Mr Wegener crops 1400 hectares each year, with 240ha devoted to canola.

The rest is seeded to wheat, barley, peas and oaten hay for the domestic market.

He says the new Pioneer varieties 44C79 and 43C80 are among the canola varieties seeded and both show excellent early vigour.

The 43C80 variety has significantly shorter maturity than has 44C79, making it well-suited to lower-rainfall areas.

Being a Clearfield line, it provides weed control benefits that early conventional canola varieties do not.

Last season they were seeded in the same paddock as his benchmark variety 44C73, and yielded similarly in the tough seasonal conditions.

His farm average for canola is 1.1 tonnes a hectare, going down to as low as 0.8t/ha.

"I've had 44C73 in my program for quite a few years and it's proven to be a strong performer, standing out in both good and bad years," he said.

Canola is "pretty handy" in his rotation.

"Even though input costs went through the roof and we had pretty ordinary yields because of the season, it still had value, with its use as a break crop," he said.

"It's handy purely for its use as a cleaning crop, giving good weed control. It also helps to spread my risk."

* Extract from a full report in Stock Journal, April 23 issue.