Losses mount as floods rip through NSW grain regions

Tens of millions of dollars in losses are expected after floods ripped NSW’s most productive grain growing regions over the weekend.

Grain growers are preparing for tens of millions of dollars in losses after floods ripped through some of the east coast’s most productive grain growing regions over the weekend.

NSW Farmers calculated $150 million had been wiped off the value of grain production in Moree alone, after a 100km-wide flood front sent crops across the region underwater.

The town received 107.8mm of rain on Friday — its wettest October day on record.

On Sunday the Mehi River peaked at 10.50m, just below the February 2012 flood level of 10.53m, with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet warning the floodwater would be slow to recede.

Grains production in Moree Plains was worth $915 million in 2020-21 — the most of any local government area in Australia — according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Moree Floods. Still on the rise here supposed to peak sometime this afternoon so we just wait the wheat field beside us has gone which is just a small bit of the hundreds of thousands of hectares of crop lost in this region. Devastating pic.twitter.com/rnLGlnssL5

— Richard Gilmour (@RichardGilmour9) October 23, 2022

Grain Producers Australia chief executive Colin Bettles said wheat producers delivering to Moree were looking at discounts of $120 a tonne if APW milling grade wheat was marked down to feed grade as a result of flood damage.

Barley producers could expect losses of between $80 and $90 a tonne if malting barley was marked down to feed grade.

The losses would be a huge blow to producers, who had spent record totals on fertilisers and other inputs this year, he said.

“This is the most expensive crop that has ever been planted.

“There’s a lot of grain that we expect will have suffered quality damage. The lost value … includes reduced yields and the actual loss of crops that won’t be harvested,” Mr Bettles said.

NSW Farmers predicted ”conservative” losses 120,000ha of wheat with an estimated value of between $108 million and $192 million as a result of flooding in the Moree-Walgett-Narrabri area, after producers spent an estimated $42 million to grow the crop.

Almost all NSW rivers west of the Great Dividing Range were in flood this week, putting farmers along the Barwon, Lachlan, Macquarie, Murrumbidgee, Namoi and Murray rivers in the path of major inundation.

Been a big few days & it’s not over yet by a long shot, but I think we’ve managed to save all of our farm infrastructure & houses. Massive flood peak from local rainfall has passed & the town floods still coming at us..
Feel for those who haven’t been so lucky. pic.twitter.com/9iKdvGzMgV

— Mick Humphries (@Mikooh_) October 23, 2022

Meanwhile grain growing regions across Victoria received widespread totals of 20-50mm this week, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting this year could end up being the wettest October on record for the northern plains region of Victoria.

Farmer Colin Fenton, who runs a 560ha mixed farm outside Kerang, was pumping water off his cereals and onto pasture paddocks in an attempt to save his crops last week.

Across a 100km stretch of country from Kerang to Birchip in the Mallee, he said there were “crops laying in rainwater”.

“It’s extremely difficult to get the rainwater away because there’s nowhere for it to go.”