Bellarine Peninsula crops on the edge as farmers look for more rain

ALAN Vallance has seen crops flourish or fail on the Bellarine Peninsula for 65 years and says this year’s remains on a knife edge.

Canola crop

ALAN Vallance has seen crops flourish or fail on the Bellarine Peninsula for 65 years and says this year’s remains on a knife edge.

Dramatic storm fronts brought 17.5mm of welcome rain on Monday night but Mr Vallance says they’re looking for plenty more.

“I was surprised this morning when I got up, 70 points in the old scale, best rain we’ve had for a long time,” he said.

“It’s going to make a difference but we want more though, it will soon dry out.

“It will keep us going for another week, this time of year you want an inch a week.”

Mr Vallance, 88, has farmed on the Bellarine since 1950 and with son Noel has about 800ha under canola, wheat, barley and oats.

He said canola, turning paddocks to gold, was faring the best of them.

“It’s fairly well formed, mainly in flower but we want rain to fill the pods,” he said.

“The others want rain badly. They all want rain badly.”

He’s also looking for run-off to fill dams for his merinos.

Mr Vallance said his season had been particularly challenging after the loss of his elder son and ‘man in charge’ Rodney to cancer in June.

“We were committed to what we were doing and had to go ahead this year, but it’s thrown a bit of a spanner in the works,” he said.