Crop Science and Grain Production

The 2025 Western Australian (WA) Crop Sowing Guide aims to support growers in making decisions on the best variety for each of the major winter crops for the upcoming season. This edition includes the major crops grown in WA – wheat, barley, canola, oat, lupins, and pulses.

The guide includes information on grain yield, quality, and disease for all crops as well as a management guide for pulses and lupins.  

Not sure whether pulses are for your system?

Relative yields and break-even yields of different crops are listed in the pulse section along with a guide on picking a pulse that might be suitable for your property. Please also consult your local agronomist for more specific information for your local area. 

When deciding whether to implement a new variety into your farming system, it’s important to determine whether the change will provide an advantage. A new variety should provide: 

• an improvement in yield, grain quality and/or disease susceptibility
• diversity or risk mitigation within your farming system
• suitable characteristics for current market.

The guide provides variety characteristics, disease ratings, and agronomic information for the major crops. Grain yield summaries have been provided from the National Variety Trials (NVT) website and supported by other department trial information. Grain yield comparisons between wheat, barley and oat varieties are also provided, based on site yield potentials.  

National Variety Trials (NVT) website

Long Term MET Yield Reporting tool

Pick up a copy of the 2024 Western Australian Crop sowing guide from department offices or email Brenda Shackley or Mark Seymour to request a copy. Alternatively, download the document below.

2025 Western Australian Crop Sowing Guide

Contact us 

Brenda Shackley, Grains Research Scientist 

+61 8 9821 3243 | Email Brenda Shackley 

Stacey Power, Grains Research Scientist 

Email Stacey Power 

Dion Nicol, Grains Research Scientist 

+61 8 9081 3115 | Email Dion Nicol 

Blakely Paynter, Grains Senior Research Scientist 

Email Blakely Paynter 

Georgie Troup, Grains Research Scientist

Email Georgie Troup 

Mark Seymour, Grains Senior Research Scientist

+61 8 9083 1143 | Email Mark Seymour 

Harmohinder Dhammu, Grains Research Scientist

+61 8 9690 2217 | Email Harmohinder Dhammu

This project aims to develop new phenomics methods and tools to enable the Australian grains research community (including pre-breeders, agronomists, and physiologists) to achieve their research outcomes more effectively.

These methods and tools will enable challenging crop traits to be measured with greater accuracy, speed, and cost effectiveness, resulting in more effective delivery of research outcomes that benefit Australian grain growers.

Start date: 1/03/2024
Finish date: 1/03/2029

Description 

This project aims to overcome the field phenotyping bottleneck for impactful root traits, which limits the capacity of breeders and agronomists to achieve step gains in crop productivity, by selecting genotypes and precision agronomic interventions that increase drought tolerance in wheat and sorghum.

Previous root phenotyping approaches using pots, root chambers, or tubes have struggled to functionally relate root structure traits with root function, yield, and yield stability. This project integrates the new functional high throughput phenotyping (HTP) approach for valuable root traits in the field using a novel approach to remotely sense changes in the distribution of water in the soil profile. This will be applied within the trait pipeline approach used in pre-breeding and large multinational seed companies where there is simultaneous development of screening methods and evaluation of trait value in relevant germplasm.

A further benefit will be scaling the developed tools to inform agronomic research and precision agriculture applications with the participating service providers. A key focus is to develop functional high-throughput in-field root phenotyping tools for traits that are valuable, show genetic diversity and agronomic application, and contribute to yield and yield stability.

This project is led by the University of Queensland, with collaborative research activities conducted by the department, University of Queensland, and CSIRO. Seed companies and precision agriculture companies are actively involved in the project.

Funding partner

GRDC

Contact us

Hammad Khan, Grains Research Scientist

This project will validate and quantify the opportunity and value of adopting in-season agronomic practices for the avoidance of frost damage.

Start date: 05/05/2022
Finish date: 30/06/2025

Project description 

Australian crop production takes place in a challenging environment where growers must cope with climatic extremes. Growers need to manage production risks in yield-limiting environments due to abiotic events such as drought, high temperatures, and frost to remain financially viable. 

This project will develop in-season agronomic interventions that help crops in avoiding or reducing frost damage. The strategies involve manipulating crop phenology through mechanical or chemical means, applying cryoprotectants to protect plants against frost, and using bactericides to control ice-nucleating bacteria that induce and increase frost damage.  

The department is leading the research that focuses on evaluating bactericidal and cryoprotectant products. Promising bactericidal products identified through rigorous laboratory and controlled environment tests were evaluated at field scale on different crop types. The findings in the field are also encouraging but require continued research to fully understand and validate the effectiveness of these interventions.

Funding partner 

GRDC-PA

Project code 

FAR2203-001RTX 

Contact us

Amanuel Bekuma, Grains Research Scientist

This project aims to provide growers and agronomists with an improved understanding of pulse growth and development across a range of environments, enabling the matching of pulse genotypes with soil and climate to maximise yield and profit, with manageable risk in Australian cropping systems. 

Start date: 10/01/2022
Finish date: 01/10/2025

Project description 

This project will deliver new knowledge of the impact of soil type, water availability, and canopy temperature on pulse (chickpea, lentil, faba bean, and narrow-leafed lupin) growth and development in current production environments across Australia.  

This will be achieved with consistent protocols and standardised measurements on detailed and satellite experimental sites across southern, northern, and western regions. It will also include data analysis and simulation.  

The project functions beside independent regional pulse crop development and extension investments and contributes to improved Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) simulations against validated data. 

The research will address the following scientific questions: 

1. What is the water-limited yield potential of pulses in their traditional environments when grown with best practice agronomy? 
2. What is the relation between phenology, water stress, temperature, and the critical period for yield formation in pulses? 
3. How should crop design change across sites and seasons, having contrasting yield potential for different profit/risk scenarios? 
4. Does nitrogen fixation switch off prematurely or reduce under water stress? How does it affect water-limited yield potential? 

Funding partners 

GRDC-PA, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, CSIRO, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, University of Queensland, Agriculture Victoria, and South Australian Research and Development Institute.

Project code 

CSP2107-011RTX 

Contact us

Stacey Power, Grains Research Scientist

This project will provide Australian growers with access to management options that can increase the reliability of canola establishment.

Project description 

Successful canola establishment is foundational to delivering a profitable crop, especially to seize opportunities when canola prices are high.

Canola establishment is still a significant constraint to growers, with individual soil types providing different challenges for growers. 

Reducing risks of poor crop establishment in canola under marginal seedbed conditions offer prospects of increasing grower profitability. This may be achieved through an integrated approach that captures and leverages the interactions of genetics with environment and management (GxExM).

Combinations of novel approaches and technologies suitable for canola growing regions across Australia are more likely to deliver reliable canola establishment through additive effects, as opposed to on their own. These technologies include genetic innovations in long hypocotyls and secondary seed dormancy, precision seeding technologies, seed treatments, and treatments to mitigate soil water repellence and soil surface crusting.

To evaluate and optimise combinations of GxExM components, a range of activities including desktop analysis, glasshouse, and field experiments, coupled with modelling, are required across Australia. Industry consultation and collaboration with current investment partners will ensure appropriate approaches and methodologies are deployed to deliver to growers in all three GRDC regions bespoke management recommendations for each target production environment.

Funding partne

GRDC-PA 

Project code 

CSP2212-005RTX 

Contact us

Bob French, Manager Crop Science and Grain Production
+61 8 9081 3126