Great rain gives farmers a confidence boost
Hopes of a potential “cracking” season abound, with one of the earliest and best autumn breaks for years arriving three weeks ahead of the traditional Anzac Day start to winter cropping.
MOST of southeast Australia has welcomed one of the earliest — and best — autumn breaks in years with some farmers recording more than 100mm of rain in the past week.
The rain, which arrived three weeks ahead of the traditional Anzac Day start to winter cropping programs, raises hopes of a potential “cracking” season, with the Bureau of Meteorology pointing to a wetter-than-average three months ahead for most farming regions in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
With the good rain in the south, plus drought-breaking falls in parts of NSW and Queensland in recent weeks, GrainGrowers Limited chairman Brett Hosking said it was the first time in a long time that the seasonal stars in eastern Australia had been “so aligned”.
“Rain at the start of April is just a grain grower’s dream,” Mr Hosking said.
“I don’t think anybody could have written a better start, particularly for those guys coming out of drought.”
Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke described the rain as “a proper autumn break” while Emerald Grain southeast Australia regional manager Brad Cullen said it put many farmers “back in the game big time”.
“It is great to see a start like this and prove it can rain right up the east coast,” Mr Cullen said.
Mecardo analyst Andrew Whitelaw said the good start to the season and forecast rain meant Australia had the potential to produce a “top three wheat crop” of more than 27 million tonnes this year.
The BOM rates large swathes of northern Victoria, the North East and southern NSW as a more-than-80-per-cent chance of experiencing higher-than-average rainfall until the end of June.
“I’ve never seen such a positive (forecast) from the BOM — usually a good forecast would be a 50-50 chance of median rainfall but this is looking like rainfall that will just force a crop up through the ground and it will be absolutely fantastic,” Mr Whitelaw said.
According to the BOM, some of the biggest falls in southeast Australia in the past week were in central and northern Victoria, and the North East, with Lancefield picking up a whopping 128mm in the seven days to 9am yesterday, followed by Redesdale (126mm), Violet Town (117mm), Inglewood (113mm), Warrenbayne (107mm) and Taggerty (102mm).
In the Mallee, Woomelang received 54mm, Ouyen 53mm and Birchip 39mm, providing a boost to grain growers as they kick off their winter cropping programs. The rain was more patchy in the Wimmera with Donald recording 52mm and St Arnaud 46mm but Horsham, Rupanyup and Nhill receiving just 15mm, 12mm and 11mm respectively.
It was a similar story in southwest Victoria, with Cobden recording 72mm, Camperdown 68mm and Colac 58mm but Hamilton measuring just 32mm, ahead of 27mm at Casterton and 14mm at Coleraine.
Mr Jochinke said even though some areas missed out on the larger falls, the rain “should give everyone confidence for their cropping program and the ability to invest in the season”.
“It also gives us the chance to have a decent (weed) knockdown, it has been a while since we had that,” he said.
In central and northern Victoria, some of the best falls were at Korong Vale, northeast of Wedderburn, which recorded 91mm, Strathfieldsaye (88mm), Bendigo (73mm), Charlton (63mm), Rochester (55mm) and Shepparton (51mm).
At Serpentine, west of Bendigo, Prue and Luke Milgate recorded 92mm and said they “haven’t seen solid rain like this pre-sowing in nearly a decade”.
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“I cannot remember the last time we had a break at the start of April,” Mr Milgate said, adding that water was “flying off some irrigation country”.
In the North East, Strathbogie North recorded 199mm, Tatong 75mm, Rutherglen 54mm, Wodonga 50mm and Wangaratta 44mm while Gippsland missed out on some of the higher totals, with Bairnsdale receiving 30mm, Sale 23mm, Omeo 17mm and Orbost 8mm.
Southern NSW centres to record handy falls included Khancoban (68mm), Hillston (64mm), West Wyalong (59mm), Temora (56mm), Booligal (52mm), Young (49mm), and Darlington Point and Wagga Wagga (46mm).
Mr Cullen said one of the big unknowns from this year’s cropping season was now much land would be devoted to grow crops for livestock feed, given increased demand for protein in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
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