Leeton farmer Matt Tabain has wheat crop win competition

Matt Tabain's dryland wheat crop has been named as the best in the Leeton and Narrandera shire's as part of the Agricultural Societies Council's dryland wheat competition.

The competition has different zones, with Mr Tabain's winning crop then judged as part of the western division, which is the next level of the event.

While those results are still pending, co-ordinator of the Leeton and Narrandera area competition, Liz Munn, was hopeful it would do well.

Miss Munn said some crops were unable to be judged this year, particularly in the Narrandera area, due to the recent flooding.

However, she said farmers were still throwing everything they have at ensuring a quality wheat crop can be produced again in 2022 despite the harsh elements this season.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"The competition is bringing awareness how important farmers our to our show societies, so it's a way of giving back and showcasing the achievements of our farmers," Miss Munn said.

"As the co-ordinator I contact agronomists across the region to give me some paddocks that they believe would be good for the competition.

"People can nominate themselves as well ... we definitely encourage that for next year's competition."

An independent judge visited each of the paddocks as part of the process.

Each wheat crop is assessed on elements such as its predicted yield, quality, cleanliness (disease free etc) and other criteria.

"They get a certain amount of points for how high the yield estimate is, then they are also judged on the evenness, cleanliness so free of disease and true to type so it's all the same variety," Miss Munn said.

"It's about how the crop looks, but also the practices of the farmer, so keeping up on their spray program and good cultural practices.

"We did have a couple of growers that were flooded out because they were on the other side of the river of Narrandera."

Mr Tabain's win not only had him progress to the next level of the competition, but he also received several prizes as a result.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: