Western Australia’s broadacre farmers have delivered another record crop, topping more 27.3 million tonnes.
Western Australia’s broadacre farmers have delivered another record crop, topping more 27.3 million tonnes.
Grain Industry Association of Western Australia’s final report for the season said that the result, slightly above previous estimates, beat the 2022 crop by about 5 per cent.
GIWA said more area devoted to cropping was part of the equation, noting that increased barley production was the most significant change in terms of the various grains grown.
“An increase in total crop area of 6.8 per cent from the previous record production in 2022 helped considering most of this increase in areas was in the higher rainfall regions,” GIWA said.
“Wheat area was down 3.3 per cent, canola was down 7.3 per cent, barley was up 26.4 per cent, lupins up 17.4 per cent and oats up 65.1 per cent (total oat area, including oats for hay).”
Frost impact during the season cost wheat growers in the state’s central Wheatbelt about 1 million tonnes of lost production.
Wheat remained the most favoured crop, producing 13.3 million tonnes, followed by barley (7.6mt), canola (4.4mt) and oats (1mt) with a 900,000 tonne lupin result making up the majority of the remainder.
Grain handling cooperative CBH Group last month reported it had received 24.2 million tonnes of grain from the 2025/26 harvest, about 1.3 million tonnes above its previous record, also set in 2022.
The total harvest includes deliveries to from Bunge, Commodity Ag and independent container freight exporters.
The rising production, with four above 20 million tonnes in the past five years, reflects growing devotion of land to cropping as live sheep export bans have hit pastoralists.
The value of the state's crop has also been relatively consistent - aside from the spike in 2022 in the earliest days of the Russian war with Ukraine - prompting farm values to more than treble in many instances across the Wheatbelt, especially in reliably high rainfall areas.
