’Thriving’: Riverina buzzing with best rice crop in years

Riverina rice growers like Josh Small are celebrating an amazing season, with perfect conditions leading to a 20-year high.

For the rice-growing Small family, this year’s rice harvest is shaping up to be one to remember.

Three generations of the family — Josh Small, his son Charlie, 4, and father Geoff — are halfway through harvesting their 250 hectare crop near Deniliquin in the NSW Riverina.

For Geoff, the crop is shaping up to be one of the highlights of his more than 40-year career.

“This is one of the best crops I’ve harvested,” he said.

On the family property, Billinudgel, a yield of 10 to 12 tonnes/ha is something the family would normally be “happy with”.

Josh Small harvesting rice at his farm" Billinudgel", near Deniliquin, NSW Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

This year, yields are “mostly sitting around the 13 to 13.5 tonnes/ha” mark for both the V071 and Sherpa rice varieties the family planted, Josh said.

“We’re rapt,” he said.

“Just looking visually, I don’t think we’ve even been in our better crops yet.”

The 2021-22 season has brought a rare combination of lower water prices — between $80 to $120 a megalitre when the family purchased water in October and November — and strong rice prices at about $400 a tonne.

“Relative back to what rice is worth at the moment, the spreadsheet is pretty good when you start getting the yields that we’re getting,” Josh said.

And the Small’s aren’t the only ones celebrating a strong harvest this year.

Josh, who works as a contractor as well as managing his own property, has seen first-hand the yields coming out of a number of farms in the region.

“I’d be very happy if I was them with their yields,” he said.

Three generations of rice growers harvesting a bumper crop in the Riverina. Josh Small with his son Charlie, 4, and father Geoff at "Billinudgel", near Deniliquin, NSW. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Rice Growers Association president Rob Massina said growers this year had benefited from “extremely good weather conditions”.

“We had a slow start to this crop. But what we did have was extremely good and favourable weather conditions through January, February and March, which are the critical growing periods of rice and wheat, which has both impacted on the quality of the rice and also the yield,” he said.

“We had consistent, mild, humid temperature, which is what rice enjoys.”

This year’s crop was originally anticipated to be between 620,000 to 650,000 tonnes, but the final numbers could be considerably higher — potentially up to 700,000 tonnes, he said.

High water allocations have given this year’s harvest a boost, and look set to put growers in a good position for the coming season, he said.

Josh Small. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

“(This year was) the first time in nearly 20 years that we’ve gone to 110 per cent (allocation) in the Murray. And the Murrumbidgee was 100 per cent, so it has been favourable conditions in terms of the resource being available and has obviously put downward pressure on temporary water prices.

“Looking forward to next season, it’s quite comforting to know that we’re close to finishing this year’s irrigation program and the system’s still full. That gives us confidence going into next year and will allow people to actually plan and put together a water portfolio for the following year,” he said.

This year’s bumper harvest is having ripple effects throughout the region, and there is a “stark difference” in the feel of the small Riverina towns, Josh Small said.

“The town’s buzzing, the mill’s up and running, and it’s not just Deniliquin — Coleambally, Leeton, Griffith, a lot of these smaller places … the flow-on effect is amazing.

“Not just from the grower point of view and the farmers and the labour the farmers bring into town but when you start looking at the mill and the running of the mill, the flow on effects you know, even to smaller businesses,” he said.

The overall volume of this year’s crop is a big increase on the 2021 season, and more than 10 times larger than the 2020 season, which brings both benefits and challenges, Mr Massina said.

“Last year, we had extreme cold weather through panicle initiation, when the actual head starts to grow, and then flowering, which had a severe impact on overall yield,” he said.

“If you go two years ago, we stripped (a total of) 53,000 tonnes.”

“Managing that variability with staff and skill set in the Riverina — going from 50,000 to 700,000 (tonnes) — and having available staff, is a challenge.”

“But you talk about communities and the economic impact, the direct payments to contractors, to support, to transport, to logistics … all these small (Riverina) communities have been built on the back of the irrigation industry, and when it’s thriving, towns thrive.”

“Stark difference” this year’s bumper rice harvest means trucks are coming and going all day at the SunRice Mill, Deniliquin, NSW, a big change from the last two years of smaller harvests. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin