‘It wasn’t a killing frost’: Farmers assess crop damage from frost and hail

After weekend rain, frost and separate hailstorms have left Victorian and Southern NSW crops with patchy damage.

Frost and hail have battered crops in southern NSW and Victoria just as farmers were on the cusp of harvest.

After much-needed weekend rain broke a long dry spell, a Tuesday frost followed by separate hailstorms in southern NSW has left cropping farmers assessing potential damage.

Wimmera cropping farmer Chris Drum estimates yield losses of 10 to 15 per cent in his lentil crops that were in the lower lying paddocks after temperatures dropped to -1.7C this week.

“It was not major, but there is damage,” he said.

“The temperatures dipped for less than three hours so it wasn’t a killing frost,” he said.

The canola was mostly unscathed but damage was already evident in lentil crops.

“Barley and beans are fine,” he said.

Southern NSW crop assessor Alan Brown said he believed the frost was likely to be more of an impact than initially believed.

Farmers will assess the damage after a recent frost. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“It will take some time to fully assess the extent of the damage, and I think we are going to see some more disappointments when people get into their crops, there could be more damage than expected,” he said.

Mr Brown said in southern NSW there had also been pockets of hail damage.

He said paddocks of canola had been wiped out near Rannock and there was also some further damage to crops north of Wagga Wagga.

“Canola is at a vulnerable stage,” he said.

St Arnaud farmer Colin Coates said conditions on Tuesday morning were mild and he didn’t classify the frost as being in the dangerous category.

“It wasn’t as serious as we have had in the past,” he said.

Chris Drum of Banyena. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Mr Coates said the 14mm of rain that arrived a few days before the temperature drop on Tuesday morning had gone a long way towards protecting crops from damage.

“The rain leading into the frost softened the blow,” he said.

Gorst Rural director and agronomist Cam Conboy from Lake Bolac said temperatures dropped to 0.8C on Tuesday for about half an hour.

“It was a very light frost, and there was some ice around,” he said.

However, the earlier 30mm to 40mm of rainfall had helped to rejuvenate plant health and somewhat protect crops from any potential damage.

“It will take a week or so to fully assess crops,” he said.