Farmers anticipate more rain on the weekend

A series of hit-and-miss storms have whipped through farming districts with some farmers stopping the header. While others have completely missed the rain.

A series of hit-and-miss storms from the Queensland border to Victoria have caused a recess in harvest, as farmers wait for crops to dry out.

On Wednesday and Thursday, thunderstorms swept through the eastern states, and there was flash flooding in some parts while other areas completely escaped.

For farmers who escaped the storms they now have their eyes on the Bureau of Meteorology Forecasts with more rain tipped for Sunday onwards.

According to the BOM in NSW, in the past seven days Lismore has received 56mm, Guyra 42mm, Inverell 36mm and Scone 20mm.

In Victoria, Cobden measured 8.6mm, Wodonga 7.4 and Wonthaggi 5.8mm.

Several parts of southern Queensland were drenched this week, with Beaudesert 166mm, Carneys Creek 157mm, and Kalbar 129mm.

Rob Gollasch at Wallacetown in southern NSW is pictured with his spray rig. Picture: Nikki Reynolds

Rob Gollasch of Wallacetown in Southern NSW watched storm clouds gather all around his property.

Despite flash flooding in nearby Wagga Wagga he said just 5mm of rain fell at his property.

It was enough to stop the harvest of canola on Thursday morning, and he was waiting for the conditions to dry out before getting started.

However, he said there were concerns about more rain on the weekend.

“There is 20mm coming on the weekend,” he said.

Mr Gollash said his crops were already frost-affected, and canola had been yielding 1.5t/ha to 2t/ha.

“I have another five days of harvesting canola, then I’ll move onto the barley and wheat and finish up with lupins,” he said.

Norm Thomas said 20mm fell at his Bendemeer property, and he had heard of neighbouring properties receiving as much as 50mm in the past week’s storms.

“We never want to say no to rain but we are getting ready for harvest,” he said.

Mr Thomas said he would begin stripping wheat next week.

In Victoria, Nullawil farmer Reece Poyner was mid-harvest and said this week’s rain missed them, but their significant rain event was about three weeks ago with 65mm. They have recorded 90mm for the growing season.

“We’re only 15mm of rain from tripping as good a harvest as we’ve had the past four years.

“We’ve finished most of our barley, which is as good as it could be. The lentils are a disaster, and we haven’t started wheat yet, which has been heavily hit with frost,” he said.

Mr Poyner said his lentils yielded between 1.2-1.6t/ha.

The October rain event meant Mr Poyner needed to continue spraying weeds, and had reshooted wheat.

“That was a real kick in the guts,” he said.

“There was always a bad (season) getting closer because the past four have been fantastic. The cost of everything has been so high, you need to keep your foot on the throttle.”