Some crops too wet, some too dry in Victoria

Some crops across Victoria desperately need rain, while others are the oppostite. This Rutherglen grain grower has received a drenching this season.

Low riders: Pip and Andrew Russell show the degree of waterlogging on their Lilliput farm, near Rutherglen. Picture: Zoe Phillips

SOME crops across Victoria are in desperate need of wet weather over coming months to get crops over the line, but others are the opposite.

Victoria Farmers Federation president David Jochinke, who farms near Horsham, said crops in the area had had no winter rainfall.

“A dry July is good, but not for crops,” Mr Jochinke said.

“We have had a great start, but there has been no winter rainfall.

“We had about 200mm for the year.”

However, he said while growers were not nervous yet, they were more cautious about the season after forecasts “promised” a wet winter.

“We won’t get crop home on the subsoil we have now,” he said.

“We need a decent spring to get home.”

Mr Jochinke said farms in the state’s northwest were in the same position.

“They had a good start and they are closer to critical than us,” he said.

“They need a wetting front or they will have nothing to keep them going.”

And while parts of Victoria needed a “soaking of rain”,

Mr Jochinke said that it had been too wet for growers along the coast. “Above the ranges need rain and below is the opposite,” he said.

For Rutherglen grower Andrew Russell, his crops were “as wet as a shag” this season.

“We have had over 470mm of rainfall for the year,” he said.

“It has been an above-­average year of rainfall for us.”

On Sunday, Mr Russell, who farms on about 2500ha , said he received a 24mm drenching.

“We’re not wanting any more rain, we are as wet as a shag and have water lying everywhere,” he said.

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