Crop harvest held up by rain across south eastern Australia

Crops throughout Victoria’s south west have taken a hit from this year’s wet weather, but growers are reporting strong yields from wheat.

Farmers around Lake Bolac in south western Victoria are preparing for low canola yields and a challenging harvest after a wet year.

But a bumper wheat crop will be one grower’s “saving grace”.

Mixed grain grower Richard Blackburn said the RockStar wheat variety he planted this year looked like it could yield “upwards” of six tonnes/ha.

“It’s performing well against the other white wheats we grow around the area,” he said.

But it wouldn’t be easy to get the crop harvested with wet soil, Richard said.

Lake Bolac’s Richard Blackburn has a good wheat crop this year despite the wet weather. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“It’s going to be a really challenging harvest. It really needs to stay dry from now on,” he said.

Richard planted 970ha of wheat and 750ha of canola this year, and said he was on track to begin harvesting canola this week.

Like other growers in the region, Richard said his canola crop looked like it would produce a below average yield.

Richard’s canola had “suffered wet feet” after high rainfall in June and July added to moisture already in the soil, and meant the crop “didn’t get up and going early enough”.

Many canola crops in the region had “taken a hit, yield-wise” from the wet weather, Gorst Rural agronomist Marcus Smith said.

WEATHER WORRIES
Continued rain across south eastern Australia is playing havoc for farmers trying to get their bumper crops harvested.

For many across NSW, heavy rain over the weekend meant they had to abandon attempts at harvesting or some didn’t even get headers on to drenched paddocks.

But for others in Victoria, sunshine during much of the weekend meant they could get some crop off.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Jackson Browne said across Victoria it had been a “bit drier” in the past week, while it was “quite a bit wetter” across NSW, with some areas of the Hunter, Mid North Coast and inland areas receiving in excess of 100mm of rain.

Mr Browne said it was also cooler than normal across most of NSW, with temperatures about 6C below average.

Flooding also continues to affect some areas, with a major flood warning still in place for parts of the Lachlan River near Forbes in Central West NSW and the Gwydir River in northern NSW.

According to BOM minor flooding is expected along the Gwydir River at Pallamallawa and major flooding is possible along the Gwydir River at Yarraman on Tuesday morning.

Mr Browne said the rain had “eased” today, however showers would pick up from Tuesday across much of eastern NSW and western Victoria and NSW.

“On Wednesday we will see a collision of two air masses, which will likely bring fairly heavy rain across the eastern parts of Victoria, NSW and Queensland on Thursday and Friday,” he said.

“We are expecting widespread rain, unsettled weather and humidity.”

Rainfall forecast for the next 8 days. pic.twitter.com/ORauB5SJAE

— Jenny Woodward (@jennyweather) November 21, 2021

Mr Browne said any rainfall could tip rivers back into floods, which could impact “many rural communities later this week”.

Primary producers took to social media to share photos and videos of harvest underway, flooded rivers and crop damage.

Near Moree in northern NSW, farmer Oscar Pearse, was stopped by a flooded road and had to pack up from harvesting on Friday after heavy rain. According to BOM data Moree recorded 57mm of rain in the past week.

Bloody hell. pic.twitter.com/tdeMzZhZZo

— Oscar (@Oscarthefarmer) November 21, 2021

At Narrabri, Matt Norrie was using humour to get through a tough situation.

November 2021 has now passed the rain tally of the entire year of 2019. 💦💦 pic.twitter.com/k2ZF4fxUzw

— Matt Norrie (@matt_norrie) November 21, 2021

At Mungindi, Sam Heagney is anticipating a wet week.

Ugly for the whole easy coast cropping belt this week

It’s like someone drew a map of where harvest is happening or about to commence and coloured it red & yellow pic.twitter.com/9GvZ40GBFW

— Sam Heagney (@samheagney) November 21, 2021

At Caroona on the NSW Liverpool Plains Angus Duddy has received 200mm for the last 30 days already, while trying to harvest wheat.

Feels a lot like wheat harvest🌧🌧200mm for last 30 days and counting pic.twitter.com/szgMjoNFRM

— Angus Duddy (@angusduddy) November 21, 2021

However, some farmers in Victoria were having more luck, with Julia Hausler from Warracknabeal on day six of harvest and managing to get off some lentils.

Day 6 of #harvest21#lentilspic.twitter.com/AkVOX6ljXI

— Julia Hausler (@grainvic) November 21, 2021