice, seeding his crop during one of the driest autumns on record.
00:19Just about everything was sown. This year's been dry.
00:22To be honest, it'd be great to have a rain.
00:25Forecasts for winter rainfall across the grain belt were down,
00:29along with predictions for the 2024 grain harvest.
00:33At the moment, you'd have to say that you'd be very optimistic
00:36if we were likely to achieve more than 15 million tonnes
00:40of total grain production in Western Australia this year.
00:43But roll forward to December, and Santa Claus is set to deliver the state a bumper harvest.
00:50Yeah, everything's going good, yeah. Nah, it's been a good year.
00:54For Peter and Barry West, 44 years of rolling the dice with the weather,
00:59this season has paid off.
01:01I'd say it's going to be one of our best, hopefully.
01:04Yeah, we've yet to finish, but yeah, we're very happy with it.
01:08It's quite unexpected.
01:10We now will easily have the third largest harvest ever
01:14when you consider it was a very low rainfall growing season.
01:17You know, very low for most of the state, except for the north.
01:20Even though it was a late start, 2024 was one of the warmest winter growing seasons ever.
01:27The frosts haven't been too bad, so yeah, the timing of the rain's been good.
01:32We're going to get close to 20 million tonnes for CDH.
01:35Canola and barley exceeded expectations.
01:39The wheat has been exceptionally good as well, and you think,
01:42well, it was flowering right through that September period where there was no rain.
01:46So, I mean, it's just extraordinary, really.
01:48It's an unexpected bonus for farmers and the state.
01:52In net dollars, I mean, it's probably close to 10 billion.
01:56Winners this season are Greeners.