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What do you see? Some trees, a vibrant canola crop, nothing unusual for WA's graingrowing regions, but what you may be surprised to see is a red helicopter.
Aerial application to prevent and treat pests, disease and weeds and to support grain and oilseed crop growth and health is not a new practice, but for Boyup Brook grower Ben Creek, this growing season is the first time he has used a helicopter for that purpose.
Mr Creek contracted Fortescue Helicopters to deliver Flexi-N and Prosaro to his paddocks following consistent rainfall, which created havoc, wet paddocks with a few instances of getting seriously bogged.
Not that he is complaining about receiving lots of rain.
Mr Creek said his farm was "very wet", so much so that when he spoke with Farm Weekly last week, he was walking, thanks to bogging his LandCruiser.
It was not the first time a vehicle had fallen victim to the muddy conditions at the Creek family farm.
"We've just left the 'Cruiser in the corner of a paddock because it's stuck," Mr Creek said.
"She's wet, real wet.
"We have had 477 millimetres of rain year-to-date.
"This time last year, we were at 299mm, in 2023, 312mm, but in 2021, we were 519mm.
"Everything's overflowing, we haven't got an empty dam, and most of the dams are full.
"But in all honesty, this is Boyup Brook, this is what we were used to, this is what I grew up with, but it is exciting for crop growth."
Mr Creek said he and his nephew, Joel O'Neill, who works with him on the farm, had both been caught out getting bogged in recent weeks.
"Poor old Joel's been stuck a couple of times with the linkage spreader," he said.
"Then I bogged the sprayer, and we've had motorbikes and utes going down.
"We know it's wet in these areas, but it hasn't been this wet for so long, we thought we'd give it a go.
"I just didn't expect it to be as wet as it was when I was spraying."
Mr Creek said other growers in his local area had engaged contractors to spray by aeroplane, but at the time his crops weren't quite ready, then by the time they were, the planes were no longer an option.
That prompted a call to Fortescue Helicopters after bogging his sprayer.
"I needed to finish spraying Flexi-N and Prosaro and heard that everyone else had been getting a 'chopper' in, so we thought we'd join in as well," he said.
"By then, we were desperate to get stuff on, and the 'choppers' came, so it's been really good.
"I have never used a 'chopper' like this before. Even when I was an agro (agronomist), I had stuff to do with the planes, but I had never seen a 'chopper' sprayer. I was fascinated.
"They did an awesome job, it was incredible to watch."
Mr Creek said the process was slightly more expensive than using his sprayer, but due to the circumstances was entirely necessary, while he said the efficiency of the operators impressed him.
He said from the helicopter, they applied 40 litres of Flexi-N, 450ml of Prosaro and 9.55L water at 50L/hectare at just the right time.
"I'm glad I went (began seeding) early," Mr Creek said.
"This is our third fertiliser application and our last, we're just glad we got the crops in early and all the early nitrogen on, because a lot of the nitrogen has been leaching, it's been so wet.
"If we hadn't got it on as early as we had, it would have been a lot more chopper work.
"They were pretty quick, one guy was flying, he'd go back and forth to the other guy who was mixing and filling him up."
With that job now out of the way, Mr Creek said he was just about ready to shut the gate and leave his wheat, canola, barley, oats and lupin crops until harvest and is feeling positive about the season at this point in time.
"We stuck with canola, barley, oats, lupins, and a little bit of wheat," he said.
"Our canola is Eagle, and it is looking magnificent; it's just beautiful.
"It's gonna make the old girl (harvester) work pretty hard, it's a huge crop."
Mr Creek said if they managed to avoid frost and get just a bit more rain, he expected a good result and is happy to hear similar sentiment from others.
"It's so encouraging to hear, I talked to mates out east and north and they're having a good season," he said.
"Some said they haven't seen it this wet for 10 years.
"When the heads start popping, we're not at head emergence on cereals yet, though we're not far away from it, but I'd say September is when we may have frost issues.
"But if we get past that and get a good finishing top up rain, that'll be good.
"It's filled the water table up already, we've got moisture, so the profile for next year is going to be really great.
"It's good, it's exciting, but we'll see what harvest brings. I'm not one to count my chickens, but still want to be positive and optimistic.
"I am hopeful the majority of the State will be in for a good year."
