King Island rain a ‘relief’ following a dry summer

King Island farmers have recorded more than 20 millimetres of rain, their best result in eight months, while Victorian farmers continue urea spraying.

King Island farmers are rejoicing after recording more than 20 millimetres of rain – the best producers say they have had for eight months.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s King Island Airport rain gauge recorded a total of 20.6mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday.

The same gauge recorded 4.4mm of rain for the remainder of the weekend to 9am Monday.

King Island farmer Greg Morris said his neighbour recorded 32 millimetres of rain across the weekend, which was “the best rain” since October last year.

“It definitely lifted the spirits a bit, I went and bought myself breakfast to celebrate,” Mr Morris said.

He said stock water had been an issue for King Island farmers, who had worked to install pipes and troughs.

“We were relying on paddock dams but they’ve dried up,” he said.

“We need to pump our water, which is almost dry but the run-off we’ve had will give us two weeks’ water.”

Mr Morris said conditions had looked green, but feed would continue to be an issue.

“It was such a shock to us because it stopped raining about October and November last year, we went into summer with very little fodder reserves,” he said.

“We were working in [the rain] and got wet and we were still smiling when it was getting wet and cold”.

Mr Morris said the previous bottleneck to move cattle from the island had cleared, and they were able to get the needed resources.

Meanwhile in Victoria, farmer David Jackson said he recorded 7mm of rain over the weekend at his Skipton property, with “about the same” falling at Ararat.

“We were happy about that, it was just enough to get the urea going,” he said.

“We’ve got more to do, as the crops grow we’ll put a bit more on but we’ll see how the season goes to see how much we put on.

“No rain forecast for the next week, just frosts.”

He said the frosts would slow crop growth, with an expected low of -2 degrees forecast this week.

Netherby farmer Shannon Launer, south of the Big Desert, said they recorded about 5-6mm of rain, with a top of 14 degrees for the coming week.

“We’re very lucky to get that 6mm again,” he said.

“It’s helping us keep ticking along.”

He said they were still doing first passes of urea on some struggling wheat crops, and would start a second pass on their better canola crop.

“With some grass sprays and that over our lentils, it won’t be ideal if we have frosts so hopefully we don’t get as many as they’re talking,” he said.