WHEAT crop judge Paul Parker doubts he will ever see as many high yielding crops again in his lifetime.
The veteran judge of the annual Agricultural Societies Council/Suncorp Bank state dryland field wheat competitions was commenting on the 20 finalist crops grown throughout the state's wheat belt during the 2020 winter cereal crop season.
The most outstanding five crops in each of the four ASC zones were judged between late October and mid-November last year selected from a total of 500 crops out of 53 local competitions.
"I have never had the opportunity to judge so many high yielding crops in around 50 years of judging," Mr Parker said.
Among the finalist crops, estimated yields by Mr Parker ranged from 5.4 tonnes a hectare up to 8t/ha, while 11 were estimated at 7t/ha - plus.
The 2020 season was such a contrast to the three previous years of drought.
"However, the standard of all crops was tremendous, and this again was due to the high level of management shown by all growers."
Mr Parker said some people put success down to luck due to the most timely rain received throughout the season.
"But I disagree. Only good management practices will produce the top yielding crops that I saw this year."
In breaking down the 20 bread wheat crops in the finals, Mr Parker said there were just 12 different varieties.
Coolah was the most popular variety, with five crops all up, grown at Blayney, Grenfell, Boorowa, Cootamundra and Young. Scepter was the next most popular with three crops. These were grown at Canowindra, Hillston and Young.
There were two Lancer crops, grown at Coonamble and Burcher, and also two Sunmax at Moree and Willow Tree.
Eight other crops of the one variety included Suntop, Gregory, Flanker, Mustang, Catapult, DS Bennet, Espada and Trojan.
The the durum section had just two varieties, being Lillaroi and Jandaroi.
Mr Parker expected weeds to be a major problem within crops due to the wetter growing conditions, however, to his surprise overall weed control was excellent.
"This was exemplified by eight crops being awarded the full points because there were no weeds observed during judging," he said.
"The biggest issue faced by growers from what I could see this season was the presence of diseases almost totally a function of the wetter conditions.
"The most frequent observed in crops across all regions was fusarium head blight, known to be a disease of wetter seasons and occurred despite the excellent rotations that most growers were using."
He said other diseases observed included fusarium crown rot, a disease usually seen in dry years, and some stripe rust.
"There were indications of some frost damage in many crops but did little to impact what were otherwise high yields, with a limited amount of small and pinched grain in some of the affected crops."
