Farmers face new battle as hopes for big rains dashed

A miserable weekend brought just enough of the wet stuff to give Granite Belt producers another challenge.

RAIN STILL TO FALL: Light rain is seen at sunset in the drought ravaged town of Stanthorpe, 180km south west of Brisbane, Thursday, October 3, 2019. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

HOPES are dwindling for a 50mm deluge in Stanthorpe but producers are bracing for ongoing effects of the wild weather.

While coastal areas of Queensland have reported monster onslaughts, predictions for our region have so far to come through.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Rosa Hoff said Stanthorpe and Warwick could see 50mm today, but it was predicted the majority would have fallen already.

“It’s likely a lot of this rainfall will have happened overnight and ease (from this morning),” Ms Hoff said.

“We are expecting to see the showers ease again (later today), to be fairly dry overnight.”

Ms Hoff said there was a slim chance of thunderstorms today but it was highly unlikely they would be severe.

“There is an outside chance residents might see a regular thunderstorm,” she said.

“If this develops it could lead to higher totals.”

Sirromet Winery winemaker Mike Hayes said although the weather didn’t bring much-needed rain, it had the potential to wreak havoc.

“This is disease weather,” he said.

“Some of the vines have only seen 10mm the entire (weekend).

“All it’s brought is wet canopies, and wet canopies is a disaster this time of year. They bring mildew and grey mould.”

Viticulturist Mike Hayes said the extent of the storm damage was still unknown.

It comes off the back of a heartbreaking seven months for the winery.

“At our Mt Cotton winery, we had two hailstorms in nine days and 160mm in just two days, which is now a complete wipe-out of the crop there,” Mr Hayes said.

“In Stanthorpe, we had frost at the end of September that took 50 per cent of the vineyard. “Luckily, it has come back quite strong but there is a big disparity in fruiting.

“We’ve come out of worst drought and immediately had frost, bushfires, hail, flood, insect attack and went into Covid lockdown.”

Mr Hayes said the region could no longer ignore the “alarming” implications of climate change which he said was causing the current wreathe pattern.

“Farmers are really struggling across the country with the severity and spontaneous weather conditions that have been caused by climate change,” he said.

Here’s what other readers had to say about the rain so far:

82 mls here and blowin its a** off – Greg Higham

49mm in Killarney so far – Jodie Frank

Enjoying the cool but not much rain unfortunately – Ray Black

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