Community seeds support WA rural sport
A community crop donation of Pioneer Brand canola seed has generated a significant contribution for sporting clubs in the historic West Australian rural community of York, about 100 km east of Perth.
PHOTO: (L-R) Local Farm Manager KLK Farms Mal Cole , Branch Manager Nutrient (York) Darren Chitty, Pioneer Farm Services Consultant Rob Bagley, Local Farmer and Pioneer canola grower Adrian Emin.
Despite a hailstorm damaging about half the canola crop just before harvest in December 2022, volunteers still managed 70 tonnes of grain, generating $45,000 in much-needed funding to be shared among three popular York sporting clubs.
WA farm services consultant for Pioneer Brand Seeds Rob Bagley was instrumental in arranging the canola seed donation for the community project.
According to local farm manager Mal Cole, one of several volunteers behind the fund-raising venture, the Pioneer® 44Y30RR canola hybrid was direct-headed and averaged about 1.4 – 1.5 tonne/hectare, although it might easily have produced considerably more without the hailstorm.
“It was a $45,000 income when it could have been a $90,000 income, but that’s the nature of the beast, I suppose,” Mal says.
In future, he says, they’ll be considering their insurance options.
For about a decade, local growers and contractors have worked together at York to coordinate an annual fundraiser on the town’s old airstrip – a 45-hectare paddock just outside the town’s residential zone.
It’s river-flat country with medium-to-heavy soil about 100 metres from the Avon River, which enjoys about 350 mm of rain annually.
Mal says the community paddock usually has one or two dryland cereal crops after each canola rotation.
This year [2023] it’s back to barley for the community land.
“It’s almost a demonstration site for dealerships and seed companies,” he says.
“I wouldn’t mind putting in another Pioneer Clearfield® canola next time.”
Funds generated from the 2022 canola crop have been distributed evenly between the football, hockey and tennis clubs for a range of different uses including annual registration fees, infrastructure and operating costs.
“Sporting clubs in York rarely receive donations of that size,” Mal says.