Escorting and helping our judge, Hamish Mines, around the 23 crops entered in this year’s competition was a pleasant surprise and a testament to modern farming practices and the skills of our farmers. Despite the tough season, expected yields and grain quality will still be good in the crops inspected and in others we drove by on our 200km tour of the Kaniva district.

The winner of this year’s best bread wheat crop was Paul Wallis at Serviceton. Paul’s heavy, well headed crop was grown after last season’s medic hay. He will receive $1000 worth of free brokerage from Market Check and be presented with the Geoffrey Hawker Memorial shield at the Kaniva Show in October 2025. We wish Paul every success as his crop now enters the wider Wimmera competition.

The best district Durum crop was awarded to Ian Tink and his sons Brad and Spotty. Their crop of Patron variety, grown after faba beans at South Serviceton, has big even heads and will yield well also. San Remo Macaroni Company have sponsored this section for this year. The Tink family will receive $1000 cash in prize money and be presented with the Alexander H Wallis Memorial shield at next year’s Kaniva Show.

The Kaniva A&P Society sincerely thanks Hamish for making his time available to professionally judge our competition again this year. We also acknowledge and thank our prize donors, Market Check and San Remo Macaroni Company for generously sponsoring our competition this year.

Of course, there would not be a competition without the willingness of our growers to enter their crops. Thank you to all growers for your interest and participation in the competition and we look forward to receiving your entries next year.

Hamish has prepared the following report.

Kaniva A&P Society – Crop Competition 2024 WHEAT

Daryl Wallis – Kaniva A&P Society Representative
Hamish Mines – Agronomist Driscoll Ag

Categories:

• Wheat – Durum
• Wheat – Heavy Wheat
• Mixed Wheat – Light
• Wheat – Best Bread Wheat

The crop judging was conducted on Tuesday Nov 19th 2024. A total of 23 crops were entered into the competition for 2024 (7 Durum, 5 Heavy, 9 Mixed, 2 Light). An even spread of crops were inspected from Miram Sth across to Leeor Rd through to Sth Serviceton, up the North Servy Rd and then back to Dinyarrock. Of note was the evenness and good grain fill of the crops this year considering below average rainfall.

Agronomics:

There were plenty of cracks in the soil to contend with this year and the wheat had obviously got its roots down into the sub-soil moisture early to enable to convert to the yield and grain size observed. Carry over moisture and good summer weed control to conserve moisture has helped. As seen in previous year’s crop husbandry was to a high level across all crops which makes judging challenging. Due to the evenness of wheat itself this year more off types we noted in the field notes taken. The evenness was also attributed to less waterlogging, disease and early slug pressures. Only a low level of frost was observed in some crops which was good as we were expecting more. Very few snails were observed this year. Ryegrass continues to be managed well with some likely resistance spikes getting through spray programs. Some later wildoat germinations were observed across most paddocks inspected. Crops looked to be finishing better towards the border which we assumed was the result of an extra or higher rainfall event. The Durum has enjoyed the growing season looking very impressive. It’s also exciting to see for Durum growers some new seed treatments for crown rot control becoming available next year.

There was some very close judging in the Heavy and Mixed categories, with the Mixed being dual crop winners. Despite the tough year experienced I think you will all be pleasantly surprised with your yield and quality results. I hope you all meet the protein requirements and grain standards you have budgeted for. All the very best for harvest and thankyou to Daryl for all his organisation of the competition and providing the crop details required prior to judging. 

This article appeared in the Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 4 December 2024.