The move from sheep to grain by a growing number of West Australian farmers is causing an unexpected headache for the state's hot air balloon pilots.

Northam, about 100 kilometres east of Perth, markets itself as the ballooning capital of Australia .

With balloons needing open space to take off and land, the spread of crops through the Avon Valley is leaving landing sites increasingly limited.

Liberty Balloon Flights director and chief pilot Nick Brau said the number of available paddocks had shrunk dramatically over the past three years.

He estimated 95 per cent of their key landing locations were now under crop.

"Especially this last season, we just noticed a very big percentage of fields that used to be grazing land are now in crop," he said.

" It has become a real worry and th

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