‘Storm lotto’: harvest delays and patchy downpours in western Vic and NSW crops

Last week’s storms hit some farmers hard — especially in NSW — while others escaped with lighter falls.

As Victoria’s harvest continued its move south into the southern Mallee and Wimmera regions last week, forecast downpours of up to 40mm put farmers’ plans on hold.

But actual rainfall was patchy, with 26mm falling at Horsham on Wednesday and Thursday, but just 0.2mm further north at Mildura airport.

At Curyo, near Birchip on the southern edge of the Mallee, farmers received upwards of 10mm from Tuesday to Friday, but were relieved to dodge the worst of the forecast rainfall.

Curyo mixed grain farmer Riley Doran said he had been forced to interrupt harvest on the 3000ha property he farms with his father, Peter Doran, and fiance Maddy Sinclair as the rain set in on Tuesday night.

He said the delays were “frustrating”, but he was happy with the yield of some crops considering low rainfall early in the growing season.

The property had received 100mm during this year’s growing season, and another 100mm since September, Mr Doran said.

Curyo mixed grain farmer Riley Doran's barley crop is ready to harvest, but he will have to wait a few weeks because a second growth of green barley caused by late October rain is contaminating his samples. Picture: Else Kennedy

The late rain had been beneficial for the farm’s 500ha of lentils, but had caused issues for other crops like barley, he said.

The property’s 500ha lentil crop had flowered three times this year, and was looking to return a 2 to 2.5 tonne per hectare yield despite frost damage in some low lying areas, he said.

But the barley crop had a late regrowth following mid October and early November rainfall, contaminating samples.

Huge and sustained downpours of rain have wiped about $2 billion in value off NSW’s winter crop after a promising season.

NSW Farmers vice-president Xavier Martin said three quarters of the state’s crop had been hit by heavy rain in the past two weeks, with some regions copping falls as high as 300mm.

“The majority of grain growers are fearful of significant downgrades (in crop quality) as a result of this rolling event which is ongoing,” Mr Martin said.

“It has just caught a lot of crops at the wrong time, where it is too moist to harvest but physiologically mature enough that it is vulnerable to sprouting, fungal stains and other issues.

“The big killer is falls of $100 to $150 a tonne or more off better bread wheat grades to feed wheat grades.

“This is a $2 billion event.”

Urana grain grower Andrew Bouchier said he had received 140mm of rain for November, with 75mm of that falling in three days last week.

Mr Bouchier said he was halfway through harvesting 3000 hectares of canola and had harvested 10 per cent of his 2000ha of barley by the time the rain hit.

He was not sure what damage had been done but was expecting some downgrading of his 4000ha of wheat.

Riley’s harvest has been significantly delayed by rain. Picture: Else Kennedy

NSW growers delivered 240,000 tonnes of grain into GrainCorp’s network in the past week, mostly harvested and stored on farm prior to the downfalls.

GrainCorp said receivals into the NSW storages now topped 2.56 million tonnes.

Victorian growers delivered 258,000 tonnes into the GrainCorp network last week, taking total receivals to 347,000 tonnes.

Victorian Farmers Federation grains group president Ashley Fraser said northeast Victoria was hit by about 50mm of rain on the weekend but crops had survived relatively undamaged.

“We can thank our lucky stars,” Mr Fraser said.

“But more rain is forecast for next week.”

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences said the wet weather would result in a fall in quality in unharvested crops and flooding had resulted in production losses, although this was not expected to significantly alter its latest forecasts.

In its December crop report, ABARES has forecast a record winter crop of 58.4 million tonnes, driven largely by a huge crop in Western Australia and the second largest harvest in NSW.

The bureau estimated wheat production at a record 34.4 million tonnes.