Cropping

Cranmore Park is home to 5700 hectares of beautiful rich soils ranging from red self-mulching clay through to loamy sands, with the dominant soil type being red-brown loam. The 2500 to 3000-hectare dryland cropping program is comprised of approximately 1200-1500 hectares of wheat, 450-500 hectares of canola, 300-350 hectares of oats, 250-400 hectares of barley, 250-400 hectares of export hay and 100-150 hectares of hay for on-property use. It also includes 150-200 hectares of field peas and some experimental pulse crops. In addition to traditional crops, clover regeneration is an ongoing project at seeding time.

The area sown to dryland lucerne is increasing slowly, with benefits for long term paddock rotation, stock feed and management of the underground water table.

Soil management and testing

The pH range of soils at Cranmore is from 4.7 – 7 (CaCl₂). An extensive liming program carried out over the past five years has seen an increase in pH, with many paddocks now at the optimum pH of 5.5 (CaCl₂). This is an ongoing project to ensure that soils are kept at their productive optimum pH and to protect against the acidification of soils so common in Western Australian cropping zones.

Soil testing is an integral part of both the cropping and pasture program at Cranmore. Soil testing allows measurement of soil nutritional status – 'If you can't measure the nutrients, how can you apply them appropriately?' – is a question soil testing aims to answer. Soil testing also dictates the need for lime application.

Integrated weed management

The onset of herbicide resistant weed populations in other areas of Western Australia lead to the development of an integrated weed management program at Cranmore to delay herbicide resistance for as long as possible. The Cranmore integrated weed management program includes rotation of in-crop herbicides, use of a 'double knock' pre-seeding, livestock grazing over summer to prevent summer weed seed set, rotation of paddocks into pasture to allow for pasture manipulation and spray topping, cutting hay in problematic weed paddocks and introduction of canola to the rotation which allows for new groups of in-crop herbicides to be used.