Braden Grylls was cutting hay at his property west of Corrigin on Thursday morning, when he saw the frost start to build up across his paddock. "When we were cutting hay on a low paddock on one of our farms, we noticed the old white hay started coming in across the paddock and thought ... this is when it's going to start chilling down," he said. "All the ice starts forming on your cutter as you're going around the paddock .... every few minutes I kept looking back behind me and I'm going 'Oh yeah it's still building up, still building up'. "I walked out in the wheat paddock beside me where I was cutting hay and right up through the head of the wheat was frozen solid so I'd say no doubt we'll be cutting some low-lying areas of wheat down but it will be a week or two before we can really assess the damage." The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) had thought areas in the south-eastern agricultural district would be worst affected but temperatures actually dropped lower in areas to the Central and Western Wheatbelt. Some farmers have reported losing up to 50 per cent of their crops, while others have been virtually unaffected. Mr Grylls said it is disappointing given how well the crops were going.

"It's one of those things, you have such a good year like you're having this year and you think well something's going to give," he said.

"You just back on putting a crop in knowing you're going to get a frost .... we've been getting these three of four mil events and then you might get a frost the next morning which on a normal year, that's unheard of, it's just one of those things that's happening this year, on such a good year unfortunately," he said. The BoM has characterised the number of frosts as being unusual and said they were probably caused because of the state's unseasonably cold start to spring.

'Worst season for frost in 20 years'

Further east, Hyden farmer Colin Nicholl was also out surveying the damage from what has been one of the worst seasons for frost in 20 years. His paddocks have already been hit by several cold snaps earlier this month. "You wouldn't get any yield out of this, the better value in this is now to cut it for hay and bail it up", Mr Nicholl said. Ironically, what was shaping up to be one of the most promising seasons in recent years has also proven to be vulnerable to the freezing conditions. "One of the vagaries of frost is that the better the crop the harder frost hits it," Mr Nicholl said. "We are now growing much higher yields than we have ever done before, but I think there are other factors in that, we just seem to be getting later frosts and frosts of more intensity than we ever used to before." Agronomist Helen Wyatt has seen widespread damage. "We're seeing varied levels of frost damage through out the region," she said. "In some areas its hard to tell the extent of the damage yet, there's been consecutive frost events and some this morning as well so we really won't see the full effect of that for another 7 to 10 days." While Colin Nicholl knows there are no guarantees or insurance against frost, after 50 years of farming he is philosophical. "It's all part and parcel of farming, while it's difficult to take, to be successful you can't just throw the towel in," he said. The state's grain handler, CBH has lowered its forecast for the season but said it would not know the true extent of the losses until harvest starts. Source - http://www.abc.net.au/