Seeding begins for Mid West, with dry conditions and hot temperatures sowing seeds of doubt in some farmers

Farmers in the Mid West are again playing the waiting game for rain and “rolling the dice” by starting seeding in the hope that showers fall within weeks after an extremely hot and dry summer. According to the Grain Industry Association of WA’s latest crop report, which predicts between 8.5 million and 9m hectares of land will be put to grain crops in WA this year, the higher than average summer temperatures are running into the start of the season for the Mid West, with “no significant rainfall since harvest” and “completely dry soil profiles”. “Soil temperatures have remained too high for safe dry sowing of canola, until a recent cool spell provided some reprieve,” GIWA crop report author Michael Lamond said. Many local farmers have adopted a more cautious approach to this season following last year’s difficult start, with some calling the horror beginning of 2024-25 the “driest in living memory”. The season ended up bouncing back, with almost 3.5Mt harvested in the Geraldton zone. Gunyidi farmer Michael O’Callaghan, who has been farming full-time since 1995 and produces canola, wheat, barley and lupin crops, said just 10-20mm of rain had led to very dry subsoil again this year. “We’ve had very similar conditions to last year with all predictions and indicators pointing to a very average year this year,” he said. “We’ve had very little rain which has led to very dry subsoil. “We’re hoping for rain in mid to late May but at the moment everything is just a waiting game.” Mr O’Callaghan said seeding during these conditions was similar to “rolling the dice”. “We’ve started dry-seeding canola. It’s such a gamble and you have to start early sometimes, otherwise you’ll find yourself at the back-end with nothing,” he said. “We’ve all just been flat-out busy and hopefully all the seeding will be finished by the end of May for the rain.” Greenough farmer Andrew Royce is planning to begin dry-seeding wheat, canola, barley and lupins later this week or early next week. With the process set to take four-to-five weeks, Mr Royce said: “We might just go slowly to start with, because it’s dry, but if you need to, you can always ramp it up and do extra hours to cover the ground.” Chapman Valley Shire president and wheat, canola and lupins farmer Nicole Batten shared other farmers’ sentiments, saying the soil was bone dry. “It’s been extremely dry with no moisture for at least six months,” she said. “We started seeding on April 15 — just wheat at this point. “We’re taking a very cautious approach until a season break in mid-May and will hold off on canola and lupins until we are confident in the season, as they are far less resilient and much too expensive to risk.”