Frost threatens winter crops

Plummeting morning temperatures and frost has swept through parts of southern NSW and Victoria, with farmers now waiting to assess the damage.

Plummeting morning temperatures and frost has swept through parts of southern NSW and Victoria, and farmers are now waiting to assess the damage.

At Young in southern NSW, temperatures dropped to -1C on Monday morning, and the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting further frost conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Broden Holland of Young, NSW. Picture: Rachael Lenehan

Broden Holland said it was too early to assess any frost damage, but up until Monday morning, seasonal conditions had been near perfect.

“It has been awesome in this area,” he said.

The area had a milder frost on Sunday morning and then another more severe cold snap on Monday.

“We will just have to wait and see; the Sunday one wasn’t too bad,” he said.

Before the frost, crops looked the best they had in years.

“It has been a very good growing season,” Mr Holland, who has winter wheat and canola, said.

DLF Seeds agronomist Frank McRae at Orange said the temperature dropped to -3C in the area on Monday morning.

“I think it is too early to make an assessment, but we certainly didn’t want these colder temperatures,” he said.

Mr McRae said because of the stage the crops were at it was most likely to be considered a flowering frost rather than stem frost.

Frost has swept through southern NSW and Victoria. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Corowa agronomist Paul Lavis from IK Caldwell said it was too early to tell how much damage had been done by frosts.

“I looked at Yarrawonga temperatures, and it wasn’t too bad. Initially, we thought it would be worse,” he said.

Mr Lavis said there were parts of southern NSW that had experienced much more severe frosts.

Rupanyup grower Andrew Weidemann said his property had a frost on Sunday and Monday morning.

“In our area, it will probably be a fortnight or so before we can tell if there has been damage,” he said.

Mr Weidemann said the dry conditions and the fact that the crops were stressed would also affect the outcome.

“For those in NSW, it was worse,” he said.