Crop Circle Consulting and Research is an independent research agronomy firm, based in Geraldton, the central hub of the northern agricultural region of Western Australia. The Crop Circle research team combine attention to detail and rigorous methodology to test new plant breeding material, fertilisers and pesticide chemistry in a variable Mediterranean climate.
The region is a world leader in lupin (lupinus angustifolius) production, as well as producing quality hard and noodle wheats, malting and feed barley, canola, chickpeas, oats, triticale and grazing pastures.
The region ranges from light textured grey sandy soils, through to deep loamy sand yellow sandplain soils, acidic wodjil soils, red loamy sand soils through to heavy red clay loam soils overlying limestone.
Grant Thompson
Director and Agronomist
Director and Agronomist Grant Thompson has been working as a researcher, agronomist and consultant to farmers in the northern agricultural region for almost 25 years.
Highlights of Crop Circles Research include
- Research and extension into liquid fertiliser equipment and application. This work led to the importation of liquid fertiliser distribution equipment and tow behind liquid fertiliser carts for many famers in the WA grain growing belt.
- Developing farming systems to combat climate variability using fallow and residual herbicides. This work culminated in a 3 year, 3 location, 3400 plot project funded by the GRDC.
- Studies of nutrient distribution patterns in the no-till systems for precision furrow placement and interception of residual nutrients.
- Spot spraying herbicide applications – a multi location project to determine alternative herbicides for effective spot spraying of hard to kill and resistant weeds in summer and winter fallow.
- Testing manganese Sources for prevention of Split Seed syndrome in Lupinus Angustifolius
Currently Crop Circle Research is focusing its work on
- Evaluation of Canola, Wheat and Barley for Plant breeding companies
- Testing herbicide tolerance and efficacy of new herbicides pre and post registration in a range of cereal, pulse and oilseed crops
- MRL studies for new chemicals
- Evaluating new fertiliser products and practices for local and international fertiliser companies
- General agronomy management strategy trials
- Agricultural machinery evaluations
- Horticulture pesticide and fertiliser evaluations.
Jack Sawyer
Jack joined the Crop Circle team in early 2022 and has progressed into managing the Plant Breeding, Variety Performance and the National Variety Trials (NVT) components of the business. Jack is committed to delivering precise and consistent results to Crop Circle’s diverse clientele. He is passionate about agricultural trials, actively engaging with industry stakeholders to promote awareness of our work and foster meaningful discussions and ideas.
Hailing from a family farming operation east of Dalwallinu, Jack attended Cunderdin Ag College before earning a Bachelor of Agricultural Business Management at Muresk. His journey included diverse roles at various locations before he found his niche at Australian Grain Technologies (AGT), where he spent 4.5 years immersed in managing and enhancing large-scale plant breeding programs.
Lucy Critch
Lucy Critch joined the team at the beginning of 2025, after recently graduating from Murdoch University with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science majoring in Crop and Pasture. Lucy grew up on a large broadacre farm in Tenindewa, where she has gained many years of on-farm, hands-on experience including harvest, spraying and tillage. Lucy also has industry experience working for CBH and Planfarm. Lucy works with Vaan, Lachlan and Grant in the Crop Protection Research team.
Lachlan (Lachy) Crawford
Lachy Crawford joined the team in early 2025. He manages the Crop Circle soil sampling business and assists both the Crop Protection and Plant Breeding teams in day to day operations. Lachy thrives being on farm conducting herbicide research and agronomy. Lachy will be studying part time in 2026 whilst working with the team.
Vaan Hu
Vaan (Guangfan Hu) is a Field Research Agronomist at Crop Circle Consulting with two years of experience with the team. Specializing in crop protection, Vaan manages comprehensive herbicide, pesticides and fungicide trials, and conducts farming systems research to help improve crop yields. By focusing on advancing agricultural efficiency and sustainability, he has been able to put the degrees he earned at the University of Florida and the University of Western Australia to good use.
Murali Mohan Byrapuneni
Murali has a Master’s degree in Agricultural Science with a specialization in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the University of Western Australia. Prior to pursuing the master’s degree, Murali completed a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science at HNB Central University in India. Following this, Murali has worked as a Horticulturist before taking on a role in the Plant Breeding team at Crop Circle Research. . During his study at UWA, Murali conducted one year research focused on Wheat plant genetics.
Alana Scott
Alana has a history of farming and animal husbandry, working alongside her husband Craig and three sons on the family farm. Alana also has several years experience as a grain analyser at CBH. Alana manages the grain laboratory, delivering timely grain analysis data from the research trials.
Learn more about our research project work.
Testimonials
We have been contracting Crop Circle Consulting and Research for our northern ag R&D projects since 2020. Grant and the teams extensive knowledge of the area has resulted in great site selection, and their execution of trials has been excellent. We have also been very pleased with their communication and sharing of trial progress and also the opportunities provided to extend results to growers and industry. Look forward to continuing our relationship with Grant and team going forward.
Grant Thompson (Thomo) has been an integral part of the Critch Family farm at Tenindewa for over 10 years. Thomo has a good understanding of the challenges faced by farmers in our region having grown up on a farm north of Mullewa.
Thomo is always looking to improve the profitability of our business and is a leader in agronomic research in the northern ag region. We have enjoyed working with Thomo in the past and to continue this for years to come.
I have worked closely with Grant over the past 15 years, he has been instrumental in all aspects of his agronomy advise adding a huge amount of value to our business. His vast knowledge gives me all the confidence I need.
Waringa Farming has been using Grant Thompson from Crop Circle Consulting since 2009. Grant has played a big part in our business by providing independent agronomic consulting to Waringa. Grant works with us to provide the agronomic knowledge, new ideas and a second opinion and this has been important to our business to ensure we make the right agronomic decisions.
As Grant has been brought up in a low rainfall and large broad acre farming environment we believe this experience together with his agronomic accumen combined gives him great knowledge to advise and assist us to make the right decision.
