Long, hard rice planting season kicks off

Rice farmers are battling the elements as planting season for the summer crop gets underway.

Rice growers in the NSW Riverina are in for a disrupted planting season as heavy rain and flooding interrupts work.

Some rice growers managed to make a start on their planting programs last week before heavy rain hit the region, but a lot of crop was expected to be aerial-sown this year due to inaccessible paddocks, Rice Growers Association president Peter Hermann said.

The Murrami rice grower said he barely slept on Tuesday night last week in a last-minute push to drill-sow his 80ha rice crop before storms arrived.

“We had rain forecast at 7am (Wednesday) and we wanted to get it in the ground before that,” Mr Hermann said.

It was just as well. The Riverina received a downpour late last week and over the weekend, with the weather station at Griffith recording 53mm of rain so far this month, more than its long-term October average of 38mm.

At Hay, the weather station has recorded 63mm for the month, most falling in two days on Wednesday and Friday last week. The total is almost double Hay’s long-term average for October.

Peter Hermann burning the midnight oil to plant his rice crop last week. Picture: Supplied

The frantic start to the rice season may be a sign of what is to come, with multiple weather-related interruptions to planting programs and inaccessible paddocks likely due to storms and flooding.

“Rice has a window which allows later planting, and the need for that has become apparent,” Mr Hermann said.

“We want to plant now in a timely manner so that we’re not pushing into March reproductive stages that are going to be subject to cold stress, but we’ll be pushing to the back end of the window (because of rain).”

For many growers, drill-sowing their crops won’t be an option this year.

“There’s limited opportunities for ground preparation in a year like this,” Mr Hermann said.

“Growers have the seed on farm, we just need the opportunity to get it in. Paddocks are too wet.”

For growers able to plant their crops on time, the upcoming season was looking very promising.

Last year Mr Hermann enjoyed “very good yields” of 15 tonnes to the hectare with 10ML of water to the hectare. Abundant water availability this season meant a second year of good crops was possible, he said.