After a brilliant start to the season, farmers are looking at an average harvest, local agronomist Matt Gould says.

“If you’d asked me a month or so ago I’d have said we were going to have above-average crops, they were set up well,” he said.

“But we missed that rain that was forecast about five weeks ago, so the crops had to rely on subsoil moisture to finish.”

Mr Gould was recently part of the judging team for the PA and H Association canola crop competition and said the winning crop’s yielded quite well – 2.6 and 2.1 tonnes per hectare.

But from the top two, the yield dropped considerably.

“Last year’s competition was tighter - we probably had eight crops within half a tonne,” he said.

Other winter crops are still finishing, but they are also looking about average.

Crops near Forbes and to the east are “hanging in there”, but the stress of the dry finish is evident on those west of town.

“Barley probably hasn’t been affected as much by the dry, as it fills faster than wheat,” Mr Gould said.

Some wheat crops are showing signs of tipping – not filling the top of the head with grain – or crown rot, where the wheat head doesn’t fill or the grains shrivel. 

“That is caused by wheat-on-wheat in crop rotation, but it’s more evident in a dry year,” Mr Gould said.