Farmers crunch the prices while rain halts harvest

Rain has caused harvest to come to a halt in some locations, following the biggest week for the 2024 harvest in Victoria so far.

With harvest coming to a halt in parts of Victoria due to rain, farmers have been assessing the prices and yields.

In the past week to 10 days canola has fallen $10 a tonne after an initial rally that lasted for more than six weeks.

However, the price is still tracking at above $800 a tonne at Victorian ports.

Farmers have delivered 1,1093,000 tonnes of grain to GrainCorp silos across the state in the past seven days in the biggest week for the 2024 harvest in Victoria so far.

At Birchip, 45mm of rain fell on the weekend, and harvest had stopped on Monday.

John Ferrier from Birchip grows barley, lentils, canola and wheat and has delivered all of his canola to the silos and will store the rest of his winter crops on farm.

Mr Ferrier said a portion of the canola was sold before the slight price drop took hold.

He said the forecast in the next few days was for some more rain and humidity.

“Time will tell if we see downgrades on our wheat, but there is a lack of wind and sunshine at the moment,” he said.

In the Western District at Westmere Stewart Hamilton said harvest hadn’t started.

“This rain we are seeing now would have been nice a little while ago,” he said.

Mr Hamilton said the rain was likely to slow down harvest, but he had been able to strip crops at Wycheproof before heading back to Westmere.

“The rain will probably delay the timetable by about a week,” he said.

Mr Hamilton said prices for canola were looking promising, and the Inverleigh canola had already been windrowed but he was yet to get a header in the paddock.

Ryan Milgate of Minyip. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Ryan Milgate from Minyip measured 8mm of rain in the gauge and said it was at 100 per cent humidity on Monday.

“Who knows what this will do to the crops,” he said.

Mr Milgate said barley had been better than expected, with yields of more than 3.5 tonnes/ha.

Malt barley was making $345 a tonne and feed barley $337 a tonne.

He was pleased with the returns for lentils which were commanding good prices of $860 a tonne and had yielded 1.5 tonnes/ha.

The yield was down on a budget of 2.5 tonnes/ha to 3 tonnes/ha, but it was a result that Mr Milgate said was still acceptable given the season.

“The pricing is OK, but when our yields are down, we always want more,” he said.

Mr Milgate said he hadn’t delivered any grain yet.

“It is all stored on farm,” he said.

He plans to deliver canola and wheat, that haven’t yet been harvested. However, the lentils and barley will be stored on farm.

“We are probably a week or so off getting into canola and wheat,” he said.