Rain helps turn over a new Leith at Boolite

TIMELY rain has helped sustain crops at Boolite, east of Warracknabeal, despite below-average rainfall this season.

Brad Leith cropping at Boolite. Cropping season is ok but, still not having any decent rain so is concerned for the remaining season. Latrobe Barley.

TIMELY rain has helped sustain crops at Boolite, east of Warracknabeal, despite below-average rainfall this season.

That’s according to local farmer Brad Leith, who rem­ains confident he can post a profitable season this year.

Mr Leith said although rain had been scarce what had fallen had come at vital times.

“Our rainfall this year has been less than ideal but the timing has been helpful for the crop growth where we’ve had 5mm to 10mm here and there,” he said.

Weather bureau data shows Warracknabeal has received 182.3mm for the year to date, 28.8mm down on average.

“We had 50mm of rain on January 7, which resulted in a little bit of subsoil moisture and got us off to a good start, so that was handy,” Mr Leith said.

He said cold, dry weather in western Victoria during winter may have stunted the growth of some crops around Minyip.

“It’s all moving along fairly nicely at the moment but we’re relying on a good spring,” Mr Leith said.

“Farms to the south look to have slower crop growth, which may be caused by the cold weather, but in general everyone is in the same boat waiting for rain.

“We have been reasonably lucky where we are between Donald and Warracknabeal so we can’t really complain.”

Mr Leith said while his region was not in dire straits, farmers were still looking for a 25-30mm shower in the next three weeks before crop development started going backwards.