Western Australia’s wheat, canola crops dodge frost bullet this time

Western Australian crops are heading into harvest amid big expectations.

“Perfect conditions for grain fill during September have pushed tonnage estimates for the Western Australian grain harvest to the near record levels of last year’s 24m tonnes,” the Grain Industry Association of Western Australia (Giwa) said, as it lifted by 1.3m tonnes its forecast for the wheat crop this year in Australia’s top growing state. The canola harvest estimate was nudged 50,000 tonnes higher.

This contrasts with last year, when frosts took a toll, leading to a downturn in expectations just as combines were being readied to roll.

Where the 2022 harvest estimate ends up, though… Giwa’s final crop estimate for the 2021 harvest was 12.89m tonnes for wheat and 3.13m tonnes for canola. And that incorporated frost damage estimated at 2m tonnes across all crops.

If last year is a guide, the 2022 harvest could be poised to set records by a distance.