Divided by rain: Victorian growers rejoice, northern growers wait

Some of Australia’s most valuable cropping regions are still waiting for rain, with little time left in the winter planting window.

Farmer Ian Arney says last week’s rain was a “lifeline” for his crops. Picture: James Wagstaff

As a well-timed cold front pushed drenching rain across Western Australia’s cropping regions and filled rain gauges in Victoria last week, growers were divided along an invisible line.

North of the line, which stretched roughly from Forbes to Bourke in NSW, rain petered out, leaving growers with just enough to settle the dust after a dry May and then anxiously waiting for more.

They include growers in some of Australia’s most valuable cropping regions: Moree, Narrabri, Walgett and north into Queensland.

Narrabri grower Ian Gourley said 8mm of rain on Friday had given a brief drink to his 6000ha of dryland wheat, canola, chickpeas, and faba beans but it “didn’t get down to where the seeds were”.

Mr Gourley’s typical approach to farming was one of “eternal confidence”, but even he felt this year’s weather was “starting to have a scary pattern about it.”

He needed a solid rain of 30-40mm was needed to get his plants through to spring.

Further west at Moree, 9mm fell on Friday after just 10.6mm for the entire month of May. Moree grower and Grain Producers Australia northern director Matthew Madden said a “large chunk” of crops in the region were either not planted or would need more rain to emerge, with three weeks left of the winter planting window. About 40 per cent of crops had gone in successfully, he said.

Narrabri farmer Ian Gourley says his crops need more rain.

Meanwhile, in Victoria, the latest Rabobank rural confidence survey, released on Tuesday, showed farmers’ optimism for the season ahead has lifted after last week’s rain, and Episode3 agricultural analyst Andrew Whitelaw said traders were hopeful of an average to above-average season.

In Victoria’s northwest, Millewa farmer Ian Arney said the 42-62mm he recorded across his property last week was “like being given a lifeline”.

“It’s just terrific, there’s no longer any dry bands between the topsoil and the subsoil moisture,” he said.

“It is wet all the way down,” he said. “It is as near perfect as we’re going to get.”

The last time Mr Arney had a full soil moisture profile at the start of the season was more than a decade ago in 2010/2011.

His crops were now well enough set up for the season and he said it might not take a lot of rain now to provide some sort of return.

In another sign of optimism, farmers have continued to invest in on-farm grain storage.

Kotzur silos co-ownerAndrew Kotzur of Walla Walla in NSW said demand was “above average” for this time of year, and orders were “booked out for this harvest”, despite the company bringing down a waiting list that last year stretched out for two seasons.

Meanwhile, AGP wheat was trading for $397/tonne delivered to Melbourne this week, with prices remaining relatively stable since January.