Joel south farmer Phil Hall said he started harvest last Monday.

“We tried the week before but it was still too green,” he said.

“We just have oats in this year.”

Mr Hall said the quality was not as good as usual and the weather had been frustrating.

“We’ve had four total fire ban days this harvest and it just slows everything down.”

Mr Hall said overall yields were well-below average.

“We are all just trying to get what we can,” he said.

“Quality is down on last year too and the weather is adding to the frustration.

“We shouldn’t get any damage though at least.”

Mr Hall said he was conflicted about receiving rain at this time of the year because he also had sheep.

“We would love to get some water in the dams, but we want to get harvest out of the way first,” he said.

Rupanyup farmer Paul Oxbrow has already finished for the year.

“It went fairly well considering the poor rainfall,” he said.

“Cereals and canola were okay, but lentils were fairly poor.”

Glenorchy farmer Kevin Jess described harvest as ‘a bit sparse.’

“Grades are varied and we’ve had test weight issues with oats being a bit light,” he said.

“Barley went feed three, but wheat hasn’t been too bad.

“Canola was disappointing to look at.

“Overall, quality hasn’t been too bad, just the yields have been down.”

Mr Jess said he started about three weeks ago.

Banyena farmer Chris Drum said he had finished stripping barley, lentils and canola and was halfway through wheat.

“We aren’t complaining – it was about what we expected,” He said.

“Lentils weren’t too bad, nothing fantastic, but we stripped everything,” he said.

“Canola wasn’t a disaster, so that’s a positive.”

Mr Drum said he was slightly better off last year.

He said he had about a week to go.