NSW winter crop: forecasts drop after more rain

NSW winter crop production forecasts could now be down more than 50 per cent after a week of widespread rain and flooding.

After a week of widespread rain and flooding, some grain growers in NSW have written off their chances of high winter crop production and are pinning their hopes on summer crops.

NSW Farmers grains committee chair Justin Everitt said a lot of land across the state was waterlogged.

Farmers who hadn’t been able to plant a crop yet due to the saturated soils had now missed their chance, and would be looking to plant summer crops, he said.

In June, the Department of Agriculture forecast NSW grain producers could harvest 9,855,000 tonnes of wheat, 2,296,000 tonnes of barley, and 1,610,000 tonnes of canola this season.

Mr Everitt said those production figures could now be down more than 50 per cent, and farmers would likely be contending with higher than average levels of fungus and disease.

“Now with temperatures warming up and lots of moisture, your fungi are just really going to take off,” he said.

“In canola, you’re going to have sclerotinia and black leg potential outbursts, and then you’ve got stripe rust and powdery mildew in your wheats and barleys.”

River levels at Wagga Wagga peaked last week below 9m after widespread rain across the Murrumbidgee catchment caused Burrinjuck Dam to spill.

Low-lying crops along the river were briefly inundated, but Riverina Independent Agronomy owner and farmer Neil Durning said crops that weren’t under water long could still survive.

“We lost a bit, but didn’t lose it all,” he said.

Mr Durning, who runs a property on the Murrumbidgee River at Collingullie and advises wheat and canola growers in the region, said he was yet to fully assess the damage from the flood.

A portion of Mr Durning’s canola crop went under water when the flood peaked last week, and growers on low-lying country downstream also had crops underwater.

“(Growers are) putting a brave face on it … but I think it did hurt the hip pocket pretty bad,” he said.

“We spent a lot of money to get (the crops) to here.

“Anyone who spread $1200 per tonne urea then got wiped out by flood, it’s pretty devastating.”

For now, growers along the Murrumbidgee have “semi-survived”, but the biggest risk would come if there was more heavy rain before crops are harvested.

“All of us are pretty conscious that this isn’t the end of it. The system’s primed now, and it’s going to take weeks for that water to clear down through Hay and into the Murray. So if we get another (flood) now and they collide, then we’re in real trouble,” he said.

“Hopefully it can hold off for three months.”